ã€ŠHunter of Immortalsã€‹


 Chapter 1: Fairness

    <h4>Chapter 1: Fairness</h4>

    "The greatest equalizer in life is death. If it bes possible to cheat death, equality and fairness would be shattered, and all ethics, morals,mon sense, andws would be thrown into disarray."

    ¡­¡­

    The sound of two loud ps rang out, and a young man opened his eyes, upon which he was greeted by the sight of a middle-aged woman, then the sound of her impatient voice.

    "Hey, do you still know your own name?"

    "My name?"

    The young man inspected his surroundings with a dazed expression. He found himself situated in a massive underground room, lying on a strange-looking machine. There was a round helmet above his head, and a series of uniformed mechanical police officers were patrolling the surrounding area while gathering evidence.

    The machine above his head was known as a personality interchanger, while the robots in the room were called mechanical police officers. These pieces of general knowledge were still present in his mind, but he was drawing a nk on everything else, including his own name.

    After thinking intently for a long while, the young man shook his head in response.

    "I don''t know."

    "Looks like your personality was wiped veryprehensively, but as a safety precaution, I still have to take a look for myself."

    The woman in red standing in front of the young manid a finger onto his forehead as she spoke, and the young man immediately felt his vision turn dark as he was ovee by a strong rush of dizziness. By the time his vision returned to him, he found himself in a pristine, white world.

    This was a world that had virtually nothing in it. It was like a text document that had been wiped, or apletely clean sheet of paper.

    "Looks like you''re an authentic nk te. The fact that you''ve been wiped so cleanly indicates that the downloader must''ve spent quite arge sum. However, what''s this?"

    The voice of the woman in red rang out behind the young man, and he turned around to discover that she was inspecting some flowerpots on the ground with a curious expression.

    In a world as pristine as this one, the flowerpots were indeed very eye-catching.

    However, even after a long inspection, the woman couldn''t find anything special about the flowerpots, so she gave up on that endeavor.

    "ADAM-77 is the code number for this operation, and the objective of this operation for the mechanical police force was to rescue you. Seeing as you don''t have a name, I''ll call you Adam for now. I am a deputized psy-inspector working for Mechguard, you can call me May. If I encounter a nk te, I am obligated to exin to you your current physical and psychological state. Do you understand what I''m saying?"

    "I do," Adam replied with a nod. He still recalled everything that could be categorized as general knowledge.

    "Alright. Firstly, in your current state, you are what''s known as a nk te, which is an adapter that has had its personalitypletely wiped, and that is why you don''t have any memories and don''t even recall your own name. You became like this because someone purchased you through illicit means with the intention of downloading a personality into your body."

    "My personality has beenpletely wiped? Who did that?"

    Upon hearing this, Adam experienced an emotion for the first time, and that emotion was anger. As this emotion welled up in his heart, a tiny little aberration was suddenly born in this pristine world.

    The little aberration was like an ink painting, and as soon as it was born, it immediately began to bare its fangs at everything around it, putting on an extremely vtile disy. Thankfully, it wasn''t veryrge and didn''t possess much destructive capabilities, so even in its fit of fury, it was about as harmless as a chihuahua.

    "Who did it? I don''t know, and we''re in the process of investigating that. Perhaps it was an elderly person, perhaps it was someone terminally ill, or perhaps it was a criminal who required another identity in order to avoid arrest. In any case, it had to have been someone very wealthy! After all, the bodies of adapters are very expensive, as is personality formatting technology, and these are not costs that the average person can handle." May shrugged as she spoke, then continued, "Alright, now that we''ve confirmed that there are no other personalities in your psychic world and I''ve fulfilled my duty by exining everything to you, my mission is over. Goodbye!"

    After that, Adam was struck by another rush of dizziness, then returned to reality from that sterile psychic world.

    Two to three minutes had passed by in his psychic world, yet it seemed that only one or two seconds had passed in the real world. The current image connected seamlessly with his memory, and the mechanical police officers were still searching for evidence.

    Momentster, the officers departed one after another, following which May extended an invitation toward Adam.

    "Mechguard officers are enforcers of justice, but they''re not public servants, so after saving you, they''ll leave you to fend for yourself. However, I can personally help you. Would you like toe with me?"

    ¡°¡­¡­¡±

    "You have no money right now, which means you won''t even be able to feed yourself. Would you like toe with me?"

    "No."

    Adam shook his head in response. Due to the special nature of his identity as a nk te, he was full of caution toward everything around him.

    "Ok."

    May didn''t try to persuade him any further, and she departed with the final mechanical police officer.

    Following their departure, Adam found some rags in the underground chamber to cover his own body with, then also made his way up the staircase. The staircase was quite long, and the further he progressed, the more foul-smelling the air became. The exit at the end was connected to the sewers, and thus, Adam emerged from the manhole cover with his entire body covered in filth.

    <i>Whoosh...?</i>

    In the instant that he arrived above the ground, he was immediately assaulted by the cacophony of sounds and lights of different colors around him. There was also a giant 3D projection above him, which left him momentarily dazed.

    "Don''t get in the way, kid!" Before Adam had even returned to his senses, he was pushed down onto the ground by arge hand. The hand was very strong, and it felt extremely hard, much like iron and steel.

    Right as he was about to turn around to see who had pushed him, the fragrance of food suddenly wafted out. There was a restaurant in front of him, and the aromaing out from inside caused his stomach to convulse with hunger.

    ¡°¡­¡­¡±

    "Heh, are you hungry, little guy?"

    "Hmm?"

    Adam turned around to find a disheveled homeless man. He appeared to be quite advanced in age, and he had a pair of long eyebrows, which gave him a very benevolent appearance.

    "Wait for me, I managed to earn some dough today." The homeless man strode into the restaurant before ordering a portion of chow mein and a beverage before handing them over to Adam. "Dig in."

    In the face of the temptation of food, Adam didn''t refuse and immediately began to chomp down the meal.

    "If you dress up like that, you''re going to attract a lot of attention, kid. These streets aren''t safe."

    Prior to speaking, the elderly man draped his own tattered coat over Adam''s body, then hobbled away to depart.

    Adam paused for a moment before following along.

    It was already nighttime, and neither of them said anything as they passed through several streets that were brightly lit with neon lights. They arrived in a dark area. This was an abandoned underground passage, and the surrounding area was riddled with graffiti and braziers, indicating that this was a gathering ce for the homeless.

    "Make sure to constantly be vignt and maintain a cold expression. Don''t tell anyone about your past, there aren''t any good people here. Follow me..."

    "Alright."

    "Yo, what''s up, Old Dog?"

    As the two of them were passing through the crowd, several homeless men greeted the elderly man, but most of them were lying on the ground in an intoxicated state. Each of them had an electronic device ced next to them, and they were enjoying beautiful dreams while sleep-talking.

    This was a type of psychological drug known as "Heaven".

    One could achieve everything that they ever wanted in there, but the price of that was excessive psychological depletion and atrophy of the brain''s neurons, as well as an inability to ever ept reality.

    For those who had used Heaven before, the real world was hell.

    These pieces of general information were shing through Adam''s mind as he found a brazier with no one around it, then sat down beside it, leaning back against the wall of the passage.

    He was still inspecting his surroundings in a cautious manner, but he was feeling extremely tired, perhaps due to the fact that his body had only just awakened. His eyelids were feeling impossibly heavy, and finally, he fell into slumber momentster.

    After an indeterminate period of time, he heard the sound of a conversation while in a half-asleep state.

    "... I¡¯m telling ya, Boss, this guy definitely isn''t a hobo. His muscles and brain haven''t atrophied, and his internal organs are most likely healthy as well. Look at theplexion of his skin! He''ll definitely fetch a good price!"

    "Hmm?"

    Those who were cautious and alert would never fall into a deep sleep, and upon hearing this conversation, Adam immediately opened his eyes, upon which he caught sight of Old Dog and several burly men making their way toward him from the other side of the passage.

 Chapter 2: The Precious Blank Slate

    <h4>Chapter 2: The Precious nk te</h4>

    I''ve been deceived!

    A surge of fury shed through Adam''s heart before he hurriedly rushed away in the opposite direction.

    However, he didn''t make it very far before a rush of wind blew toward him from behind, and he was ensnared in a metal, following which a bout of triumphantughter rang out.

    "Haha! No one''s gotten away from the mighty Spider yet!"

    The other end of the metal was connected to auncher, and theuncher was installed on the mechanical arm of one of the men.

    "Now then, let me see what you''re worth!"

    The mechanical arm''s powerful pulling force swept Adam off his feet, and he was dragged directly over to the man before falling onto the ground with a dull thump.

    "Oh, what a healthy-looking body! Look at how fine his skin is! He''ll definitely fetch a good price."

    Spider''s eyes immediately lit up at the sight of Adam''s face, and he pulled out an electronic card with a pin attached to it, then pierced it straight into Adam''s arm, following which a series of bodily statistics quickly appeared on the card.

    "Internal organs health score: 100, brain health score: 100, blood health score: 100, zero que buildup on vessel walls, bone health score..."

    Upon seeing the first two parameters, an ted look immediately appeared on Spider''s face, but the more statistics were disyed, the more his expression transitioned toward shock, and by the end, there was even a hint of fear in his eyes.

    "So? He''ll definitely be able to fetch a good price, right?" Old Dog was standing nearby, and he couldn''t see the statistics, but he could also sense that he had struck gold with this one. "I should be able to receive a cut of at least 20,000, no, 50,000, right? Alternatively, you can give me Heaven V. I heard that the newest model is able to directly read one''s desires and can even spur the brain to secrete more dopamine! This time, I want an entire harem of 1,000 beauties to service me all at once!"Old Dog¡¯s voice trailed off as he began to cackle with glee.

    Spider stared at the statistics in front of him in silence for a moment, then looked around at the other people in the passage. They had caused quite amotion, and many people had been alerted, so quite a few of the hobos were looking their way.

    Spider contemted this situation momentarily, then put on a generous expression as he said, "This is indeed a brilliant find that''ll fetch me a handsome price. Everyone here will get a share!"

    He gave his subordinate a meaningful look as he continued, "Give everyone a Dream series device, and give Old Dog a Heaven series device."

    "Boss, are you sure..."

    Spider had always been very stingy, and in the face of this uncharacteristically generous disy, the subordinate was unsure of how to proceed.

    "Cut the chit-chat! Hurry up!"

    Under Spider''s urging, a burly man pulled out some metal balls that were around the size of table tennis balls from a backpack before handing them out to the hobos who were still awake.

    After receiving these psychological drugs, many of the addicts eagerly entered the dream state as quickly as they could, but there were two very cautious and alert hobos who were looking at the metal balls with suspicious expressions.

    "What''s up? Why aren''t you using them?" Spider asked with a smile as he made his way over to the two of them.

    "Someone needs to be on guard duty at night, so not everyone can fall asleep..."

    The two hobos were very cautious, but both of them were wearing fawning smiles.

    "I see. I''m a kind man, so I wanted you to die morefortable deaths, but I suppose it can''t be helped."

    Spider grabbed onto each man''s head with one of hisrge mechanical hands as he spoke, then tightened his grip before the two of them had a chance to cry out.

    Under his thick and robust fingers, their heads instantly exploded with a loud thump like watermelons under a hydraulic press, sending sma and intracranial fluid flying everywhere.

    "Burn this ce down, don''t let anyone live!"

    With that order from Spider, a fire was immediately lit in the filthy, abandoned passage.

    All of the people and other living creatures in here were going to be reduced to ashes by this inferno.

    On the way back, several pickup trucks were driving along a narrow deserted path in order to avoid Mechguard.

    "Why did you do that, Boss? No one''s going to avenge those hobos, but after killing so many of them at once, the robot police force will definitelyunch an investigation. Is it really worth it just for some stock?"

    "Is it worth it? You bet it is!" Spider took an excited nce toward the backseat to confirm that Adam was safe and sound, then continued in an excited voice, "Do you know what he is? He''s a nk te, one of the highest quality! He¡¯s an advanced adapter that even those nobles can''t afford! If we can get this job done without a hitch, both of us could be able to be immortals!"

    "A nk te? What''s that?"

    "Hehe, you wouldn''t havee into contact with something this advanced. I''ll tell you about itter..."

    Thump!

    Right as Spider was about to continue speaking, the three pickup trucks rose up into the air in unison as if they had crashed into a giant rock, and the severe impact sent their bodies tumbling within the cabin of the pickup truck along with the pickup truck itself.

    Due to the fact that Adam''s entire body had been tied up in the backseat, he had sustained a blood injury to his head during the fall. Thankfully, before the truck had a chance tond on the ground, an agile figure suddenly sliced the cabin of the truck in half before carrying him out of it, thereby preventing him from crashing to his death.

    A loud crash rang out as the trucknded on the ground. Adam was already safe at this point, while Spider crawled out from under the truck in a flustered state.

    "Who are you?" As a cyborg, Spider''s injuries naturally weren''t very severe. Upon emerging from under the truck, he immediately cast his gaze toward the two people who had rescued Adam. "You''re Tank and Red Spider from the pawn shop! Doesn''t the pawn shop only engage in legitimate business? Why are you stealing people from me?"

    "That''s right, we only do legitimate business, which means that we''re saving someone from you rather than stealing!"

    The one who had saved Adam was a woman, and she set Adam down onto the ground as she spoke, then casually stuck her hands into her pockets as she spread open the eight sharp spider legs protruding out of her spine.

    She strolled over to Spider as she continued, "I''ve already filmed the scene where you killed those hobos and sent the footage to the robot police force. Having killed so many people, you''re definitely going to get the death sentence! Truth be told, I''ve wanted you dead for a long time. How can there be two spiders in one city at the same time, especially when one is so trash? Wouldn''t you agree?"

    "You bitch!"

    At this point, there was no point in exchanging more words, and Spidershed out first,unching a mechanical out of his arm while the mechanical module on his shoulder quickly changed shape, producing a small machine gun that began to fire a barrage of bullets.

    "Wow, what an ancient power module! What a primitive method of attack! Can''t you spend a bit more money to modify those crappy prosthetic limbs of yours?"

    A seductive voice rang out from Red Spider''s mouth, and Adam looked on as the eight spider legs on Red Spider''s back instantly tore the oing metal to shreds, along with the bullets that were hurtling toward her.

    Throughout this entire process, Red Spider''s hands had remained in the pockets of her tight-fitting shorts.

    Just to rub it in even further, she yawned in a disy of boredom.

    "It''s no fun at all fighting with you! I''ll leave them to you, Tank. Crush their arms and legs, but make sure you don''t kill anyone!"

    "Alright!"

    A giant, burly man strode over from the side, shattering half of Spider''s body with a single punch before tearing open the pickup trucks with his bare hands and promptly turning the passengers inside into quadriplegics.

 Chapter 3: Fairness Pawn Shop

    <h4>Chapter 3: Fairness Pawn Shop</h4>

    These two people engaging in "legitimate" dealings seemed to be even more ruthless than thew-breakers, and Adam felt as if he had been rescued from the frying pan, only to be thrown into the fire.

    "Don''t be scared,d! We won''t do anything to you. As you saw just now, we''re good,w-abiding citizens!"

    The seductive voice rang out once again as Red Spider made her way over to Adam with her slender waist swaying from side to side.

    "Just because you abide by thew doesn''t mean you''re good people. You were also present when those homeless people were being killed, right?"

    "We were, but there''s now that dictates that bystanders must risk endangering themselves to save others. We''re already model citizens for sending evidence to the robot police force and helping them capture the culprits, isn''t that right,d?"

    "Why did you save me? What do you want? Are you after my body as well?"

    "Hahaha, what a smart boy you are. Indeed, our pawn shop also requires top-tier adapters, but we''ll secure you through legal avenues. Take a look, I''ve even prepared a contract already."

    Red Spider pulled a hand out of her pocket as she spoke, and an electronic contract was projected.

    The contract had many binding provisions, but its contents were very simple: it was essentially asking Adam to pawn himself.

    Of course, due to the fact that this was a legal agreement, the pawn shop wouldn''t let Adam die, nor would it allow other wealthy individuals to im his body. All the pawn shop required was an adapter employee.

    "You want me to pawn my own body for a sum of money, then use that money to hire you to protect me? What kind of contract is this? I may be a nk te, but I''m not stupid! You''re not giving up anything for this contract!"

    "That''s where you''re mistaken,d. Our protection is very expensive. If others on the outside were to hire us, it would be about the same price. This is a fair exchange, and our operating costs are quite high as well. Take these power modules on my body for example, all of them are very expensive. Of course, contracts are only signed between willing parties under fair, open, and just conditions. Let me reiterate that we are a legitimatepany." Red Spider suddenly paused here as she heaved a faint sigh, then cast a concerned nce with her electronic eyes toward the depths of the dark country road. "Just because we abide by thew doesn''t mean everyone else will as well. There are always far too many bad people in this world. How about we make a bet?"

    "What''s the bet?"

    "The bet is that if you don''t sign the contract and we don''t step in to protect you, your consciousness will be erased once again within 24 hours, and your body will fall into the ck market to be sold to the highest bidder. If we have to save you again, the coteral that you receive next time will be halved! By the way, once your consciousness is wiped again, you won''t remember any of this when we meet you next time as you''ll no longer be you. Instead, you''ll once again be a clean, nk te."

    All of this was said with a teasing tone, but there was clearly a threatening element behind her words, and Adam fell silent upon hearing this. He knew that in his current situation, he was like a vulnerable child carrying a treasure, which meant that he was in constant danger.

    Thus, after contemting the situation for a while, he nodded in agreement, even though he was still extremely reluctant to ept this arrangement.

    "The contract says that I''ll work for you for 10 years, during which time you''ll guarantee my safety while also teaching me skills to protect myself with, right?"

    "That''s right. It''s a very fair arrangement! All you need to do is press your finger here and allow the machine to gather your DNA information. After you sign the contract, we''ll be a family."

    As she was speaking, a smile that very much resembled her namesake appeared on Red Spider''s face.

    After settling the contract and handing the criminals over to the robot police force, the trio departed in Red Spider''s car. Adam was seated in the car, but Tank was toorge in stature and could only sit on the car''s roof.

    "Here, this is for you. It''s our pawn shop''s emblem, and generally speaking, no one would dare to try any funny business with you when they see the emblem. Even if they do, the emblem contains the most advanced positioning and alert mechanisms that can activate an SOS call at any time, so even if you die, someone will avenge you for sure."

    Red Spider was sitting in the driver''s seat, using the spider legs on her back to drive, while she reached into her breast pocket before pulling out a badge that she handed to Adam.

    Adam epted the badge to find that there was a scale that symbolized fairness engraved upon it.

    "Our pawn shop is called the Fairness Pawn Shop. However, we do things a little too fairly, so no one likes to mention that name. Thus, we''remonly referred to as just the pawn shop. We''re too well-known around these parts anyway, so it doesn''t matter if you mention that prefix or not. If anyone mentions a pawn shop, others will immediately assume that they''re referring to our pawn shop. Our pawn shop offers many services, including money and product transactions, rescuing hostages, assisting in solving cases, resolving troubles, securing business intelligence through legal means, psychotherapy... Basically, we''ll do anything as long as you give us enough money."

    "Can I ask you a question?"

    "You want to ask me about adapters, right? Yes, we need adapter employees, and we can never have enough. In contrast with hired fighters like us, adapters are far more versatile and useful. You know where the identity of adapteres from, right?"

    "I do. They are humans with innately exceptionally developed neurons. The synapses in these people are particrly developed, allowing them to connect with their brain''s consciousness and freely enter the psychic worlds of themselves and others. It''s exactly because of their excessive connective potential that other personalities can also invade their minds more easily. That''s most likely the trait desired by the wealthy individuals seeking to purchase my body."

    "What you said is all correct, but adapters have even more uses than that. As a psychiatrist, you''ll be able to glean the subconscious trauma forgotten by your patients. As a business spy, you''ll be able to easily steal business secrets. As an interrogator, you''ll be able to interrogate suspects with astounding efficiency as you won''t have to worry about them lying to you. Even as a killer, you''ll bepletely untraceable when you carry out hit jobs. Of course, we are a legitimatepany that doesn''t do hit jobs." Red Spider''s signature "we''re a legitimate business" smile appeared on her face as she spoke, and at the same time, she stomped the pedal down as far as it would go, clearly breaking thew by exceeding the speed limit.

    "Why did you only watch as Spider killed all of those homeless people? With your abilities, you should''ve been able to stop them from the very beginning, right?"

    "It''s because when they only killed a couple of people, that wasn''t enough to warrant the death sentence. In the business world, we like to make as many friends as possible while keeping our enemies to a minimum. If we make enemies, then the best way to take care of them would be to have them killed. In the words of our mistress, a business must maximize profits. Profit is number one, while fairness is paramount!"

    Listening to the pride with which Red Spider dered that mantra, Adam knew that he really had gotten himself involved with a bunch of bandits. The only thing that he could feel thankful about was that he was one of those bandits for now.

    The expensive maic suspension car was speeding along, and shortly thereafter, they arrived in that massive city.

    They had plunged straight from a bleak and barren world into one that was lit with bright neon lights, and the contrast between the city and the wilderness was extremely clear.

    The car traversed between the tall skyscrapers like an agile fish before finally arriving at avish business street.

    The sky here was filled with all types of sights and sounds, including advertisement billboards, pub signs, hanging prosthetic limbs constructed from gems, banners of luxury stores, electronic fireworks from casinos... On the ground below, there were all types of people, including hustlers, alcoholpanions, and wealthy wives dressed in expensive clothing and jewelry. These things were all mixed together to form a surreal scene that resembled a drunken haze.

    On thergest shop at the center of the street was a sign that read "Fairness Pawn Shop", and as soon as Adam arrived, he caught sight of a familiar figure standing at the entrance. It was the first person he had seen after regaining his consciousness, the woman by the name of May.

    "I brought back the person you wanted, Mistress."

    Red Spider immediately greeted May with a wide smile as soon as she got out of the car.

 Chapter 4: Origins

    <h4>Chapter 4: Origins</h4>

    "It''s you!" Adam felt as if he had been yed for a fool upon learning that May was the mistress of the pawn shop. "You had your eyes set on me from the very beginning!"

    "I did. I discovered you first, so I naturally couldn''t let you fall into someone else''s hands. Having said that, I''ve already saved you twice, so don''t be so mad!" May was currently wearing a dark cheongsam, and she made her way toward Adam as she spoke. "I know that it''s not a good feeling to be deceived and set up, so how about this? I''ll tell you a secret to make it up to you!"

    "What''s the secret?"

    "It''s a secret that you can''t buy with money. To be specific, it''s part of your identity information. Aren''t you curious about who you are, where you came from, and who your family members are?"

    Indeed, for a lost amnesiac like Adam, there was nothing more tempting than this information, and in the face of this temptation, Adam was even willing to forget about how he had been deceived.

    "Come with me, there are too many people around here."

    Adam''s trio entered the Fairness Pawn Shop through the front entrance with May leading the way.

    "Wee!"

    They were greeted by two rows of receptionists as soon as they entered the pawn shop.

    Not only was the Fairness Pawn Shop grand and stylish on the outside, it was also quite bustling and morous on the inside as all types of people were seeking help. In the brief amount of time that Adam?took to look around, the two rows of receptionists by the entrance were reduced by half. This was because each customer that walked into the pawn shop would take a receptionist with them before surreptitiously telling them something.

    "There is no shortage of trouble in this world, and even more trouble-makers, but there are very few people who can resolve troubles, and that is our line of work."

    The hall was quite noisy and chaotic.

    The second floor was clearly more peaceful and quiet, but the attire worn by the people on this floor was even morevish.

    Upon reaching the third floor, there were only a series of hologram projection suites, and no one knew what was being discussed in those suites.

    In the end, May led Adam into a room on the fourth floor, and it was finally safe to speak in there.

    "Let''s talk about your identity first. After you signed the contract with Red Spider, she sent me your gic information, and I searched the gene database, but no result came up. This indicates that whoever purchased or modified you is extremely influential. Generally speaking, nk tes are all missing people, and their identity information will be avable in the gene database. However, that doesn''t apply to you, which means that they at least have co-conspirators in government organizations. After that, I used my connections in Mechguard to ess some confidential information. The data there cannot be deleted, but even so, I only managed to find one piece of identity information pertaining to you."

    "What is it?"

    "You have a blood rtive."

    May knocked on the surface of the table as she spoke, and a metal ball on the ceiling automatically produced an extremely life-like humanoid projection, along with a string of identity information above the projection''s head.

    "Her name is Shae Kim, and she is your biological younger sister, but she is currently the first heir to Golden Teeth Incorporated. Both her parents are still alive, and legally speaking, she has nothing to do with you."

    "Was she also sold as a nk te?"

    "I''m not sure, but ording to the information I''ve gathered, she grew up her entire life at Golden Teeth Incorporated. The records of her upbringing are quiteplete, and many people have seen her. Additionally, alternate personalities are generally only injected into nk tes after they reach adulthood. The bodies of adolescents aren''t fully developed yet, so their brains are too fragile, which could result in synapse damage or even death during the injection of alternate personalities. Hence..."

    "Hence, I was sold by this family?"

    "I don''t know. Golden Teeth Incorporated has always done quite well financially, so they shouldn''t have to stoop to something like that. The information I''m able to provide isn''t sufficient for any concrete conclusions to be drawn. If you want to know more about your past, then you should approach her in person."

    May pulled out a letter of admission for a school as she spoke. "She is currently studying at Layton Academy, which is a subsidiary academy of the Psychic Church. I''ve already enrolled you into the academy, all that''s left to do is for you to approach her yourself."

    "......"

    May had organized everything for him in an extremely thoughtful andprehensive fashion, and Adam was at a loss for words.

    This was such a ruthless organization, but at the same time, it really did seem like a family.

    "Well don''t just sit there! I know you''re not used to it, but Boss May is really good to her staff. In her words, if you don''t treat others well, how can you expect them to devote themselves to you? Isn''t that right, Aunt May?"

    Red Spider couldn''t help but tease Adam as he sat in silence.

    "Get out of here! This is just a standard arrangement. I don''t have time to teach someone to learn the abilities of an adapter from scratch!"

    May rolled her eyes at Red Spider as she spoke.

    "Also, you''ll be responsible for ensuring his safety from now on! If anything happens to him, the damages wille out of your paycheck!"

    "Damn it! I knew you would say that!"

    ¡­¡­

    Thus, before he even knew what was going on, Adam was enrolled into Layton Academy by the pawn shop.

    On the night before his first day of school, he did some research on Layton Academy and the Psychic Church on the inte.

    The Psychic Church was founded not long after the emergence of adapters, and initially, it was an organization designed to facilitatemunication between adapters. However, as the special uses of adapters were discoveredter on, the church became an organization in which adapters sought mutual protection.

    In order to recruit more members, the church founded some academies, through which they could teach other adapters the "skills" that they had developed, and Layton was naturally one of those academies. Due to its impact in bringing adapters together, the Psychic Church became one of the most influential organizations on the continent.

    "This is Adam. He is a transfer student who will be joining our elementary third ss today." On the lectern, Lecturer Lena was introducing Adam while casting a meaningful gaze toward the back row. "It looks like there''s a vacant seat on the left side of the second-tost row. Why don''t you take a seat there?"

    "Yes, Madam."

    Adam nodded in response before making his way over to where Shae was sitting at the back of the ssroom.

    As he did so, he was looking directly at Shae the entire time, hoping to see some type of emotional shift in her eyes.

    "What are you looking at, idiot? Why are you sitting beside me?"

    Even as Adam took a seat, the only emotion that he could see in Shae''s eyes was disgust, and there wasn''t any astonishment or shock as he had anticipated.

    "The lecturer told me to sit here."

    "How dare you talk back to me?"

    Shae was already quite displeased by how Adam was tantly ogling her, and the confrontational tone of Adam''s voice made her even more enraged. Thus, she grabbed onto Adam''s arm, and he was ovee by that familiar rush of dizziness once again as he was dragged into the psychic world.

    Adam''s psychic world had been invaded, and as he opened his eyes, he discovered that the Shae in this world was slightly different from the one in the real world. She appeared to be physically stronger and her attire was more shy, while her demeanor had also be more arrogant.

    "So this is your psychic world. This is part of the pawn shop''s territory, isn''t it?"

    Shae was inspecting Adam''s psychic world as she pleased, and if she were to get a little further away from here, she would perhaps be able to see just how bleak and barren his psychic world was. It seemed that this ce was the only setting in his memory, while everywhere else waspletely empty like a sheet of nk paper.

    However, she clearly wasn''t in the mood to explore.

    "You think I wouldn''t beat your ass just because you''re from the pawn shop?"

    After taking a nce at her surroundings, Shae charged directly toward Adam as fast as the wind.

    In the face of her aggression, Adam instinctively moved to protect himself, yet he had only just raised his arms before he was sent flying by her fist. A sharp pain speared through his head, and he wanted to retaliate, but he was significantly slower than Shae, and another punchnded on his face.

    Just as Shae was preparing to continue her barrage of punches, an enraged chihuahua suddenly rushed out of an alley off to the side. The chihuahua chomped down onto her arm, causing sharp pain to shoot along her entire arm, and she immediately began swinging her arm vigorously in an attempt to hurl the disgusting thing aside.

    Adam took advantage of this opportunity to retaliate, and after throwing a few punches of his own, he was finally able to mber up from the ground.

    It was only then that he identified the angry chihuahua to be the emotional aberration that had been born the first time he had met May. It was quite a surprise to him that it hade to help him in his time of need.

 Chapter 5: Pain Makes Me Stronger

    <h4>Chapter 5: Pain Makes Me Stronger</h4>

    "Well done, Adam. This is your first lesson here at Layton Academy."

    Adam had only just gotten back on his feet when arge group of people barged into his psychic world, led by none other than the lecturer who had just introduced him, Lena.

    "It''s not every day that we get a new transfer student, so let''s take this opportunity to review some past knowledge. Firstly, why is it that she was able to invade your consciousness, yet you weren''t able to do the same to her? That''s because there''s a transmitter imnted into her brain and her arm. We may be adapters, but our synapses still aren''t anywhere near strong enough to invade someone else''s consciousness. As I''m sure you''re already aware, the genesis of a human''s consciousness andmunication between consciousnesses all rely on the synapses. The imnted transmitter is like a huge synapse that can connect with someone else''s consciousness through physical contact, or even over a distance."

    "Then what about me..."

    "Rest assured, our academy will perform the required surgeries on you, and the costs have already been deducted from your tuition fees." In the psychic world, Lena was presented in the form of a magician wearing a long robe. She first pointed at herself, then at Shae before continuing, "You can interpret the psychic world as a deep-level dreamscape. The individual entities in here are manifestations of one''s personality, and everyone''s personality manifestation is different. Shae is prideful and loves to express herself, so in here, she''s presented in a form where she''s wearing high heels and strange clothing. As for myself, I am a bit of a control freak in real life, so my appearance and abilities will all be rted to that."

    Lena beckoned to a motorcycle on the side of the street as she spoke, and she was able to pick it up before tossing it at Shae.

    Thetter immediately tried to take evasive measures, but the motorcycle chased her down and knocked her onto the ground.

    "There are strong humans and weak humans, and the same applies to personalities. In real life, you''ll be able to clearly distinguish between these people. Some people are cowardly and weak, while some remainpletely unfazed no matter how much pain they endure. Courage, wisdom, vengeance, resilience... All of those can give rise to powerful personalities, while fear, hesitation, and confusion will weaken your personality. Our academy teaches you how to develop a powerful personality in order to bolster the powers of us adapters. Shae, you broke the rules by bullying a new student, so you''ll be receiving a slight punishment!"

    Lena raised her arm as she spoke, picking up Shae from the ground from afar, then clenched her fingers together, and five huge finger indentations instantly appeared on Shae''s stomach, upon which she began to howl with agony.

    However, Lena wasn''t about to let her off the hook. She continued to exert pressure on Shae''s stomach, and Shae was unable to endure the pain, so she began to resist. Initially, her efforts were futile, but another head grew out of the back of her neck, and as a result, her strength noticeably increased as she attempted to struggle free from Lena''s grip to regain her footing.

    Another head? What does that mean? Does she have dual personalities?

    That thought immediately urred to Adam upon seeing this, and he focused his gaze onto Shae''s second head to find that it was in the form of an elderly man''s head.

    The fact that the head of a young woman and the head of an elderly man were present in the same body was something that was very much worthy of contemtion.

    However, it was clear that all of the students were already ustomed to seeing this, and no one said anything.

    After struggling for a while, Shae was still unable to free herself from Lena''s grasp. She was mmed down onto the ground, following which Lena severed everyone''s connection with Adam, and everyone returned to reality in a sh.

    They were still in the same ssroom, and everyone turned around to look at Adam and Shae.

    Adam also cast his gaze toward Shae, whoseplexion was deathly pale, and the veins on her temples were visibly pulsing. It was clear that after sustaining damage to one''s psyche and personality, their body and brain would also be harmed.

    "What are you looking at?"

    Shae snapped as she red at her fellow students with furrowed brows. However, due to the presence of Lena in the room, she didn''t dare to go any further than that.

    Thus, Lena took a moment to restore order in the ssroom, and the lesson continued.

    The lessonsted several hours, and the inhumane nature of these lessons was a signature trait of the academies under the Psychic Church.

    After ss was over, Adam had only just stood up from his chair before an arm was slung across his shoulders.

    "How''re ya doing, brother? My name''s Hook. I''ve been here for two months, so I''m rtively new here as well. How about I show you where the cafeteria is?"

    "Hmm?" Adam had no experience in interpersonal interactions, and he was a little flustered by the fact that Hook was being so friendly and enthusiastic from the get-go.

    "Ah, allow me to exin: my family has received assistance from the pawn shop in the past. If the pawn shop hadn''t resolved our troubles back then, perhaps I would already be dead by now." Upon noticing Adam''s awkward expression, Hook hurriedly exined why he was so eager to befriend Adam. "Judging from the setting in your psychic world, you''re from the pawn shop, right?"

    "That''s right."

    "There we go! Let''s be friends!"

    Hook removed his arm from Adam''s shoulders before reaching out for a handshake.

    "My name''s Adam."

    This was the first friend that Adam had ever made, and it was a little abrupt, but he wasn''t opposed to establishing interpersonal connections with others. Thus, he reached out to shake Hook''s sweaty hand.

    "Let''s go, I''ll treat you to a meal at the cafeteria."

    Hook slung his arm across Adam''s shoulder as he spoke, and the two of them left the ssroom.

    The corridor outside the ssroom was a great representation of the Psychic Church''s style, with all types of iprehensible symbols and bewildering lines inscribed all over the walls.

    The doctrine of the Psychic Church was: "Pain Cultivates Power".

    During the first generation of adapter research, it was discovered that the happier one''s personality was, the healthier they were, but also the more fragile they were. Those who coasted through life without encountering any adversity would crumple in the face of any hardship. Only pain could make one stronger.

    For those capable of enduring pain, some rose up again from the ashes, some fell into ruin, and some evolved. However, regardless of whether one rose up again or evolved with the pain, their personalities would be extremely powerful and resolute.

    Just as Adam was beginning to develop a headache from looking at the symbols littered throughout the entire corridor, Hook''s voice rang out beside him.

    "Don''t worry about what happened earlier, that''s just how Shae is. It''s nothing personal, she''s like that to everyone. You''ve probably already heard about how wealthy her family is. They control the entertainment industry in several major cities, and many celebrities, singers, actors, and virtual idols are rted to her family''spany in one way or another. On top of that, she''s one of the top students in our ss. There aren¡¯t many people who can defeat her in psychic spars, and that''s only made her even more arrogant."

    "Has she also picked on you before?"

    "Nah. I''d say I''m pretty clever, and I try to avoid her."

    "Did you see that she had two personalities?"

    "I did. There are many adapters who are rather abnormal and have mutated personalities. You''ll understand why eventually."

    As they were talking, the two of them arrived at a ce that made Adam begin to "understand" what he was getting himself into. It was the Layton Academy cafeteria.

    The presentation, aroma, and vor of the food here had truly been raised to the extreme, except it was the extreme pinnacle of awfulness!

    Most of the food here was presented in extremely unappetizing colors, such as green or purple, and they were giving off intensely foul odors. As for the vors and textures, it was no different from eating dog shit.

    "This does fit with the doctrine of the Psychic Church. I think I''m beginning to understand why so many adapters develop mutated personalities."

    Inside all of the academies under the Psychic Church, all sources of joy were to be erased.

 Chapter 6: Anger and Pain

    <h4>Chapter 6: Anger and Pain</h4>

    Psychological pain was the most extreme pain humans could experience. Upon exceeding a certain threshold of physical pain, one''s brain would automatically switch off, which was essentially fainting. If it were impossible to maintain an unconscious state and the pain became too much to bear, the brain would even convert the pain into some type of pleasure.

    Thus, there was an upper limit for physical pain, but the same didn''t apply to psychological pain.

    The best way to inflict psychological pain was confinement in a dark and isted space, so confinement rooms weremon developmental facilities in the Psychic Church.

    Each confinement room was only half as tall as a human and three feet wide. Inside one of these rooms, one would have to curl up like a ball, and the space was too confined for one to be able to squat down on the spot, so one would have to remain conscious the entire time. No light could enter these rooms, and there were only simple oxygen provision units that ensured one didn''t asphyxiate.

    Inside confinement rooms like this, even the toughest of students couldn''t voluntarilyst over four hours.

    This was because after being confined in a room like this for some time, one would lose all concept of time, and after that, every single second would be infinitely stretched out, until each passing second felt like an eternity.

    However, Adam could stay in a confinement room for a very long time. In fact, he was able to endure this far longer than the average student was capable of. His tolerance for pain was very high, but most importantly, his psychic world seemed to be a little different from everyone else''s.

    On this day, he was in confinement again.

    He had only been attending Layton Academy for less than two months, yet this was already his 17th time in confinement.

    During the time he had spent at the academy, the first thing he did was study the foundation courses. After that, the academy arranged for two adapter devices to be installed into his brain and his arm.

    What had been imnted into his brain was a body of spongiform. This was an artificially erged neuron that could improve synapse conductivity. The spongiform was connected to the transmitter in the arm, allowing him to invade the consciousness of others.

    At this moment, Adam was physically situated inside the confinement room, but his consciousness was within his own psychic world.

    "What exactly are these flowerpots?" Adam was squatted down beside the road, inspecting the two "anomalies" in the flowerpots.

    One of the anomalies was called Anger. That was his first emotion, and it had nted itself in one of the flowerpots like a housent. In contrast with over a month ago, Anger had grown significantlyrger. In the past, it had only been around the size of a chihuahua, but at this point, it had already be asrge as a dog. Furthermore, its form had also undergone a change. mes of fury were burning all over its body, giving it an appearance that was as frightening as a fiery hellhound.

    "It looks like this flowerpot will expand in size as Anger grows bigger."

    Adam stroked Anger, which was rather hot to the touch, then turned toward the other flowerpot.

    This flowerpot currently had an evenrger anomaly?by the name of Pain nted in it.

    Every time Adam went into confinement, Pain would absorb his emotions of pain to fuel its rapid growth. At this moment, Pain wasrger and stronger than Anger. It had already grown to the size of a human, and its entire body was covered in bandages like a mummy. There were countless des protruding out of the gaps between its bandages, giving it a very painful appearance, much like its namesake.

    However, Adam didn''t detest these two hideous creatures as they were the foundation of his quest to be stronger.

    From his battle against Shaest time, he knew that these two anomalies would help him, but he still hadn''t figured out exactly how to use them.

    "Let''s put you guys in a secret ce for now so you don''t get exposed as soon as someone invades my psychic world," Adam murmured to himself as he carried the flowerpots to a secret base, which was the ce where he had first been discovered following his awakening.

    Aside from May and the officers of Mechguard, no one knew of this ce.

    At the moment, his psychic world was still very small, so he couldn''t hide many things in here, and this was the only good hiding ce.

    After that, he turned off the insertion spongiform''s transmit function, allowing his own consciousness to return to the real world.

    The dark and isted space was very ufortable, and curling into a fetal position for such a long time was hurting his spine, so he got out of the confinement room.

    After emerging from the room, he checked the time on hismunicator to find that it was already close to midnight. Just as he was about to return to his dorm room, he noticed a message left by Red Spider on hismunicator.

    He pressed his wristwatch, and a 3D projection of Red Spider was released from his wrist.

    "Hey, it''s been a month and 17 days since you started at the academy. We didn''t arrange any work for you during the first month, so we''ve already lost a lot of money. I have a job for you now, so contact me when you get some spare time."

    Before he had a chance to dial Red Spider''s numbers, the notification that her message had been read had already activated hermunicator. Her 3D projection immediately became more animated, and even her background setting was disyed.

    "Why did you take so long to read my message? The client has grown really tired of waiting! Hurry up and go wait for me at the entrance of the academy, I''ll be there soon." Red Spider was yelling over the loud music that was ying behind her, and she was making the situation sound quite urgent, but she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.

    However, Adam didn''t care about that. At the moment, he only had two objectives, the first of which was to uncover his own past, while the other was to avenge himself.

    He needed power toplete both of these objectives, and thus, he desperately desired power. Having studied at the academy for one and a half months, it was time for him to test his own power, and a mission that was suited to an adapter was exactly what he was waiting for.

    As he arrived at the entrance of the academy, Red Spider''s car, which was traveling above the speed limit, just so happened to arrive at the same time.

    "Get in the car, we''ll talk on the way there," she said, and Adam did as he was told.

    "What''s the mission?"

    "Wow, look at you! You''ve only been at school for less than two months and you already look terrible! I know all of the people in the Psychic Church are a bunch of freaks who encourage others to put themselves through as much suffering as possible, but you have to learn to have bnce. It''s not going to be pretty if you transform into aplete psychic mutant." Red Spider grabbed arge handful of soft candy as she spoke, then stuffed it into her mouth, chewing as she continued, "This mission is for treating psychological trauma. Generally speaking, it''s not advised for newbies like you to take on missions like this, but..."

    "Why is that?"

    "Did the academy not teach you?"

    "I''ve only learned the foundation courses, and I''ve been doing basic training the rest of the time."

    "Alright, alright..." Red Spider smacked her lips as she pulled out a lipstick that was glowing with super luminescence before applying it to her own lips. She then made a popping sound with her lips to ensure even application before continuing, "It''s because all sufferers of psychological trauma have anomalies in their heart. The stronger the fear, the more powerful the anomaly is, and the more things they fear, the more anomalies they have. Thus, treating psychological trauma is generally a very dangerous job."

    Anomalies in the heart, eh?

    Adam nodded with a contemtive expression upon hearing this.

    "I''ll take on this mission."

    "Oho! I was prepared to have to do a lot of persuading to convince you, but you''ve made things very easy for me!"

    .

    "You didn''t finish what you were saying earlier. ''It''s not advised for newbies like you to take on missions like this, but...''?"

    "Oh right, what I was saying was that you wouldn''t have had to take on such a dangerous mission, but the person you''re helping has something to do with your past, and May decided to assign you the mission after seeing the information." Red Spider sent a file to Adam as she spoke. "The name of the little girl that you''ll be helping is Kim Garcia. Her father, Ben Garcia, is a rapper with the nickname of Deranged Pig. He''s one of the most popr artists under Golden Teeth Incorporated, and he has a very open and expressive personality, as well as a very clear-cut approach when ites to grudges and gratitude, so if you can get on his good side, you''ll be able to find out a lot of things from him."

 Chapter 7: First Mission

    <h4>Chapter 7: First Mission</h4>

    Golden Teeth Incorporated was thepany behind Shae.

    While Adam was reading through the files on Deranged Pig and Golden Teeth Incorporated, Red Spider was continuing to disregard the speed limit, passing through around a dozen streets before arriving in front of the gate of a massive courtyard.

    After making her identity known, she drove through the gate, beyond which was avish and extravagant world.

    .

    The fountain was pumping out a type of strangepound that evoked within one a sense of joy and excitement upon inhtion.

    There were drinkers and geishas with all types of strange prosthetic limbs installed into their bodies traversing through the garden, and with no exception, every single one of them could be described as bright and sparkly.

    Aside from the peculiar aroma in the air, there was also some extremely catchy music ying, striking one with an involuntary urge to nod along with the beat as they walked.

    "You must be Madam Red Spider, right?" Not long after they entered the courtyard, Red Spider was greeted by a rtively normal figure. "We''ve been waiting for you for quite some time. Pleasee with me."

    After passing through the garden and the courtyard, Adam and Red Spider made their way into a spectacr hall. Before they had even entered the hall, they heard the sound of a furious roar.

    "Fuck! You said they''de at noon, but it''s already past midnight and you only just got here! Even the street-side vendors selling the cheapest fake pills know the importance of being punctual! How is your pawn shop going to im that it''s a legitimate business when you keep your clients waiting for this long?!"

    Red Spider chuckled in response.

    "The fact that we''rete means that we''re well-prepared. Don''t get so worked up! If you don''t like it, then you can find someone else!"

    As Red Spider was speaking, she made her way toward the furious man who was seated at the center of the sofa with her hips swaying side to side.

    Adam cast his gaze toward the direction where the voice hade from to discover an extremely overweight man. He was tall, burly, and fat, and even if the weight of his prosthetic limbs were to be discounted, he had to be weighing in excess of 170kg.

    The man had a set of fierce facial features, and his expression was also a little crazed, but his demeanor clearly softened a little when Red Spider told him to look elsewhere.

    "The pawn shop has many ws, but its ability to resolve troubles is near unmatched. Otherwise, I wouldn''t have spent so much money to hire you!"

    "Well, there you go! As the saying goes, the good things in life are always worth the wait! Come on, take us to get an in-depth understanding of the situation."

    Thus, Deranged Pig rose to his feet before leading Red Spider and Adam to an upstairs bedroom.

    In contrast with the extravagant style outside, this bedroom had a very pronounced pink princess style. On the princess bed insideid a young girl who appeared to be around 13 to 14 years of age, and she was quite thin and frail, in stark contrast with her burly father. However, her figure wasn''t the most attention-grabbing thing about her. Instead, it was her left arm, which was missing a section, but only some simple treatment had been administered, and no prosthetic limb had been installed.

    "This is my daughter, Kim. Over a month ago, she sustained severe injuries to her left arm during a car crash, and the arm couldn''t be saved. However, after the amputation, she refused to have a prosthetic limb installed."

    "She refused a prosthetic limb?" A surprised look appeared on Red Spider''s face as sheid a hand onto one of the spider legs behind her. "That''s very strange."

    In this day and age, prosthetic limbs were very popr. Not only did they have powerful functions, they were also a fashion statement. Many wealthy young individuals who weren''t even missing limbs were still intrigued by the idea of having prosthetic limbs installed, so it was quite strange to see someone refuse a prosthetic limb even after going through an amputation.

    "At first, I thought she was only throwing a tantrum. I tried to console her, but that didn''t work, so I got them to forcibly install an arm for her. Rest assured, it wasn''t any of those strange arms. Instead, it was an imitation prosthetic limb. However, ever since the prosthetic limb was installed, Kim''s been feeling very unwell and often has nightmares. In the end, she copsed due to illness. I had no choice but to get the doctor to remove the prosthetic limb, and after performing an examination, the doctor told me that her illness was caused by extreme emotional instability. Finally, I sought out a psychiatrist, and they told me that this was some type of PTSD."

    "What happened after that?"

    "After that, the psychiatrist could only administer some medicine for treatment alongside therapeuticmunication, but in order to address the issue at its roots, we had to find an adapter, and that''s why I turned to your pawn shop."

    "I see." Red Spider nodded in response before gesturing toward Adam. "Go and take a look at her."

    "Er..." Adam strode over to Kim, who was sweating profusely, before taking a look.

    "Can you see anything?"

    "No."

    "I''m telling you to look into her heart, not look at her face, you idiot!" Red Spider smacked Adam on the back of the head with an exasperated expression. Not only did Adam not have any medical experience, this was his first time officially entering someone else''s psychic world. After that p to the back of the head, he finally understood what he was here to do, and he pressed his fingertip against the little girl''s forehead before activating the transmitter to enter her consciousness.

    In the next instant, he arrived in a schoolyard.

    His first impression of the ce was that it was very cold.

    "What a cold and eerie atmosphere!"

    Adam drew a sharp breath as he inspected his surroundings. This was the yground of a school, and there was no sun or moon in the sky, so visibility was quite low. Furthermore, the entire area was filled with dense mist.

    A person''s psychic world had a direct corrtion with their memories, emotions, and experiences, so it made sense that the psychic world of a little girl suffering from PTSD wouldn''t be all sunshine and rainbows.

    After taking a brief moment to limate himself to the surrounding environment, Adam began to explore.

    Firstly, he caught sight of several young kids on the edge of the yground. These kids were most likely Kim''s fellow students. The fact that they had appeared in her psychic world indicated that they had to have some type of connection with Kim.

    Thus, Adam began to attempt tomunicate with them.

    "Hello there."

    "......"

    The students raised their heads to look at him with cold expressions, and none of them said anything.

    "Do you know Kim? Kim Garcia? The daughter of the rapper?"

    "No," the cold and apathetic students finally replied on this asion.

    "I see."

    It seemed that these students only filled the role of random bystanders in these memories, and there wasn''t much of a connection between them and Kim.

    Adam continued searching. There weren''t many people in Kim''s memories, but her recollection of the surrounding buildings was particrly clear.

    Judging from the style of these buildings, this appeared to be a private school with steep tuition fees. The surrounding buildings were either histordmarks or gave off a sense of illustrious artistry.

    All those attending this school must eithere from families of great wealth or lofty status, so the daughter of a celebrity rapper wouldn''t stick out very much here.

    Adam continued his search while gathering information along the way.

    After speaking with a few more cold and aloof students, he finally encountered one who was familiar with Kim, and he followed their directions to track down Kim in the gymnasium.

    At this moment, she was being attacked by three frogs wearing female student uniforms.

    The three frogs were constantly whipping Kim''s face with their tongues while pelting her with their saliva, and it was quite disgusting to behold.

    "What''s going on in there?"

    Ben was also watching from the real world.

    The scene that he was witnessing was being transmitted by Red Spider. She was unable to enter the psychic world of others, but she also had a transmitter imnted into her body. This was so that she could monitor the situation inside Kim''s psychic world and also immediately sever the connection if Adam were to encounter any danger.

    "You don''t need to worry about that, he''ll take care of it!"

    As soon as Red Spider''s voice trailed off, Adam had already charged toward the three aberrations.

 Chapter 8: Nesting Dream, Internal Space

    <h4>Chapter 8: Nesting Dream, Internal Space</h4>

    He was here toplete a mission, so he certainly wasn''t going to just stand by idly and watch.

    After a month and a half of training, his psychic body had be a lot stronger. He charged forward as if he were taking flight, grabbing one of the aberrations by the waist from behind before sending them flying off to the side. He then knocked down a second aberration before raining punches down onto its face.

    The aberration''s frog-like face was very slippery, so he was unable to transfer the force of his punches very well, and just as he was thinking about exploring alternative means of attack, a long tongue wound itself tightly around his neck.

    Immediately thereafter, the frog that had been hurled aside also jumped up before crashing into him and sending him flying from the other side. All of a sudden, he found himself surrounded by the three frog aberrations, who were unleashing a variety of different attacks upon him. Even though his psychic body had be significantly more powerful, he was struggling to deal with the three opponents all at once, and all he could do was passively defend.

    "What the hell is this? He''s useless!" Deranged Pig wasn''t an amicable character to begin with, and the sight of the scene unfolding before him immediately set his temper aze. "Didn''t you say you were well-prepared? Is this what good preparation looks like?"

    "Don''t get so worked up! He still hasn''t used his trump card yet!" Even though Red Spider was keeping up a confident facade, she was also feeling quite concerned. She didn''t even believe in her own words, and she quickly added, "If he''s not up to the task, our pawn shop has other people who canplete this mission. Rest assured, we''ve taken on this job, and we''ll definitely see it through to the end."

    Right as Red Spider''s voice trailed off, Adam had already been tripped over by a tongue and fallen onto the ground. The three frog aberrations immediately piled up on him and began to unleash a ferocious assault.

    At this point, it was just a one-sided drubbing.

    Inside the unfolding scene, Kim was bawling off to the side, while Adam was alreadypletely powerless to retaliate.

    Right as Red Spider was about to sever the connection between Adam and Kim, a burst of reddish-ck light suddenly shed in the scene, and two aberrations jumped out of Adam''s body.

    The first aberration was a giant fiery hound. As soon as it appeared, it chomped down onto the face of one of the frog aberrations, tearing into it with its mes and sharp fangs while the frog aberration howled with agony.

    The other aberration was even more fearsome. It was a mummy that waspletely wrapped in bandages that were riddled with des, and it was wielding a carving knife, with which it promptly sliced one of the frog aberrations into shreds. At this moment, it was in the process of rushing toward the final frog aberration with de in hand, and the frog aberration immediately fled the scene in horror.

    "See? What did I tell you? I told you he wasn''t even trying yet! Our pawn shop never lets its clients down."

    Red Spider was just about to sever the connection, but she quickly withdrew her hand as she put on a confident expression.

    "Looks like I was too quick to jump to conclusions." Deranged Pig nodded with a pleased expression upon seeing this. "Damn, that feels good to watch! Anyone who dares to pick on my daughter deserves to die! That should get rid of the root of her PTSD, right?"

    Deranged Pig was chortling with glee.

    "I''m afraid it''s not going to be that simple." Red Spider had been on many of these missions in the past, so she was a seasoned veteran. "To be frank, those aberrations are only the small fry. Everyone has them in their psychic world, and they''re nowhere near powerful enough to cause such severe psychological trauma."

    "What do you mean by that?"

    Deranged Pig was a little perplexed.

    "Let me put it this way: there''s a very good chance that those three frog aberrations are only fellow students of your daughter''s who don''t get along well with her. Perhaps they''ve exchanged heated words in the past, and maybe there have even been physical altercations. Hence, these students were manifested as aberrations in her psychic world. However, everyone has aberrations of this level in their psychic world. If we enter your psychic world, there may be even more aberrations of this caliber."

    "Then what do we do?"

    "Through this, we should be able to earn some trust from your daughter. When a psychic body trusts someone, that''s trust on a very deep level, and it''s very useful. Perhaps we''ll be able to get some information out of her."

    With the assistance of the two anomalies, Adam made short work of the three frog aberrations, then made his way over to the weeping Kim.

    "Don''t be afraid, I''ve chased those aberrations away." Adam attempted to console Kim while observing her at the same time.

    Kim''s psychic body was even younger than her form in real life, and it was also thinner and more frail, giving her a very helpless appearance.

    "Thank you, you saved me." Kim wiped away the tears in her eyes, but the fear on her face didn''t fade.

    "Tell me what you''re so afraid of, I can help you."

    "I''m, I''m scared... I''m too scared to tell you."

    "It''s alright. Look, I brought these strong friends with me!" Adam pointed at the bandaged mummy behind him as he spoke. "Who''s picking on you? I''ll make sure they pay for it!"

    Perhaps the mummy''s menacing appearance instilled Kim with some confidence, but after some hesitation, she opened her mouth to speak. However, right as she was prepared to talk, the air behind her rippled, and a pair of huge inky-ck hands sped themselves over her mouth before instantly dragging her into space.

    Everything had taken ce far too quickly, and there was no time for Adam to react.

    "Looks like we might be dealing with a nesting dream and an internal space." Both Red Spider in the real world and Adam furrowed their brows upon seeing this.

    Immediately thereafter, Red Spider severed the connection between the two without any hesitation.

    "What are you doing?" Deranged Pig frantically jostled Red Spider as Adam slowly opened his eyes. "Didn''t you see that thing drag my daughter away? Why did you cut off the connection?"

    "Calm down!" Red Spider was certainly no pushover, and she immediately used her spider leg to slice open Deranged Pig''s arm, thereby forcing him to step back. "I severed the connection because there''s already no longer any point in continuing this."

    "What do you mean by that?"

    Deranged Pig recovered hisposure a little, then cast his gaze toward Kim. She had been dragged into the source of her fear, and there was even more cold sweat pouring down her face. Her body was also beginning to spasm and convulse, and it was clear that she was in terrible condition.

    "An internal space can only be formed by a deeper level of the subconsciousness, which means that there''s something that your daughter is trying to hide from you. In fact, it could even be something that she''s too ashamed of, so her brain actively chose to forget it. In order to enter the internal space, we''ll require the assistance of special adapters, so this is all that we can do today. Rest assured, I''ll bring more people here tomorrow, and we''ll be sure to get the job done."

    Red Spider picked up Adam by the cor as she spoke, then dragged him away with her as she departed.

    After getting into the car, Red Spider ced her spider legs onto the steering wheel as she eximed, "I didn''t think you''d put on such a show, kid. I thought that this would only be a training opportunity before I step in to bail you out! Tell me what those anomalies were."

    "I don''t know. Perhaps it''s a special ability of my personality."

    Adam shook his head in response. He didn''t want to share all of his secrets with someone else, and he really was unaware of what exactly those two anomalies were.

    Thankfully, Red Spider wasn''t one to dwell on such things, and instead of prying any further, she began to think about how she could profit from this.

    "I thought that this would only be some training for you, and after you fail, I would have to get someone else from the pawn shop to take care of things, but it looks like that won''t be necessary. What do you say we score a paycheck together?"

    "How?"

    "Originally, after deducting the portion of my ie that has to be submitted to the pawn shop, I would be left with an estimated 1.5 million from this job. If you couldn''t get the job done, then I would''ve had to recruit the services of an expert adapter from the pawn shop, and most of the money would have to go to them. Do you get what I''m saying now?"

    "Yes."

    "I''m prepared to give you an opportunity now. I''ll give you 300,000, you find some allies and get this job done yourself."

    "I want a million."

    "I''ll do 500,00."

    "750,000 is as low as I''m willing to go. We''ll split the 1.5 million evenly between us."

    "Deal!"

 Chapter 9: Nie Yiyi

    <h4>Chapter 9: Nie Yiyi</h4>

    Adam was in great need of money.

    Money could do many, many things in this world; it could even buy immortality.

    Ever since the development of the Metaverse waspleted, all those who passed away were able to upload their consciousness to the Metaverse, thereby attaining immortality on a psychological level.

    However, money was required for the maintenance of the Metaverse, and if one didn''t have resources in the real world, then they would be forced to serve as ves and ythings in the Metaverse. Just like in online games a century ago, free yers were trash, and constant spending was required for an enjoyable experience.

    In this world, the rich were extremely careful and meticulous when selecting an heir as their heir would be the one who provided for them once they passed away and entered the Metaverse.

    Those who were even wealthier and more powerful naturally wouldn''t be willing to hand their power over to someone else. They wouldn''t be content with living for eternity as a "cyberlich", so they needed power and physical bodies. Damaged body parts could be reced with prosthetics, but the brain would inevitably die from old age someday, and it was under this context that nk tes were born.

    In a world where immortality could be attained, the poor could no longer console themselves with the notion that death was the ultimate equalizer, and the power of money was infinitely magnified.

    This was a world in which money was truly paramount, and Adam desperately needed money.

    In order to be more powerful, he had to install powerful prosthetic limbs and other tools that would assist him in his training.

    All equipment rted to adapters was extremely intricate and immensely expensive.

    750,000...

    .

    After settling on an agreement with Red Spider, Adam returned to the academy, and the next day, he began to make preparations for the mission.

    Unfortunately, he didn''t know many people in Layton Academy, so he could only discuss the mission with Hook first.

    "I want to do a mission. Can you help me find some people?"

    "Of course. What kind of people do you want?"

    "Firstly, I need someone capable of entering a nesting dream in an internal space," Adam replied. "ording to what we learned, special personnel with inquisitive or investigative personalities are required to enter internal spaces. These are people who like to find out secrets, who always want to get to the bottom of things..."

    "We''re friends, but you don''t seem to know me very well," Hook chuckled as he pointed at himself, then asked, "What type of personality do you think I have?"

    Adam''s eyes immediately widened at the sight of Hook''s smug expression.

    ¡°Don''t tell me..."

    "That''s right, I have an inquisitive personality. I like to find out things and gather information, and my psychic body will be able to take you into internal spaces! However, friendship is friendship, and business is business. We may be pals, but you have to pay for my services."

    "Of course." Money was the best universal pass in this world. "How much do you want?"

    "You have to tell me how dangerous the mission is going to be before I can decide."

    "We''ll be entering the psychic world of a girl who''s suffering from PTSD."

    "I can do 150,000."

    "That''s a little too expensive." Adam shook his head in response. "I still need to recruit other people."

    "I''m already giving you a friendship discount here. As we were taught in our lessons, the psychic worlds of PTSD sufferers are dangerous ces. There are generally going to be very powerful emotional aberrations lurking in there, so I''ll be risking my life if I go with you on this mission."

    "That''s why I need to assemble at least a team of three in order to ensure the mission''s smoothpletion."

    Adam thought back to what had happened the night before. The anomaly that had abducted Kim at the end was extremely powerful. It was massive in stature, but also had extraordinary speed, and it would be very difficult for him and Hook to take care of it on their own.

    "You want a team of three? I know someone really strong. She''s a year above us, I can take you to see her now."

    ¡­¡­

    "I''ll take 500,000, and I''m all you''ll need. There''s no need for a third person."

    Standing before Adam was a girl whose face was riddled with ck patterns. She was quite short, standing at only around 150 centimeters in height, but she had an exceptional figure. However, her back hunched over in a slightly unnatural manner, as if she were a panther constantly ready to pounce.

    "500,000?"

    That was already over three times Hook''s asking price!

    "I''m not taking anything lower than 500,000. Trust me, I can get the job done."

    The girl was looking straight into Adam''s eyes, and she could see that he was still hesitating, so she took the initiative to drag him into the psychic world.

    "You must be hesitating because you''re not sure if I''m worth that price, so let me prove myself to you."

    The girl hadn''t invaded Adam''s psychic world. Instead, she had dragged him into her own world.

    This was an ind with many pieces of training equipment situated in the surrounding area. Most of the equipment was very primitive, and at this moment, the girl was standing atop a wooden stake, looking down at Adam from her vantage point.

    In the real world, she was only 150 centimeters tall, but in the psychic world, she was at least 185 to 190 centimeters tall at a rough visual estimate, and looking up at her, all Adam could see were her long legs sheathed in tight-fitting clothes.

    "How are you going to prove yourself?"

    "I''m going to show you that I''m more reliable than even three normal adapters. In order to take care of the little girl''s inner anomaly, what you need is power!"

    She performed a somersault down from the stake as she spoke, and her long leg came crashing down like a war ax.

    So fast!

    Adam could only see a blur shing in front of his eyes, and he had no time to evade, so he could only raise his arms to protect himself.

    There was a massive disparity in power between the two, and Adam was forced to his knees by the attack, while his forearm was also instantly broken.

    Thankfully, his two loyal anomalies, Mummy and Hellhound, sprang out of his body once again to protect him, and they rushed into battle against the girl.

    "So you''re a invocator-ss adapter? That''s extremely rare!"

    The girl was rather taken aback to see the two anomalies, but that didn''t slow her down at all.

    Two sharp des extended out of her arms, and she parried Mummy''s carving knife before engaging in battle against the two anomalies.

    The two sides went back and forth for three or four exchanges, while Adam looked on with intrigue.

    This was the first time that he was seeing his developed anomalies battle in earnest. The battle against the three frog aberrations was apletely one-sided ughter, so it was impossible to gauge the power of the two anomalies through that battle.

    Observing them now, Adam discovered that not only were the two anomalies more powerful than he had imagined, each of them had its own style.

    The anomaly of pain, Mummy, appeared to be quite aggressive and swashbuckling, but it was clearly a meat-shield-typebatant. It was able to withstand damage far better than the other anomaly, and not only were its bandages as hard as chainmail, even after sustaining injuries, its self-regenerative abilities were quite exceptional. However, its main w was theck of diversity in its modes of attack. Aside from hacking and shing violently with its carving knife, it didn''t appear to have any other effective attacking variations.

    In contrast, the anomaly of anger, Hellhound, had far more variation in its attacking methods. Not only could it tear at its opponent with its fangs and burn them with its mes, it could even shoot fire over a distance.

    With Mummy taking care of close-quartersbat and Hellhound supporting it from afar, the girl was beginning to lose herposure, and she was even a little surprised.

    "I didn''t think that there was someone this good among the new students, but this is where the battle ends."

    She forced back Mummy with her de as she spoke, following which a series of cyberglyphs appeared on her body, and her speed was instantly doubled.

    The first thing she did was use her newfound speed to break through the encirclement, and after that, cyberglyphs began to surface on her des as well. Arge amount of energy began to gather on her de, and it seemed that she was about to unleash a lethal strike.

    "That''s enough! Don''t hurt them." Those anomalies were manifestations of Adam''s emotions, so if they were injured, he would be harmed as well. "You''re very powerful, certainly worth the 500,000 price tag."

    After unleashing her cyberglyph form, the girl was able to suppress the two anomalies in a very short time, so her powers were certainly nothing to be scoffed at.

    Adam hadn''t fought many adapters thus far, but his logic when it came to power scaling was very clear.

    Firstly, he had fought Shae in the past. She was already the cream of the crop among the new students, yet there was no way that she would be able to suppress the two emotional anomalies so easily.

    Thus, the most powerful new students were perhaps only equivalent to average senior students.

    Going by that logic, this girl most likely ranked near the top even among the senior students, and the power that she had disyed was definitely superior to that of three Shaes.

    "500,00 it is. Do we have a deal?"

    Adam stood up from the ground, then reached out his uninjured left hand for a handshake.

    "Deal!" The girl''s expression softened slightly as she stowed her des away. "My name is Nie Yiyi. When is the mission?"

    "Tonight. When would you like to be paid?"

    "Just pay me after the mission ispleted."

    After that, Nie Yiyi left the psychic world.

 Chapter 10: Passivity

    <h4>Chapter 10: Passivity</h4>

    Upon returning to the real world, Nie Yiyi had already returned to her original petite appearance. Despite the massive disparity in her figure, there was no change at all in her disposition.

    "This is gonna take some getting used to!"

    Adam was looking at Nie Yiyi while thinking back to his own appearance in the psychic world. There wasn''t much of a disparity between his form in the real world and that of the psychic world, perhaps due to the fact that he was a nk te.

    "I don''t like it when people look at me like I''m some type of dwarf. This is your first warning. If you get three strikes, I''ll attack you."

    "Alright, alright."

    When it came to girls who were short and petite, they never failed to look at least a little cute, even when throwing tantrums.

    "That''s strike two."

    "... Sorry." Adam hurriedly looked away and turned his attention toward Hook. "Alright, let me examine your abilities now and see if you''re worth 150,000."

    "Go right ahead!" An excited look appeared on Hook''s face as he grabbed onto Adam''s arm with his greasy hand. "It''s about time I showed off my abilities to you!"

    As they were speaking, Hook dragged Adam into his psychic world.

    They appeared at the entrance of a pub, and the d¨¦cor of the pub was quite ordinary, but it had a very strange name.

    "Perspiration Pub? What a disgusting name!"

    While Adam''s attention was focused on the entrance of the pub, a mechanical voice suddenly rang out behind him, the type that was even more stiff and robotic than an electronically generated voice.

    "Everyone has different pastimes, and there are always some people with niche hobbies. My family earns a living by running this pub."

    "I see. It looks like..."

    As Adam turned around, he was greeted by the sight of a strange-looking steam robot. The robot possessed all of the characteristics of the steam age, with a rusty brass exterior and a row of "chimneys" on the back, which were releasing plumes of steam. The robot was standing at around three meters tall, and what was particrly unsettling about it was that it had a human face on its head, namely Hook''s face.

    .

    "What the hell is this?"

    "It''s me, Hook. My psychic body is a little strange, but it''s really not that weirdpared with psychic mutants."

    "You look just like a psychic mutant to me! You don''t look human at all!"

    Adam made ap around Hook, discovering many details about his psychic body in the process. The steam robot was equipped with many tools, thergest of which was a magnifying ss that was strapped to its waist.

    "Alright, show me all of your abilities so we can work together effectivelyter tonight."

    It was always a good thing to know more about one''s allies.

    "Let''s start off with my search ability." Hook pulled out a telescope from the parts on his chest as he spoke, then ced it in front of his own eye. "With this ability, I''m able to track down targets more quickly."

    "That''s a very practical skill." Adam nodded in approval. Thinking back to hisst venture into Kim''s psychic world, it had taken him quite some time to track her down, and he had to ask many of her fellow students for her whereabouts in the process.

    If they had been in the wilderness instead of in a school, it would''ve been even more difficult to find her.

    "This is my main ability: inspection." After stowing the telescope away, Hook pulled out hisrgest tool, the magnifying ss, before aiming it at Adam as he introduced, "Through this magnifying ss, I''m able to see psychic lines..."

    "What''s a psychic line?"

    Adam peered carefully into the magnifying ss, but he could only see normal objects being magnified through it.

    "You can interpret psychic lines as psychic leads. They can only be seen by me, and through these psychic leads, I can track down the source of the subject''s fear as quickly as possible."

    Adam nodded in approval. "So that means you''ll be able to find the anomaly that dragged Kim into space? In that case, your abilities are definitely worth more than 150,000. You have yourself a deal."

    "I still have other abilities. For example, I can be operated by someone else." Hook put the magnifying ss away, following which a door sprang open on his round stomach, revealing a greasy cabin. "While being operated, I can enter berserk mode and ess many new abilities. For example..."

    "Is there no way to use those abilities unless someone enters your body?"

    "What can I say? I''m into that passive stuff! You know how it is, a psychic body is closely rted with one''s personality!"

    "Piss off! This is a useless ability! No one''s going to want to enter your body!"

    Adam kicked the cabin door shut before leaving Hook''s psychic world.

    Having assembled a team and developed an understanding of their abilities, Adam decided to spend the rest of the day until the time of the mission on his own.

    The first thing he had to do was recover his psychic energy, and after that, he had to perform some pre-battle drills.

    He arrived at the training hall before attempting to invoke his two emotional anomalies over and over again, but the oue was ratherckluster. Most of the time, he was unable to invoke the anomalies as he pleased.

    However, as he continued to practice over and over again, his sess rate also improved slowly, yet steadily.

    Through this exercise, he was practicing his invocation, as well as recovering his psychic body.

    Psychological damage also required time to heal, but in contrast with physical injuries, minor psychological trauma could recover faster.

    By the time night arrived, Adam''s psychic body had already recovered from its broken arm, and Red Spider also just so happened to contact him at the same time.

    "Have you found some allies yet, kid?"

    "I have."

    "Alright, I''ll see you at the academy''s entrance soon."

    10 minutester, everyone was gathered beneath Layton Academy''s signboard, which was riddled with squiggly lines.

    "The writing is so ugly! It looks like it was designed to ward off evil psyches!" After her arrival, Red Spider made a point to insult the design of Layton Academy''s signboard, then directed her attention toward the trio gathered before her. "You''re only going with a team of three? I thought you''d round up a team of seven or eight. I''m not sure this is going to be enough!"

    "Just take us to the subject, we''ll look after ourselves if anything happens." Nie Yiyi stepped forward and looked up at Red Spider''s chin, then said in a cool voice, "This is a paid job. If we don''t get it done, I won''t ask for payment."

    "Oh, what a cute little girl you are!" Red Spider wanted to pat Nie Yiyi''s head, but thetter swatted her hand away, and Red Spider couldn''t help but chuckle. "Such a cute girl, but such a cold personality! I feel like I''m seeing a mirror image of my younger self. Get in the car then. Let me see if you have the ability to back up your confidence."

    Red Spider entered the car as she spoke, and after Adam''s trio had also taken a seat, she drove them toward the affluent part of town.

    Once again, she was habitually driving over the speed limit, and an hourter, Adam made his way into that luxurious courtyard once again. On this asion, there were far fewer guests, and the scent of the stimtingpound in the air had also be a lot lighter. It was clear that the events that had taken ce the day before had made Deranged Pig realize just how serious the problem was. For a normal person who hadn''t witnessed the anomalies in the psychic world of a PTSD sufferer, most would only assume that it was some type ofmon mental illness. Even one''s closest loved ones couldn''tpletely empathize with the pain of mental illness.

    "You''re finally here!"

    Deranged Pig came out to greet them in person on this asion.

    "Yep."

    "You only brought two more people this time? They don''t look very strong at all!" Deranged Pig was sizing up Hook and Nie Yiyi with a skeptical expression. "You''re telling me that this sleazy-looking kid, this little girl, and that clueless boy from yesterday can get the job done? I''m telling you, if you can''t cure my daughter today, I''m going to issue a report to the pawn shop to have you reced, do I make myself clear?"

    After that, Deranged Pig led them to Kim''s bedroom on the second floor without waiting for a response.

    Even after a day of toil, Kim still hadn''t woken up. Her face was covered in sweat, and it was clear that she was still suffering from the symptoms of her PTSD.

    On this asion, Adam didn''t waste any time. From the experience that he had gained the day before, he knew what he had to do, and after exchanging a nce with Nie Yiyi and Hook, theytched onto one another''s hands and entered Kim''s psychic world together.

 Chapter 11: Bodyguard

    <h4>Chapter 11: Bodyguard</h4>

    "It sure is cold in here!" Hook was immediately struck by a sense of difort as soon as they arrived in Kim''s psychic world. "There''s cold mist everywhere, and visibility is terrible as well!"

    "How are you afraid of the cold when you''re a robot?"

    Nie Yiyi took a nce at Hook. She was also very surprised by the appearance of his psychic form.

    "I only look like a robot, I''m not actually a robot."

    "Alright, quit bickering! Let''s get to work. Hook, track down the location of the subject."

    "I''m on it!"

    Hook replied as he pulled a handful of incense out of a pocket, then tossed it up into the air. The powdered incense formed the appearance of Kim in mid-air, then scattered with the wind. At the same time, Hook inhaled sharply through his nose before quickly pulling out his telescope and looking in a certain direction.

    "Follow me."

    Hook activated his steam engine and rushed toward a certain direction with plumes of steam billowing out behind him.

    Adam and Nie Yiyi immediately followed him, and as they were galloping along, Adam took this opportunity to inspect the surrounding environment.

    Just likest time, the setting was still a school. Kim''s psychic world clearly wasn''t veryrge, and the school seemed to be a very important ce to her.

    However, the three of them quickly left the school and arrived on the street outside.

    All of the passersby on the streets wore cold and aloof expressions, engaging in their daily activities like puppets on strings.

    "As Kim was suffering from a panic attack, not a single bystander stepped in to help her," Nie Yiyi concluded as she swept her gaze through the surrounding area. "On top of that, judging from the expressions of these bystanders, it''s quite possible that her PTSD has previously red up on this very street."

    "There she is!"

    As soon as Nie Yiyi''s voice trailed off, Kim appeared in everyone''s field of view.

    She was walking along the street in an indifferent manner with an electronic pet dog at her feet, and the pet dog had a bag on its back.

    "Kim! Over here!"

    "It''s you!"

    Due to the fact that Adam had helped Kim on a previous asion, she clearly felt a sense of familiarity and affection toward him. It was an indescribable feeling, like encountering an acquaintance in a dream.

    "Where are you going?"

    Adam squatted down and carefully observed Kim. On this asion, her face was even paler thanst time, and her body was even more frail. It was clear that the run-in with the anomalyst time had put her through a lot of trauma.

    "I''m... I''m going home from school," Kim replied.

    All of a sudden, a man rushed toward them from behind her before pushing Adam back. "Who are you?"

    "Who are?you?"

    Adam had identified the man to be the same person who had led him and Red Spider into the hall of the mansion the previous night.

    "Who is that?"

    Red Spider also raised the same question in the real world as she pointed at the projection.

    "That''s my daughter''s bodyguard. You know how it is, it''s not safe out there. His job is to apany my daughter to and from school and ensure her safety outside of that as well."

    "Why doesn''t she just take the school bus? Is this man reliable?"

    "What do you mean by that?" Deranged Pig was initially rather taken aback by this question, but he quickly understood what Red Spider was implying. "How could I have possibly assigned him the job of protecting my daughter if I didn''t trust him?"

    "That''s true. However, given my past experience with cases like this, there''s a very good chance that he''s the perpetrator."

    ¡­¡­

    Red Spider wasn''t the only one skeptical about the bodyguard. In the psychic world, Adam and the others were also watching the man with suspicious expressions.

    "I''m Kim''s friend. Did you just say that you''re Kim''s bodyguard?"

    "Who I am is not important. I don''t recognize you, so you better stay away from her."

    "What if I don''t?" Adam was upying the man''s attention while surreptitiously making a face at Hook. "What are you waiting for? What happened to your desire to get to the bottom of things? Hurry up and inspect him!"

    "I''m already on it! I can already smell that there''s something off about him!" Hook chuckled as he inhaled vigorously through his nose, then pulled out his magnifying ss before aiming it at the self-proimed bodyguard.

    Through the magnifying ss, he could see two lines, one of which was red and symbolized friendship, while the other was ck and represented ill intent. Both the red and ck lines were connected to Kim, and there were also some other lines that were connected to the sky above.

    "I can see that he harbors ill will toward Kim!"

    "Then what are we waiting for? Let''s take him down!"

    Nie Yiyi immediately sprang into action, crouching down like a leopard before pouncing toward the bodyguard. However, afternding on him, she discovered that he was too strong for her to pin down. Thus, she switched her strategy, twisting around like a snake to lock him in a stranglehold.

    "Take this!"

    Right as Nie Yiyi ced the bodyguard in the stranglehold, Hook put down his magnifying ss and threw a punch right into his face.

    Meanwhile, Adam took advantage of the opportunity to scoop Kim up in his arms before carrying her to a safe ce.

    "Wait here and don''t move. I promise that I''ll fix everything for you this time."

    After offering Kim some words of reassurance, Adam quickly re-entered the fray.

    At this point, the bodyguard had already broken free from Nie Yiyi''s stranglehold.

    He was a cyborg, and perhaps it was due to the fact that Kim had seen him in action in real life, thereby leaving a psychological impression on her, but even in her psychic world, the bodyguard was still quite formidable.

    The bodyguard''s left arm had transformed into a kopis-like weapon for close-quartersbat, while his right arm was an electric stun gun. Those weapons, coupled with the jet sters on his back, made him an opponent with exceptional speed, maneuverability, and offensive prowess.

    After revealing his cyborg form, the bodyguard forced back Nie Yiyi with his left arm before shooting countless fine lines out of his right arm. After connecting to Hook''s body, electricity was sent running along the fine lines, and Hook was promptly electrocuted to the ground.

    "Why are you so weak?"

    Nie Yiyi revealed her dual des as she cast a disdainful nce toward her useless ally.

    Hook was also feeling quite embarrassed, and his facial muscles were spasming as he came to his own defense.

    "I''m weak to electricity, so his weapon is especially effective against me! Besides, I''m just an underpaid scout, while you''re the main fighter of our group! How about you stop making fun of me and do your job?"

    "I guess that makes sense." At the mention of payment, Nie Yiyi immediately epted Hook''s exnation, and she brandished her des before charging toward the enemy. "I''m not getting paid extra for nothing! Take a good look!"

    In the face of the oing Nie Yiyi, the bodyguard''s first reaction was naturally to fire his stun gun again in retaliation. However, on this asion, all of the fine lines that were shot out of the stun gun were evaded by Nie Yiyi in an incredible disy of agility.

    In terms of speed and agility, Nie Yiyi had Hookpletely outssed.

    Seeing as his stun gun had failed, the bodyguard switched to his kopis instead, and the first round of meleebat between the twomenced.

    ng!

    Their des shed with a crisp ng, and even though the bodyguard''s strength was enhanced by his mechanical body parts, he still wasn''t a match for Nie Yiyi in the psychic world.

    In just a single exchange, Nie Yiyi was able to knock his de aside with brute force.

    In the face of Nie Yiyi''s superior power, the bodyguard immediately used the force of her attack to retreat, then activated the jet sters on his back to try and take to the sky and search for another opportunity to retaliate from there.

    However, Nie Yiyi was able to spring up from the ground onto the roof of a car beforeunching herself into the sky from there like an agile predator. Her des then came crashing down in a sh, and the bodyguard was sent tumbling down from the sky by her attack.

    Immediately thereafter, Nie Yiyi stabilized herself while still in mid-air, and cyberglyphs appeared over her body as energy gathered on her des before being shed toward the ground from afar.

    A massive de of wind took shape in the sky, then vanished out of sight in the blink of an eye. In the next instant, a massive plume of dust erupted into the air, and a huge trench had appeared on the street with the bodyguard lying directly at its center, having also been sliced in half.

 Chapter 12: Anomaly of Fear

    <h4>Chapter 12: Anomaly of Fear</h4>

    Crackle crackle crackle...

    Even though the bodyguard had been sliced into two, he didn''t die on the spot. One of the benefits of bing a cyborg was increased vitality.

    "You''re still alive even after that? Looks like your money was well spent."

    Adam quickly rushed over to the trench that had been sliced into the road while Nie Yiyi descended from above.

    "What do we do with him from here?"

    "Let''s see if we can get some information out of him. This guy definitely isn''t that anomaly, he''s far too weak to fit the bill!" Following the bodyguard''s defeat, Adam was able to confirm that he wasn''t the anomaly they were looking for. "However, seeing as he harbors ill will toward Kim, he may have something to do with the anomaly. Oi, Hook, you''re still alive, right? Can you get up?"

    "Ugh..."

    Hook was still in a semi-paralyzed state as he mbered shakily upon from the ground, then slowly made his way over to the two halves of the bodyguard''s body. As he was walking along, he pulled out a small metal hammer with a trembling mechanical hand.

    "What''s that?"

    "It''s my hammer of interrogation, a tool that helps me get information out of psychic bodies."

    "You really have a lot of tricks up your sleeve!" Not only was Adam impressed, even Nie Yiyi was rather surprised by how versatile Hook was. "If only you weren''t so useless in battle."

    "Ever heard of the concept of specialization? I can''t just focus on everything!" By the time Hook arrived beside the bodyguard, the paralysis effect on his body hadrgely faded. However, right as he raised his hammer, Kim''s voice suddenly rang out behind them. "Don''t hurt Uncle Swift!"

    "Hmm?" Hook lowered his hammer before turning to Adam. "What do we do?"

    "I''ll take care of this." As Kim was rushing over to them, Adam squatted down before asking in as gentle a voice as he could muster up, "Kim, can you tell me why you don''t want us to hurt him?"

    Through Hook''s observation, it was determined that this bodyguard by the name of Swift harbored ill will toward Kim.

    Furthermore, due to the fact that this was Kim''s psychic world, this ill will wasn''t objective ill will. Instead, it was ill will that was interpreted by Kim. She was under the impression that it existed, so it existed in her psychic world, even if it weren''t actually present in the real world. Conversely, if she were convinced that something didn''t exist, then it wouldn''t exist in her psychic world, even if it did exist in reality. In contrast with the real world, the psychic world was an extremely subjective ce.

    "Don''t you know that he wants to hurt you?"

    "Uncle Swift wouldn''t hurt me. He just wants to protect me, so he has no choice."

    The tone of Kim''s voice was very absolute, so it was clear that she was under the impression that Swift''s intention was to protect her, and that whatever perceived ill will he harbored toward her was an unintentional result of that.

    "Oh, I see now. I was wondering why he had both red and ck lines on him. Everything makes sense now," Hook mused as he nodded. "What do we do now?"

    "Swift, you''ve heard what Kim has to say. She clearly has a great deal of trust in you, and you are her guardian, so can you tell us what exactly is going on?" Adam didn''t instruct Hook to continue with his interrogation. Instead, he squatted down next to the upper half of Swift''s body and adopted a more reasonable approach. "You can choose to tell us who it is that''s hurting Kim, or we''ll have to make you tell us through alternate means, it''s your choice."

    "I... I..." At this point, Swift didn''t have much choice, and after struggling briefly with an internal conflict, he chose the option that Kim expected him to choose. "I do know some things, but telling you what I know will most likely only cause greater harm to Kim."

    "That''s alright, just tell us what you know and leave the rest to us."

    While Swift was still hesitating, the air above his head began to warp and twist, following which a pair of demonic arms reached out of the darkness before attempting to drag him into the void.

    "I was waiting for you!"

    After what happenedst time, Adam was naturally already prepared for this, and right as he was about tosh out, a sharp de got there before him.

    Nie Yiyi''s de shed past like a streak of light before crashing into the anomaly¡¯s arm, creating a flurry of sparks in the process.

    "Those are some seriously strong defenses!" Nie Yiyi eximed, then hurriedly gathered energy before striking again, and on this asion, with the enhancements provided by the cyberglyphs, she was finally able to break through the enemy''s defenses, slicing through its giant ck hand to reveal a body of straw inside.

    "Is this thing a scarecrow?"

    Nie Yiyi''s attack clearly enraged the anomaly that was hiding behind the twisted space, and instead of continuing to conceal itself, it slowly crawled out of the darkness.

    As its massive body emerged, the sky over the entire world darkened even further, and dense, dark clouds gathered up above while all of the passersby on the streets fled in horror.

    "She''s so frightened that her entire psychic world is changing!" Hook was also quite rmed to see this. "Adam, you have to calm her down! The more scared she is, the more powerful this anomaly will be!"

    "It''s alright, Kim, calm down!"

    Adam was already attempting to console Kim even before that suggestion from Hook, but she was too terrified to hear what he was saying, and she was unable to even remain conscious as she screamed with all her might.

    With no better alternatives avable, Adam could only pick her up and carry her away from this ce for now. This was both to prevent her from being captured by the anomaly again, as well as to instill a sense of security within her.

    Right as he was carrying Kim away, the anomaly emerged in its full glory.

    It was a huge scarecrow that was as tall as a two-story building, and ck energy was swirling all around it. It was wearing a ck glove on one hand, while its other hand had been reced by a hook, much like the ones worn by pirates.

    Not only was the scarecrow enormous in stature, its eyes were giving off a green light, and all living beings in its field of view would invariably feel a sense of fear rising up from the bottom of their hearts. In the face of this debilitating fear, the weak could only flee for their lives, while the strong were handicapped, unable to perform to the best of their abilities.

    A hint of fear also appeared in Swift''s eyes at the sight of the scarecrow, and right as he was about to say something, the scarecrow stomped onto the upper half of his body, shattering it and erasing it out of existence from the psychic world.

    "This thing looks really strong! Can we beat it?" Hook hurriedly asked as he watched the scarecrow intently. "Actually, scratch that. Can?you?beat it?"

    Now that he knew what they were dealing with, Hook made the executive decision to remove himself from the roster of fighters.

    "I''m not sure, but it''s definitely not going to be easy. We¡¯ll see."

    The perpetual confidence on Nie Yiyi''s face had also faded, and it was clear that this was the most formidable opponent she had ever faced.

    "Let''s give it a try."

    On this asion, Nie Yiyi didn''t dare to hold back, choosing to umte energy right away, manifesting a de of wind that sheunched toward the anomaly.

    The de of wind was still ridiculously fast, but it had apletely different effect on this asion. This time, the scarecrow was able to raise the metal hook attached to the end of its left arm before shattering the de of wind with a single swipe.

    ck energy was swirling around the metal hook, and it remainedpletely unscathed, while the de of wind was reduced to a harmless gale.

    While Hook was still bewildered by the anomaly¡¯s power, Nie Yiyi began to umte energy again as she let loose a loud roar.

    Arge number of cyberglyphs surfaced all over her body, and her aura began to climb rapidly as she umted energy. It was clear that she was about to go all-out against this opponent.

 Chapter 13: Use Me!

    <h4>Chapter 13: Use Me!</h4>

    "Wow, she''s far more powerful than I imagined. There are some veteran adapters who aren''t even at her level," Red Spider eximed as she watched the unfolding projected image. "It''s just a pity that the fear in your daughter''s heart is too strong. Even for her, this will be a very difficult opponent to beat. By the way, does this anomaly seem familiar to you at all?"

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    Deranged Pig was staring at the image with an extremely tense expression, and he didn''t know what to make of her question.

    "Are you seriously that clueless? Can''t you tell that someone you know is the perpetrator here?" Red Spider pointed at the anomaly in the image as she said, "This scarecrow anomaly who hurt your daughter and caused her psychological trauma is someone that Swift is familiar with, which means there''s a very good chance that you also know them in the real world. Every emotional anomaly carries traits of the person that gave rise to them. Can''t you examine the traits of this anomaly to figure out who it is?"

    "You think I''m familiar with a ck scarecrow?"

    "I''m telling you to look at its demeanor and disposition! Forget it, you''re hopeless. Looks like the fight''s begun!"

    ¡­¡­

    Inside the psychic world, Nie Yiyi quicklypleted her umtion of energy, thenunched herself at the scarecrow like a cannonball, traveling more than twice as fast as before.

    As she unleashed her first attack, wind pressure automatically gathered in front of her de, and the destructive power of the attack was also raised by over twofold.

    On this asion, the scarecrow blocked her attack, and the two were evenly matched for that exchange.

    However, due to its superior size, the scarecrow was still able to send Nie Yiyi flying. As she flew back through the air, cyberglyphs were manifested beneath her feet, and she doubled back in mid-air beforeshing out with her des again.

    Once again, she was sent flying through the air, but she refused to be discouraged and switched to a different angle in mid-air before trying again.

    After several exchanges, Nie Yiyi was growing faster and faster, peppering the scarecrow with attacks from all types of different angles, seemingly trying to find a chink in the scarecrow''s defenses with her superior speed.

    Finally, as the wind pressure in the surrounding area mounted to a peak, Nie Yiyi found an opportunity to strike, darting around in mid-air so that she was behind the scarecrow before plunging her de into the back of its neck.

    The de was imbued with all of the energy that she had umted, but she still found it extremely difficult to plunge it into her opponent''s body. After driving her de into the scarecrow''s body with great difficulty, the scarecrow''s head suddenly swiveled around 180 degrees so that its huge mouth was directly facing her.

    The scarecrow''s mouth gaped wide open, and it let loose a deafening screech that resembled the sound of an air raid siren. The ear-splitting sound threatened to shatter even the surrounding air, and Nie Yiyi was struck by it at point-nk range before flying back through the air with blood gushing out of her mouth.

    However, the anomaly clearly didn''t intend to let her off the hook after she had wounded it. It sped through the air in hot pursuit, swatting her down into the ground with its metal hook, following which beams of green light shot out of its eyes.

    This is bad!

    In the instant that Nie Yiyi was mmed into the ground by the metal hook, she was immediately struck by the feeling that something was wrong. The hook was imbued with the power of fear, and after being struck by it, she was unable to muster up any strength to evade, nor umte any energy to defend herself.

    Her psychic body''s offensive prowess was far superior to its defensive capabilities, so it was imperative that she avoided direct, full-frontal shes against opponents of the same level as herself. At the moment, she was facing an opponent that was even more powerful than her, and there was a very good chance that this attack wouldpletely destroy her psychic body, thereby leaving her brain-dead. In this instant, she couldn''t help but wonder why the people overseeing the situation in the real world hadn''t severed the connection yet.

    The answer to her question quickly arrived.

    Right as the greenser beams were about to reach her, a mummy jumped up in front of her to shield her from the killing blow.

    The greenser beams were like streams of corrosive acid, eating away arge section of Mummy''s body.

    Thankfully, Mummy was an anomaly of pain, so pain was equivalent to a stimnt for it. Furthermore, its defensive prowess was extremely impressive, so theser beams wouldn''t be able to kill it in a short time.

    Taking advantage of this window of respite, Nie Yiyi quickly gathered energy to expel the power of fear that was debilitating her, then rushed away from the scene.

    "Thanks!"

    Having just brushed shoulders with death, Nie Yiyi didn''t notice Adam until now.

    "We''re all on this mission together, so I can''t let you do all the work. What do we do now?"

    "I''m no match for it. I think we should retreat for now."

    "I was thinking the exact same thing!"

    As the two were speaking with one another, Hook had already rushed over to where Kim was hiding and had grabbed her in preparation to flee the scene. It was clear that Adam had already arranged all of this in advance, which meant that he had made the right decision in a snap.

    Even Nie Yiyi was a little impressed by his calmness and foresight.

    However, she made no remark on this, and after ensuring that Kim was safe, she immediately fled in another direction.

    "Let''s split up for now and meet at Kim''s house!"

    "Alright," Adam replied before also fleeing the scene.

    The scarecrow could see that Adam''s trio was beginning to escape, and it let loose another piercing howl, following which a flock of ck bats came fluttering out from its back.

    Each of the bats was around half the size of a human with menacing features, and they were flying extremely fast.

    "We''re not going to be able to outrun those things, Boss!"

    As soon as the bats appeared, they began to quickly close down the distance between themselves and Adam''s duo. After the span of just a few seconds, they had already arrived directly above Adam and Hook, and they were pping around in the sky, searching for an opportunity to attack.

    Whoosh!

    The first bat swooped down from above, and Adam managed to just barely evade it, but it still managed to tear off a chunk of flesh from his chest and belly.

    My psychic body is too weak!

    More and more bats were gathering overhead, and with his frail psychic body, there was no way that Adam would be able tost very long. Thus, he could only invoke his two anomalies to protect him, but as a result, he was slowed down significantly.

    Meanwhile, Hook was in an even worse situation. Not only did he not have any anomalies to support him, he had to protect Kim from the flock of bats, and his brass exterior was already riddled with bat w marks.

    "We''re not going to be able to get away like this! Hurry up and get inside me!"

    After avoiding another round of attacks, Hook turned and threw himself at Adam. Whileunching himself through the air, the cabin door on his stomach sprang open.

    Even though the cabin was still as greasy as ever, Adam didn''t have any other choice in this urgent situation, and he leaped into Hook''s body.

    "Oh!"

    In the instant that Adam entered his body, a satisfied look appeared on Hook''s face.

    After the cabin door swung shut, Hook''s body began to take on a red hue, and before long, the entirety of his brass exterior had turned a crimson color.

    "What are you waiting for? Use me!"

    "How do I do that?"

    "Isn''t there a joystick inside?"

    "Ah, right!"

    Adam didn''t have any experience in operating steam engines. In fact, there weren''t many people left in the entire world in this day and age who still knew how to operate steam engines.

    Adam directed his attention toward the antiquated joystick before him, then began tugging randomly on it in an experimental fashion.

    As he did so, the blissful look on Hook''s face became more and more pronounced, and white smoke rose up from the steam engine on his back before he charged forward at over thrice the speed he was capable of reaching without a pilot to operate him.

    "I''ve really missed this feeling!" Even as Hook was galloping along at full speed, he still didn''t forget about his allies. "What''s going to happen to Nie Yiyi? Will she be alright?"

    "Let''s stop for a moment and take a look."

    After a brief familiarization process, Adam was now somewhat able to operate Hook. After performing a series of motions with the joystick, Hook swiveled around, and he was able to see what was happening in the distance through the ss cabin door.

    The scarecrow had abandoned Adam''s duo and was exclusively pursuing Nie Yiyi. It was clear that in its eyes, even Adam and Hookbined didn''t pose as much of a threat as Nie Yiyi.

    Fortunately, speed was one of Nie Yiyi''s fortes, and she was clearly faster than the anomaly, so it didn''t seem like she was in much danger.

    As for Adam and Hook, as soon as they stopped, the bats came swarming toward them again.

    "Looks like she''ll be fine, but we''re in some trouble! Let''s retreat for now."

    After making his decision, Adam operated Hook to continue in their escape.

 Chapter 14: The Safe Harbor Concept

    <h4>Chapter 14: The Safe Harbor Concept</h4>

    Kim''s psychic world was a veryrge ce, but the clearest parts of it were mostly in this city, which was Sandrise City, and the two most memorable ces for her in this city were her school and her home.

    After shaking most of the bats off their trail, Adam and Hook arrived at Kim''s home.

    As soon as they entered the courtyard, the final few bats that were still pursuing the two of them were firmly kept out, too afraid to enter the courtyard.

    "I recall from our lessons that home is considered to be a safe harbor in the hearts of most people, so in the psychic world, one''s home will be something resembling a safe zone. Most of the weaker aberrations won''t be able to enter this safe zone, and even the most powerful emotional anomalies will be severely debilitated if they barge into this area."

    Adam hadn''t been attending Layton Academy for very long, but he was extremely attentive and conscientious in his studies. In particr, he had a very good grasp on all basic concepts that had been taught to him.

    In the psychic world, there were many external forces that could be used to one''s advantage, and the safe harbor concept was one of them.

    After arriving at Kim''s home, Adam was finally able to leave that disgusting cabin of Hook''s, and Hook also ced Kim down onto thewn.

    "Finally! Some fresh air!" As soon as Adam emerged from Hook''s body, he frantically rushed over to the fountain to wash away the unidentifiable liquid that had covered his entire body. At the same time, he swore to never enter Hook''s body again. "The smell inside you is unbearable!"

    "Really? I never noticed! All I can feel is a sense of emptiness after you left my body."

    Hook made his way over to Adam as he spoke, and it was clear that he had developed a deeper bond with Adam after fighting alongside him.

    "Let''s not talk about this anymore, I want to forget everything that just happened!" Adam inspected his surroundings in an attempt to take his mind off the traumatic experience he had just suffered through. "Why are there so many aberrations in this house? Are they not hostile? Kim, have they ever hurt you before?"

    "No."

    Kim also made her way over to them, and even though she was denying the notion that these aberrations were harmful, she was also looking at them with clear disdain in her eyes.

    Inside the luxurious courtyard were countless strange-looking creatures. Some of them were somewhat humanoid in appearance, but most of them were presented in the form of symbols that couldn''t be understood by children.

    "I know what these things are now!" Hook reacted quite quickly and inspected these aberrations through his magnifying ss, upon which he was able to conclude, "These are the mansion''s guests from the real world. Kim doesn''t like them, and that''s why they look like these strange symbols in her psychic world."

    ¡­¡­

    "Did you hear that? Your daughter doesn''t like those shady friends of yours." In the real world, Red Spider prodded Deranged Pig with the spider legs on her back. "Did she ever tell you that?"

    "No. We don''t see each other very often. She''s always been a shy and obedient girl."

    Deranged Pig''s face was a little flushed from shame and embarrassment. He suddenly realized that even though he imed to love his own daughter, he gave her far more money than attention.

    "I see." Red Spider nodded in response. She didn''t want to judge the morality of Deranged Pig''s actions. There were many insidious individuals in this world, and among all of the people she hade into contact with during her years working at the pawn shop, Deranged Pig could be counted as a good guy.

    Deranged Pig seemed to have sensed a hint of criticism in Red Spider''s silence, and he murmured, "I''ll make sure to spend more time with her in the future."

    However, he received no response, and the two of them could only continue watching the projection in an awkward atmosphere.

    ¡­¡­

    "What on earth is that?"

    In contrast with most of the strange guests in the courtyard, the more Adam approached the mansion in the courtyard, the more he was introduced to a type of aberration that all had a certain shared feature. These aberrations were clearly different from those guests, with wide-open eyes that looked as if they were constantly surveying something.

    "Hook,e and take a look at these things."

    "Coming, Boss!" Hook rushed over before aiming his magnifying ss at these aberrations withrge eyes, and as he observed them, he mused, "Hmm, these things are indeed different from the normal guests. All of them are giving off a very slight hint of hostility, but their hostility isn''t directly harmful, and they won''t attack us."

    Hook put away his magnifying ss as he spoke, then walked ap around therge-eyed aberrations. Wherever he went, the eyes of the aberrations would swivel around to follow him, and it was a rather unsettling sight to behold.

    "What could these things possibly represent in the real world?"

    Hook scratched his own head with a stumped expression.

    "Let me think... If I recall correctly, these people seem to be the bodyguards and caretakers of the mansion, as well as some of the guests." Adam was doing his best to think back to what he had seen at the mansion the previous night. Due to his severeck of memories, he currently possessed exceptional memory functions. "Why does Kim interpret these people to be hostile toward her? How does that make sense?"

    "So these are the mansion''s bodyguards and caretakers, as well as some of her father''s friends, and all of them are somewhat hostile toward her. There''s no way that all of them just so happen to dislike her. The only reasonable exnation is..." After considering all of the possibilities, Adam finally arrived at the only logically sound conclusion. "These people must all be familiar with the anomaly! In fact, there has to be a very close tie between the two parties!"

    "That makes a lot of sense!" Hook agreed as he pointed at therge-eyed aberrations. "If we go along with your logic, all of these aberrations are like surveints in Kim''s eyes, and they could even be the anomaly¡¯s minions! I feel like we''re about to uncover the identity of the perpetrator!"

    Hook was getting more and more excited as he spoke, and it seemed that this case was piquing his curiosity.

    "That may be true, but our job isn''t to find out who the perpetrator is," Adam said, effectively raining on Hook''s parade. "We''re being paid to cure her PTSD. As for who the perpetrator is, that''s another matter entirely. We can find out the answer to that question, but after that, the best thing we can do would be to hand over the case to Mechguard."

    Adam''s thought process was very practical, and he was entirely dedicated to solving the problem at hand. Ever since he could remember... In fact, even before then, he had been deceived countless times. Even the people at the pawn shop, who were the ones he shared the closest ties with, had deceived him before. Looking at the world through the perspective of a nk te, everything was always more drab and pessimistic. He understood that there were limitations to his own abilities, so in his mind, true justice was to hand over the problems that he couldn''t resolve to those who were responsible for maintainingw and order.

    "In any case, it''s a good thing that Kim isn''t so afraid anymore."

    "That''s true. Let''s think of a way to defeat the anomaly. Speaking of which, Nie Yiyi still isn''t here yet. I wonder what the situation on her end is like..."

    With Red Spider overseeing proceedings in the real world, Nie Yiyi most likely wouldn''te under any life-threatening danger, but it was certainly taking her a very long time to arrive, and Adam couldn''t help but feel concerned.

    Thankfully, he didn''t have to be concerned for long. Less than 20 minutester, Nie Yiyi leaped over the wall into the courtyard, but her body was riddled with injuries.

    "You look like you''re in very bad shape!"

    "These are just external injuries, so they won''t affect my performance in battle. The problem is that I''ve expended a lot of energy, so I''ll need some time to recuperate." Nie Yiyi sat down onto the ground with her legs crossed as she spoke, and a type of green cyberglyph that released life energy appeared on her body as she began the recovery process. Thankfully, her ability tomunicate wasn''t affected by this, and she said, "I led the scarecrow to the other side of this psychic world, but that thing''s far from a mindless buffoon, so once it discovers that I''m not there, there''s a very good chance it''lle here. I saw those bats that it released as I wasing in from outside."

    "Then it looks like we have a solution now. If ites here, then its power will be severely weakened, so the three of us..."

    "We still won''t be able to beat it. As I was escaping from it, I managed to make it reveal its full power, and trust me, it''s not something we can deal with. We need reinforcements."

    "Then let''s leave this ce and ask the pawn shop to send reinforcements."

    "That won''t work, either. Through fighting the anomaly, I''ve discovered that it''s extremely cunning and possesses exceptional concealment abilities. If we call in powerful reinforcements, then it''ll go into hiding and be too scared toe out. It looks like the pawn shop didn''t just put you onto this case on a whim. Red Spider is a renowned wily customer in Sandrise City, so there''s no way she''d do anything rash. There are some problems that even powerful adapters can''t resolve, and Kim isn''t going to be able to hold on for much longer."

    Adam turned toward Kim to discover that the colors on her body were bing more and more faded. Her body had be extremely frail, and herplexion was also deathly pale.

    In light of this, Adam made a decision. Seeing as they couldn''t rely on outside assistance, they would just have to find reinforcements inside this psychic world!

    ording to the teachings of the Psychic Church, there were many things that could be used in one''s psychic world. The safe harbor concept was one of those things, and those who were close with the subject in the real world would also be manifested as avatars in their psychic world.

    "Tell me about your dad, Kim. What kind of person is he to you?"

    "My dad is a superhero who can do anything! I love my dad, he''ll protect me from anything!" Kim replied in a feeble voice.

    "That''s it! That''s what we need!"

    Adam''s eyes immediately lit up after hearing her reply.

 Chapter 15: Energy Absorption

    <h4>Chapter 15: Energy Absorption</h4>

    In order to find this almighty superhero andpletely eradicate the anomaly, Adam made a set of three arrangements.

    The first order of business was for Hook to clean up as many of those surveint aberrations as possible.

    They seemed to be harmless, but there was a chance that they could be hostile puppets that would attack once the anomaly arrived. Furthermore, these things were also one of the sources of Kim''s fear, so eradicating them could only have positive oues.

    After that, he found a rtively safe ce for Nie Yiyi to rest and recuperate, and he left Kim with her as well. This was a secret base for Kim in the real world, so it was considered to be a safe zone within a safe zone inside her psychic world, thereby making it extremely secure.

    The third and most important thing to do was to track down Kim''s superhero father, and he left that task to himself.

    ording to Kim, her father was rarely ever home. He was either at thepany or the recording booth, or preparing for an uing concert.

    Thus, the two of them didn''t spend much time together at all.

    Indeed, Adam was unable to track down Deranged Pig even after searching through the entire mansion, so it was true that he wasn''t home.

    Hence, Adam had no choice but to leave the safe zone to visit the ces that Kim had mentioned.

    ording to the coordinates on his electronic map, the closest of the candidate locations was thepany. As soon as he left the mansion, he immediately invoked his two anomaly guardians, Mummy and Hellhound. He still couldn''t verballymunicate with the two anomalies at the moment, but the most basic emotionalmunication was still achievable.

    For example, the emotion of fear would trante to a desire to be protected, while the emotion of anger would equate to an instruction to attack.

    After invoking the two anomalies to protect him from the front and the rear, he departed from Deranged Pig''s mansion.

    During his departure, he had already made a conscious effort to avoid the giant bats lingering around the mansion, but only after leaving the courtyard did he realize that these creatures were also present on the streets outside.

    He had only just made his way past two streets when a pair of bats appeared up ahead. These aberrations that were invoked by the scarecrow seemed to have inherited a part of their?will. When Adam first spotted them, they were in the process of attacking passersby on the street, but as soon as they caught sight of Adam, they immediately identified him as their enemy and turned to fly toward him.

    "Kill them!"

    In the face of the oing bats, Adam picked up the broken bracket of a billboard from the ground to use as a club, then faced the bats together with his two anomalies.

    A battle immediately ensued. Hellhound and Mummy were both far faster than Adam, so it stood to reason that they would be the first ones to sh with the bats. However, the bats possessed a certain level of intelligence, and they made use of their aerial advantage to avoid the attacks from the two anomalies before directly attacking Adam from above.

    Thump!

    Adam was able to force back one of the bats with a swing of his club, but he was toote in avoiding the other one, and his shoulder was wounded by its fangs.

    The bat was half the size of a human, and with a single chomp, it was able to tear arge chunk of flesh out of Adam''s shoulder. Adam could only fight through the pain as he turned around and stuffed his metal club into the bat''s oral cavity, thereby keeping its sharp fangs at bay.

    The bite force of the giant bat was so ferocious that indentations of its fangs were left on the club, and it was extremely fierce. Even with the metal club stuck in its mouth, it was still charging forward without any regard for its own safety, trying to use its ws to scratch at Adam''s body.

    My body is too weak! I can''t gain any advantage in a tussle like this!

    Adam was only able to keep the bat at bay for a few seconds before his wrists began to go numb, and he was struggling to resist for much longer. Thankfully, Hellhound swooped in to save the day, leaping up into the air before barreling into the bat and sending it flying.

    The other bat was also intercepted by Mummy.

    That brief exchange was enough for Adam to understand just how weak he was, and instead of joining in on the attack, he raised his club and focused solely on defense instead.

    I''m an invoker, so it''s only right that I stay at the back and leave the fighting to others!

    At least, that was what he was telling himself as constion.

    Thankfully, the two anomalies were quite formidable, and even against the giant bats that were able to mangle metal brackets with ease, Hellhound and Mummy were able to demonstrate a crushing advantage in power.

    There was the virtually indestructible anomaly of pain, Mummy, which made no effort to avoid the attacks from the bat''s fangs and ws. It merely allowed the bat''s attacks to strike its body amid flurries of sparks, and aside from some negligible damage inflicted upon its bandages, the bat wasn''t able to leave so much as a single scratch on it. In contrast, it was able to use its strength advantage topletely crush the bat, grabbing onto the bat''s wings with one hand before hacking and stabbing violently with its carving knife in a gory scene that was not suitable for younger audiences.

    Meanwhile, Hellhound was exercising its speed advantage to avoid the bat''s attacks, then roasted the bat alive with the mes sting out of its mouth.

    The two bats didn¡¯t have anywhere near enough numbers to pose a threat to the two anomalies, and the battle was over in short order.

    "Good job! Let''s keep go... Hmm?"

    Seeing as the battle had concluded, Adam turned to depart, only to notice that the two emotional anomalies were acting rather strange after ying their opponents.

    Following the demise of the two giant bats, the anomalies held onto their carcasses while inhaling vigorously through their nostrils. Shortly thereafter, ck energy began to seep out of the carcasses of the two bats, and the energy flowed into the seven orifices of the two anomalies'' bodies. It didn''t take long before both of the bats were exhausted of all of their ck energy, following which their bodies disintegrated into ck dust that trickled down onto the ground.

    "What kind of ability is that?"

    Not only was Adam quite taken aback by this scene, even the vastly experienced Red Spider was looking on with shock in her eyes.

    She had seen many expert adapters in the past, and as high-level employees of the pawn shop, she had even worked extensively with many of them, but never had she seen such a peculiar ability.

    This is definitely no ordinary kid. He must''ve undergone some strange modifications before we found him. I wonder what absorbing that ck energy does. Will it help his recovery?

    She could see through the 3D projection that the wound that Adam had sustained on his shoulder was slowly healing at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.

    However, for Adam in the psychic world, what he was feeling went far beyond just that.

    I can feel my strength increasing and my bodily constitution bing stronger. Both my speed and offensive and defensive abilities have also been improved!

    Adam clenched his own fist in an experimental fashion, and he could sense that his grip strength had clearly improved.

    The two anomalies seem to have experienced even greater enhancements than I have.

    The two anomalies were born from his emotions, so they were directly tied to his psychic body, and that allowed him to sense their growth in power.

    This was a massively pleasant surprise for Adam.

    What he needed the most right now was power. Only with more power could he unravel the mysteries around his own past and be a trulyplete person.

    The mysterious flower pots had already provided him with a rapid boost in power, and now, he was even able to absorb the power of the enemy for himself. In addition to his excitement, a possibility urred to him.

    If I can beat that powerful anomaly of fear and absorb its energy...

    Adam didn''t even dare to imagine how thrilling an experience it would be to suck that giant anomaly dry.

    With that in mind, he was filled with vigor and motivation, and he immediately called out to his two anomalyckeys.

    "Let''s go! The sooner we track down Kim''s father, the sooner we''ll be able toplete this mission!"

 Chapter 16: Whos More Important?

    <h4>Chapter 16: Who''s More Important?</h4>

    If he had enough time, Adam would''ve stopped to eradicate every single bat that he encountered from here onward.

    However, time was of the essence, and the anomaly of fear could arrive at Kim''s home at any moment, so he didn''t have time to waste on small fry. Thus, on the way to thepany, he avoided all of the bats that he could, only engaging the ones that he was unable to avoid in battle.

    After killing several more waves of bats, he finally arrived at his first destination, Deranged Pig''spany.

    Adam looked up at the neon signboard at the top of the giant skyscraper, and a series of mixed emotions appeared in his eyes.

    Golden Teeth Incorporated had very strong ties to his past, so it was an added bonus that he was able to learn more about it through Kim''s memories.

    However, right as he was about to enter the building, he discovered that the security guards were also the same type of surveint aberrations.

    "I get it now. No wonder there are so many of these aberrations withrge eyes at Kim''s house. The aberration must be someone from thepany!"

    Thankfully, these surveint aberrations in Kim''s psychic world didn''t disy any open hostility, so Adam decided to step past them and enter thepany.

    "Stop! Who are you looking for?"

    "You can speak?"

    "Stop! Who are you looking for?" the surveint aberration repeated in a wooden voice.

    "I''m looking for Ben Garcia. I am a friend of his."

    "You can''t go in! No outsiders are allowed to enter thepany!"

    The surveint aberration was wearing a security guard uniform and acting the way a security guard should, but it was different from normal security guards as it was disying clear animosity toward Adam.

    After attempting to enter the building a few more times to no avail, Adam decided to use brute force.

    "You can''t go in! No outsiders..." Right as the two surveint aberrations were repeating the same two sentences over and over again, they were attacked by the two anomalies, and one of them was sliced in half at the waist, while the other was burned to a crisp.

    After finishing off the two security guards, the anomalies didn''t absorb their ck energy. They were very picky and only absorbed the energy of the more powerful aberrations.

    Having taken care of the two surveint aberrations, Adam entered the building, and most of the people that he passed by were also surveint aberrations. He hid where he could and fought where he couldn''t, and only after making it all the way to the third floor did he finally see the first normal human in the building. From the looks of it, she appeared to be a female celebrity.

    Having finally encountered a human, Adam hurriedly called out to her.

    "Hello there, do you know Ben Garcia?"

    The woman was holding a page of sheet music, and she looked up at Adam with a surprised expression.

    "Who are you?"

    "I''m a friend of Kim Garcia''s. She''s in a bit of trouble at the moment and needs her father''s help."

    "Ah, so you''re Kim''s friend." As expected, someone who had a human face in thispany had to be a person that Kim was fond of, and upon hearing that Kim was in trouble, she immediately said, "Deranged Pig isn''t at thepany right now, he''s preparing for his next concert. That guy''s a workaholic who''spletely self-absorbed in his music creation every day."

    "Where is he right now?"

    "He''s at the Prosperity Sports Stadium, thergest sports stadium in District 12."

    "Thank you."

    Adam immediately turned to leave, but the woman called out to him.

    "Do you need my help?"

    "Hmm?" This was the first time that Adam had encountered an NPC in a psychic world who was actively offering their help, and an intrigued look appeared on his face as he asked, "Do you have any special skills?"

    "I like ying with kids, and Kim has always enjoyed ying with me from a young age. If she''s in a bad situation right now, perhaps my presence can beforting to her."

    This was actually quite an important piece of information. If she could console Kim, then her stress and fear would be somewhat alleviated, which meant that her frail psychic body would recover slightly, while her anomaly would be weakened.

    "That sounds like a great idea! Pleasee with me."

    Thus, the two of them left the Golden Teeth Incorporated building.

    The information that he had gathered there was very limited. In fact, the only useful information that he had obtained was the internal construct of the building.

    Kim''s memory of this ce was quite hazy. It was clear that she didn''t like thepany, and she hadn''t visited it many times at all.

    After leaving thepany building, Adam stole a car and got into it along with the woman and his anomalies.

    "What are those things? Are they your pets? They look really... strange."

    In the psychic world, everyone was thinking with Kim''s logic, so the woman didn''t panic at the sight of the two anomalies.

    "That''s right, they''re both my pets and my allies in battle. Sit tight now! I can only recall that I know how to drive a car, but I''ve never actually tried it!"

    After extending that warning, he stepped onto the pedal, and the small car began to race along, propelled by enormous electric power.

    ¡­¡­

    Half an hourter.

    Backstage at the Prosperity Sports Stadium, in a temporary dressing room.

    "This is an extremely important concert. It''s equivalent to the Super Bowl for me, do you understand?"

    "Are you serious?"

    Adam was staring at Deranged Pig with an appalled expression. He had thought that after telling Deranged Pig that his daughter was in danger, he would immediately drop everything toe to her aid, but that wasn''t the case.

    Adam couldn''t help but wonder what he had done in the real world to make Kim have so little trust in him, to the extent that this was his reaction in the psychic world.

    "Are you going or not? If we stay here any longer, your daughter could die!"

    Adam wasn''t holding back in the severity of his wording at all, but Deranged Pig was still rather hesitant.

    ¡­¡­

    "You''re a real scumbag, you know that?" Red Spider red at Deranged Pig in the real world. "What have you done to make her think like this?"

    Deranged Pig''s eyes were also full of remorse and frustration as he stared at "himself" in the projection.

    "Almost every time I promised to go out on a trip or to the amusement park with her, I ended up failing to follow through. That must be why she has so little trust in me. In her eyes, perhaps she''s not as important to me as my job."

    ¡­¡­

    "Ask yourself this: is your daughter more important or is your job more important?" Adam was raising the same question in the psychic world. "Have a good, hard think about this. Are those strangers outside more important to you than family? There''s not much time left for you to think. It won''t take long before that anomaly finds Kim, and once that happens, no one will be able to save her!"

    In the real world, this question would be a no-brainer.

    No matter how obsessed Deranged Pig was with his work, he knew that Kim was more important than anything.

    However, everyone was waiting for Kim''s answer. What mattered was that she had to believe that she was more important to her father than his job.

    Deranged Pig was still hesitating and weighing up his options.

    A raucous wave of voices could be hearding from the sports stadium outside, and everyone was yelling his name, waiting for him to make his appearance.

    On the other side, there was only a message from a stranger, telling him that his daughter was in danger.

    ¡­¡­

    "Hurry up, you fucking bastard!" In the real world, Deranged Pig was frantically screaming at "himself". "You have to believe in daddy, Kim! Nothing is more important to me than you!"

    ¡­¡­

    "I..."

    Deranged Pig turned and opened the door before casting his gaze out at the sports stadium.

    Meanwhile, Adam silently motioned for the Mummy to ready its des.

    Deranged Pig looked out at the sea of concert attendees outside, and he took a deep breath as an intoxicated look of satisfaction appeared on his face, but in the end, he said, "I''ll go with you!"

 Chapter 17: Transformation

    <h4>Chapter 17: Transformation</h4>

    "Yes! That''s it!"

    Deranged Pig mmed his fist into his palm in the real world in triumph upon hearing the decision that he made in the psychic world.

    "Looks like deep down, your daughter still believes in her fat slob of a father, after all!" Red Spider raised herser-etched eyebrows, and it was clear that she was also quite pleased. "With that, half the mission has beenpleted, but the situation on the other side seems to be quite dire!"

    ¡­¡­

    After securing Deranged Pig''s agreement in the psychic world, Adam immediately traveled back to the mansion with him as fast as he could, but even so, the situation at the mansion was still extremely terrible upon his arrival.

    Not only had the scarecrow gotten there before them, half of the mansion had already been razed to the ground, and it was locked in an intense battle with Nie Yiyi.

    de projections were shing through the air, but they were still no match for the scarecrow''s ck energy.

    "So there really is someone trying to hurt my daughter!"

    A furious look appeared on Deranged Pig''s face upon seeing this, and the muscles on his huge arms immediately began to bulge.

    "Don''t just sit there! Get out of the car and beat that thing!"

    Adam also rushed out of the car after kicking the door open.

    It was unclear how long Nie Yiyi had already been locked in this battle, and he had to provide her with reinforcements.

    Hellhound and Mummy were the first to enter the fray, with the former sting fire at the scarecrow, while thettertched tightly onto one of the scarecrow''s legs before stabbing it viciously with its carving knife.

    In the safe zone, it was clear that the scarecrow''s defensive capabilities had suffered a severe drop. At its full power, it had taken everything Nie Yiyi had to inflict a wound upon the scarecrow, but due to its weakened defenses, the two anomalies were also able to harm it. Mummy''s carving knife was able to pierce into the giant scarecrow''s legs, while Hellhound''s mes were also causing considerable burns.

    However, the scarecrow was still too powerful, and it immediately began to retaliate. Greenser beams shot out of its eyes to force Hellhound back into retreat, following which it stomped down onto the Mummy before gathering ck light around its metal hook and sending it crashing down from above.

    <i>Thump!?</i>

    With just a single strike, the bandages around the chest of the seemingly indestructible Mummy werepletely torn apart, and its entire chest cavity also caved in from the blow.

    In the wake of the brutal blow that had been inflicted upon Mummy, Adam immediately burst into a violent fit of coughing.

    There was still far too massive a disparity in power. Mummy was only around the size of a normal human, while the scarecrow was as tall as a two-story building. The two of them belonged topletely different weight sses, so there was no way that Mummy would be able to oppose it in a direct sh.

    The scarecrow seemed to be rather surprised by the fact that Mummy hadn''t perished after taking that all-out attack, and right as it began to gather ck light around its metal hook again in preparation for a second blow, a humanoid figure suddenly appeared in front of it, then threw a devastating punch into its straw-filled face!

    "So you''re the one trying to hurt my daughter?"

    Deranged Pig''s body was glowing with golden radiance as he flew up into the sky, and he really was like a superhero, able to knock back the anomaly with a single blow.

    "How dare you hurt my daughter?"

    Deranged Pig sprang up once again, and on this asion, he straddled onto the scarecrow''s neck before unleashing a barrage of punches into its face.

    With Deranged Pig keeping the scarecrow upied, Nie Yiyi was finally given a window of respite, and she descended from above.

    "Your injuries have worsened even further!"

    Adam cast his gaze toward her to find that not only was her entire body riddled with wounds, one of her arms was twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly having been broken.

    Nie Yiyi was panting heavily as she said, "I would be dead if you came anyter than you did."

    "That would''ve never happened. In the worst-case scenario, the connection would''ve been severed. Having said that, it did take longer than expected to convince Deranged Pig toe with me. Take a rest and do your best to recover. Deranged Pig is even more powerful than I imagined, so he should be able tost a while."

    "Alright."

    Nie Yiyi wasn''t one to hesitate in a situation like this, and she immediately sat down on the spot with her legs crossed. The same green cyberglyphs appeared over her body, and she entered recovery mode.

    Adam remained by her side to ensure her safety while calling out to the female celebrity, whom he still didn''t even know the name of.

    "Hey,e over here."

    "This is awesome! I didn''t think I''d get to see something like this!"

    The woman seemed to have quite a childish and excitable personality. Not only was she not horrified by the battle that she was witnessing, she was watching eagerly with excitement in her eyes.

    <i>I guess only people with personalities like hers are able to console children suffering from PTSD...?</i>

    "What is it?"

    "Come over here, I have something to tell you..." Adam whispered Kim''s location into the woman''s ear, then urged, "Go and console her, she''s absolutely terrified of this anomaly."

    "I see..." The woman took a final, reluctant nce at the epic battle unfolding before her. "Alright, I''ll go find her. It''s a pity I won''t get to watch something so exciting."

    She departed while mumbling to herself in disappointment.

    After that, Adam began to search for Hook.

    "Hook! Hook!"

    "Don''t bother calling for him, he''s gone into hiding!" Nie Yiyi said. "During the battle earlier, he was struck by an attack from the anomaly, and half his body almost fell apart. After that, he tossed out a smoke bomb and disappeared."

    "Where did he go?"

    "Who knows? He''s useless in a fight, but he sure does have a lot of strange tricks up his sleeve."

    "It looks like the anomaly is on the back foot. Deranged Pig should be able to win even without our help."

    They weren''t expecting Hook to be able to contribute in the battle department anyway, so it was a good thing that he had gone into hiding.

    As Adam was speaking, he looked up into the sky, where Deranged Pig and the scarecrow were locked in a fierce battle. With the assistance of the two anomalies, he was even able to gain an upper hand over the scarecrow.

    "The problem is that it still has another form..."

    As Nie Yiyi was speaking, the scarecrow was struck by another punch before being tackled to the ground by Deranged Pig.

    In order to protect his daughter, Deranged Pig really did look as if he had gone mad, even going as far as to bite the scarecrow and plunge his fat fingers into the scarecrow''s eye sockets with the intention of tearing its head apart.

    The scarecrow retaliated amid a fit of pain and fury, shooting greenser beams out of its eyes, but they had a very minimal effect on Deranged Pig.

    In Kim''s psychic world, not only was Deranged Pig''s strength on a superhuman level, his defenses were alsoparable to those of a superhero. Large sections of his clothes were quickly eaten away by the corrosiveser beams, thereby revealing his golden body inside. As the corrosive green light made contact with his body, all it was able to achieve was slightly char his skin, resulting in entirely negligible damage.

    However, the ce where the green and golden light were making contact with one another was sizzling while releasing steam and fire, much like water being poured onto hot oil.

    "It''s about to transform!"

    The scarecrow had been on the back foot this entire time, and it had finally had enough. After letting loose a sharp screech to force back Deranged Pig with powerful soundwaves, it sprang up before hovering in mid-air.

    At the same time, dark clouds began to tumble and churn in the sky, and a massive number of bats converged from all directions, fusing into the giant scarecrow''s body along with the dark clouds that had gathered up above.

    As the ck light flowed into its body, the scarecrow began to transform.

    Its cumbersome feet vanished, turning into the hem of a drifting cloak, while the metal hook attached to its left arm began to transform into a massive scythe.

    The ck energy around it became denser and denser, as did the pressure stemming from its power of fear.

    The battle had finally reached the second stage.

 Chapter 18: Time Lag

    <h4>Chapter 18: Time Lag</h4>

    In this form, the scarecrow was clearly more powerful than it was in its base form. Adam didn''t want to risk his two anomalies, so he instructed them to stay put for now and allow Deranged Pig to test the waters first.

    Deranged Pig''s defenses were quite exceptional, so he''d most likely be able to endure a few hits and still be just fine.

    Furthermore, he was still raring to go.

    "You think changing forms will save you? I''m still gonna beat the crap out of you!" Deranged Pig roared as he flew through the air like a cannonball, but on this asion, he missed his target.

    The scarecrow shed through the sky beneath the dense, dark clouds, leaving a trail of afterimages behind it that was visible even to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, it had reached its top speed, allowing it to easily avoid Deranged Pig''s attack. Immediately thereafter, its scythe came shing down through the air, and the de was enveloped in extremely dense ck light. The air in the wake of the scythe looked as if it had been stained by ink, and the residual trail was able to linger for several seconds.

    The dark scythe didn''t just look formidable, its power was even more fearsome than its appearance.

    In the sky above, Deranged Pig had nothing that he could use to maneuver himself, and upon being struck by the scythe, a long gash was immediately sliced open on his body, stretching from his neck to his stomach. ck energy was squirming like maggots within the wound, and even the protective golden light around Deranged Pig was unable to approach the area.

    "Looks like we might be in trouble."

    Adam''s brows furrowed tightly upon seeing this.

    Even in its base form, the scarecrow''s offensive prowess was extremely formidable. Not only was Nie Yiyi incapable of directly withstanding its attacks, even Mummy, which excelled in defense, sustained substantial damage from just a single attack. However, Deranged Pig was able to endure those attacks with ease.

    The fact that Deranged Pig had just been wounded so severely by a single attack entailed that in this second form, the scarecrow''s offensive prowess had at least increased by threefold.

    "It''s alright. While I was running away from the anomaly, I took the time to study this second form."

    Nie Yiyi had alreadypleted her recovery process, and she stood up from the ground before adopting a strange pose, in which she began to umte energy. As she did so, a tornado-like storm began to take shape around her.

    "In this form, its speed and offensive capabilities are greatly heightened, but thates at the cost of physical resistance, and even ordinary des of wind are able to harm it."

    "So what''s your n?" The fact that Nie Yiyi was umting energy immediately clued Adam in to the fact that she was up to something. "Are you looking for an opportunity to inflict a killing blow upon it?"

    "That''s right! Its defenses are weakened in this form to begin with, and that will only be exacerbated here in the safe zone, so there''s a chance that I''ll be able to kill it with a single attack!"

    "How much time do you need to prepare?"

    "Three minutes."

    "Alright, leave it to me."

    Adam nodded in response before beginning to consider strategies.

    Three minutes wasn''t a long time, but it certainly wasn''t going to be easy tost three minutes against the scarecrow in its current form.

    The most difficult part about all of this was protecting Nie Yiyi. The scarecrow had shown itself to be quite intelligent, so upon sensing the threat that Nie Yiyi posed, it would undoubtedly choose to prioritize attacking her, even if Deranged Pig hadn''t been taken care of yet. At the same time, they had to ensure that Nie Yiyi''s killing blow would be able tond on the scarecrow, which was not going to be an easy task due to its vastly enhanced speed.

    Thus, this was actually a three-part mission.

    Firstly, they had tost three minutes.

    Secondly, they had to protect Nie Yiyi.

    Thirdly, they had to find a way to restrict the scarecrow at the final moment so that it couldn''t dodge the attack.

    Having rified his thought process, Adam chose not to offer his assistance to Deranged Pig. Instead, he called his two anomalies back to his side and waited on the spot.

    Just as he anticipated, Deranged Pig was still quite tenacious. Even though each scythe blow that he was struck by caused him significant injury, his bodyposition made him the perfect punching bag. On a normal person, the scythe wounds would be deep enough to expose bone, but he was cushioned by his own fat.

    Furthermore, his superhuman body and the protective golden light allowed him to remain standing despite enduring multiple heavy blows.

    However, the scarecrow was still the one that held the upper hand. Judging from how the battle was progressing, it would only take a few minutes for the scarecrow to take care of Deranged Pig, but after a minute, it abandoned its pursuit of Deranged Pig and turned its attention toward Nie Yiyi.

    This was because the wind around Nie Yiyi was growing fiercer and fiercer, and countless leaves, patches ofwn, and even the water in the fountain had been swept toward Nie Yiyi by the ferocious wind. It certainly didn''t take a genius to see that something was amiss.

    The scarecrow was certainly no idiot, and after witnessing the unfolding phenomenon, it immediately realized that Nie Yiyi was charging up for a destructive attack.

    It was quite wary of Nie Yiyi as even though her psychic body was extremely fragile, her destructive power far exceeded that of all of her allies, and if she were allowed toplete her umtion of energy, the final oue definitely wasn''t going to be pretty for the scarecrow.

    <i>Squawk!?</i>

    In the sky above, the scarecrow let loose a crow-like cry, then instantly abandoned its assault on Deranged Pig to fly toward Nie Yiyi.

    Adam took a deep breath, and his body was beginning to tremble slightly from fear and excitement at the sight of the approaching colossus.

    "Hellhound, go!"

    A gigantic fireball erupted through the air from the side, hurtling directly toward the direction that the scarecrow was flying in.

    The scarecrow''s ck scythe swept through the air with a loud whoosh, and the fireball was sliced into two before vanishing into the distance.

    At the same time, Mummy also rushed onto the scene, leaping up into the air as the bandages all over its body extended forward like spider webs. Taking advantage of the distraction that the fireball provided, Mummy was able to ensnare the scarecrow within its bandages.

    <i>Squawk!?</i>

    The scarecrow cried out once again, and there was a strange rhythm to its voice, evoking a sense of fear in everyone''s hearts.

    The energy around Nie Yiyi immediately abated significantly, as if some unfortunate memories had surfaced in her mind.

    In the same instant, Adam was also struck by a mental image of his deepest, darkest fear, which was that he would never find out the truth, he would never uncover his own past, nor the identity of his parents. He would continue to be lost and vulnerable, then captured by someone to act as a vessel for their soul. His consciousness would forever be erased, but his body would remain, forced to live out the cruelest existence imaginable.

    This was a fear that was constantly dwelling in the deepest parts of his heart.

    <i>No! I can''t allow that to happen!?</i>

    The fear brought on a sense of fury, which allowed him to briefly return to his senses.

    At this point, the scarecrow had already severed the bandages with its scythe, following which Mummy was also sliced into two at the waist.

    At the same time, a massive gash appeared on Adam''s stomach, and a burst of excruciating pain speared through all of his organs.

    He had lost one of his anomalies and been severely wounded, but he had achieved his objective.

    His n had never been topletely intercept this formidable opponent on his own. Instead, all he had to do was dy the scarecrow for a few seconds so that Deranged Pig could re-enter the fray.

    Sure enough, right after Mummy was sliced into two, a golden figure sprang up into the sky and grabbed onto the scarecrow''s scythe.

 Chapter 19: Wind Blade Tornado

    <h4>Chapter 19: Wind de Tornado</h4>

    "Whatever you do, don''t let it get away, Deranged Pig! All you need to do is hold it back for a minute, and we''ll take care of things from there!"

    "Got it!" Deranged Pig yelled while grabbing tightly onto the scarecrow''s scythe.

    During the course of the battle, it had be clear to him that this weapon was the main source of the scarecrow''s destructive power. Thus, it was definitely a good idea to restrict it from using the weapon, even at the cost of taking a few of its other attacks.

    "A minute is nothing! I''llst that long even if I have to die here! You''re not getting away with hurting my daughter!" Deranged Pig roared while throwing himself at the anomaly like a madman, and his expression was even more terrifying than that of the scarecrow.

    In the meantime, Adam was also doing his part, instructing Hellhound to support Deranged Pig with its long-range attacks. Whenever the scarecrow tried to get away from Deranged Pig, a huge fireball would appear in its path to foil its ns.

    The two of them formed an exceptional partnership, and time slowly passed by.

    Soon, over two minutes had already transpired, and the storm around Nie Yiyi was also beginning to gradually subside. However, at the same time, a vast body of unstable energy gathered around her, and even the surrounding air was warping and twisting as a result. It was quite clear that whatever her next attack was, it was going to be one of devastating power.

    For the first time, the scarecrow was beginning to panic.

    It struggled frantically, trying to shake off Deranged Pig with all its might. As long as it could leave the safe zone and return to the height of its powers, it would have nothing to fear.

    A beast was always at its most fearsome when cornered, and that certainly applied to the scarecrow as well.

    In its desperation, it even abandoned its scythe, and as a result, Deranged Pig was no longer able to restrict it.

    "Almost there! Only less than 20 seconds to go!"

    Nie Yiyi was sweating profusely from anxiety, but this wasn''t a process that could be hurried.

    Right at this critical juncture, a burst of gentle energy drifted forth from the direction of the underground chamber that Kim was hiding in, and the energy immediately struck the scarecrow with a sense of feebleness as soon as it entered its body.

    "Looks like the Deranged Pig''s friend is doing a good job of consoling Kim!"

    Deranged Pig pounced on this opportunity, restricting the scarecrow again and wasting the final few seconds that were required for Nie Yiyi to prepare her attack.

    "Here Ie!"

    In the instant that Nie Yiyi''s preparations werepleted, a peculiar shockwave swept through the air. All of the wind in the wake of the shockwave fell still, and the surrounding air became as hard as iron and steel. There was no longer any free-flowing air in the area, and breathing had be an extremely difficult task.

    However, this phenomenon onlysted for an instant, and what followed this split-second of extreme stillness was a flurry of extreme activity.

    In the instant that Nie Yiyished out with her des, all of the surrounding air became extraordinarily violent.

    The instant ofplete silence from just a moment ago was followed by a ferocious storm, and as the storm took shape, a tornado that was formed entirely by des of wind swept toward the scarecrow.

    All of the soil and greenery in the wake of the tornado were sliced into countless shreds.

    The scarecrow let loose a horrified roar at the sight of the oing tornado, and it was struggling with all its might to shake off Deranged Pig, but thetter had no regard for his own safety, holding onto the scarecrow like an inescapable vice even as the devastating tornado approached.

    "Did you think I would let you get away with hurting my daughter? Do you regret what you did now?"

    With one final, valiant roar, Deranged Pig and the scarecrow were both devoured by the tornado, forced to endure the excruciating agony of being torn to shreds alive.

    Inside the tornado, each de of wind that struck Deranged Pig''s body would leave a deep gash, but he disyed no intention of backing down, and his eyes were filled with resilience and derision. He feared no anomalies, nor was he afraid of death. The only thing that he was terrified of was allowing his own daughter to be harmed again.

    ¡­¡­

    "I finally manned up!"

    A smile appeared on Deranged Pig''s face as he watched the unfolding scene in the real world.

    "Looks like you''re still quite the hero in your daughter''s heart. The only problem is that you''re too busy and don''t have any time for her, so she no longer has much trust in your promises. You have to fix that. If you had spent more time with her from the beginning, perhaps she wouldn''t have been hurt so deeply."

    .

    "You''re right." Deranged Pig nodded in response. "I have a good idea of who it is that hurt my daughter, and I''ll make sure that he pays the price."

    "Give it a rest! It''s clear that the perpetrator is an important figure in Golden Teeth Incorporated. You won''t be able to do anything to him. Things in the psychic world cannot be used as legal evidence as there''s a possibility that they could be figments of one''s imagination." As a legal killer, Red Spider naturally had a very thorough understanding of thew. "Without any evidence, there''s no way you''ll be able to recruit the help of Mechguard, and without their help, you''re definitely not going to be able to beat him."

    "I may not be able to beat him, but I sure as hell can kill him!"

    Deranged Pig was absolutely livid. His nickname was a perfect match for his personality. Perhaps there could be names that didn''t fit one''s personality, but that problem never applied to nicknames.

    "So you want to take him down with you?" Red Spider nodded in response. "That''s an idea, but your daughter would be left an orphan."

    "Then what do you suggest I do?" Deranged Pig roared in a frustrated voice.

    "Leave it to us. It just so happens to be the case that one of my buddies at the pawn shop has some history with Golden Teeth Incorporated. We can help you dig up all of the filth that thepany is hiding, but you have to do your part as well." At this point, Red Spider had fully entered business mode. "You are an insider, so I''m sure you have many sources. Also, we''re helping you out here, so you have to pay for everything."

    "It''s just as the rumors say, the pawn shop really will suck you dry if you''re not careful."

    "But just as the rumors also say, we really are able to resolve troubles, so it works out to be quite fair, doesn''t it?"

    "You''re right. It seems like a far better choice to work with you than to take matters into my own hands."

    "Alright, then let''s celebrate the beginning of another deal!" Red Spider chuckled.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, Adam and his group were also celebrating in the psychic world.

    After the wind de tornado faded, the scarecrow was revealed to have been torn to shreds, and victory had finally been secured.

    At the same time, Hook emerged from a dark corner to conclude his long absence.

    "We did it! Hooray!"

    "Where the fuck were you hiding this entire time?" Adam immediately red up with rage at the sight of Hook. "Couldn''t you have at least helped us a little?"

    "I have a special concealment ability. Also, you can''t me me! Look at me!" Hook was pointing at the demolished part of his own body as he spoke. "Besides, it''s not worth risking my life for 150,000! Didn''t you see how fast that thing was? If it sliced me in half, the people on the outside wouldn''t even be able to sever the connection in time to save me!"

    "I don''t have time to be bickering with you. Go look after Nie Yiyi, she''s about to pass out. I''ll go take a look over there." Adam''s mind had already drifted elsewhere as he could sense that Hellhound was beginning to devour the ck energy left behind by the scarecrow, but there was still no reaction from Mummy.

    With that in mind, he rushed over to Mummy''s side. The anomaly¡¯s gray body was lying on the ground, and there was a look of pain and yearning on its face, as if it were desperate to enjoy the spoils of the battle alongside Hellhound.

    "I knew you wouldn''t die so easily."

    Mummy was an anomaly that had been born from pain, so its ability to tolerate pain and damage was naturally exceptional. Perhaps being sliced into two would be a lethal blow for Hellhound, but there was no way that it would be enough to take down Mummy.

    Thus, Adam picked up the upper half of Mummy''s body, carrying it over to where the scarecrow had disappeared before setting it down onto the ground. He then retrieved the lower half of Mummy''s body and assembled the two halves together.

    While he was doing this, he could see that Mummy was already beginning to devour the ck energy. With the nourishment supplied by the scarecrow''s exceptionally pure and abundant energy, the two halves of Mummy''s body quickly healed and fused back together, and its bandages were also beginning to squirm with vitality.

 Chapter 20: Human Farm

    <h4>Chapter 20: Human Farm</h4>

    "The anomaly isn''t dead!"

    A feeble voice suddenly rang out from the deep crater beside Adam.

    He cast his gaze in that direction to discover Deranged Pig, half of whose body had been buried under soil and debris.

    "You''re still alive?" Adam was quite surprised to see this. He had been situated right at the center of the storm with the scarecrow, yet he had survived even after being ravaged by countless des of wind. "Your defenses are even better than the anomaly¡¯s!"

    "Cut the chit-chat! The anomaly isn''t dead..." Deranged Pig was in an extremely feeble state, but he was adamant about delivering that message. "After its head was sliced off, the air around it began to warp. I could see that it was trying to escape, so I went to grab it, but unfortunately, I was blown away by the storm."

    "Where did the anomaly''s head go?"

    "It fled into a deeper space."

    "It''s entered the internal space!" This was a trump card that the anomaly hadn''t used this entire time, but it was finally forced to resort to it in its desperation to flee. "Hook, it''s time for you to shine!"

    "Coming!"

    Hook immediately heeded Adam''s call and hobbled over to him.

    After learning what had happened, he instantly burst into triumphantughter. "I can finally recover some dignity now! Just you wait, I''ll find that thing and stomp it to death!"

    Hook pulled out his damaged magnifying ss as he spoke, then used it to search the surrounding area. After that, he marked a coordinate on a certain spot before sting dense, steamy mist at it.

    As he was doing all that, Adam could sense that his two anomalies had finally begun to evolve after devouring enormous quantities of ck energy.

    The first to undergo a change was Mummy. It was more powerful than Hellhound to begin with, so it was no surprise that it was evolving first. Its body began to swell in size, and all of its muscles bulged, while its bones became thicker and more deformed. Initially, it was standing at around 180 centimeters in height, but it gradually grew to 260 centimeters tall, and its weight also increased by severalfold.

    Afterpleting its evolution, Mummy had transformed into a fearsome giant with a massive belly, and its bandages had be thicker and more resilient. Its arms were thicker than the average person''s waist, and its carving knife had also elongated to over a meter in length. Furthermore, the de was glowing with green luminescence, indicating the presence of lethal toxins.

    "Looking good!"

    It was clear just from its appearance alone that this Mummy was far more powerful than its previous form. Additionally, the surprises didn''t end there.

    Not long after Mummypleted its evolution, Hellhound''s body also began to undergo changes.

    From a distance, the first thing that Adam saw was a burst of fire erupt into the heavens from its body, following which it swelled from the size of a dog to the stature of a male lion. At the same time, it spouted a second head, and fiery cyberglyphs appeared on both of its heads, giving it a very badass appearance.

    "What kind of ability is this?" Mixed emotions surfaced in Nie Yiyi''s eyes at the sight of the two evolved anomalies. It was clear that she also desperately yearned for power, so she was both happy for Adam, but also envious at the same time. "I''ve been training on a psychic istion ind ever since I was a child, yet you''ve improved more from this single battle than the culmination of all of my training! How did you get those two anomalies?"

    "This is an innate ability of mine."

    Adam was lying as he didn''t want to tell anyone his secret. In fact, unless there was no alternative, he didn''t even want anyone to see his anomalies.

    He didn''t trust the pawn shop, nor did he trust his friends.

    "I see. Everyone has different innate abilities, I guess. Those two anomalies of yours may be quite powerful now, but you''re still no match for me!" Apetitive look appeared in Nie Yiyi''s as she added, "Your psychic body is too weak. If I had to fight you to the death, it would be way too easy for me to kill you, and once I do that, your anomalies will also cease to exist."

    "... Thanks for the constructive criticism, but we''re allies at the moment, and I think it''s a little inappropriate for you to be talking about killing me."

    It had to be said that Nie Yiyi''s personality was a little difficult to stomach at times. Just as Adam was about to say something to alleviate the awkward atmosphere, Hook swooped in to save the day.

    "All done! We can enter the internal space now!"

    "I''ll go on ahead and clean everything up."

    "Alright, I''ll let you take care of it. This will be a good opportunity for you to see just how powerful those two pets of yours have be."

    Nie Yiyi nodded in response, and she was still rather envious as she observed the two anomalies.

    She felt like someone who had been working hard for over 10 years to build up a foundation of savings, only for her neighbor to instantly outstrip her in wealth by winning the lottery, and it was quite a bitter pill to swallow.

    Adam offered no reply to Nie Yiyi. Instead, he beckoned over his two anomalies, and they entered the dense mist together. As they advanced deeper and deeper into the steamy mist, the surrounding scene also became more and more warped and twisted.

    "Just keep going and follow the trail of steam. I''m too scared to go in, so I''ll leave it to you."

    Hook''s voice was fluctuating unsteadily in volume, and once the surroundings became warped to a certain extent, it became impossible to see anything. As Adam advanced further and further, the steamy mist gradually became thinner, and the surrounding scene also began to change.

    After the mistpletely dissipated, Adam found himself in a massive factory, which was filled with rows upon rows of artificial wombs. These mechanical wombs were carrying human infants inside them, and some of the infants had already taken shape, while the others were still growing.

    A swarm of mechanical drones was flying in the air above, and they were looking after these infants. It was clear that this was an infant breeding factory.

    This is not a hospital, nor is it a nursing station. Neither of those ces has such arge scale.

    Adam continued to follow the trail of steam beneath his feet, and he was soon greeted by a terrifying sight.

    Due to the enormity of the factory, there were infants that were constantly being expelled from the machines upon maturity. These infants were then taken by automatons to a production line off to the side for examination.

    Steel needles were plunged into the tops of the infants'' heads, and their neurons were extracted before being sent to aboratory for analysis. Adam observed theboratory for a while to discover that only a single parameter was being examined in there: neuron activity.

    Only the infants that reached a certain standard would be kept, while the rest were tossed onto another production line.

    ording to what Adam had learned, the passing threshold was the minimum standard for adapters, which meant that only adapters were retained in this factory.

    Adam was naturally curious about where all of the other infants went.

    Thus, he followed the production line and continued his investigation, upon which he witnessed an even more horrific scene. All of the infants that failed to reach the standard were pulverized like culled chicks.

    If hell existed in this world, Adam couldn''t imagine it to be any more horrific than what he was seeing here.

    Even for an adult and a pessimistic nk te like Adam, this was a traumatic scene.

    The fact that this scene was present in Kim''s psychic world meant that she had seen all of this before. Perhaps her trauma had been too severe, thereby overwhelming the tolerance capacity of her brain, causing her to automatically forget everything.

    This type of selective amnesia was verymon among traumatized individuals, and that was why this factory was concealed within the internal space of her psychic world.

    Memories could be forgotten, but the trauma would remain unhealed.

    Having witnessed this hellish scene, Kim had suffered incurable PTSD, thereby leading to her rapidly ailing psychological and physical health.

 Chapter 21: Subsequent Events

    <h4>Chapter 21: Subsequent Events</h4>

    This is terrifying!

    Adam knew that what he was witnessing wasn''t real, that they were just memories within a psychic body, but he also knew that all of this had happened or was still happening in some ce in this world.

    This is a human farm, one that''s even more abhorrent and terrifying than chicken farms!

    At the very least, female chicks that would grow into hens capable ofying eggs were allowed to live in chicken farms, and only the male chicks were pulverized, but here in this human farm, over 99% of all of the infants suffered that terrible fate. This was due to the fact that adapters were extremely rare. Adam had witnessed a great number of infants being examined just now, but only two fulfilled the relevant criteria, while the rest were all killed.

    What exactly is this factory trying to develop by picking out infant adapters? Is the objective to develop fighters? That doesn''t seem usible.

    If an adapter were to grow up beforeing to the realization that they hade from this factory, then they would be sure to turn on the factory and its owner. Given the abilities of adapters and the number of adapters being produced here, the factory wouldn''t have been able to run for very long at all before it was destroyed by the adapters that it produced.

    If this factory''s objective wasn''t to produce workers, then there was only one other possibility.

    This is a factory for producing nk tes, a human farm...

    Adam suddenly realized that there was a very good chance that he was a product of this factory.

    He was a nk te, and he was rted to Shae by blood.

    Shae had ties with Golden Teeth Incorporated, as did Deranged Pig and his daughter.

    There seemed to be two personas within Shae''s psychic body, and the alternate persona belonged to an old man.

    All of this was far too closely interconnected, and even if it wasn''t the truth, it couldn''t have been far away from the truth.

    I can''t believe I came from a ce like this...

    Looking at the grotesque meat sludge in the grinders and the infants that were being fed by robots, Adam was ovee by a sense of rage, and his rage resonated with Hellhound, causing it to throw its heads back and howl to the heavens.

    I can''t let my emotions get the better of me. I have to take things one step at a time andpletely erase these demons in human skin from the face of this world.

    Adam was doing his best to suppress his fury. What he had to do right now was to resolve the current situation and earn the good graces of Deranged Pig. Once he established an information pathway, he would be able to expand his ns in the future.

    With such a massive organization at their disposal, there was no way that the enemy was supported by only Golden Teeth Incorporated. He was just a nk te with no powerful backers to rely on, so striking at such a powerful enemy prematurely would only prove to be a futile and foolish endeavor.

    With that in mind, Adam decided to continue following the trail of steam. After some persistent searching, Adam finally arrived at the office area of the factory, and it was also here that he discovered the anomaly of fear that was lurking within it.

    At this point, all that remained of the anomaly was just the head of the scarecrow, leaving it in a significantly weakened state, but Adam still didn''t dare to take it lightly.

    The anomaly was far more powerful than him, and it was only defeated with everyone''sbined efforts. In addition to that, they had to exploit all of the resources and advantages avable to them, including the debilitating effects of the safe zone, the weakening of the anomaly stemming from the constion that Kim received, and the superhuman ally that was Deranged Pig.

    Only with all of those factors ying a role were they just barely able to suppress the anomaly.

    Most importantly, even though his two anomalies had devoured roughly 90% of the scarecrow''s anomalic power, very little of it had actually been absorbed. Most of the power was unable to be processed and was temporarily stored in the bodies of the two anomalies, so they had only received a small portion of the scarecrow''s power.

    As a result, it was still unknown which side would be superior in battle.

    "Go!"

    Adam detested all those who were connected to the human farm, and the scarecrow naturally harbored intense resentment for Adam as well, so a battle immediately ensued without any unnecessary exchange of words.

    The first one to attack was Hellhound, which sted a fireball out of each of its two mouths. The two fireballs then intertwined with one another as they flew through the air, resulting in an explosion right as the scarecrow head took evasive action.

    The shockwaves from the explosion shattered all of the ss in the office area, and the ferocious fire that was ignited was a clear testament to just how powerful the explosion had been.

    As the mes and shockwaves swept over the scarecrow''s head, it immediatelyunched a retaliation. Corrosive greenser beams shot out of its eyes, but as soon as theser beams emerged, they were intercepted by an evenrger figure.

    The corrosiveser beams struck Mummy''s body, but they failed to even corrode through Mummy''s bandages, and even the parts of theser beams that managed to reach Mummy''s skin and flesh were unable to inflict any damage.

    Its defenses have improved significantly once again, but that also has to have something to do with the scarecrow''s terrible condition.

    Given that the only thing that remained of the scarecrow was its head, its powers were naturally significantly limited. While Mummy was contending with the corrosiveser beams, the bandages on its body flew through the air in an attempt to ensnare the scarecrow.

    The scarecrow''s huge head had only just avoided the bandages before it was caught from behind between a giant mouth that was lined with sharp fangs.

    The fangs in the giant mouth were tearing at the scarecrow''s head, and the mes erupting from the fangs were intertwining with the ck light emanating from the scarecrow''s head, and neither side was able to gain the upper hand.

    Its offensive capabilities have improved significantly. Even more importantly, it''s be many times faster than before.

    Adam had only seen a streak of red light sh past his eyes before Hellhound sank its fangs into the scarecrow''s head, and the entire process was so fast that he didn''t even manage to catch a clear glimpse of it.

    Even though the scarecrow was in a verypromised state, it continued to resist.

    It was a being that possessed intelligence, and seeing as two of its three opponents were extremely difficult to deal with, it naturally concluded that the best course of action would be to target the third one.

    Thus, the scarecrow let loose a ghastly shriek of terror, and for an instant, everyone present was rooted to the spot. The scarecrow seized this opportunity with glee, sting its corrosiveser beams directly at Adam.

    Of course, Adam was already prepared for something like this, and ever since themencement of the battle, he had situated himself in a rtively safe position. He immediately dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, and as a result, theser beams missed all of his vital regions. However, he was too slow in the end, and his calf was struck, charring arge section of his skin and flesh.

    Nie Yiyi was right, my weaknesses are too pronounced.

    Having also benefitted from the energy that had been absorbed from the scarecrow, Adam''s physical constitution had improved significantly, so this was only a minor injury, but even so, this was still a sobering reminder of just how vulnerable he was.

    After that slight mishap, the battle quickly became apletely one-sided affair.

    After failing tond a fatal blow on Adam, the scarecrow was tightly bound by Mummy''s bandages, following which Mummy grabbed tightly onto the scarecrow''s head and plunged its carving knife into the scarecrow over and over again.

    The giant carving knife was injecting toxins into the scarecrow''s head with every single stab, while Hellhound continued to tear at it viciously with its fiery fangs, and it didn''t take long before the protective ck light around the scarecrow waspletely eradicated. Shortly thereafter, the scarecrow''s head was also torn to shreds, and it exploded into a flurry of wilted straw amid an anguished howl.

    The anomaly of fear that had gued Kim for so long was finally gone.

    At the same time, in the real world, the fear-induced symptoms that Kim was suffering, such as heart palpitations and hyperventtion, were also somewhat alleviated.

    Herplexion quickly began to improve, and her breathing also returned to its normal frequency.

    "Thank heavens!" Kim''s condition was improving by the second, and Deranged Pig was ovee by a surge of intense relief as he watched his daughter return to normal. "When will she wake up?"

    "She should be able to wake up once those threee out. After that, all she needs is some rest, and she should be fine." With her extensive experience in this field, Red Spider was no longer fazed by incidents like this one. She continued, "What''s most important is how you handle the aftermath of this incident. There are too many surveints here, so you''ll have to think about how to exin what happened. If you want revenge, then you can''t afford to alert the enemy."

    "But there are many people who already know that you''ve paid me a visit."

    "That''s not my concern. In any case, we''re the only ones who know what happened in this room, it''s up to you to figure out the rest. This is your problem, so don''t expect any help from me."

    "Just the existence of that human factory alone is enough to pin him with a death sentence!" Deranged Pig said.

    "The fact that those people have managed to survive till now indicates that they''ve covered their tracks very well. There''s no way that your daughter would know the address of the human factory, and seeing as all of this was in her internal space, that means that those memories were too traumatic, so her brain automatically chose to shut them out. There''s a term in psychology that describes this, but I can''t remember what it was. Anyway, now that she''s all cured, don''t bring up this matter anymore. There''s simply no point."

    "What possible reason could he have had for taking my daughter there?"

    "Perhaps he did it purely for sadistic pleasure, perhaps he''s a psychic mutant who feeds on the power of fear. Children, especially ones who are more privileged, are most prone to being targeted by psychic mutants. That guy''s also an adapter, right?"

    "That''s right."

    "What''s his name?"

    "Masao Yamamoto!"

    Deranged Pig was so furious as he uttered this name that all of the bby folds on his entire body were trembling slightly.

 Chapter 22: Undying Fascination with Manicures

    <h4>Chapter 22: Undying Fascination with Manicures</h4>

    Adam had no idea what was happening in the outside world, but seeing as the issue had been resolved and the final remnants of the scarecrow''s anomalic power had been devoured by his two anomalies, he decided to forcibly sever the connection.

    After that, all four of the people involved woke up. Indeed, aside from Adam, Nie Yiyi, and Hook, Kim had also awakened.

    "Daddy... and everyone from my dreams..." After waking up, Kim seemed to be in a far more normal condition than before. She was no longer trying to avoid direct eye contact, and she had be a lot more spritely and energetic. "Thank you for helping me."

    Having woken up, Kim had naturally recovered her perception of the real world.

    She was still a child, but at her age, it didn''t take her much thought to realize that these people were adapter psychotherapists, and that everything she had seen in her "dream" had been done to help her.

    "There''s no need to thank us, we''re being paid to do this," Adam said. "You should be thanking your father for paying us."

    "Let''s exchange contact details, kid." Deranged Pig didn''t want to continue discussing this subject for fear of potentially triggering traumatic memories in his daughter, so he dragged Adam to the side, then said in a quiet voice, "I know some things about you, and if you want to know about me, you can ask Red Spider. We are allies from now on, and I''ll make sure to notify you right away if I manage to gather any information."

    "I want to learn about Shae Kim. I want to know when she went to Golden Teeth Incorporated."

    "Alright, I''ll keep you updated," Deranged Pig replied with a nod, then returned to his daughter''s side.

    This was a very dark day for him, but also one that was worthy of celebration. He was furious at the dark truth that had been uncovered, but he was also ecstatic that his daughter had returned to normal.

    Adam didn''t care what mood Deranged Pig was in, he was still enraged. The more he knew, the more he wanted to learn the truth. He was like a man trudging through the desert. With no water, he was very thirsty, but after being teased with a few drops of water, his thirst had only been exacerbated.

    "Alright, now that the job''s done, we no longer have any reason to be here. Remember to transfer the final payment as soon as possible, and we look forward to working with you in the future," Red Spider said as she patted Adam on the head. "Let''s get out of here!"

    Thus, Adam and the others departed from Deranged Pig''s mansion, and as soon as they got into the car, the process of splitting the spoils began.

    "I''ve transfered your cut of 750,000 into your ount. Oh, speaking of that, your identity information was registered for you by the pawn shop."

    "You''re only getting 750,000?" Hook was rather surprised to hear this number. "I''m getting 150,000, and Nie Yiyi is getting 500,000. Doesn''t that mean you only get 100,000? That''s terriblepensation!"

    "Then how about you give up some of your share?"

    Hook''s demeanor immediately changed at the mention of money.

    "No, that''s not an option. You were the one who made this arrangement, so it''s your problem. Come to think of it, you got out of this in the best condition out of the three of us, so it''s only right that you receive the least amount of money as well."

    Indeed, Adam was the one who had suffered the least damage out of the three. The severest injury that he had sustained was the ripple effect from Mummy being sliced into two prior to its evolution. After that, he had received immense replenishment from the scarecrow''s anomalic power, and as a result, not only had his psychic body made a full recovery, it was even stronger than before.

    Hence, Adam was looking full of energy and vigor, while the other two were looking rather weary and frail.

    In particr, Nie Yiyi had sustained extremely severe injuries to her psychic body, and she was yawning incessantly with a terribleplexion to boot.

    "Here''s your money, I''ve transferred it to you just now."

    "Thanks. Looks like I''m going to have to rest and recuperate for a while."

    "And here''s your share, Hook."

    "Thanks, Boss."

    "Where do you three want to go next? You''ve got money now, so it''s time to enjoy yourselves. I know a lot of fun ces to go," Red Spider said in a tempting voice, seducing the young trio toward the abyss of depravity.

    However, Hook was the only one who took up the offer.

    "Take me to a nice pub, I''ll treat everyone to some drinks."

    "I''ll pass," Adam said with a shake of his head. "I want to pay the prosthetic limb retrofitting factories a visit."

    Nie Yiyi also turned down the offer. "I have to go rest."

    "It''s my treat!"

    "I''m still gonna pass."

    Thus, the four went their separate ways.

    After consulting a map, Adam took the void rail to an underground street in Area 36, Gundam Street.

    This street also had an unofficial nickname, which was "Retrofit Street".

    There were countless prosthetic limb retrofitting shops here, some of which offered high-end services, while others offered cheaper products. There were beautiful prosthetic limbs that were very popr among women, and also weaponry prosthetic limbs.

    Of course, firearm retrofitting was against thew, so the only way to find such services was to turn to the ck market.

    After arriving on this street, Adam thought that he would be able to find a shop to his liking quite quickly, but after a lengthy period of exploration, he discovered that there were far more shops offering aesthetic mechanical prosthetics catered toward women and prosthetic limb beautifying services than there were shops that offered weaponry retrofitting.

    In fact, even the shops that had neon signs advertising weaponry prosthetics retrofitting also offered prosthetic limb beautifying services on the side.

    With no other alternatives, Adam was forced to settle for one of these shops.

    "Yo, I could hear Deranged Pig''s music sting in your shop even from outside. Are you a fan of his as well?"

    Adam had chosen this shop for no reason other than the fact that Deranged Pig''s music was being yed on a constant loop here. Seeing as he had ties with Deranged Pig, it would''ve been a waste not to use those connections.

    The boss of the shop raised his head before giving Adam a look of approval, clearly very pleased with their shared taste in music.

    "Hold on a minute, I''ll be with you soon. There''s free lemonade on the table."

    The boss then lowered his head again and continued with his work.

    At the moment, he was makingser engravings on a woman''s mechanical fingers. It was already 2096, yet manicures were still extremely popr among women, despite the fact that this was something that had first begun trending over 100 years ago.

    Adam couldn''t understand what this fixation on manicures was all about, nor did he have any interest in trying to understand it.

    He patiently waited until the boss was done with his work, remaining silent the entire time.

    After finishing the job, the boss wiped his hands before making his way over to Adam.

    "What kind of job do you want done?"

    "I''m interested in weaponry prosthetics retrofitting."

    "Alright, tell me what you need and the budget you''re working with."

    "I am an adapter. I need equipment that can save my life when I''m in danger, and my budget is 100,000."

    "100,000?" The boss was rather surprised to hear this. "Under normal circumstances, 100,000 would be a lot of money for prosthetics, but you have to understand that prosthetics for adapters are all extremely expensive. I''m afraid you won''t be able to get much done with 100,000."

    "Can you borate on that?"

    Adam''s memories contained all of the general knowledge that he needed, but he was severelycking when it came to professional knowledge.

    "Are you a newbie adapter? You should already know all of this." The boss took a nce at Adam''s tender features and quickly arrived at the conclusion that he was a newbie in this field. With that in mind, the boss exined, "Due to the fact that adapters often need to enter the psychic world of others, they put more of an emphasis on their psychic bodies. Hence, the prosthetic limbs that they require are primarily rted to psychic connections."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "Let me exin it this way. There are some people nowadays who feel like human hands and feet are too archaic and limited in their uses, and they want to undergo prosthetic limb retrofitting. The simplest and cheapest way to do that would be to amputate their hands and feet, then make some simple psychic connections between the sites of their severed limbs and prosthetic limbs, right?"

    "That''s right."

    "This is a very cost-effective method, and even if really high-quality prosthetic limbs are used, it won''t cost all that much. However, an adapter cannot do this. For adapters, the degree of eptance of their limbs is a vital factor to consider, and this eptance goes all the way down to their subconsciousness. If you sever your hands and feet, even if you rece them with prosthetics, your psychic body will still be missing those body parts when you enter the psychic world. This is because your subconsciousness knows that those prosthetics are foreign, mechanical objects that don''t belong to your body. This is what I mean by degree of eptance."

 Chapter 23: The Third One

    <h4>Chapter 23: The Third One</h4>

    This was a very clear and concise exnation, and Adam was able to easily wrap his head around it.

    "Then what can we do?"

    "There is a type of training method for adapters that can allow them to slowly ept prosthetic limbs, but only a small number of adapters sessfully master this method. That''s not because the training method is very difficult, the problem is that it''s simply not worth pursuing in many cases. After all, each adapter possesses different abilities."

    Having worked extensively in this field, the boss of the retrofitting shop knew more about this subject than even the teachers at the academies.

    "Hence, most people choose to pursue the option of supplementary retrofitting, such as adding an additional arm without amputating any of the existing arms, or adding a tentacle. You get the idea."

    "I see." Adam nodded in response as he thought of the spider legs on Red Spider''s back. Those were clearly supplementary prosthetics. "Are those types of prosthetic limbs expensive?"

    "They are. All prosthetics that involve limbs are very cheap, while the opposite is true for prosthetics that involve the brain. It''s easy toser amputate limbs and use the existing nervous system in the body to establish psychic connections because there are already reflex zones in the brain that correspond with those limbs. However, supplementary prosthetics require modifications to the brain, thereby making them very expensive. Thankfully, adapters like yourself are all quite wealthy, so you can afford these special prosthetics."

    Despite what the boss of the shop was saying, it was clear from his expression that 100,000 wasn''t going to get Adam anything of value.

    "How many types of retrofitting are there? I need something that can save my life in dangerous situations."

    "Are you being hunted down by someone? Actually, forget it, I don''t want to hear about it," the boss said. "I can see that you don''t have a lot of money, so I''ll be honest with you... By the way, are you really a fan of Deranged Pig''s music?"

    "Not only am I a fan of his music, I know him personally as well. In fact, I can even get you some memorabilia."

    "Really? How does someone as poor as you know Deranged Pig?"

    "Here, I''ll prove it."

    Adam dialed Deranged Pig''s number as he spoke, and a hologram of Deranged Pig soon appeared above his arm.

    The hologram wore a slightly grumpy expression as it asked, "What is it? You only just left, didn''t you?"

    "This isn''t some imnted program, is it?" the boss asked as he waved excitedly at the hologram.

    "Who the hell is that?" Deranged Pig took a moment to inspect his surroundings. "You''re in a retrofitting shop? Ah, that makes sense, you really do need some retrofitting done. Otherwise, you''re way too weak. I still have some stuff that I''m busy with at home, so if you don''t have anything important to say, I''m going to hang up now!"

    "That was definitely Deranged Pig''s signature short temper!" The boss was extremely excited to be seeing his idol. "My name is Weber. This time, I''m really going to tell you the truth..."

    "Hold on, were you not telling the truth just now?"

    "I was, but now, I''m gonna tell you the actual truth. There''s a difference. Integrity is key in business, after all," Weber chortled.

    "Can you give me a discount?"

    "I''m very happy to have met my idol, but even if my own fatheres here to negotiate for you, there''s no way I''m offering any discount!" Weber tapped on his own arm as he spoke, projecting a menu, and he pointed at one of the items on the menu as he said, "Given your current budget, this is the only thing that you can start with. The imnting process is very simple and doesn''t require surgery. This is a man-made neuron transmitter..."

    "But I already have a transmitter in my arm."

    "That''s different. This transmitter can transmit something akin to a bunch of tiny cell towers, and each cell tower is a mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmission device. The function of those devices is to capture arge area of your consciousness. If someone wants to hurt you, you''ll obviously be at a severe disadvantage in the real world due to yourck of powerful prosthetic limbs. However, with this transmitter, you''ll be able to avoid fighting in the real world altogether and engage your enemies in the domain of your consciousness instead. No matter how powerful the average person is, there''s no way they''ll be a match for an adapter in the psychic world, and that''s the key to an adapter''s power."

    "That sounds fantastic," Adam said with a pleased expression. "How much will that cost?"

    "1.75 million."

    "..."

    "I told you, all pieces of equipment for adapters are very expensive. Thankfully for you, each adapter can apply for a loan of a maximum sum of 2,000,000 from the congressional bank. Having said that, the interest rate is quite high, of course. It''s up to you whether you want to pursue that option."

    "I''ll do it!"

    After witnessing the human farm, Adam was feeling exceedingly vulnerable. Even though he was an adapter, in the real world, he would struggle against even amon street thug. With this transmitter imnted in his body, his self-preservation abilities would receive an unfathomably massive boost.

    As for the loan, that was something that he was just going to have to pay off in the future. For now, his top priority was to keep himself safe.

    After confirming the deal, Weber wasted no time with words and immediately began his work.

    For him, a job worth 1.75 million was an enormous one that was almost equivalent to his total annual revenue.

    In the following three days, Adam spent all of his time in this shop. Students of Layton Academy enjoyed a high degree of freedom when it came to their sses, so all he had to do was notify the academy that he was going to be absent.

    Those three days were entirely dedicated to imnting the transmitter into his body, and at the conclusion of the process, he had a device that resembled a spear gun attached to his arm.

    The transmitter was designed to be copsible, so it could be folded down into what appeared to be a bracer. The transmitter was very simple to operate, and after the instation wasplete, Adam tested it out to find that it was extremely effective.

    Even at the lowest setting, once the "cell towers" were transmitted, all of the passersby on close to half of the entire street were dragged into his psychic world.

    Of course, this was illegal, and to furtherpound his financial woes, he was issued a fine of 30,000 by Mechguard.

    Due to the fact that most of the work conducted over the course of the three days had been done by Weber, he was leftpletely exhausted and bedridden, as if he had been afflicted by some type of serious illness.

    Of course, Adam didn''t waste all of this free time. Instead, he spent it absorbing the fruits of hisbors from thest mission.

    Inside his psychic world, Adam still couldn''t help but be ted as he gazed upon the flower pots before him.

    Even though it had been three days, his joy and excitement had barely waned. This was because a new member had appeared in his secret base, which meant that he now had three anomalies.

    I can''t believe the anomaly of fear has been transferred into my psychic world!

    A gargantuan creature had emerged from the array of flower pots in front of him. The creature was a scarecrow that was six meters tall, standing at roughly the same height as a two-story building. The scarecrow had appeared in his ntation area, and at this moment, it was resting with its eyes closed in one of the flower pots.

    In contrast with the enormous scarecrow, even Mummy in its giant form was made to look petite and almost adorable. The other anomalies resembled bonsai nts in their flower pots, while the anomaly of fear stood like a full-sized tree.

    As for why the anomaly of fear had appeared here, that was something that Adam couldn''t exin. However, what he did know was that even though his two anomalies had devoured all of the scarecrow''s anomalic power on that day, the amount of power that they actually managed to digest was very limited. Even taking the amount that was distributed to Adam into ount, the three had only managed to absorb less than 20% of the scarecrow''s anomalic power.

    The anomaly of fear had resided in Kim''s heart for many years, and the scarecrow that it had manifested was far too powerful, certainly far beyond 10 times more powerful than Adam. If it weren''t for Deranged Pig''s assistance and the weakening effects suffered by the scarecrow, it would''ve been able to crush the trio of Adam, Nie Yiyi, and Hook with ease.

    The amount of power that it had left behind was too enormous, to the point that the two anomalies were unable to digest it. As a result, they were forced to cough it back up, and it manifested itself into this reborn anomaly of fear.

    However, due to the fact that the scarecrow wasn''t manifested from Adam''s emotions, there was no emotional link between them, so he didn''t know how to use it. In any case, it certainly couldn''t be a bad thing that it had appeared in his ntation area.

 Chapter 24: Immortality Support

    <h4>Chapter 24: Immortality Support</h4>

    "What are you still standing here for? The job''s done, so get out of here. Don''t dy my business." While Adam was examining his own condition for the final time, he was roused by Weber. "Hurry up and get out. Don''t forget to issue your monthly loan repayments. In this money-driven society, if you get a bad credit rating, it''ll be difficult for you to get anything done. Oh, and don''t forget to bring me some memorabilia from Deranged Pig next time!"

    "Thanks, Boss."

    During the three days Adam had spent with Weber, he hade to discover that Weber had offered him a very reasonable deal. Not only had he charged Adam a verypetitive price, he hadn''t installed any superfluous parts into Adam''s body.

    Throughout this entire process, he had been spared all unnecessary expenses.

    Of course, even so, he was still in severe debt.

    The loan he had taken out, which totaled less than 2,000,000, was to be repaid in 30 installments, and with each installment, he had to pay an extra 100,000 in interest. This meant that he would have to allot some time every single month to take on an additional mission with a rtively high level of danger in order to repay this loan.

    I only woke up not long ago, yet I''m already a ve!

    After leaving the shop, Adam had nowhere else to go, so he nned to return directly to the academy.

    Emerging onto the street outside, he caught sight of a giant 3D hologram depicting a human figure. It was a 3D advertisement.

    The figure in the advertisement was over 100 meters tall, and he was in the process of delivering an impassioned description of the Mars Immigration n. ording to the figure, there were boundless resources on Mars, making it a far better ce to live than Earth, where resources had all butpletely dried up.

    Adam stared at the advertisement for a long time, and a sense of absurdity welled up in his heart.

    After that advertisement came another giant advertisement, which dered: "In order to grant immortality to the entire human race, the implementation of Metaverse version 12.0 is in full swing. All you need to do is upload your personality and your memories, and you will forever remain in the Metaverse in your entirety. You can reunite with your loved ones and be with your friends for eternity. You can even y giant dragons, or put on intergctic armor and..."

    Right as Adam was staring absentmindedly at the advertisement, a young man carrying a prosthetic limb repair toolbox passed by while cursing to himself, "This ursed system is the reason why I''m having to spend all of my money to support my grandma! The fees are way too expensive! They''re charging so much money even for the people in there to live just a normal life, and if you don''t pay, they''ll block all personality data. They make the advertisement sound so alluring, talking about you can reunite with your loved ones forever in there, but I''m having to spend so much money to support the dead that I barely have enough to survive myself! Money, money, money, everyone''s asking for money!"

    The young man sighed as he strode away into the distance. It seemed that he had far too many negative emotions bottled up in his heart, and he didn''t know how to vent them.

    This was supposed to be technology that granted immortality, but it was proving to be a massive burden on the living.

    Adam watched as the young man faded into the distance, and he was suddenly struck by the feeling that the young man was just another nk te.

    Mars, immortality, promises of wealth... Those are all just tools used by the wealthy to swindle others. They''re all just dangling pieces of bait that are as dangerous as they are alluring.

    While Adam was still absorbed in his own thoughts, someone suddenly approached him from the end of the street. As soon as Adam cast his gaze toward the approaching figure, he discovered that all of the passersby on the nearby streets had vanished. He then looked up to find that the advertisement hologram had also bepletely still.

    My psychic world is being invaded!

    Adam was no longer aplete newbie, and he immediately understood what was happening after quickly assessing the situation.

    The man at the end of the street continued to approach Adam, and as he drew closer and closer, Adam was able to make out the man''s features.

    This was a middle-aged man in cowboy attire with a pair of guns strapped to his waist. He had thick facial hair that perfectlyplemented his casual and unrestrained expression, and it looked as if he had strode directly out of a western cowboy film.

    While Adam was watching the middle-aged man, another person also began to approach him from the other end of the street.

    "Oi, Cowboy, I was the one who discovered him first!"

    That man was wearing ninja garbs with a pair of des on his back, and his face was entirely obscured, making it impossible to glean his features.

    He had a deep voice, and there was formidable psychic power emanating from his entire body. All of the tall buildings and skyscrapers that he passed by shattered like mirrors in his wake.

    Cowboy immediately burst intoughter upon hearing this.

    "You think this is a kid''s game, Oni no Hanzou? You can''t just call dibs on a target like a coin on the ground!"

    The man then whistled to summon a mighty stallion, leaping onto the horse''s back as soon as it galloped out of thin air.

    ¡°If you want to steal this mission from me, then we''ll have to see if your kunai knives are faster, or if my bullets will get the job done first!"

    "You asked for it!" Oni no Hanzou harrumphed in a cold voice, then abruptly tipped forward to a sharp angle, reaching top speed in the blink of an eye.

    All Adam saw was a blur sh past his eyes before the ninja had already passed him by. Immediately thereafter, the blur began to split up as it raced along, with one splitting up into two, two splitting up into four, and eventually, the entire street was full of his clones.

    What on earth is going on here? Are they on a mission to hunt me down? Was the mission released by the person who purchased my body?

    It was clear that these two were both extremely formidable hitmen, and Adam had no intention of staying to watch their battle. Instead, he was eager to get away as quickly as possible.

    .

    However, as soon as he tried to leave, he was struck in the back by a bullet that resembled aser beam. The bullet didn''t inflict any harm upon him, but the restrictive light erupting from the projectile rendered himpletely immobile.

    After rooting Adam to the spot with that bullet, Cowboy pulled out another pistol like lightning before firing off a rapid sequence of shots.

    Instead of aiming at ''s clones, all of the bullets were fired up at the sky.

    As a result, a change immediately took ce in the sky, with dark clouds shrouding half the street before bullets fell like rain.

    Rumble!

    In the wake of the storm of bullets, everything on the section of the street that was enshrouded beneath the dark clouds was reduced to dust, including the shops, the pavement, the neon lights, and every single one of the shadow clones had also been struck. At the same time, the other half of the street began to ripple violently like the surface of ake under a torrential storm.

    Adam had never seen such powerful adapters, and he was in awe of their devastating might. Cowboy''s destructive capabilities were superior even to those of the scarecrow anomaly at the height of its powers.

    However, his opponent was also a very formidable adversary.

    After all of Oni no Hanzou''s shadow clones were eradicated, he suddenly emerged from the shadow right beneath the belly of Cowboy''s warhorse, following which his twin des were shed through the air like lightning in an attempt to slice both Cowboy and his steed in half.

    The warhorse let loose an rmed neigh before it was sliced into two by the twin des, but Cowboy had leaped up into the air from the horse''s back to avoid the attack, then fired a barrage of bullets into the shadow down below.

    The bullets that he fired on this asion possessed even greater force, and every single one of them exploded like a cannonball upon striking the ground, decimating the entire area and also destroying his own steed.

    However, after being torn to shreds by the explosions, a new steed emerged into the sky like a phoenix being reborn from the mes, catching Cowboy right as he began his descent.

    "Aka Oni, go!"

    Oni no Hanzou''s voice rang out in mid-air, and immediately thereafter, his body began to gradually expand and mutate amid the smoke and dust that were rising up from the ruins of the explosion. Soon, a half-human half-oni samurai with an entirely bright red body and an oni mask on its face emerged from the wreckage.

    Following its emergence, Aka Oni let loose a furious roar, then swung a mace that was burning with scorching mes at Cowboy up in mid-air.

    Cowboy tugged on the reins of his steed, and hoof marks appeared beneath the warhorse as it began to gallop through the air, rising up to a higher altitude to evade the fearsome strike.

    1. Aka Oni in Japanese roughly trantes to Red Ogre.

 Chapter 25: Elite Clash

    <h4>Chapter 25: Elite sh</h4>

    While watching the spectacr battle that was taking ce before him, Adam couldn''t help but wonder how much money his buyer had to have offered for his capture. Not only were they able to get these two incredibly powerful adapters to hunt him down, the reward was clearly so alluring that the two adapters felt it to be worthy of fighting over.

    However, he was in no mood to be analyzing the specific circumstances involved, nor was he so na?ve that he thought it to be a good idea to continue watching the battle. What he needed to do was run for his life.

    Thus, right as the battle between the two adapters was reaching peak intensity, Adam invoked Mummy and Hellhound, then instructed them to attack the halo that was keeping him rooted to the spot.

    Cowboy was clearly an extremely powerful adapter, but there was no way that he could hope to trap Adam in his current state with just a single bullet.

    The two anomalies possessed outstanding destructive power, and after hacking away for some time with its carving knife, Mummy was quickly able to free Adam from his restraints.

    As soon as Adam regained the ability to move, he immediately began attempting to leave the psychic world, but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to return to his physical body. It was as if the connection had been severed. In the wake of his failed attempts to leave the psychic world, Adam could only flee in the direction opposite to where the battle was taking ce. He wanted to find his own secret base. At the very least, there was a truly powerful anomaly situated there. Even if it didn''t listen to his instructions, it would surely be able to muddy the waters andplicate this dire situation.

    With that in mind, Adam rushed away as quickly as he could.

    After leaving this area, Adam arrived in a patch of wilderness, the very same ce where he had been captured the first time.

    The psychic world was very different from the real world.

    In the real world, after fleeing from Gundam Street, Adam would''ve found himself on anothermercial street lined with different shops. However, Adam had never been there before in the real world, so he didn''t know anything about it. The psychic world was an extension of one''s memories, and as a result of that, it was often quite a bizarre ce to be.

    At the moment, Adam was in that area in the wilderness where the battle between Red Spider and Spider had taken ce. After rushing through that patch of wilderness, Adam suddenly found himself on the street that belonged to the pawn shop.

    After that, he arrived on the street where he had first awakened, and from there, he made his way into his secret base through thework of underground tunnels before rousing the anomaly of fear from its slumber.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, the battle between Oni no Hanzou and Cowboy was only bing more and more intense. Due to the fact that one of them was a gunner while the other specialized in meleebat, a chase was constantly taking ce, with Oni no Hanzou trying to close down the distance between the two, while Cowboy was striving to ensure the opposite. As a result, it didn''t take long before the two emerged from Gundam Street and arrived in another area.

    The first area that they arrived at was Layton Academy, but upon arriving at the second area, Cowboy''s brows immediately furrowed tightly with concern.

    "Hold on, there seems to be something off about this ce." Due to the fact that the two adapters had gone in the opposite direction from the one that Adam had fled in, the two had arrived in a different ce. "What is this ce?"

    Machinery was rumbling all around them, while a series of mechanical bees were carrying infants onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt then transported the infants into a dark hole, and it was in this hole that Cowboy witnessed something that had his eyes springing wide open in disbelief.

    "What the hell is this ce?" Cowboy eximed as he stared at the sma spraying out from the dark hole. "They''re breeding infants here, only to crush them? What on earth is happening? This ce is in the target''s memories, so as long as he isn''t delusional, this ce truly exists!"

    Cowboy was eager to figure out the structure and purpose of this ce, and he began to inspect his surroundings.

    Oni no Hanzou was also watching the scene unfolding around him, and it was clear that he was also experiencing an emotional response to this ce.

    However, in contrast with Cowboy, he cared far more about money and the target of his mission than something like this, which had nothing to do with him. Thus, after faltering for a brief moment, he immediately raised his mace to prepare for battle again.

    "Let''s put this fight on hold, I want to see exactly what this ce is all about," Cowboy said with a wave of his hand, indicating that he no longer wished to continue this battle. "If we demolish this ce in our fight, there won''t be any leads for me to follow."

    "Do you vow to give up on the target of the mission?"

    Oni no Hanzou had no vendetta against Cowboy. From the very beginning, his sole objective had always been to get his hands on the reward.

    "I do."

    "Good."

    Oni no Hanzou was naturally very pleased to see that he would no longer have to deal with such a formidable foe, and he backed away in a slow and cautious manner until he was at a rtively safe distance, then reverted back to his normal human form.

    After that, he made a hand seal to summon a Psychic Retreat Ho, and after tracking down Adam''s location using the ho, he vanished into his own shadow.

    "Good riddance, that was a tough fight."

    Following Oni no Hanzou''s departure, Cowboy spun his pistols around his index fingers before cing them back into the holsters strapped to his waist. After that, he began to examine this human farm.

    After witnessing the entire process, from production, to selection, then to pulverization, he finally understood what the purpose of this massive factory was.

    ¡­¡­

    While Cowboy was examining the factory, Oni no Hanzou arrived on the street where Adam was hiding under the guidance of the Psychic Retreat Wasp.

    However, as soon as he arrived, a massive fireball came barreling toward him from the side.

    "Earth Wall!"

    Oni no Hanzou pressed a hand against the ground, and the earth squirmed momentarily, following which an earthen wall instantly rose up by the side of the road to keep the fireball at bay. The fireball crashed into the wall and exploded violently, and a burly figure rushed out of the eruption of mes before bringing down a carving knife with violent force.

    ng!

    Oni no Hanzou raised his twin des to block the carving knife, following which projections emerged from his des to form another pair of des out of thin air.

    "de sh!"

    The pair of de projections shed through the air in an instant, striking the assant squarely on the neck, and was fully expecting his assant to be decapitated by the attack.

    However, the pair of de projections merely screeched their way around the assant''s neck, doing nothing more than creating a trail of sparks and inflicting a rather insignificant wound.

    Oni no Hanzou clearly wasn''t expecting his opponent to be so resistant to damage, and after faltering momentarily, a clone quickly emerged from the shadow behind him. The shadow clone drew a kunai knife with explosive tags wrapped around the handle, then plunged it into the wound on the assant''s neck.

    Boom!

    Oni no Hanzou took advantage of the shockwave from the explosion to leap onto a neon sign, and only from that vantage point was he able to catch a clear glimpse of the entire area.

    As it turned out, there were three beings present. His mission target was in a nearby sewer, and he had just been attacked by a pair of imposing anomalies.

    "So you''re invocator, eh?" Oni no Hanzou mused as he inspected the pair of anomalies. "You''ve got some firepower, but unfortunately for you, your powers don''t match the reward on your head!"

    He didn''t consider the two anomalies to be a threat, but in order to end the battle as quickly as possible, he still decided to unleash a powerful jutsu. Following a rapid sequence of hand seals, two bursts of ck light were released to set off explosions in the areas where the two anomalies were situated, and at the same time, heunched himself at Adam.

    He didn''t care whether his jutsu would be able to kill the pair of anomalies. When facing invocator-ss adapters, all that had to be done was to attack the adapter themself. As an elite assassin who had fought countless adapters in the past, so he was naturally well aware of the best way to deal with invocaor-ss adapters.

    However, he had only justunched himself forward, and his body was still in mid-air when a hint of foreboding suddenly welled up in his heart. He cast his gaze toward the area in front of where the mission target was situated, which was also one of the sites where he had just set off an explosion, and arge burst of ck light erupted from that area.

    Immediately thereafter, an enormous figure burrowed its way out of the ground before positioning itself directly in his path.

 Chapter 26: 70,000,000 Reward

    <h4>Chapter 26: 70,000,000 Reward</h4>

    There''s a third anomaly?

    Oni no Hanzou had seen the ck light and the enormous figure flying out of it, but he still didn''t think much of it.

    Once again, having battled countless adapters in the past, he had a very thorough understanding of the invocator ss. The power of the invoked entities was directly tied to the invocator themself. Given how weak Adam''s psychic body was, under normal circumstances, there was no way that he would''ve been able to invoke anything that would pose a threat to Oni no Hanzou.

    Thus, he proceeded as normal, shing his des through the air without taking any additional precautionary measures.

    However, as soon as his des shed with a hook that was attached to the third anomaly''s arm, he immediately realized that something was wrong. The anomaly was far more powerful than him, and not only did it possess incredible strength, the ck light that was glowing from the hook was imbued with a type of strange energy that was also extremely powerful.

    The anomaly had unleashed an all-out attack, whereas Oni no Hanzou had beencent andshed out in a ratherckadaisical manner. In addition to that, there was a massive disparity in absolute power between the two, and as a result, Oni no Hanzou''s des were immediately wrenched out of his grasp by the force of the impact. In addition to that, his hands were also bleeding profusely.

    However, the anomaly had no intention of letting him off the hook. Right as he was rushing back in retreat and was about to make a hand seal to unleash another jutsu, a ghastly shriek of terror rang out, dazing him momentarily and dying the release of his jutsu. Immediately thereafter, he was struck by a dark greenser beam.

    The devastating corrosive energy struck him squarely on the chest, inflicting a wound that ran bone-deep.

    However, Oni no Hanzou was a very tough man, and he didn''t utter even a single sound despite the immense agony. After recovering from the effects of the shriek of terror, he immediately made a hand seal to summon a wooden stump, which took his ce and withstood the rest of the attack. He then quickly transformed into his Aka Oni state.

    In reality, transforming here wasn''t a part of his n. What he had envisioned was that even if the anomalies that stood between him and his target were quite powerful, it would''ve still been an easy task for him to bypass them using his jutsus. After that, all he would have to do would be to target the invocator''s vulnerable psychic body.

    However, the injuries that he had sustained were too severe, and his life was under threat if he didn''t transform.

    As an assassin-ss hitman, Oni no Hanzou''s defensive capabilities were very limited, and in the wake of the heavy blows he had received from the scarecrow, the only way that he could continue to fight in this battle was by resorting to his transformation jutsu.

    Oni no Hanzou let loose a furious roar as he turned to face the oingser beams, and his body began to expand, following which he blocked theser beams with his mace.

    Only now did the debris and ck light fade, allowing him to catch a clear glimpse of his opponent. This was a scarecrow with a simr stature to Aka Oni, standing at over six meters tall with a metal hook attached to the end of one of its arms, and its entire body was giving off a fearsome aura.

    No wonder there''s such a hefty reward on his head. It seems that aside from his ties with the pawn shop, there''s something special about the target himself.

    Aka Oni took a nce at the anomaly of fear, then cast his gaze toward Mummy, which was rushing toward Adam from a distance, and he decided to unleash his Aka Oni mes in that direction. He still hadn''t given up on his strategy of targeting the psychic body of the invocator, but in this situation, he was no longer free to do as he pleased.

    As soon as he summoned his Aka Oni mes, the scarecrow''s metal hook was swung at him with devastating force, and he had no choice but to oppose it with his mace.

    A ferocious sh between the two giants ensued, and both of them were extremely tough with immense offensive power. As a result, their battle was extremely destructive, and all of the buildings in their wake copsed like houses of cards, while cars were sent flying in all directions.

    Meanwhile, on the other side, Adam was being pursued by the Aka Oni mes, and he leaped straight into Mummy''s arms, following which Mummy enveloped his body in its bandages before withstanding the fiery attack for him with its back.

    Rumble!

    The Aka Oni mes possessed a tracking function, but it was still forced to detonate on the spot. Following the explosion of mes, countless miniature red oni flew out of all of the wisps of fire that the original fireball had exploded into.

    A fierce battle then ensued between the miniature red oni, and Mummy and Hellhound, thetter of which had just arrived on the scene.

    By the time Cowboy arrived, there was not even a single brick on the entire street that was still left undamaged.

    "Looks like the target is more powerful than expected," Cowboy remarked to himself as he watched the unfolding battle from above atop his fiery steed, and he was clearly quite impressed. "I thought I''d have to go through some trouble to steal back the target, but it looks like my concerns were unnecessary."

    "Hey!"

    Cowboy raised his voice as he called out, then fired a warning shot with his gun up at the sky, alerting everyone to his presence.

    "What are you doing here, Cowboy?"?Oni no Hanzou was still locked in a fierce battle against the scarecrow, and upon catching sight of Cowboy, he immediately withstood a blow from his opponent before retreating to a safe distance away. "You promised that you would leave the mission target to me! Are you going back on your word?"

    "Initially, I really was nning to hand him over to you, but after seeing that human farm, I''ve changed my mind. That kid holds some secrets that I really want to know more about, and so, I decided toe after him again," Cowboy replied with a nonchnt shrug.

    "You want to steal him from me?"

    "That''s right. If I''m not mistaken, it looks to me like your injured, and you''ve expended a great deal of energy, so you''re definitely no match for me in your current state," Cowboy said as he aimed a gun at Oni no Hanzou, but instead of pulling the trigger, his intention was to negotiate. "However, at the same time, I don''t want to make an enemy out of the Oni Organization. How about this? Give me the details for one of your ck market ounts, and when the job''s done, I get to keep the target, but I''ll split you half the reward."

    Oni no Hanzou took a nce at the gun that was aimed at him from afar, then turned to look at the oing anomaly of fear, and after weighing up his options for a brief moment, he nodded in agreement with Cowboy''s proposal.

    "You got here at just the right time! I''m getting really sick of dealing with this thing," Oni no Hanzou said as he raised his mace to ward off the scarecrow''s attack, then immediately unleashed his Shadowbind Jutsu to freeze the shadow beneath the scarecrow''s feet into ce, temporarily immobilizing it.

    Immediately thereafter, his body rapidly shrank until he returned to his original form, and he pulled out a kunai knife, quickly scribbling a few numbers onto it before tossing it at Cowboy.

    "I want 70% of the reward!"

    After making that final demand, Oni no Hanzou fell into his own shadow andpletely vanished on the spot, vacating the site for Cowboy and Adam.

    "Alright, it''s time for us to have a chat." Cowboy aimed his gun at Adam, who was strapped to Mummy''s chest, and holy light began to gather at the gun''s muzzle. "How about a coboration?"

    "What do you want?" Adam asked, continuing to hide within the bandages without revealing himself.

    "Give me all of the information you have on that human farm, and I''ll spare your life. Actually, perhaps we can even work together on a deeper level."

    Cowboy suddenly turned his gun away from Adam as he spoke, then fired a shot at the scarecrow in the distance. The holy light stuck the scarecrow on the arm, and the golden holy light shed violently with the ck light emanating from the scarecrow''s body, but neither side seemed to be able to vanquish the other.

    "That''s a very powerful invoked entity. Can I interest you in a more extensive coboration? We just so happen to be recruiting powerful adapters right now."

    Adam offered no response, pondering the proposal in silence instead. He was feeling quite apprehensive as the man before him had just been speaking about his own agenda this entire time, and up to this point, Adam still didn''t know this man''s identity, nor what his objective was. There was no way that he would just blindly agree to a coboration.

    "Oh, by the way, seeing as I''m trying to recruit you, it''s only right that I give you the respect you deserve. Allow me to introduce myself: I am an amateur hitman, and my registered nickname in the ck market is ''Cowboy''. I..."

    "So you''re a hitman just like that ninja. Have you bothe after me for the reward on my head? Who''s the one offering the reward?"

    "Someone''s offering a reward on the ck market for 50,000,000 for your body, and an additional 20,000,000 if we can deliver your psychic body as well. So essentially, the person offering the reward wants both your physical and psychic body, but if that''s not achievable, then just your physical body alone is also fine."

    "So the total reward on my head is 70,000,000?"

    70,000,000 was an enormous sum, one that was far too high to be justifiable as a reward for an ordinary nk te.

    "That''s right. There would be people willing to take on the job for this price even if I were the target instead of you. Your invoked entities are not bad, but your psychic body is very vulnerable, so any low-level hitman could potentially take you out. You''re not worth very much, but the information that you have is very valuable."

    Cowboy paused here momentarily to calcte the time that he had already spent in the psychic world.

    "It''s about time that I left. If you stand for too long on the side of the street, you''ll attract the attention of the Mechguard officers. I''ll give you an address, and you can think about my proposal. If you want to ept my offer, thene and find me. You''ve messed with some people that you can''t afford to mess with, and that tells me that you want to aplish some things that are beyond your current abilities, so you''re most likely in greater need of allies than I am."

    After that, Cowboy left Adam with an address before departing.

    Following his departure, the constraints in the surrounding space suddenly waned, allowing Adam to leave his own psychic world and return to his physical body.

 Chapter 27: The Players and the Playthings

    <h4>Chapter 27: The yers and the ythings</h4>

    After returning to the real world, Adam''s vision began to focus. Weber''s shop was still standing behind him, massive advertisements were continuing the y in the sky, and it was still a lively and bustling scene all around him.

    It was as if everything that had just happened had been a dream, and only he was aware of how many close brushes with death he had just endured in his brief absence from the real world.

    It was truly the narrowest of escapes.

    The hitmen who had attacked him were far more powerful than he was, and if it weren''t for the fact that two of them hade after him at once, if he hadn''t recently acquired the anomaly of fear, if he wasn''t in possession of useful information, if his psychic body wasn''t also considered to be quite valuable... If any one of those conditions hadn''t been met, he would''ve already been dead by now.

    While Adam was standing in a dazed manner, Weber approached him from behind before asking, "Were you attacked just now? I could tell something was wrong because you were just standing on the street, staring into space for quite a while. Don''t me me for not helping you, I don''t want any trouble."

    "I understand," Adam replied with a nod.

    He had developed a basic understanding of how this world worked, so he knew that this was a ce where self-interest was valued above all else, and everyone was generally quite apathetic. In the face of trouble or adversity, Adam couldn''t count on anyone else to help him. The only things that he could count on were his own powers and the leverage that he had.

    After remaining on the spot in deep thought for a while longer, Adam finally made up his mind.

    Two hourster, he arrived in front of a skyscraper on 21st Street. At the top of the building was a sign that read "Thriving Technologies", and from the outside, this appeared to be arge softwarepany.

    Not long after he arrived, he spotted a middle-aged man with unkempt facial hair making his way down from upstairs.

    A smile appeared on the man''s face at the sight of Adam, and he said, "You came even faster than I imagined. Truth be told, I only just got back as well."

    "You''re Cowboy?"

    "That''s me."

    In the real world, Cowboy bore a strong resemnce to his psychic world equivalent. However, here in the real world, he was even more unkempt and unrestrained. He was wearing a shirt that was missing three buttons, and a pair of jeans that were faded from too many wash cycles.

    Judging from his appearance alone, he didn''t look much different from the homeless people living on the side of the streets.

    "Is this yourpany? It looks like you''re a very wealthy man."

    "Thispany belongs to the organization that I serve, but I hold some shares in it. Come on in and take a look. The fact that you''re here tells me that you''ve made your decision, so we''re allies from now on."

    Cowboy invited Adam into the building, and even though it was already nighttime, there were still many employees working overtime inside.

    Adam was led on a tour of the first few floors of the building by Cowboy, and he learned that Thriving Technologies specialized in designing embedded games in the Metaverse. The employees were constructing their own game worlds in the Metaverse, following which these game worlds were refined and curated by programmers to create virtual realities where yers could roam and embark on adventures.

    Essentially, if the Metaverse were a tree trunk, then these games would be the branches and leaves on the trunk.

    "This game is called ''Land of Massacre''. Every single one of the zombies inside is acted out by people, so there''s some difficulty in killing them, and it also makes for a more immersive experience."

    Adam raised his head to look up at the 3D projection, watching as one zombie after another had their heads blown off, or blown up in explosions, or caught in traps, only to be respawned, and he didn''t understand where the allure in such a game was.

    "This game is called ''Dyson Orb Architect''. It''s a science-fiction game where each yer will be assigned an initial, and the objective of the game is to create the Dyson Orb, which grants the yer infinite resources and the ability to travel freely through space."

    Adam turned his attention toward the direction that Adam was pointing in, and he saw a projection of countlessborers mining for ore on a, while what appeared to be a deity-like figure was overseeing the process.

    "Are thoseborers all real people as well?" Adam asked.

    "That''s right."

    "What do people get out of games like these? In that one, you''re constantly being killed and respawned, and in this one, you''re being enved! Who would y these games?" Adam asked with a perplexed expression. "Are these games all designed for masochists?"

    "It appears you''ve gotten the wrong idea. Theseborers and those zombies aren''t the yers of the game, they''re just a part of the game," Cowboy exined, then pointed at the deity-like figure as he continued, "That''s the yer of the game, and the one smashing that zombie''s head open with that shovel is also a yer."

    "..."

    "It seems really unfair, right? This is just a microcosm of the Metaverse."

    "Why are these people content to serve as ythings for others?"

    "Because the people role-ying as zombies and miners are able to earn some virtual currency, and only by doing this can they just barely get by and make ends meet. These are all people who''ve uploaded their personas into the Metaverse after passing away, and they''re cyberliches who''ll live forever, but it''s still very difficult for them to maintain basic standards of living, and if they want to improve their quality of life, they''ll need financial support from people on the outside."

    "Why is that? Surely they don''t need things like food and shelter like living people do."

    "That may be true, but electricity provision and data maintenance are even more expensive than things like food and shelter. Whether you are a yer or a ything is dependent on whether you''re wealthy or not. I know that may be an ufortable reality to face, but those are thews by which this world functions. Come upstairs with me. This is where all the employees belong, not where we should be."

    After that, Cowboy led Adam all the way to the top floor.

    The skyscraper had several hundred levels, and the top floor was fitted with massive floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing those inside to see the clouds and neon lights beneath their feet.

    Looking down from this vantage point gave one a sense that they were in control of everything.

    "Come. For starters, why don''t you tell me why you made up your mind so quickly?"

    Cowboy sat down onto an executive chair as he spoke, then propped his feet up on the table, revealing a pair of worn-out hiking boots.

    "Because my self-preservation abilities are very limited, and there are things that I want to do that I can''t aplish myself. I was afraid that if I hesitated for too long, another elite hitman would suddenly appear to kill me on the spot. That would be a terrible way to go." Adam made his way over to the window and looked down at the clouds beneath his feet, which were tinged bright red from the glow of the neon lights down below. "I can''t die now. There are still too many things left for me to do."

    Cowboy immediately burst intoughter upon hearing this.

    "I like you, kid. Back in the day, I was just like you. Tell me everything you know about that human farm, and I''ll provide you with the assistance that you need. If you want to improve your self-preservation skills, then I''ll introduce you to a true master among invocator-ss adapters. He''ll teach you everything you want to learn. Of course, he''s also a greedy old fart, so his lessons won''t be free, but I''ll give you enough money to cover your tuition fees for the first term."

    "Why are you so interested in the human farm?"

    "That ce provides a glimpse into the most horrific underbelly of our world. If we can show everyone the most realistic side of this world, we''d be able to overthrow the entire order of this society."

    "Why would we want to do that? For people like me, perhaps overthrowing the entire world order seems like a very alluring prospect, but the same doesn''t apply to you. There''s no incentive for you to do this."

    Cowboy was a beneficiary to the rules. He had money, power, and authority, and even if he were to die, he would still be able to live a good life in the Metaverse.

    "Would you believe me if I told you that I''m doing this for justice?" Cowboy asked as he stretchedzily before leaning back against his chair. "There''s too much darkness in the world and too much injustice in society, so I want to set things right."

    "I don''t believe you."

    "In that case, there''s only one reasonable exnation, which is that I want to elevate myself from a mere beneficiary to the rules to be the one who sets these rules." A sharp and focused look appeared in Cowboy''s scattered eyes for the first time as dered this. "As I said earlier, I was just like you back in the day."

 Chapter 28: Pitiful

    <h4>Chapter 28: Pitiful</h4>

    Before Adam had a chance to reply, Cowboy continued, "Our organization has obtained some information, information that is nothing short of a bombshell. Would you like to hear it? You see those people outside who are being used as ythings? Do you find them pitiful?"

    "I do."

    "Those who are supporting them from the outside are even more pitiful. For those who can''t earn enough virtual currency to support themselves, as long as they still have loved ones on the outside, whether that be their spouse or their children, none of them would be willing to let someone so close to them truly die. They''ll constantlyin about the system, but they''ll still work hard to earn money and support their loved ones in the Metaverse. But you know what what the real kicker is? Those people are actually already dead!"

    "What do you mean by that?"

    The most alluring aspect of Metaverse 12.0 was its promise to grant immortality to everyone''s loved ones, yet here, Adam was being told that everyone in the Metaverse was already dead!

    "I mean it in the literal sense, there''s no deeper meaning to it. All of the data that they store is iplete or even fake. It''s truly a pitiful state of affairs," Cowboy sighed as he clenched his fists tightly. "A human''s memory bank is simply far too massive. The theoretical storage capacity of the average human brain exceeds that of 10,000 libraries, which means that uploading one''s persona to the Metaverse will take up an enormous amount of memory. Is the Metaverse really capable of storing that much data? Even if it can, the resulting expenses would be far too much for the average person to be able to afford."

    "Then what are those people inside the Metaverse?"

    "They are all manifestations of iplete or fake data, or even simted data. It''s very difficult to upload the entirety of one''s persona, but it''s far simpler to ess all of one''s memories."

    Despite the astonishing nature of this revtion, Cowboy was speaking about it in the most nonchnt tone.

    Adam knew that if Cowboy were telling the truth here, then that would make the Metaverse the biggest lie of this century, one that had enved the entire human race.

    "Why would tell me something so important and impactful?"

    "We''re on the same team now, so it''s only fair that we share what we know with one another. Besides, telling you all this is inconsequential anyway because you won''t be able to release this information. They have a firm grasp on all of the media and speaking rights. Now then, it''s time for you to tell me the secrets of the human farm. Tell me everything you know, and based on that information, we''ll be able to recruit more valuable individuals to our cause. Messing with the adaptermunity is not an endeavor to be taken lightly."

    After hearing what Cowboy had to say, Adam nodded in response, then revealed everything he knew to Cowboy.

    ¡­¡­

    "I see, so it has something to do with Golden Teeth Incorporated, and Golden Teeth Incorporated is a part of their media conglomerate. This is a very valuable piece of information that directly impacts the interests of adapters and encroaches upon thews established by Mechguard. With this, we''ll have some leverage against those high-up figures who have already used nk tes, but if we want to truly grab the bull by the horns, then further investigation will be required."

    Cowboy tapped the table before continuing, "You want safety and to uncover the truth, while I want to seize control over the media. Our objectives are aligned. I can supply you with the funds required to support your investigation, and in exchange, you give me all of the information that you uncover. Deal?"

    "That sounds very fair," Adam replied with a nod. "If anything, the deal is skewed in my favor. I have one final question: if you''re already so rich, why are you still taking hitman missions?"

    "I only ept missions that seem very counterintuitive. Abnormal events always hint at abnormal circumstances, and those circumstances are sources of information. I don''t need the money. In contrast, I''m much more interested in gathering useful information."

    "I see."

    The conversation between the two drew to a conclusion here.

    Shortly thereafter, Cowboy took a call and departed to take care of some work. Prior to his departure, he made many arrangements, including contacting that so-called master among invocator-ss adapters and paying Adam''s tuition fees.

    In light of the safety concerns surrounding Adam, he decided to remain in thepany building. The security level here was very high, so even if there were other hitmening after Adam, it would''ve been very difficult for them to make a move here.

    Adam stayed up the entire night in thepany building, using theputer to extensively study personas. Following his night of intensive study, he came to understand that the brain''s memory bank was extremely enormous, so much so that it could fit 50,000 massive libraries. Even if the most advanced hard drive storage technology were to be used, such an enormous amount of memory would''ve still ced great strain on the system.

    Despite how massive one''s memory bank was, the things that one could remember clearly were very limited. The brain would store trivial pieces of information such as the color of the flowers that one saw as a child while passing by a garden, but one wouldn''t be able to recall that information. The brain would capture how lustrous the feathers of a bird that one saw flying overhead back when they were a middle school student were, but once again, no clear recollection of that would be possible.

    The brain would help one blur this information, molding it into a part of one''s mood and personality. These seemingly useless and trivial memories formed the majority of the foundation for one''s personality.

    Furthermore, this was only the memory area of the brain. The areas in the brain that were responsible for creativity and emotions also yed roles in forming one''s personality.

    If all of that were to be discarded with only the memories retained, artificial intelligence could be used to simte someone''s personality, thereby creating a "person", and that was not much more difficult than creating a character in a novel.

    So this is what''s been happening in the Metaverse...

    After gathering all of this information, Adam closed his eyes to take a short rest.

    He came to the realization that the memory crisis was the fundamental reason behind why these tech giants were deceiving the entire world.

    ¡­¡­

    The next morning, he departed from thepany building and immediately made his way to the invocating master''s residence.

    Just as he had said to Cowboy, his top priority at the moment was his own safety. Unless the giant reward on his head was dropped or he developed his powers to a point where he would be able to fend for himself, he had to proceed with the utmost caution at all times.

    With such a powerful adapter living here, this ce should be safe.

    By the time Adam arrived at the master''s residence with the address that had been provided to him, dawn was only just beginning to break. This was a strange estate that looked as if it had been renovated from some type of sports ground, and it sprawled over a massive area with a ss roof overhead.

    Upon arriving, Adam pressed the doorbell, following which two lines of beautiful women wearing maid uniforms emerged from inside. After verifying Adam''s identity, a female housekeeper led him into the estate.

    All types of nts were growing in the courtyard, and they wereplemented by elegant pavilions and terraces, as well as small bridges arching over flowing water. It was a very tastefully designed courtyard.

    "Master is still sleeping, so please wait here for now. If you need anything, feel free to call me at any time." The housekeeper invited Adam to take a seat in a pavilion, then instructed the maids to carry various types of fruits and snacks to him.

    What came next was a long wait.

    Adam wasn''t nning to eat any of the snacks that had been offered to him, but he was forced to wait from 6 AM all the way to 2 PM, a wait that spanned a total of eight hours. During that time, his hunger and thirst got the better of him, and he dug in for a meal.

    Only after 2 PM had passed and Adam''s patience had long run out did an elderly figure emerge in a leisurely fashion.

    "Oh, that was a fantastic night of sleep." The old man was as short and thin as a monkey, yet he was wearing an extremely huge and baggy nightgown. An image of the eight trigrams was embroidered on the back of the nightgown, and its tail was trailing all the way down onto the ground. "So ya came. What was your name again? Aiden?"

    "Adam."

    "Ah, Adam, that''s right." The old man yawned as he made his way into the pavilion, then began munching on the nuts on the tter. "Someone already paid a week''s worth of tuition fees for you. What do you want to learn?"

    "I want to learn life-saving skills that will allow me to keep myself safe," Adam replied. This was what he needed most desperately right now. "If possible, I also want to learn how to control invoked entities."

    "Alright, let''s talk about life-saving skills first."

    The old man bit down onto a walnut, and with the audible crack produced by the breaking shell of the walnut, Adam noticed a change in the surrounding scenery, and he discovered that he was already in the psychic world.

    "If you want to keep yourself safe, then first, you have to be sensitive." The old man was still chewing on the walnut inside the psychic world. "Regardless of whether someone else is invading your psychic world or if they''ve dragged you into their psychic world, you have to be able to detect the change immediately, so sensitivity is the first key to self-preservation. Tell me, do you know when you were dragged into the psychic world?"

    "When you bit into that walnut."

    "No, I already did it back when I was talking about the fantastic night of sleep I had. If you can''t even get that right, then a true master in illusions will be able to easily trap you in an eternal dream that you''ll never be able to escape from," the old man sighed. "Honestly, this is the first time I''ve taken on such a weak student. If Cowboy hadn''t given me so much money to cover your tuition fees, I would kick you out the door right now!"

    Adam had no rebuttal for the old man''s harsh criticism. He had already guessed that all those who were able to find this ce and afford the hefty tuition fees had to have at least been quite aplished in the field of invocators, if not masters themselves.

    However, he hadn''t even graduated from Layton Academy, so he didn''t really even qualify as a novice. It was a little like sending a primary school student straight to a PhD supervisor, so it was no wonder that he was being looked down on.

    "All hitmen who specialize in psychic assassination will employ deceptive techniques as they carry out the assassination, even if those techniques aren''t very potent. They won''t allow you to immediately realize that you''ve been dragged into the psychic world. After that, they''ll conceal themselves, and only then will they have the best chances of seeding in their assassination. The first lesson that you have to learn is to maintain sensitivity and alertness at all times, and also to be able to discern auras.

    ¡°In the real world, all things have their own auras, regardless of whether that be cars, trees, the streets, women, streetlights, insects... Those auras consist of countless different facets, such as the traces left behind by the wind blowing over those objects, the smells that they give off, and the degree to which they refract light. What you have to remember is that there will always be discrepancies in the auras of things in the psychic worldpared with the real world, so the first thing that you have to learn is to discern auras.

    ¡°Only after you master this skill will I teach you other things. If you can''t do it within a week, then leave of your own ord. There''s no point for you to continue here. No matter how powerful invocator-ss adapter is, if they can''t discern auras, then they''re constantly susceptible to being assassinated by even the weakest of hitmen."

 Chapter 29: The Golden Iron Triangle

    <h4>Chapter 29: The Golden Iron Triangle</h4>

    With that, the old man began to teach the ss using a very bizarre method.

    He brought Adam to an underground chamber, inside which were several massive machines. He plugged all of these machines into his body, then ced a strange object onto his head.

    "What is this?"

    "It''s a sensory magnifier."

    The old man''s voice was like rumbling thunder. His voice has been amplified countless times, and Adam''s eardrums were in severe pain.

    However, the old man didn''t pay any heed to Adam''s difort as he continued, "I''m going to amplify your senses so you can detect the differences between the real world and the psychic world."

    As he was speaking, he invaded Adam''s psychic world, and this time, Adam finally noticed a difference. All of the nearby sounds, regardless of whether it was the old man''s breathing or the brushing of his clothes when he moved, had be different from before.

    Adam was immediately able to detect that he was in the psychic world.

    After that, the old man turned off the sound amplification before switching on the visual amplification. As a result, Adam was able to see everything in exceptional detail, even down to the finest dust particles. The old man then invaded Adam''s psychic world once again, and sure enough, Adam was able to notice a difference.

    "This is known as sensory training. Discerning auras using your five senses is the most rudimentary method, but also the most practical one. I''m not the only one who owns this set of machinery, but it''s extremely expensive. Also, aside from a master like myself, no adapter would be able to invade your psychic world over and over again at such a high frequency. I''m telling you all of this to assure you that you''re getting your money''s worth studying under me. By the way, my name is Sadou. People like to call me Taoist Bean Army, but you can just call me teacher."

    "Yes, Teacher."

    Adam didn''t care what the old man was referred to as by others. As long as they could make him strong, everyone was a teacher in his eyes.

    "The doctrine of the Psychic Church is ''Pain Cultivates Power'', and that''s a very practical doctrine for adapters, but in my books, sensitivity is the most important thing. Only sensitive people can have sharper perception. Sensitivity can amplify the degree of pain that one experiences, and it can also improve the connection between you and your invoked entities. Inside the psychic world, what ss you belong to and the techniques you''re able to use are all directly connected to your personality. Those who like to use invoked entities enjoy having that feeling of control, but only the most sensitive people with the greatest attention to detail can truly control invoked entities to the fullest extent."

    For the first day, Sadou continued to feed Adam pieces of knowledge rted to invocator-ss adapters while constantly invading his psychic world over and over again, allowing him to switch back and forth between reality and the psychic world so that he could experience the differences between the two.

    After the first day of training, Adam quickly grew ustomed to this training method.

    Once he emerged from the underground chamber the following day, he was able to sense the differences even more vividly.

    In contrast with the silent and mundane underground chamber, there were far more pieces of reference for him to examine in the outside world, such as the blowing of the wind, the chirps and cries of insects and birds, the rumbling of machinery, neon lights of advertisements... The more references he had, the more opportunities his five senses would have of verifying whether he was in the real world or not.

    After training like this for three days, Adam managed to master the sensory discernment method.

    After those three days, Sadou nodded as he said, "You''re notpletely devoid of talent, but you''re not exactly exceptional in that regard, either."

    During the past few years, a great number of people hade to him to study, and among them, Adam''s talents ranked somewhere near the middle.

    "Now, we''ll begin the second phase of our training, which is the training of telegnosis. Only after you develop a certain level of telegnosis can you truly be considered to have reached an elementary level in aura discernment."

    "What''s telegnosis?"

    "Try cing your fingertip directly in front of your be around a centimeter away."

    Adam did as he was told, cing his fingertip in front of his own be, and he immediately developed a strange sensation.

    "What is this feeling?"

    "That is telegnosis. Everyone possesses additional senses outside of the five senses. For example, if someone is pointing a gun at you from behind and giving off intense killing intent, you''ll develop a sense of difort, and thates from your telegnosis. Adapters have more powerful neurons than the average person, so they also possess more potent telegnosis. However, telegnosis must be trained in order to be mastered. Once you master telegnosis, you''ll be able to detect danger in advance. Otherwise, even an ordinary sniper would be able to take your life, let alone an adapter hitman."

    "How is telegnosis trained?"

    "It''s trained through meditation. I will teach you a special method of meditation, then help you enter a state of deep meditation in the psychic world. Make sure to remember this feeling!"

    Sadou dragged Adam into the psychic world once again as he spoke.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, in a high-end hotel not far away from Sadou''s home, three men in professional suits were gathered together in a room.

    The three of them were all hitmen on the ck market, and they were registered under the codenames "ck Archer", "Heavy Hammer Hooligan", and "Frost Magician". Not only were the three hitmen familiar with one another, they were always operating as a trio, and they had developed a decent reputation among ck market hitmen. On the dark web, they were referred to as the Golden Iron Triangle.

    In the past, all three of them had beenpletely unknown because individually, none of them were very powerful in battle, and each of their psychic bodies was marred by massive ws.

    However, aftering into contact with one another during a mission, everything changed for the three of them.

    They discovered that their abilitiesplemented each other perfectly, and whenbined, it wasn''t just a simple matter of 1+1+1=3. Instead, theirbined powers were far beyond the sum of their constituent parts, to the extent that they were at least 10 times more powerful when working as a unit, thereby allowing them to take on advanced missions that would''ve been far beyond their capabilities in the past.

    No one was going to turn down the possibility of increasing their flow of ie, and the three of them immediately formed a team. They were always taking on missions that offered hefty rewards, then splitting the reward money evenly among them once everything was said and done.

    Thus, from a trio of unknown hitmen, they had developed to be the renowned Golden Iron Triangle. Everything had been progressing smoothly on an upward trend ever since their team was formed, and the chemistry between them was only improving with each passing mission.

    At this moment, they were looking at the massive estate in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling window of their hotel room, and the shortest and smallest figure among them said with tightly furrowed brows, "Aren''t we being a little too greedy taking on a mission with a 70,000,000 reward? I can''t shake the feeling that there''s more to this mission than meets the eyes."

    "Give it a rest, ck Archer. I know you always like to lurk in the shadows, but since when did you be such a coward? Haven''t we already established from reliable sources that the target for this mission is a nk te? There''s no way a nk te would be able to pose any threat to us," a burly man assured as he approached ck Archer from behind.

    "I agree with ck Archer. There''s definitely more to this mission than meets the eye. Otherwise, Oni no Hanzou wouldn''t have failed." The third person in the room rose to his feet as he spoke. This was a very clean-shaven man with not a single trace of facial hair. "Oni no Hanzou is a formidable adapter who specializes in assassination. Under normal circumstances, there''s no way he would''ve failed to capture a nk te."

    "Didn''t they say there was a special reason for Oni no Hanzou''s failure of the mission? I don''t know exactly what that reason is, but if I''m not mistaken, it has to have had something to do with the pawn shop. There are some powerful adapters in the pawn shop, especially that woman who no one wants to mess with. Oni no Hanzou must''ve failed the mission because he didn''t find the right ce to initiate his attack on the target. Just because he failed doesn''t mean that we''re also sure to fail. Besides, with the three of us together, I don''t think we''re necessarily inferior to him."

    Despite what he was saying, the burly man was clearly still rather fearful of Oni no Hanzou, and he quickly changed the subject to alleviate the awkwardness.

    "That kid''s been in there for a few days now, and given how Taoist Seed Army has always done things in the past, he should being out in three or four more days. Once he leaves this area, we''ll strike right away."

    "Alright, but we still have to proceed with caution," ck Archer replied with a nod.

    1. The old man''s name in Chinese (Èöñ¼) is a homonym to the term (Èö¶¹), which means to spread beans. There is a Chinese idiom, Èö¶¹³É±ø, which literally trantes to "spreading beans to make an army", and thises from an ancient Chinese text which proims that a spell exists that can allow one to spread beans, and those beans would give rise to an army, hence the corrtion between the name Sadou and the nickname of Taoist Bean Army.

 Chapter 30: Fusing with Anomalies

    <h4>Chapter 30: Fusing with Anomalies</h4>

    By the time the training progressed to the seventh day, Adam had already developed an elementary-level mastery of telegnosis. As a result, he was able to detect many indescribable things outside of the five senses. For example, at this moment, he had a sense that there was a figurative sword hanging over his head. He knew that this was a result of someone directing their killing intent toward him, and the source of this killing intent wasn''t far away.

    As expected, another hitman is already on my trail.

    Adam had already predicted this, and he asked, "Teacher, today is the final day, so can you teach me some skills that will help me in battle?"

    "Seeing as you''ve developed a rudimentary grasp of telegnosis, it''s time to teach you your next lesson. This next lesson is the most difficult one for invocators, and it''s something that you''ll need to practice over the course of your entire life."

    At this moment, the two of them were in the psychic world, and Adam followed Sadou''s instructions, invocating his two anomalies.

    "Your invoked entities are extensions of your persona, so fundamentally, they are you. However, these invoked entities are fragmented facets of your persona, much like the personalities of someone suffering from schizophrenia, so it won''t be easy to control them. You''ll still need telegnosis, and you''ll need to be sufficiently sensitive in order to be able to control them like extensions of your own body or evenbine them into one."

    As Sadou was speaking, he was using the telegnosis training method to guide the senses of Adam''s psychic body.

    Following the methodid out by Sadou, Adam discovered that there were indeed a series of barely detectable thin threads connecting himself and his two anomalies. Through those threads, Adam was able to clearly grasp all of the abilities of the two anomalies for the very first time.

    The life force of the two anomalies, the resilience of their skin, their speed, their power, even their special abilities... All of these were clearly presented to him as if they were his own attributes.

    Prior to this, Adam didn''t actually have much of an understanding of these two anomalies at all. In fact, before they revealed their abilities, such as in that instance where Mummy had wrapped him up in its bandages to protect him, he wasn''t even aware that they possessed such abilities.

    However, in this instant, he knew everything about them.

    It was aplete andprehensive understanding, and with the establishment of this connection came that feeling of being able to control them like extensions of his own body.

    Sadou had also detected the thin threads extending from Adam''s body, and for the first time during this week-long crash course, a hint of astonishment appeared in his eyes.

    "What''s going on here? Where is this sudden spike in aptitudeing from?"

    Just a moment ago, Adam had been nothing more than a mediocre invocator-ss adapter in Sadou''s eyes. He didn''t possess exceptional talent or skills, and his invoked entities also appeared to be quite unremarkable.

    However, after witnessing the incredible connective ability that Adam was disying between himself and his invoked entities, Sadou''s opinion of him had undergone aplete change.

    "What''s wrong, Teacher? Am I doing something wrong?"

    "No. Instead, you''re doing so well that it doesn''t make logical sense!" Sadou replied as he pointed at the barely detectable threads in the air. "This type of connection is very difficult to establish, and it takes the average adapter a very long time just to manifest a single one of these threads. As I''m sure you''re aware, personas can be trained, just like muscles, but the process is extremely arduous, and a very long time is required. You''re clearly not exceptionally powerful or talented, yet you possess unmatched control over your anomalies. With so many connective threads between you and your anomalies, you can even jump straight to the final step, which is to fuse together with your anomalies."

    "Is that really possible?"

    "It is, but it can only be aplished by advanced invocators. Give it a try now. Try and fuse with your anomaly."

    "Alright."

    Adam was very intrigued as he made his way toward Hellhound, which was the closest of the anomalies to him. He then rested his palms onto its foreheads, then followed the instructions that Sadou was issuing to him to establish aprehensive connection between himself and the anomaly.

    In the next instant, Hellhound pounced at Adam before diving headfirst into his body. Immediately thereafter, Adam felt an immense surge of power arising from within his body. His skin began to turn scorching hot, and mes were sting out of his pores as his body began to expand drastically.

    With a thunderous roar of fury, the process wasplete, and Adam had transformed into a fiery werewolf with two heads. He was standing upright on his hind limbs, and even though his front limbs were still in the form of human arms, his fingers were now tipped with sharp ws.

    As a result of his extra head, he was able to register two fields of view, and with nothing more than a standing jump, he was able to reach heights of six to seven meters.

    This form is definitely more powerful than Hellhound by itself.

    Adam experimented with condensing his mes onto his sharp ws, then swatted his palm through the air, and three fiery w streaks were sent hurling through the air, instantly leaving three burning indentations onto the wall in the distance.

    After experimenting for a while in this werewolf form, Adam made his way over to the other anomaly, then reversed the fusion with Hellhound before fusing as one with Mummy.

    As a result, he was instilled with an even greater sense of power.

    Sure enough, the anomaly of pain was even more powerful.

    In the wake of this fusion, Adam had grown to close to three meters in height, and even though his entire body was still wrapped in bandages, his muscles had be far more developed, and his joints had also be more mobile. In addition to that, cyberglyphs were beginning to appear on the bandages, and the carving knife had be even more lethal. Overall, this was an upgraded and more well-rounded version of Mummy than its original form.

    This was the first time that Adam had ever felt so powerful, and in his tion, he strode over to the pavilion before shing his carving knife into the stone pirs.

    Two resounding booms rang out, and the two stone pirs of the pavilion were severed by the de, following which the entire pavilion instantly copsed.

    However, Adam was still eager for more, and he plunged the knife into the ground, releasing a burst of green light that spread outward like ripples over the surface of a pond. Uponing into contact with the green light, all of the surrounding nts instantly wilted.

    "Not bad at all," Sadou remarked with a nod of approval as he dispelled the green light that was drifting toward him with a casual swat. "I''m beginning to change my mind about you. No wonder a stingy bastard like Cowboy was willing to pay for your tuition fees. Now that you''ve learned some tricks from me, perhaps you''ll be able to survive in the outside world. There are quite a few people who have their eyes set on you, so once you leave, you have to give them a thorough beatdown to set an example. At the end of the day, hitmen are still businessmen who don''t want to lose their lives, and no one wants to risk their lives for money. If you can show them that you''re not to be messed with, then you''re going to spare yourself a great deal of trouble in the future."

    "How many people are targeting me outside?" Adam''s telegnosis was far inferior to Sadou''s, so he could only sense vague ill intent directed toward himself.

    "There are eight in total, but five of them are nothing more than cannon fodder, and the other three aren''t very powerful either, but they''ve stayed together this entire time, so I presume they possess some abilities thatplement one another," Sadou replied. "In a sense, you''re a genius, so I''m inclined to keep you alive. Let me teach you some special skills that''ll increase your chances of survival."

    Thus, Adam spent the final day being put through Sadou''s special training.

    That night, he trained on his own for a while longer. In contrast with practicing the skills that he had learned earlier in the day, he was far more eager to see if he could fuse as one with the anomaly of fear. After all, that was his true trump card, one that was far more powerful than his other two anomalies.

    Unfortunately, the anomaly of fear was a foreign entity rather than an extension of his emotions, so no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to fuse with it.

    Thankfully, after developing telegnosis threads, he was able to control the scarecrow on a very basic level.

    With its assistance, his chances of survival against the eight hitmen outside would be far higher.

    Soon, the eighth day arrived, and dawn had only just broken when he was escorted out of the estate by the housekeeper.

 Chapter 31: Band of Hitmen

    <h4>Chapter 31: Band of Hitmen</h4>

    After leaving the strange estate, Adam arrived on the street outside to face the world on his own.

    In the instant that he stepped out of the estate, he was no longer under Sadou''s protection.

    Adam focused his attention, putting what he had learned into practice, using his five senses and telegnosis to assess his surroundings.

    He didn''t encounter any danger on the first street that he walked past.

    However, after arriving on the next street, he suddenly sensed something and cast his gaze upward, upon which he caught sight of a mechanical killer bee.

    They''re using a physical attack first up?

    Adam had braced himself to face eight adapters in the psychic world, but to his surprise, the first attack directed at him wasing from the real world.

    Thankfully, Adam had already achieved a basic mastery of telegnosis, and in the instant that he sensed the killer bee, he immediately dropped to the ground, rolling forward to evade the attack. At the same time, a bullet shot out the killer bee''s stinger, only to strike the ground and miss its target.

    The sound of the gunfire alerted all of the nearby pedestrians, and many of them screamed as they ran for their lives.

    Of course, the pedestrians weren''t the only ones alerted by the gunshot.

    Attempted murder with a firearm in public was a serious crime, and in the instant that the shot was fired, all of the cameras on the entire street instantly turned toward the site of the incident. At the same time, the address of the location was transmitted to the Mechguard officers that were patrolling nearby.

    Soon, two hulking officers of iron and steel rushed to the scene, armed with heavy weaponry. First, they shot down the mechanical killer bee in the sky with unerring uracy, and immediately thereafter, wireless surveince devices popped out of their shoulders, allowing them to instantly track down the location of the operator.

    After that, they bulldozed their way through the wall of a nearby shop, arresting a girl who appeared to have only just reached adulthood before executing her on the spot.

    The officers of Mechguard possessed the most rigid and inflexiblew enforcement rights, and ording to their programming, attempted murder by firearm in public is a crime punishable by execution on the spot.

    Adam was among the chaotic throngs of people fleeing for their lives, and he caught sight of this scene as he looked back afar. He finally understood why most hitmen were adapters. Mechguard officers had no persona programming, nor did they possess psychic worlds, so they were powerless to apprehend psychic hitmen.

    The girl operating the killer bee was perhaps only an amateur hitman who had been drawn in by the massive reward being offered on the dark web. Perhaps she was only here to try her luck, but in any case, she had paid for her decision with her life.

    There are still seven left.

    Adam couldn''t bring himself to work up any sympathy for someone who was trying to kill him, and he continued to advance with the chaotic crowd. He had decided that he was going to set an example on this day.

    Sadou''s right. If I don''t put my foot down and stand my ground here, even the most low-level hitmen would dare toe after me. There would be no end to my troubles then!

    With that in mind, Adam rushed through another street, then rode the elevator to a smart carpark.

    There were very few people here, but many obstacles around, making it a perfect ce for him to maximize his abilities.

    "Come on in then!" After entering the carpark, Adam fired the transmitter on his arm, releasing a thick steel needle that plunged straight into the wall up ahead.

    After piercing into the wall, the steel needle began to change shape, with its head opening up to form a radar, and the electronicponents inside also began to operate. The mechanical electrical synapse signals were linked up, and the entirety of the massive carpark was dragged into his psychic world, along with all of the people in the carpark.

    He was seizing the initiative. Seeing as he couldn''t avoid the confrontation, he wasshing out on his own terms.

    All of the hitmen who were after him would have to face him in his psychic world.

    After entering the psychic world, Adam was instilled with a great deal of confidence, and he immediately established a connection with his three anomalies while invocating two of them.

    Boom!

    Two enormous figures emerged in the carpark. As a safety precaution, Adam fused with Mummy right away, a decision that was immediately vindicated.

    Not long after he fused with Mummy and his body swelled to close to three meters in height, he was struck by a blow to the back of the head.

    A dull thump rang out, and Adam could feel sparks flying from the back of his head. He turned around to find that he had just been shot by a hitman holding a spear gun.

    "That hurt. I have to admit, that''s a pretty powerful weapon." After catching sight of the hitman, Adam massaged the back of his own bandaged head, and he finally got to have a taste of what it felt like to be able to exert dominance over an opponent. "Unfortunately for you, that''s not going to help you here. How is it that you have the courage to take on a mission like this when you''re so weak?"

    As soon as his voice trailed off, he immediately charged toward the hitman, while the hitman turned around and fled as quickly as he could.

    With each step that Adam took, the ground trembled violently. Even though his absolute speed far exceeded that of the hitman, his bulky body was not very suited to running through an environment like this.

    The cars obstructed him at every turn, and the passageways were too narrow. There were many points where he was forced to push some cards aside before he could advance, so it was very inconvenient. As the gap between the two was beginning to widen further and further, a burst of fire erupted out of the darkness to the side, and the hitman''s head was caught between the fangs of one of Hellhound''s two heads.

    In contrast with the heavy and clumsy Mummy, Hellhound had always been far superior when it came to agility and speed.

    It seems like this form isn''t suited for this setting.

    Just as Adam was wondering whether he should fuse with Hellhound instead, a small mecha descended from the entrance of the carpark.

    .

    The mecha was a little crude, but it possessed impressive firepower. One of its arms was equipped with a gatling gun, and as soon as it arrived in the carpark, it began to spray a barrage of bullets at Adam.

    The bullets struck his body amid a string of loud ngs, and the concentrated barrage quickly tore through the defenses provided by his bandages, causing him some actual harm.

    Looks like I''ll have to hold off from switching for now.

    Adam grabbed a nearby car with one hand, using it as a shield as he began to advance.

    "Hellhound, attack with your fire!"

    He issued that instruction to Hellhound as he was approaching the mecha, and the fruits of his training began to show. At this point, his connection with his invoked entities was already extremely strong, and he was able to use them as if they were parts of his body.

    At the same time, he hurled the car in his hand through the air. At this point, the car was already riddled with holes, and right as it was approaching the mecha, a fireball flew toward it from behind.

    The timing was perfect, and the fireball detonated the car, causing a massive explosion that instantly destroyed the frontal section of the mecha.

    Immediately thereafter, Adam arrived on the scene, plunging his massive meat cleaver directly into the gaps in the mecha. With his enormous strength in this new form, he was able to tear open the mecha from the inside, and thus, the second hitman was also in.

    There are still five left!

    Adam''s telegnosis was fully activated as he carefully assessed his surroundings.

    The second hitman was clearly far more powerful than the first one, which told him that there was a great deal of variation in the level of ability of the hitmen who wereing after him. Thus, there was a possibility that there were more powerful enemies toe.

    Adam could sense that two more people were making their way into the carpark, and they seemed to be a couple. The man was holding a rose, while the woman was wearing a princess dress.

    As soon as the two arrived, the woman began to chant an incantation, while the man blew a gust of air at the rose before him, upon which a floral scent immediately filled the entire carpark.

    Adam tried to hold his breath, but the aroma was able to seep into his body through all of his orifices, making it impossible to keep out.

    As soon as the scent entered his body, he was immediately struck by a sense of drowsiness and feebleness.

    He pushed through the feeble sensation, raising his carving knife as he trudged toward the two hitmen, but before he had even made it halfway there, the womanpleted her incantation. Her ability seemed to be rted to cyberhexes, and following thepletion of her incantation, the feebleness that Adam and Hellhound were experiencing became even more crushing. At the same time, their bodies began to slowly rot away, with sores and ulcers quickly arising on their skin.

    "You two form a strong pair, but your abilities ovep a little too much!" Given his immense physical resistance in this new form, Adam was able to fight back the pain and difort to plunge his carving knife straight into the ground.

    The Hypertoxic Halo was instantly released, and as the green light passed over the two hitmen, their bodies immediately began to wilt. The man was the more resilient one of the two, able tost a few seconds before he fell to the ground with blood pouring out of all of his orifices. In contrast, the woman instantly perished after throwing up a mouthful of blood as soon as the Hypertoxic Halo made contact with her body.

    I knew their defenses were going to be awful!

    That attack would''ve perhaps been next to useless on the mecha that Adam had just dismantled, but it was ideal for taking care of a pair of cyberhex casters.

 Chapter 32: The Annoying Golden Iron Triangle

    <h4>Chapter 32: The Annoying Golden Iron Triangle</h4>

    Ever since developing telegnosis through the special meditation method taught to him by Sadou, Adam''s understanding of his two anomalies was improving by the day. In particr, after fusing with them, he had developed a far more in-depth understanding of their abilities.

    Aside from basic attributes such as superior speed and physical resistance, both of the anomalies had their own unique abilities, and Adam had named these abilities based on their effects.

    Mummy had two special abilities, one of which was Bandage Proliferation, while the other one was Hypertoxic Halo, which Adam was using at this very moment.

    The first one was a control-system ability, while the second one inflicted damage upon multiple targets.

    Mummy was an exceptionally powerful anomaly with outstanding physical resistance, but it was rtively slow and possessed a heavy and mdroit body.

    Hellhound had three special abilities, namely Explosive Fireball, Pyrows, and Hyperspeed.

    It was very clear that the abilities of these anomalies were capable of evolving. Prior to devouring the scarecrow''s anomalic power, Hellhound''s fireballs were incapable of exploding, and they were also nowhere near as powerful as they currently were. At the time, it had also never disyed the two other aforementioned abilities, so it was clear that those abilities had been developed from subsequent evolution.

    Only by having a clear understanding of his own anomalies'' abilities could he use those abilities to perfectly target different types of enemies.

    That leaves only three left.

    Adam had been unable to shake off this nagging sense of foreboding this entire time. His telegnosis was able to detect a vague sense of peril, but he was unable to pinpoint exactly where the source of the peril was. In fact, he couldn''t even sense the general direction of where the feeling wasing from, which meant that the remaining three hitmen were clearly far more powerful than the previous five.

    "I thought you were going to be tough to beat, but I''ve been watching all this time, and you''re not that powerful at all!" The wall on one side of the carpark was suddenly smashed open, and a warrior d in a suit of heavy army burst in with a huge shield in his hand. "How did Oni no Hanzou slip up against a target this week? You must''ve received reinforcements from the pawn shop! Quit hiding, you two! Let''s end this quickly!"

    He was yelling at his two allies, who were hiding behind him, but neither of them answered.

    It was clear that they were far more cautious than he was. One''s image in the psychic world was a manifestation of their personality, so in this world, certain personality traits were magnified.

    "Alright, fine, you little cowards. I can take care of this weakling on my own!"

    The armored warrior wasted no further time with words as he raised his shield and swung a b through the air with his other hand as he charged toward Adam.

    The warrior was a very burly man, and even though he still wasn''t as physically intimidating as Adam in his current form, he still posed a very intimidating sight as he barreled through the carpark.

    Adam wanted to test the warrior''s powers, and he was also wary of the man''s hidden allies, so for this first sh, he chose to passively defend.

    Thump!

    After a short charge, the armored warrior crashed into Adam''s body, and even though he was already prepared, he was still sent stumbling back. He was only able to stabilize himself after taking two backward steps, and his carving knife was kept at bay by his opponent''s shield.

    "See? I told you this kid ain''t got nothing on us!" the warrior taunted while swinging his b into Adam''s abdomen, and the metal b struck the resilient bandages with a dull thud.

    After taking this attack with his body, Adam came to the conclusion that this warrior was clearly someone who excelled far more in defense than attack. Essentially, he was a tank, and if someone like him wanted toplete a high-level hit job, he would have to partner up with hitmen that excelled in offense.

    With that in mind, Adam focused all of his attention and telegnosis on looking out for long-range attacks.

    It was a good thing that he was able to make these decisions so quickly, because as soon as he focused his attention, a hazy sense of peril immediately began to develop from the back of his head, and he hurriedly took evasive action, but he still suffered a cut to the face from a passing ck arrowhead.

    The arrow was flying too fast for Adam to track with the naked eye, and not only had it torn through the bandages around his face, it had also sliced arge gash into his cheek. Just the wind that was swept up by the passing arrow alone tore away arge chunk of skin and flesh from his face.

    In his current state, defense was also his forte over attack, so in order to inflict so much damage from just a ncing blow, that arrow had to have been as powerful as an all-out attack from Oni no Hanzou. If he hadn''t dodged in time, the arrow would''ve punched through his head for sure.

    I have to take that archer out of the equation first!

    Adam was very much spooked by that close call, but thankfully, that attack had also exposed the archer''s position, so he immediately instructed Hellhound to hunt the archer down.

    "Didn''t I say that I had two little cowards with me?" Even though he could see the direction that Hellhound was moving in, the armored warriors remainedpletely unflustered and continued to mock Adam, almost as if mocking the target were one of his obligations. "That dog of yours isn''t going to be jumping around for much longer!"

    After that, he swung his b into Adam''s body again, and on this asion, he had aimed for Adam''s knee, sending him falling to the ground.

    However, Adam wasn''t worried about himself. Instead, he cast his gaze toward Hellhound, which was rapidly approaching its prey, but it didn''t make it very far before a blue technomantic array appeared beneath its paws.

    First, countless des of ice emerged within the technomantic array to slow down its advance, and that was followed by a violent snowstorm that abruptly descended to snuff out the mes on its body.

    Even though the array wasn''t very destructive, it had managed to trap Hellhound within its bounds.

    Once Hellhound''s movement had been slowed significantly by the array, an arrow shot out of the darkness, piercing through one of its heads.

    Adam immediately rose to his feet with the intention of rescuing Hellhound upon seeing this, but the armored warriors refused to go away, raising his shield to ck Adam''s path.

    .

    "Where do you think you''re going, boy?"

    "Fuck!" Adam swore out lout as he swung his carving knife viciously through the air, only for it to be blocked by his opponent''s shield. He pressed the de down forcefully while unleashing his Hypertoxic Halo, but white light began to emanate from the shield to thwart the ability.

    "You can''t hurt me!" The armored warrior continued to taunt Adam as he forced back Adam with his shield, and the two became entangled once again.

    After a few exchanges, Adam discovered that his opponent was like an irond turtle. His entire suit of armor waspletely devoid of any gaps, and there were no weak points on his body, so it was very difficult to crush him directly with brute force. Furthermore, all of his attacks were extremely effective in pestering and harassing the opponent. If it weren''t for the fact that he wascking in offensive firepower, he would''ve been a high-level hitman.

    It quickly became apparent to Adam that he would require at least 10 minutes to dispatch his opponent, but 10 minutes was already enough time for the trio to kill him many times over.

    All of a sudden, Hellhound let loose an agonized howl from the other side of the battle. On this asion, the arrow missed its vital regions, but it had still pierced through its abdomen.

    In this dire situation, Adam made a decision.

    He couldn''t afford to let Hellhound die. If Hellhound were to die, then he would be next.

    With this armored tank standing in his way, ice technomancy that could restrict his movements, and a formidable archer lurking in the shadows, he would fall to his demise very quickly if he were on his own.

    With that in mind, Adam threw himself at the armored warrior with all his might. His opponent was led into thinking that Adam was making a desperate final effort, and he wrapped the chain of his b around Adam''s ankle, trying to stall him to the very end.

    However, right as the two shed, Adam reversed his fusion with Mummy, then dove toward Hellhound on the other side.

    Hellhound knew what he wanted, and in the same instant, it used up all of its remaining energy to struggle free from the technomantic array before also flying toward Adam.

    As soon as the two came into contact with each other in mid-air, they immediately fused as one, giving rise to a twin-headed werewolf in the underground carpark.

 Chapter 33: Revenge

    <h4>Chapter 33: Revenge</h4>

    The first sensation that Adam was struck by afterpleting the fusion was pain.

    The injuries sustained by Hellhound were passed onto him, and not only was there a wound on his abdomen, he had also lost all feeling in one of his heads.

    However, he had no time to worry about that right now as he had to get himself out of this predicament first.

    He immediately unleashed his Hyperspeed ability, rushing in the direction where the arrows had been fired from. However, after taking only a few steps, he abruptly turned around and fled with all his might in the opposite direction.

    Neither of the two hitmen lurking in the shadows anticipated this, so their ice technomancy and arrow both struck nothing by empty air.

    <i>I have a few seconds to escape! </i>

    Through his prior observation, Adam discovered that the two hitmen in the shadows were ratherckluster when it came to their attack frequency.

    One of them needed time to prepare their technomancy, while the other was unable to fire off consecutive arrows. This cooldown time between their abilities presented a golden opportunity for him to escape.

    With his Hyperspeed ability fully activated, Adam sted an Explosive Fireball toward the ceiling diagonally above him. The mes blew up the ceiling overhead, and he leaped up through the hole to escape from the carpark.

    Following that brief battle, he already knew that there was no way he would be a match for the trio of hitmen.

    The three of themplemented one another perfectly,plete with a melee tank, a ranged offensive powerhouse, and a technomancer capable of controlling the entire battlefield. They were like the textbook DPS, tank, healer iron triangle, amonly adopted team makeup in games that had a stifling effect on the opposition. Even someone far more powerful than them wouldn''t necessarily be able toe out on top against thisbination, let alone Adam, whose powers were certainly nothing to write home about.

    Thankfully, Hellhound was very fast, making it very useful in this situation where Adam had to run for his life.

    After leaping out of the underground carpark, Adam rushed onto the street, using his senses to determine a direction before rushing in that direction as quickly as he could. As a result, the three hitmen were left to stare at one another in bemusement.

    "What the hell? How did we let him get away?" In the underground carpark, the armored warrior was still wrestling with Mummy, but his heart clearly wasn''t in it. "Hurry up and go after him! I''ll take care of this mummy on my own!"

    "Let''s kill it first to avoid any potential trouble!"

    As usual, the other two were still extremely cautious. An archer wearing a ck cloak emerged from the darkness, drawing his bow before firing one arrow after another at Mummy''s vital regions.

    Only after a total of 11 arrows had been fired was Mummy well and truly killed.

    "That thing''s defenses were even harder to break through than yours!" the archer eximed while gulping down lungfuls of air. He had exerted himself immensely as every single arrow that he fired was instilled with his power.

    "That''s impossible! I can withstand 20 arrows at the very least!" The armored warrior was still as bragadocious as ever, and while talking himself up, he cast his gaze toward the man in the technomancer robe, who had emerged on the other side. "Has he left the psychic world?"

    "No. Should we go after him? It''s going to be a little risky considering this is his psychic world."?The technomancer seemed to possess some type of sensory ability, and he was a little hesitant after determining the direction that Adam had fled in. "Perhaps he''s capable of calling on reinforcements in his own psychic world."

    "There''s nothing to be scared of! He''s a nk te, isn''t he? He has no family, and the amount of help that other people can offer him is very limited. Usually, the most powerful people in someone''s psychic world are their loved ones, and even if he does have family, I don''t think we need to be scared of them anyway."

    "But..."

    "We''re hitmen, so every job that we take on will inevitably carry some degree of risk. Think about it: even if the risk we''re taking is higher than normal, it''s not higher by much, yet the reward on offer is 10 times what we normally get from a mission, which means we need to do 10 missions to earn the same amount of money frompleting this single mission! Do we not take risks in the other missions that we take on? Thebined risk from 10 missions is definitelyrger than the risk incurred by this mission alone. It works out mathematically and statistically!" the armored warrior urged.

    "He''s right." The technomancer was the first one to be swayed. "The cumtive risk from doing 10 missions is definitely higher than this."

    "But... even Oni no Hanzou failed..." ck Archer remained unconvinced.

    "We agreed to leave difficult decisions down to votes, and at the moment, it''s two to one."

    "Fine, then let''s go!"

    ¡­¡­

    After leaving the carpark, Adam didn''t get very far before a massive wave of feebleness washed over his entire body. Through his tight connection with his two anomalies, he knew that Mummy had perished, and this was a source of immense grief for him.

    ording to what he had learned in Layton Academy, invoked entities were just like human psychic bodies in that they couldn''t be revived after meeting their demise. They were a part of one''s personality to begin with, and once they were destroyed, that was the end. In order to nurture a new one, time would be required.

    <i>I''ll get them back for this! </i>

    Adam greatly cherished his two anomalies, not just because they were the embodiment of his powers, but also because he was emotionally invested in them.

    <i>I won''t let a single one of you get away! </i>

    After rushing through a few more streets, Adam finally caught sight of the throngs of people fleeing in panic and the massive figure in the distance. "You''re finally here!"

    The giant scarecrow wasn''t an invoked entity of his, nor was it a part of his personality, so it naturally couldn''t be summoned to his side whenever he pleased.

    However, a connection had been established between the two, and it had been dwelling in Adam''s psychic world this entire time. Adam had called upon it as soon as he realized just how much danger he was in, and at the time, the scarecrow had been elsewhere. After registering Adam''s call for help, it immediately rushed over, and the two of them had finally met up.

    "Kill those three for me!"

    The scarecrow threw its head back and shrieked to the heavens as an aura of terror permeated through the air.

    ¡­¡­

    After the Golden Iron Triangle took care of Mummy, they began to pursue Adam, and under the guidance of the technomancer, they passed through several streets before arriving at the entrance of a sewer.

    "There''s definitely an enclosed space inside. What the hell is that kid thinking?" the armored warrior mused as he peered into the dark entrance with a perplexed expression. "Has he not just cornered himself?"

    "Could it be that he''s trying to use the darkness and terrain advantage to pick off ck Archer first?" The technomancer was also quite befuddled. "Perhaps as a werewolf, he possesses night vision, or perhaps in that form, the darkness can enhance his powers in some way?"

    "Do we have to go in?" ck Archer asked as he peered into the dark entrance. "I have a bad feeling about this."

    "Stop being so pessimistic. We already made a decision through a vote, so let''s not waste any time. I''ll go in first to test the waters." In order to deny hispanions the opportunity to talk themselves out of the mission, the armored warrior stepped in through the dark entrance first.

    As a major metropolis with a poption in the hundreds of millions, the sewage system beneath Sandrise City was very advanced.

    After entering the sewer, the trio found themselves in an area that was very spacious, but also extremely dark.

    "Should I generate some light with my technomancy?" The technomancer was feeling a little unnerved by the darkness.

    "Don''t do that. Just adjust to the darkness so we don''t fall prey to a sneak attack." ck Archer had also entered the sewer, and he immediately concealed himself upon entry. "That guy has mes all over his body, so he''ll be very easy to spot. Use your tracking technomancy now."

    "Alright." The technomancer guided hispanions forward using the faint light that was emanating from his staff. The trio traversed through the sewage system for a while, taking a number of turns that led them into a blind spot, upon which the three were finally greeted by the sight of light up ahead.

    "He''s over there!"

    Right as the three of them caught sight of Adam, the sewage system behind them suddenly copsed, and an enormous shadow emerged. The technomancer turned around and was rmed and horrified to see a terrifying scarecrow standing at over six meters in height.

    ck light gathered at the scarecrow''s arm, and it swung its hook at the technomancer with crushing might.

 Chapter 34: You Attacked Me First

    <h4>Chapter 34: You Attacked Me First</h4>

    "Out of my way!"

    The armored warrior immediately pushed the technomancer aside, then raised his giant shield to ward off the attack from the metal hook.

    A resounding boom rang out as destructive ck light and shockwaves exploded within the sewage system.

    The armored warrior had disyed imprable defenses against Adam earlier, but just a single attack from the scarecrow was enough to force him to his knees, and a massive dent had also been smashed into his shield.

    What the hell is that?

    With just a single attack, it had managed to knock down the tank of the trio.

    The destructive power on disy here was not inferior to that of a top-tier hitman on the ck market like Oni no Hanzou.

    The Golden Iron Triangle turned their attention toward the giant creature to find that it was an enormous scarecrow with glowing green eyes, a metal hook for a hand, and ck energy surging around its entire body.

    "Isn''t that an anomaly? Shouldn''t anomalies serve a destructive role in one''s psychic world? Why is his anomaly helping him?"

    The three hitmen had so many questions about the scarecrow, but this clearly wasn''t the time to be pondering them.

    "Run!"

    This was far too powerful an opponent for them to handle, and the three of them immediately tried to leave, but Adam instantly sealed the boundaries of his psychic world to prevent their escape.

    Following his training with Sadou, his psychic world was no longer a ce where others coulde and go as they pleased.

    If they wanted to sever the connection, they would have to shatter his psychic boundaries, which perhaps wasn''t a difficult task, but it was one that would require time.

    The three hitmen were nning to escape, but the scarecrow didn''t care about that, and it swung its hook down once again.

    The armored warrior was unable to withstand his second blow, and not only was his shield sent flying through the air, half of his arm was also shattered.

    Compared with Adam, the scarecrow''s power was simply on another level.

    The defenses that had seemed so imprable to Adam were impossibly fragile when pitted against the scarecrow.

    In the face of this sudden turn of events, the other two hitmen reacted inpletely different ways.

    Clearly, the technomancer shared a closer personal bond with the warrior, and he immediately unleashed his ice technomancy to try and slow down the scarecrow so that the two could escape together.

    In contrast, ck Archer hurriedly fired off an arrow from afar, then immediately fled for his life.

    He was a coward and a ss cannon to begin with, and he didn''t possess any other battle abilities.

    After firing off that arrow, he discovered that the offensive firepower that he had always held in high esteem was next to useless against the scarecrow, and he immediately ran away.

    "Don''t me me, you two insisted oning. I knew something was off right away. It''s not my fault, you did this to yourselves," ck Archer murmured as he slowly retreated to the entrance of the sewage system.

    However, as soon as he caught sight of the light shining in from outside, a fiery figure appeared in his path.

    "Aren''t you forgetting something?"

    Adam raised his ws andshed out at ck Archer, who immediately performed a barrel roll before raising his bow to fire off an arrow, but he was too slow.

    Not only was he slow, his attack frequency was also quiteckluster. Adam swayed to the side to evade the attack, then opened his mouth up wide to release a fireball, which exploded to send ck Archer flying through the air.

    After tumbling to the ground, ck Archer found himselfying sprawled out at the entrance of the sewage system with the light from outside shining down on him. His entire body had been charred by the fiery explosion, and his bow was also nowhere to be seen, having been wrenched out of his hands.

    They were referred to as the iron triangle not just because of how powerful they were as a team, but also because of how weak they were when separated.

    They were so weak individually that they had no choice but to band together, and only with sufficient cohesion could they be referred to as the iron triangle.

    "Your agility, defenses, and speed are all terrible, and your concealment abilities are also quite mediocre. If you hade after me by yourself, I would''ve taken care of you in seconds. In fact, when ites to individual power, you''re not even on the same level as that mecha from before." Adam made his way over to ck Archer''s side before squatting down beside him. "However, you also excel enough in your forte that you are the first one I decided to target."

    During the battle that had taken ce in the carpark, ck Archer had been the one that Adam was most wary of.

    His arrows possessed incredible prative power, and if he were to be struck in a vital region, there was a good chance that he would be killed by a single shot.

    "Please spare me! I have money that I can exchange my life for... I''ve earned a lot of money, I can give it all to you!"

    "Perhaps if your twopanions had made me this offer, I would consider it as I''m in great need of money, but I can''t bring myself to trust someone like you, who would abandon his own allies so readily. You should''ve prepared yourself for the possibility of suffering a fate like this the day you decided to be a hitman. If you don''t have at least that much self-awareness, then you should''ve never be a hitman in the first ce."

    mes arose from Adam''s ws as he spoke, and with a single swat of those ws, ck Archer''s frail body was instantly torn to shreds.

    ¡­¡­

    .

    In the real world, a man in a ck hoodie was standing in the corner of a carpark, and his eyes instantly zed over as he fell to the ground in apletely limp and lifeless state.

    ¡­¡­

    After taking care of ck Archer, Adam casually retraced his steps back through the sewage system. His nonchnce stemmed from his trust in the scarecrow''s powers. The Golden Iron Triangle was a formidable team, but even when their team wasplete, they were still far less fearsome than Oni no Hanzou.

    The true power of the anomaly of fear wasn''t inferior to that of Oni no Hanzou, so the two were no match for it, and even their chances of getting away were slim to none.

    Sure enough, by the time Adam arrived back at the scene, the two of them had already been vanquished.

    The ice technomancer wasying unconscious on the ground with a shattered wall of ice all around him, while the armored warrior''s armor was being eroded by the scarecrow''s greenser beams. His defenses were the only reason that he had managed tost to this point.

    However, he wasn''t going to be able tost much longer. His defensive capabilities were roughly on par with Mummy''s, and there was no way that he would be able to withstand consecutive attacks of this caliber. Despite this, he was an admirable fighter. Upon witnessing Adam''s return, he forced his way against the scarecrow''sser beams and was still trying to take down Adam.

    However, he was already a spent force, and he had only just risen to his feet before arge section of his body was charred ck, following which he waspletely ttened by the scarecrow''s hook.

    Not once throughout this process did he beg for his life, nor did he try to negotiate with Adam.

    After killing the armored warrior, the scarecrow still hadn''t had enough, and it shifted its gaze toward the technomancer, piercing directly through his body with itsser beams.

    <i>It''s finally over. After this, surely there won''t be as many hitmen trying toe after me.?</i>

    Adam was a little dazed as he looked at the "bodies" of the two hitmen. Ever since his awakening, he had already lost count of how many times he had seen dead bodies, but this was the first time that he had ever put an end to anyone''s life himself.

    From the homeless men in the real world to the human farm in the spiritual world, Adam didn''t have many memories following his awakening, but there was no shortage of gruesome scenes in those memories.

    After going through so much, Adam thought that he had already grown ustomed to bloodshed, but killing someone for the first time was still not a good feeling.

    In order to console himself, he could only tell himself over and over again that this was justified self-defense.

    "You were the ones who attacked me first. You wanted to kill me, but you were too weak and ended up getting killed yourselves. There''s nothing wrong with that..."

    Adam took a deep breath, and if it weren''t for the fact that he had an ultimate goal that he was working toward, he could''ve easily found himself lost in and consumed by his crushing guilt.

    However, he had no time to dwell on something like this. There were still far too many things that he had to do, such as destroying that human farm, uncovering his own past, and finding out all of the secrets rted to himself and all nk tes.

    "You were the ones who attacked me first! Fuck!"

    After cursing loudly one final time, Adam left the psychic world.

    Once his vision came into focus in the real world, he discovered that he was still in the underground carpark, and there was a bodyying peacefully behind a car not far away from him.

    There were seven other bodiesying in much the same manner littered throughout the carpark.

    Even though they had died very discretely, Adam knew that it was unwise to stay in this ce any longer. It wasn''t going to take long before Mechguard officers arrived on the scene, so he had to get out of there right away.

 Chapter 35: Entering the Metaverse

    <h4>Chapter 35: Entering the Metaverse</h4>

    After picking up his transmitter, Adam rushed out of the carpark.

    Even though an epic sequences of battles had just taken ce in the psychic world, nothing of note had happened in the real world aside from the eight people who had seemingly passed away spontaneously in that carpark.

    Hence, the Mechguard officers weren''t alerted to the incident right away.

    After leaving the carpark, Adam''s n was to take the void rail back to Layton Academy.

    However, before he had even stepped into the capsule carriage on the tracks, he received a call from Red Spider.

    "Don''t make me clean up your mess, you little rascal! Don''t you know you have to deal with the aftermath of your actions? You released such a massive psychic domain, there''s no way there weren''t any innocent civilians that just so happened to get sucked into your psychic world while parking their cars! While you were fighting those hitmen, they were naturally just going to lie low and keep quiet, but they called Mechguard as soon as you left!"

    "Then what can we do?"

    "I already took care of it for you. In any case, you retaliated in your psychic domain, so the real-world consequences are very limited. On top of that, this is justified self-defense, so you don''t have to worry about anything. Looks like you learned quite a few tricks from Sadou, didn''t you?"

    "You knw about that?"

    "Of course I do! The pawn shop specializes in the business of intel. Otherwise, how could we possibly resolve so many problems? No matter who youe into contact with, you have to remember at all times that you are an employee of the pawn shop."

    "If I''m an employee of the pawn shop, then can I get some wages? At the moment, I have to repay 100,000 a month, and... Hey!"

    Red Spider cut off the video call before Adam had a chance to finish.

    "I can''t mention money anywhere! These days, money is even more important than human lives!"

    After taking a moment to consider his situation, he decided to return to the academy.

    There was no other ce for him to go.

    After taking care of those eight hitmen, he was confident that he wouldn''t be harassed by any low-level hitmen in the near future, but at the same time, that also meant that the next wave of hitmen toe after him were going to be a lot more powerful.

    He needed to work extra hard in his training and also try to unearth the person who had put out the reward on his head in the ck market.

    70,000,000 really is a massive bounty...

    After getting into the capsule carriage, Adam took the time to rest while mull over some things, and at the same time, he established a n for his future, consisting of earning money, investigating certain people, and warding off assassination attempts.

    If there was one thing that could address all these objectives in a rtivelyprehensive manner, then it had to be...

    "I think we should open a shop together. What do you think?" After returning to the academy, he immediately sought out Hook and Nie Yiyi. "We should form a team and open a psychotherapy clinic."

    "What? And face anomalies all day long?" Hook asked as he sat casually in the ssroom with his legs crossed. "I understand that opening a psychotherapy clinic is very lucrative, and that there''s a lot of demand for this service, but generally speaking, that''s a venture that only true masters of the trade can dip their toes into."

    "Nie Yiyi is a master, isn''t she?"

    "Er..." Nie Yiyi blushed from embarrassment from Adam''s praise. "I wouldn''t call myself a master. I''m ranked pretty high up there in the academy, but there are many people more powerful than me outside the academy."

    "That''s alright, I count as half a master as well now," Adam encouraged.

    When it came to a team that he could trust, this was the best one that he could assemble at this point in time.

    Nie Yiyi wasn''t considered to be elite in the outside world, but she was certainly among the cream of the crop in the academy.

    Hook was very weak, but he was extremely versatile, and adapters of his talents were very rare.

    "I''m not doing it. It''s too dangerous. I like money a lot, but not to the point that I''m willing to sacrifice my life for it. Given thepensation that we get for facing anomalies, it would be smarter to sign up as a hitman in the ck market. There are no weak anomalies, but there definitely are weak mission targets," Hook said with a shake of his head.

    He had been well and truly spooked by the scarecrowst time.

    Nie Yiyi was rather tempted, but in her eyes, funding was a problem.

    "On top of that, we have no storefront, whether that be in the real world or in the Metaverse, nor do we have the required licenses. It''s going to be very difficult..."

    Most importantly, neither of them were as desperate as Adam in their pursuit for power and money.

    The reason why Adam had thought of the idea of opening a psychotherapy clinic was primarily due to his own unique traits.

    After a great deal of contemtion, Adam decided that the quickest way in which he could improve his own power was to absorb anomalic power.

    Some strange flowerpots had been imnted into his psychic body by someone, and not only were these flowerpots capable of nurturing anomalies, they were also able to allow the emotional anomalies inside to devour the power of other anomalies.

    As long as he could constantly find more anomalies and defeat them to absorb their power, his own powers would enjoy a meteoric rise.

    It was very difficult to encounter anomalies through other avenues for earning money, but if he were to open a psychotherapy clinic, virtually all of the patients would be sure to have some persistent trauma or fears.

    Thus, by opening a psychotherapy clinic, he would be able to kill two birds with one stone, earning money while providing himself with what was essentially a cheat code in his quest for power.

    "I have some interest in this subject. How about we go and take look in the Metaverse after dinner? Nowadays, opening a shop in the Metaverse is more effective than opening one in the real world."

    "Of course."

    .

    ¡­¡­

    Following their discussion, the three of them gathered together in a dorm room that night.

    "Here''s the 11.0 helmet that I used in the past. I can''t believe there''s someone in this day and age who doesn''t own a Metaverse helmet," Hook said as he handed Adam a helmet that was reeked of excess sebum.

    Adam put on the mask, and even though there was a great deal of general knowledge pertaining to the Metaverse in his mind, he had never actually logged into the Metaverse since his awakening.

    One of the pieces of general knowledge that was already in his mind was how to operate a Metaverse helmet, and with the helmet acquired, he connected his consciousness with the direct neural interface. A rush of dizziness ensued, following which he entered the Metaverse.

    In doing so, he arrived directly within a vast space.

    The ground that he was standing on belonged to an enormous space station, and there were many people roaming over the space station. A quick inspection of his surroundings told Adam that there had to be tens of thousands of people in the nearby area alone.

    While Adam was still looking around, two bursts of light shed beside him, and Hook and Nie Yiyi also arrived.

    These two were clearly already seasoned Metaverse veterans, and as soon as they arrived, they immediately headed toward a certain direction.

    "Let''s go. If we want to open a shop, then the best course of action is to visit the Trade. Thend on that is super expensive, so we won''t be able to purchase, but we can perhaps consider renting depending on the monthly rate," Hook introduced while making his way toward a teleporter on the space station.

    After bringing up the voice-activated module on the teleporter, countless holograms ofs emerged before the three of them.

    Among them weres like the Sex, the Game, the Beer, the Baseball, the Deep Sea, the Horror, and countless mores that all served different purposes.

    Every single one of thoses were constituent modules of the Metaverse, and many smaller modules had been embedded into those modules.

    For example, Cowboy''s gamepany was one of the constituent parts of the Game.

    "We need to go the business and the Trade. It''s like fucking Wall Street over there! Every single inch ofnd is worth it''s weight in gold," Hookined while entering the term "Trade" into the searchbar, following which the module of a colorful emerged.

    As soon as his hand came into contact with the module, he instantly vanished on the spot, having entered the module.

    Adam and Nie Yiyi replicated this process and also entered the trade star.

 Chapter 36: Business

    <h4>Chapter 36: Business</h4>

    It took less than a second for them to teleport from the space station to the concrete pavement that they were currently standing on, and the surrounding scene hadpletely changed.

    The sky was filled with hot air balloons and airships. Horizontal banners were attached to the airships, and the hot air balloons were also riddled with advertisements of all types of products such as daily necessities, various beverages, and different brands of sports shoes.

    The surrounding area was also extremely lively and bustling. Some people were quickly walking by, while others were selling various items. These items were also very diverse, with things like game entry tickets, props, and equipment, and there were also people selling information.

    "This is thergest market on Earth. Your pawn shop owns somend here as well," Hook exined in a casual voice.

    However, Adam wasn''t looking at all of that. Instead, his attention was drawn to the people around him.

    This market was also filled with countless people, but most of them were workers, ones that were no different from the people role-ying as zombies andborers in the game world. Many of the people here were wearing advertisement tags around their necks, and they were performing strange dances or yelling loudly, doing everything they could to attract the attention of the people at the market.

    There were more workers than traders present, and even the tourists here were outnumbered by the workers.

    Not only were the majority of people in this world poor people, the number of deceased individuals was also gradually overtaking the living poption.

    For the majority of people who passed away, once their personas were uploaded to the Metaverse, they would have to find a job to support themselves and pay for the memory that they were consuming.

    Whenever Adam thought about the fact that these cyberliches were only puppets who thought they were still alive but were actually missing most of the core matter that made up who they were, he would be ovee by a sense of pity.

    In a sense, these cyberliches were just as pitiful as nk tes. One of them was missing their body and was living on as a broken soul while serving as aborer for others, while the other was missing their soul and their body was being used as a vessel for someone else.

    "Fuck!"

    "What''s wrong? Why are you suddenly so worked up?" Nie Yiyi asked as she turned to Adam with an inquisitive expression. "Did you see something?"

    She looked around to find that everything appeared to be quite normal.

    "I didn''t see anything?"

    Adam shook his head in response. This so-called scene of normality around them was no different from hell in his eyes.

    "What the hell''s wrong with you then? Get a grip!"

    Nie Yiyi was as pragmatic as ever as she opened up the interface and began to search for shops that matched her requirements.

    She typed a few key terms into the interface hovering before her to narrow down the scope of her search.

    "Let''s see, our business will be based in Sandrise City... Psychotherapy... Adapters... Low-end service..."

    Based on those key terms, her search yielded a certain area.

    "Should we go and take a look?"

    "Sure."

    The three of them tapped the teleportation button one after another, vanishing as bursts of white light again, and by the time they reappeared, they had already arrived on Cosmos Street, Trade, Metaverse.

    In contrast with the street that they had just been on, this one was far less lively, and the nearby shops were designed in a way that made them very private and understated, giving them an aura of mystery.

    After inspecting his surroundings, Adam discovered that the shops here mainly offered two types of services, the first of which was psychotherapy, while the other one was astrological divination. Adam had no idea how these two seeminglypletely unrted services had ended up finding a home together on this street, but after epting this setup, he found it to be quite intriguing.

    Isn''t this supposed to be a low-end service? It seems like thend here is rather expensive,?Adam thought to himself as he calcted his budget.

    He was well and truly broke.

    "It may be a low-end service, but it''s still one that''s provided by adapters. You think this is equivalent to running a streetside food stall?"

    While Adam was still hesitating about how to proceed, someone approached him.

    In contrast with the average worker, this man''s face and eyes were clearly more expressive, so it was quite apparent that this was a "living person" with moreplete personality data.

    "Are you here for astrological divination or psychotherapy? I am the universal guide for this area, and I''m responsible for all of the real estate deals here." This was a young man with an Asian face, and he wore a warm smile as he provided everyone with a self-introduction. "Rest assured, we are a legitimatepany, and it''s entirely within the rules and regtions for us to take over all of the real estate services in this area."

    He opened his electronic business card and a certificate that had been signed by the main consciousness of the Metaverse as he spoke.

    Upon verifying that the man had all of the required electronic documents, Adam and the others were feeling a lot more reassured.

    "We''re here to look at storefronts."

    "Ah, so you''re here for real estate services. That''s within the scope of the services that we provide."

    The business card revealed the young man''s name to be Kim Hee-cho, and the smile on his face widened even further when he heard that the trio was here to look for a storefront.

    Real estate deals were the most lucrative service that he could provide.

    "Would you like to purchase or rent a storefront?"

    "How much will it cost to rent a storefront in this area?"

    "The monthly rental fees will range somewhere between 120,000 and 180,000."

    "Hah?" Hook''s face immediately fell upon hearing this number. Even though he was a regr here in the Metaverse, he had never paid much attention to information rted to property rentals. "Why are the properties here so damn expensive?"

    "Nowadays, everyone is searching for the services they want in the Metaverse. Not only can face-to-face meetings be facilitated here, travel is also much more convenient than it is in the real world. On top of that, due to the fact that different types of businesses have their own areas, not only is there a higher turnover rate for people running businesses here, they''ll also get more customers..."

    "Even then, you can''t charge over 100,000 a month!"

    For the averageborer in the real world, their ie was only several thousand a month, so this was an astronomical sum to be charging.

    "Every single property here has a market value in excess of 10,000,000, so a monthly rental fee of over 100,000 isn''t all that unreasonable. In addition to that, adapters earn far higher ies than other people. Perhaps a single psychotherapy job could earn you three months'' worth of rent."

    "Do divinators also earn such high ies?"

    "You may not be aware of this, but in the eastern region, there are many wealthy individuals who are devout believers in feng shui. Do you know what feng shui is? A master can charge hundreds of thousands, even over 1,000,000 for a feng shui inspection. There are only two types of divinators here, one of which are renowned masters in wealthy circles, while the second category consists of divination masters who have many fans on social media tforms. These young cyberstars can earn tens of millions per live stream, and they can also get sponsored on top of that."

    "It''s too expensive. Let''s go," Adam said with a shake of his head. He already had monthly repayments of 100,000 that he had to make on his loan, so a further monthly rental fee of over 100,000 would bepletely unfeasible for him.

    "Hold on a second." Kim Hee-cho had already been toiling away in the Metaverse real estate market for seven or eight years, and when it came to judging people, his eyes were as sharp as a hawk''s. As the person responsible for all business in this area, he wasn''t going to pass up any opportunity to secure a deal.

    "Judging from how little the three of you know about divination, I''m assuming you''re looking to provide psychotherapy services, which means that you must be adapters, right? It''s quitemon for young adapters like yourselves to have immense potential, but no money to kickstart your business. I propose..."

    "I''m not taking out any loans."

    "That''s fine. What I was going to propose is that we coborate with one another. I''ve purchased a shop here that I can provide to you free of charge, but as thendlord, I want 30% of your profits. Does that sound reasonable to you?"

    "Very much so."

    "However, in addition to that, I''ll be stipting a minimum monthly performance quota on the contract, and if you can''t fulfill that quota within three months, then I''ll have to evict you. That also sounds reasonable, right?" Kim Hee-cho asked with a cunning smile.

    This was amonly employed tactic of his.

    He knew that adapter psychotherapists were never short on work, but the death rate in the industry was very high for adapters who didn''t have the skills to look after themselves.

    However, whether they lived or died had nothing to do with him. All he cared about was whether he could profit from this.

    Additionally, regardless of what the oue turned out to be, this was their choice, was it not?

 Chapter 37: Contract

    <h4>Chapter 37: Contract</h4>

    Adam contemted the situation for a moment as he looked at Kim Hee-cho''s cunning smile.

    Under normal circumstances, he would''ve turned down this arrangement, but in his current situation, he was racing against time with his life on the line. He had to be more powerful as quickly as possible before the next wave of hitmen came after him.

    In the wake of the example he had set by taking care of those eight hitmen, only high-level hitmen were going toe after him from now on.

    "Alright, I ept those terms," Adam dered with a nod.

    Money was very important, buting into contact with more anomalies was even more important.

    "Are you insane? I''m telling you right now, I''m not doing this with you!" Hook clearly didn''t think that this was a fair deal. "Even if we discount the fact that he''s asking for 30% of our profits, we have to fulfill a monthly mission quota. Do you know how much danger you''re getting yourself into? I''m not gonna getting myself caught up in your mess!"

    "What do you think?" Adam asked as he turned to Nie Yiyi.

    "I also feel like this isn''t a good deal. Given my abilities, I''ll be able to earn money even if I don''t pursue this option," Nie Yiyi replied with a shake of his head. "Most importantly, I feel like having to fulfill a mandatory monthly quota is an arrangement that''s too rigid and inflexible."

    It was clear that two people out of the three-man team were opposed to this n, and Kim Hee-cho immediately adopted a different strategy upon seeing this.

    "Don''t jump to conclusions so early, the system is a lot more flexible than you think. Firstly, even if you don''t fulfill the quota, you don''t lose anything, right? I''m the only one that would be incurring a loss in that case as I''m providing my shop to you for free. Also, the mission quota is very low. If you have psychotherapist qualifications, then a single mission would be enough to cover the rental fees. Even if you don''t, it''ll only take two or three missions."

    "How about this? We''ll give this arrangement a try, and if it doesn''t work out, you can back out at any time."

    Adam was making this suggestion to both sides. Not only did he need to secure Nie Yiyi and Hook''s approval, Kim Hee-cho had to agree to this as well.

    "If only have one condition: I''m not going to participate in the battles!"

    Hook immediately made it clear that he didn''t want to incur any risk. He was a bit of a coward to begin with, and he had been spooked by thest mission. He still had a bright future ahead, and thest thing he wanted to do was die in the psychic world.

    "That''s not a problem," Adam replied with a nod.

    Hook''s battle prowess was downright pitiful to begin with, and in addition to that, Adam had be far more powerful since theirst job, so there was no need at all to risk putting Hook in harm''s way. The main value that Hook provided to the group was his versatility, and they were going to need his help to find their way in the psychic worlds of their patients and in entering nesting dreams.

    "Alright, then I''m in," Hook dered. "As long as there''s no danger, I have no reason to refuse."

    "What about you?"

    "I only want to be an external personnel that gets paid at the end of each mission."

    Freedom was an important priority for Nie Yiyi, and she didn''t want to get bogged down.

    "We''ll have to see if Mr. Kim is willing to agree to this arrangement."

    "That''s perfectly fine."

    Kim Hee-cho had already made up his mind. As long as he had these three adapters working for him, he had countless ways through which he could earn money through them.

    Thus, a verbal agreement was established, and Kim Hee-cho led the trio to his shop.

    Land was very expensive in the Metaverse, but it was rtively cheap to construct buildings. Discounting the design costs, the construction data expenses were very low.

    Kim Hee-cho''s shop was situated near the middle of the street, which was quite a good location.

    It was referred to as a shop, but in reality, it was a massive mansionplete with a swimming pool and a fountain. The interior of the building was designed to resemble outer space, and the furniture was primarily constructed from timber, giving it a Buddhist-monastery-like appearance, an environment that seemed to be ideal for meditation.

    "This design can be used by both psychotherapists and divinators without any renovations required, so it''s very convenient regardless of who rents out the location." Kim Hee-cho was clearly very pleased with his design, and at the same time, he pointed at an object at the center of the room that resembled a signal transmitter, then continued, "This is the most expensive fixture in the shop. With this transmitter, you''ll be able to release advertisements to all of the corresponding streets, and once the right people see the advertisements, they''lle to you of their own ord, so it''s very convenient."

    "Is that right? In that case, we''ll be able to pick and choose our customers. We won''t take the ones that are too dangerous, nor will we ept jobs with profit margins that are too thin."

    Hook was still very much fixated on taking as little risk as possible.

    "Rest assured, I''ll organize suitable customers for you. After all, I don''t want to put you three in harm''s way, either. You are my cash cows, and the bond between a person and their cash cow is even more intimate than the bond between blood brothers!" Kim Hee-cho chuckled, disying his humorous personality with that inoffensive joke.

    "Alright, this ce belongs to the three of you from now on. As the tenants, you have the right to kick me out at any time. In order to prevent any of us from backing revoking the agreement, I''m going to call mywyer right now, and the electronic contract will arrive very soon."

    Kim Hee-cho was truly afraid that the three adapters would suddenly get cold feet at thest second. After all, this coborative partnership was far more lucrative than renting out the storefront.

    A few calls were made, and shortly thereafter, a contract arrived. Adam and the others read through the contract to ensure that there were no issues, then signed it on the spot.

    Kim Hee-cho eagerly signed the contract as well to seal the deal.

    "We have to give the clinic a name... What should we name it?"

    "Memories..." Adam thought back to his own experiences as a nk te and all of the memories that he had lost permanently. "Let''s call it ''Memories''."

    "Alright, that''s quite a cultured name. Can I set the minimum price a little lower? That''ll give us more clients to choose from, and it''s also important to remember that none of you have official qualifications."

    "Sure."

    "Alright, then each treatment will be priced at 80,000 to 300,000. That''s a price range that even the average person would be able to afford."

    Generally speaking, psychotherapy services offered by adapters only catered toward the rich. For example, the psychotherapy service that Deranged Pig had requested from the pawn shop had cost him several million.

    The average person suffering from mental issues generally relied on medicine and normal therapists for treatment. There aren''t many avenues through which one couldpletely eradicate an anomaly.

    Hence, Kim Hee-cho knew that these unqualified adapter psychotherapy clinics were actually very lucrative. In this day and age, there were many people who were tormented by their mental issues and were willing to spend arge sum of money to eradicate their anomalies once and for all.

    "Oh, that was quick! We''ve already got an order! It''s only been less than a minute since the advertisement was released!"

    Kim Hee-cho knew that this was going to be a lucrative clinic, but he certainly wasn''t expecting a customer toe knocking right away.

    "Do you want to ept the job?"

    "Let''s take a look at it first," Adam replied.

    He had never arranged a job for himself. The only mission that he had gone on had been organized for him by the pawn shop.

    "Alright."

    Kim Hee-cho had a brief chat with the client, and after Adam agreed to issue the client an entry permit, a woman with a slim figure appeared in the guest hall following a sh of white light.

    The woman was very scantily dressed, and she appeared to be around 30 to 40 years of age, perhaps older, but the heavy makeup that she was wearing made it very difficult to urately determine her age.

    "You''re charging only 80,000 for the services of three adapters? Is that really true?" the woman immediately asked as soon as she arrived, and at the same time, she pulled a cigarette out of her breast pocket before lighting it and cing it between her lips.

 Chapter 38: Internet Stripper

    <h4>Chapter 38: Inte Stripper</h4>

    The woman was very proactive, and it seemed that she was socially adept. Despite the fact that she was meetingplete strangers in an unfamiliar ce, she didn''t appear to be feeling awkward at all.

    "80,000 is the starting price. Only the cases that present no danger and are the most easily resolved will cost 80,000." Kim Hee-cho naturally excelled more than Adam and his friends when it came to talking business. He maintained a polite smile as he continued, "I can confirm that the services of three adapters are being offered. The three people standing in front of you right now are psychotherapists with extensive experience."

    "Is that right?" The woman took a puff of her Metaverse e-cigarette as she examined Adam''s trio. "They look very young. Have they bought Metaverse skins to give themselves a younger appearance?"

    "You''re correct in your assessment. If we weren''t so young, we wouldn''t be charging such low prices," Adam said. "If you were dealing with seasoned adapter psychotherapists, you might not even be able to recruit their services for 800,000, let alone 80,000."

    The woman faltered slightly upon hearing this, then gave a nod of approval.

    "That''s very reasonable, and you''re being very genuine with me. I like that. Let''s discuss some terms."

    The woman began to introduce herself.

    "My name is Karen, and in the Metaverse, people like to call me Twerking Karen. Yes, I am an inte stripper," Karen said as she took a puff of her cigarette. "I''m not telling you this to make a point or anything like that, so don''t think too much of it. It''s just that my daughter''s condition may have something to do with my upation, and I''m here for her sake."

    "I understand. It''s a perfectly legal upation."

    Kim Hee-cho nodded in response, indicating that he harbored no biases toward upations.

    Ever since the creation of the Metaverse, business for inte strippers had been booming.

    Haptic technology allowed one to touch and feel inte strippers, and in addition to that, there were many special skin effects and many types of moves that could be performed on the inte. Given these advantages, many people flocked to inte prostitution in preference over its real-world equivalent.

    However, during the past couple of years, business for inte strippers had been on the decline. As virtual idols became more and more popr, purely virtual strippers that were perfect in every way were gradually phasing out their wed human counterparts. If it weren''t for the fact that human inte strippers still had a selling point in the form of realism, the entire industry would''ve already beenpletely taken over by virtual strippers.

    "I''m gonna be honest here. I''m a casual and easygoing person, and I don''t really care about pride or reputation. In this industry, I''ve met all types of clients and heard more nasty insults than I can count, but I don''t care. If I''m happy and earning money, who cares what other people think? The problem is that my daughter is different." Karen picked up an ashtray to snuff out her cigarette in it as she spoke. "My daughter is a smart, sensitive, and fragile girl. She despises me, and she feels like my upation makes her theughingstock of all of the other students at school."

    Kim Hee-cho nodded in response.

    "I see, but surely that''s not a severe enough problem for you to turn to adapters."

    "You''re right. In the beginning, she was only a little rebellious, but during the past half a year or so, things have be a lot more serious, and she would asionally even fly into a blind rage. One time, I saw her beating a stray dog, and it was like she had gone insane. After that, I took her to see a therapist, and I was told that perhaps she had suffered some kind of traumatic incident at school, but he''s unable to convince her to tell him exactly what happened, which is why I''ve decided to turn to you. I want you to find out the reason for her worsening mental condition. That should be a very simple task that can be covered by 80,000, right?"

    Karen was constantly emphasizing the base price of 80,000, so it was clear that she wasn''t very wealthy.

    Inte strippers earned far higher ies than people in normal upations, but even for them, amassing a massive amount of wealth was nothing more than a distant dream.

    "We''ll go and take a look. If all you need us to do is find out the reason for her behavior, then I think 80,000 should be enough."

    Kim Hee-cho gave Adam an inquisitive nce as he spoke, and Adam nodded in agreement.

    Indeed, simply finding out the reason wasn''t a difficult task.

    Even if the girl didn''t want to tell anyone or even if she had already forgotten what had happened, this was still a simple task.

    What was difficult was resolving the problem and fighting the anomaly.

    "We operate primarily in the Sandrise City area. May I ask where you''re from?"

    "I''m from Sandrise City. Otherwise, I wouldn''t havee to you."

    "I see. Alright, let''s decide on a time. I think tomorrow..."

    "Now is fine. My daughter just so happens to be home now."

    Karen was a quick-tempered woman, and she didn''t want there to be any unnecessary dys. Adam and the others had a quick discussion, and they decided that they had nothing else to do at the moment anyway, so there was no point in dying the session until the next day.

    Thus, both parties arrived at an agreement, and they all left the Metaverse after exchanging addresses and contact details.

    After removing his helmet and returning to the real world, Adam found himself back in his dorm room.

    This was the first time he had entered the Metaverse, and the jarring sensation of phasing through reality and cyberspace left him with a few seconds of residual difort.

    In contrast, Hook and Nie Yiyi were faring much better. They weren''t nk tes, and they already entered the Metaverse countless times in the past.

    "I didn''t think we''d get a job as soon as we released our advertisement. Looks like it''s even easier than I expected to earn money in this field," Hook mused. "We''ve already got 80,000 in the bag. The Perspiration Pub that my family runs may not be able to earn 80,000 even in half a year."

    "The 80,000 isn''t all going to you. 30% has to be given to thendlord, and after the rest has to be split between the three of us, so it''s really not much," Nie Yiyi said with a shake of her head. "I decided to join this venture not just to earn money, but also for training. Emotional anomalies are some of the best opponents to train against. If it''s just investigating the cause of the patient''s condition, then I''ll leave the job to you two. That way, you don''t have to split the money three ways."

    After expressing her desire to back out of the job, Nie Yiyi immediately departed, and Adam didn''t try to dissuade her.

    They had agreed that she was going to be external personnel, so she had a great degree of freedom.

    Furthermore, Hook was clearly more adept when it came to investigation.

    However, Adam wasn''t very interested in the job, either. His objective was the same as Nie Yiyi, and for him, the emotional anomalies themselves yielded higher value than the financialpensation. However, this was the first day of their business, and it was very much necessary for him to go through the business process and familiarize himself with the procedure for taking on missions, so he didn''t turn down the job.

    After departing from the academy with Hook, the two of them took the void rail to leave the area where Layton Academy was situated.

    The void rail was extremely fast, and despite the fact that Sandrise City was a massive metropolis capable of housing a poption in the hundreds of millions, the void rail was able to reach any area in the city within two hours.

    After arriving at a normal residential area, they met Karen in front of an apartment building with over 100 levels. Kim Hee-cho had arrived earlier than them, so he was also present.

    Aside from the fact that their attire was different, the two of them were very simr in appearance to their Metaverse selves, so Adam and Hook identified them right away.

    "Hello."

    "Where''s that girl from before?"

    Karen was rather displeased to see that only two adapters had arrived.

    "She''s a battle personnel, so she''ll only be present if battle is required." Adam had already thought of an excuse beforeing here. "Rest assured, if we can''t resolve the problem, we won''t charge you any money."

    Karen nodded with a reassuring expression upon hearing this.

    "Make sure to include that use in the contract."

    After that, she made her way over to the apartment building before unlocking a flying elevator with her fingerprint.

    Everyone entered the flying elevator, which had been designed to resemble a small airship, and they soon arrived on the balcony of Karen''s home, which was situated on a level in the eighties.

 Chapter 39: 80,000

    <h4>Chapter 39: 80,000</h4>

    After entering Karen''s home, Adam made his way into the guest hall, where he saw a girl who was working on a piece of artwork.

    She had a set of gentle and delicate features, but she was wearing heavy mascara, giving her an appearance that clearly didn''t match her disposition. As soon as she saw Karen returning home with a group of men, a displeased look instantly appeared on her face.

    "You''re bringing men home again! Can you make sure I''m not around when you''re doing something like this? And stop bringing random men home!"

    The girl threw down her brush as she spoke.

    In the face of her daughter, Karen clearly wasn''t as calm and collected as she normally was, and she picked up the brush from the ground, then took a deep breath to muster up her patience as she said, "They''re not here to see me, they''re here to diagnose your condition. These two are psychotherapists. I asked them toe and..."

    "I told you there''s nothing wrong with me! You don''t need to find therapists for me, and I don''t need any help."

    "They''re adapters, so they were very expensive to hire. Do you know how much money I had to spend to get them toe here? I have to pay at least 80,000 just for this visit!"

    "80,000?" The girl faltered slightly upon hearing this. "You''re willing to spend that much money for me?"

    Initially, the girl was a little skeptical, but after a brief moment of silence, she suddenly said, "Get them to refund your money! There''s nothing wrong with me. I know myself better than anyone else, and I know that I''m fine! Rather than hiring these people, you should pay more attention to me and get a new job so I can stop getting mocked at school!"

    It was clear that the girl was very opposed to receiving treatment, so Kim Hee-cho decided to intervene. "Your mother already issued the deposit to us. Even if you don''t agree to ept our treatment, the deposit is non-refundable."

    This was clearly a lie, but as the negotiator, his role was to act as the middleman and do everything in his power to strike a deal between the client and the service provider, as long as both sides were happy. Telling lies was a little underhanded, but which negotiator hadn''t told a lie at some point or another?

    A hesitant look appeared on the girl''s face upon learning that the deposit was non-refundable.

    As was the case in most normal families, children learned from a young age the value of money and how difficult it was to earn money.

    Thus, even though she was opposed to epting treatment, she was even more opposed to letting the money go to waste.

    "Fine, you can do whatever you want then. Once you find out that there''s nothing wrong with me, she''ll realize how stupid she was to spend so much money to hire you."

    The girl sat down onto the sofa as she spoke, remaining still as she waited for the treatment tomence.

    Adam took a nce at Hook, and right when he was about to invade the girl''s consciousness, he was interrupted by Kim Hee-cho.

    "Hold on, don''t forget this," he said as he fiddled with a device that he was clearly not very familiar with. Adam was immediately able to identify the object as a psychic world projection device, and he was surprised to see that Kim Hee-cho was so well prepared.

    I suppose it''s only fair that the client gets to see what we''re doing.

    Adam attached the device to his own arm, then reached out with a finger as he began to invade the girl''s psychic world.

    Due to the fact that the girl was opposed to all of this, Adam could clearly feel an invisible barrier standing in his way during the infiltration process. Thankfully, he was no longer theplete novice that he once was, and he had mastered many techniques under Sadou''s tutge. In addition to that, he also possessed sufficient ability to allow him to easily pierce through a normal person''s psychic boundaries.

    He turned his psychic body into a sharper form that allowed him to quickly pierce through the psychic boundaries, following which he cked out and entered the girl''s psychic world.

    "Nice one!"

    "Good shot!"

    "Let''s go, Dawn High!"

    ¡­¡­

    As soon as Adam entered the girl''s psychic world, he found himself in a very loud and rowdy environment. He looked around to discover that he was in a basketball stadium, and there were two teams ying on the court, one of which was from Dawn High School, while the other team was from an unknown high school. The fact that the name was blurred out indicated that the girl didn''t even bother to remember which school they were up against.

    "Looks like we''re in a school again." Hook had also arrived on the scene, looking much like a steam-powered automaton, and he turned his bulky body from side to side as he inspected his surroundings. His gaze settled on a certain spot in the distance, and he said, "There''s the mission target. Should we approach her right away?"

    "Let''s wait and see how the situation ys out first."

    Adam was carefully inspecting his surroundings.

    He wasn''t surprised that they had appeared in a school. After all, for the average high school student, the vast majority of their lives were spent at school and at home, so if something were to happen, there was a very high likelihood that it would be in one of those two ces.

    Adam was keeping tabs on two things, one of which was the atmosphere. In contrast with Kim''s psychic world, the mission target''s psychic world was clearly more harmonious and not as terrifying.

    However, it was still quite oppressive, and it was as if they were in an environment with low atmospheric pressure, making it difficult to breathe.

    "There''s definitely something wrong here."

    The environment of one''s psychic world was a reflection of one''s mood and emotions. Kim''s psychic world resembled a scene straight out of a horror film, with ominous, chilly wind, and a depressingly gray color tone.

    "I agree. Take a look at the mission target: she''s watching the tallest yer on the court." Hook''s attention was elsewhere, and with the slightly sleazy personality he had developed as the sessor of the Perspiration Pub, he was immediately able to make sense of the situation. "She likes that boy."

    "It''s normal for high school students her age to enter rtionships."

    Adam had never been in a rtionship before, but he was speaking as if he had a vast wealth of worldly wisdom.

    "Nonono, something''s not right here. Have you forgotten what my specialty is?" Hook excelled in observation and attention to detail, and he pulled out his magnifying ss as he spoke. "There are more ck lines than red ones, so her hatred for him outweighs her love."

    "How does he feel toward the mission target?"

    "It''s all very blurry, which means that even the mission target herself doesn''t know how he feels about her."

    As the two of them were discussing the situation, the final whistle rang out, signaling the end of the game.

    Dawn High School hade out on top.

    While everyone was celebrating together in a huddle, the mission target approached the tallest boy on the team with a water bottle and a towel, and the two of them embraced.

    "Looks like this is before whatever incident caused her condition, but things should be about to go wrong soon. We''re currently in one of the most deeply engrained memories in her mind."

    Hook began to pull out a variety of tools that he used to examine the psychic world around him, satisfying his strange fetish of curiosity.

    "I feel like something''s about to happen soon. Let''s follow them."

    The boisterous scenes of celebration quickly passed.

    After all of the spectators in the stadium had departed, the yers began to return to the changing rooms. The girl indicated to the boy that she would wait for him outside the stadium, and the boy gestured in response before catching up with his teammates on the way back to the changing rooms.

    "I gotta get changed, Chloe. I''ll see you soon."

    "Sure."

    Hook was listening from afar using an object that resembled a bugging device, and he said, "So the mission target''s name is Chloe. She''s just left the stadium... Oh wait, it seems like there''s something important that she forgot to give to the boy. She''s making her way back into the stadium now. Let''s follow her!"

    Thus, the two of them followed Chloe to the corner of the changing room, following which a series of voices rang out from within Hook''s bugging device.

    "I heard you''ve got that stripper''s daughter eating out of the palm of your hand. Have you fucked her yet? Is her ass as hot as her mum''s?"

 Chapter 40: Chloe the Dog Abuser

    <h4>Chapter 40: Chloe the Dog Abuser</h4>

    The voice wasing from within the changing room, and Chloe was standing at the entrance, so she was clearly within earshot.

    "Oh, no wonder she resents her mother so much. The other students at her school have found out that she''s an inte stripper. I can''t think of too many things more embarrassing than that." A sympathetic look appeared on Hook''s face as he spoke. "Back in the day, I was also always picked on because my parents were running a pub."

    "What happened after that?"

    "I developed skin as thick as a wall," Hook said as he pointed at his own face. "After that, nothing they said affected me anymore, but it seems like what they''re saying is very hurtful for Chloe."

    Sure enough, as soon as Chloe heard what was being said, the lights above the basketball court began to flicker, indicating her emotional turmoil.

    She was still hoping that her boyfriend/crush would say something to stand up for her, even though there was already a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

    "Ha! She''s nowhere near as hot as her mum! I haven''t fucked her, and I don''t n to. I''m not interested in t ironing boards like her, but I wouldn''t mind getting her mum in bed for some fun..."

    Boom!

    A loud thunderp rang out overhead, and all of the lights above the basketball court were instantly snuffed out while Chloe rushed out of the stadium.

    ¡­¡­

    Karen could see what was happening in the real world, and she sighed, "No wonder she hates me so much..."

    "Do you regret entering this... upation?"

    "No. This is not the most respectable job, for sure, but 10 years ago, I had nothing. This job helped me pay the bills and escape from the area that I previously lived in, which was filled with gangs and gunfights. It allowed me to purchase this high-end apartment and bring up my child. I have no regrets," Karen replied with a shake of her head. "For someone like me, who''s crawled out the depths of hell, this amount of sacrifice is nothing, but she''s unable to bear the kind of things that I can bear. She''s still too young..."

    "You can change your identity. Doesn''t the Metaverse offer an identity reassignment service?"

    "Twerking Karen is a piece of intellectual property. It''s a name that I''ve been using since 10 years ago, and there''s a fanbase attached to that name. Nowadays, there are countless unknown inte streamers and strippers, and the rise of virtual idols is only making this upation more difficult. I can''t afford to abandon my moniker."

    "That does make sense."

    As a businessman himself, Kim Hee-cho knew that it was not easy to earn money in any upation.

    Unfortunately, she couldn''t just strip down and expect money to be thrown at her.

    If she were to abandon her existing fanbase and restart anew, perhaps she wouldn''t even be hired by any of the major Metaverse strip clubs. Those establishments didn''t just hire anyone. The stage was only sorge, and only the highest-earning strippers would be allowed to take the stage.

    "I have no choice. Back when I first started, I didn''t think about the future. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn''t have used my original monicker," Karen said with a resigned shrug. "If I had known this would have such an impact on my daughter, I would''ve called myself Twerking Cherry. That''s a much more alluring name anyway."

    ¡­¡­

    Karen held her daughter in very high regard, but just like Deranged Pig, she had underestimated her daughter''s emotional and psychological tolerance. They had both thought that all it would take for their child to break would be some bullying from the other students at their schools, but in reality, they weren''t that fragile.

    Having said that, this incident had dealt Chloe a severe blow.

    After hearing the conversation in the changing room, Chloe rushed out of the corridor with tears streaming down her face, but she was quickly stopped in her tracks by Adam and Hook.

    After stopping Chloe, Adam sped his left fist in his right hand and cracked his knuckles in preparation for the beating that he was about to dish out.

    "Don''t cry over trash like him. We''ll teach him a lesson for you."

    Through the experience that he had rued from hisst mission, he knew that establishing a positive connection with the mission target would be very beneficial for the progress of the mission, and for that purpose, he wanted to y the hero in this scenario.

    "Who are you?"

    In the psychic world, Chloe had no recollection of Adam. They had only just met in the real world, so she obviously didn''t remember Adam at this point in her memory.

    "We are enforcers of justice. What those people did to you is unforgivable. Wait for us here. We''ll beat the crap out of those bastards for you!"

    After making that deration, Adam passed through the corridor and arrived at the changing room, then kicked the door open with full force.

    "Who was the one badmouthing Chloe behind her back just now? It was you, right?"

    Adam made his way over to the tallest boy in the changing room as he spoke, then gave him a vicious punch in the stomach, sending him flying back two to three meters.

    "What the fuck?!"

    It had to be said that his teammates were quite loyal, and they immediately rushed toward Adam to retaliate, only to be dispatched with ease by Hook.

    "Oh, I might get addicted to this!"

    Hook was howling in joyful catharsis as he pummeled the team on his own.

    Hisbat prowess was veryckluster, and as a summoner, the same applied to Adam''s psychic body, but that was a rtive concept.

    When pitted against aberrations, anomalies, and adapter hitmen, both of their psychic bodies were considerably weaker, but they were certainly more than capable of beating up the average person. After all, Adam''s psychic body had been enhanced on multiple asions, and he and Hook were like a pair of wolves that had charged into a sheep''s pen, giving everyone in sight a thorough beating.

    "So this is what it feels like to dominate a battle!" After sending the final yer flying with his huge mechanical fist, Hook sighed with a slightly forlorn expression, "It''s lonely at the top."

    "Let''s go."

    The point of instigating this fight was to gain the favor of the mission target, and after beating up the entire basketball team, Adam arrived outside to find that there were still tears swimming in Chloe''s eyes.

    "Don''t cry, we''ve already taught everyone who was badmouthing you in there a lesson in respect!"

    "You shouldn''t be physically assaulting people like this," Chloe sniffled. "But thank you for doing that for me."

    "No problem. If you want to thank someone, thank your mother. She was the one who hired us."

    "My mother?"

    Aplex look appeared on Chloe''s face at the thought of her mother, and all of the people in the surrounding area began to slowly vanish on the spot.

    "What''s going on?"

    "It''s alright, this is just a sign that this scene in her memory has already concluded."

    Hook was more experienced than Adam when it came to how psychic worlds functioned. He had been attending the academy longer than Adam had, and aside from the foundational theoretical knowledge, the academy also ced a heavy emphasis on teaching the finer details.

    "I intentionally mentioned her mother just now so I could evoke some other memories," Hook exined as he pulled out his telescope. "Let''s keep going."

    "There''s definitely more to this. That memory would''ve definitely dealt her a heavy blow, but it''s not that serious." Adam knew that young people her age weren''t that fragile.

    Kim had also suffered from bullying in the past, but the true cause of her PTSD was witnessing that human factory.

    Even an adult would''ve been extremely disturbed and suffered from frequent nightmares after witnessing such a gruesome scene, let alone a child like her.

    When it came to tracking someone down in the psychic world, Hook was an expert.

    Adam followed him out of the basketball stadium and the school, and they arrived at the next memory setting.

    Just a moment ago, it had still been daytime, but in this scenario, it was already nighttime. Chloe was chasing a stray dog in the night, and after catching up to the poor dog, she tied it up before beating it viciously with a wooden stick.

    "What is she doing?"

 Chapter 41: Clown Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 41: Clown Anomaly</h4>

    Adam and Hook were immediately struck by a sense of difort upon seeing this.

    In this memory, Chloe wasn''t just abusing the dog, she looked as if she were trying to kill it! The dog was howling in agony as it was struck by the wooden stick over and over again.

    ¡­¡­

    "This is not what you described. This situation is a lot more serious!" Kim Hee-cho couldn''t help but avert his gaze from the horrific scene taking ce before his eyes. "What she''s doing here is illegal! If her actions had been caught by a flying surveince camera, she would''ve definitely been apprehended by Mechguard officers."

    "I know, I know... That''s why I didn''t tell you the whole truth. I apologize, but I had no choice."

    Scenes from one''s psychic world couldn''t be used as legally incriminating evidence as they could be depicting figments of one''s imagination, so there would be no concrete evidence that this had ever happened as long as she didn''t admit to it.

    "Don''t worry, we''re not enforcers of thew, it''s just that this really is very ufortable. Your daughter seems like a perfectly fine young woman. How did she be like this?"

    ¡­¡­

    "Should we stop her?"

    "No, let''s wait and see what happens."

    In the real world, Adam and Hook would''ve definitely intervened to stop her, but seeing as this scene was unfolding in the psychic world, it had already taken ce, so they couldn''t change anything. The only thing that they could change was Chloe''s mental state.

    The only piece of good news here was that after the two of them waited for a while, Karen showed up on the scene.

    Somehow, she managed to find Chloe as she was abusing the poor dog in the dark alley, and she immediately began hurling a torrent of abuse at her daughter after witnessing what she was doing.

    "Have you gone insane? My god, what the hell are you doing?" Karen scolded her daughter while untying the dog, and it yelped in pain and horror as it rushed away.

    Even though Karen was appalled by what her daughter had done, she still carefully inspected her surroundings, and she was quite relieved to see that there were no flying surveince cameras around. "What is wrong with you? Why would you do that to a dog?"

    "Shut up! A stripper like you has no right to educate me!"

    p!

    Karen gave her daughter a vicious p upon hearing this, and what followed was a heated verbal altercation between the two. Chloe was ming her mother for all of her woes, but Karen wasn''t just going to take the usations without retaliation.

    She didn''t sugarcoat her words at all as she mercilessly hurled all types of insults and derogatory terms at Chloe. When it came to insulting someone, the two of them were simply onpletely different levels.

    "My goodness, she''s putting even the fastest rappers to shame!" Adam was getting lightheaded just listening to her. "As expected of a seasoned veteran on the nightclub scene!"

    "She''s definitely getting the upper hand. Chloe''s gonepletely quiet now."

    In the face of Karen''s rampant verbal barrage, Chloe finally stopped talking.

    After venting her fury, Karen also recovered her sense of reason. She inspected the surrounding area, and after confirming that there were no Mechguard officers around, she hurriedly left the scene with her daughter.

    This incident had clearly had a severe impact on Chloe as well, and that was why she had such a clear recollection of it.

    "She definitely has some serious issues. I recall that many serial killers start off by abusing animals."

    "That''s right, there are many cases of that. First, they abuse animals, then they kill animals, and they eventually move on to preying on children and the elderly. This is a very typical sequence of progression," Hook replied with a nod. "We were taught this at the academy."

    "It looks like Chloe''s problems are more severe than we imagined. Let''s keep looking. If there are any other traumatic events in her memories, we should be able to find them."

    Adam nodded in response.

    With that, Hookmenced his psychic world exploration.

    He and Adam searched through various types of events and scenes throughout Chloe''s memories, but they found nothing that was worthy of note.

    The memories that had left the deepest impressions on her were ones that applied to everyone, such as being scolded by her mother, falling out of rtionships, pre-exam stress, etc.

    However, after some exploration, Hook was still able to find something a little strange.

    "The timeline matches up between here and here. Prior to this point, she had no issues at all, but after here, she began to disy behaviors like short-temperedness, excessive anxiety, and animal abuse."

    After working for several hours, the two of them had finally found something that was not quite right.

    On this day, Chloe and a few of her friends had gone to a speakeasy. It was clear that this was an illegal establishment. A legitimate pub would''ve refused entry to children who hadn''t yete of age, but Chloe and her friends were able to easily sneak their way through, and soon, they were sipping on beverages that they shouldn''t have been in contact with at all at their age.

    During this time, some adult men had approached them to flirt, but thankfully, the girls knew their boundaries, and nothing out of line happened.

    After a fun night out, the girls began to depart one after another.

    On the surface, there didn''t seem to be any problems with this memory, but after viewing this memory multiple times, Adam caught sight of a sinister figure.

    It was a man who was seated alone in a dim corner, downing one cup of strong liquor after another. As aforementioned, some of the adult male patrons of the pub had expressed interest in Chloe and her friends, but their attempts at flirting would always be turned down, and they would go off to search for other women.

    In contrast with those men, this man hadn''t approached Chloe and her friends, nor did he appear to have any friends of his own. All he did was asionally nce at the group of girls in silence.

    The fact that he''s featuring so frequently in this memory indicates that Chloe has already noticed him, but his features are blurred. Does that mean she''s only noticed him, but hasn''t paid particrly close attention to him?

    Adam was pondering the situation as he took a sip out of a drink in the noisy speakeasy.

    Unfortunately for him, drinks served in another person''s psychic world were extraordinarily nd.

    "There''s something wrong with him..." Through his magnifying ss, Hook could see very dense ck lines leading to the man. "He''s full of sinister intent, but there are no other memories rted to him, which means that Chloe has concealed this memory because she doesn''t want anyone to see it, but that''s not going to stump me."

    Steam began to billow out of Hook''s body as he spoke. The steam permeated throughout the entire speakeasy, and the mist that had uncovered Kim''s nesting dream and internal space on thest mission appeared once again.

    This was Hook''s special ability, Mist of Truth.

    "You were right."

    Within the dense mist, Adam was able to see the man''s true appearance for the first time, and he was wearing a clown mask with hooked spikes all over his entire body. It was clear that he was an anomaly.

    "This emotional anomaly doesn''t appear to be as powerful as the scarecrow, but we already agreed that I''m not going to fight any anomalies."

    Back in Kim''s psychic world, the scarecrow had been as tall as a two-story building, and it had stemmed from the fear and trauma deep in Kim''s heart. It had been like a deity of evil and destruction, almost altering her psychic world at will. In contrast, this clown anomaly was only around two to three meters tall, and even though it was equipped with a bloodstained dagger, it was nowhere near as fearsome as the scarecrow.

    This indicated two things, the first of which was that its impact on Chloe wasn''t as severe as the impact that the scarecrow had had on Kim.

    This was also reflected in Chloe''s real-world situation. Before receiving treatment, Kim had already been under such severe psychological duress that she waspletely bedridden. In contrast, Chloe still looked rtively normal, and part of that could be attributed to the fact that she was putting up a strong front, but at the very least, on the surface, her issues didn''t appear to be all that severe.

    The second insight that this presented pertained to the period of time in which the anomaly had been residing in her psychic world.

    If an emotional anomaly weren''t taken care of in a timely fashion, there was a chance that it could slowly be more powerful over time. Chloe was already at the animal abuse stage, perhaps she would be a murderer if the anomaly were allowed to grow unchecked any further. Powerful emotions could be more and more potent over time, and that would fuel the growth of the anomaly.

    The incident with Kim had potentially taken ce early in her childhood, which meant that the emotional anomaly had already resided in her body for some years.

    In contrast, it appeared that this incident had taken ce within thest two years, as evidenced by the fact that she didn''t look much younger in this memory than she did in the real world.

 Chapter 42: Prideful

    <h4>Chapter 42: Prideful</h4>

    However, an anomaly was still an anomaly. Regardless of how weak it could potentially be, Hook still didn''t dare to challenge it.

    "We agreed that I would only be responsible for the recon side of things. I''m not fighting anyone!"

    "I know, I know," Adam reassured as he summoned Hellhound and began to fuse with it.

    In the wake of his transformation, he had be stronger, and his appearance had also be quite terrifying. In terms of physical appearance alone, he didn''t look any less sinister than the clown anomaly.

    However, he didn''t immediatelysh out as he wanted to see what was going to happen next.

    ording to Chloe''s memories, what happened next was that the bill was paid, and the group departed. After she returned home, she had another argument with her mother, and that was followed by what seemed to have been a sleepless night.

    However, in the middle of all of that, there had to have been a passage of memories that had been concealed, and Adam wanted to see exactly what had happened on this timeline under the Mist of Truth.

    "Let''s go..."

    After their speakeasy escapade, Chloe and her friends began to leave.

    They were rtively alert and safety-conscious, as evidenced by the fact that they still remained together in a group upon leaving the speakeasy.

    Following their departure, the clown anomaly also left the speakeasy to follow them.

    After that, the scenepletely vanished.

    The speakeasy was situated deep underground, and after riding on an elevator to the ground level, one would arrive at the end of a dark alley. However, the group of girls had only made it to around the middle section of the alley when a gunshot suddenly rang out. The sound of the gunshot and the fire erupting out of the muzzle sent the group into a blind panic, and they began to flee in a blind panic. Right at this moment, a pair of hands reached out of the darkness before grabbing onto Chloe.

    "This is it! This is where the problem arose!"

    Adam immediately pounced at this point, yet right as he made an attempt to capture the clown, he was suddenly struck by a hazy sensation, following which a burst of sharp pain shot through his arm.

    Immediately thereafter, Adam was withdrawn out of the psychic world.

    After returning to the real world, Adam found himself in Karen''s room once again, and he discovered that Kim Hee-cho was the one who had given him that disconnection notification.

    "Why did you do that?"

    "Why did you do that?"

    Both Adam and Karen raised the same question in unison.

    "You''re paying us 80,000 to find out the cause for your daughter''s condition, and the cause has been found," Kim Hee-cho exined as he turned off the projection. "There is no contract or even any verbal agreement for the provision of any additional services. You get what you pay for. We''re not a charity organization, wouldn''t you agree, Adam?"

    Adam fell silent upon hearing this.

    Indeed, the most difficult part of the job was still yet toe.

    The clown didn''t appear to be all that powerful, but one would be extremely foolish to judge an emotional anomaly by its cover.

    There was a great deal of risk present in fighting anomalies, and he really did need the money. 80,000 was far below the market price for eradicating an emotional anomaly.

    "ording to the current market rate, even an unqualified adapter psychotherapist would charge a fee at least in the hundreds of thousands to eradicate an emotional anomaly of that caliber," Kim Hee-cho said in an unhurried voice,pletely unfazed by the furious Karen. "We''re just charging money to provide a service. There''s nothing personal, so there''s no need to get angry."

    Everything that Kim Hee-cho had just said was quite reasonable, and as Karen cast her gaze toward her daughter, who was gradually awakening, she also came to realize just how serious the problem was. If things were to continue in this fashion and Chloe''s emotional trauma remained untreated, there was a very good chance that her behavior could be even more extreme in the future.

    Karen nodded in response. In the real world, she wasn''t a smoker. Instead, she pulled out a piece of bubblegum as a substitute.

    "Alright, let''s get back to business. I agree with what you said, but what you told me earlier indicates to me that you charge a far lower rate than others in the same industry. If I had hundreds of thousands to spend on resolving this problem, why would I havee to you?"

    "Because our adapters are no lesspetent than ourpetitors," Kim Hee-cho replied as he pointed at Hook to make an example. "You saw him just now. Do you think the average adapter psychotherapy clinic would be able to offer such an exceptional scout?"

    Even though there was no chance for the average person to interact with adapters in everyday life, Karen had done some research on adapters on the inte, so she knew that Hook was indeed a great scout, as evidenced by the fact that he was able to solve all of the mysteries so quickly. "I don''t know, but he did do a great job. However, he also said that he wasn''t going to be participating in any battles."

    "That''s because he doesn''t need to. Our battle personnel is even more impressive!" Kim Hee-cho said as he pointed at Adam. "Did you see the werewolf that he transformed? Do you think that clown would stand a chance against him? There''s no chance! The power of a werewolf has already been portrayed in countless movies. With him on the job, there won''t be any issues."

    In reality, Adam was more powerful than Kim Hee-cho had anticipated.

    In contrast with the average person, he was an agent in an area that specifically dealt with psychotherapists and divinators, so he came into contact with adapters far more frequently.

    Thus, he knew that it was extremely rare for someone of Adam''s age to possess this level of power and skill.

    Furthermore, he was aware of the different sses of adapters, and it seemed to him like Adam was an invocator, but he was capable of fusing as one with the entities that he invoked, and that was exceedingly rare. In fact, Kim Hee-cho had heard that only extremely skilled adapters were able to aplish this, so this was obviously a massively pleasant surprise.

    This was also the reason why Kim Hee-cho had decided to raise the price.

    "All you need to give us is another 300,000, and we''ll take care of everything for you. What do you think?"

    "300,000!?" Karen almost jumped up from her chair upon hearing this. "This is extortion! I don''t have that much money!"

    "I can help you take out a loan. You''re in a very high-earning line of work, so you should be able to take out a loan of this sum."

    "No, I can''t, I''ve already taken out the maximum sum I can on loan," Karen replied with a shake of her head. "I''ve used up all of my credit points for this apartment and my loans."

    "In that case, you can mortgage your house to me," Kim Hee-cho said, unwilling to make any concessions.

    At this point, Chloe had already woken up, and Karen turned to her with a conflicted expression.

    Chloe''s face was bright red with chagrin and embarrassment as she recalled the truth that she had concealed this entire time. She was an excessively prideful girl, and as a result, she was always demanding too much out of both her mother and herself.

    Adam recalled from one of his lessons at Layton Academy that one''s pride had a direct corrtion with how aggressive one was.

    Chloe''s excessive pride led to her attacking her mother''s upation while also actively hiding her own sexual assault. There was no avenue through which she could vent her aggression, so she could only turn to abusing animals.

    This was a very typical casemonly seen in psychology.

    If her negative emotions continued to develop without being addressed, then the consequences would prove to be catastrophic.

    Karen looked at her daughter, then swept a reluctant gaze around her apartment, as if she were being forced to choose between the two things that she cherished the most.

    She was working as a stripper in order to live a better life, but now, she was being forced to choose between her daughter and the life that she had built.

    After grappling with her internal conflict for a while, she made a decision.

    "Alright, I''ll give you the 300,000..."

    "Hold on." Right at this moment, Adam rose to his feet. "How much money do you have right now?"

    "A little over 120,000."

    "Alright, I''ll take the job for 120,000," Adam replied with a nod.

 Chapter 43: The Illusory Clown

    <h4>Chapter 43: The Illusory Clown</h4>

    "Come with me for a second."

    Kim Hee-cho''s expression immediately changed upon hearing Adam''s quote, and he dragged Adam out onto the balcony.

    "She was just about to agree! Why would you give up money that''s already in the bag?"

    "With the 80,000 that she paid earlier, this mission is already earning us 200,000. I think that''s enough. There are already too many financial ves in this world, there''s no need to add another one to the list."

    Thetter sentiment was the most important reason why Adam had agreed to take on the job for 120,000.

    Ever since he awakened, everyone that he saw was constantly running on the same hamster wheel, working desperately to support themselves, and that included Adam as well.

    Everyone seemed to be in debt due to one reason or another, forced to trudge through a never-ending grind day after day with no light at the end of the tunnel. Even after they passed away, they were reduced to cyberlich ves and motivation for the next generation to work hard, thereby bing a part of this strange regime.

    Very few people could escape this cycle. Even someone like Cowboy was only a part of the system, except he presided over the cycle, while everyone else was forced to toil away and work for him.

    "We should be satisfied with this. There''s no need to take everything she has from her." Adam was still abiding by the most grounded business principles. "We should all take a step back, and we can profit from this deal anyway. For us, it''s just a job, but for her, it''ll be decades of loan repayments."

    "I disagree," Kim Hee-cho countered with a shake of his head. "In the east, we have a saying: only an idiot would turn down money that''s there for the taking."

    At this point in the conversation, Adam had to be more assertive, and he said, "You have no right to make the final decision. You are only thendlord. If we don''t earn enough money to cover the rent, then you have the right to kick us out, but the decision in this matter lies with us."

    "Fine, I may not have the right to make this decision, but you have to ask yourpanions if they agree or not."

    Kim Hee-cho was still unwilling to give up, and he opened the door of the balcony before making his way back into the room.

    Inside the room, Hook and Karen were engaged in a lively conversation.

    "This is our tinum VIP card, and it''s not sold to anyone aside from our employees. With this card, you can watch three big shows a month, receive a half-price discount on all alcoholic beverages, and you can get up close and personal with any of the strippers from our club."

    "Is that true? This card''s amazing!"

    Hook looked as if he had just been given a priceless treasure, and he had only just ced the card into his pocket as Kim Hee-cho entered the room.

    After witnessing that interaction, Kim Hee-cho already had a rough idea of what Hook''s stance on this matter was going to be.

    "Do you agree to take on the job for 120,000 as well?"

    "I was against it at first, but I can''t resist this VIP card," Hook replied as he ran a hand across his face, which was secreting excessive oil from excitement. "It''s just a mission. My job is already done, so I won''t be taking any further part in the mission anyway. Adam will be the one doing the rest of the work, so he can decide on thepensation."

    "Alright, fine." Seeing as both Adam and Hook had agreed, Kim Hee-cho had nothing more to say.

    After signing a simple contract with Karen, the treatment officially began.

    Adam made his way over to Chloe, and at this point, her rebellious fa?ade had already beenpletely lifted. Having had her scars revealed, she appeared utterly vulnerable and helpless.

    "Some painful experiences can be forgotten, but the wound is still there. It would be like if we received a cut to the arm from someone, and we cover up the wound and choose to forget it. The wound will be out of sight, but it''ll slowly fester and rot. Your mind is just like your body. Even if you bottle up that memory and seal it away, the pain still remains."

    Adam was thinking back to what he had been taught at Layton Academy, and he realized that there was a lot of useful and applicable content.

    "Psychological pain can alter the structure of the brain. Don''t be afraid. I''m going to open up your wound, sever the rotten parts, then stitch up the wound so you can make a full recovery. Your cooperation will make my job significantly easier."

    Adam was trying to use his words to console Chloe in order to weaken her emotional anomaly.

    "Thank you."

    "There''s no need to thank me, I''m being paid to do this. You should be thanking your mother. She was willing to give up everything for you."

    Chloe didn''t know what to say to this. At this point, things had already developed to a point that was beyond what a child like her could control.

    All she could do was give a stiff nod, then turned her gaze toward her mother.

    "Don''t worry, everything will be fine. I''ll always be by your side," Karen said in a reassuring manner, appearing still as unfazed and steadfast as ever.

    In that instant, Adam could sense that Chloe''s anxiety was slightly assuaged, and he immediately turned to Hook.

    "Prepare to begin."

    "Didn''t we agree that I wouldn''t get involved in the battle?"

    "Yes, you can just keep watch from the side. If the anomaly tries to run away, report its location to me."

    "Alright, I can do that."

    "Good."

    With that, Adam pressed a fingertip against Chloe''s forehead and entered her psychic world once again.

    On this asion, he arrived directly in that dark alley, right as the clown anomaly was about to strike.

    A pair of ck hands with filthy nails was currently clutching onto Chloe''s body.

    "Let go of that girl!" Adam immediately yelled.

    After arriving in this scene again, he no longer had any inhibitions, and the clown anomaly faltered momentarily, clearly surprised by Erwin''s intervention. Adam didn''t dare to take any risks, and he immediately invoked Hellhound before fusing with it.

    "Who''s trying to y the hero here?"

    The clown released Chloe, then turned around and emerged from the darkness. At this point, Chloe''s friends had already fled into the distance. As for Chloe herself, her waist had been injured by the clown anomaly''s long nails, and she had copsed to the ground.

    Emotional anomalies can speak?

    Adam was rather perplexed. He hadn''t been taught this at the academy yet, and the scarecrow anomaly that he had encounteredst time had been incapable of speech, so he was quite puzzled to see the clown anomaly speaking to him.

    "Don''t look at me, I don''t know what''s going on, either." At this point, Hook had just entered the psychic world, and he was clearly feeling rather fearful of the clown anomaly. "Stop looking at me! It''s about to attack!"

    "I know."

    Adam was constantly on high alert.

    While Adam and Hook were speaking with one another, the clown anomaly had pulled out a dagger from its waist, and it charged directly toward Adam with its dagger raised.

    It''s not very fast.

    Adam''s werewolf muscles bulged as he cast his gaze toward his assant and retaliated with his sharp ws.

    Adam''s speed was superior to the clown anomaly''s, and even though the clown had struck first, his ws reached the anomaly before its attack reached him. However, the sensation transmitted through his palm told him that something wasn''t right. He had clearly struck his opponent, but he felt as if he had struck nothing but empty air.

    "Behind you..."

    A voice rang out behind Adam, and at the same time, he was struck by a burst of sharp pain in the back. He hurriedly dove forward to take evasive measures, and he only dared to examine his own back after rising to his feet again. In doing so, he discovered that a dagger had been plunged squarely into the back of his chest.

    Thankfully, he also possessed the body of an anomaly in his current form, so he was able to withstand injuries of this level of severity. He pulled out the dagger, then turned to his opponent with a perplexed expression.

    He had clearly struck the clown just now, so how had it appeared behind him all of a sudden?

    "Did you see what happened just now, Hook?"

    "I did. The clown in front of you was still there when it appeared behind you, so there were two clowns at the same time!"

    Is one of them an illusion?

    Adam was feeling a little concerned as he looked at the clown anomaly before him. Sadou had once told him that illusion conjurers were a very difficult ss of adapters to deal with in battle, and they were also the most capable of scoring upsets over more powerful opponents.

    If an adapter didn''t have a way to counteract an illusion conjurer, even a B-grade illusion conjurer could potentially kill an A-grade adapter.

 Chapter 44: Illusory Clones

    <h4>Chapter 44: Illusory Clones</h4>

    "What are you standing there for? Here, take another knife!" the clown was cackling with glee, clearly very excited to have drawn blood from Adam, and it rushed toward Adam to repeat the same sequence.

    On this asion, Adam gathered his mes on his ws, destroying the illusory clown in front of him with a long-range attack, then swiveled around to search for the anomaly''s true body.

    As soon as he turned around, the clown appeared behind him once again, and he released a burst of mes out of his mouth, but this clown exploded as well.

    Both of them had been illusions!

    While Adam was still reeling from this turn of events, a burst of sharp pain shot through his groin region, and he looked down to see a wound as long as an arm taking shape there.

    ¡­¡­

    "Oh!"

    "Ouch!"

    Both Hook in the psychic world and Kim Hee-cho in the guest hall in the real world felt a cold sensation from their lower bodies upon seeing this. Even though they weren''t the ones who had fallen prey to that attack, their male instincts had them both physically recoiling in difort.

    "Do you see how brutal this job is turning out to be? You really struck fold finding an adapter willing to take on this job for 120,000."

    Kim Hee-cho didn''t even dare to look at the wound, and at the same time, he had arrived beside Adam''s physical body, prepared to awaken him at any moment.

    He had already determined that the emotional anomaly wasn''t particrly powerful, but it was extremely difficult to deal with. Not only was it exceedingly cruel and barbaric, what was most damning of all was that it also seemed to be more cunning than the average emotional anomaly.

    In the psychic world, Adam was fighting through the pain as he continued to try and find a way to counteract the clown''s abilities.

    ording to Sadou, telegnosis is one''s most important asset when ites to dealing with illusion conjurers.

    Even though Adam hade off second-best on consecutive asions, he was still keeping a level head.

    He was a man with a massive goal, and the bigger one''s goal was, the more arduous and riddled with stumbling blocks the path to getting to that goal was going to be.

    Everything is a test. If I fall here, then I have no right to face my true enemies.

    Adam recalled back to Sadou''s training, using his training methods to focus his attention and spread his telegnosis all around himself.

    This time, he finally noticed something amiss.

    With his telegnosis and his five senses working together, he "heard" something that he had previously been unable to, namely the sound of faint footsteps.

    Even though there was a clown directly in front of him, the footsteps that he was hearing wereing from the side.

    Adam pretended to bepletely oblivious to this as he conjured up mes in his hands to attack the fake clown before him, but in the instant that the illusion was destroyed, he suddenly turned his two heads toward a certain direction before unleashing a pair of Explosive Fireballs.

    The two fireballs collided in mid-air and exploded instantly. Adam had intentionally done this as the explosion would impact arge area.

    Using the faint sounds made by the clown, he could only ascertain its general direction, but was unable to determine its exact location, so unleashing an attack that impacted arge area would give him the best chance of hitting the clown.

    The two fireballs exploded violently, transforming the entire area into a sea of fire.

    The dark alley was instantly illuminated, and the explosion was so powerful that a massive hole had been sted into each of the walls on either side.

    The clown''s agonized howl rang out from within the fire and dense smoke, but its voice abruptly cut off shortly thereafter.

    Adam was bracing himself for the clown''s subsequent attacks, but it seemed that things hadn''t progressed in the direction that he had anticipated.

    "It ran away." Hook had remained on the sidelines this entire time, protecting Chloe while observing the battle. He raised his telescope as he peered into the dense smoke, then concluded, "It escaped along the alley''s copsed walls and fled into the building."

    "Alright, I''m on it."

    Adam activated his Hyperspeed ability and immediately gave set off in pursuit.

    Earlier, he had already determined that the clown anomaly wasn''t all that fast, and now that he had activated his Hyperspeed ability, the disparity in speed between the two widened even further.

    The clown was only able to rush through a few rooms before it was cornered in the building by Adam.

    In the wake of the explosion, parts of the clown''s body had been scorched, and its face had also sustained a festering wound, but overall, it hadn''t been significantly harmed. It was clear that aside from its illusion abilities, its defensive capabilities were also quite ster.

    "I didn''t think that you''d be able to catch me, my cute little hunter, but it''s too bad for you, because this is a trap!"

    The clown began to cackle maniacally as it manifested countless clones all around itself.

    Using his telegnosis, Adam was able to determine that the clown anomaly''s clones were purely just illusions, unlike Oni no Hanzou''s shadow clones, which were clearly of a higher level and possessed offensive capabilities.

    However, this illusion was more advanced than the one that it conjured up earlier. Every single one of these illusory clones was also cackling maniacally, and the sound of their cackling wasing from all directions, creating a deafening cacophony that was making Adam''s head spin.

    Looks like it''s already figured out how I was able to spot itst time. What a cunning anomaly this is.

    It was clear that the clown anomaly had already identified the fact that Adam had been able to track it down through auditory cues, and this was its solution to that problem.

    The clown was concealed among its illusory clones, and it pulled a vintage revolver out of its clown suit before firing off a session of shots at Adam.

    Bam bam bam...

    Adam remained on the spot as he dodged the bullets while also searching for his target, but the horde of cackling clowns around him made it impossible for him to track down the real one.

    Furthermore, it was impossible to consistently dodge these bullets, and soon, his chest and abdomen began to sustain bullet wounds. The clown anomaly''s firepower was nothing exceptional, but it couldn''t simply be brushed off, either, and Adam''s skin and flesh were being torn open with every shot. The closest call was a gunshot that had struck him in the face, splitting his entire cheek open.

    It was in situations like this that he really missed his other anomaly.

    If Mummy were still around, he would''ve fused with it without any hesitation, and its immense defensive capabilities would''ve allowed it to shrug off attacks of this caliber with ease. Not only would it render the enemy''s attackspletely ineffective, its Hypertoxic Halo would''ve been able to wear down the opponent for a slow but steady victory. Unfortunately, Mummy was dead, and it would take some time to nurture it again.

    Bam!

    Adam sustained another shot while inspecting his surroundings.

    In this situation, he had no choice but to unleash indiscriminate attacks, unleashing countless Explosive Fireballs out of his mouths to sweep up everything around him in a sea of explosions and fire.

    However, this was an extremely taxing mode of attack, and his body was beginning to tire as his energy slowly ran out.

    This is not going to work!

    Dense smoke was swirling through the air all around him, and the clones that had just been destroyed by the explosions were slowly reforming. The clown had used its clone illusion ability once again.

    At this rate, I''m only dying the inevitable. I can''t keep going like this...

    Adam was expending an enormous amount of psychic energy, but his opponent was only conjuring up illusions to harass him. There was a vast disparity in the power being expended by the two sides, and Adam was at a clear disadvantage here.

    He tried to muster up his telegnosis again, but all sounds were drowned out by the cackling of the clowns, all scents were masked by the smoke and the misceneous objects around him, his eyes were being deceived by the horde of clones, and his sense of taste was not applicable here. It seemed that the only remaining sense that he could utilize was his sense of touch.

    .

    But how was he supposed to use his sense of touch here?

    After some contemtion, Adam hatched a rough n, and during that time, he was struck by three more gunshots.

    At this point, his body was already riddled with wounds, and there were barely any patches of skin that were left unscathed. There were still hundreds of cackling clowns around him, and after some further contemtion, Adam decided to flee.

    He fled through the copsed wall before rushing toward another building.

    Given the terrible state that Adam was in, the clown anomaly had victory within reach, so it naturally wasn''t going to allow Adam to get away, and it set off in pursuit with its true body intermingled among the hundreds of illusory clones.

    Adam rushed past a pair of warehouses, then crashed through a window and arrived in an apartment.

    In contrast with the warehouses from before, this was a far more confined space, and there was no way that several hundred illusory clones could fit inside.

 Chapter 45: Interrogation

    <h4>Chapter 45: Interrogation</h4>

    After fleeing into this confined area, Adam had thought that given how cunning the clown anomaly was, it wouldn''t have followed him into the apartment, but to his surprise, that was exactly what it did.

    In this situation, its bloodlust outweighed its guile, and all it wanted was to have Adam killed.

    With hundreds of illusory clones crammed into the same room, all of the clones began to ovep, making it far easier to identify them as illusions.

    Even so, it was still quite difficult to determine which one was the clown''s true body in such an overcrowded room.

    Furthermore, due to how cramped the room was, the cackling from the clowns had be even more deafening.

    Adam focused his attention on his senses of smell and touch,bining his telegnosis with his five senses. In addition to that, the confined nature of the room was also a factor that he could use to his benefit, and he was able to roughly ascertain the clown''s location.

    In the next instant, the clown pulled the trigger on its revolver.

    A sh of muzzle fire erupted, and Adam immediately dodged while pouncing toward his opponent. He was far faster than the clown, and in this small room, he was able to arrive beside the clown in an instant.

    He failed to strike the clown with his first attack, but he certainly hadn''t missed by much.

    As he was pouncing through the air, his wounds were aggravated by the passing breeze, and under the stimtion of pain, his sense of touch became extremely acute.

    As a result, he was instantly able to determine his enemy''s exact location, and he immediately swept his ws in that direction, tearing offrge chunks of skin and flesh from the clown''s body.

    The clown let loose an agonized howl, and having finally tracked down his target, Adam wasn''t about to let this opportunity slip away. He followed the clown''s scent and attacked over and over again while rushing through the sea of cackling illusory clones.

    His ferocious storm of attacks tore awayrge sections of the clown''s body, inflicting severe wounds upon it.

    However, the bad news was that he was unable to capture his opponent, and after withstanding a flurry of attacks, the clown anomaly was able to escape.

    In contrast with the previous asion, the clown really was fleeing this time. As Adam rushed out of the apartment, he saw the clown''s clones fleeing through the streets and alleys, and all of them were rushing away in different directions.

    Adam wanted to give chase, but he had no idea where to start.

    In the open space outside, his senses of smell and touch weren''t as potent.

    Thus, all he could do was randomly give chase in a few directions to try his luck, but in the end, he could only watch as his severely wounded opponent escaped from right under his nose.

    ¡­¡­

    A short whileter, Adam trudged back to Hook with wounds all over his body. The clown had gone into hiding, but with Hook''s tracking abilities, they were able to find it after several hours and a great deal of toil.

    However, the clown didn''t even engage Adam in battle on this asion. Instead, it conjured up a bunch of clones once again and fled for its life.

    "This is not the way to go," Hook said with a dismayed shake of his head. "We''ve already been in here too long, and we''ve umted too much psychological fatigue. You, in particr, need rest."

    "I know." In the face of failure, Adam didn''t throw a tantrum, nor did he allow his ego to get the better of him. Instead, he nodded in response and candidly admitted his failure. "My telegnosis is too weak, so I don''t have what it takes to counteract an illusion conjurer. Let''s think of a n after we get out of here."

    In the instant that Adam left Chloe''s psychic world, all of the physical pain that he was suffering from immediately faded, but he had a splitting headache, and his mind was extremely murky. A wave of overwhelming drowsiness washed over him, and all he wanted to do wasy down on the ground and sleep.

    For the first time, he experienced the consequences of extreme psychic energy overexertion.

    He forcibly suppressed the difort as he looked out at the sky, which had already turned slightly dark, then turned to Karen and Chloe as he said, "Don''t worry, I''ll think of a way to resolve the problem. That emotional anomaly isn''t particrly powerful. As long as we find a way to counteract its abilities..."

    Adam''s voice trailed off here as he was feeling a little woozy, and only after a few seconds of stupor did he continue, "As long as we find a way to counteract its abilities, we should be able to get rid of it."

    "It''s alright, you''ve already tried your best. I''ve done some research on the inte, so I know that this type of treatment often ends up being unsessful on the first try, and several attempts are often required." Karen was quite reasonable and level-headed, and she had witnessed everything that had taken ce in Chloe''s psychic world. "You need to rest to recover your psychic energy. You can sleep in my room if you want."

    "Alright."

    Adam didn''t turn down the offer. At this point, he was already feeling extremely ufortable.

    He followed Karen to her room, and inside, he saw a great number of sex toys. Even the bed was made from cutting-edge technology in the form of thetest pushback vibration material.

    However, he was too tired to care about any of that, and heid down onto the heavily scented bed, and without even a second of dy, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

    In the guest hall, Hook was feeling just fine. He hadn''t participated in the battle, nor had he sustained any harm to his psychic body, so he was still feeling quite lively.

    In fact, he was in the process of discussing potential strategies with Kim Hee-cho.

    "Is there any way to eradicate that clown anomaly?"

    "If we can find an adapter with extremely potent telegnosis, we''d be able to take care of it easily, but our funds are limited, so we can''t afford to hire an expert in the field. Even if we get Nie Yiyi involved, it won''t change anything. She''s even more of a force in battle than Adam, but that''s not going to help us. If the clown anomaly can''t beat us, then it''ll just run away."

    Hook was a bit of a coward and didn''t want to get involved in battles, but he was still quite responsible when it came to other areas. He turned on his wristbandputer as he spoke and began to search for some useful information.

    There had to have been other adapters who had encountered simr situations, so all he had to do was examine how they had ovee this problem.

    ¡­¡­

    Adam slept like a log for a very long time.

    Only after sleeping a full 19 hours did he slowly wake up due to hunger and thirst.

    As he caught sight of the electronic clock on the wall, he was shocked at how long he had slept for.

    Looks like I really overdid it back there.

    He got up from the bed that wasden with "toys", and after opening the door, he was greeted by the sight of Karen and Hook.

    "You''re awake! Let me get you some food."

    Karen clearly wasn''t a good cook, so when she was referring to food, it was only ready-made store-bought food like milk and pastries.

    Thankfully, Adam wasn''t a picky eater, and he turned to Hook as he ate.

    "You didn''t leave yesterday?"

    "I did, but I came back in the morning. You slept for almost 24 hours, and many things have happened during that time."

    "Like what?"

    "Well, for example, we''ve already found a solution to the problem, but we''ll need the pawn shop''s help," Hook replied as he pulled up a webpage detailing a past case.

    This was a case from seven to eight years ago, and the circumstances involved were rather simr to the ones Adam was dealing with here.

    At the time, the solution that the adapter had thought of was to find the criminal before tying him up, then interrogated the perpetrator for a forced confession in front of the victim, forcing him to reveal everything.

    "The perpetrator was a fraudster who had hurt many women in the past..."

    "Hold on." Adam felt like something wasn''t quite right. "That man deceived women through fraudulent means, but ording to what we saw in the psychic world, that wasn''t what happened to Chloe."

    In the psychic world, she had been assaulted.

    Hook had taken far more lessons at the academy than Adam, but he didn''t want to exin the situation in front of other people. However, he left Adam with a hint: "In contrast with one''s memories, the attributes of their anomalies are far more reliable reference points."

    "I see." Adam nodded in response. Perhaps the assault scene hadn''t actually taken ce in real life. Perhaps Chloe had been lured away, but her sense of shame and her excessive pride had convinced her into believing a false memory.

    However, that wasn''t important.

    "The main problem here is that interrogation is illegal," Adam said with a shake of his head. "I don''t think this is feasible for us."

 Chapter 46: Plan B

    <h4>Chapter 46: n B</h4>

    "Also, most importantly, why would a forced confession weaken the anomaly?"

    "Once a fraudster tells the truth, they will no longer be a fraudster. In particr, if they reveal the truth in front of the victim, their fraudulent attributes will be lowered. That would, in turn, alter the victim''s state of mind, thereby weakening the emotional anomaly."

    "I see."

    Only now did Adam fully understand the proposal, and he turned to Chloe, who had been listening this entire time, then asked, "You''re the victim here. What do you think of this n?"

    "I''m fine with anything."

    At this moment, Chloe''s temper and anxiety had both eased significantly, perhaps due to the fact that her emotional anomaly had been wounded by Adam. As a result, her emotions had be more stable and positive, and she was actively trying to think of solutions to the problem at hand. At the same time, she was also willing to face her problems head-on.

    "I''m definitely willing to cooperate and cure my condition, but what are we going to do about the fact that this is illegal?"

    No one wanted to break thew.

    This was a city in which fugitives would struggle immensely. Withplete free rein when it came to enforcing justice, the officers of Mechguard followed their extremely rigid programming to give the people a safe living space.

    "That is indeed a problem."

    "I disagree. Have you forgotten who you work for?"

    "You mean the pawn shop?"

    "That''s right. The pawn shop is the leading authority in Sandrise City when ites to resolving problems. You belong to the pawn shop, so surely it''s not too much of you to request the pawn shop''s help."

    "I''ll give it a try," Adam said after a brief moment of contemtion, then dialed Red Spider''s number.

    "Hey, can I get you to do me a favor?"

    Adam stated his request, and after hearing what he had to say, Red Spider told him that this was not difficult to arrange.

    "We charge 100,000 to track down a target, 300,000 for interrogation and scene-setting, and 1,000,000 for recording confessions. You''re an employee, so you get the staff discount, which is 40% off. On top of that, we can also provide free..."

    Adam immediately hung up the phone after hearing Red Spider''s quote.

    "As you can see, we''ll have to take care of this problem on our own. For that, we''ll need a refined n."

    ¡­¡­

    That night.

    Having already established a series of ns, the group took the void rail to Area 9.

    Area 9 was an old area. In the past, it was an industrial area, but it had since be even more barren than the rural areas, and all of the buildings here were either abandoned factories or cheap houses.

    Interestingly enough, these barren and archaic ces often gave rise to some very nostalgic cultural symbols. In this area, some vintage clothing shops were beginning to emerge, as were all types of underground recreational venues, one of which was the Old Smelter pub.

    The entrance of the pub was situated in a dark alley behind an abandoned factory, and Adam''s group made their way to the end of the dark alley, then passed through a strange roll gate to enter an elevator.

    After giving the doorman a small tip, they descended around 20 to 30 meters underground, arriving in a pub with a rather peculiar atmosphere.

    After arriving in the pub, Adam covered his ears as he drew close to Chloe''s side before asking, "Are you sure this is where you were attacked?"

    The loud music in the pub meant that he had to get very close to Chloe for his voice to be audible to her.

    "This is definitely the ce," Chloe replied.

    "Do you still remember what that man looks like?"

    Adam recalled that the anomaly''s features were blurred in her psychic world.

    "I do."

    In the real world, Chloe was able to clearly recall the appearance of her attacker, and that was why things in the psychic world couldn''t be used as legal evidence.

    Things like fantasies, pride, and shame could all subjectively influence what went on in one''s psychic world.

    After receiving Chloe''s answer, they emerged from the elevator and entered the pub.

    In the real world, the structure of the pub was the same as it was in the psychic world. On the stage was a DJ and a group of dancers, and there was a dancefloor beneath the stage. There were chairs positioned in front of the dancefloor, and booths situated behind it.

    Adam and the others made ap of the pub, but didn''t discover anything. ording to Chloe, nine months had already passed since the incident. Seeing as they had returned to the pub so long after the incident, the chances of running into the perpetrator on their first visit were very slim.

    In fact, perhaps they wouldn''t find who they were looking for even after 10 visits. There was no guarantee that the perpetrator would always target the same ce.

    "He''s not here. Looks like we''ll have to go with n B. Hook, apany Chloe back to the apartment."

    "I want to stay here."

    "Are you going to be able to look after yourself if a conflict arises?"

    "Fine..."

    Hook took a longing nce at the stage, then departed with Chloe.

    After that, Karen gave Adam a nod, then ordered a booth and several sses of alcoholic beverages. After downing the sses of hard liquor, Karen had found her groove.

    First, she arrived at the center of the dancefloor and began to show off her moves. She then climbed onto the stage while continuing to dance as if she had lost herself in the moment.

    After arriving on the stage, she pulled out her signature move and began to twerk vigorously.

    As expected of someone who''s earned herself a reputation even in therge clubs of the Metaverse.

    Karen''s rear end was bouncing and jiggling in a mesmerizing fashion on the stage, and she was practically radiating allure. She was like a new star, and her glowing radiance instantly made all of the other performers around her pale into insignificance, drawing everyone''s attention to her.

    All of the men in the club followed their primal instincts and turned their attention to the stage.

    Below the stage, some of the men were cheering, some were whistling, and some decided to have a few extra beers toplement the beautiful view.

    After a breathtaking performance, Karen made her way down from the stage, sweating profusely. As soon as she made her way over to Adam, quite a few men approached her. Some of the men offered to buy her drinks, some wanted to have a chat, and there were also some who were gauging Adam''s reaction to try and extrapte his rtionship with Karen.

    It was clear that all of these men had been drawn here by her performance.

    Karen paid no heed to any of them until a certain person arrived.

    "Hi there, I''m the manager of this ce. I just saw your performance, and I must say that you have my attention. May I ask if you''re a professional dancer?"

    With the arrival of the manager, Karen immediately abandoned her distant and aloof fa?ade, suddenly bing extremely warm and enthusiastic.

    "My dream as a child was to be a professional dancer, but unfortunately, I was unable to make that dream a reality due to certain practical circumstances."

    "That really is a pity, but no one can tell exactly what fate has in store for them. If you can''t achieve your dream, perhaps getting a high-earning job will go a long way to making up for that disappointment. I came here to ask you whether you would be interested to work as a performer for our pub. Of course, thepensation will be very substantial."

    "Oh? That sounds like a great deal," Karen said with a wide smile while jiggling the voluptuous rear-end that she took so much pride in. "Can we go somewhere private to discuss the exact details?"

    "That would be my honor," the manager said with a smile, then led Karen to the office area at the back of the establishment.

    The two of them were gone for about two to three hours, and Karen was still sweating profusely upon her return.

    Adam could only imagine what she had to sacrifice for her daughter, and he felt a mix ofplex emotions. He was a nk te, yet seeing the lengths that Karen was willing to go to for her daughter made him want to meet his parents, even though he didn''t even know if they existed or not.

    However, this wasn''t something for him to think about in this situation. At the moment, there was only one thing that he should''ve been focusing on.

    "Did you get the information?"

    "I did," Karen replied as she pointed at her handbag. "There''s a copy of all of the surveince footage for this year in there, and he also agreed to help me track down the person that we''re looking for."

 Chapter 47: Two Middle-aged Man

    <h4>Chapter 47: Two Middle-aged Man</h4>

    "Great."

    The n was progressing very smoothly, and the next step was to take the surveince footage back to Chloe so she could identify her attacker. Once they had footage of the perpetrator, it was going to be far easier to find him.

    "After you identify the perpetrator, ask the manager here whether he''s been visiting this pub recently. If he hasn''t, then send the footage over to me, and the pawn shop will help us track him down."

    The pawn shop was a very stingy business, but Adam definitely had the authority to use the pawn shop''s resources to track down a person with visual footage already provided. After all, that was a very simple task.

    With video footage of the perpetrator and information on his past activity, they would be able to track him down even without the pawn shop.

    "Alright, but it''s going to take two or three more days on my end."

    While this wasn''t a difficult task, it was still going to take time to identify and track down someone.

    "Alright, I''ll wait for you."

    After a brief discussion, Adam and Karen left the pub.

    During the next two or three days, Karen and Chloe were responsible for picking out the perpetrator from the footage, while Adam was using that time to train his telegnosis.

    Telegnosis was extremely important for adapters. It could allow them to avoid sneak attacks, dispel illusions, and it could enhance their senses. It could be said that telegnosis was essentially a pair of eyes for adapters, but after two or three days of training, the progress he made, or theck thereof, was rather discouraging.

    This wasn''t much of a surprise for Adam. Back when he was training with Sadou, he had disyed mediocre potential in all areas aside from his connection with his invoked entities.

    There was potential for vast disparities in how endowed adapters could be. There was no guarantee that an adapter could be a master even after training for decades, so it would''ve been downright delusional for him to expect to make noticeable progress in the span of just two or three days.

    It looks like I''ll have to rely on absorbing the power of anomalies if I want to speed up my progress. I wonder if there are anomalies out there with extremely potent telegnosis that can allow me to make rapid progress in my own telegnosis in a short time by absorbing their power.

    Adam was still very inexperienced when it came to absorbing the power of anomalies. Up to this point, he had only absorbed part of the scarecrow''s power.

    The scarecrow was abat-ss anomaly with high strength and resistance, as well as immense offensive capabilities. After absorbing its power, Adam noticed a clear improvement in the abilities of his invoked entities.

    I have to find more anomalies for experimentation.

    While Adam was pondering this matter, Kim Hee-cho appeared in the Metaverse with some news.

    "Looks like our business is off to a flying start. It''s only been a couple of days, and we''ve already received 14 job requests."

    Kim Hee-cho opened up the electronic interface as he spoke, and sure enough, there were 14 messages, all of which were requesting psychotherapy services.

    "As expected, demand far outweighs supply when ites to low-end adapter psychotherapy services."

    There were far too many upations that suited adapters, but adapters were extremely rare, so there was always a shortage. Furthermore, psychotherapy was a very dangerous line of work, and all those who were capable of working in this field would generally choose to secure professional qualifications so that they could make their work more lucrative. There were also more sinister individuals who would apply to be hitmen in the ck market. Due to the limitations of the Mechguard officers, it was not as dangerous for adapters to work as hitmen as all of their assignments took ce in the psychic world.

    Hence, low-end psychotherapists had always been extremely sought after, and that was also the main reason why Kim Hee-cho had decided to form this coborative rtionship.

    "14? But we haven''t even finished this job yet! Karen and Chloe should be able to identify the perpetrator in the next couple of days."

    "We can''t afford to get bogged down by a single job. We can work on multiple jobs at once for maximum efficiency."

    Adam nodded in response. He was even more eager to take on jobs than Kim Hee-cho was, and his urgency stemmed from the immense pressure weighing down on him, the pressure of surviving in this hostile world, the pressure to be more powerful, and the pressure to earn more money. "With so many clients, I should be able to choose one that suits me."

    Adam cast his gaze toward the catalog of requests and filtered through them carefully. He wanted to choose an anomaly with telegnotic powers, but also one that was weaker and easier to defeat.

    After some selection, he narrowed it down to two clients.

    "These two middle-aged men are both fine."

    Kim Hee-cho inspected the information on the two clients to find that both men belonged to the upper middle ss and were high-ranking employees at majorpanies.

    One of them worked in a financial institution, and his request was for the clinic to rid him of his guilt. ording to the short description that he had provided, he had done too many disgusting and underhanded things in his life, and he needed to have his conscience cleansed periodically.

    "So what this is saying is that this isn''t his first time receiving psychotherapeutic treatment." This was the first time that Adam had encountered a client like this.

    "That''s right. Someone like him most likely needs to keep a clear mind at all times, and they can''t afford for their guilt to affect their business. Of course, after having his guilt cleansed away, he would also just be happier and more emotionally stable in general."

    "What an extravagant way to live," Adam mused with a nod. "The emotional anomaly in his psychic world shouldn''t be all that powerful, right?"

    "I''m not an adapter, so I don''t know about that, but I would think that it''s not very powerful."

    "The second one should be about the same as well."

    The second middle-aged man worked at a high-tech enterprise, one that serviced the Metaverse. People in his line of work werepensated quite handsomely, but the workload was enormous, and it was grueling work. For the sake of his family, he was stretching himself extremely thin, and as a result, he had developed severe anxiety and obsessivepulsive disorder ofte.

    "I''m happy to take on both of these clients."

    "Alright, I''ll get in contact with them." Kim Hee-cho was naturally keen to take on more jobs, and he sent replies to both of the clients.

    The first one to respond was the finance man. Everything was very fast and convenient in the Metaverse, and only about 10 minutester, a hologram of a well-built middle-aged man appeared.

    "Hello, and wee to Memories Clinic. I am one of the managers here, and my name is Kim Hee-cho. Wow, you look great! I can tell you work out regrly in the real world. I have half a foot in the finance circles, so I know that there''s a culture of pursuing health and physical wellbeing in those circles."

    Kim Hee-cho immediately began to praise the man''s physique on sight.

    "Hello." The finance nodded as he said in a polite manner, "My name is Peter, and I''m contacting your clinic because the clinic that I regrly sought psychotherapy services from recently raised their prices. My issues are quite minor, so I shouldn''t have to spend so much for psychotherapy. I saw on your advertisement that your prices start at 80,000. This is just a routinely periodic cleanse, so I presume 80,000 should be enough to cover the service, right?"

    Peter didn''t waste even a second of time and immediately cut straight to the chase.

    When it came to negotiating prices, Kim Hee-cho was also a seasoned professional.

    "We do indeed offer a starting price of 80,000, but judging from the information you provided, your case doesn''t fall into the category of the easiest cases to treat, so we''ll have to set the price ording to the situation."

    "Alright, and how do we do that?"

    "First, you have to provide me with some further details. When was yourst cleanse?"

    "14 months ago..."

    A discussion was held on the spot, and after around 20 minutes, the two of them finally settled on a price somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000.

    120,000 was the base price, while the rest was the bonus, and whether the bonus would be issued or not would depend on the power of the anomaly in the client''s psychic world, and to what degree Adam was able to cleanse it.

    After settling on a price and signing a contract, Peter immediately requested the cleanse tomence.

    In his words: "Don''t waste my time. This is my address, if I don''t see you today, there will be deductions made to the final payment. That''s a use on the contract."

    Adam and Kim Hee-cho exchanged a nce, and having established what had to be done, both of them logged out of the Metaverse.

    Several hourster, the trio met up with Peter in the real world in front of a stock exchange office.

 Chapter 48: Bad Man

    <h4>Chapter 48: Bad Man</h4>

    Hook had been called up for this mission as well, not just because he was a coborative partner, but most importantly, he really did excel at tracking down anomalies.

    "Is that him?"

    Hook took a nce at the person standing before him, then raised his head to look up at the sign on the stock exchange office, which read "Silver Dor".

    "May I ask who this is?"

    "This is one of our employees. One person obviously can''t get as much work done as two. Come in. We have lounge areas in ourpany, so we can do the treatment in there."

    Peter always seemed to be quite urgent and short on time, so everyone skipped the small talk and followed him into the building.

    As soon as they entered the stock exchange office, Adam was greeted by a cacophony ofmotion. Even though many of the transactions were taking ce on the inte, everyone still looked like a clowder of cats on a hot tin roof. The traders who were hooked up to the direct neural interface were making all types of strange sounds that expressed different emotions, such as dismay or excitement, and an atmosphere of anxiety was permeating the entire office.

    Peter seemed to be quite a high-ranking employee here, and he led Adam and his group to a lounge area with great acoustic instion.

    The room was fitted with the best soundproofing door on the market, and the entire room fell silent as soon as the door was closed.

    Inside the lounge area was a sofa and a variety of beverages were on offer, as well as a normal therapy clinic that was run by non-adapter therapists.

    The group arrived in a separate quiet room, and Peter immediatelyid down.

    "Let''s begin."

    "Alright."

    Everyone immediately got to work, with Kim Hee-cho setting up the projection device, while Adam and Hook infiltrated Peter''s psychic world.

    ¡­¡­

    The first stop that they arrived at in Peter''s psychic world was on arge bed with threepletely nude womenying on it. A half-naked Peter was also on the bed, and from the looks of it, they had just finished doing the deed.

    "Oh, this is a nice ce to start."

    "Let''s get to work." Adam didn''t have much interest in the scene before him. "They''re not even half as hot as Karen."

    "I wanted to stay and watch her dance that day, but you made me apany Chloe back to the apartment. What a waste!" Hook sighed as he pulled out his magnifying ss and aimed it at the bed, upon which he immediately realized that something was wrong.

    "Who are you?"

    Their arrival had alerted the four people on the bed, but instead of disying any panic at the sight of the intruders, expressions of bloodlust and excitement appeared on the faces of the three women.

    "Those three are emotional aberrations!"

    "You''re talking about these three women?"

    Before Hook had a chance to reply, Adam''s question was answered as the three women''s faces took on a twisted and sinister appearance, baring their sharp fangs as their eyes took on a bright red hue.

    Adam immediately summoned Hellhound upon seeing this, and the anomaly stopped the three aberrations cold in their tracks as they tried to pounce on Adam.

    As soon as Hellhound appeared, it let loose a ferocious howl and mercilessly destroyed one of the aberrations with a swipe of its ws. It then chomped down onto the necks of the other two women with its two heads before they had a chance to attack it with their fangs.

    Two crisp cracks rang out, and the two emotional aberrations were each bitten into two.

    "They''re not very powerful."

    The main difference between emotional aberrations and emotional anomaliesid in how powerful they were and how much of a threat they posed to the host.

    Emotional anomalies could only arise as a result of extremely traumatic events, such as a little girl witnessing a human factory that was producing nk tes, or a young woman being lured into a dark alley before being assaulted repeatedly.

    In contrast, emotional aberrations could arise far more easily. Being scolded at school by a teacher, having something stolen by a pickpocket, being scammed, or even the guilt that the scammer experienced... All of those could be catalysts for the emergence of emotional aberrations.

    Everyone had emotional aberrations in their hearts, but these aberrations were very weak, and it was extremely difficult for them to mutate into anomalies under normal circumstances.

    After the two emotional anomalies were mauled to death, Adam attempted tomunicate with Hellhound, instructing it to absorb their power.

    However, Hellhound seemed to be very picky, and it only absorbed a tiny amount of power from the aberrations before stopping. It was unclear whether it didn''t want to absorb any further energy from them, or if that was simply all the energy that they had to offer.

    In the psychic world, Peter was initially rather perplexed by the sight of Adam and Hook, but a thought then seemed to ur to him, and he asked, "You two are here to help me, right?"

    "That''s right."

    People in the psychic world were just like people in dreams in that all of their memories of reality were very murky. However, Peter had already had these emotional cleanses performed on him many times in the past, so he had a recollection of this deep in his memory, which was why he was able to arrive at this conclusion right away.

    "Alright, where do we begin?"

    "Just leave it to us. Come inside me." Hook opened up his greasy cabin as he spoke. "Come in here so you don''t get harmed by any aberrations. We''ll take care of the rest."

    "Got it."

    Even in the psychic world, Peter was clearly just as averse to time-wasting as he was in the real world, and he immediately entered the greasy cabin without any hesitation.

    "Oh, that''s good, that''s really good..."

    With someone inside him, Hook was clearly very excited, and he was full of vigor.

    After that, he began to pull out all types of surveince equipment as he made his way out of the hotel room.

    The scene transitioned, and after riding the elevator in the hotel down to the ground floor, they arrived in a trading hall, within which dozens of emotional aberrations were gathered. These aberrations resembled zombies, writhing incessantly with sickly greenplexions, and they immediately converged at the sight of living people.

    Are these the stressed traders in Peter''s workce?

    Adam instructed Hellhound to mow down these aberrations.

    With just a single Explosive Fireball, Hellhound was able to blow up the entire trading hall, killing around a dozen zombies in the process.

    Immediately thereafter, Hellhound rushed into the horde of zombies and engaged them in meleebat.

    These aberrations were nowhere near as powerful as emotional anomalies, so even Hook made a rare disy of charging into battle. He swung his metallic arm through the air, knocking a zombie onto the ground with a single punch before putting an end to its existence with a barrage of punches.

    He then did the exact same thing to a second zombie, but as he turned around to go after a third one, he discovered that all of the other zombies had already been eradicated by Hellhound.

    "Wow, your pet seems to be growing more powerful by the day!"

    After killing the dozens of zombies in the trading hall, Hellhound was able to absorb a bit more power, but it was far from a significant amount.

    "How many more aberrations are there?"

    "I''m not sure, but I''m guessing there''s still..." The two of them made their way out of the trading hall while speaking with one another, and they were greeted by the sight of an entire street full of aberrations. "... A lot..."

    "Why are there so many? My goodness, how much shady stuff has this guy done?"

    "What do you think? Those three women looked like escorts, and even they turned into aberrations in his psychic world! That should tell you something."

    "Did those three be aberrations because he used them but didn''t pay them, or did he do something to hurt them?"

    "Who cares? Look after yourself first. These aberrations seem to be more powerful than the ones we just dealt with, so take care not to get hurt."

    Adam was feeling a little overwhelmed at the sight of the hordes of aberrations outside. Not only was there a massive number of aberrations on the streets, they wererger than the ones that had been previously dealt with as well.

    Thergest of these aberrations had bodies that were entirely formed by sludge that was releasing dense, ck smoke. There was a good chance that these sludge aberrations were the manifestation of Peter''s guilt. They devoured everything in their path, and even the other aberrations on the streets weren''t spared from their gluttony.

    However, Adam had noticed something from these aberrations that came as quite a pleasant surprise to him. The ck mist-like substance rising up from the bodies of these sludge aberrations indicated that they already possessed anomalic power. If they weren''t cleansed in a timely fashion, they would''ve eventually mutated into anomalies.

 Chapter 49: I Call the Shots

    <h4>Chapter 49: I Call the Shots</h4>

    Anomalized aberrations were not good news for most people, but this was perfect for Adam. What he needed was exactly these low-grade anomalies, or half-anomaly creatures.

    "We agreed in advance that I wouldn''t be participating in battle, so I''ll leave this to you. Those zombies that I took out were already outside of my job description."

    Seeing the massive hordes of aberrations on the streets immediately made Hook revert back to his old cowardly self, and he instantly retreated back into the trading hall.

    "Alright, look after yourself."

    Adam wasted no time as he immediately summoned Hellhound and began to fuse with it.

    .

    If only Mummy was here.

    Following the fusion, Adam swept his gaze over the hordes of aberrations down below, and he took a deep breath before jumping up from the staircase in front of the trading hall. He leaped straight onto the streets, thenmenced his killing spree.

    In his werewolf form, Adam was even more powerful than Hellhound on its own, and the average emotional aberration was no match for him. mes reared up from his ws, and all of the aberrations that were struck by his swiping fiery ws were either wounded or killed on the spot.

    He rushed through the street, killing as he went, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in his wake.

    The emotional aberrations weren''t as intelligent as the anomalies, and even though they knew that they were no match for Adam, they still rushed directly toward him like mindless zombies, saving him the trouble of having to chase them down.

    After storming from one end of the street to the other, Adam finally arrived before the sludge aberrations. However, he didn''t immediately rush into battle. Instead, he took a moment to recover his energy.

    At this point, he was already panting heavily, and if it weren''t for the energy that he had absorbed during the course of his killing spree, he would''ve most likely already reached his limits and been forced to withdraw for now.

    "My child..."

    "I loved you! Why did you abandon me? You clearly could''ve saved me..."

    "My child..."

    There were a total of three sludge aberrations, and they were standing not far away from Adam. All three of them were writhing incessantly as they approached Adam while yelling in broken voices.

    Due to the fact that the oral cavities of these sludge monsters were also filled with sludge, Adam had to listen to what they were saying quite a few times before he finally understood the contents of their words.

    What are these three? Are these his mother and his wives?

    The more aberrations that Adam encountered, the more convinced he was that his client was an absolute scumbag.

    Not only did he have a massive number of enemies, even the three escorts he had hired had transformed into anomalies, and what was most appalling of all was that the aberrations in his heart that were most difficult to eradicate were manifested from those closest to him.

    His guilt toward his loved ones had given rise to these three sludge aberrations. Of course, Adam didn''t know exactly what Peter had done, nor did he have any interest in finding out. His priority was to get this filthy job done as quickly as possible so he could leave this psychic world.

    The sludge aberrations were enormous, and instead of approaching them, Adam chose to attack them from afar, sting an Explosive Fireball at the closest of the three sludge aberrations.

    The fireballs crashed into the aberration''s body and instantly exploded. Thebination of fire and explosive force blew a hole into its body, and it was clearly a very effective attack. This was where Hellhound excelled over Mummy.

    If Hellhound had been the one that had perished instead of Mummy back when he was surrounded by the Golden Iron Triangle, then this situation would''ve been far more awkward.

    The sludge monsters didn''t fear attacks from ded weapons, and they were most likely immune to poison as well, so Mummy wouldn''t have been able to do anything to them.

    Every single invoked entity has its own unique advantages. I have to find a way to revive Mummy.

    These aberrations were quite easy to deal with, but that didn''t mean that it would all be smooth sailing from here. While contemting all of this, Adam sted another Explosive Fireball out of his mouth.

    The fireballs exploded one after another, and the sludge aberrations were finally driven into an enraged frenzy.

    They began to attack Adam by rushing toward him, but they were far too slow to keep up with Adam in his werewolf form. After chasing Adam for some time to no avail, one of the sludge aberrations began to st sludge at Adam, and the other two were also pulling putrid chunks out of their own bodies before hurling them at Adam.

    Thump!

    One of therge clumps of filth crashed into a small car off to the side, and the car was sent flying a long way, reflecting the immense power behind the attack.

    In order to ensure his own safety, Adam hurriedly activated his Hyperspeed ability, increasing his speed even further to evade the sludge attacks while continuing to st fire out of his mouths in retaliation.

    This had be a war of attrition, and with his speed advantage, Adam was able to remain out of reach for the sludge aberrations while constantly wearing them down.

    Each Explosive Fireball that he unleashed was able to st away some parts of the sludge aberrations'' bodies.

    However, these sludge aberrations possessed outstanding regenerative abilities. Even after having chunks of their bodies blown off, those chunks of sludge would squirm back to them to be part of their bodies again. As such, Adam was forced to spend time to eradicate the masses of sludge that were blown off the aberrations.

    This was like an archaic monster-hunting RPG, with the monsters controlled by low-level AI. The only thing about them that was difficult to deal with was their high HP stat, and even though there was no skill involved in killing them, it was a very time-consuming endeavor.

    This battle raged on for a full three hours before the three sludge aberrations were finally eradicated.

    During the course of the battle, Adam was able to absorb arge quantity of anomalic power.

    After the third sludge aberration was in, Adam instinctively began to absorb the ck mist rising up from its body. With the influx of anomalic power, Adam could feel his own energy being replenished, and his power, field of view, and senses were beingprehensively elevated.

    The most marked improvement came in his regenerative abilities.

    He could clearly sense a burst of anomalic power with adhesive properties flowing erratically through his body. Having just undergone a round of evolution, there was still arge quantity of anomalic power in his body that he was unable to digest. However, right at this moment, an all-devouring force that resembled the power of a ck hole suddenly appeared in his body, devouring all of the power that he was unable to process.

    <i>This is probably what happenedst time. </i>

    Adam recalled that after defeating the scarecrow, there had been even more leftover anomalic power that he was unable to digest. In the end, the anomalic power was absorbed by his flowerpots, and another scarecrow manifested itself in his psychic world. Due to how simr this situation was to that asion, he was guessing that the anomalic power that had just been sucked away had been nted into his psychic world as well.

    "All done?"

    While Adam was feeling the changes taking ce in his own body, Hook approached him in a set of strange woman''s attire while eating an ice cream.

    "Where did you go just now?"

    "I took a stroll in the nearby area. This guy''s psychic world has a lot of recreational facilities, so he clearly knows how to enjoy himself," Hook replied. "That battle took way too long and was way too boring, so you can''t me me for having a wander. Of course, I didn''t just walk around and do nothing. There are still some aberrations left in his psychic world, and I''ve marked all of them. Follow me."

    Adam nodded in response.

    Hook couldn''t be relied on in battle, but he was a very thorough person with great attention to detail. With him leading the way, Adam was able to take care of all of the remaining aberrations and sessfullyplete the mission.

    After that, the two of them left Peter''s psychic world and roused him from his slumber.

    "You did a decent job."

    After getting up from the bed, Peter was in very high spirits, and his eyes were glowing with joy and tranquility. Having had all of his psychological baggage cleared away, he had essentially been reborn anew.

    "Time to pay up." Kim Hee-cho also felt Peter to a be a despicable man, so he didn''t bother with any pleasantries as he said, "We did a very thorough cleanse, so ording to the contract, we''ll be receiving 150,000."

    "No, I''m only going to give you 120,000," Peter argued with a shake of his head. "Whether you did a good job or not is up to me to decide."

 Chapter 50: Sex Planet

    <h4>Chapter 50: Sex</h4>

    "But the contract states..."

    "Did the contract include any finer details? That was just a standard contract. Concepts like degree of cleanse, satisfaction, and the power of the emotional aberrations are allpletely subjective. Subjectively, I''m not satisfied with this clean, so ording to the contract, I''m well within my rights to only give you 120,000."

    "You motherfucker..."

    Kim Hee-cho temper finally boiled over, and he began to bicker with Peter.

    Even though he was an expert when it came to negotiating contracts, Peter clearly had him beaten when it came to shamelessness.

    No matter what he said, Peter was only willing to give 120,000 aspensation, unwilling to pay even an extra cent.

    "If you''re not happy with thepensation, then you''re free to sue me. However, let me remind you that it''s extremely difficult to secure evidence from the psychic world, and even if you do win the case, you''ll only be getting an additional 30,000, which won''t even be enough to cover your legal fees. Just take your 120,000 and get out of here. Neither of us will owe the other anything, and we won''t have to waste any more time here, either."

    Peter was very calm and cid as he spoke. Having just had all of his emotional baggage cleansed, he was feeling better than ever.

    "I understand why you came to us now. I bet you pick out a different psychotherapy clinic each time you get this treatment done!" Kim Hee-cho recalled back to when they first met Peter, and how Peter had told him that he had turned to them as the psychotherapy clinic that he previously went to had raised their prices. With the wisdom of hindsight, Kim Hee-cho realized that this was most likely all a lie. "Are you not worried about the repercussions of making so many enemies out of adapters?"

    "I''ve made too many enemies to count in my life, so it doesn''t matter to me if one more gets added to the list," Peter replied with a shake of his head. "Most importantly, I know who I can do this to without having to fear the consequences, and I know who I can''t afford to mess with. All of the adapters who run psychotherapy clinics rather than bing hitmen want to run legitimate businesses, and they''re not willing to risk spoiling their reputation over a rtively insignificant sum of money. Also, I always stay away from major organizations."

    "You mean like the pawn shop?"

    "That''s right. The pawn shop may be a legitimate business, but with its reputation, no one dares to mess with it."

    "I''m an employee of the pawn shop. This is just a private job that I''m taking on," Adam said in a calm voice.

    "You''re from the pawn shop? Yeah right, that''s a cool story."

    "You don''t believe me? You''re in the finance sector, so you''re making important decisions every day. Why don''t you make a decision here as to whether I''m telling the truth or not?"

    After hearing what Adam had to say, Peter turned to Hook and Kim Hee-cho in order to gauge their reactions to assess the validity of Adam''s im.

    This was a very spontaneous turn of events, so they couldn''t have had a chance to agree on this ruse. Perhaps the person telling the lie could put on a convincing performance, but there was no way that the other two would''ve been able to do the same without any reaction time.

    What he saw told him that there was a very good chance that Adam had told the truth. There were emotions like anger and vindictive glee in their eyes, but they clearly weren''t surprised in the slightest.

    "Alright, given that you work for the pawn shop, I can give you an extra 20,000, but that''s my limit."

    Peter made a concession, and Kim Hee-cho didn''t want to have to bicker with him any longer, so the transaction waspleted.

    After leaving the stock exchange office, Adam cast his gaze toward the neon lights outside with a slightly dazed expression.

    "What''s wrong?" Kim Hee-cho asked as he stopped and turned around to look at him.

    "I''m finally beginning to understand the way that Red Spider does things. She''s gone on so many missions, so she has to have encountered far more troublesome people and problems than I have. Every time you encounter something like this, it inevitably changes your personality slight." Adam took a deep breath, then turned back to look at the trading hall. "But I''m still unable to understand this world..."

    "What don''t you understand?" Hook asked. "He''s already given you the money, what else is there to think about?"

    "There''s a set of standard concepts in my mind." Following Adam''s awakening, the only memories in his mind were ones that could be categorized as general knowledge. "There''s something in my memories that tells me that everyone should strive to be good people, and that good people will receive good karma, while bad people will be punished..."

    "That''s what they teach in primary school textbooks. If everyone was a bad person, then this society would''ve already copsed long ago. Of course it''s better to have more good people in the world," Kim Hee-cho said. "You must be thinking about Peter, right? You must be wondering why he''s living such a good life despite the terrible person that he is."

    "That''s right. Out of everyone I''ve seen, he''s the one living the best life."

    Indeed, Peter had money and time, and he could even remove the parts of his emotional framework that he found to be undesirable. He was mentally stable, enjoyed a life of abundance, and he didn''t have to face as much pressure as people like Cowboy and May.

    "Not only does he have the best life out of everyone I''ve seen, he''s also the one with the personality that disgusts me the most." In that instant, something stirred slightly in Adam''s heart, and a twisted anomaly began to slowly arise within his psychic world. "It just doesn''t seem fair."

    It wasn''t fair for the nk tes, it wasn''t far for all of the people constantly toiling away for limited financial reward, it wasn''t fair for those who had to serve others as cyberliches even in death, and it certainly wasn''t fair for Peter to be living such a good life.

    In that instant, not only did Adam sense the warping of his own mindset, he also came to realize just how twisted this world was.

    Aftering into existence in Adam''s psychic world, the twisted anomaly immediately began to devour the remnant anomalic power there in a frenzy. All of the undigested anomalic power from the sludge monsters were drawn toward it, and its digestive abilities seemed to be superior to those of Mummy and Hellhound.

    At the same time, it began to grow rapidly, spurred on by Adam''s twisted mindset in the moment.

    "Why are you thinking about these deep, philosophical things? This world has always been unfair to begin with. If you delve too deep into emotions like this, you could easily be a psychic mutant."

    "A psychic mutant?"

    "That''s right, there are a lot of deranged adapters out there. If you don''t want to be a psychic mutant, then you have to ease up and do some things that make you happy and rxed." Hook pulled out the tinum VIP card that Karen had given to him as he spoke, then offered it to Adam. "Give it a try. I''ve already used it, and it''s amazing."

    "Er... I''m not interested."

    "As long as there''s nothing wrong with your body and your sexual orientation, there''s no one who wouldn''t be interested in something like this."

    "I agree, you should give it a try." Kim Hee-cho took a nce at Adam, and he could also tell that there was something off about him. "Don''t allow your work pressure to get to you. It''s not a big deal, take some time to rx every once in a while."

    "Exactly. Why do you think Red Spider is always so into having fun? It''s exactly because she''s seen too much stuff like this."

    "Alright, I''ll go take a lookter."

    After parting ways with Kim Hee-cho, Adam returned to his dormitory. He checked his messages to find that there were none from Karen, and upon Hook''s insistence, he put on his helmet and arrived in the Metaverse once again.

    After two shes of light, the two of them arrived at that space station again.

    This time, Hook wasted no time with words and immediately input themands that took them to the Sex.

    As soon as they arrived, Adam waspletely shocked.

    The ground beneath their feet was no longer soft, loamy soil, nor was it amonce concrete road. Instead, it was a gargantuan valkyrie, and at this moment, he and Hook were walking on the valkyrie''s breast.

    The sensation of the valkyrie''s body beneath their feet was both soft and stic, and it was a very bizarre experience for Adam.

    Furthermore, there was a strange fragrance wafting through the surrounding air. This fragrance seemed to be able to act directly upon one''s brain, stimting one''s sexual desire to an unbearable peak.

 Chapter 51: Suspicious

    <h4>Chapter 51: Suspicious</h4>

    "It''s so strange here..."

    Anyone who set foot on the Sex was instantly struck by a sense of intoxication.

    "This is a paid, just like the prepaid game cards from 100 years ago. Once you''re here, even if you don''t do anything, you''ll still get charged by the hour, but the hourly fee isn''t that high."

    "Does this only cater to adults?"

    "That''s right. Not only does it cater to adults, there are different categories, like straight men, straight women, men on men, women on women, anything you can think of. Aside from categories based on sexual orientations, they also cater to all types of fetishes. For example, I''m into all types of bodily fluids. Last time, I went to Vomit Ind, and..."

    "Stop! I''m not into that."

    "Alright, alright, we''re here today to help you blow off some steam."

    Hook led Adam along the breast of the valkyrie and arrived at her lips, where a massive seductive witch was standing.

    The witch was also enormous, but not as huge as the valkyrie.

    The valkyrie beneath their feet stretched on for over 10 kilometers, while the witch was only around 200 meters tall, making her roughlyparable in height to a skyscraper in the real world.

    The witch was seated beside the lips of the valkyrie, holding her staff while keeping her legs tucked firmly together. There were some people nearby who wanted to enter, but they were denied entry by her.

    "This is a high-end venue, so you''ll be needing your VIP card."

    VIP cards in the real world could be used in the Metaverse by entering a password, and after disying their VIP cards to the witch, she gave them a seductive smile.

    "Come inside and warm up your bodies, boys. It''s too cold outside."

    The witch grabbed ahold of Adam and Hook as she spoke, then spread her legs open and thrust them directly into her body.

    Upon entering the witch''s body, the first thing that Adam felt was a wave of heat. After that, he was greeted by the sight of a super high-end pub. Everyone was seated on the fleshy walls of the pub, watching a show being put on by countless performers before them.

    Among them were virtual idols and data of real people, presenting a great deal of diversity.

    In terms of size and ss, this pub was countless times superior to the pub that Adam had visited in the real world a few days ago. If it weren''t for the fact that some people preferred the feeling of experiencing things in reality, there would''ve been nopetition at all for this ce.

    Adam and Hook ordered some drinks, and after wandering through the hall for a while, a virtual figure approached them and struck up a conversation.

    "Hey there, handsome, we offer private one-person services here. You can enter one of our booths and enjoy a one-to-one dance show from one of our performers. What would you like? A witch? A horsewoman? A basketball yer? A bunny rabbit?"

    With each role that the virtual figure was rattling off, she would adopt the corresponding outfit, and the transitions were happening so quickly that it was almost dizzying to behold.

    "I''ll take a horsewoman. I''m going on ahead, you can do whatever you want."

    After one of the options was selected, a horsewoman d in a suit of silver armor that was dancing seductively strode down from the stage in the massive hall, then entered a room with Hook.

    Adam considered his preferences for a moment, but he didn''t know what he wanted.

    "Just get me a normal one."

    "A normal one? Would you like... a female office worker?"

    "Sure." Adam nodded in response. "Oh, by the way, I want a real person, not a virtual one."

    "I understand. Some people aren''t really into virtual people."

    The virtual hostess gave Adam a seductive wink, then called over a middle-aged woman.

    All of the performers who were able to work here were either extremely skilled in their craft, or were very beautiful and empathetic.

    The middle-aged woman in the office worker uniform belonged to thetter group.

    "Hello, Boss, let''s go to room 666."

    The woman was very polite and cheerful, and she led Adam into a fleshy room before beginning her service.

    She was very observant, and after noticing that Adam wasn''t saying or doing anything after entering the room, she knew that he had to be new here, so she actively struck up a conversation.

    "All clients who prefer real people, and particrly office workers, like to ask me what I did for work prior to this. Do you know what I worked as in the past, Boss?"

    "I don''t," Adam replied with a shake of his head.

    "I used to be a receptionist at a technologypany."

    "Why did you decide to change jobs?"

    "For two reasons, the first of which is money. Back when I was a receptionist, I was actually just a pretty face anyway. All I did was greet clients and perform some simple tasks that even the most basic robots couldplete, so it wasn''t a very fulfilling job. Most importantly, I was only getting 3,800 a month, which had to be one of the lowest sries in the entirepany."

    "What''s the second reason?"

    "The second reason is because I have good looks and can dance. Back at school, I was a cheerleader. Let me show you."

    The woman began to dance in a cheerful and energetic manner as she spoke, and halfway through her dance, she dove straight into Adam''s arms, and the rest flowed naturally.

    Even though Adam was a nk te, he was still a normal man, and he had a full score in his physical health index, so he was even more hot-blooded than the average man. As a result, he performed quite well, even though it was his first time.

    After that experience, he really did feel as if his mind had be a bit more rxed.

    "You were so good..."

    "Is there a difference even in here?"

    Adam was referring to the Metaverse.

    "Yes, there are pills that can be taken to alter one''s data, but I can tell that you''re really good just as you are..." The woman was just about to continue and say something else when her expression abruptly changed, and she suddenly became very serious as she said, "You should be more brave."

    "Who?"

    "I said you should be more brave. Right now, you''re too timid and cautious."

    "Brave? What are you referring to?" Adam was rather perplexed, and his rxed mood instantly faded as he became tense and anxious again. "Are you saying I should''ve been brave and assertive with my movements earlier?"

    "I''m saying you should be more brave when facing adapters. There isn''t much time left for you. Right now, there are people who are nning to use psychic mutants tounch another terrorist attack. Their n is to ignite resentment toward adapters in the heart of the general public, and they''ll use that resentment to establish amittee to control and regte adapters."

    "Who are you? What are you talking about?"

    Adam pushed the woman away from him, and immediately thereafter, the music in the roompletely stopped. At the same time, the surrounding scene also began to change.

    The woman before him transformed into the valkyrie that was over 10 kilometers tall, and at this moment, he was standing above the clouds.

    "Be careful of psychic mutants... Be more brave... You don''t have much time left..."

    "What are you talking about? Who are you? Tell me who you are..."

    Adam wanted to ask more questions, but a faint voice suddenly rang out beside his ears.

    "Are you alright? What''s wrong?"

    Adam returned to his senses, and after his vision focused, he discovered that he was still in the same booth as before. The middle-aged woman was still with him, and she was looking at him with a concerned expression.

    "What happened? You suddenly went into a trance. Did you go offline due to a bad connection?"

    "I''m fine."

    The woman''s expression seemed to be genuine, and Adam had heard that it was possible to invade one''s mind in the Metaverse.

    This was a very suspicious incident.

 Chapter 52: Dataist Union

    <h4>Chapter 52: Dataist Union</h4>

    After removing the helmet, Adam was too busy thinking about what had just happened to worry about the grease on the body.

    A strange person had taken control of his consciousness data in the Metaverse to deliver a message to him. Altering one''s consciousness in the Metaverse was not something that an adapter could aplish. Instead, it was something that only programmers could do. In fact, there was a good chance that the programmer capable of infiltrating the Metaverse was an entire organization rather than just a single person.

    "Oh? You came out as well?" While Adam was pondering the situation, Hook also removed his helmet and returned to the real world. "I''m going to take a shower."

    "Hold on, I have something to ask you."

    "Hurry up. This sticky feeling is terrible!"

    "Is it possible to infiltrate the Metaverse before?"

    "It can be done, but it''s very difficult. Not only does the Metaverse hold a boundless wealth of data, it also concerns the lives of billions of people. If it were that easy to infiltrate, then it would''ve copsed long ago."

    "I know it''s difficult, what I''m asking is whether it''s possible for anyone to do it."

    "I don''t think so. If I had to pick someone capable of doing such a thing, then it can only be the Dataist Union. I can''t stand this feeling anymore! I''m going to take a shower, I''ll talk to youter."

    Adam''s memories contained information on the organization that was the Dataist Union, but the information wasn''t veryprehensive. After an inte search, he discovered that this organization was even more of a behemoth than he imagined.

    It was a global organization that was simr to the southern and northern congresses.

    This organization wasprised of countless programmers, hackers, and inte workers, and their main purpose was to monitor data from all over the world, making it more open and transparent. Theoretically speaking, anyone could join this organization.

    The organization had an enormous number of members due to the almost virtually non-existent barriers to entry, but it was also exactly because of it that its openness was ensured.

    As an example, the programming for the Mechguard officers had always been monitored by the Dataist Union. It waspletely open and transparent, thereby preventing it from being tampered with. If anyone were to alter the programming, the Dataist Union would be able to immediately find and correct the inappropriate alterations, allowing the Mechguard officers to carry out their work ording to the most stringent legition.

    It was also because of this system that society was able to function as normal.

    Mechguard officers were brutal and ruthless, but they weren''t detested by the people. In fact, Adam was of the opinion that Mechguard was the only thing in this world that could be referred to as fair and just.

    Furthermore, not only did the Dataist Union oversee the programming for Mechguard, it also monitored the data of the Metaverse. If anyone aside from the Metaverse parentpany could alter the Metaverse''s data, then it could only have been them.

    So it''s possible on a theoretical basis, but it''s extremely difficult in practice.

    After doing some research, Adam came to understand just how difficult it would be to infiltrate the Metaverse.

    In order to break through the Metaverse''s firewall, the collective efforts of countless people were required. However, as mentioned, the Dataist Union was an organization with an enormous number of members and extremely low barriers to entry. With such a giganticwork of members, there was no way that such a major operation would''ve been able to remain confidential, particrly when it required the participation of so many people. Once something like this was set into motion, the entire union would''ve been stirred into a frenzy.

    Even if there were elite groups in the Dataist Union, there was no way that the people in those groups would be able to get everyone in the entire organization onto the same page.

    In practice, this was a virtually impossible task, so it was no wonder that Hook had brushed it off aspletely unfeasible.

    If it''s impossible, then who did it?

    It simply didn''t seem feasible, but the truth was undeniable. Adam ran through countless possible scenarios in his mind, but he was unable to think of any likely answers. After a moment of hesitation, he dialed Red Spider''s number.

    "Haha, let''s go! Hey, Adam boy, what''s up?"

    Every time Adam contacted Red Spider, she always seemed to be seeking some type of thrill.

    "Yeah, I''m at the casino. You wanted to ask me something? Alright, I''ll speak with you after this game. Come on, high, high, high, high, high... It''s high! I won!"

    After that win, Red Spider was in a very good mood, and she took her chips before making her way to a quiet corner.

    "What is it?"

    "I wanted to ask you if the psychic mutants have recently made a move."

    Instead of revealing everything that had happened to him, Adam asked a probing question instead.

    Red Spider was normally never fazed by anything, but her expression changed drastically upon hearing this question.

    "Where did you get that information from?"

    "Looks like it''s true then."

    "It is, but that information can only be found in a top-tier confidential Mechguard document. How did you find that out? Have youe into contact with some other major organization?"

    "I haven''t. You''ve been spying on me every day, how could I have gone anywhere that you don''t know about?"

    "That''s true." Red Spider was not embarrassed to admit her constant surveince of Adam. "In that case, how did you..."

    "That''s a secret."

    Adam hung up the call before Red Spider had a chance to finish her sentence. After getting hung up on by Red Spider so many times, he was finally able to exact some revenge.

    "That felt good..."

    Adam couldn''t make sense of this situation for now, but he still decided to follow his original n and treat everything as business as usual. The human farm, psychic mutants, the Dataist Union... All of this gave him a feeling that a storm was just around the corner.

    It seemed that the world was on the cusp of a major revolution.

    Adam was just a minor figure who didn''t want to get swept up in the wave, but it seemed that the choice had been taken out of his hands. All he could do now was be more powerful to increase his chances of survival during the revolution. At the same time, he had to uncover the secrets surrounding his own identity.

    With that in mind, he entered his psychic world and arrived at his secret base of flowerpots.

    The anomaly of pain has already been regenerated!

    Upon his arrival, Adam discovered, much to his surprise and tion, that Mummy had already begun to grow out of one of the flowerpots, but in contrast with the giant Mummy from before, this Mummy was as tiny as a doll.

    It''s so small that it looks a little cute.

    This new anomaly of pain was still in the form of a mummy, but it was different from its predecessor. After all, that anomaly was already dead. There was no end to the pain that one could experience, but each time, the pain was different.

    Due to the fact that this mummy had absorbed some of the power from the sludge aberrations, there was some type of viscous substance adhered to its bandages, but its body was no longer riddled with des. From the looks of it, its regenerative abilities appeared to have improved, but that came at the expense of its offensive prowess.

    What made Adam even more ted was that aside from the rebirth of the anomaly of pain, there was a new anomaly in another flowerpot. It was a creature with apletely twisted body that looked as if it had been formed by ck holes. It had no face or legs, and its entire body was just a twisted blob. Its mere presence was causing even the air around it to warp and shimmer, much like the air above a pool of magma.

    "I''ll call you Distortion."

    Adam attempted to fuse as one with the new anomaly as he spoke, intending to learn about its abilities and how powerful it was.

    However, following the fusion, Adam found himselfpletely unable to control his own body as normal. He tried to raise a hand, but a leg suddenly sprouted out from under it. He wanted to go forth, but all it did was backtrack, and when he issued another instruction for it to advance, it performed a pirouette on the spot.

    Distortion waspletely chaotic, unable to enact any effective instructions within the realm of order, so Adam waspletely powerless to control it.

    The good news was that it possessed many distortion abilities, which were simr to cyberhex abilities. Furthermore, after splitting up from Distortion, Adam discovered that he was still able to remain connected to it. The connection was extremely strong, but the anomaly was unable to understand any of his instructions.

    After some extensive experimentation, he concluded that the only instruction that the anomaly was receptive to pertained to attacking enemies. However, he couldn''t instruct it to attack any particr target, nor could he control what ability it used. In other words, this anomaly could only interpret the simplest of instructions, which was to fight!

 Chapter 53: Indiscriminate

    <h4>Chapter 53: Indiscriminate</h4>

    In any case, this was definitely still an enhancement to his powers.

    Distortion couldn''t be controlled through fusion, nor could it understand instructions, but it was quite capable in battle. After some experimentation in the psychic world, Adam determined that this anomaly possessed outstanding individual prowess. As for exactly how powerful it was, that was something that he couldn''t determine as there were no enemies here to test its powers on.

    Afterpleting those experiments, Adam left the psychic world. Hook hade out of the shower by now, so Adam also washed up and went to bed.

    Beep beep beep¡­

    In the middle of the night, Adam was woken up by a call from Karen on hismunicator.

    "We''ve caught him."

    "Where are you right now?"

    Adam massaged his own bleary eyes, and the pain from being forced to get out of bed was quickly absorbed by his psychic world, allowing him to remain calm and level-headed.

    "I''m at the same pub fromst time. We''ve detained him here."

    "Alright, I''ll be right there."

    Adam hung up themunicator, then called Hook out of bed, and the two of them set off.

    Hook was yawning incessantly on the way to the void rail station.

    "These past few days have been exhausting! If we take on this many jobs in such a short span of time again, I''m gonna have to take a break. I''d rather not earn the extra money if I have to work myself to the bone like this."

    Adam nodded in response. Hook wasn''t in need of money as much as he was, nor was Hook under the same pressure that he was facing.

    "The pod ising now, so you can take a rest if you''re tired. Let''s focus on getting this job done before we worry about other things."

    The void capsule pod arrived, and the two of them stepped in.

    The capsule pod traveled extremely quickly, and it wasn''t long before they disembarked. After that, they made their way to the pub, and after contacting Karen again to ascertain her location, they met the real-life version of the clown anomaly in the office area at the back of the pub.

    In stark contrast with how he had been presented in Chloe''s psychic world, the clown anomaly was quite handsome in the real world. He appeared to be around 28 to 29 years of age, and standing in front of him were Karen, Chloe, and the pub manager who had spoken with Karen during her previous visit with Adam.

    "Isn''t this illegal detainment?" Adam thought back to Red Spider''s words of caution after taking a moment to assess the situation. "I''m not getting into anything illegal. If we draw the attention of Mechguard officers, they''re not going to care if our actions are justified or not. ording to standard procedure, perpetrators of illegal detainment will be arrested."

    "No, this isn''t illegal detainment, we''ve simply kept him here," Karen exined.

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "This pub is his hunting ground. I''ve gone through all of the surveince footage in close detail, and I''ve managed to find some incriminating evidence on him. One time, the surveince cameras caught him drugging someone''s drink. Of course, no employee from the pub would go through the surveince footage as carefully as I did, so no one noticed his wrongdoing..."

    Karen was speaking very quickly, and it was clear that she was furious, but she forcibly suppressed her emotions for the sake of her daughter.

    "We''ve kept him here so he can help with my daughter''s treatment. If he cooperates well and resolves the issue, then we can negotiate giving the surveince footage to him."

    At this point, Adam had a rough grasp of the situation. The man in question had always been a regr at this pub, and on this day, he was caught red-handed by the manager during his visit.

    The manager threatened him into remaining at the pub, and he had even told the man that he wasn''t going to hand the evidence over to Mechguard. As for whether the man actually believed that or not, that wasn''t something for Adam to worry about.

    As long as this wasn''t illegal detainment, he was forced to believe whatever the manager told him.

    "You''ve done well." Adam made his way over to Chloe''s side beforemencing the process of imnting psychological impressions into her mind. "That''s the man who deceived and assaulted you. He''s got nowhere to run, so you don''t have to be afraid of him. We''re all here for you, and we''ll make sure that he won''t be able to do anything."

    "I know. He''s not going anywhere."

    In this situation, Chloe was also disying a courageous side to herself. She was surrounded by her mother and other people who were here to help her, and that instilled in her a great deal of courage.

    Chloe''s courage was very reassuring for Adam to see, and he exchanged a silent nce with Hook, following which the two of them immediately infiltrated her psychic world.

    On this asion, the setting that they appeared in was still a warehouse.

    However, what was different fromst time was that this warehouse didn''t seem to have any doors or windows, and its walls were infinitely thick. The clown anomaly was also in this warehouse, which was essentially an inescapable prison.

    "You got awayst time, but there''s nowhere for you to run this time!" Adam chuckled, feeling quite pleased to see the clown anomaly backed into a corner.

    The clown anomaly wasn''t very powerful, but its abilities were extremely annoying to deal with. What was most frustrating about it was that it would run away at the first sign of defeat, and with its ability to conjure up illusory clones, there was no way to track it down consistently through conventional means.

    The scene in the real world was being reflected in the psychic world, resulting in the imprisonment of the clown anomaly, and it was looking very panicked.

    "You were spouting a lot of cocky nonsensest time, why are you suddenly so quiet not? Has the cat got your tongue?"

    Even though this was almost the most advantageous situation conceivable for Adam, he didn''t growcent. He immediately summoned both of his anomalies, then fused with one of them.

    "What''s that ck blob thing?" Hook asked in a curious voice as he saw Distortion for the first time. "I''ve never seen you use it before."

    "It''s a new ability," Adam replied in an absentminded manner, then issued an instruction for Distortion to attack.

    The anomaly immediately pounced onto Hook without any hesitation, then twisted his arms and legs into pretzels.

    "What the fuck?! What is it doing?! Stop! Ow!"

    Hook was rolling around in pain, and he had no choice but to leave Chloe''s psychic world.

    Adam knew that Distortion was only receptive to an instruction to attack, but he wasn''t expecting it to be unable to discern between friend and foe.

    With Hook''s departure, there was only one target left at the scene, so there were no options for Distortion, and it pounced directly toward the clown anomaly.

    The clown anomaly conjured up its illusions once again, but in this enclosed space, it had very limited room to maneuver. In addition to that, this was a two-on-one battle, and Adam had be even more powerful after the cleanse he had performed for Peter.

    After the clown conjured up all of its clones, Adam began to st fireballs across the entire warehouse. Inside this isted space, the clown was instantly struck by the shockwaves from the resulting explosions. Before Adam even had a chance to pounce on it, Distortion beat him to the mark, arriving directly beside the clown''s feet.

    Tentacles extended out of the shadow before wrapping themselves around the clown, locking it firmly into ce.

    The clown struggled desperately to escape from the bindings, but Distortion was too powerful, and it was secreting viscous ck liquid thatpletely enveloped the clown''s entire body.

    Even in a one-on-one battle, the clown wouldn''t necessarily have been a match for Adam.

    In this situation, not only was it a two-on-one affair, the enclosed nature of the space severely hampered the usefulness of its illusory abilities.

    As a result, there was an insurmountable gap in power, making this battle a walk in the park for Adam.

    Last time, I fought tooth and nail, and it still managed to escape, but this time, it was barely even a fight,?Adam thought to himself as he made his over to the bound clown anomaly, raising his ws as he did so.

    "Anyst words?"

    The clown could only scream in horror and distress. Ultimately, it was only an emotional anomaly. It possessed sentience and was very cunning, but it didn''t possess human emotions or deeper levels of intelligence.

    Amid the clown''s terrified screams, Adam used his ws to tear it into pieces.

 Chapter 54: Hoarder

    <h4>Chapter 54: Hoarder</h4>

    After killing the clown anomaly, Adam began to absorb the anomalic power that it released, and Distortion was also greedilypping up the ck mist in the surrounding area.

    Hold on a minute...

    Looking at Distortion, a thought suddenly urred to Adam, and he withdrew Distortion back into his body. ording to Sadou, these anomalies were manifestations of his personality and emotions, so as long as he possessed sufficient control, he could summon them out of his body and also store them back into himself.

    After withdrawing Distortion, Adam devoured some of the anomalic power himself. However, his digestive abilities were quite limited, and he could only absorb so much anomalic power on a single asion. As for the remaining anomalic power, he summoned Mummy for a feast.

    "Eat up, little guy."

    Adam was quite emotionally attached to this anomaly. It had saved him on many asions, and it possessed outstanding defensive prowess, making it a strong life-saving option in perilous situations. Most importantly, it was far more user-friendly than Distortion.

    Distortion was very powerful, and it could even be said that it was the most powerful anomaly among ones of the same level as itself. However, it couldn''t understand instructions, couldn''t work with Adam effectively in battle, and couldn''t even discern between friend or foe, so it was a bit wasteful to allow it to absorb the anomalic power here.

    Looks like targeted feeding is a viable strategy. Also, its digestive abilities are incredible! Is it because it''s been far more powerful in the past?

    Adam was holding the ragdoll-sized Mummy as it devoured the anomalic power, and during the process, its body gradually began to grow. After absorbing all of the remaining anomalic power left behind by the clown, its height had swelled to close to 170 centimeters.

    This was already close to the stature that Mummy stood at prior to the battle against the scarecrow.

    While Adam was inspecting the new Mummy, he suddenly sensed something, and he invoked another entity. This time, what he invoked was a ragdoll-sized clown anomaly.

    We''ve got another new member!

    Adam decided to invoke Distortion as well, then also split up from Hellhound so that he could gather the four anomalies together.

    There are a total of five anomalies within my body. Scarecrow is too powerful, so it won''t listen to my instructions and can''t be invoked, but the rest are all here.

    Adam had once thought that the defeated anomaly appearing in his body was only a chance urrence, but this proved beyond a doubt that it was a sure thing.

    Furthermore, he discovered that the reason for his inability to invoke Scarecrow wasn''t because it was a foreign anomaly, but instead, it was because he was too weak.

    Aren''t invoked entities supposed to be manifestations of my psyche? Why is it that I''m able to control this clown?

    Adam attempted to fuse as one with the Clown, and he was sessfully able to do so, transforming into a rather stunted clown that stood at only around 120 centimeters tall.

    At the same time, he also attained the abilities "Illusory Clones" and "Ephemeral Invisibility".

    These are very useful abilities if I want to run away from something, but it''s still too weak right now. In its current form, I''d say it''s still only at an infantile stage.

    After splitting up from Clown, Adam began to assign the anomalies before him with different power ssifications.

    Ragdoll-sized anomalies are at the infant stage, so they possess virtually no battle capability. Standing at 170 centimeters, Mummy can be ssified as a level one anomaly. Its power is ratherckluster, and it can contend with student adapters or normal emotional aberrations, but I wouldn''t count on it to take on anything more powerful than that. Having said that, the more anomalies I have, the better. It can still be useful in cleaning up small fry, and on top of that, it still has potential for growth. Hellhound and Distortion should be ssified as level two anomalies. Individually, their battle capabilities areparable with those of a normal adapter.

    Adam thought back to all of thebinations of hitmen that he had been hunted by, and aside from elite masters like Cowboy and Oni no Hanzou, the average power level of everyone else was roughly equivalent to Hellhound.

    Going by this system, Scarecrow should be a level four or level five anomaly. Its individual battle capabilities are far superior to Hellhound''s, and at that level, it can take on Oni no Hanzou on its own. However, due to the fact that it''s an anomaly, its abilities won''t be as diverse as someone as Oni no Hanzou, but overall, it should be able to hold its own against an opponent of that caliber.

    Looking at the bunch of anomalies before him, Adam felt very safe and assured. In fact, he was feeling the joy that would only be experienced by a hoarder when adding something new to their collection. He wanted to collect all of the emotional anomalies into the flowerpots, nurturing the full spectrum of human emotions into powerful fighters that can help him uncover his past and exact vengeance on those who had wronged him.

    "Alright, that should do it for now. Come back, all of you!"

    Adam patted one of Hellhound''s heads, then withdrew all of his anomalies before departing from Chloe''s psychic world.

    As soon as Adam opened his eyes, he was immediately approached by an anxious Karen. "How did it go?"

    "I got the job done. You saw what happenedst time. The things that made the anomaly so troublesome were its clones and its tendency to run away. After trapping it in one ce, taking care of it became a very simple task," Adam replied, then turned to look at Hook. "How are you feeling?"

    "Not great after that burst of friendly fire." Hook''splexion was a little pale. He had been dragged out of bed, so he hadn''t fully recovered his psychic power, and to furtherpound his woes, he had been tormented briefly by Adam''s anomaly of distortion. "If the job''s done, then let''s hurry back so I can sleep."

    "Are you sure that the anomaly is dead?"

    Karen was still feeling a little anxious. After all, she had spent her life savings on this job, and her daughter''s emotional well-being, and potentially even her life, were at stake here.

    "I''m certain. Where''s Kim Hee-cho when you need him? If only he was here to project everything for you to see."

    "He said he had some other things to take care of."

    "I see. Rest assured, it states clearly on the contract that if we take your money but don''t sessfullyplete the job, you''ll bepensated with five times the sum that you paid. If you''re still concerned, you can go to any therapy clinic and get them to conduct an examination. Alternatively, I could visit you with the projection device in few days and conduct aprehensive check on your daughter again."

    "That would be fantastic," Karen said with a grateful expression, and she was truly grateful to Adam. "To be honest, I trust you. I know you''re not the type of person who would stoop to deceit for mary gain. Otherwise, you wouldn''t have convinced your business partner to treat my daughter for such a low price. I know that what I''m paying is far below the market price."

    "It''s alright. You are our clinic''s first client, and in the east, it''s traditionally very important for businesses to get off to a good start."

    Adam didn''t excel at making conversation, and after exchanging some pleasantries, the conversation soon began to feel a little awkward. Kim Hee-cho was supposed to be the one taking care of talking and negotiations.

    "I''ll get the device and visit you at your apartment in a few days. It''s already quitete today, so we''ll be leaving now."

    "Yeah, let''s go back and sleep already," Hook urged with a tired yawn.

    "We''re going now."

    Adam waved as he took a nce at the handsome man that was the equivalent of the clown anomaly in the real world, and he wondered what Karen was going to do with the man after he left. Perhaps she would hand him over to Mechguard, or perhaps she would do something else. In any case, he didn''t want to ask, nor did he want to be involved in this. After all, just having knowledge of certain things was enough to be incriminating.

    "Bye, Uncle Adam."

    Chloe stood up and followed Adam with her eyes as he departed. She was at an age where she was old enough to know who had her best interests in mind.

    Under the grateful gaze of Karen and her daughter, Adam opened the door of the office, and in the instant that he did so, the sounds from the dancefloor outside immediately washed over him. However, the music then suddenly faltered.

    Having trained his telegnosis for so long under Sadou, Adam was able to use his five senses to detect very slight changes in his surroundings when transitioning from reality to the psychic world, such as changes in the wind and sounds, and in that instant, he could clearly tell that something was off about the music.

    Someone''s infiltrated my psychic world again!

 Chapter 55: Origin of the Psychic Mutants

    <h4>Chapter 55: Origin of the Psychic Mutants</h4>

    .

    In the instant that Adam detected the intrusion, his first thought was that he had run into another hitman.

    Through thest incident, he had shown the underground world and all of the hitmen organizations that he was not to be messed with, but that clearly still wasn''t enough, and it wasn''t a surprise for him to run into another hitman. Having said that, he wasn''t expecting this day toe so soon.

    However, immediately thereafter, he realized that something wasn''t right. He inspected his surroundings to discover that not only had Hook been dragged into the psychic world with him, Chloe and Karen were also here, as were all of the people on the dancefloor.

    The psychic world was an independent world.

    Thinking back to thest time his psychic world had been invaded by Oni no Hanzou and Cowboy, all of the surrounding streets had been empty without no other people around.

    He had been the only one on the entire street on that asion, which meant that this time, it wasn''t his psychic world that had been invaded. Instead, everyone in this entire area had been dragged into the psychic world by some type of device, trapping them inside.

    "What are you standing there for?" Hook hadn''t trained his telegnosis before, so he still hadn''t noticed anything amiss. "Let''s go back and sleep."

    "We''ve been dragged into someone''s psychic world."

    "What?"

    Hook''s eyes immediately widened upon hearing this, and he began to carefully inspect his surroundings. Even though he had never trained in telegnosis, he was still a student of Layton Academy. In addition to that, his scouting skillset made him very sharp and observant, and even though he wasn''t able to immediately sense that something was wrong, he also noticed the problem after some careful inspection.

    "You''re right, we really have been dragged into the psychic world, and it looks like we''re not the only ones; everyone here has been dragged in as well! How powerful does a synapse transmission device have to be to drag all of these people into the psychic world at once?" A slight chill ran down Hook''s spine as he looked at all of the people on the dancefloor outside. "I''ll try and find a way to get out."

    Hook attempted to leave, but he was quickly repelled by a psychic boundary. Given the thickness of the psychic boundary, he concluded, "Judging from how thick this psychic boundary is, it has to have been established within a powerful adapter''s psychic world. It''ll take me at least half an hour to break it open so we can escape."

    "You stay here and try to break open the boundary, I''ll go and see what''s happening outside."

    "Alright."

    With that, Hook returned to the office before casting his gaze toward the people in the room.

    "Why are you back? Did you forget to take something with you?" Karen asked.

    "No, I haven''t forgotten anything. This isn''t the real world. Instead, we''re in the psychic world, and it seems like we may be in danger. Don''t panic, just stay here for now..."

    Hook gave her a patient exnation of the situation that they were in, while Adam passed through the dancefloor before arriving at the exit.

    He didn''t know who this psychic world belonged to, but he was guessing that perhaps it was established upon collective memories.

    That was because the scene in this world waspletely identical to the one in the real world, and that was very strange. Adam had never seen a scene in a psychic world that perfectly replicated its equivalent in the real world.

    There was still an elevator outside the pub, and after taking the elevator to the surface, Adam found himself in that same dark alley in the industrial area.

    The scene outside was alsopletely identical to the one in the real world. The more Adam saw, the more suspicious he became of this situation.

    "What is that?"

    "Help!"

    Cries of help rang out from the pedestrians on a street in the distance.

    As a precautionary measure, Adam immediately summoned Hellhound before fusing with it. Following the fusion, his senses and physical capabilities were all greatly enhanced, and he even activated his Hyperspeed ability.

    Only after doing all of that did he sneak out of the dark alley.

    After arriving on the wide street outside and witnessing the scene presented before him, he quickly realized that he was right to have been so cautious.

    What are those things? Are they psychic mutants?

    Hiding in a dark corner, Adam could see a series of very strange-looking "humans" on the street.

    In reality, these things resembled emotional anomalies more so than they did humans. In fact, they were even more deformed and monstrous than anomalies. The majority of emotional anomalies that were manifested resembled certain things, such as clowns and scarecrows.

    However, these "people" that had appeared on the street were conglomerations of things. For example, one of them was a septic polymerized creature with human faces growing all over its body, and there was another one that was a praying mantis monster with the body of a maggot.

    These must be psychic mutants.

    This was Adam''s first time seeing psychic mutants in person, but prior to this, he had seen some information on them in his school textbooks.

    If a normal person developed mental problems, many emotional aberrations would arise in their psychic world. If their condition became so severe that they were driven to the point of serious mental illness, then those emotional aberrations would further develop into emotional anomalies. If left untreated, those anomalies would gradually take over the host, forcing them to engage in extreme acts such as homicide, suicide, or going on mass sprees of destruction.

    If Deranged Pig''s daughter, Kim, had been left untreated, it was likely that she would''ve turned to suicide. If Chloe hadn''t been treated, then there was a good chance that she would''ve developed into a murderer.

    However, adapters were different from normal people. If an adapter fell prey to a mental illness, the consequences would be even more terrifying. They could discover the anomalies in their hearts at an early stage and eradicate those anomalies themselves, but if they couldn''t address the root cause of their condition, then the anomalies would always be able to respawn.

    As they continued to eradicate their anomalies over and over again, their psychic bodies would slowly be corrupted. They would begin to slowly understand their anomalies, tomunicate with them, and be dragged down into a slow descent, ultimately leading to mutation.

    There were even some cases of particrly deranged individuals, such as a certain adapter whose lover was killed, leading to the emergence of an emotional anomaly, but instead of eradicating the anomaly, they embraced it and willingly became a psychic mutant.

    Pain gave one power, and psychic mutants that arose from obsessions with painful thoughts and emotions were more powerful than ordinary adapters of the same level.

    "What the hell are these things? There are monsters here! Call Mechguard!"

    "That''s not going to work. I don''t think Mechguard can take care of these monsters. We''re in the psychic world right now, aren''t we?"

    "What''s the psychic world? Is that something to do with adapters? I thought normal people like us never get toe into contact with adapters!"

    "Exactly! What does this have to do with people like us?"

    On the street, some of the people who saw the psychic mutants were so frightened that they fled for their lives in all directions while screaming in horror, while others remained where they were, engaging in heated discussions.

    Even though it was already veryte at night and Area 9 was an industrial area with a rtively small poption, Sandrise City was a metropolis with a poption in the hundreds of millions, so it was bound to be a city that never slept.

    There were many night owls roaming the streets, and the old industrial neon lights on the streets were still shing as the crowd down below erupted into panic and chaos.

    Amid all themotion, a massive psychic mutant picked up a person before swallowing them whole.

    "It''s so noisy here..."

    After devouring a person whole, the giant psychic mutant picked up a car before hurling it through the air, ttening a group of people to the ground.

    After that, hemenced a one-sided killing spree on the crowd of people.

    "They''remitting murder! These monsters are killing people!"

    The people who were discussing the situation among themselves immediately began to run for their lives at the sight of people around them being killed, thereby further exacerbating the chaos.

    "What are you all standing there for? Weren''t we sent here to kill people?" the giant psychic mutant urged as he continued his merciless killing spree.

    "I do whatever I want, I don''t follow orders from anyone," another psychic mutant said, and countless mice scurried out of his mouth as he spoke. The mice surged onto the streets and began to sink their teeth into everyone in sight. "Having said that, I do enjoy killing. If it isn''t for the fact that we get to kill to our hearts'' content, I wouldn''t havee here in the first ce!"

    The psychic mutant burst into maniacalughter.

    The infestation of mice washed over the street, and the carnage taking ce instantly reached a climax.

 Chapter 56: Mice King

    <h4>Chapter 56: Mice King</h4>

    Adam wanted to save the people on the street, but he was powerless to do so.

    There were seven or eight psychic mutants on this street alone, and there was a chance that there were even more of them further away. Judging from the power being disyed by these psychic mutants, he would''ve struggled against even a single one of them, so there was no way he could take on all of them and expect to survive.

    It looks like what I was told in the Metaverse is true. The psychic mutants really are on the move.

    Adam didn''t dare to linger here any longer, and he retraced his steps to return to the pub.

    Before the swarm of mice arrived, he returned to the elevator, and after arriving in the underground pub again, he immediately destroyed the elevator so that it couldn''t be used again.

    This wouldn''t be able to prevent the psychic mutants from forcing their way into the pub, but it would at least hamper their progress slightly.

    After entering the pub, his appearance as a werewolf that stood at over two meters in height was naturally quite a startling sight for the pub-goers inside, and some screamed in horror, while others approached him with intrigue.

    "Is this an event being put on by the pub? You''re wearing a costume, right?" a drunken man asked as he approached Adam.

    In the real world, he was already almost drunk, and his state of inebriation wasn''t altered even after he was dragged into the psychic world.

    "Piss off."

    Adam pushed the man aside, then made his way onto the dancefloor before turning off the music and switching on the lights.

    Only after the lights were turned on was everyone able to clearly see that this was an actual werewolf, rather than a person in a costume, and people immediately tried to escape in a panic. However, the elevator had already been destroyed, and due to the fact that this was an underground pub, there wasn''t even a fire exit, so no one could escape.

    "Don''t be afraid! Be quiet, everyone! Quiet!"

    Adam roared, urging the crowd to calm down, but his efforts proved to be futile. Thus, he was forced to turn to more violent measures, and he reduced the DJ mixer in front of him to a pile of scrap materials with a swipe of his ws.

    "I will kill anyone who doesn''t shut up right now!"

    The threat was clearly far more effective, and themotion in the pub instantly died down significantly.

    "Alright, listen to what I have to say." Adam took a deep breath, then exined to everyone, "Firstly, I''m not a monster, I''m an adapter. It''s almost the 22nd century, I''m sure there''s no one who still believes in things like monsters and demons. Is it more likely that I''m an actual werewolf or an adapter? I''ll leave that up to you."

    A flurry of conversation erupted in response to Adam''s words, and everyone quickly came to ept the notion that Adam was an adapter.

    "Seeing as I''m an adapter and I''m able to take on this form, that can only mean that we are in the psychic world right now," Adam continued.

    "Did you drag us into the psychic world?"

    "It wasn''t me. Instead, it was a bunch of psychic mutants. Perhaps many of you here haven''t evere into contact with adapters before, so you don''t know what psychic mutants are. They are a bunch of deranged criminals, and right now, they are trying to kill all of us. I need everyone to be quiet. Mypanion will slowly break open this psychic prison, and once he does that, all of us will be able to escape."

    "How long is that going to take?"

    "An hour."

    "Where are the psychic mutants right now?"

    "They''re on a street outside not far away from here."

    "Why should we believe you?"

    Everyone erupted into discussion again upon hearing Adam''s exnation, and there were all types of opinions being thrown around, many of which were directing skepticism toward Adam.

    "What if you''re the one who dragged us in here?"

    "Exactly! Maybe you''re the only adapter in here, and this is a sinister n that you hatched!"

    "Why should we believe you based on your personal ount alone?"

    "I don''t care what you say, nor do I care whether you believe me or not, but if anyone continues to make unnecessary noise and draw the psychic mutants here, then all of us are going to die." Adam knew that it would be impossible to convince everyone in a short time, so threats of violence were the simplest and most effective tool at his disposal in this situation. "Making excessive noise will get us all killed anyway, so I''m not opposed to killing anyone who continues to make noise. I''m killing those people in order to save more people. I don''t want to have to do this, but I think it''s a reasonable course of action."

    Adam made his way to the rowdiest person in the pub as he spoke, then threatened, "Shut your mouth right now or I''ll rip it off your face."

    At the same time, his sharp ws sprang out of his fingertips, and mes began to appear in his mouth.

    Looking at the threatening disy being put on by the massive werewolf, the individual in question immediately fell silent, and soon, the entire pub was silent.

    After that, Adam made his way to the office area, then opened the door. Inside, Hook was in the process of using his tools to damage the psychic boundary, and Adam immediately joined in as well.

    ......

    On the street outside, the ughter continued.

    A man with face all over his body soon flew over from the distance, and he nodded with a pleased expression at the sight of the fallen people down below.

    "There seem to be a few adapters in this area, and they''ve already noticed that something''s wrong. They''ve gathered together in groups to damage the psychic contamination area. Mice King, take a few people with you and take care of those pesky adapters."

    "Where are they?"

    "There are two in that alley, three in those residential buildings, and two in the business district, which makes a total of three groups."

    "Which group is the closest to us?"

    "That would be the two in that alley."

    "Alright, then I''ll go there, you can get someone else to take care of the others."

    With that, Mice King departed from the street and began to make his way down the dark alley while humming a light tune.

    More mice gushed out his mouth as he walked, and these mice were able to pick up some type of scent that allowed them to quickly track down the entrance to the elevator, following which they scurried in through the gaps in the walls.

 Chapter 57: Mice Infestation

    <h4>Chapter 57: Mice Infestation</h4>

    "This is a really sturdy psychic boundary!"

    In the office of the underground pub, Adam and Hook werebining their efforts to break the psychic boundary of this world.

    The way to break through a psychic boundary was very simple. It involved focusing one''s psychic power in one ce, making it adopt the form of objects such as drill bills or shovels, which could then be used to damage and dig into the surrounding space.

    Of course, this was what low-level adapters had to do in order to break a psychic prison constructed by a more advanced adapter. If it were the other way around, the advanced adapter would be able to quickly break through the low-level adapter''s psychic world and return to reality.

    Given how sturdy the psychic boundary is, the psychic mutant who created this prison could be even more powerful than Oni no Hanzou.

    While Adam and Hook were busy at work, inflicting damage upon the surrounding space, the sound of screaming suddenly rang out from outside.

    "Didn''t I tell all of you not to make any sound?" Adam flung open the door in a frustrated manner as he stormed out into the club. "What are you all yelling about?"

    "There are mice..."

    "What''s so scary about mice..."

    Before Adam had a chance to react, a mouse that was the size of a house suddenly jumped up and sank its teeth into a person''s neck. The victim hurled the mouse aside with all their might, but their throat had already been torn open, and they howled in agony as blood gushed out of the open wound.

    Simr scenes were unfolding all throughout the club.

    With the mice running rampant, the dancefloor was quickly transformed into a fountain party. Everyone was being sprayed with blood as they screamed and fled from the mice in a panic.

    There''s no way ordinary mice can grow to this size!

    Adam immediately realized something was wrong as soon as he caught sight of the giant mice. He recalled back to what he had seen outside, and he remembered that one of the psychic mutants was able to release mice out of his mouth.

    That man clearly reveled in ughter and bloodshed, and close to half of the people who had been killed on the street outside had fallen to his mice.

    Has hee here?

    Adam was extremely alert, but he couldn''t detect any traces of psychic mutants. Meanwhile, themotion and panic in the pub continued.

    "Maybe these mice were only sent here as scouts! Don''t panic, everyone! Gather around me, and make sure to protect your throats and eyes!"

    Having failed to detect any signs of psychic mutant presence, Adam began to exterminate these mice.

    With his abilities, these mice posed no threat to him at all, but as the extermination process continued, more and more mice were surging in from the liftnding.

    As he was thinking of a way to block the liftnding, a resounding ng suddenly rang out from that direction, and the elevator waspletely ttened by something, following which a figure emerged from the opening.

    "Oh, this is really nice. I thought this was just going to be a boring job to hunt down adapters, but there''s a lot of people gathered here!"

    The elevator had been damaged by Adam earlier, so Mice King had to jump straight down from the ground level.

    After falling such a long way, he had suffered arge gash on his head that was bleeding profusely, and the bones in several of his limbs had been snapped. However, as he hobbled along, the bones in his broken legs began to return to normal, and his cheekbones, which were protruding out of a deep gash on his face, were also being covered by regenerating skin and flesh.

    Mice King inspected his surroundings, and he was first ecstatic to see the number of people in the club. Immediately thereafter, he spotted the hulking werewolf that was Adam, who was sticking out like a sore thumb in the crowd.

    "That''s a strange adapter. It almost looks like you''ve mutated," Mice King remarked as he sized up Adam. "How do you want to be killed?"

    "Why are you killing people?"

    "Does there need to be a reason for killing people? Do you need a reason to eat food? You eat because you''re hungry!"

    Mice King reached out as he spoke, grabbing onto a person beside him. His oral cavity then expanded to half the size of a grown man, allowing him to stuff half of the man''s body into his mouth in one go.

    A gruesome crunch rang out as Mice King bit down, sending blood spraying in all directions.

    The man didn''t even get a chance to cry out before his body was snapped into two.

    At this point, there was nothing left to be said. Psychic mutants were allpletely deranged, so there was no way tomunicate effectively with them.

    Thus, Adam didn''t hesitate any longer as he pounced toward his opponent, sending fiery ws sweeping through the air.

    "Oh, that''s an impressive attack! It looks like you''re a mature adapter."

    In the face of the fiery ws, Mice King made no attempt to take evasive measures, and his upper body was sliced into several pieces. However, the pieces of his body quickly fused back together after falling onto the ground, and he was back to normal in no time.

    At this point, Adam had already arrived in front of him, and he continued to stand still on the spot, not bothering to dodge as he withstood all of Adam''s attacks head-on.

    However, it was as if his body were made of bubblegum, and it was always able to stick itself back together in strange ways, thereby rendering Adam''s attackspletely ineffective.

    Even so, Adam still didn''t relent in his assault.

    He knew that his attacks were ineffective, but he needed to buy time. As long as he could keep Mice King upied, Hook would be able to slowly break through the psychic boundaries of this world and allow everyone to escape.

    "I''m starting to get really bored. Is that all you have? In that case, I''m not going to waste any more time. I have to fulfill a quota of 500 kills today!"

    Mice King sent Adam flying with a punch as he spoke, then opened his mouth up wide again to release countless mice.

    After emerging from Mice King''s mouth, the mice began to wreak havoc throughout the entire pub, tearing at all of its patrons with their teeth.

    Adam got up from the ground and immediately began tobat the mice, but there were simply too many for him to deal with at once, and the space in the pub was toorge, so most of the patrons were still killed by the mice.

    These mice were far stronger and more agile than the average, and there were too many of them to count. The people in the pub were no match for the mice, and they were toppled one after another before being devoured alive.

    Meanwhile, Adam was protecting the final group of survivors, who had been backed into a booth. There was a wall behind them and pieces of furniture to act as cover in the surrounding area, making it a great fortress where Adam was able to shield them.

    After iming this advantageous position, Adam invoked Mummy and Clown right away. These two miniature anomalies were no match for adapters, but they were certainly more than capable of dealing with a gue of mice.

    Adam was guarding the main passageway, while Mummy was protecting the survivors. At the same time, Clown was jumping erratically through the infestation of mice, picking off any that slipped through the cracks.

    As a result, the mice were unable to reach the survivors, and after suffering some casualties, they quickly joined together to form a grotesque ball of flesh.

    The ball of flesh thenpletely fused together to form a giant mouse aberration.

    All of Mice King''s abilities seemed to be rted to fission and fusion.

    Following the formation of the mouse aberration, it stomped down violently toward Clown. Thankfully, the cunning anomaly was as alert as ever, and it immediately concealed itself before fleeing at the sight of this turn of events.

    However, Mummy wasn''t so fortunate.

    .

    It was the anomaly of pain, so it didn''t fear pain. In addition to that, it had always possessed low intelligence, doing everything in the most straightforward manner through barbaric brute force, relying heavily on its own defenses to keep itself safe.

    If it were facing an opponent weaker than itself, such a crushing mode of attack would''ve granted it a major advantage.

    However, in the face of opponents far more powerful than itself, its excessive aggression became the bane of its existence.

    Mummy raised its weapon as it charged directly toward the mouse aberration, but before it was even able to carve through the aberration''s skin with its de, the mouse aberration chomped down onto its head, then began to tear at its body. Adam could sense that Mummy was at risk of being torn apart at any moment.

    It''s only just been resurrected, I can''t allow it to die again!

    Adam immediately leaped up into the air, sending the giant mouse flying with a sweep of his ws before withdrawing the severely wounded Mummy back into his body.

 Chapter 58: Game of Cat and Mouse

    <h4>Chapter 58: Game of Cat and Mouse</h4>

    Hook should be done in about 10 to 20 more minutes...

    Adam had been constantly keeping tabs on the amount of time that had passed.

    Following his return, he had worked together with Hook to break through the psychic boundaries of the world, and they had been able to make very fast progress together.

    However, not long after that, Adam was forced toe out to deal with the infestations of mice. Then came the arrival of Mice King and the ensuing battle that followed.

    At this point, almost enough time had already passed, and all he had to do was stall Mice King a short while longer. With that in mind, Adam took a nce at the group of people beside him, and a n began to take shape in his mind.

    He had two objectives for protecting this group of survivors, the first of which was that he really did want to save them. Circumstances permitting, he wanted to save as many people as possible. However, the second objective was rather utilitarian, perhaps even a little evil.

    It was clear that Mice King was a serial murderer who took great joy in killing. It was very difficult for him to focus his attention on dealing with any particr person before all of the other people in the pub were killed. The one good thing about dealing with deranged people was that they were not very pragmatic, and they would often prioritize the fulfillment of their own urges over the objective best course of action.

    "Rip ''em into two, rip ''em into two... Have a meat patty, have a meat patty..."

    Mice King was humming a tune while killing off the final survivor on the dancefloor, so the only survivors left in the pub were the ones behind Adam.

    "Looks like that''s thest group. I''ll kill all of you, then get back to the street outside."

    His body began to mutate as he spoke, and his aura elevated rapidly. It still hadn''t reached the same level as Oni no Hanzou, but it was certainly not far away.

    Following his transformation, Mice King had taken on the form of a giant mouse with tumors growing all over its entire body, and Adam knew that there was no way that he could contend with it. In fact, he wouldn''t even be able to stall it for 10 minutes.

    If he were to try and fight fire with fire, everyone left in the pub would be dead in no more than five minutes.

    "Isn''t it far too boring for you to kill everyone like this?" Adam asked in a mocking voice. "Even a child wouldn''t do something so boring."

    Mice King had just spread open his ws, but he withdrew them upon hearing this.

    "What do you suggest?"

    "Why don''t we y a game?"

    "What game?"

    "A game of cat and mouse."

    "How is the game yed?"

    "Right now, there are still one, two, three, four..." Adam slowly counted the survivors behind him one by one. "12 people left behind me. How about we let them go? The elevator has already been destroyed, so these people wouldn''t be able to escape anyway. After they''re released, we''ll go and recapture them, and if I manage to capture more than you, then you have to let them all go."

    "What if I capture more than you?"

    "Then I''ll let you kill them all, and I''ll tell you a secret regarding psychic mutants."

    "What secret could you possibly know? That sounds like a lie."

    "I can assure you it''s not. It''s a secret about that maggot-looking guy outside." Adam recalled that among all of the psychic mutants he had seen outside, the one that resembled a giant maggot seemed to be on the best terms with Mice King.

    "You know a secret about Lilian?"

    "That''s right."

    "You know her?"

    "I don''t, but I just so happened to run into her once in the past."

    The more lies that he told, the greater the risk that he would be exposed. With that in mind, Adam immediately changed the subject.

    "Do you want to y or not? Hurry up and make your choice!"

    "Sure! Here Ie!"

    "Alright, then let''s begin. You better try and get as far away from here as possible," Adam said as he turned to the people behind him.

    The survivors required no further instructions, and they quickly rushed away in all directions.

    Mice King immediately tried to set off to capture the fleeing survivors, but Adam stopped him in his tracks.

    "Wait for them to hide first! Where''s the fun in ending the game as soon as it begins? Did you not y games like this when you were a kid?"

    Adam''s question brought a series of childhood memories flooding into Mice King''s mind. Back when he was a child, he had lived in a dried-up sewage system. The entire area was constantly shrouded in darkness, and it was inhabited by only by homeless people. There were very few people of the same age as him living there back then, so he had no one to y games with.

    Adam could tell that Mice King seemed to be confused, so he asked, "Do you not know the rules of the game?"

    "What are the rules?"

    "The rules are that we have to count to 50 to give everyone time to hide, and only after that can we go after them."

    "Of course I knew that! I didn''t need you to tell me that!" Mice King yelled, then began to count, and as soon as he hit "50", he abruptly vanished on the spot.

    Adam also hurriedly activated his Hyperspeed ability to begin his search.

    The best thing about fusing as one with Hellhound was the incredible speed that the fusion granted him. In terms of speed, he wasn''t inferior to Mice King by much. In addition to that, he had already visited this pub on several past asions, so he was very familiar with itsyout.

    Most importantly, the survivors were readily cooperating with him.

    Thus, it didn''t take long before he captured eight people, while Mice King only managed to capture four, and that infuriated him to no end.

    "This is not fair!"

    "What''s wrong?"

    "My mice saw what happened! While you were looking for them, they didn''t even try to hide and just allowed you to find them! There were even two that came out of the toilet after you called out to them!" Mice King was very displeased with the rules of the game. "We need to go another round, but this time, they have to be blindfolded, and you''re not allowed to make any sound while searching for them. If I hear your voice, I''m going to kill you!"

    "Alright, but you can use your mice to spy on me, either. That''s cheating."

    "Fine, then you have to withdraw your invoked entity."

    "Sure."

    After negotiating some terms, cloth strips were torn off a sofa to be used as blindfolds for everyone.

    After that, Mice King counted to 50 to give all of the blindfolded survivors a chance to hide, and the second round of cat and mouse began.

    As soon as the game began, Adam rushed toward the office.

    This was a game of finding people, so he knew that if he were to go to a certain area first, Mice King would generally refrain from following him.

    Sure enough, Mice King chose to begin his search in the restrooms, while Adam slowly opened the door of the office after Mice King had left the scene.

    The people inside the office already had a rough idea of what was happening outside from what they had heard, and all of them were hiding in dark corners. The only one who stood out among them was Hook, who was still in the process of breaking through the psychic boundaries.

    "We have to be quiet. How much longer do you need?" Adam asked as he brought a finger to his own lips in a quieting gesture.

    He could see that a rift had already appeared in the air. The rift waspletely detached from everything else in the room, resembling a dimensional wall that had been split open, and it was alreadyrge enough to just barely fit a person through.

    "I still can''t fit through it yet. It''s going to take a few more minutes."

    "Alright, then I''ll y another round with him, and I''ll bring everyone here when we''re done."

    Hook nodded in response, then returned to his work.

    After leaving the office, Adam began to participate in the game himself.

    Despite this brief dy and the fact that he wasn''t allowed to make any sound, he was just barely able to pull another win out of the bag thanks to his familiarity with theyout of the pub.

    This time, he only managed to capture two more people than Mice King.

    However, while searching for the hiding survivors, he was able to deliver a message to everyone that he found.

    "During the third game, find a way to get to the office, and make sure you don''t make any sound during the process so you don''t expose yourselves."

    "Alright."

    At this point, everyone was already feeling extremely anxious and fearful. However, their lives were at stake here, so they didn''t dare to disregard Adam''s instructions.

    "Argh!"

    Upon arriving at the realization that Adam had captured seven people, Mice King was so infuriated that he was about to lose his mind! Losing two games in a row had burned through all of his thin patience, and the tumors all over his body were squirming incessantly, while his eyes had also be bright red.

    "This game doesn''t count! We''re going again, and this time, I''m going to kill all of you!"

 Chapter 59: Carlin Asylum

    <h4>Chapter 59: Carlin Asylum</h4>

    Thus, the third game began.

    After everyone was blindfolded, they began to rush away in all directions. Most of the survivors were holding onto one another while rushing out of the hall, quietly approaching the office. Once they rounded the corner and were no longer within Mice King''s line of sight, many of them removed their blindfolds altogether.

    They were trying tomunicate with their eyes, doing their best to round up the people who hadn''t been notified of the situation yet.

    After that, everyone snuck stealthily toward the office, and they were able to make it into the office before the count of 50 was up.

    Following the conclusion of Mice King''s countdown, Adam pretended to rush toward the office area to capture people as part of the game, and by this point, most of the survivors had already left.

    He opened the office door to find that there was only one person left at the scene. That person was the one who had assaulted Chloe and given rise to the clown anomaly.

    At this moment, he wasying on the ground, having already been killed.

    It seemed that his throat had been slit open by a utility knife used for cutting paper in the office, and his blood and sprayed all over the floor.

    Unsurprisingly, the killer was Karen. She was far fiercer than Chloe, and she also had the motive for the crime.

    Throughout this entire process, the young man had made no sound, indicating that aside from the fact that he had fallen prey to a surprise attack, there had to have been someone else helping Karen as well. As for whether that aplice was Chloe, Karen''s lover, or someone else, Adam had no interest in finding out.

    In any case, the man was certainly not a saint, and most importantly, with so many people losing their lives here, even if Mechguard were tounch an investigation, his death would only be attributed to the actions of the psychic mutants.

    She really jumped on this opportunity, didn''t she? This is why you don''t mess with strippers!

    Adam could see that there was no one else around, and he immediately jumped out of this psychic prison through the rift that Hook had painstakingly opened up.

    Upon arriving in the real world, Adam was greeted by the sight of close to 20 people gathered in the office. With a rough nce, Adam was able to determine that 10 out of the 12 survivors from the game had managed to escape. With Chloe, Karen, Hook, and Karen''s lover thrown into the mix, there was a total of 15 people at the scene.

    "What happened to the other two?"

    "We tried to signal for them toe with us, but I think they were too drunk to understand, and they ended up hiding elsewhere," someone exined.

    "Alright, we can''t do much about that. There''s not much time, so we have to get out of here as fast as we can!"

    At this point, Adam felt like he had already done everything in his power, and he immediately flung the office door open before rushing outside.

    The floor from the office to the hall was littered with bodies.

    Most of these people were still breathing, but they had already been reduced to vegetables. The death of one''s psychic body would severely damage the neurons in their brain, resulting inplete neuron death in serious cases. Even in the best-case scenario, one would lose all of their memories, bing a nk te with no recollection of anything.

    Of course, nk tes who weren''t adapters weren''t considered to be valuablemodities. Not only was there no way to install memories into them, they were considered to be even less valuable than normal people as they had suffered brain damage as a result of their impaired neurons.

    After crossing over the bodyden floor, Adam and the survivors arrived at the elevator.

    In the psychic world, the elevator had been destroyed by him, but in the real world, it was stillpletely untouched. Everyone squeezed into the elevator, quickly arriving in the dark alley outside.

    "There are attackers on the main street, so we can''t go there. Who''s familiar with this area? We need to take more discrete paths to get out of here."

    "I''m most familiar with this area," Karen''s lover dered as he stepped forward.

    Throughout his time working at the underground pub, he regrly frequented these streets, so he was naturally quite familiar with the surrounding area.

    Under his guidance, everyone began to flee the scene along a discrete path, and only after getting very far away from the scene of the crime did they feel safe enough to call Mechguard.

    At this point, Mice King had already been searching for a long time, yet he had only managed to capture two people.

    He wandered through the pub in an agitated manner, and finally, he opened the door of the office to discover the hole that had been smashed into the psychic boundary.

    "Fuck, he tricked me!" Mice King threw the two people that he was carrying down onto the ground in a furious manner at the sight of the hole. "So I''ve been the mouse in this game of cat and mouse this entire time?"

    After fuming for a while, a thought suddenly urred to him, and he hurriedly left the psychic world through the hole.

    In doing so, he returned to the spot where his physical body was located, which was on the street outside the pub. Immediately thereafter, he set about rousing all of hispanions before notifying them of the situation.

    "Some people managed to escape. Mechguard officers might be on the way..."

    ¡­¡­

    "A Shocking and Inhuman Terrorist Attack"

    "The Most Unfair Challenge Adapters Have Ever Issued to Humanity"

    "What is the Purpose of Carlin Asylum''s Existence?"

    "Should Adapters Be Given Special Rights? Are Special Rights Really Fair to Humanity?"

    "Over 1,000 Deaths: The Most Horrific Terrorist Attack of the Century"

    On the same day that Adam and the survivors escaped from the pub, all major news websites, electronic newspapers, and news channels were reporting stories on the attack that had taken ce the previous night.

    In this day and age, terrorist attacks iming over 1,000 lives were extremely rare, and it was the most cmitous event in terms of loss of human life outside of wars ever since the founding of Sandrise City.

    All major news programs were reporting the incident, and as one of the few survivors of the attack, Adam quickly found himself under intense scrutiny from a litany of professional journalists. As a result, he had no choice but to hide in his dormitory room at the academy.

    Hook was also in the same situation, but his personality waspletely different from Adam''s. There was no way that he would pass up this opportunity to put himself in the limelight, and he had been epting all types of interviews throughout the entire day.

    Furthermore, due to the fact that he was an adapter, he was able to provide a moreprehensive description of the psychic world than the average person. ording to his recount of events, he encountered a group of extremely vicious and heinous psychic mutants, against whom he fought valiantly on his own in an epic battle before he was finally able to escape from the psychic prison with the other survivors.

    His questionable story was even further embellished and widely reported by all news outlets, and his social media followers swelled all the way from 43 to close to 1,000,000 in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

    "With so many followers, I could maybe be an inte celebrity in the future! I heard that livemerce is a really lucrative field for inte celebrities nowadays. It''s much easier earning money that way than offering adapter services." After returning to the dorm room, he made his way over to Adam''s side while humming a cheerful tune. "What are you up to?"

    "I''m looking up information on Carlin Asylum."

    Carlin Asylum was a ce that was specifically dedicated to imprisoning psychic mutant criminals.

    Almost all psychic mutants were clinically insane, and most of them had been locked up in Carlin Asylum at one point or another. Some of them were captured and handed over to the asylum by adapters, while others turned themselves in.

    The asylum was a twisted and deranged ce, a restricted zone that was overseen by the collective 12 elders of the Psychic Church. The asylum was home to the most resolute psychic prisons in the world, and violent psychic storms in those prisons would instantly spell death for the average adapter.

    Carlin Asylum was also where Mice King hade from.

    "Mice King, real name unknown. As an orphan, perhaps he never had a name to begin with. The first time he was discovered was in the sewage system. It''s spected that he was born to a drug addict who abandoned him in the sewers right after his birth. There are stories that state that he was initially nurtured by mice. After discovering the infant, the mice didn''t feed on him. Instead, they brought him rotten sewer cheese for him to feed on. After that, he was adopted by some homeless people. It''s said that even as a child, he was very close with the mice in the sewage system. The mice didn''t hurt him, and he didn''t hurt the mice, either. In fact, he was even able to issue instructions to nests of mice, and that was where the title of Mice King came from."

    Adam was reading information on Mice King, and he wasn''t the only one from Carlin Asylum with information avable on the inte.

    There''s information on that maggot-looking psychic mutant as well. So her name really is Lilian, and it seems like she''s Mice King''s only human friend that''s around the same age as him.

 Chapter 60: Cruel Past

    <h4>Chapter 60: Cruel Past</h4>

    Adam began to read through the information on Lilian.

    As it turned out, her situation was much the same as Mice King''s. She had lost her parents at a very young age, and as an introverted child, she stayed with her aunt until she was about four or five years old.

    Lilian had always had a peculiar hobby, which was to keep all types of strange insects as pets, and she was especially partial to maggots. This was a hobby that naturally didn''t make her very popr with others. The children at the kindergarten she went to were always mocking her, and her aunt and her children also despised her.

    One time, one of her aunt''s children gathered all of her insects into a while she wasn''t home, then dug a hole in the backyard before tossing in the and setting it alight.

    Lilian just so happened to return home right as this was happening, and after seeing her precious insects being burned alive, she leaped into the fire pit without any regard for her own safety to try and put out the me.

    However, the fire had been started with petrol, making it extremely difficult to put out for a child like her, and as a result, she suffered burns all over her entire body, turning her into a hideous monster.

    After that, she disappeared for some time. There were no records of her life during that time, and by the time the records resumed, she was already about seven or eight years old and had somehow befriended Mice King.

    This was the story of how a psychic mutant hade to be. However, what was rather strange was that at the end of the file on Lilian was a footnote, which stated that she was a kind person, a kind psychic mutant.

    "How could that maggot monster ughtering people on the street possibly be a kind person? It says here that the author of this footnote is Reverend Li Pengfei. Who''s that?"

    "You don''t even know who that is? You should be ashamed to call yourself a student of our academy?"

    "Does he have something to do with our academy?"

    "What organization does our academy belong to?"

    "The Psychic Church."

    "Right, and Li Pengfei is one of the 12 bishops who stand at the pinnacle of the Psychic Church. He''s also the director and one of the supervisors of the Carlin Asylum." When it came to the history of the academy and matters rted to the Psychic Church, Hook knew far more than Adam did. "He''s one of the main groups of people being held ountable for this incident. Theoretically speaking, people like Mice King and Lilian should''ve been constantly locked up in Carlin Asylum, so it''s inexplicable that they suddenly appeared on the streets. In addition to that, they were clearly acting as an organized unit with a premeditated n."

    "How did that happen?"

    "How am I supposed to know? Only people on the inside are privy to information like this. You should be asking the pawn shop. People from the pawn shop know far more than those journalists outside. If I recall correctly, the pawn shop has a coborative rtionship with Mechguard..."

    While Hook was still speaking, a notification tone suddenly rang out from Adam''smunicator, and he was being contacted by two people at the exact same moment.

    One of the calls came from Red Spider, while the other was from Cowboy.

    "What do you know? Speaking of people from the pawn shop..."

    Adam made his way into the bathroom, then locked the door before opening hismunicator, and a hologram of Red Spider quickly appeared.

    "You''re not with anyone, are you?"

    "No."

    "Alright, put me on confidential mode."

    Adam did as he was told, adjusting the settings on hismunicator so that the soundwaves it was emitting were funneled in a way that they were audible only to him. "Done."

    "I saw the news, and I heard about what happened to you. Our pawn shop needs to work with Mechguard to capture the escapees from the Carlin Asylum, and we require your participation in this operation."

    "Me? I''m no match for those psychic mutants," Adam said in a candid manner. "I saw quite a few psychic mutants at the time, and all of them looked very powerful."

    "I''m not asking you to take on those psychic mutants alone. Our pawn shop, the congresses, and the Psychic Church will all be sending people for the job. All we have to do is round up and capture the escapees, so the task is simple and carries minimal risk," Red Spider exined. "At the end of the day, there are only very few psychic mutants, and we''ll outnumber them at least 5:1, perhaps even 10:1. You''re only going to be a participant in all of this."

    "Alright, I can do that," Adam replied with a nod.

    This was a good opportunity for him to witness the abilities of psychic mutants. In any case, there were going to be many powerful adapters on the case, so there was no need for him to take any risks.

    "That''s all. I''ll keep you updated once I receive further information. I''m hanging up now."

    Red Spider ended the call.

    Adam took a moment to process his thoughts, then gave Cowboy a call.

    "Put me on confidential mode."

    That was the first thing that Cowboy said once the call was connected.

    "Already done."

    "I heard about what happened to you..." Cowboy''s opening statement was identical to Red Spider''s, but what he said next was far more of a bombshell than what Red Spider had told Adam. "Those psychic mutants were intentionally released by people from the congresses. Their goal is to manufacture arge-scale attack, or perhaps even several attacks, in order to evoke hatred among the people."

    "What?"

    Adam pretended to be quite surprised to hear this, but in reality, he had already received simr intel to this in the Metaverse.

    "Those people want to gain more power, but they''ve been thwarted by the strict and unyielding programming of the Mechguard officers. Due to the existence of Mechguard, they''ve been stripped of much of their power, and if they want to recover the power and authority that they''ve lost, then they can only target adapters. They want to establish an official adapter supervision organization, but it''ll be very difficult to pass legition on something like this, so they need to stir up the emotions of the general public to set things into motion."

    "That''s the reason why they released those psychic mutants?"

    "That''s only the first step. The next step is to get the media to cooperate with them and release hateful and emotionally provocative content on a widespread basis. After that, all of the celebrities will make their stance known as well. They have to ensure that the emotions of the general public are riled up to the point that they boil over, and before that, I have a feeling those psychic mutants won''t be easily captured."

    "Why are you telling me all of this?"

    "We are in the same organization, so we need to share intel. Also, you''ve already told me that you have some ties with Golden Teeth Incorporated, so there are some things that I must inform you of," Cowboy said as he stroked the stubble on his chin. "We are about to strike back at hostile media. If they want to spread hatred and misinformation, then we have to reveal the truth. We have to draw the attention of the people to the reasons why there has been such arge outbreak of escapees from Carlin Asylum."

    "How do we do that?"

    "In order to aplish this, we need to control the media and seize speaking rights. We need speaking rights in the Metaverse, on the inte, and in traditional media. Our organization has many people nted in the media, and one of Golden Teeth Incorporated''s shareholders is also a member of our organization. What we need to do now is to clear out all of the incumbent decision-makers in Golden Teeth Incorporated, then foster our people to take their ce."

    "Are you referring to the Kim Family?"

    "That''s right. If you have ties with them, then you can do the honors."

    "What happens if I have to kill them?"

    "We''ll help you pin the me on the psychic mutants. If they want to stir up turmoil, then we''ll use the chaos to our advantage!"

    A peculiar smile appeared on Cowboy''s face as he hung up the call.

    Adam fell into deep thought after receiving those two consecutive calls.

    The congresses, the Psychic Church, the psychic mutants, the pawn shop, and the mysterious person who had contacted him in the Metaverse... With so many parties involved, it seemed like Sandrise City was about to go through a period of intense turmoil.

    However, this was also a great opportunity for him to find out more about his own past.

    His mind wandered to Shae Kim, his supposed blood rtive, and he knew that she would have to be the starting point for his investigation.

 Chapter 61: Incident

    <h4>Chapter 61: Incident</h4>

    Adam paced back and forth in his dorm room over and over again.

    "What are you doing? You''re like a cat on a hot tin roof! You''re making me very anxious."

    At the moment, Hook was shopping for a "full-body cabin" on hismunicator. When used as a means to enter the Metaverse, a full body cabin would give one''s body realistic tactile reciprocation, so the stimtion that one would receive on the Sex wouldn''t just be limited to the brain.

    "I''m thinking about something."

    "What is it?"

    "Say you have a close rtive, but it''s unclear whether they''re actually your rtive or if they''re being impersonated by someone else. This person is about to die. What would you do?"

    "Well, the first thing I would do would be to go to her and rify the situation. What kind of question is this? Does this have something to do with you?"

    "If I tell you the story, you''ll be in danger. Do you still want to hear it?"

    "Nope. I don''t know anything, and I won''t tell anyone what you just said to me," Hook replied before turning his attention back to the online shop in which he was browsing for full-body cabins. "It looks like there are full-body suits that can be worn to produce a simr effect to full-body cabins. I''ve got some money now, so I can afford to give one of these a try next time..."

    ¡­¡­

    Adam paid no heed to Hook''s errant rambling, and after pacing back and forth for a while longer, he departed from the dorm room.

    After enquiring many sources in the academy about Shae''s whereabouts, he encountered her just as she wasing out from the cafeteria. However, the rtionship between the two was far from amicable, so he didn''t know what to say.

    "Hey."

    "What do you want?" Shae asked as she looked up at Adam.

    "Can we talk?"

    "Piss off!"

    "I''m serious! I really want to talk!"

    "Well, I really want you to piss off!"

    The conversation was very brief and hostile.

    Shae had no interest in speaking with Adam, so he had no choice but to abandon this attempt at making conversation.

    ¡­¡­

    Three dayster...

    Shae finished her sses for the day, and the family''s chauffeur/bodyguard was already waiting for her at the entrance of the academy. She entered a custom-made bulletproof vehicle, thenid down on the backseat.

    The car drove along as normal for close to half an hour when all of a sudden, a pair of cross-country hovercycles sped onto the street. The hovercycles had been modified so that streamers of strange colors were sting out of their rear-ends, and both of the drivers appeared to be boys who were in their teens. They were driving in an extremely reckless manner, drawing pictures in the air with their streamers one moment, then overtaking the car that Shae was in the next moment to chase one another as if they were ying a game of hovercycle tag.

    "Those two are so annoying!" Shae had a very short temper, so she naturally couldn''t bear such provocation. "Drive faster, Afu! Overtake them!"

    "You got it, ma''am."

    Afu floored the elerator to overtake the two hovercycles, but that only seemed to ignite thepetitive urge in the two young drivers.

    As soon as the car elerated to overtake them, the two hovercycles immediately pulled ahead once again, and one of the hovercycle drivers even flipped the bird at them as he was speeding past their car.

    "Afu, teach them a lesson!"

    "I''m on it."

    Afu attempted to cut off the two hovercycles, but the pair of young men were very skilled drivers, and after a series of maneuvers, the car wasn''t even able to graze either of the two hovercycles.

    All the while, Shae was only getting more and more agitated.

    "Stop the car! I''ll teach them a lesson myself!"

    "That''s not a good idea, ma''am. Given what''s recently happened at Carlin Asylum, the streets aren''t safe right now."

    As soon as Afu''s voice trailed off, one of the young men sped over to Shae''s side, then spat out a thick globule of phlegm straight into the window.

    Shae was unable to rein in her temper any longer, and she rolled down the window as she yelled, "Don''t run, you coward!"

    "Come get me!" the young man taunted, and the two of them really did end up stopping by the side of the street.

    They parked on the side of a main road, and even though there were many cars around, there were virtually no pedestrians.

    After parking by the side of the road, the two men waited for Afu and Shae toe out. Afu duly obliged, parking the car and emerging from it. The retrofit metal prosthetic limbs on his body began to expand as he walked. Among cyborgs, he was a super bodyguard with high physical resistance and offensive capabilities.

    By the time his prosthetic limbs were fully activated, his arms and body had swelled to the point that he resembled a humanoid mecha, and he showed off his terrifying body while making his way toward the two young men.

    The average person would''ve definitely been terrified at the sight of him in this form, and the two young men were no exception. They immediately began to backtrack while apologizing for their actions.

    "Hey man, there''s no need for that."

    "Yeah, Brother, we were just having some fun!"

    "Some fun can''t be had without paying a price!" Afu said as he clenched his fists tightly. "I''m going to teach you two a lesson that you won''t be forgetting anytime soon!"

    "Is that right?"

    The two young men took off their sunsses before looking upward, and there was no fear in their eyes whatsoever.

    Afu was instantly struck by a sense of foreboding upon seeing this. Immediately thereafter, immense wind pressure came sweeping toward him, and he had only just raised his head before his body was shattered into chunks of flesh and scrap metal by a heavy truck driving at well above the speed limit.

    The impact from the massive truckpletely destroyed his body before he even had a chance to react, and immediately thereafter, an explosion took ce at the scene, sending dense smoke sweeping through the air in all directions for dozens of meters, making it impossible for the cameras in the sky to capture clear footage of the incident.

    Amid the dense smoke, a figure arrived by Shae''s side before knocking her out with a single strike.

    ¡­¡­

    By the time Shae regained consciousness, she had already been taken to somewhere that resembled an abandoned factory or an underground warehouse.

    The ce was dimly lit, and the air was filled with the smell of rot and decay. After opening her eyes, she reflexively tried to move her body, only to find that she had been tightly bound by an electrolock.

    "Who are you?" Shae could see a pair of indistinct figures, and after thinking back to what had happened before she fell unconscious, she asked, "Have you kidnapped me? How much do you want for ransom?"

    "We don''t want ransom," one of the two figures replied.

    "Why did you abduct me if you don''t want ransom?"

    "We want to ask you some questions. Truth be told, if we hadn''t been explicitly instructed to spare your life, you would already be dead right now."

    "Is that right? We''ll see who''s actually the one that''s going to die here!"

    .

    Shae abruptly invaded the man''s psychic world as she spoke.

    She was able toplete the invasion very easily, indicating that the man had either put up no resistance at all or was simply an ordinary person incapable of resisting.

    After entering the psychic world, she found herself situated in front of a winery, and the acidic fragrance of brewing wine was wafting all around her. As for the man in front of her, he was wearing a robe, and he resembled a warlock.

    Shae didn''t hold back, immediately raising her fists to attack as soon as she entered the psychic world.

    However, her fist had only just struck the warlock when the two of them suddenly arrived in mid-air.

    Suspended in mid-air, there was nothing that Shae could use as leverage to push off from, and her body also began to weaken as a peculiar type of energy surged all around her. In a matter of mere moments, she was reduced to apletely powerlessmb waiting to be ughtered.

    Only now did she realize that she was dealing with an extremely advanced adapter. Not only had she never met an adapter of this caliber, even her family had never been able to employ the services of such a powerful adapter.

    With that, Shae finally believed that she hadn''t been captured for ransom, but it was exactly this realization that made her feel truly afraid.

    What could they want aside from money? Do they want to kill me?

    "Please don''t kill me! I''ll do anything you want!"

 Chapter 62: Deal

    <h4>Chapter 62: Deal</h4>

    "If you want to live, then you''ll have to answer a few questions."

    "What questions do I need to answer?"

    "I don''t know. Someone else will be asking you the questions."

    Another adapter appeared in front of the winery as the warlock spoke.

    As soon as Shae caught sight of the new arrival, she immediately eximed, "Adam!?"

    "Yes, it''s me."

    "Why are you doing this, you son of a bitch!?"

    Shae immediately became extremely worked up at the sight of Adam. In fact, she was so furious that she had forgotten the perilous situation that she was in.

    "Are you a psychic mutant? You''re going to kill me just because we had some minor run-ins at school? You killed Afu!"

    "I wasn''t the one who killed Afu. In fact, if it isn''t for me, you would already be dead by now."

    ording to the resistance army''s original n, Shae''s entire family had to be wiped out. In fact, the n was to kill the entire family in one ce all at once to avoid suspicion.

    It was Adam who had asked Cowboy to spare Shae''s life.

    "Back at the academy, I wanted to ask you some questions, but you refused. Now, I''m going to get the answers that I want." Adam only gave a brief exnation before asking the question that had been weighing on his mind for a long time. "Do you know that you''re adopted?"

    "I''m adopted? What the hell are you saying?" Shae asked as an enraged and suspicious look appeared on her face. "Is this supposed to be some type of joke?"

    "It''s not. Did you really not know that?"

    "Of course not! What proof do you have that I''m adopted?"

    Even though Shae proimed that she didn''t believe Adam, she wasn''t an idiot, and she knew that there was no way that Adam would''ve gone to such great lengths to capture her just to y a prank on her.

    "I know you''re adopted because we share the same bloodline."

    "Who?"

    "What I''m saying is, ording to DNA tests, you are my biological sister."

    Adam was looking intently into Shae''s eyes as he spoke, trying to gauge her reaction to determine exactly whose persona was inside her body.

    In Adam''s mind, there were most likely only two possible personas that Shae''s body could be housing.

    The first possible scenario was that Shae didn''t know anything and had only been abducted to serve as the heir to the Kim Family.

    The second possibility was that after being taken from the human farm, the persona of the former head of the Kim Family had been installed into her mind, which meant that everything she was doing right now was an act.

    Both of these possibilities were equally as likely to be true as Shae still wasn''t at the ideal age for a persona to be installed into her mind, and it was quite likely that the head of the Kim Family would''ve refrained from risking a premature persona instation. For the rich and powerful, it was always better to be safe than sorry, and they were certainly going to take every precaution to ensure their own welfare.

    Of course, there was also another possibility...

    However, after observing for a while, Adam concluded that Shae didn''t seem to be faking her reaction.

    "I''m your biological sister?" Shae was astonished. "That''s bullshit!"

    Adam was rather swayed by her reaction, but he then thought back to that elderly form that she would adopt in her transformation, and he still couldn''tpletely bring himself to trust her.

    "If you can get the answers you want like this, then how is this different from a normal abduction?" the warlock harrumphed coldly. "Let me take over. Professional tasks should be left for professionals to handle. When ites to interrogation, my track record is spotless. You want to know about her past, right? That''s easy."

    The warlock spread his hands apart as he spoke, and an array appeared in mid-air. Tiny feelers began to emerge from the array, then entered Shae''s body directly through all of her orifices.

    Immediately thereafter, it was as if a part of her psychic body had been extracted, andrge streams of information flowed back into the array through the feelers. After that, a series of images were selected at the discretion of the warlock.

    These images included memories of her childhood, the first time she saw her parents, ying with her childhood friends, arguments with her parents over the right of session...

    There were many snippets of memories where she was speaking with her family, but not once did she speak to them in the persona of the old man.

    "It looks like no persona has been imnted into her mind yet," the warlock concluded.

    "Are you sure?"

    "Some people are good actors, but no one would constantly keep up an act even when they don''t have to. Throughout all of these memories, she hasn''t disyed traits characteristic of someone with an imnted persona on even a single asion, and that''s sufficient proof that she''s not the old man. Having said that, there are some strange things about her."

    The warlock pointed at the images hovering before him, and among them were many scenes depicting Shae taking medication.

    She seemed to have suffered from chronic headaches ever since a young age, and the condition seemed to be incurable. The only thing that she could do was take painkillers to temporarily alleviate the pain. However, the condition also gave rise to her fiery personality. She had always had a very short fuse even as a child, and there were many scenes in her memories depicting her arguing with other people.

    "She''s nothing but trouble. We should kill her," the warlock said with a hint of disdain in his voice at the sight of these memories containing altercations. "I''ve heard a bit about your story. It''s not like you have any emotional ties to her anyway, so just kill her and be done with it."

    "Let''s... not do that."

    For someone like Adam, who had no family, the concept of family held special meaning in his heart, so even though he also detested Shae, he still couldn''t bring himself to kill her.

    "Even if we don''t kill her, we can''t let her go. She''s only going to cause more trouble for us in the future..."

    "Let''s just keep her here for now and see what the others say."

    After a brief discussion, the warlock set down Shae''s psychic body, following which the two of them left the psychic world.

    Following their departure, Shae slowly awakened. She had a vague sense of what had just transpired, and her anger was dampened, causing her fear to rear its ugly head once again.

    She was just about to say something when Adam received a call from Cowboy on hismunicator.

    "We''re done interrogating the girl''s parents on our end. The second-inmand of our organization conducted the interrogation in person. Why don''t you say hi?"

    The image swiveled around to focus on a very strange-looking man. The man looked as if his facial muscles hadpletely necrosed. Not only was there not even a single ounce of expression on his face, his features were as stiff and devoid of life as those of a corpse.

    He resembled a wax statue with a head of impably groomed and waxed hair, giving him an extremely unsettling appearance.

    "Hello, Mr... Mr. Second-inmand," Adam greeted.

    The second-inmand of the resistance army nodded in response.

    "We''ve secured the information that you want."

    He dragged a man over to him as he spoke, and the man was none other than Shae''s father, Lincoln Kim.

    "This man bought Shae Kim from the human farm, but he doesn''t know the human farm''s exact address. All he has is the contact information of a handler."

    "Father? What''s going on? What''s this human farm?"

    Shae was looking on from the side in astonishment, and Adam decided to let her watch this entire process.

    Adam didn''t want to kill her, but he was also worried that she would cause trouble if left alive, so it seemed that revealing the whole truth to her was a good option.

    Even though the second-inmand resembled a wax statue, he seemed to be quite an intelligent man, and just a single nce at Adam''s expression was enough for him to immediately understand Adam''s intentions.

    "You''re probably not going to believe anything I say, so I''ll let him tell you about it himself."

    The second-inmand pushed Lincoln in front of the camera as he spoke, and Lincoln hesitated momentarily before finally folding under the pressure and revealing the truth.

    "They''re telling the truth. We bought you in order to extend my father''s life. Back then, my father was suddenly struck down by a serious and incurable condition. At the time, he heard about personal instation technology, and in order to extend his own life, he tried to gather as much information on the subject as he could. Not long after that, we were contacted by someone."

 Chapter 63: Technological Maturation

    <h4>Chapter 63: Technological Maturation</h4>

    "I... was bought to extend someone else''s life?"

    Shae waspletely incredulous.

    Hearing this admission from her "father" was far more impactful than anything that Adam could''ve possibly said to her. After all, in her heart, Lincoln was family, someone she had lived with her entire life.

    If everything that he had said were true, then Shae''s entire life would''ve been a massive lie.

    "How is this possible?" Shae yelled, still unwilling to believe what she was being told. "What is this human farm? And why am I still me?"

    "I don''t know what the human far is, either. I''ve never been there, all I know is that it''s a ce where adapters are manufactured. At the time, my father''s condition was rapidly worsening, and it just so happened that personal instation technology was developed in the ck market, so you were bought as a new vessel."

    "Then haven''t I changed at all?"

    "This happened close to 20 years ago, and back then, the technology wasn''t as refined as it is now," Lincoln recounted. "At the time, personal instation technology was quite new, and it was only avable in the ck market. The only thing that people knew was that it was possible to install one''s persona into an adapter''s body, and there were rumors going around that the fewer memories an adapter had, the easier the instation process would be, which was why we decided to buy an infant. Even though the instation failed, my father''s persona fused as one with yours, with your persona in control, while my father''s was only a parasite."

    "Why?"

    Shae asked as her body trembled with powerful emotions.

    "Because at the time of the instation, you were too young. The neurons in your brain were unable to withstand the shock of having an entire persona installed all at once. As a result, most of my father''s persona perished. At the time, persona instation technology had only juste into existence, and it wasn''t veryplete, nor was there much experience gathered in the field. It waster discovered that there would be a higher sess rate for persona instations in adult adapters, but that was only discovered close to 15 years after the event."

    Lincoln was speaking in a rather wistful tone, but at the same time, he didn''t forget to try and justify his own actions.

    "Don''t hate me, Shae. 20 years ago, my father''s word was absolute in the family. He was like a dictator, and I had no right to oppose him. He was responsible for everything after he found out about his terminal illness, we were merely his aplices. No, I wouldn''t even say we were aplices, we were only aware of what he was up to, and that was the extent of our involvement. I''ve been good to you all these years, haven''t I?"

    Lincoln''s words seemed to have triggered some memory in Shae''s mind. She had lived a lie her entire life thus far, and this astonishing revtion was too much for her to bear. As a result, her headache red up again.

    Shae''s chronic headaches were extremely severe, and she finally knew the root cause of her condition.

    The brain damage that she had suffered as an infant and the parasitic persona attached to her''s were the reasons why her condition couldn''t be cured.

    She curled up into a ball, and the excruciating pain in her head consumed the entirety of her being, leaving her unable to do anything aside from scream in agony.

    Adam couldn''t help but heave a sympathetic sigh at the sight of Shae''s suffering.

    He had always thought that Shae''s persona was either her own or belonged to the former head of the Kim Family, but to his surprise, the truth was far more bizarre.

    Poor thing.

    Adam crouched down beside Shae before tracking down the painkillers that she carried with her. People like her who suffered from chronic pain were bound to carry painkillers everywhere they went.

    After feeding the medicine to Shae, the second-inmand turned off the video call.

    Adam didn''t care what they did to Lincoln, but he didn''t want Shae to die.

    .

    "Leave her to me," Adam said to the warlock.

    "It doesn''t matter to me. Just make sure to keep an eye on her so she doesn''t go around saying stuff she shouldn''t. If you can''t keep her mouth shut, you won''t be able to protect her even if you''re a member of our organization."

    With that, the warlock departed, leaving only Adam and Shae behind.

    Adam untied Shae, and she gradually returned to her senses as the painkillers slowly took effect.

    After regaining consciousness, Shae stared at Adam, and for once, she didn''t make a snarky remark.

    Only after about 10 minutes of silence did Shae finally say something.

    "Does the human farm truly exist?"

    "It does. We were both born there. That ce is filled with artificial wombs and robotic nurturers. Perhaps we''re biologically rted because they used the sperm and eggs from the same pair of parents for both of us, or perhaps we only share the same father, who knows? I don''t know the exact details," Adam exined. "If you don''t believe me, you cane and take a look in my psychic world. I have a memory of the human farm that you can see. You''re an adapter as well, so you should be able to identify whether the memory is just a delusion of mine or if it depicts an actual ce."

    "You''ve been to the human farm before?"

    "I haven''t, but Deranged Pig''s daughter has, and I just so happened to learn about all of this while treating a mental condition that she was suffering from. Come into my psychic world and take a look. I''m sure that''ll erase many of your doubts."

    Adam lowered his psychic defenses to the outside world as he spoke, and after a moment of contemtion, Shae invaded his psychic world.

    After that, Adam brought her to the human farm, where she saw the mechanical bee nurturers, the meat grinders, and the countless artificial wombs that stretched as far as the eyes could see.

    Within every single one of those wombs as an infant, and over 99.9% of the infants here were destined to feed the meat grinder.

    After leaving the human farm, Shae threw up violently.

    As she raised her head again, a look of determined resolution had appeared in her eyes.

    "Are you trying to find out the truth? I''ll help you."

    "That would be great," Adam replied with a nod.

    ¡­¡­

    The next day, the Kim Family''s demise made the rounds on the news.

    Under normal circumstances, news of an attack on a powerhouse family in the media would''ve definitely been a top story, but due to the outbreak of psychic mutants, society was in a state ofplete chaos. Murders and homicides were constantly taking ce, some of which were perpetrated by psychic mutants, but there was also no shortage of non-psychic-mutants taking advantage of the chaos to satisfy their own homicidal urges.

    In contrast with an incident that had resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 people and had been confirmed to be a terrorist attack, the disappearance of a wealthy family was hardly newsworthy. At the very least, no one in the general public cared about the welfare of the Kim Family.

    Hence, even though the demise of the Kim Family made it onto the news, it didn''t cause much of a stir at all.

    The only ce where this piece of news had any impact seemed to be Layton Academy.

    To be more specific, the impact applied only to the junior students of Layton Academy. Most of these younger students had been bullied by Shae in the past, and many of them couldn''t help but taunt her now that she had been struck by misfortune.

    "Ahem... I heard your family was attacked by psychic mutants. My condolences."

    On the surface, this was a very normal constory sentiment, but when it was uttered by someone with clear ill intentions and a cheeky grin on their face, then the constory nature of the statement would instantly turn into one that was provocative.

    "Get fucked!"

    Shae''s fuse was still as short as ever, and she immediately invaded the younger student''s psychic world before giving him a vicious beating in there.

    However, this time, the situation was a little different from before.

 Chapter 64: Playing the Hero

    <h4>Chapter 64: ying the Hero</h4>

    In the past, Shae would''ve been able to casually walk away after delivering that beating.

    This could be attributed not just to her formidablebat prowess, but most importantly, her background. The lofty status of her family made it so that none of the less privileged adapter students dared to do anything to her.

    However, all schools were essentially microcosms of societies, especially schools for adapters, and these oppressed younger students certainly weren''t going to pass up the opportunity to retaliate and strike back at their oppressor.

    "Where do you think you''re going? You think you can just walk away after being someone up?" After the first student was defeated, five or six lower-grade students immediately surrounded her. "The times have changed. I heard that the leadership group of your family business has already been restructured, so you no longer have the right of session. That means we''re all on equal footing now, so what makes you think you can just get away with this?"

    Right as Shae was being surrounded, a voice suddenly rang out from the side.

    "Isn''t it a little unfair for all of you to be ganging up on her?"

    "Adam?" The group of younger students turned to face him. "Why are you sticking your nose into this? Aren''t you on bad terms with her as well? She bullied you on your very first day of school! What do you want? Are you trying to y the hero? Ha! Even if you are a hero, heroes only save beautiful damsels in distress, and she''s way too hideous to y that role!"

    I''ll admit that her personality isn''t that great, but she''s decent looking. We''re rted by blood, so she looks a bit like me.

    Adam shook his head as he dered, "I''m with her. If you want to gang up on her, then you''ll have to deal with me as well."

    "Fine! If you want to y the hero, then we''ll let you have your fun!"

    Thus, the two sides promptly entered the psychic world.

    Everyone had arrived in an arena. This arena was an actual ce in Layton Academy. This was a ce that everyone in the academy knew of, thereby making it a neutral location that made it the customary go-to battleground for any students who had a score to settle with one another.

    Furthermore, the academy had no explicit rules against sparring. After all, all of the academy''s students were adapters, and that was already an extremely dangerous upation. As long as there was no one being killed, the academy didn''t care if some students wanted to umte some battle experience before stepping out into society.

    After arriving in the arena, the group of junior students immediately surrounded Adam and Shae.

    Everyone was already familiar with one another, so they skipped the formalities and dove headfirst into the action.

    It was very clear who was the object of these students'' resentment, and the first round of attacks was all directed at Shae. Even though Shae was above average among students in her grade, she was immediately forced onto the back foot in this five-on-one fight.

    The junior students had all transformed into peculiar burly men, and they surrounded Shae''s bipr psychic body while aiming punches and kicks at her. Even though Shae possessed greater strength than them, it was very difficult for her to retaliate as she was too busy defending herself.

    "Why are you just standing there? Help!" Shae eximed as she turned to Adam with an urgent expression.

    "You bullied them so much in the past, it''s only right that you allow them to use you as their punching bag for a while to vent some frustration," Adam said, refraining from immediately entering the fray.

    However, as the battle became more and more intense, and Shae was struck by more and more blows, Adam finally intervened.

    "That''s enough."

    "Shut up! We''ll beat you up as well!"

    The junior students were thoroughly enjoying themselves, and they were nowhere near done with Shae.

    In response to Adam''s intervention, two of the students immediately rushed toward him.

    The two of them were both ordinary brawny fighters with no special traits to speak of, and after sparring with them for a short while, Adam discovered that they were pitifully weak, not even able topare with Hook when it came tobat prowess.

    Even without invoking any of his anomalies or transforming, he was able to just barely keep up with his two assants.

    It looks like there''s a huge disparity between junior students and seasoned adapters in the outside world.

    After gauging the strength of his opponent''s, Adam invoked Hellhound before fusing as one with it, then sent his two opponents flying with a swat of his paws.

    Adam had once invoked all of his anomalies and ssified them one by one.

    Infantile anomalies that were presented in the form of dolls possessed very littlebat prowess, whereas adult anomalies such as the current Mummy, also known as level one anomalies, wereparable inbat prowess to the students of Layton Academy.

    The standard being referred to here was the averagebat prowess of all of the students of Layton Academy, regardless of what grade they were in. When it came to these junior students, they weren''t even as powerful as Mummy in its current form.

    Adam had only been attending Layton Academy for a very short time, and Shae was a junior student as well, so the majority of the students that they knew were also junior students.

    Having fused with a level two anomaly in the form of Hellhound, Adampletely outmatched his assants. After swatting his two opponents away, he sted an Explosive Fireball onto the ground in the distance, causing an enormous explosion that shattered the ground with a resounding boom.

    The students who were attacking Shae were instantly rooted to the spot upon seeing this, and their voices were even beginning to tremble as they turned o stare at the almighty werewolf behind them.

    "What... You..."

    "Who are you? Are you really Adam?"

    They didn''t dare to believe what they were seeing, but aside from them, no one else had entered the arena with the exceptions of Shae and Adam.

    "How are you this strong? Even senior students... No, even the average academy graduate isn''t this strong!"

    "You could easily graduate right now!"

    Shae was also astonished by the sight of Adam''s current form. Even though she had already partially epted her new identity, she had a very headstrong personality, so deep down, she still felt a little disdainful toward this brother of hers.

    In her mind, Adam had only been able to reach this point solely because he was incredibly fortunate to have somehow been able to join a powerful organization.

    However, it was clear from what she was seeing that she had been sorely mistaken.

    "How did you get so strong? Were you always this strong or did you only be like this after entering the academy? I remember you knew nothing on your first day here..."

    "Let''s talk about thatter. There are too many people here." Adam leaped straight onto the very center of the arena, then turned to the group of junior students as he said, "You''ve had a chance to get back at her, so let''s just end things here for today."

    "Y... You''re not going to beat us up?"

    These students had always been very timid and spineless. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have allowed themselves to be subjected to Shae''s bullying for so long.

    "No. She bullied you so many times, so it''s only right that take revenge by giving her a taste of her own medicine, but don''t try this again. If I see you ganging up on her again, I won''t be so lenient."

    "Of course! We''ll never do this again!"

    It was clear to the group of junior students that Adam was not to be messed with, and they exchanged a nce with one another before immediately leaving the psychic world.

    In the wake of this run-in, Adam gradually began to establish a reputation for himself in Layton Academy.

    All of the students in the academy were adapters, so there weren''t that many of them, and anyone who was deemed to be particrly powerful would quickly be widely renowned in the academy. An example of this was Nie Yiyi, who was a senior student, but the entire academy was aware of her powers.

    In addition to the rumors detailing Adam''s powers, there was another rumor going around that left Adam feeling both amused and exasperated. The rumor stated that he and Shae had entered a rtionship.

    "I can understand the spection that we''re in a rtionship, but why is everyone saying that I was the one who pursued you? They''re saying I swooped in while you were at your most vulnerable after what happened to your family!" Inside the dorm room, Adam was looking at Shae was an exasperated expression. "Then again, I suppose this is a good thing. From now on, we have a viable excuse to be frequently seen together."

    "It''s already been a day since that run-in with those guys, but you still haven''t told me when you became so strong."

    The day before, Shae had gone to an independent clinic with Adam to conduct a DNA rtionship test, which confirmed to her that the two of them were indeed rted by blood. As a result, the final traces of her doubt had been erased, and she had fully epted the fact that she and Adam were on the same side.

 Chapter 65: Life is Too Long

    <h4>Chapter 65: Life is Too Long</h4>

    "I''m only strong because of my invoked entities. When ites to the power of my psychic body, it probably can''t even match up with yours." Adam revealed, but he refrained from disclosing his secret to her. He didn''t want to tell anyone about those strange flowerpots in his psychic world. "I''m an invocator. I have many anomalies, all of which are very powerful. I can fuse as one with any of them, and that naturally makes me more powerful as well."

    As a junior student, Shae only had a very vague concept of what the invocator ss was.

    She had started studying at the academy veryte, and that was by her family''s design. They were restricting her exposure to knowledge rted to adapters in order to intentionally dy her development for fear that she would find out the truth someday.

    Hence, her base of knowledge was very limited, and she would often raise some questions that went againstmon sense.

    "If you have so many powerful invoked entities, can you give me one? Our enemies are very powerful, but as I am now, I''m really weak and won''t be of much help to you. What do you say?"

    Adam stared at Shae in silence with a resigned expression.

    "You started attending the academy quite a bit earlier than I did, how do you not know that that''s not possible? An invoked entity is a manifestation of one''s personality. Those invoked entities all belong to me, how could I possibly give one to you? Even if we set aside the fact that this is impossible, if I were to give you one of my invoked entities, my personality would be iplete. There''s no way this is viable."

    "How do you know if you don''t try?"

    "If abilities could be transferred at will, then I want that warlock''s magic and the regenerative abilities of psychic mutants! I''m telling you, it can''t be done! This is a fact that has been verified through the experiences of countless people, and that''s why it''s in our textbooks. Put more effort into your studies..."

    While Adam was giving Shae an exasperated exnation, a message from Kim Hee-cho arrived.

    He opened hismunicator to find a short message.

    "Hey, how''ve you been, Brother? I heard about what happened a few days ago on the news, so I decided to let you take a break, but now that you''ve had some time to rest, we gotta get back on the grind! The mission that we took onst time still hasn''t beenpleted, and our client has already contacted me multiple times. We''ve also got a catalog of excellent missions stockpiled during your absence, so make sure to contact me after you''ve had a chance to rest and recover."

    Shae sidled over to Adam as he read through the message.

    "Whatcha doing?"

    "I have to take on mission and work," Adam replied as he showed her the message. "I have to earn money. Otherwise, I won''t be able to support my own spending. It takes me a long time to earn enough for just a single piece of equipment."

    "How do you not have enough money when you''re a part of such a powerful organization? Also, don''t you earn a wage from the pawn shop?"

    "The organization doesn''t give me any money, and I don''t get any money from the pawn shop, either, because I''ve signed an indenture with them," Adam replied with a resigned shake of his head. He couldn''t help but feel a little annoyed whenever he thought about how the pawn shop had taken advantage of him. "I''ve been able to survive to this point thanks to their protection, and it''s a fair trade, but I don''t receive any wages from them."

    "How about I go on these missions with you? It''ll be a great opportunity for me to hone my abilities in battle."

    Shae had always been obsessed with the pursuit of power. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have been the most powerful adapter in her year level.

    She had spent all of the time that should''ve been allocated to learning about adapter-rted knowledge to learning about how to be more powerful instead, and that was why her knowledge base was very skewed.

    "How muchpensation do you want?"

    "I don''t need anypensation," Shae replied with a shake of her head as aplex look appeared in her eyes. "My parents were never that good to me. I never felt very close with them, and they never let me get involved with the operation of thepany. They also told me that they weren''t going to give me the right of session, but I was never short on spending money. I still have over 2,000,000 in my ount, and that''s enough for me to use for a long time."

    "Alright, I''ll bring you with me," Adam replied with a nod, then contacted Hook and Kim Hee-cho and resumed his psychotherapy career.

    At the same time, this was also training.

    He wanted to be more powerful before he went on missions with the elite adapters of the pawn shop to capture psychic mutants so he could better protect himself.

    ¡­¡­

    Upon their reunion in the Metaverse, Kim Hee-cho gave an excited smile that was seldom ever seen on his face.

    "Look at you! As the old adage goes, ''those who transcend the severest of tribtions will be blessed with the greatest of fortune''."

    Kim Hee-cho approached Adam and gave him a warm embrace, then turned his attention to Shae.

    "Who''s this?"

    "She''s a good friend of mine. She''s here for some hands-on training."

    "Have you worked out how she''s going to bepensated?"

    "She doesn''t wantpensation."

    Kim Hee-cho became even more excited upon hearing this. Perhaps there were some performance elements to the excitement that he had disyed just now, but the excitement that he was currently disying was 100% genuine and came straight from the heart.

    "I love brave young people who are up for a challenge! Rest assured, you won''t be disappointed. You will receive the very best training experience on the job!"

    "So about the job..."

    "Ah, yes. All of the terms have already been finalized, but the client is most likely still working overtime right now. You can go find him after 9 PM. He''s living that 996 lifestyle, if you know what I mean."

    "What''s the 996 lifestyle?"

    Shae had never heard of this concept.

    "It means he works from 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week."

    "Isn''t that illegal?"

    "They voluntarily subject themselves to such a rigorous work schedule in order to earn more money. Otherwise, why would he have developed mental problems that necessitate our services? Essentially, our industry is a consequence of the grueling lifestyle that people like him lead, so let''s not go around pointing fingers at anyone. We should be happy as long as there''s money to be earned."

    Kim Hee-cho was still sticking to his philosophy of money above all else.

    Having lived her entire life in the very upper echelons of wealth, Shae naturally struggled to ept this concept. In fact, she felt it to be inherently wed.

    "If they work that much, doesn''t that mean that they have no life?"

    "Their work?is?life! In the past, before immortality technology was released, only idiots or people who were in desperate need of money would''ve voluntarily chosen to live the 996 lifestyle. After all, life is short, and you have to live it up while you still can. However, things are different now. Everyone''s thought process is that as long as they can earn enough money, they''ll have plenty of time to enjoy themselves in the future. While they''re still alive in the material world, they have to work hard so that they can enjoy their eternal lives in the cyberworld! In the past, life was too short, but now, life is too long!" Kim Hee-chomented, disying a rare glimpse of humanity. "There are countless sses in society, and our client and I are the same type of people. We can see the hope of a blissful and eternal life, so of course we want to pursue that goal."

    Shae was still of the opinion that there were some logical facies in the so-called 996 lifestyle, but she didn''t say anything further on the subject. Instead, her thoughts were drawn to the sentiment that life was now too long rather than too short.

    Simrly, Adam was also contemting the same concept.

    He had only been living this new life for a very short time, but he had already witnessed countless things that supported the notion that life was too long.

    Those in the lower sses of society had to work themselves to the bone in order to support their deceased loved ones in the Metaverse, while the deceased had to degrade themselves and serve as ythings for others in the Metaverse for the sake of survival.

    Those who had the ability to earn money did so as if it were their sole purpose in life, sacrificing their mental health and all of their energy for the promise of an eternal life of bliss.

    As for Adam and Shae, they were but two of the countless victims of this present-day society.

    If the pursuit of immortality didn''t exist, then he and Shae wouldn''t have been turned into nk tes, nor would the human farm have evere into existence.

    Never had Adam felt the term "immortality" to be one that harbored such sinister connotations. To put it more urately, in his eyes, the concept of unfair immortality was the root of boundless evil.

    Furthermore, if this immortality technology were a lie in itself, then this evil would bepounded to the point that it would be nothing short of a global infestation.

    Among the poption of close to 10 billion on this Earth, perhaps no more than several thousand people would be able to enjoy true immortality and ess to nk tes. As for everyone else, they could only live in the fraudulent dream of immortality in the Metaverse, while in reality, their energy, their intelligence, their souls, and their very lives were going to be dedicated to supporting the true immortals of this world.

    In the past, the wealthy stripped others of money, while nowadays, the wealthy stripped others of their lives.

    All of a sudden, an extreme thought surfaced in Adam''s mind.

    Perhaps killing all of them would liberate the entire human race on a fundamental level.

 Chapter 66: Right of Succession

    <h4>Chapter 66: Right of Session</h4>

    Some thoughts would take root firmly in one''s mind as soon as they were conceived, and the more insane these thoughts were, the more irrepressible they became.

    While all of this was unfolding in Adam''s mind, he waspletely engrossed in his own thoughts, to the point that his name had to be called out before he finally returned to his senses.

    "What are you thinking about? You suddenly started staring off into space! It''s about time for us to get going, so make some preparations, and let''s set off. This client seems to be more reliable than thest one. He''s more honest, and the price for the treatment has alreadyrgely been decided, so we don''t have to worry about getting swindled like we didst time."

    As an agent, Kim Hee-cho was left feeling quite ashamed after being yed for a fool by their previous client. This wasn''t just a matter of money, it also concerned his pride as an agent.

    It was like a basketball yer getting posterized by a violent dunk. Even though the opposition only scored two points, the humiliation went far beyond those two points.

    "Rest assured, when ites to business, I never make the same mistake twice. There''s a great deal of room for price negotiation in this job, and we''ll determine the final price ording to how powerful his emotional aberrations are. Make sure to set the price on the higher end as much as possible."

    After a brief discussion, everyone logged out of the Metaverse.

    When it came to hunting emotional aberrations, Adam always liked to bring Hook with him for his exceptional scouting abilities, which were extremely helpful under a variety of circumstances. However, Hook had recently gotten "hooked" on social media with the dream of bing an inte celebrity, and he refused to participate in this mission, leaving Adam feeling quite disgruntled.

    "I get that he doesn''t like to take on jobs involving emotional anomalies, but this mission only involves the cleansing of emotional aberrations, yet he''s still unwilling toe!" Adamined.

    The destination for this job was very close, so he and Shae chose to take a cab there. Traveling by car wasn''t as fast as traveling by void rail, but it was morefortable and allowed for more freedom in conversation.

    "It''s alright, you''ve got me this time. I''ve never been on a mission like this before."

    Shae never had the need to take on jobs of this nature for ie, and her family also prohibited her from engaging in such activities. Hence, it could be said that she was essentially a sheltered flower in a greenhouse, and that greenhouse had been intentionally isted from the outside world.

    Hence, she was very excited to be going on this mission.

    "Are emotional aberrations difficult to eradicate?"

    "Some of them are more powerful but most of them are pretty mediocre. However, there''s usually a huge number of them..."

    While Adam was answering Shae''s question, he received a call on hismunicator from an unknown number.

    Adam presumed that the call was from someone from the pawn shop, but after epting the call, he was greeted by the sight of a rigid face that looked as if it belonged to a wax statue.

    "Mr. Second-inmand! To what do I owe this honor?"

    The second-inmand nodded in response.

    "Is Shae Kim still alive?"

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    "Is she with you right now?"

    "That''s right."

    "Get her on the call."

    The tone of the second-inmand''s voice was just as stiff and dead as his facial features, and Adam duly obliged, turning the camera to face Shae.

    "Do you want the right to session of Golden Teeth Incorporated?"

    "The right to session?" Shae shook her head in response. "I don''t have the right to session. I didn''t have it even back when my parents were around, and now..."

    "I''m not asking you if you want the right to session," the second-inmand repeated in a rigid voice, and it was as if he hadn''t heard what Shae had said at all.

    Shae considered the notion for a moment before nodding in response.

    "I do."

    "Alright, then our organization will try to secure the right to session for you," the second-inmand dered. It seemed that they had encountered some obstacles on their end that were impeding their progress. "Your parents have already been dealt with, but your uncle is trying to support one of your cousins to be the heir to thepany. Right now, he''s received the support of the majorpany shareholder, Masao Yamamoto, and he''s also under intensive protection from the Oni Organization, so we''re unable to take him out of the picture. Hence, we need you to step up and pursue the right to session of thepany."

    Shae opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by the second-inmand.

    "Seeing as you''re willing to pursue the right to session, we''ll take care of the rest to help you inherit thepany."

    Shae opened her mouth once again to speak, but at that point, the second-inmand had already hung up.

    "Jeez, he really doesn''t like to waste time at all, does he?" Adam shook his head with a resigned expression, then took hismunicator back from Shae. "What are your thoughts?"

    "I basically want the same things that you want," Shae sighed. In the wake of the massive bombshell that had been dropped onto her life, her personality seemed to have undergone a change. "I want to learn about my past, and I also want revenge, but it''s way too hard to do all of that on my own. Let''s just start with doing what we can. I gotta stop talking now."

    "What''s wrong?"

    "My headache''s ring up again."

    Shae pulled out her painkillers and took one before leaning back against her backrest and closing her eyes.

    ¡­¡­

    Due to the close proximity of the destination, it didn''t take long for the cab to arrive in front of a tall building.

    The neon sign on the building disyed the words "Micrometa Corporation", and even though it was alreadyte at night, many of the offices in the building were still brightly lit.

    "It''s already 9 PM. Even if he''s following that 996 schedule, he should already be done with work."

    As it turned out, after Kim Hee-cho arrived, the three of them had to wait another half an hour before they were finally contacted by the client, whose name was Wang Shuai.

    As soon as Adam caught sight of the client, he immediately had his attention drawn to Wang Shuai''s eyes. The dark circles around his eyes and the bags under them were extremely pronounced. Those massive eye bags looked as if they were about to droop down to his chin, as if he had a pair of kangaroo pouches hanging on his face.

    The next thing that Adam noticed was his disposition. The anxiety radiating from Wang Shuai''s body was virtually palpable, and he was like the walking embodiment of that feeling where one was clearly extremely sleepy and tired, but was unable to fall asleep no matter how hard they tried. In stark contrast with their previous client, who kept himself in great shape, just the mere sight of this client was enough to make the beholder feel very ufortable.

    "Sorry for beingte. There was a feature that I had to test, so I had to stay behind a little longer." Wang Shuai heaved an exhausted sigh upon meeting up with Adam''s trio, and his breath reeked as a symptom of his stress and exhaustion.

    "Alright, then let''s begin." Kim Hee-cho paid no heed to the stench of Wang Shuai''s breath. After all, money smelled much the same. He pulled out a more advanced projection device as he spoke. "This is a new piece of equipment that ourpany recently acquired. Not only is it able to project your psychic world, it''s also capable of capturing video footage. We charge very fair andpetitive rates, and we''re going to first conduct an examination of the state of your psychic world, then determine the cost of the treatment ording to our findings. Does that sound good to you?"

    "That sounds fair," Wang Shuai replied with a nod. "Where are we doing the treatment?"

    "Anywhere is fine as long as it''s a quiet and isted environment."

    "Then let''s go into thepany. We get a free meal at 10 PM."

    "Sure."

    Thus, Wang Shuai led the group into the Micrometa Corporation building. There were still many people inside who were still working and debugging programs. Even though much of the process of writing programs waspleted by artificial intelligence, there were some fundamental elements that humans still didn''t dare to leave to machines, so there were still many job opportunities for programmers.

    "It feels like everyone here is the same..."

    Shae inspected the people around them as they were passing through thepany, and she discovered that everyone shared the same pair of characteristics in their physical appearance: eye bags and bald spots.

    What she was seeing was an atmosphere of anxiety, while Kim Hee-cho was seeing a wealth of business opportunities.

    "I feel like everyone here requires psychotherapeutic treatment." He passed an electric business card to Wang Shuai as he spoke. "If you feel satisfied with our treatment, please rmend our services to your colleagues. Nowadays, everyone thinks adapter psychotherapy services are very expensive, but that''s not necessarily the case. Our service specifically caters to people like yourself."

 Chapter 67: Boss Aberration

    <h4>Chapter 67: Boss Aberration</h4>

    "Alright, I''ll be sure to rmend your services to my colleagues if everything goes well," Wang Shuai replied with a nod.

    While conversing with one another, the group made their way into a lounge area.

    Even though these techpanies were squeezing their employees for all they were worth, the employees were only being squeezed for their time and energy. When it came to facilities in thepany, they were even more luxurious than the ones in Peter''s stock exchange office.

    The d¨¦cor in the lounge area was very elegant, and there were all types of snacks and beverages on offer.

    After the group entered the lounge area, the door was locked, and the treatmentmenced following some errant small talk.

    "Lay down onto the bed and rx. If you feel a sense of intrusion, don''t resist."

    Having done this on so many previous asions, Adam was already a veteran.

    After issuing those instructions to Wang Shuai, he turned to Shae before giving her a nod, then invaded Wang Shuai''s psychic world.

    Just as expected, they arrived directly in thepany after entering Wang Shuai''s psychic world.

    "It looks like this is the most important ce to him, and also the ce where he spends most of his time."

    Adam had administered several treatments in the past, and Deranged Pig''s daughter had spent most of her time at school and at home, Peter spent most of his time in the stock exchange office, and Chloe spent most of her time at school or on the streets. Sure enough, Wang Shuai also followed this pattern, appearing in thepany even in his psychic world.

    "Almost all of his waking hours are spent here, so this has to be the ce where most of his emotional aberrations are. It feels really ufortable here!"

    Shae inspected her surroundings, and even though theyout of the building was the same as it was in the real world, the walls wereden with text that urged one to work harder, and the atmospheric pressure was very low, making it difficult to breathe.

    Adam opened the door of the room and arrived in the area outside.

    Just as he expected, the entirepany was filled with aberrations, strange aberrations that were connected together. Every single one of these aberrations was ving away while huddled over their workstation, and each of them had a long feeler growing out of their head. These feelers were all interconnected with one another, and if anyone were to ck off, the others would immediately notice, leading to the arrival of an evenrger aberration.

    That bigger aberration is probably a supervisor.

    These emotional aberrations weren''t very aggressive, so Adam and Shae were able to remain on the spot and observe for some time.

    During their observation, they just so happened to see a supervisor emerge due to one of the emotional aberrations cking off in their work, and the supervisor scolded the aberration for a while before devouring it.

    Just when Adam and Shae thought that this was the end, the supervisor aberration pulled out an identical aberration to the one that it had just devoured from its rear end.

    The new aberration''s entire body was covered in slime, but it was clearly far more obedient, and as soon as it got up from the ground, it made its way to the workstation and began to ve away.

    "This is disgusting!" Shae pursed her lips in distaste. "What should we do?"

    "Let''s assess the situation first, but don''t attack. Wait until after we sign a contract before we begin the cleanup job."

    Adam took a stroll through thepany with Shae in apaniment, and he discovered that Wang Shuai had far more emotional baggage than Peter did.

    In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that there was nothing but emotional baggage in his psychic world, unlike in the case of Peter, who also had a great deal of emotional baggage, but Hook had still been able to find many recreational venues in his psychic world.

    In Wang Shuai''s psychic world, Adam could see nothing but negative emotions.

    "This guy''s under way too much pressure."

    After a quick tour of Wang Shuai''s psychic world, Adam departed with Shae, following which Wang Shuai was roused from his slumber and shown the footage that had just been captured.

    "There are way too many emotional aberrations in your psychic world. You''ll have to pay extra!"

    "How much more will I have to pay?"

    "For a job of this magnitude, surely a total fee of 300,000 isn''t too much to ask for."

    "That''s too much," Wang Shuai objected with a shake of his head. "I''d have to work for a very long time to earn that much money. I only contacted your clinic because you offered cheap prices."

    "But you saw how many aberrations there were in your psychic world. The workload is massive!"

    As usual, Kim Hee-chomenced the negotiation phase.

    This was a very boring part of every job. Essentially, the process involved bartering back and forth by pointing out one''s own strengths andparing them with the opposing party''s shorings. Having witnessed this process a few times, Adam had identified some of the patterns and strategies involved. Of course, in order to implement these patterns and strategies, one had to be sufficiently shameless.

    Peter had been even more shameless than Kim Hee-cho, which was why the former hade out on top.

    In contrast, Wang Shuai was clearlycking in this area. Technical personnel like him were generally a little too rigid andcking in street smarts. As a result of this, he prematurely revealed the highest price that he was willing to pay, thereby losing all control and leverage in the negotiation process.

    In the end, the price was set at 240,000.

    This was twice the price that they had charged Peter, and Adam felt like they had overcharged him.

    After all, even though there was a huge number of those aberrations in Wang Shuai''s psychic world, they weren''t very powerful at all, so it was only going to be a minor hassle to cleanse them.

    However, he didn''t say anything, and after the contract was signed by both parties, he re-entered Wang Shuai''s psychic world with Shae.

    All we can do for you is perform as thorough a cleanse as possible.

    After arriving in the psychic world, Adam invoked all of his anomalies with the exception of Distortion. He then fused as one with Hellhound before unleashing a mouthful of fire that blew up arge section of workstations.

    Thus began the massacre.

    Ordinary emotional aberrations were no match at all for the current Adam, and Shae was also throwing herself into the mix, battling one emotional aberration after another for training.

    In contrast with the one-sided ughter on Adam''s end, Shae''s experience was far more perilous.

    In the psychic world, she was even more arrogant than she was in the real world, and her attire was also more shy, but herbat prowess was rather mediocre, only slightly superior to Hook in his unpiloted state.

    In her regr form, Shae was able to take on two or three emotional aberrations at once, but after being surrounded by four or five of them, she began to struggle noticeably and was often sent flying by her assants.

    As a result, she had no choice but to take on her two-headed form. With the head of the old man sprouting out of her body, Shae instantly received a significant boost in strength, but even then, she was still only able to take on a maximum of seven or eight aberrations at once. In fact, she was almost devoured by one of the massive supervisor aberrations after falling to a mob of aberrations.

    "Clown, Mummy, go help her."

    In ordance with Adam''s instructions, Clown and Mummy rushed into the encirclement that Shae was trapped in.

    Mummy was wielding a carving knife as it plunged its way into the mob of aberrations, and it was even more fearsome in battle than Shae was.

    As for Clown, itsbat prowess was ratherckluster, but it was constantly whizzing around while conjuring up illusions to disrupt the formation of the aberrations, thereby significantly alleviating the pressure on Shae.

    Is there that much of a gap in power between me and him?

    Back when those junior students had ganged up on her, she wasn''t able topletelyprehend just how far ahead of her Adam was, but at this point, it had be painfully obvious to her.

    After fusing with Hellhound, Adam''sbat prowess simply wasn''t even on the same level as hers.

    Individually, these aberrations possessed roughly the same level ofbat prowess as the average junior student, so they were very difficult for Shae to deal with. However, aberrations of this caliber were nothing more than cannon fodder when pitted against Adam. Even the burlier and more powerful supervisor aberrations could only cause some minor trouble for Adam, but were unable to pose any threat to him at all.

    He''s so much more powerful than me. All I''ll do is drag him down.

    Shae was feeling a little disheartened upon seeing this.

 Chapter 68: Vampire

    <h4>Chapter 68: Vampire</h4>

    Right as Shae was absorbed in her own thoughts, she was sent flying with a dull thump by a massive palm. She flew through the air for several meters before crashing headfirst into a printer, inflicting a gash on her head that was bleeding profusely.

    The giant supervisor aberration then began to give chase, but it had only rushed forward a couple of steps before it was torn into pieces by a set of fiery ws that struck it from behind.

    "Why are you spacing out in the middle of a battle?"

    Adam eradicated all of the aberrations that were closing in around Shae as he spoke, and he was able to do so in less than five seconds.

    By the time his voice trailed off, the entire area had already been cleansed.

    "I was just thinking to myself, if there''s such a massive gap between us, what purpose could I possibly serve?" Shae mbered up from the ground as she spoke. "I''ve thought about many things recently, and I know that our goals are going to be very difficult to achieve. If I''m too weak, then I''ll be nothing but dead weight that drags you down."

    "Just take it one step at a time. I agree that our goals will be very difficult to achieve, but we also have plenty of time to achieve them. Just focus on doing what you need to do, such as acquiring the right to session of thepany."

    Adam didn''t say anything further as Kim Hee-cho was watching them outside in the real world.

    "But I also want to fight."

    "Just gradually build up the power of your personality, and I''m sure you''ll surpass me in a few years. For now, let''s go to the next floor and clean up this entire building."

    Cleansing Wang Shuai of his emotional baggage was a very tedious task, and there was far more emotional baggage in his psychic world than what had been present in Peter''s stock exchange office.

    The only piece of good news was that after Adam eradicated all of the emotional aberrations in the building, he discovered that the streets were very clean.

    "Phew, it looks like all of his pressurees from his work."

    Adam made a quick inspection of the streets, and in order to ensure aplete job, he and Shae began to travel through Wang Shuai''s psychic world to see if they had missed anything.

    Wang Shuai''s psychic world was extremely barren, with very few constituent modules. He had never traveled anywhere, nor had he ever enjoyed being in nature, and he didn''t engage in any recreational activities.

    All of the psychic modules were dour and lifeless with low atmospheric pressure with the exception of one ce, and that was his school.

    Standing outside the school''s sports field, Adam was looking on with a forlorn expression at a far younger version of Wang Shuai, who was exercising inside.

    "Who could''ve imagined that someone who looks so dead inside was once a star baseball yer in their school days?"

    On the sports field, Wang Shuai and his teammates were exercising vigorously and sweating profusely. Adam didn''t know much about baseball, but he could tell that Wang Shuai was a very good yer. At the conclusion of the innings, many of his teammates approached him to celebrate.

    "People slowly change as they grow up," Shae sighed, and she was talking about herself just as much as she was talking about Wang Shuai.

    However, Adam''s thoughts had gone down a different avenue.

    "Adults are too greedy and desire too much. The prospect of immortality is so alluring that it''s warped human nature."

    Afterpleting their examination of most of the ces in Wang Shuai''s psychic world, they made his home their final destination.

    The house was a smallpound in a suburban neighborhood, and Adam had initially thought that there wouldn''t have been any aberrations here. After all, for many people, their home was their haven. Not only were there generally no aberrations there, the safe harbor rule often applied.

    However, he was mistaken. As soon as he entered thepound, he immediately sensed that something wasn''t right. The atmospheric pressure was already quite low, but it drastically plummeted even further here, to the point that it was almost impossible to draw breath.

    "Be on your guard. There''s something not right about this ce."

    Adam activated his telegnosis, and he immediately sensed danger in the room.

    He carefully approached the door of thepound, and he had only just kicked the door open when a strange figure abruptly flew out from inside. The figure was extremely strong and fast, pinning him to the ground as soon as it emerged.

    Adam tried to struggle into an upright position, but as soon as the creature pinned him onto the ground, it bit down onto his neck and began to suck vigorously. Adam wanted to resist, but he felt as if arge chunk of the power in his body had been sucked away in the blink of an eye.

    In his feeble state, he was unable to struggle free from his assant and could only use his arm to push the creature''s face away.

    He focused his gaze on the creature to find that it was an anomaly.

    Is this a vampire?

    The anomaly had a set of fangs and a pair of bright red eyes set into a slender face, and it bore a strong resemnce to the vampires in fictional stories.

    The sight of a vampire pinning down a werewolf was rather reminiscent of scenes that had once been prevalent in movies from a century ago.

    Shae was desperate to save Adam, but as soon as she tried to approach him, the vampire swept a hand through the air, and just the powerful wind pressure released by his sweeping hand was enough to blow her back by close to 20 meters.

    "Don''te near me! This is not an ordinary emotional aberration. You''ll die if you try to fight it!"

    Emotional anomalies couldn''t bepared with normal emotional aberrations. An anomaly could be dozens, even hundreds of times more powerful than aberrations, and for someone like Shae, who struggled to keep up even with emotional aberrations, an anomaly could easily kill her in a matter of seconds.

    Thankfully, she was quite obedient. In contrast with the foolish characters in television dramas who insisted on weighing down the protagonist of the show, she made the wise decision to get far away from the action.

    After Shae had retreated to a safe distance away, Adam was still struggling to stand up, but the vampire was very strong. In addition to that, part of his power had just been sucked away, leaving him feeling quite weak and feeble, so he was still unable to struggle free.

    However, right at this moment, something suddenly sprang out of his body. The thing was like a distorted illusion, and as soon as it appeared, it immediately pounced onto the vampire. All of a sudden, all of the vampire anomaly''s joints were twisted to abnormal angles as if they had been snapped, and the force that was pinning down Adam was instantly significantly alleviated. He immediately jumped on this opportunity, forcing back the vampire with a vicious kick.

    "Phew... It''s a good thing I have you around."

    Looking at Distortion, Adam felt a sense of affection, yet also frustration.

    His affection for it stemmed from the fact that the anomaly was very powerful in battle, virtually the most powerful anomaly of its caliber. However, it was also immensely frustrating to him that not only was fusing with it not a viable option, he couldn''t even invoke it when there were other people around as he was afraid that it would harm his allies.

    After being bound by Distortion, the vampire let loose a terrifying shriek.

    It was quite a powerful anomaly, considering it was still able to unleash strange attacks even after it was bound by Distortion. Its screech immediately struck Adam with a rush of dizziness, but thankfully, he had enough anomalies on his side.

    Mummy seemed to be far more resistant to attacks of this nature, and it was able to force its way through the soundwave attack, rushing directly over to the vampire before stabbing its carving knife into the vampire''s mouth.

    Meanwhile, Adam had also sprung into action. After taking a moment topose himself, mes gathered over his hand, and he plunged his ws straight into the vampire''s chest.

    The vampire''sbat prowess was roughly equivalent to that of Distortion, but it was facing too many opponents of the same caliber, and it waspletely powerless to resist.

    After the vampire''s chest melted away under Adam''s mes, its powers were significantly diminished, and Distortion was able to fold its body into a giant meatball. A flurry of attacks quickly followed, and the vampire exploded on the spot.

    The same familiar ck mist appeared in the wake of the vampire''s demise, and Adam absorbed all of the anomalic power while the dust and smoke from the explosion hadn''t yet dissipated.

    He had be far more adept in his absorption and usage of anomalic power, and just likest time, he decided to prioritize some of his anomalies over the others. He first allocated some of the anomalic power to Hellhound, but after failing to detect any signs that suggested that Hellhound was about to undergo an evolution, he allocated all of the remaining anomalic power to Mummy.

    A thunderous roar rang out as Mummy''s body swelled drastically to 260 centimeters in height, Its arms had be as thick as the average person''s waist, and the carving knife in its hand was also giving off a red gleam.

 Chapter 69: Divorce Paper

    <h4>Chapter 69: Divorce Paper</h4>

    If I recall correctly, the carving knife was glowing greenst time...

    Adam examined the attributes of Mummy to find that the hypertoxic de from before had transformed into a vampiric de. In addition to that, the viscous substance on its bandages had be even thicker. These changes had most likely been brought about by the anomalic power that it had just absorbed.

    The vampire anomaly possessed a blood-sucking ability, and that was the cause for the change in Mummy''s de. The sludge aberrations that Adam had dealt withst time had possessed powerful defenses and regenerative abilities, and Mummy had also acquired some of those abilities during its evolution.

    Overall, the current Mummy was no weaker than its previous iteration. In fact, it was even slightly more powerful than the previous Mummy at its peak. Thus, Adam now had one more level two anomaly at his disposal.

    Adam was delighted by this turn of events. Out of all of the anomalies that he currently possessed, Mummy was his favorite. He was able to rely on it to save himself in life-threatening situations, and its offensive capabilities were far superior to Hellhound''s.

    However, at the same time, Adam had also noticed something that was a little concerning.

    ording to the ssification system that he had coined, the vampire anomaly had clearly been a level two anomaly, which meant that its overall powers were roughly on par with those of Hellhound, Distortion, and Mummy. At the very least, there wasn''t any clear disparity.

    After absorbing the vampire''s anomalic power, Adam wanted to try and prioritize the nurturing of a single anomaly, which was why he had allocated the anomalic power to Hellhound first. However, the enhancements that Hellhound had received from the injection of anomalic power weren''t very pronounced.

    He had a feeling that if he wanted to evolve a level two anomaly, then he would have to devour a massive quantity of anomalic power from anomalies of the same level. However, the anomalic power from the vampire was able to quickly trigger an evolution when funneled into a level one anomaly.

    It seems like if I want to evolve a level two anomaly, the best way to do that would be to kill a level three anomaly, rather than always going after low-level anomalies.

    Adam had no experience whatsoever when it came to evolving level two anomalies. Out of all of the anomalies that had arisen from his personality, the most powerful ones were currently level two anomalies.

    It was very easy for infantile anomalies to evolve into level one anomalies, and the evolution from level one to level two didn''t feel very difficult, either. After all, even killing those sludge aberrations had been enough to umte a great deal of evolutionary power.

    However, the evolution from level two to level three seemed to be a significant hurdle.

    .

    There aren''t enough experimental subjects for me to draw any concrete conclusions. I''ll have to do more tests next time.

    The surrounding smoke and dust cleared away while Adam was absorbed in his own thoughts, and Shae attempted to approach him from afar.

    "Is it over, Adam? It looks like the vampire''s gone now. Is it dead?"

    "Yes, it''s already dead. I... Stop!"

    A thought suddenly urred to Adam as he spoke, but before he had a chance to finish what he was saying, a dark figure had already pounced onto Shae.

    It was Distortion.

    It was unable to discern between friend and foe, and aside from Adam''s psychic body, it could potentially consider anyone to be an enemy.

    On top of that, Distortion was even more powerful than the average level two anomaly. As an ordinary student adapter, Shae couldn''t even match up against a level one anomaly, so any attack from Distortion would''ve definitely had a severe effect on her. In fact, she could''ve easily been killed from having her torso snapped.

    With that in mind, Adam scrambled desperately to withdraw Distortion back into his body.

    Thus, Distortion only lingered on Shae for a few seconds before it was withdrawn, following which Adam hurriedly rushed over to Shae''s side.

    "Are you alright?"

    "I''m fine. What''s up?"

    "How? This doesn''t make sense!" Even though Distortion had only clung onto Shae''s body for a few seconds, given its abilities, it should''ve at least snapped all of her limbs, if not killed her on the spot. "Are you sure you''re alright? You didn''t feel any sudden pain in your body or anything?"

    "No. The mission''s done now, right? What''s that big thing over there?" Shae took a few steps back again as she caught sight of Mummy nearby. "Is that another emotional anomaly?"

    "Don''t worry about it, I''ll exin it to youter." Even though Adam had many questions he wanted to ask, he had to refrain from doing so given that they were being watched. "I''ll go take a look inside the house to see if there are any aberrations that haven''t been dealt with yet."

    After entering Wang Shuai''s house in the psychic world, Adam saw a home that appeared to be warm and inviting on the surface, but was actually extremely eerie and unsettling. Not only was the atmosphere very oppressive, upon closer inspection, Adam discovered that many of the ornaments and furnishings were catered solely toward women. In addition to that, it was possible to tell from a single nce that some of the furniture and pieces of jewelry were extremely expensive.

    There was a stack of divorce papers on the table, and Adam didn''t know why something like that had appeared here, but it was clear that these divorce papers held great significance in Wang Shuai''s psychic world.

    Prior to entering Wang Shuai''s psychic world, the contract that was established included a "legal breach of privacy" use. This was because the process of searching for aberrations was a breach of privacy in itself. Thus, Adam didn''t hesitate at all before picking up the divorce papers. There were many usesid out on the settlement papers, but the majority of them were extremely harsh on Wang Shuai, while greatly benefitting his wife.

    No wonder she''s a vampire in his psychic world.

    After examining the interior of the house, Adam departed after failing to discover any other aberrations.

    "How did it go?"

    "That''s it. There was only one anomaly in there. Let''s go take a look elsewhere."

    In the end, Adam didn''t find any emotional aberrations anywhere else. Clearly, for a man like Wang Shuai, who spent his entire life either at home or at work, his house and hispany were the two sole locations in his psychic world that gave rise to his emotional baggage.

    "Alright, job''s done. Let''s get out of here."

    They returned to the ce where they had first appeared in Wang Shuai''s psychic world, and Adam withdrew all of his anomalies before departing with Shae.

    Wang Shuai slowly opened his eyes as he awakened from his slumber, and he was immediately greeted by the sound of Kim Hee-cho''s agitated voice.

    "We lost out big time for this job! The price we charged is way too low for eradicating an emotional anomaly! You shouldn''t have additional work. There are no uses in our contract that hold us responsible for eradicating anomalies. If you wanted to do that, then you should''vee out first and waited until we revised the contract before going back in," Kim Hee-choined. "Every time I go on a mission with you, we always end up earning way less than we should! I won''t me you for that time with Peter because that was my fault, but you made us lose out on a lot of money for both this job and Karen''s job!"

    Adam didn''t say anything in the face of Kim Hee-cho''s condemnation. Indeed, as business partners, his actions really had made them lose out on quite a bit of money, but inparison with earning money, he was much more eager to hunt down anomalies.

    Anomalies were the ideal "supplement" for him, and if Wang Shuai were forced to cancel the agreement due to insufficient funds, then Adam would''ve had to give up on this anomaly as well, which would''ve been a massive loss.

    He only had a very limited amount of time on his hands. Regardless of whether it was hunting for psychic mutants or supporting Shae in her bid to secure the right to session, he needed more power, and time was of the essence.

    However, even though Adam wasn''t saying anything, Shae wasn''t just going to stand by and watch.

    Her temper immediately red up as she countered, "How about you shut your mouth and learn to know your ce? You''re just a middleman, all you do is talk and leech off Adam''s hard work! You''re no different from that vampire from before! Who are you to be telling Adam what to do? He''ll do whatever the hell he wants!"

    "Who the hell are you? You''re just a temporary helper, what are you getting so worked up for?"

    "Alright, that''s enough! I''ll admit that I was in the wrong here. Once Wang Shuai wakes up, see if you can negotiate with him and get him to pay us extra for that anomaly. We''re going now."

    Adam departed while dragging Shae away as he spoke.

    After leaving the lounge area, Adam heaved a resigned sigh.

    "I thought your temper had improved a little, but it seems that was just my imagination."

    "No, you''re not wrong, my temper really has improved. In the past, I would''ve beaten his ass for talking to you like that! Even if he tried to sue me, he''d only be screwing himself over anyway," Shae said in a proud manner, then strode away with her high heel shoes clicking along the ground.

 Chapter 70: Three Potential Reasons

    <h4>Chapter 70: Three Potential Reasons</h4>

    In the end, the revised price that Kim Hee-cho and Wang Shuai agreed on was 360,000. Of course, this was still lower than the market price for a job of the same level of difficulty.

    The problem was that there were no uses on the contract covering anomaly eradications, so Wang Shuai had agreed to pay an additional fee purely as a gesture of good faith.

    Adam was quite pleased with earning 360,000 for the job, and he didn''t think too much about it. After returning to the academy, he took Shae back to his dorm room to test out some of his theories.

    "Did you really not feel anything when Distortion jumped on you?"

    Having had some time to calm down, Shae carefully recalled the event, and she was able to recollect some of the finer details.

    "I did feel something. It was like water was flowing into my body, but the feeling was sucked away as soon as it appeared."

    "Water flowing into your body..."

    Adam repeated with a peculiar expression. This was very surprising for him to hear as he experienced a simr feeling whenever he fused as one with any of his anomalies.

    However, this simply shouldn''t have been possible. Invocators were able to fuse as one with their invoked entities because those entities were projections of their psyche. Hence, it made perfect sense that his psychic body was able to fuse with his invoked entities.

    Despite this, the majority of invocators struggled to aplish this.

    Sadou had once told Adam that fusing with one''s invoked entities was the most difficult thing for an invocator, and that it was beyond the reach of the vast majority of invocators. It was just like how it was very difficult for the vast majority of schizophrenics to fuse as one with the psychic bodies that broke off from their main psychic body as a result of their condition. Adam''s aptitude in other areas was rather ordinary, but he could be considered to be among the cream of the crop when it came to his aptitude for fusing with his invoked entities.

    "It''s already supposed to be very difficult to fuse with one''s own invoked entities, how is it possible that you can fuse with my invoked entities? How does that work? It doesn''t make sense! Let''s give it a try."

    Adam invaded Shae''s psychic world as he spoke, and the two of them arrived at the center of the Layton Academy campus.

    There was a fountain here, and water sprayed out of the fountain in strange and unidentifiable shapes.

    This time, Adam refrained from invoking the anomaly of fear as it was too difficult to control. Instead, he invoked Mummy.

    Go and fuse with her,?Adam instructed in his heart, controlling Mummy through the connection between them.

    Mummy made its way over to Shae''s side while carrying its giant meat cleaver, then slowly fused into her body.

    Despite his spection, Adam didn''t think that they would actually be able to fuse as one, and he waspletely rooted to the spot upon seeing this.

    It took much longer for Mummy to fuse with Shae than it did with Adam. When fusing with Adam, the process was virtually instantaneous, like the water in a faucet flowing into a swimming pool.

    In contrast, there was a sense of obstruction in its fusion with Shae, as if this were a fusion between water and glue. First, a barrier was formed between the two, and only after that did they slowly take on the form of one another.

    Even so, it still didn''t take long before the fusion between the two waspleted.

    Following the fusion, Mummy had swelled to three meters in height.

    "I feel so powerful! It''s like I have boundless power in my body!"

    This was the first time that Shae had experienced this type of power, and she was unable to suppress her own excitement. She raised her meat cleaver andshed out at the stone pier of the fountain, smashing it into pieces with a single blow.

    "Holy shit, this is awesome!"

    Shae liberated her destructive urges to her heart''s content as she spoke, striking at everything around her with her giant de until everything had been smashed to bits.

    Adam did nothing to stop her destructive rampage. He knew that even though Shae hadn''t said anything, the events that had recently transpired had left her feeling very depressed.

    The death of her bodyguard, the revtion that her "parents" had bought her like some type of tool, the sudden change in Adam''s identity from someone that she detested into her biological brother, the turmoil that her family''spany was going through, the realization that she hade from a human farm, the prospect of having topete with a cousin that she had no biological rtion to for the right to session...

    Even a single one of these things at a time could be enough to send a person spiraling into an emotional breakdown, and one could only imagine how it must''ve felt for Shae to have to go through all of these things in such a short time.

    "This is awesome!"

    After demolishing the entire flowerbed, Shae instinctively plunged her carving knife into the ground, a red halo was instantly released, expanding outward in all directions. The red light swept over Adam, and he was immediately struck by a sense of feebleness and dizziness.

    Is this a new ability?

    Adam recalled that Mummy possessed two abilities in the past, one of which was Bandage Proliferation, while the other was Hypertoxic Halo, but it appeared that thetter had transformed into Vampiric Halo.

    Due to the different anomalic power that it had absorbed during the process of its most recent evolution, not only had its physical form undergone some changes, even its weapon and abilities had mutated.

    Its defenses had be more powerful, but at the same time, it had lost its hypertoxic abilities.

    "How does it feel to use that ability?"

    Shae''s voice rang out in response.

    "I feel like I''m even more full of energy. If I had any injuries right now, I feel like they would''ve been almost fully healed instantly. Are you alright? I didn''t hurt you, did I?"

    "I was caught in the attack, but I''m fine, it only sapped some of my energy," Adam replied, and a thought suddenly urred to him. "Don''t you have a transformation ability as well? Why don''t you see if using that ability will enhance this form even further?"

    Shae was eager to try anything that would potentially enhance her powers, and the head of an old man immediately sprouted out of her body. With that transformation, Mummy''s height was further increased by close to 20 centimeters, taking it to over 310 centimeters in height. Furthermore, it had also be burlier and more imposing.

    "Looks like it really did have an effect!" Adam could tell what the oue was from the change in Mummy''s physical appearance. "Let''s run some other experiments."

    He invoked his other anomalies as he spoke.

    After a night of experimentation, Adam was able to determine that the anomaly with the highest degree ofpatibility with Shae was Hellhound. Fusing with Hellhound clearly enhanced her powers to the greatest degree out of all of the anomalies. Adam wasn''t sure why this was the case, and he could only specte that it had something to do with the fact that both Shae and Hellhound had two heads.

    As for why Shae was able to fuse with his invoked entities, Adam conducted a great deal of research, but was unable to find any answers. In the end, he could only form his own theory, which consisted of three potential reasons.

    The first potential reason was that he and Shae were biologically rted. Of course, this was the most crude and imusible of the three theories. Throughout history, there hadn''t exactly been a huge number of adapters who were biologically rted, but there was certainly nock of them, either, and there had been no examples of any rted adapters being able to use one another''s powers.

    The second potential reason was a bit more usible, and it was the theory that this had something to do with the special constitution of Shae''s psychic body. In the 100 or so years since adapters hade into existence, there had been no official records detailing situations simr to the one that Shae was in. She was an adapter who had had a persona imnted into her mind, but the procedure had failed, and the imnted persona had been embedded into the main persona as a parasite of sorts.

    There was a very good chance that Shae was apletely unique case. After all, the concept of persona instation had only emerged roughly 20 years ago, and during those 20 years, only the first five years were ones where people had extremely limited experience in the procedure. After those five years, no one would''ve been foolish enough to try and imnt someone''s persona into an infantile adapter through brute force.

    In the 15 years leading up to the present since then, this piece of technology had be more and more refined, and everyone came to understand that the persona of the vessel had to be purged first, thereby making them a nk te. After that, the vessel had to reach adulthood in order to ensure the highest sess rate. The maturation of the technology had made it far safer than before, and that had given rise to supply chains such as the human farm.

    During those first five years in which brute force instations were made without purging the existing persona, there were very few experimental subjects to begin with, and most of them perished. Even for those rare sessful cases, there weren''t any records kept of them. Hence, even if Shae''s case weren''t unique, Adam wouldn''t have been able to find any answers anyway.

    Due to the fact that a main persona had taken on a secondary persona following a brute force instation, there was a precedent for absorption, thereby allowing Shae to absorb other people''s evoked entities, fusing as one with a part of someone else.

    The idea seemed ridiculous, but it was one of the potential exnations that Adam had thought of.

    After all, seeing as she had already absorbed a part of someone else, it didn''t seem that far-fetched that she would be able to repeat the process.

    The third possibility was the one that Adam felt to be most usible, and that was the impact of those mysterious flowerpots. Those flowerpots were able to nurture anomalies, absorb anomalic power, and allow him to make constant, rapid growth. To this day, Adam still had no idea what they were or exactly what they were capable of.

 Chapter 71: Level Three Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 71: Level Three Anomaly</h4>

    "In any case, this is a good thing."

    After developing those three possibilities, Adam did some stretches in a weary manner. An entire night without sleep had left him feeling quite exhausted, and even his psychic body had be a little feeble as a result.

    "Don''t tell anyone else about this, and try and hide this as much as possible when we''re fighting together in the future."

    "How are you so sure?"

    "Because this is a very unique situation, and if other adapters were to find out, it could spell trouble for us."

    "Then what if we can''t hide it? That guy who works with you, Kim Hee-cho''s his name, right? What if he finds out?"

    "That''s fine. Kim Hee-cho, Hook, and a girl by the name of Nie Yiyi are all allies of mine. On top of that, we share a rtionship ofmon interest, so I''m sure they won''t go around spreading our secret if I tell them not to," Adam exined.

    "What do you n to do next?"

    "For now, we have to follow the organization''s arrangements and help you secure the right to session. This is very important as whoever controls the media controls public discourse. Golden Teeth Incorporated is a top-tier media conglomerate in our city, so it''s vital that we seize control of it. On top of that, there are many ties between the people behind Golden Teeth Incorporated and the human farm. If you can secure the right to session, you''ll be able to find out many things.

    "I also have to wait for the pawn shop to call on me to hunt for psychic mutants. Those psychic mutants have been released in order to further some people''s political objectives. They''ve caused mass destruction to stir up widespread animosity, and that''ll trigger a chain reaction. Soon, people are going to begin calling forws to be passed for normal adapters to be regted by legal bodies, but only adapters can supervise other adapters. If such a system is implemented, the official adapters will be granted additional power over the ones being regted.

    "Those who are in positions of power are the ones who perpetrated this outbreak of psychic mutants to begin with, and when those adapters are given power, everything will be in their control. They would be able to increase the scale of human farming to their heart''s content or even pick out nk tes among ordinary adapters. We won''t be able to contribute much, but this is something that directly impacts us, so we have to do what we can in order to stop them."

    "The third thing that we have to do is continue toplete more jobs. We have to kill more emotional anomalies as quickly as possible in order to umte more power."

    After some consideration, Adam decided to reveal his secret to Shae.

    They shared the same objectives, so they were going to be doing many things together. Most importantly, she now possessed the ability to fuse with his anomalies, so he wouldn''t have been able to keep his anomalies'' potential for rapid growth a secret. As opposed to only exining things to her when he had no choice but to do so, thereby potentially driving a wedge between them, it was better for him to exin things right away.

    "My anomalies have a special ability that allows them to be stronger whenever I kill an emotional anomaly. If they be more powerful, then we be more powerful!"

    "Really?"

    Only after hearing this did Shae finally be excited. Prior to learning about this, she had no confidence that she would''ve ever been able to aplish her goals. After all, she was only a student adapter, yet the enemies that she had to face consisted of powers that stood at the very pinnacle of this world.

    She could grow and develop, yet the same applied to others, and she was sorelycking in support.

    "So your anomalies can get stronger by killing other anomalies? How many do we need to kill? Is there an upper limit?"

    "At the moment, I don''t think there''s any upper limit."

    "Then what are we waiting for? We gotta take on more missions! We need to be constantly taking on missions that''ll pit us against the most powerful emotional anomalies! We need to find sociopaths and psychopaths that havemitted serious crimes! I know an uncle who works in a prison, and there are tons of serious criminals who were abused as children and locked up in that prison. We can try to approach them, then..."

    "No no no, that would bemitting suicide!" Adam hurriedly said with a wave of his hands.

    When it came to sociopathic and psychopathic felons who had been abused as children, one could only imagine just how powerful the emotional anomalies that they harbored were.

    Those anomalies were most likely far more fearsome than the one in the psychic world of Deranged Pig''s daughter, and there was no way that Adam could challenge anomalies of that caliber at his current level of ability.

    "Don''t try to bite off more than you can chew. There are different levels when ites to emotional anomalies, the ones you''re talking about could kill us in seconds!" Adam gave Shae a set of ount details as he spoke. "Go into this mission ount in the Metaverse and select some missions. Look at the mission descriptions to determine the condition of the client. Wang Shuai''s condition is a pretty good benchmark to go off, and if you can find a client in a slightly worse condition than him, that would be even better. It would give us a bit of a challenge."

    "Got it!"

    Shae immediately nodded in response before preparing to put on the helmet.

    "Aren''t you going to sleep?"

    "It''s fine, I''ll go take a look at the missions first."

    Shae was extremely excited, enraptured by the prospect of getting stronger.

    "Alright, suit yourself. I''m gonna take a rest."

    Adamid down onto the single bed and closed his eyes, leaving Shae to her own devices.

    After sleeping for an indeterminate period of time, Adam was roused from his slumber, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of Shae''s excited face.

    "I found a suitable job for you?"

    "Really?"

    Adam didn''t have much trust in Shae''s professionalpetence. After all, in his eyes, she didn''t even know the first thing about the ssification of anomalies.

    However, to his surprise, she had found a mission that had a piece of footage attached.

    "This footage was sent by the client. Take a look, I think this anomaly is perfect for our needs."

    Adam massaged his own bleary eyes, and before he had a chance to react, Shae had already thrust amunicator directly into his face. Themunicator was ying a piece of footage that depicted a church, and there were three adapters carefully searching through the church.

    The three of them were proceeding with a great deal of caution, so much so that they were looking a little fearful.

    "Who''re these three?"

    "They''re psychotherapists from another clinic."

    "Did they fail toplete the mission? What''s going on here?"

    "Just keep watching. The anomaly is about to appear soon. Take a look and see if it''s at a suitable level of power for us."

    Adam continued to watch the footage, and inside the image, the three adapters were disying a decent level of chemistry as they proceeded cautiously through the church.

    At this point, they had arrived in a corridor in the church, and there were paintings hanging up on either side of the corridor.

    These were all very ordinary oil paintings, some of which were depicting scenery, while others were portraits of people, yet right as they were passing by a painting of a nun, the soft facial features of the nun suddenly twisted in a sinister fashion. At the same time, the bright color scheme of the oil painting became extremely dark and twisted.

    A loud shriek rang out as a nun anomaly suddenly extended a huge ck hand out of the oil painting. The hand grabbed onto the head of one of the adapters, and the adapter tried to resist, but his power was rapidly sapped away. After a struggle thatsted no more than two seconds, he was dragged into the oil painting, following which a massive burst of blood gushed out. It seemed that half of the adapter''s body had been devoured.

    His twopanions were initially attacking the oil painting in an attempt to rescue him, but once they realized their efforts were futile, they hurriedly began yelling in a blind panic.

    "Cut off the connection! Hurry! He''s already done for! Otherwise, we''re going to die as well!"

    ¡­¡­

    The footage abruptly cut off there, and it was clear that coborator on the outside had severed the psychic connection.

    "What do you think? Isn''t that anomaly at the perfect power level for us?"

    Adam yed back the footage that he had just witnessed in his mind, assessing the speed of the anomaly''s surprise attack, the power of the adapters'' retaliation, and the effects of their retaliative attacks.

    "It''s pretty much spot on. Those two adapters are about halfway between a level one anomaly and a level two anomaly, and they were able to inflict some damage, but it was very limited. If I''m not mistaken, that anomaly should be at the very peak of level two anomalies or a rather weak level three anomaly."

    "What are these levels that you''re talking about?"

    "Don''t worry about it, it''s a ssification system I made up myself. Let''s ept this mission!"

    As soon as Adam agreed to ept the mission, hismunicator immediately began to ring.

 Chapter 72: The Town of Ash

    <h4>Chapter 72: The Town of Ash</h4>

    This was a very inopportune time to be receiving a call. Adam thought that the call would be from the resistance army or the pawn shop, and he was feeling quite disgruntled to be interrupted right when he had found such a perfect mission.

    If he were requested to do something else, and the mission was taken by someone else during his absence, then that would''ve been immensely frustrating.

    Thankfully, the call was actually from Wang Shuai.

    "Was the cleanse not thorough enough?" Adam was rather surprised to see Wang Shuai being projected out of themunicator. "Rest assured, ording to the contract, we have an obligation toplete the cleanse of your psychic world."

    "No no, I''m calling because I wanted to thank you."

    Even though Wang Shuai was still looking quite physically exhausted, his mental state had clearly improved markedlypared with the day before, and the dark rings around his eyes and the bags under them were both far less pronounced.

    "I know how much you did for me, and I know that you charged way too little considering you had to eradicate an emotional anomaly."

    "It''s alright, you also gave us additionalpensation outside of the terms of the contract"

    "No no no, I should''ve given you far more, but that was all of the money that I had on hand," Wang Shuai said in a very earnest manner. "In order to repay you, I''m going to rmend your services to any of my colleagues who require treatment."

    "That would be great, but we''ve recently decided that we''re only going to be focusing on more serious cases from now on, so please keep that in mind when rmending our services to others."

    "Of course."

    After making some more small talk, the call concluded, and Adam was in a much better mood after that call.

    "What a great guy!" he mused.

    However, Shae was a little perplexed.

    "After what you did for him, the least he could do was give you extrapensation and call up to thank you. Aren''t your standards way too low?"

    "You don''t understand. After going through the rigors of life, it''s verymendable that someone of his age is able to maintain these qualities." Adam couldn''t help but think of Peter as he spoke. "Some people are far worse than this. You''ll know what I mean once we encounter someone like that in the future. That''s enough talking, let''s contact the client."

    Adam put on his Metaverse helmet as he spoke, arriving inside the shop.

    Kim Hee-cho just so happened to also be there, and he was sitting on the sofa.

    Adam submitted the mission description to Kim Hee-cho, and thetter certainly wasn''t going toin about Adam''s eagerness to take on new jobs.

    "You''re not even gonna rest a day before taking on this mission? That''s some fantastic work ethic! Let me take a look... Hmm..."

    "What''s wrong?"

    "This is a mission from the Ark Learning Children''s Fund!" Kim Hee-cho was not very pleased to see this. "They pay very little for their missions. Most of the time, they only pay around a third the market rate, and we''ll be lucky if they cough up even half of the going market price!"

    "How are you so sure?"

    "This is a non-profit organization with unstable revenue, so they''re naturally going to be a bit more stingy."

    "Then why did that other clinic take on the mission before us?"

    "Those are people who want to improve their reputation. Some wealthy people, organizations, orpanies would contact these children''s funds when they need to do phnthropy work, and they''ll help those children suffering from mental conditions at very low prices, sometimes even for free," Kim Hee-cho exined. "Hence, the missions released by these children''s funds generally pay very poorly."

    "That''s fine."

    "What do you mean that''s fine? We''re not a phnthropy organization!" As a member of the upper middle ss, Kim Hee-cho didn''t need to worry about his own reputation like wealthy tycoons did, and in addition to that, he wasn''t a fan of doing phnthropy work to begin with. "Let me remind you that we''ve literally lost out on money in every single job that we''ve done so far. I''m not going to stand for this any longer."

    "This mission is really important for me," Adam insisted.

    "That''s still gonna be a no from me."

    "Why don''t you ask them what price they''re offering first?"

    "Fine." Kim Hee-cho contacted the middleman using the information provided in the mission description, and he quickly received a quote: "500,000 and an official statement of gratitude from the Ark Learning Children''s Fund."

    "That''s not even a third of the going market rate." Kim Hee-cho pulled up the attached footage after ending the call. "I don''t know much about adapters and anomalies, but that nun anomaly looks like a real pain the ass to deal with. 500,000 is a joke! If the job wasn''t being offered by a children''s fund, I don''t think anyone would take it even for 1,500,000!"

    "500,000 is enough." Adam could see that Kim Hee-cho wanted to rebuke him, so he continued, "How much money do we normally earn from our jobs? The cheapest job that we did, that one for Peter, was only 120,000, wasn''t it? In terms of the price for a single job, this is our highest one to date."

    "Are you not afraid of dying?" Kim Hee-cho sighed. "I''m someone who values money above all else, but we''ve been working together for some time now, and I don''t want to see you die. That job is too dangerous. If you keep doing jobs like these, you''re going to end up dead sooner orter. As an agent, I''ve seen it happen way too many times. Let''s think about this from a probability perspective. Even if there''s only a 10% chance that you''ll die in this mission, if you''re constantly tempting fate, you''re eventually going to pay the price! To put it bluntly, you are my cash cow! Regardless of whether it''s from a profit or emotional standpoint, I don''t want anything to happen to you."

    "Don''t worry, I''m confident that I can take on this job. Besides, I have you, don''t I? As long as you react quickly if I encounter any danger, everything will be fine," Adam said as he approached Kim Hee-cho and patted him on the shoulder.

    "Fine, do whatever you want. It''s not like I have a say in it anyway. If I don''t agree, I''ll just end cop another mouthful from that little firecracker," Kim Hee-cho sighed, then epted the mission.

    ¡­¡­

    With both the battle for the right to session and the hunt for psychic mutants looming on the horizon, Adam was under a great deal of pressure, so he didn''t dare to dy at all, setting off immediately for the site of the mission.

    The Ark Learning Children''s Fund had many branches, and the one that Adam was traveling to was outside of Sandrise City.

    Sandrise City had a total poption of 350 million people, and it was split up into a total of 100 areas. All over the entire world, metropolises like Sandrise City housed over 70% of the total poption, but there were also people living in other ces, such as smaller cities and viges.

    Adam and Shae took the void rail to the edge of the city, then traveled by car for over two hours out of the city.

    The entire city was surrounded by barren wilderness. It was said that Sandrise City had once been surrounded by a circle of industries that produced heavy pollution, which polluted thend and turned it into the bleak wilderness that it was today.

    "This was roughly where I was when I was rescued by the people from the pawn shop for the first time," Adam recounted to Shae.

    After passing through the wilderness, he was greeted by the sight ofrge sections of farnd.

    While passing through the farnd, they spotted some farms, and a town by the name of Ash was nestled right in the center of severalrge farms.

    Upon arriving in the town, Adam felt as if he had been transported back to a century ago.

    The streets here looked very archaic with no neon lights and barely any automatons around. All of the passersby on the streets were also wearing very simple and rustic clothing, and virtually none of them had been retrofitted with prosthetics.

    "I heard that only people who detest life in the cities choose to live in ces like this," Shae mused as she inspected her surroundings. "Not everyone likes the sights and thrills of the cities, and not everyone enjoys the Metaverse and the convenience of a city-dwelling lifestyle. Perhaps it''s a good thing that these people are gathered here."

    "Perhaps so."

    Looking at the expressions on the faces of the people in the town, Adam could see that they generally seemed to be in far less of a hurry than people in Sandrise City. It was as if the tempo of life had slowed down here.

    The people here weren''t in a hurry to work and earn money, and having grown ustomed to an urgent and fast-tempo lifestyle, Adam found this change to be a little jarring.

    Perhaps this is how people should be living.

 Chapter 73: Perpetrator of Matricide

    <h4>Chapter 73: Perpetrator of Matricide</h4>

    Adam didn''t know how people should''ve been living their lives. Perhaps people never had a choice to begin with. Perhaps rather than choosing one''s lifestyle, one''s lifestyle chose them. At the very least, thetter was the case for Adam.

    He was very envious of the slow-paced lifestyle led by the people around him, but he was unable to stop and join them.

    He wanted to know the truth, and he had already been swept up by the deluge, so he no longer had a choice in what future path he was going to take.

    "We need to get going."

    Shae also seemed to be experiencing the same emotions as Adam, and she shook her head wistfully as she looked at a man who was casually sitting in a long wooden corridor in front of the entrance of a vintage pub.

    "We can grab a drink here after the job is done."

    "Sure."

    It was often the case that emotional bonds arose between people who went through simr experiences, and for some reason, in this instant, Adam felt as if he had suddenly be a lot closer with his newfound sister.

    He turned his gaze toward Shae as he walked along, and thetter just so happened to be looking at him as well. Thus, their eyes met, and Shae immediately blushed as she snapped, "What the hell are you looking at?"

    "Nothing."

    The two of them then continued to make their way through the town, proceeding in silence in order to defuse the awkwardness.

    The entire town only consisted of a few streets, so it didn''t take long before they reached their destination, which was a school beside a Christian church, and the sign in front of the school read "Ark Learning School".

    Upon arriving at the school, Adam contacted the number included in the mission description using hismunicator, and shortly thereafter, a well-built middle-aged woman emerged from inside the school.

    "Hi there, my name is Emma, and I''m an on-campus teacher here."

    "My name is Adam, and I''m a psychotherapist. This is my assistant, Shae."

    Adam also provided a self-introduction in response before shaking the woman''s hand.

    "Come with me. Your agent is already here, and he''s a very friendly youngd."

    Emma led Adam and Shae into the school as she spoke.

    The entire town of Ash seemed to have quite a small poption, so Adam had thought that there wouldn''t have been many students at this school, but upon entering the schoolyard, he discovered that there were children running everywhere all over the fields and sandpits.

    The eldest ones were teen adolescents, while the youngest ones appeared to have only been around three or four years old, only just at the age where they were beginning to y with the older kids.

    "How does this school have so many students?"

    "They''re all here from the cities. The use of electronic drugs is rampant in the cities, and there are many children who are abandoned for various different reasons."

    Emma didn''t borate any further from here, but no further exnation was really required.

    After passing through the schoolyard, they arrived in the school''s office area, where Adam was greeted by the principal of the school, a very friendly and benevolent ck man who appeared to be around 60 years of age.

    As Adam entered the room, Kim Hee-cho was in the process of discussing the terms of the contract with the principal.

    "Hello."

    Adam knocked on the door to attract the attention of the two men as he was entering the room.

    "Hi there." The principal was a friendly man, but he was also quite serious and sparing with his words. "He''s already finalized the terms of the contract for you. Do you need to take a look?"

    "No need," Adam replied with a smile, then turned to Kim Hee-cho. "How did you get here so fast?"

    "I''m not fast, you''re just too slow. As professionals, it''s important for us to save time as much as possible when doing our job." Kim Hee-cho handed Adam a document as he spoke. "I gathered this information while you were still on your way here. Perhaps it can be of help to you."

    Adam took the document from Kim Hee-cho to find that it contained information on the mission target.

    The mission target was a little boy by the name of Li Qi, and he had previously lived in Sandrise City. His father abandoned him and his mother when he was still at a very young age, so he was brought up by a single mother.

    Unfortunately, his mother was not an exceptional mother. In fact, she wasn''t even a passable parent.

    Even though she was far from an outstanding parent, she expected the best out of her child. From a young age, Li Qi was sent to all types of extracurricr sses, and his mother also demanded that he be at the top of his ss for every test. If he couldn''t fulfill all of the targets that his mother set for him, then he would be put into confinement.

    The confinement room was very dark, and there was nothing but an oil painting of a nun inside.

    It was this form of punishment that gave rise to the corrtion between nuns, darkness, and fear in his mind.

    Putting a child into solitary confinement is even more painful than physical abuse.

    Adam was able to empathize with Li Qi''s suffering as Layton Academy championed the concept of training through self-inflicted pain, which made ces like solitary confinement chambers ideal training venues. In apletely dark room without any concept of time, even an adult would''ve been unable to bear the psychological suffering, let alone a child, yet Li Qi was forced to endure this for seven years.

    From the age of 5 to the age of 12, he was put into confinement over 100 times, with the longest sessionsting seven days.

    .

    Ultimately, he was the one who put an end to his own nightmare. Aftering out from his final session of istion, he killed his own mother.

    After that, he was taken to court by Mechguard, and after a series of tests, it was concluded that he was suffering from severe mental problems due to the extreme abuse he had been subjected to from a very young age. Furthermore, he was clearly not in a clear state of mind during the time that hemitted the crime. In addition to that, he was still very young and hadn''t harmed anyone aside from his abuser, so in the end, the court exonerated him of all charges and released him.

    At the time, this was a very contentious event that was featured on the news for a while.

    The Ark Learning Children''s Fund was able to contact the boy through the news before taking him to this school. Inside the school, not only would he be receiving an education, he was also fed and given a roof over his head, thereby saving him from the fate of bing a homeless child.

    After reading through the document, Adam turned to the principal before asking, "How long has he been here for?"

    "Six months."

    "Has he harmed anyone else during this time?"

    "No, but he regrly disyed self-muttive and suicidal tendencies. He''s harming himself in all types of different ways almost every day, and during the six months that he''s been here, he''s already attempted suicide seven times. We''ve already sought therapy for him twice, and the first time, we approached a normal therapist. His condition improved slightly after some therapy sessions and the administration of medicine, and once we determined that his condition had taken a turn for the better, we employed the services of three adapter psychotherapists, but that didn''t work out so well." The principal gave a forlorn shake of his head as he spoke. "One of the psychotherapists has already been put into a vegetative state, so if you''re not sufficiently confident in your abilities, I would suggest that you proceed with caution."

    Adam''s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.

    His condition''s still that serious even after taking medication?

    Generally speaking, there were certainponents in these medications that could alleviate one''s stress and anxiety, thereby having a debuff effect on the emotional anomaly. In addition to that, the therapy sessions should''ve weakened the anomaly even further, but despite all of this, the anomaly in the footage was still a level three menace.

    "This is definitely not going to be an easy case, but we''re willing to give it a try."

    Adam had never faced a level three anomaly before, so he was feeling a little nervous.

    Even though he had battled an even more powerful anomaly in the past, he hadn''t been the backbone of the team. At the time, the superhuman Deranged Pig had led the charge, while Nie Yiyi was the team''s secondary spearhead, and he was essentially just tagging along for the ride.

    Furthermore, there weren''t going to be any safe zones in Li Qi''s psychic world. After all, his anomaly came from within his family, and in addition to that, he didn''t have any powerful allies on his side.

    The only ones that he could rely on were himself and Shae.

    "Take us to see him first. We''ll know whether we canplete the job once we give it a try. If we fail, then we won''t charge any money."

    After a brief discussion with Shae, Adam was prepared for action.

 Chapter 74: Lost

    <h4>Chapter 74: Lost</h4>

    With Principal Howard and Emma leading the way, Adam arrived in an independent ssroom, inside which was a boy who was staring absentmindedly out the window.

    "Li Qi?"

    Adam called out to the boy after arriving in the ssroom, but the boy disyed no reaction and continued to look out the window.

    Adam made his way over to where the boy was before also casting his gaze out the window, and he discovered that there was a nest of birds on a tree outside. The parent bird was in the process of feeding its chicks the bugs that it had gathered for them.

    Adam then withdrew his gaze before taking a nce at the boy''s arm, and he discovered that the skin on his arm was riddled with scratches. Judging from the direction of the scratches, they appeared to have been self-inflicted.

    "I''m here to provide you with treatment," Adam dered.

    "Don''t bother. There''s no need to sacrifice yourself for someone like me, it''s not worth it."

    Li Qi finally spoke, and there was a sense of maturity unbefitting of someone her age in his voice. Even inparison with the likes of Kim Garcia and Chloe, he seemed to be excessively mature and jaded.

    .

    Of course, there were mature ways to deal with mature people.

    "I have no intention of sacrificing myself, I''m here to earn money," Adam said. "Hurry up! Don''t get in the way of my work. Besides, even if I didn''te here, your school would''ve found someone else to treat you anyway. If you don''t want to cause trouble for more people, then cooperate with me and help me get my job done."

    The boy was silent for a moment after hearing this, then nodded in response.

    "Fine."

    "There are beds in the school, right? A standalone room would be best."

    "We can provide that. Come with me."

    Emma led everyone to the infirmary, then instructed Li Qi toy down onto the bed.

    Kim Hee-cho didn''t waste any time as he immediately connected the psychic projection device.

    "Rest assured, I''ll be on high alert, and I''ll sever the connection if even the slightest problem arises. It''s better to be safe than sorry."

    "Alright, I''ll be counting on you," Adam replied before turning to Shae. "Are you ready?"

    "I was born ready!"

    "Then let''s go!"

    There was no need for any further conversation, and the two of them began their work.

    As soon as they entered Li Qi''s psychic world, Adam was immediately struck by how dark it was.

    The entire psychic world was filled with boundless darkness, and even the stars in the sky were dull and devoid of luster.

    "Where are we?"

    Shae''s voice rang out from behind Adam, and she raised her head to look up at the sky, then carefully inspected her surroundings, and finally, with the faint light that was avable, she was able to determine that they seemed to be situated on a plot of farnd.

    "It looks like this is one of the farms around the town of Ash," Shae remarked. "It''s so dark here. Why is it so dark?"

    "Probably because he was put into solitary confinement so often. His fear and his anomaly were both born from the darkness, and hemitted a terrible act aftering out of the darkness, so it''s no surprise that his entire life is enshrouded in darkness." Adam invoked his anomalies as he spoke. "Go ahead and fuse with Hellhound."

    Shae nodded in response, then made her way over to Hellhound beforemencing the slow fusion process. Given how fearsome the anomaly that they were dealing with was, if they were to walk around in their base forms, there was a very good chance that they could be instantly killed by a sneak attack.

    Hence, it was very much necessary for them to fuse with Adam''s anomalies right away.

    Outside in the real world, Kim Hee-cho was quite startled to see this.

    ¡­¡­

    In contrast with Emma and the others, he had a certain level of understanding of concepts rted to adapters. Most importantly, he knew Adam''s powers and abilities very well. Perhaps it was unclear to the others whether those invoked entities hade out of Shae''s body or Adam''s, but there was no such confusion for him.

    The fact that Shae was able to fuse as one with Adam''s invoked entities went against all conventional wisdom, and Kim Hee-cho felt this to be very bizarre.

    He then turned to gauge the reactions of Howard and the others, but there was no reaction from them, so he quicklyposed himself and refrained from speaking on the subject.

    However, he had arrived at the conclusion that there seemed to be some time of secret involved here.

    "Done!"

    A twin-headed werewolf had appeared on the farm, and Adam nodded as he asked, "You know how to use its abilities, right?"

    "Of course. I just tested them out a few nights ago, didn''t I?"

    mes emerged from Shae''s ws as she spoke, and the surrounding area instantly brightened significantly.

    "Alright, I''ll fuse with one of my anomalies as well, and we''ll begin our search after that."

    Adam jumped onto Mummy as he spoke,pleting their fusion in an instant.

    After fusing as one with Adam, Mummy became even more muscr and imposing.

    Thus, the two giant fusion anomalies began their search with two smaller anomalies in tow.

    They were quite patient and circumspect to begin with, performing a systematic search throughout the far while getting limated with the environment in Li Qi''s psychic world.

    They had thought that they wouldn''t have been able to find anything of note on the farm, but as it turned out, they ran into some rather unexpected danger.

    "Didn''t we go down this path before?"

    "Did we? Surely not. Everything looks the same in a plot of farnd."

    "That''s true."

    Five minutester...

    "Are you sure we didn''t go down this path before?"

    "I feel like we have, but I can''t be sure. Let''s keep going and see what happens."

    "Alright."

    Another five minutes passed...

    "Alright, I''m certain we''ve gone down this path before. It''spletely identical to the one we walked down five minutes ago!"

    "I agree. Let''s make a mark here so we''ll know if we end up here again."

    "Good idea. I''ll draw a triangle here."

    Five minutester...

    "This is the exact same ce!"

    "Do you see the triangle anywhere?"

    "I don''t, but I''m certain we''ve been here before!"

    "There''s something really fishy about this ce!"

    It was rather surprising to Adam that they had found themselves in a dangerous situation as soon as they entered Li Qi''s psychic world. This had never happened in any of the previous treatments that he had administered.

    "Don''t panic, I''ll get Clown to go take a look."

    At this point, Clown was still in its infantile ragdoll form. Even though it was sorelycking in power, it still possessed all of its abilities, and it was quite cunning and adept at running away, so it made for a fine scout.

    "You go as well."

    This second instruction was issued to Vampire. Unsurprisingly, Adam''stest anomalic victim had been reborn in one of his flowerpots.

    Vampire didn''t possess exceptional scouting abilities, but it was still better than nothing, and it dove headfirst into the cornfield in another direction.

    Adam had a psychic connection with all of his anomalies, so he was able to keep track of them while they were scouting the area.

    He could clearly sense that after traveling for some time, the two anomalies seemed to have reached some type of tipping point. As soon as they reached that point, the psychic connection between them Adam abruptly vanished, and by the time the connection was restored, they were already very close to him.

    They appeared behind me! They must''ve been transferred there by some type of unknown force!

    As soon as the psychic connection was restored, the two anomalies immediately screamed in distress. Adam hurriedly withdrew them back into his body for fear of harm befalling them, but even so, his connection to one of them was still permanently severed.

    Clown had returned to him as a streak of light, but Vampire had vanished into the ether.

    "It''s over there! Attack!"

    Adam was greatly dismayed by the demise of Vampire. Adult anomalies would be reduced to infantile anomalies after death, but if an infantile anomaly were to die, then their death was permanent.

    Adam felt like there was a great deal of room for development when it came to Vampire''s ability to devour the power of its enemies for its own use, but it seemed that all of that potential was going to remain unfulfilled.

    Under Adam''s instructions, Shae sted a constant stream of Explosive Fireballs out of her mouths, causing a series of explosions that set the cornfield alight.

    A short whileter, all of the corn stalks in that area had been incinerated into nothingness, revealing a scarecrow that was holding antern.

 Chapter 75: First Time Working Together

    <h4>Chapter 75: First Time Working Together</h4>

    A scarecrow again?

    Adam had already faced an enemy in the form of a scarecrow in the past.

    However, this scarecrow was clearly different from Kim Garcia''s Anomaly of Fear. This scarecrow was far thinner and frailer in stature, and there was a cane stuck vertically through its body. It was holding an oilntern in one hand with a straw hat sitting on its head, and it was a very typical ordinary scarecrow used by farmers to scare away birds.

    "It doesn''t seem to be alive..."

    The scarecrow didn''t appear to be an emotional aberration or anomaly. It possessed no blood or flesh, nor any signs of life. It appeared to just be an inanimate scarecrow.

    However, there was a huge cloud of ck smoke permeating through the air all around it, as if it had been possessed by someone.

    Thinking back to the footage of the first failed treatment that he had watched, a thought seemed to have urred to Adam.

    "Forget it, let''s just focus on destroying it first!"

    Adam raised his carving knife and rushed toward the scarecrow as he spoke.

    In his current form, Adam was virtually a cheat code when it came to close-quartersbat.

    Compared with Mummy''s original form, he was even more massive and possessed greater defensive prowess. Most importantly, he also had a vampiric ability, making him virtually unkible unless he was facing an opponent far more powerful than himself.

    He stepped into the section of the cornfield that had just been incinerated, thenshed out at the scarecrow with his carving knife.

    The air was buzzing incessantly from the wind pressure generated by the tremendous force behind the de, and the scarecrow seemed to be quite eager to gauge Adam''s powers. Not only was it not bothering to take any evasive action, it raised its oilntern to oppose Adam''s de.

    ng!

    The giant carving knife shed with the oilntern, and in a world with normal physics andmon sense, the fragile littlentern would''ve been instantly shattered by the giant de.

    However, in the psychic world, psychic power transcended beyond physical construct.

    The oilntern was imbued with immense power by the cloud of dense ck mist that it was enshrouded in, and not only was it able to withstand Adam''s attack, it was even able to knock back the massive carving knife.

    After knocking away Adam''s de, the scarecrow pounced forward, swinging itsntern into Adam''s abdomen in a backhand strike. The scarecrow was only around the same height as the average adult human, so that was the highest point on Adam''s body that it could reach without jumping up.

    Thump!

    The sound of the impact resembled the dull strike of a drum, and the scarecrow''s attack was buffered by the viscous substance on Mummy''s bandages, the iron and steel-like bandages themselves, and the thick and denseyers of fat stored in Mummy''s body. As a result, the effect that the attack had on Adam was quite minimal.

    Even so, he was still forced back quite a few steps.

    The fact that the scarecrow was able to force him back despite such a massive disparity in size indicated that there was quite arge gap in their power.

    After withstanding that attack, Adam was able to gauge the scarecrow''s power, and he hurriedly cautioned, "Make sure you don''t get hit by a direct attack from that thing!"

    At this point, Adam had already umted a great deal of battle experience. Not only had he fought opponents weaker than or around the same level as himself, he had even faced foes far more powerful than himself like Oni no Hanzou and the anomaly of fear.

    Thus, after just a single exchange, he was able to roughly determine how powerful his opponent was.

    In his fused form with Mummy, Adam''s powers would''ve been in a very high percentile among level two anomalies, and that was particrly true for his defensive prowess. In fact, it was likely that his defensive capabilities would''ve matched or even exceeded those of some level three anomalies. However, even so, he was still feeling quite winded after receiving that blow, and the position of some of his internal organs had been shifted slightly.

    The offensive prowess being put on disy definitely belonged to a level three anomaly.

    This also verified Adam''s theory that the nun anomaly had a possession ability. Not only was it able to possess that oil painting, it was also able to possess other objects.

    Hence, this scarecrow was none other than the nun anomaly itself.

    Compared with Adam, Shae''s battle experience was far more limited, and even though she had clearly heard what Adam had said, she was still far too careless for her own good, conjuring up mes on her ws before swiping them at the scarecrow.

    While Adam was still catching his breath after being sent flying by the scarecrow''s attack, Shae''s fiery ws had already reached the back of the scarecrow''s head. However, right at this moment, its body suddenly folded at an impossible angle, and not only did that allow it to evade Shae''s attack, it was also able to swing itsntern directly into one of Shae''s faces.

    A loud ng rang out as Shae was sent flying back for close to 20 meters, and as she stood up again, it was revealed that the face that had been struck had been severely injured, havingpletely caved in from the blow.

    "I told you not to get close to it!"

    "How was I supposed to know that it''s this strong? You looked like you were fine after taking that attack! Besides, if I don''t get close to it, all I''ll be able to do is st fire at it, and you''ll get caught in my mes as well!"

    Even though Shae was still arguing stubbornly with her remaining functioning mouth, she had learned her lesson and was keeping her distance.

    If she were to receive another attack like that, then neither of her mouths would''ve been capable of speech.

    "How do we do this?"

    "You attack it from afar with your fire, and I''ll take it on from up close. If we''re talking purely about how much of a beating we can take, this thing doesn''t necessarily have the upper hand on me."

    Adam raised his carving knife and charged forward again as he spoke.

    The giant carving knife came swinging down with full force, but this time, the scarecrow didn''t oppose the attack head-on. Instead, it reverted back to its original posture, following which its body folded again at the waist at another strange angle to evade the attack.

    After that came its retaliation in the form of a strike from itsntern and a vicious swipe from the ws of its other hand.

    The battle was quickly bing very one-sided.

    Even though Adam possessed strength and defenses that wereparable with the scarecrow''s, his opponent was far more agile and offensively adept than he was, and it was running circles around him while peppering him with attacks.

    Adam was made to look like a fat and cumbersome pig, while his opponent was like a lithe and agile lynx. No matter how viciously he swung his de, he was unable tond a single strike on the scarecrow, while in contrast, every single one of the scarecrow''s attacks was able to inflict a new injury on him.

    Even though the battle was nothing more than a one-sided beating, Adam''s exceptional defenses ensured that he wouldn''t fall anytime soon.

    What do I do?

    Shae was watching the unfolding battle anxiously from afar.

    She tried to st Explosive Fireballs at the scarecrow on several asions, but it was far too fast and avoided the fireballs with ease. To make matters worse, it was able to position itself in a way that allowed it to use Adam''s enormous body as a shield, so Adam was made to bear the brunt of the mes and shockwaves from the Explosive Fireballs.

    After racking her brains for a viable course of action, Shae decided that continuing to attack from afar was not the way to go. Hence, she activated her Hyperspeed ability before entering the fray once again.

    With such an agile fighter entering the fray, the scarecrow was unable to do as it pleased. In her werewolf form, Shae possessed sufficient speed and offensive firepower to pose a threat to the scarecrow, and after withstanding a swipe from her fiery ws, the scarecrow immediately focused more of its attention on dodging her attacks, preferring to withstand strikes from Adam''s de over being struck by Shae''s attacks.

    The battle wore on for a while longer when all of a sudden, the scarecrow abruptly twisted its own body into a form that resembled a pretzel, allowing it to dodge both Adam and Shae''s attacks.

    At the same time, it burrowed its way into the ground, and upon its re-emergence, it was directly behind Shae.

    It then condensed all of its anomalic power into itsmp before swinging it viciously into Shae''s back with all its might.

    A sickening crack rang out from the devastating attack, and Shae''s spinal column was shattered along with countless other bones, while her body was also sent flying forward for close to 20 meters.

    In the wake of that all-out attack, not only had the scarecrow left itselfpletely exposed to a counterattack, much of the anomalic power around its body had also faded.

    However, the scarecrow wasn''t concerned at all. In its eyes, Adam didn''t possess sufficient offensive prowess to pose a substantial threat, so it would be able to easily hold its own until it recovered from its weakened state.

    However, it was mistaken.

    Li Qi was still too young and naive, and that naivety was reflected in his emotional anomaly.

    In the instant that Shae was sent flying by the scarecrow''s attack, countless strips of greasy bandages suddenly appeared right before it.

 Chapter 76: Calling for Reinforcements

    <h4>Chapter 76: Calling for Reinforcements</h4>

    Bandage Proliferation was one of Mummy''s two abilities.

    When unleashed, the bandages around Mummy''s body would spring forth to ensnare the opponent like an all-epassing.

    This was a trapping ability, and it was the very same one that Mummy had once used to restrict Kim Garcia''s anomaly of fear. In this situation, the ability was once again being used on a scarecrow.

    If the nun anomaly had been in peak condition, it would''ve definitely been able to avoid the attack with its speed and agility.

    However, in its weakened state, both its anomalic power and speed were severelypromised. In the face of the mass of oing bandages, it was unable to get away and was instantly tied up on the spot.

    The ensnared scarecrow began to howl and shriek as it struggled violently, trying to escape from the bandages, which were as resilient as steel chains.

    "Shae, can you still move?"

    The scarecrow was struggling very forcefully, and it was only bing stronger and stronger. The exertion that it experienced from unleashing thatst attack was much like the exertion one felt after a 100-meter dash. It was extremely tiring directly after the event, but it wouldn''t take long before a full recovery was made.

    Only a few seconds had passed by, and Adam could already sense the movements of the ensnared scarecrow bing more and more powerful.

    "I can!" Shae replied as she stood up from the ground.

    Having had her thoracic spine shattered, her posture was very strange. There was no way that a normal human would''ve been able to move with such severe injuries, but thankfully, she was no ordinary human in this form.

    This time, no instructions were required from Adam before she began sting fireballs at the gaps between the bandages.

    One fireball wasunched after another, and she was finallypletely spent after sting 14 consecutive Explosive Fireballs at the scarecrow.

    In the face of the incessant string of explosions, Adam''s bandages werepletely blown to shreds, and the scarecrow''s body was also destroyed alongside the bandages.

    "Is it dead?" Shae asked, despite the feeble condition she was in.

    "No. After the scarecrow was destroyed, I saw a plume of ck smoke disappear into the ground. This is an anomaly capable of possession, and the scarecrow isn''t its actual body," Adam replied while cautiously keeping an eye on his surroundings, and after momentarily contemting the situation, he decided to leave. "Let''s go back and recuperate."

    "But we finally managed to damage the anomaly..."

    "We still don''t have a clear idea of exactly how powerful it is, and most importantly, we don''t have a concrete n to kill it," Adam countered, then called out to Kim Hee-cho. "Can you hear me, Hee-cho? If you can, then wake us up."

    Kim Hee-cho acted very quickly, and soon, Adam''s body in the real world was struck by a mild electric shock, causing him to instantly snap wide awake, and Shae also woke up at the exact same moment.

    As soon as she opened her eyes, she immediatelyined, "Why did you do that? It''s not like I couldn''t havee out on my own."

    "We were in a dangerous situation, so I didn''t want to waste any time."

    In the final instant before they were brought out of the psychic world, Adam had sensed movement from the anomaly underground.

    If he wasn''t mistaken, then it was most likely nning to target the already wounded Shae. Not only were her defenses more fragile to begin with, she had greatly exerted herself with that barrage of Explosive Fireballs, and she was carrying severe injuries. If she had been attacked by the anomaly in that vulnerable state, there was a very good chance that she would''ve lost her life on the spot or been possessed.

    "What do you think?" Howard asked after Adam''s awakening.

    Even though he had witnessed everything that had transpired just now, it didn''t appear that either side had gained the upper hand during the recently concluded battle. In addition to that, he didn''t know very much about adapters at all, so he wanted to ask Adam for his thoughts.

    "The anomaly is very troublesome to deal with. Not only is it very powerful, its possession and fleeing abilities are also very problematic. The two of us alone won''t be able to take it down," Adam replied in a truthful manner. "I''ll need to call in some reinforcements."

    "That would be best," Howard replied with a nod.

    "Who are you going to call?" Shae asked as she turned to Adam with bloodshot eyes while massaging her own head.

    "Hook and Nie Yiyi."

    "I''ve heard of Nie Yiyi. She''s one of the best senior students at our academy, right? I can understand why you''d call her, but what''s the point in calling Hook?" It was clear that Shae didn''t have a very high opinion of Hook. "He''s going to be next to useless in battle. He can''t even beat me in my base form!"

    "It''s true that he''s not going to be very useful in battle, but he has outstanding tracking abilities. The most troublesome thing about the anomaly that we''re facing is its ability to hide and flee, so we need his help. Just leave it to me. You should hurry up and get some sleep so you can recover your energy. If you had gotten some sleep the night before, you would''ve been even more effective in battle."

    "Alright, I''ll leave it to you then."

    Having just sustained severe injuries to her psychic body, Shae was already struggling to fight her heavy eyelids. Given the opportunity now, she immediately made her way to a sofa off to the side, thenid down on it before falling asleep.

    After that, Adam made a call to Hook.

    "Hey there, Mr. Inte Celebrity, can I interest you in a mission?"

    "Nope. I''m too busy right now."

    Hook was looking in another direction while talking, clearly examining the follower statistics on hisputer while speaking with Adam.

    "Hurry up, I need your help. Just this one time."

    "Alright, fine, but you have to help me shoot a video once we get back."

    "What type of video do you need me for?"

    "It''ll be an interview, and you can tell my viewers how you fought those psychic mutants. While you''re at it, make sure to hype up the part that I yed in the story."

    "So you just want me to help you attract more followers, right? Fine. I''ll send you the address now, hurry up and get over here."

    With that, Hook had been recruited for the job.

    His second call was naturally made to Nie Yiyi.

    "Hey, I''ve got a mission for you."

    "What''s the mission?" Nie Yiyi asked in a rather disinterested voice.

    "Didn''t you sayst time that you value training experience over earning money? Well, it just so happens that we have a level three anomaly on our hands. It''s very powerful, but not so powerful that it''spletely out of our league, so it''s a perfect opportunity for you to sharpen your skills."

    "What''s a level three anomaly?"

    "It''s an anomaly that''s a little more powerful than you, so it''s at the perfect level for training purposes."

    "Alright, send me the address. I''ll leave it up to you to split the money for the job."

    "We''ll take cuts based on the contributions we make. We''re all friends here, so there''s no need to go into too much detail."

    After ending the call, Adam sent the address to Nie Yiyi, and he was feeling a lot more reassured.

    He stretchedzily before turning to everyone in the room.

    "It''s going to take a few hours for my friends to arrive, so you can all go do whatever it is you normally do. I''ll take this time to get some rest as well."

    "Alright, then we''ll be leaving Li Qi to you."

    "Don''t worry, I''ll look after him."

    Adam took a nce at Li Qi as he spoke. At this point, Li Qi had already woken up and was sitting on the edge of the bed. The stiff fa?ade of feigned maturity that he normally wore on his face seemed to have cracked a little, revealing a bit of the childlike innocence underneath, most likely due to the fact that the anomaly in his heart had sustained some damage.

    "We''ll be counting on you then."

    With that, Howard and Emma departed from the room, leaving only Adam, Shae, Kim Hee-cho, and Li Qi behind.

    Kim Hee-cho was reading through the contract, while Shae had already fallen asleep, and Li Qi took a nce at Adam before approaching him.

    "Can you really defeat the anomaly in my heart?" the young boy asked with a hopeful expression.

    "You can count on me. Even if I can''t defeat it, I can call up reinforcements. Two of my friends areing over right now, and one of them is a short girl who''s far stronger than I am. If she''s given enough time to charge up her attack, she can take out that scarecrow in a single strike!"

    "Really?"

    "For sure! She can kill anomalies even more powerful than that scarecrow. Trust me, I wouldn''t lie to you."

    "I trust you!"

 Chapter 77: Exorcist Website

    <h4>Chapter 77: Exorcist Website</h4>

    Instead of waiting idly for his friends to arrive, Adam took the time to do some research on the inte.

    There was actually a forum for adapter psychotherapists to exchange insights and experiences, much like forums for programmers and other upations. The website had a very old-school name: Exorcist.

    Adam had only recently found out about this website through a search engine, and it was a wealth of valuable information, all of which had been provided by experienced adapter psychotherapists.

    "Let''s see, how are anomalies with possession abilities generally dealt with..."

    The forum had answers to allmon questions, but of course, there were no answers pertaining to the mysteries surrounding Adam and Shae on the website.

    "Possession ss anomalies are a very difficult ss to deal with, and there''s no use in purely defeating them..." Adam was reading through the most upvoted answer on the forum post. "Not only are these anomalies capable of possessing all types of objects, thereby making them very difficult to capture, they are also extremely adept at fleeing for self-preservation. The only ways to kill such an anomaly would be to either kill its true body, or to kill it twice in session. So essentially, we''ll have to either capture its true body, or kill it once and allow it to possess something else, then kill it again."

    After examining the avable options, Adam decided that the first option was more applicable to himself.

    In order to execute the second option, they would require someone with a restrictive ability capable of sealing an entire area, thereby trapping the anomaly and forcing it into a direct confrontation. After that, they would be able to eradicate it after killing it twice in session.

    Adam only knew one person who possessed abilities of this nature, and that was Lena, the lecturer of his first-ever lesson at Layton Academy. She had proimed herself to be a bit of a control freak, and as a result, virtually all of her psychic abilities were restrictive in nature.

    However, Adam didn''t know her very well, so recruiting her for the mission wasn''t a viable option.

    The best course of action avable to him would be to use Hook''s searching abilities to track down the anomaly''s true body, then kill it in one fell swoop.

    While Adam continued to conduct research on the forum, time was quickly passing by, and several hourster, Nie Yiyi and Hook arrived one after another toplete the team.

    "Time to get up." After nudging Shae awake, Adam gave her a brief introduction of his two friends. "You''ve met Hook before, he''s from the same ss as us. This is Nie Yiyi, a senior student of our academy."

    "It''s a pleasure to meet you."

    Shae had a great deal of respect for those more powerful than her, so even though she was feeling rather grouchy from being woken up, she didn''t dare to show it.

    "Likewise. Let''s begin."

    Nie Yiyi was still as direct and eager to get straight to the point as ever, and at this point, Adam knew her quite well. Thus, he wasted no time with small talk, giving her a brief introduction of the patient''s condition and the basic information they had gathered on his anomaly. After that, Kim Hee-cho plugged in the projector screen, and the second round of treatment began.

    "Lay still, Li Qi, we''re going in!"

    The four of themid their hands onto Li Qi''s head in unison, and the group arrived in his psychic world.

    They had arrived in the same cornfield asst time, and that same patch of scorched earth was still there, but some corn seedlings and wild grass had begun growing there, leading Adam to recall something that he had learned in ss.

    The psychic world wasn''t the real world, and the physics, living organisms, and even the timeline behaved in different ways than they did in the real world. Once the connection was severed, there would be no further projection of footage, and everything that took ce in the psychic world was directly rted to the mental state of the subject, so those changes couldn''t be predicted based on real-world standards.

    "There''s even wild grass growing here, so I presume the anomaly''s already recovered from its injuries."

    "I''d assume so," Adam replied with a nod. "It''s time for you to get to work, Hook. Can you track down the anomaly?"

    "I''ll go gather some leads first."

    Hook''s searching abilities weren''t omnipotent, and he pulled out his magnifying ss as he spoke.

    After searching the area for a while, he shook his head as he said, "I can only find very subtle leads that suggest that the anomaly may have traveled to the farm after the battle."

    The faint outlines of a farm could be seen at the end of the cornfield.

    "Let''s go take a look."

    Adam invoked his anomalies, fusing as one with Mummy while Shae fused with Hellhound, much to the surprise of Nie Yiyi and Hook.

    As adapters themselves, they were more professional than Kim Hee-cho was, so they were naturally aware of just how astounding this was.

    However, just like Kim Hee-cho, neither of them asked any questions, and Hook quickly turned his attention back to the job at hand as he urged, "Make sure to protect me! Not only is this anomaly extremely powerful, it''s also very adept at sneak attacks."

    "Don''t worry, we''ll protect you."

    The other three members of the team surrounded Hook in a protective encirclement as they proceeded forward. Under Hook''s guidance, the party of four left the cornfield and sessfully arrived at the farm.

    This was a very typical farmer''s home,plete with a barn, pieces of huge agricultural machinery, a stockyard, and a residential home.

    Upon their arrival, Adam knocked on the door of the home.

    He didn''t think that there would be anyone inside, but a light suddenly appeared within the darkness, and everyone hurriedly reverted back to their human forms, while Hook disguised himself as an automaton.

    A momentter, the door was opened by a well-built man.

    "Can I help you?"

    "I didn''t think there would actually be someone here," Shae mused.

    "Of course. People can be found in everyone''s psychic world."

    Examples of this included Wang Shuai''s baseball teammates, Chloe''s mother, Kim Garcia''s father... Everyone''s psychic world contained a diverse range of things, including misery and joy, and perhaps even anomalies.

    .

    What they had to do now was to ask the farmer some questions to gauge the nature of his rtionship with Li Qi.

    Those who brought warmth to Li Qi in the real world would be able to help him in the psychic world as well.

    "We are Li Qi''s teachers, and we want to know how he''s been doingtely."

    "I didn''t know the school was conducting home visits." The farmer was rather taken aback to hear this. "If you want to know how Li Qi''s been doing, then you should ask my daughter, Lina. Come on in."

    The farmer invited the four of them into his house, then called out, "Lina, there are teachers from your school here to see you."

    A vibrant little girl emerged from one of the rooms in the house in response to the farmer''s call.

    Indeed, vibrant was the only way to describe her.

    Inside Li Qi''s psychic world, everything was enshrouded in darkness. Even though the lights were on in the room, there was still an ever-present darkness that was impossible to dispel. It was like being locked in a confinement chamber. Not only was it impossible to see anything, there was also a sense of imprisonment and asphyxiation stemming from being trapped in such an environment.

    Dark color tones presided over everything in the house, including the farmer. He was wearing a pair of gray pants, and his face was concealed under shadows andpletely devoid of color.

    However, the little girl was wearing a floral dress, and she was as bright and vibrant as the sun. Every single crease and detail on her dress was clearly visible, and every single flower petal on the floral design was presented in exceptional detail.

    It was clear that she was the light in Li Qi''s heart.

    This is exactly what we need!

    Adam was ecstatic to see this, and extended a greeting toward Lina.

    "Hi there, we are teachers from your school."

    "Really? I''ve never seen any of you before," Lina said with a skeptical expression.

    "We are teachers assigned with the task of treating Li Qi''s condition." Adam approached Lina, then lowered his voice so that it was audible only to the two of them before asking, "Are you willing to help him?"

 Chapter 78: Savior

    <h4>Chapter 78: Savior</h4>

    "That means you''re here to give Li Qi psychotherapy treatment, right?" The light glowing from Lina''s body became even brighter upon hearing this. "Of course I''m willing to help, but what else can I do aside from talk to him?"

    "Do you know where he is right now?"

    "Around this time of day, he''s usually in the forest beside the school. There are a few trees that he always goes to in the forest, and he just stands there and stares into space."

    Adam nodded in response. Li Qi was a very important focal point in this mission. He was disying strong suicidal tendencies, and that indicated that he was regrly harassed by that emotional anomaly.

    "You''re a friend of his, right? Have you ever seen him with an anoma... I mean, a bad woman who looks like a nun?"

    Lina nodded in response.

    "I''ve seen that nun before. She''s constantly talking to Li Qi whenever he''s alone."

    "What does she say to him?"

    "She tells him that he''s a murderer, that he killed his own mother. She says that no one likes him, and that his father abandoned him, so his mother was forced to raise him on her own, but he repaid her by killing her. She also tells him that all of the kids at school are scared of him, and that they talk about how he''s a murderer behind his back. She also says that no one will ever love him, and that..."

    "Alright, I get the idea," Adam interrupted with a nod.

    In reality, these hurtful words from the anomaly all stemmed from Li Qi''s own guilt, confusion, and fear.

    "How have you been helping him?"

    "Whenever I see that bad nun, I would chase her away. I would yell at her and tell Li Qi that I''m his friend, that he shouldn''t listen to that bad nun."

    "And the nun hasn''t ever attacked you?" Adam asked with a puzzled expression.

    "She''s scared of me, but I''m not scared of her!" Lina dered as she puffed out her chest to show off her courage.

    She''s a savior!

    Certain concepts rted to psychic bodies emerged in Adam''s mind. It was very clear that this little girl was a savior. This concept was different from that of the superhuman Deranged Pig from Kim Garcia''s psychic world. The golden superhero form of Deranged Pig fell into the category of "guardian". Saviors weren''t particrly fearsome in battle, but they had their own special uses.

    "Can you take us to find Li Qi?"

    "I can, but my dad''s very strict, and he doesn''t want me to hang out with Li Qi."

    It seemed that in the real world, Lina''s father was rather opposed to the idea of Lina keeping someone like Li Qipany.

    Indeed, there were many cases of mentally unstable individuals harming their friends, so the concerns of Lina''s father were far from unwarranted.

    However, having witnessed Li Qi''s psychic world, Adam knew that he was a good child at heart.

    "How about this? You go upstairs, and we''ll pick you up from there."

    "Alright."

    After arriving at an agreement, Adam and his group pretended to leave the farm, but they didn''t go very far before turning back. Nie Yiyi sprang up to the second floor as light and graceful as a sparrow, then imitated a birdcall to alert Lina to her presence before carrying her out through her window.

    After jumping back down onto the ground, Nie Yiyi took Lina somewhere far away from the farm, where several monstrous creatures were waiting for them.

    The group of monsters consisted of a twin-headed werewolf, an automaton with a human face, and a massive mummy.

    If they were in the real world, Lina would''ve definitely been extremely frightened by the sight of these things, perhaps even to the point of tears. However, they were in Li Qi''s psychic world, and these manifestations of Li Qi''s memories only abided by very abstract systems of logic and recognition.

    "Who are you?"

    "I''m the robot from before."

    Hook withdrew his head into his stomach cavity as he spoke, adopting his automaton form again.

    "I''m the one who was speaking to you earlier. We had to transform so we can help your friend beat up that bad nun."

    "Ohhh, I see. That nun is really strong. I''ve seen her kill people before," Lina said. "There was another group of psychotherapists just like you, and one of them was killed."

    "Were you there at the time?"

    The footage that was provided to Adam had been cut short, and he hadn''t spotted Lina at the scene.

    "I was, but I was unable to stop her," Lina replied in a guilt-ridden voice. "Make sure you don''t get too far away from me. If you''re not close to me, I won''t be able to scare that bad nun away."

    "Alright, we''ll keep that in mind."

    After taking a moment to gauge the situation, the team slowly made their way to the farm area into the town of Ash under Lina''s guidance, and sure enough, they found Li Qi in the forest behind the school.

    Coincidentally, not only was Li Qi in the forest, the anomaly was also there, and it was murmuring incessantly to him.

    In her werewolf form, Shae''s senses were greatly heightened, so she was able to hear what the anomaly was saying.

    "You think those people are here to help you? Perhaps... Perhaps they''re here for money, or perhaps they really do want to help you. If they''re here just for the money, then it doesn''t matter, but if they really are good people, then wouldn''t it be a tragedy if they died? Do you remember those people fromst time? The one who ended up dying was the one you liked the most, wasn''t he? He was so gentle when he spoke and he had simr life experiences to yours. What a pity that such a good person died for trash like you. You''ve already killed your own mother, and now, you''re indirectly responsible for his death as well. You were born to bring death and suffering to all those around you..."

    As the anomaly continued to whisper to Li Qi, the injuries on its body were quickly healing, and even its anomalic power was bing more and more potent as ck mist swirled all around it.

    "Don''t listen to her!" Shae hurriedly interjected as she charged toward the anomaly with herpanions.

    "Don''t be reckless! Make sure to keep your distance!"

    Adam called out to the twopanions beside him as he charged toward the nun anomaly. There were only twopanions left as Hook had already found somewhere to hide. When it came to self-concealment, Hook''s skills were unmatched.

    Back when Adam fought the anomaly of fear, the entire battle had passed by without Adam ever finding out where Hook had hidden himself. Only after the battle concluded did he suddenly return, seemingly out of thin air.

    This time, the same situation was unfolding once again. As soon as the battle began, Hook immediately managed. However, in his current state, Adam no longer needed Hook''s assistance in battle, so he actually preferred to see Hook avoiding battle from the get-go.

    "I''ll go in and test the waters!"

    Nie Yiyi decided to charge ahead despite Adam''s words of caution. She was here for training to begin with, and fierce wind immediately swept up all around her, allowing her to elerate to the forefront of the group beforeshing out at the nun anomaly.

    The nun anomaly opened its mouth up wide, and a huge mass of putrid sewage emerged out of thin air, instantly nullifying the oing des of wind on contact.

    The anomaly disyed no fear of Nie Yiyi, rushing toward her in retaliation before Adam and Shae had a chance to surround it.

    While charging toward Nie Yiyi, the nun''s withered arms extended out of its sleeves, and its inky-ck nails elongated all the way until they were in excess of half a meter in length before being swiped viciously at Nie Yiyi.

 Chapter 79: Holy Light

    <h4>Chapter 79: Holy Light</h4>

    A crisp ng rang out as the ws shed with Nie Yiyi''s des.

    As soon as the two shed, Nie Yiyi immediately developed an idea of her opponent''s power.

    In a contest of pure power, she was no match for her opponent.

    However, Nie Yiyi had always been an extremely technical fighter. As a matter of fact, this was the case for the majority of adapters. Someone like Adam, who relied on his body to directlybat anomalies, was the exception rather than the norm.

    After the brief sh, Nie Yiyi borrowed the power of the nun anomaly''s strike to rise up into the air. While suspended in mid-air, her twin des shed rapidly through the air, attacking the anomaly from all directions like the spikes of a hedgehog.

    In contrast, the nun anomaly didn''t put any fancy techniques on disy, relying on its strength, speed, and instincts to defend and retaliate erratically. It clearly held the advantage over Nie Yiyi in both speed and strength, but Nie Yiyi''s superior technical skills were suppressing it to the point that it was only able to passively defend and unable to strike back effectively.

    "She''s really strong!" Shae eximed.

    "She is. She''s taken on an even more powerful anomaly on her own before, but she lost that time." Even though not much time had passed since Adam hadst seen Nie Yiyi, he felt like herbat prowess seemed to have improved again. "Let''s cut the chit-chat and give her a hand. She''s not going to be able to beat that thing on her own."

    Adam knew Nie Yiyi''s fighting style very well. She possessed explosive offensive capabilities and a high level of agility, but her defenses were sorelycking, as was her stamina. At the moment, she held the upper hand over the nun anomaly, but she was only going to be able to keep this up for a limited period of time, and it wouldn''t take long before the anomaly turned the tables on her.

    What was most damning of all was that even when shended a solid blow on the anomaly with her des, only a slight injury would be inflicted, but if she were to take a direct hit from the anomaly''s ws, then she would''ve immediately been out for the count.

    Hence, Adam entered the fray before Nie Yiyi ran out of steam, using his burly and muscr body to withstand most of the anomaly''s attacks.

    With the experience of fighting against the armored warrior among the Golden Iron Triangle under his belt, Adam had be very adept at using his huge frame and physical advantages to shield his allies from damage. As soon as he entered the fray, the nun anomaly was immediately severely restricted. Even though it was asionally able to inflict injuries upon Adam''s body with its ws, the injuries were far from severe.

    In addition to that, Shae was also striking opportunistically from afar, asionallyshing out at the anomaly with her fiery ws, and it didn''t take long before the anomaly waspletely forced onto the back foot.

    "You''re pretty strong as well." With Adam and Shae offloading the pressure on her, Nie Yiyi was able to chat with Shae mid-battle, and afternding a blow on the anomaly with her des, she asked, "What''s your rtionship with Adam?"

    "We... We''re really close friends."

    After some contemtion, Shae decided to refrain from revealing the fact that she was Adam''s sister.

    "I see."

    Nie Yiyi was clearly unconvinced.

    Just as the three of them were beginning to think that the battle was going to be a one-sided beating, the nun anomaly put its power as a level three anomaly on full disy.

    Not only did high-level anomalies possess fearsomebat prowess, their abilities were also very formidable.

    As soon as the nun anomaly realized that it was being overwhelmed, it opened its gaping mouth once again, letting loose a disorienting roar. At the same time, a vast burst of ck light erupted out of her mouth.

    The battlefield was already enshrouded in darkness, and with the addition of this ck light, visibility immediately plummeted to zero.

    Even with his eyes wide open, Adam was unable to see anything, and Nie Yiyi and Shae, who possessed far inferior defenses to Adam, hurriedly retreated in order to open up some distance between themselves and the anomaly. At the same time, Nie Yiyi conjured up a series of glowing cyberglyphs, while Shae gathered mes on her ws as both of them attempted to illuminate the darkness.

    However, the surrounding darkness resembled a dense mist that was suffocating to all light. As a result, they were only able to illuminate an area roughly a meter or two in size around themselves, and no one was able to see what was happening.

    "Is everyone alright?" Adam yelled.

    "We''re all fine!"

    "Why isn''t she taking advantage of this ck light to sneak attack us?"

    "Who knows? Maybe this ck light can only linger for a short time, and it''s not confident that it can take one of us down during that time," Nie Yiyi replied from within the darkness.

    "Even so, it should still be trying to at least injure one of us. Unless it has some other target..."

    While Adam was specting about the anomaly''s objectives, an agonized scream rang out from Li Qi in the distance, and immediately following that scream came another loud cry.

    "Don''t hurt him!"

    As Lina''s voice rang out, dazzling light swept over the entire scene, and not only was the darkness instantly dispelled, the entire area had be as bright as day.

    With the entire area illuminated, Adam could see into the distance, where Li Qi had already been possessed by the anomaly. He was originally standing at around 160 centimeters tall, but his height had swelled to around two meters. In addition to that, his thin and frail body had also be withered yet powerful, and there was an unsettling, sinister look on his face.

    Following his transformation, Li Qi was in clear difort from being basked in the holy light, and even the anomalic power around his body had faded somewhat.

    In the next instant, he charged directly toward Lina, clearly aiming to eradicate the source of the holy light.

    Thankfully, Lina had always remained quite close to Adam, and as soon as Adam realized that she had be the anomaly''s target, he immediately positioned himself in front of her as a meat shield.

    A dull thump rang out as Adam took the anomaly''s first attack head-on.

    It seems to be a little weaker than before.

    He quickly took a couple of steps backward, then turned around before enveloping Lina in his bandages.

    In his current form, he was a hulking figure standing at three meters in height. Wrapped up in his bandages, Lina resembled nothing more than a small lump on his body, so carrying her wasn''t hindering him in the slightest.

    After Lina was secured, Adam''spanions rushed over to the scene, and the anomaly was once again surrounded by its three opponents.

    Even before the holy light appeared, the nun anomaly was already no match for the trio, and after the emergence of the holy light, it had be even weaker. However, the situation had actually worsened from the perspective of Adam and his friends.

    Adam raised his carving knife and swung down with immense power, but not only was the anomaly not bothering to take any evasive action, it stuck out its neck to take the attack instead. This was Li Qi''s psychic body, so Adam naturally didn''t dare to go through with the attack.

    Shae and Nie Yiyi were also having to contend with the same problem, so the battle had taken a very frustrating turn for them.

    Their opponent had clearly be weaker, but at the same time, it was untouchable.

    If the host were killed, the anomaly would still be able to escape, but the host''s psychic body would sustain irreversible damage, potentially even resulting inplete brain death. Ongoing footage of the entire mission was being captured, so if such an incident were to take ce, then Adam and hispanions would''ve been liable to legal consequences.

    If they couldn''t get the job done, then they could abandon the treatment, but harming the host was strictly prohibited.

    With this problem hanging over their heads, Adam and his friends were powerless to do anything, and they could only request assistance from Lina.

    "Lina, you said you can scare away that bad nun, right? Can you give it a try now?"

    "Ok!"

    In reality, Lina didn''t know exactly what abilities she possessed. The holy light that she had just released was only an instinctive outburst arising from her sense of urgency after hearing her friend being harmed by the anomaly, so she had no idea how to actually use her powers.

    Under Adam''s instructions, she poked her head out of the bandages, then began yelling loudly at the anomaly.

    "Leave my friend''s body! Don''t hurt my friend! Don''t hurt Li Qi! He''s my friend!"

    Lina was repeating the same thing over and over again, and her cries of condemnation really were having an effect on the anomaly. As she continued to yell at Li Qi, the anomaly seemed to be on the verge of being expelled from Li Qi''s body.

    The ck mist around him began to warp, and other limbs and heads began to asionally emerge from his body.

 Chapter 80: Li Qis Mother

    <h4>Chapter 80: Li Qi''s Mother</h4>

    Right as the anomaly was about to be expelled, Li Qi feigned an attack before fleeing the scene.

    Everyone immediately set off in pursuit, but in terms of pure speed, even the fastest member of Adam''s team couldn''t keep up with a level three anomaly.

    With Shae''s Hyperspeed ability and Nie Yiyi''s ability to enhance her own speed through the power of wind, they quickly left Adam behind while the three were giving chase, but they were still unable to catch up to the anomaly.

    As the chase continued, they quickly reached the edge of the town, and by then, the anomaly had already entered the farnd.

    "Stop! If we keep going like this, we''ll get split up!"

    At this point, Adam had already been left far behind by Shae and Nie YIyi, and if the two of them were to rush into the farnd, there was a very good chance that they would be targeted individually and defeated by the anomaly.

    Thus, the two of them followed Adam''s advice and drew to a halt.

    "Damn, we let it get away again."

    "It''s alright, I''m sure the anomaly must''ve already expended a lot of its power."

    Adam rushed to the edge of the town to join Shae and Nie Yiyi, and all of the nearby pedestrians immediately screamed and fled in all directions at the sight of him. In their eyes, he seemed to be the most terrifying of the bunch.

    "What do we do now?"

    "We wait. Hook will join us soon."

    Sure enough, Hook emerged with his magnifying ss out of the blue a few minutester.

    As he made his way out of an alley, heined, "It''s a good thing I have these tracking abilities. Otherwise, I''d bepletely lost by now."

    "Are you gonna be able to track down the anomaly?"

    "Of course. I''ve already met it face-to-face. If I still can''t track it down, then what''s the point of even having me in the team?" There was a very eye-catching ck line in the magnifying ss. "Should we go after it?"

    "Of course! We have to kill it while it''s at its weakest."

    "I feel like this isn''t the way to go," Hook said in a rather hesitant voice. "Even if we catch up to it again, we can''t attack it because it''s possessing Li Qi''s psychic body, and if it tries to get away again, none of us are fast enough to keep up with it, so it''ll just be a futile cycle."

    .

    "No, it''s fine. I did some research earlier today, and I found out that these possession ss anomalies can''t possess a host for very long. On top of that, we have Lina with us, and she can force the anomaly out of Li Qi''s body. On top of that, a long and drawn-out battle is exactly what we want. The anomaly has already been injured, and if it runs away again, we''ll just have to keep going after it. If we can''t kill it the first time, then we''ll just have to attack it a second time, or a third time, however many times it takes to bring it down. Also, I have a trump card up my sleeve."

    The trump card that Adam was referring to was Distortion.

    As an entity that stood at the pinnacle of level two anomalies, it was also the most adept at self-concealment among all of Adam''s anomalies. Once the nun anomaly was weakened to a certain extent, he was confident that Distortion would be able to finish the job.

    "Alright, we''ll do as you say then." Hook pointed in a certain direction as he spoke. "Follow me."

    Everyone was moving along very quickly as they didn''t want to afford the anomaly any time to rest, particrly when it was holding Li Qi hostage. His existence provided a constant source of negative energy for the anomaly to absorb, thereby elerating its recovery.

    "Li Qi isn''t going to be killed by that bad nun, is he?" Lina asked in a concerned voice while still strapped to Adam''s back.

    "No, there''s no way an anomaly can directly kill its host."

    The way that emotional anomalies killed their host was to make them ill and feeble, or drive them tomit suicide.

    The anomaly had driven Li Qi to attempt suicide on many asions, but it was unable to directly kill him in the psychic world. After all, fundamentally speaking, the anomaly was a part of his emotions.

    Emotions could only torture someone, confining them to boundless darkness, making them suffer through fear, pain, and despair, but only in extremely rare cases could emotions be so powerful that they could trigger a panic attack that led directly to one''s death, and there was no way that a level three anomaly would''ve been capable of triggering such severe panic attacks.

    Hence, Adam was fully confident that Li Qi was going to be fine.

    "Speed up a little," Adam urged while trailing along behind Hook.

    Under Hook''s guidance, they passed through the extensive farnd area, then arrived on another farm. This was an abandoned farm where most of the buildings were already in a state of disrepair, and the only building that was still rtively intact was a barn.

    "The anomaly is in that barn. You guys can take care of it, I''m gonna disappear for a while."

    Dense mist began to emanate from Hook''s body as he spoke, and he vanished into thin air again.

    That suited Adam just fine, and began to devise a strategy.

    "The anomaly is most likely waiting inside for a sneak attack. I''ll go in first to take the attack, and after that, you two bring Lina into the barn."

    Adam plucked Lina off his back, then ced her into Shae''s arms before charging directly toward the sealed barn.

    Just as he anticipated, as soon as he set foot into the barn, a manure fork was immediately plunged into his neck. Heshed out in retaliation, but the anomaly retreated back into the darkness.

    Adam took advantage of this opportunity to knock down arge section of one of the barn''s walls, allowing hispanions to see what was happening inside.

    Time was almost up for the anomaly''s possession, and Li Qi''s body was beginning to disy signs of instability. Not only was he spasming violently, there seemed to be something struggling to emerge from his body.

    Shae immediately carried Lina over to the barn, then instructed, "Force it out of Li Qi''s body just like you did before!"

    "Leave my friend''s body! Don''t hurt my friend! Don''t hurt Li Qi! He''s my friend!"

    The anomaly was already struggling to maintain the possession, and in the face of Lina''s condemnation, it finally sumbed, leaving Li Qi''s body with an anguished wail.

    Just like before, the nun anomaly immediately tried to escape after leaving Li Qi''s body, unleashing its strange ability to flee the scene as a dark shadow.

    However, everyone was already prepared for this, and Adam plunged his de into the ground with all his might, expending a great deal of power to unleash a Vampiric Halo.

    Even though this was a recovery ability, it was also simultaneously able to harm the opponent.

    Simrly, Shae and Nie Yiyi were alsounching long-range attacks at the fleeing anomaly with all their might, making no effort to conserve their energy. The violent shockwaves from their attacks blew up the entire barn while also sting a crater that was over a meter deep into the ground.

    In the face of this violent barrage of attacks, the nun anomaly was sted directly out of the ground, and its body was riddled with holes. It had clearly been severely wounded by the fierce assault, but it was still able to escape.

    Despite its severe injuries, it was still too fast for anyone to keep up with.

    Thus, the third chase began.

    After calling Hook out of hiding again, Adam picked up Li Qi, and the team followed Hook to Li Qi''s childhood home.

    This was the ce of origin for the anomaly, so it was the most effective ce for it to rest and recuperate.

    After leaving the town and the plots of farnd, the neighboring module consisted of the outskirts of Sandrise City. In the real world, this was obviously geographically inurate, but everyone''s psychic world was made up of these psychic modules that were put together like jigsaw puzzles.

    They had arrived at a standalone house on the edge of the city.

    Everyone made their way into the house to find that not only was the anomaly in there, so was Li Qi''s mother, a woman who appeared to be quite kind andpassionate, but wore an anxious and agitated expression.

    She was in the process of cutting some fruit as everyone entered the home.

    "These fruits are packed with vitamins and nutrients, so you have to finish them all. Make sure you don''t leave even a single piece on the te!"

    "Mum?"

    There was no affection in Li Qi''s eyes as he caught sight of his mother, only fear and unease.

 Chapter 81: Only One

    <h4>Chapter 81: Only One</h4>

    Li Qi''s mother set the te of fruit down in front of him as he looked on with fearful eyes.

    Adam looked down to find that the pieces of fruit were riddled with maggots.

    "Why are there so many maggots?" Shae asked with a perplexed expression.

    "This is a sign that Li Qi detests this type of fruit."

    Adam pulled out his carving knife as he spoke while watching the unfolding scene.

    Sure enough, Li Qi didn''t want to eat the fruit.

    "I don''t want it," he refused as he pushed the te away.

    "This is all for your own good... This is all for your own good... THIS IS ALL FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"

    .

    Li Qi''s mother immediately entered a deranged state upon hearing her son''s refusal, and she repeated the same thing over and over again as tentacles sprouted out of her body, binding Li Qi into ce.

    Adam didn''t hesitate any longer upon seeing this, and he immediately sliced the emotional aberration into two with his de.

    Wisps of anomalic power were emanating from the wound, clearly indicating that this was an emotional aberration that was already halfway to bing an anomaly.

    Seeing his own mother die before his eyes, Li Qi was ovee by a sense of fear and grief, but at the same time, there was also a strange feeling of relief and liberation. Unable to handle this wave of mixed emotions, he curled up into a ball and began to weep into his arms.

    "Don''t cry, it''s not your fault."

    "He''s right, it''s not your fault." Lina jumped down from Shae''s body and began to console Li Qi. "Don''t care about what other people think. You are the most important person right now."

    "Also, your sadness will only make that nun stronger, so you have to be strong for your own sake," Nie Yiyi said, then turned to Hook. "Where''s the anomaly right now?"

    "In there."

    Hook pointed at the entrance to an underground chamber as he spoke.

    That was most likely the entrance to the solitary confinement chamber, a ce where Li Qi had spent countless days and nights during his childhood.

    Adam approached the confinement chamber before smashing the door open with his carving knife, and he was greeted by the sight of a pitch-ck space so dark that it was impossible to see anything in it.

    He wanted to go in, but the voice of Li Qi''s mother suddenly rang out in his mind.

    "You are the only one who can enter the confinement chamber. No one else is allowed to go in."

    What''s that supposed to mean?

    Adam was rather perplexed, and after stepping in through the entrance, he arrived in a dark space.

    No floor or ceiling could be seen, nor was there any concept of space or time, only boundless darkness.

    "I can''t see anything!" Adam yelled. "Shae, Nie Yiyi, have youe in yet? Can I get some light?"

    No reply came from Shae or Nie Yiyi, but the anomaly responded to his call.

    As Adam was calling out to, a hole was punched into the back of his head by a sharp w, inflicting a severe injury upon him.

    He immediately rolled onto the ground while shing his carving knife erratically to force back the anomaly, then called out to hispanions again.

    "Are you in here?"

    There was still no response.

    There''s no way they still haven''te in after all this time!

    Perhaps Hook would run away from battle, and there was a slight possibility that Shae could do the same, but Nie Yiyi had always been very reliable, so it didn''t make sense that no one else had entered this space with him after all this time.

    After all, everyone was aware that this was where the anomaly was making its final stand, and once the anomaly was eradicated, the job would be done.

    With that in mind, Adam thought of the voice that he had heard in the instant before he entered the confinement chamber.

    "You are the only one who can enter the confinement chamber."

    That was most likely what Li Qi''s mother had said to him every time she put him into solitary confinement, and those cold and unforgiving words seemed to have been branded deep into his heart. Each time before he was forcibly subjected to the fear and the darkness, it was also emphasized to him that he was going to be all alone, that he was going to be the only one in the confinement chamber, and this had created a peculiar psychic restriction in his mind.

    Does that mean I want to defeat the anomaly in here, I''ll have to fight it on my own?

    A thought suddenly urred to him, and he yelled, "Hee-cho, don''t sever the connection. I want to give it a try."

    The entire area was enshrouded in darkness, so the projection being disyed to Kim Hee-cho was naturallypletely dark as well. Seeing as he had no idea what was happening, there was a chance that he could forcibly sever the connection to ensure Adam''s safety.

    After calling out to Kim Hee-cho, Adam tried to invoke Hellhound, and sure enough, in the instant that invoked the anomaly, it immediately returned to his side. Shae could borrow the anomaly, but ultimately, it was still his.

    With Hellhound''s arrival, the surrounding area was instantly illuminated by its mes.

    The darkness was still as thick as treacle, but at the very least, there was some degree of visibility now.

    In the instant that Adam''s surroundings were illuminated, he was immediately greeted by the sight of a gaping mouth that was releasing a torrent of sewage to contaminate his body.

    However, in his anomalic form, Adam didn''t have to fear attacks of this nature, and he forced back the nun anomaly with a swipe of his de. After focusing his gaze on the anomaly, he discovered that its entire body was still riddled with holes.

    This was a very reassuring sight for Adam. He didn''t have the power to take on a level three anomaly on his own, but it was an entirely different story if his opponent were already severely wounded.

    "Come! There''s no one around to help me this time, let''s settle this one-on-one."

    Adam provoked the nun before charging toward it with his carving knife raised.

    The nun anomaly kept Adam''s de at bay with its fingernails, then opened its cavernous mouth up even further. In the blink of an eye, it arrived beside Adam''s leg, tearing through his bandages with a single bite while also chomping away a chunk of flesh around the same size as a wash basin.

    Adam winced in pain as he turned to retaliate, but the anomaly used its superior agility to its advantage, swiveling around to evade Adam''s attack while shing its ws across his body, sending a trail of sparks flying. Not only were its ws able to slice through Adam''s bandages, they tore away anotherrge chunk of skin and flesh.

    Despite the fact that the nun was already severely wounded, Adam was still no match for it.

    However, he wasn''t agitated in the slightest as he continued to bide his time.

    Thankfully, while Adam was beingpletely overwhelmed by the nun anomaly, Hellhound entered the fray in a timely fashion to force back the anomaly, thereby affording Adam some breathing space.

    If he had been on his own, it wouldn''t have taken long before the nun sliced his body up into chunks.

    Having had a chance to catch his breath, Adam unleashed his Vampiric Halo once again, plunging his de into the ground to activate the ability. The attack impacted arge area, meaning that the nun was unable to evade it, and after being epassed within the halo, its body broke down even further, while Adam''s injuries disyed significant signs of recovery.

    However, that still wasn''t enough to bridge the gap in power between the two.

    The nun screeched as it rushed toward Adam once again, and if nothing changed, the oue of this sh wouldn''t be much different from that of thest one.

    Hence, Adam decided to alter his strategy. In the instant before the nun''s ws reached him, he unleashed his Bandage Proliferation ability in an attempt to ensnare his assant.

    The nun had already fallen prey to this attack before, and it wasn''t going to make the same mistake again. Thus, it let loose a terrifying shriek, and darkness enshrouded the entire area once again. Even the mes on Hellhound''s body werepletely snuffed out.

    Due to the darkness, Adam lost sight of his target, thereby failing to ensnare his opponent with his bandages, and immediately thereafter, he was struck by another burst of sharp pain in the waist.

    Now!

    In the same instant, Adam invoked his most powerful anomaly, Distortion.

    This was the perfect opportunity.

    Due to his close proximity to the nun, there was no way that Distortion would prioritize attacking Hellhound over the nun anomaly.

    Having just expended a great deal of power to restore the darkness, the nun was in a weakened state, and its evasive abilities were sure to be severelypromised.

    Furthermore, even though Adam''s Bandage Proliferation had failed to ensnare its target, it had cut off all avenues for retreat and evasion.

    As a result, the nun anomaly was essentially a caged bird with nowhere to run!

 Chapter 82: Steel Mummy

    <h4>Chapter 82: Steel Mummy</h4>

    In battles where there wasn''t much of a disparity in power between thebatants, it was often the case that superior strategy could prove to be pivotal, and this was a perfect example.

    As soon as Adam invoked Distortion, the tide of the battle was immediately turned. Distortion instantly locked onto its target, clinging to the nun anomaly like a mad dog as it began to twist the nun''s limbs.

    The nun''s agonized howls rang out within the dark space, and Adam was able to determine its location through his hearing before unleashing his Bandage Proliferation ability once again.

    Even if the nun hadn''t made any sound, Adam would''ve still been able to determine its approximate location based on the position of Distortion.

    The bandages wound themselves around the nun, and in its state of agony, it was no longer able to maintain its darkness ability, thereby restoring some light and visibility to the surrounding area.

    As a result, Adam was able to see that the nun anomaly had already been wrapped up in a cocoon. The outermostyer of the cocoon consisted of his bandages, while a ck shadow was adhered to the nun''s back. The shadow was twisting the nun anomaly''s limbs, and that, in addition to the restriction from the bandages, rendered itpletely immobilized.

    "Hellhound, go!"

    Adam immediately seized the opportunity to strike, wasting no time as he raised his carving knife before plunging it into the nun''s abdomen.

    Hellhound was also eager to cooperate, using its fiery ws to attack the exposed parts of the nun''s body.

    .

    The nun anomaly had already suffered severe injuries, and in the face of the relentless attacks from Adam and his two anomalies, its body was finally unable to hold itself together any longer. A bloodcurdling howl rang out as it vanished on the spot amid a sh of ck, leaving behind only a dense cloud of anomalic power.

    Adam naturally wasn''t going to pass up this massive feast, and he immediately absorbed all of the anomalic power lingering in the air.

    Due to the fact that this was the power of a level three anomaly, Adam immediately funneled all of it into Mummy''s body without any hesitation. This was anomalic power of a higher caliber than what Mummy currently possessed, and with such an enormous influx of power, its body was quickly bing stronger and stronger.

    As a result, Adam was also growing in height. From a height of just over three meters, his body swelled all the way to around 3.5 meters in stature, upon which it seemed to have reached a certain threshold. After that, his power began topress, and his body also began to rapidly shrink.

    From 3.5 meters, he shrank all the way down to only around two meters in height.

    "I''ve evolved!"

    Adam looked down at his own body to find that he wasn''t much taller than the average adult human. Not only had he be shorter, his rotund frame had also be much fitter and leaner.

    If Adam''s past form were to be likened to a bear, then his current form could be likened to a metal statue, with bulging muscles that were far more even and well-defined than before.

    Most importantly, the bandages around his body had be slightly reflective like metal, and after pping the bandages with his hand, he discovered that they had be even more resilient.

    Simrly, his carving knife had also evolved. The de had be inky-ck in color, most likely due to the anomalic power of the nun that had just been absorbed. At the same time, it was giving off a faint vampiric red sheen, and its sharpness was on an entirely different levelpared with before.

    Adam casually swiped his de through the air, and a sharp whistling instantly rang out, as if the very air were being sliced apart.

    My speed, power, and offensive ability have all been enhanced!

    Adam had never felt better than he did now, and he was confident that even if he were to face the nun anomaly again at the height of its powers, he would''ve been able to contend with it on his own and perhaps even gain the upper hand.

    The only piece of bad news is that I don''t seem to have acquired any of the nun anomaly''s abilities. My attack, defense, and physical resistance are all exceptional, but I still don''t have that many abilities.

    Adam had thought that following this evolution triggered by the absorption of the nun''s anomalic power, his abilities would''ve also been enhanced, but that was not the case.

    Ultimately, Mummy was still just a tank, albeit an extremely exceptional one.

    While Adam was examining his own body, the surrounding darkness began to slowly dissipate. This isted space was about to copse in the wake of the nun anomaly''s demise, and in order to maintain secrecy, Adam split up from Mummy and reverted back to his original form.

    Even after splitting up from Adam, Mummy still resembled a meticulously crafted metal statue, and after admiring Mummy''s new form for a while longer, Adam withdrew all of his anomalies back into his own body. At the same time, the surrounding space shattered, and the light from outside immediately came filtering in through the cracks.

    "Are you alright?" Shae was the first one to rush in, and she was very relieved to see that not only was Adampletely unscathed, he appeared to be brimming with energy. "None of us could go in there after you went in!"

    "I know. I''ve already eradicated the anomaly."

    "On your own?"

    Nie Yiyi was the second one to arrive on the scene, and her brows furrowed ever so slightly after learning that Adam had in the nun anomaly on his own. She was an extremelypetitive person, and she had already been feeling very indignant back when she first witnessed the evolution of Adam''s invoked entities. She felt like Adam had improved more in the span of just a few weeks than she had throughout all of her years of rigorous training.

    However, back then, at least she could console herself with the knowledge that the psychic bodies of invocators were extremely frail, so if the two of them were to face each other in battle, then she could easily defeat him by bypassing his invoked entities and striking him down.

    However, since then, not only had Adam developed the ability to fuse with his invoked entities, he was even able to kill that nun anomaly on his own. Given how powerful the nun anomaly had been, Nie Yiyi knew that it would''ve been a very troublesome opponent for her even in its severely wounded state. After all, her defenses were downright pitiful, and there was a very good chance that she would''ve been immediately defeated if the nun anomaly were tond even a single attack on her.

    "Are you hiding something from us? I don''t think you have what it takes to beat that anomaly as you currently are."

    "That''s right, I hid my true power from all of you," Adam said in a joking manner. "It''s probably not very realistic for you to think about catching up to me. You still remember my ability, right? After killing this anomaly..."

    Even though Adam didn''t finish his sentence, Nie Yiyi had already realized what he was referring to, and her expression immediately darkened as she fell silent.

    As time passed, the all-epassing darknesspletely faded, allowing Adam to see his surroundings.

    The house that they were in had alreadypletely copsed, and Hook was looking after a pair of children outside.

    "Did you guys demolish the house?"

    "We did. We couldn''t go in and we were worried that something would happen to you in there. First, we smashed the door down, but that didn''t do anything, so we ended up demolishing the whole house, but that didn''t do anything, either."

    "What did the room I was in look like after you demolished the house?"

    Adam was rather curious about the external form of that restricted psychic area.

    "It was a ball of ck light, like a ck hole with nothing but darkness inside," Nie Yiyi recalled. "This is also my first time encountering a psychic restriction. What did it look like inside? Was it still the same room?"

    "No, the area inside was an independent space, and it was farrger than the room. There was no sense of space or time inside. I''m guessing that''s how Li Qi felt after being confined in there for long periods of time." Adam turned to Li Qi as he spoke, then called out to him from afar. "Are you feeling better now, little guy?"

    "I am!" The anomaly that had gued Li Qi for many years had been eradicated, and a smile finally lit up his frail features, recing his perpetually glum and stiff expression. "Thank you!"

    "No need to thank me," Adam chuckled as he beckoned to hispanions. "Should we get out of here?"

    "Let''s go!"

 Chapter 83: The Concealed Farm

    <h4>Chapter 83: The Concealed Farm</h4>

    After leaving Li Qi''s psychic world, Adam was feeling extremely exuberant and well-rested.

    He was just about to say something, but he noticed that Li Qi had awakened as well. Li Qi sat up on the bed, and in the instant that he stood up, tears were already streaming down his face.

    A few secondster, his silent weeping escted into agonized bawling, and it was as if he were trying to vent all of the negative emotions that had been bottled up in his heart for all these years.

    "Li Qi, are you alri..."

    Principal Howard wanted to step in, but he was stopped by Adam.

    "He''s suppressed these emotions for far too long. He couldn''t cry before, so we should let him cry now he can finally let go of everything," Adam said.

    Principal Howard faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded gratefully in response.

    "Thank you."

    "There''s no need to thank me. We were just doing our job."

    "No no no, this is phnthropic in nature to begin with. Thepensation you''re receiving is far less than what you should receive," Howard disagreed. "Of course, our organization can offer you alternative forms ofpensation. While you were administering Li Qi''s treatment, I spoke to Mr. Kim about you, and he told me that there''s been a phnthropic element to every job you''ve done so far. If you need a boost in your reputation, our organization would be happy to help you."

    The missions released by the Ark Learning Fund had always been aimed primarily at those who valued reputational enhancement over marypensation.

    "I''m not really concerned about my reputation at the moment."

    Indeed, Adam didn''t require any boost in reputation at the moment. However, the Ark Learning Fund was a huge non-profit organization, and there were certainly other areas in which Adam could seek assistance from them.

    "If possible, I would like your help in investigating something."

    "I''d be happy to help," Howard replied with a nod. "What would you like to know?"

    Of course, Adam''s objective was to find out more about the human farm, but he wasn''t going to directly disclose that to Howard.

    He pulled Howard to the side, then asked in a voice that was audible only to the two of them, "Can you help me check if there have been any cases of missing children in non-profit organizations?"

    "Missing children?"

    "That''s right."

    This was not a thought that had suddenly popped into Adam''s head. In reality, he had been pondering this matter as soon as he learned about the existence of the human farm.

    The purpose of the human farm''s existence was to produce nk tes.

    However, adapters were very rare, and demand for nk tes far outweighed supply. Outside of human farms, there was another evenrger source of nk tes in the form of orphanages, welfare homes, and non-profit organizations.

    Ever since the concept of immortality in the Metaverse came into existence, more and more people became crushed by their work, and more and more people began to develop mental problems. Due to the rise in mental health problems among adults, more and more children were abandoned by their parents.

    In Sandrise City alone, the annual newborn poption was around 4,000,000, but the rate of abandonment was close to 3%, and there were even examples of kids like Li Qi, who were abandonedter in life.

    Every year, welfare institutions adopted hundreds of thousands of children, and that was only in Sandrise City. In a global context, this number was downright astronomical, and not even 10 human farms could produce such massive numbers.

    Given the vast number of abandoned children, there were definitely adapters among them, and the average person had no way of examining whether their child had the potential to be an adapter.

    If certain powers could infiltrate these welfare organizations, then they would have ess to a massive source of nk tes.

    "I do recall some cases of missing children."

    Howard was a very righteous person, and he was truly dedicated to the betterment of public welfare. He loved children with all his heart, so he remembered every single child that had gone to his school.

    "Nine years ago, there was a child at our school. If I recall correctly, his name was Tosei Ito, and he was taken away."

    "Was he an adapter?"

    "I don''t know, but every year, there are physical examinations conducted on the children at our school." Howard was no idiot, so he was naturally aware of what Adam was alluding to. "The physical examinations are conducted in the name of health, and they''re done by an outsourced healthcarepany, but I feel like there are higher-ups in our organization working with them."

    Having worked his entire life with the Ark Learning Fund, Howard knew that the organization wasn''t as righteous and pristine as it appeared on the surface. He had always had his suspicions even before hearing these questions raised by Adam, but he had no evidence, nor did he have any way to investigate the matter, so he had never spoken to anyone else about it.

    However, now that someone was actively raising the subject, he was inclined to tell him everything he knew so that there was a possibility that this issue could be resolved for the children.

    "They conduct physical examinations every year, but there''s a suspiciously high number of brain parameters that they test for," Howard recalled. "If I''m not mistaken they''re most likely searching for adapters."

    "Has Tosei Ito evere back?"

    "No. After that physical examination, I was told that he had a malicious tumor growing in his brain, so he had to be taken away for treatment." Howard was clearly not convinced by this. "He was always really healthy, and after their examination, I wanted to take him to another hospital for a second opinion, but my supervisor at the time prohibited me from doing so. Back then, I wasn''t the principal of this school, and two dayster, Ito was taken away."

    "Did you try to contact the child after that?"

    "I did, but I never managed to get in contact with him. At ater point, I went to that healthcarepany to ask about what happened, and they told me that Ito had passed away due to a failed surgery, but they couldn''t show me any proof, no grave, no ashes, nothing!"

    It was clear that this was something that had always been weighing on Howard''s mind, and that he considered himself to be reprehensible for this.

    "I was too foolish and na?ve back then. If I had been just a bit more prudent, that child wouldn''t have been taken away." Howard shook his head as a depressed look appeared on his face. "I only realized that many things were amiss after I carefully mulled them over after the event. That healthcarepany, the principal at the time, and some of the high-ranking supervisors of our foundation... There was clearly something wrong with many of the people in the system, but I didn''t know exactly what was wrong. Do you know where those children were ultimately taken?"

    In the face of Howard''s question, Adam didn''t know how to respond, nor did he know whether he should respond.

    "Tell me. I''m already an old man, I can handle the truth no matter what it is. To me, knowing the truth is more important than anything else because it tells me what I should be fighting for. "

    "Alright." Adam nodded in response. "Would I be able to examine your mental condition? There are certain secrets that I can only share with people who I trust the most."

    "Go ahead," Howard replied as he spread open his arms.

    Thus, Adam invaded Howard''s psychic world. Up to this point, Adam had seen the psychic worlds of many people.

    There was the rigorous training ground that was Nie Yiyi''s psychic world, the strange psychic worlds that belonged to himself and Shae, the abhorrent junkyard that was Peter''s psychic world, and the likes of Li Qi and Kim Garcia''s psychic worlds, which werepletely enshrouded in darkness.

    However, never had he entered a psychic world that had made him feel so wee and rxed. Warm sunlight was shining down on him from above, and a warm spring breeze was caressing his cheeks.

    Is this what the psychic world of a kind and serene person looks like?

    Adam inspected the green pastures and lush forest around him, then cast his gaze toward thekes and mountains in the distance. Even just standing here instilled within him a sense of warmth, and he could feel a great deal of pressure being lifted from his shoulders.

    Of course, as Adam discovered after taking a casual stroll, even Howard''s psychic world wasn''tpletely devoid of darkness, and the core of the darkness stemmed from the remorse that he felt for his failure to prevent Tosei Ito''s abduction.

    Here, Adam saw a boy with ck hair being taken away.

 Chapter 84: Compassion

    <h4>Chapter 84: Compassion</h4>

    Adam didn''t remain in Howard''s psychic world for too long before leaving as he didn''t want to leave too much of a mark there.

    At this point, he knew that he could ce full trust in Howard. One could easily lie with their mouth, but it was very difficult to lie with one''s brain. Even for people who were lying to themselves, it was very difficult to paint such aprehensive false picture.

    Thus, it was safe to conclude that Howard was simply just a good person.

    "Can you tell me now? Where are those children taken?"

    "They''re taken away to be nk tes. Essentially, their psychic worlds are cleansed so that they still retain their physical bodies, but they no longer have any memories," Adam revealed with a forlorn sigh.

    Even though Howard was already mentally prepared, his brows still furrowed tightly upon hearing this.

    A brief momentter, he asked, "What purpose do nk tes serve?"

    "They are provided to the wealthy and powerful as vessels that one can install their psyche into. In doing so, they''ll be able to break free from their aging physical bodies and be granted a new lease on life."

    "How do you know this?"

    "I was once a nk te myself."

    This time, Howard was silent for even longer, and only after a full five minutes had passed did he ask, "What can I do?"

    "Help me gather some information. Do your best to make it into the upper circles of the foundation so you can secure more information."

    Adam nodded in response.

    "What is the name of the healthcarepany responsible for conducting the physical examinations on the children?"

    "They''re called the Compassion Company."

    "..."

    Even though Adam''s conversation with Howard was quite brief, it was very impactful, and Adam returned to the infirmary after the two of them exchanged contact details.

    At this point, Li Qi''s tears had already run dry. Even though there was still an exhausted look in his eyes, it was clear from his expression that a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Adam had seen that Li Qi was a kind child at heart, and he was confident that Li Qi would grow up to be a healthy young man following this treatment.

    "We''re going now," Adam said as he approached Li Qi and patted him on the head.

    "Thank you."

    "No need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, then thank your principal."

    ¡­¡­

    After that, Kim Hee-cho collected the payment for the job, and after chatting with everyone for a while longer, Adam and his group prepared to depart.

    Howard rented a minibus to send everyone back to Sandrise City from Ash. A

    After the grueling battle against the nun anomaly, everyone was feeling quite weary, but during the drive home, which was scheduled tost a few hours, Nie Yiyi approached Adam with a determined expression as she demanded, "Let''s have a sparring match."

    "How are you so sure?"

    "I want to see what level you''re at now."

    Nie Yiyi was still aspetitive as ever, and she was unwilling to ept the fact that a newbie like Adam could outstrip her years of rigorous training.

    "Alright, let''s do it!" Adam agreed with a nod.

    He also wanted to see just how powerful his new anomaly was.

    "I wanna watch!"

    "Me too!"

    Everyone else in the minibus was very excited at the prospect of watching a battle between the two, and Kim Hee-cho was even proposing a bet.

    "I want to watch as well. Also, let''s make this more exciting with a bet. I put my money on Adam."

    He had witnessed the metamorphosis that Adam had undergone. Even though he wasn''t able to see very clearly due to the darkness, he still knew more than the others did, and he was confident that given the form that Adam had disyed at the end of the mission, he would definitely be able to defeat Nie Yiyi.

    "If we''re having a bet, then I put my money on Nie Yiyi."

    Hook was very familiar with Adam and Nie Yiyi''s powers, and he knew that even though Adam had a multitude of invoked entities at his disposal, Nie Yiyi definitely held the upper hand when it came to absolute power.

    "Alright, how much do you want to bet?"

    "How about we bet our share of the payment from this job? If I win, you give me your cut, and if you win, I give you my cut."

    "Sounds good," Kim Hee-cho replied with a smile and a nod. "Do you want in on this as well, Shae?"

    "I''ll pass. I''m not that interested in money," Shae replied with a shake of her head.

    Even though the environment that she had grown up in was a little twisted, she had always enjoyed a life of materialistic abundance, so she didn''t have much desire for money.

    "Alright, it looks like they''ve agreed on the stakes for their bet, so let''s begin. Should we go to my psychic world or yours?"

    "Let''s go to mine. There''s more space in my psychic world."

    "Sure."

    Adam invaded Nie Yiyi''s psychic world as he spoke, and thetter didn''t resist.

    In the blink of an eye, the two of them arrived on an ind.

    Inds were a verymonce sight in Nie Yiyi''s psychic world.

    This was a rather small ind, but it was packed with training equipment, and it was most likely the ce where she had grown up as a child.

    "Will this type of conventional training have much of an effect in enhancing one''s psychic body?" Adam asked as he inspected the archaic pieces of training equipment on the beach.

    "A strong body gives you more confidence, and that will strengthen your psychic body. That was what we were taught at the academy. Also, where Ie from, there''s an idea that one''s internal organs are directly connected to their energy and essence. For example, if someone has a kidney deficiency, they''re definitely going to becking in energy, and they won''t be able to work up any enthusiasm or vigor for anything." Nie Yiyi pointed at the training equipment on the ind and the medicine farm in the distance as she continued, "The equipment here is for training the body, while the medicine nourishes the internal organs. The muscles and organsplement each other to enhance one''s energy and essence, and as a result, one''s psychic power will naturally improve. In our tribe, we also subscribe to the idea that this type of training produces the most scrupulous psychic body that won''t be easily led astray."

    "That makes sense!"

    Adam had witnessed psychic bodies of all types of different levels of power, but Nie Yiyi''s one was the most pleasing to the eye. Not only had it retained a perfect humanoid form, its limbs were longer than Nie Yiyi''s physical body in the real world, and its figure was also more even and well-bnced.

    Essentially, it was like a premium version of her physical body.

    "On top of that, techniques developed by the physical body through training can by used by the psychic body as well..."

    "Less talking, more fighting!" Two more people arrived in Nie Yiyi''s psychic world as she was speaking with Adam, and Hook immediately began urging for the two of them to begin fighting as soon as he arrived. "It''s time for me to win some money!"

    At the same time, he was backtracking to ensure that he was far away from the twobatants.

    "Hurry up and begin! I''m already a safe distance away!"

    "Should we begin?"

    "Sure."

    Adam didn''t dare to hold back, and he immediately invoked his recently evolved Mummy as he spoke. As soon as it emerged, it began to give off a daunting aura.

    "Has it evolved again?"

    "That''s right. Let''s make this a friendly match. I won''t fuse with Mummy, but you''re not allowed to directly attack me, either, agreed?"

    "Sure! Here Ie!"

    Fueled by herpetitive streak, Nie Yiyi drew her twin des, and her aura surged as she rapidly elerated. In the blink of an eye, she arrived directly in front of Mummy before shing her de horizontally into its neck.

    Mummy made no effort to evade the attack and withstood her de head-on.

    The de shed across Mummy''s neck, throwing up a trail of sparks, but it remainedpletely unharmed.

    "How are its defenses so strong?"

    Nie Yiyi had only ever witnessed this level of defensive prowess in the giant anomaly of fear that had gued Kim Garcia''s psychic world.

    "Defense is its forte."

    Even as a level one anomaly, Mummy had already disyed extremely formidable defensive prowess.

    As a level two anomaly, its defenses were already superior to those of the level three nun anomaly, and now that it had evolved even further from that point, it truly possessed a body of steel.

    However, Nie Yiyi remained unfazed, and she performed a backward somersault,nding on a nearby rock, where she stood with her des raised.

    "I recall that this guy has incredible defenses, but its offensive power is quite mediocre, and its body is also extremely heavy and clumsy."

 Chapter 85: Pride and Leeway

    <h4>Chapter 85: Pride and Leeway</h4>

    Nie Yiyi refused to admit inferiority, and after inspecting Mummy for a while from her vantage point, she decided that speed was going to be the key to her victory.

    This time, she didn''t dare to hold back, and cyberglyphs shed on her body as she leaped down from the rock, elerating drastically as she did so. It seemed that she was swooping down for a direct attack, but she twisted around while in mid-air, and her body folded in half at a strange angle. In doing so, not only had she changed the angle of her attack, she was also able to elerate a second time.

    With those shing cyberglyphs on her des, this was Nie Yiyi''s all-out attack in her normal form. Mummy instinctively detected a sense of peril from the attack, and it raised its carving knife to defend itself, but in the end, it didn''t possess sufficient dexterity to put up a timely defense, and it was struck by another blow to the neck.

    A loud ng rang out, and not only were there sparks flying this time, the light radiating from Nie Yiyi''s cyberglyphs erupted across the entire battlefield. Upon receiving this blow, Mummy stumbled back quite a few steps, and a mark was finally left on the steel-like bandages around its neck.

    Nie Yiyi was stunned by how little damage her attack had managed to inflict, but she refused to give up, and she began to circle around Mummy again. She was moving very quickly, and she was as agile as a squirrel as she rushed her away around Mummy,shing out over and over again with her des. Every single one of her attacks struck the exact same spot on Mummy''s neck, and as a result, the tear in its bandages there was bingrger andrger.

    Finally, Nie Yiyi found a perfect opportunity tond a finishing blow, and she unleashed her signature technique. With a sh of her des, she released an enormous de of wind that sliced through the very air itself. Mummy''s neck was struck once again, and it was sent flying for close to 20 meters by the de of wind.

    After that intense barrage of attacks, Nie Yiyi was panting heavily, and she stood on the spot to catch her breath as she murmured to herself, "Surely that was enough."

    However, after falling into a sandpit in the distance, it only took Mummy a second before he got up from the ground again. There was a wound on its neck that was about three centimeters wide and two centimeters deep, but there was no blood flowing out of the wound. Instead, a metallic liquid that resembled mercury was seeping out of the gash, and through the liquid, one could see that Mummy''s flesh and bones were also metallic in appearance.

    The metal-like liquid quickly congealed, and it didn''t seem like Mummy had been injured very severely at all.

    After that, it began its attack.

    Prior to this, it hadn''t retaliated against Nie Yiyi at all, and that was by design from Adam. He wanted to see where the limits of Mummy''s defensesid. After that sequence, it had be clear to him that given Mummy''s current level of physical resistance, it would be extremely difficult for Nie Yiyi to kill it unless she was afforded an extensive period of time to charge up her attack.

    Thus, Mummy had passed the defensive test with flying colors, disying defensive capabilities that rivaled those of anomalies a level above it.

    With that established, it was time to test out its speed and offensive prowess.

    As Mummy sprang up from the ground, it disyed extremely formidable speed, even outstripping Nie Yiyi in terms of absolute speed.

    It raised its ck carving knife before bringing it down in a vicious sh. Nie Yiyi sprang to the side to evade the attack, and the de mmed into the sand underfoot, creating a small crater that was half a meter deep. This was not the result of an energy st. Instead, it was a disy of pure strength from the formidable Mummy.

    "That was insane!" Nie Yiyi turned to stare at Mummy with a stunned expression, and at the same time, she called out to Adam, who was watching the battle off to the side. "Isn''t this guy supposed to becking in offensive firepower?"

    "That hasn''t changed! Compared with its defenses, its offensive capabilities are still sorelycking."

    In its current form, Mummy''s defenses couldpare with those of a level four anomaly, but in terms of offensive prowess, it was only at around the normal standard for a level three anomaly, and that came as no surprise to Adam.

    After all, Mummy had absorbed the entirety of the nun''s anomalic power. The nun anomaly was a level three anomaly to begin with, and Mummy was already quite formidable prior to its evolution, so it only made sense that it was more powerful than the nun anomaly was in its current form.

    Furthermore, not only did the nun anomaly possess formidable offensive power and versatility, it also had ess to various useful abilities such as possession and darkness manifestation. In contrast, Mummy''s offensive repertoire was very limited, and its intelligence was also very low, so it was only fair that it excelled in some other areas.

    After going on the offense, every single one of Mummy''s attacks was imbued with devastating power, and itshed out violently at Nie Yiyi with its carving knife. It chased her all the way from the beach to the area where the training equipment was situated, then forced her all the way to the rocks.

    A loud thump rang out as a massive rock on the beach was sliced into two by Mummy''s carving knife, and Nie Yiyi leaped up from the rock right before it was destroyed, arriving directly behind Mummy.

    She had discovered that Mummy''s offensive and defensive prowess were both quite exceptional, as was its absolute speed, but it was very slow in its turning, and its agility was also rathercking. These shorings in her opponent were why she had been able tost to this point.

    However, given that Nie Yiyi had no time to charge up any attacks, it was only going to be a matter of time before she was defeated.

    "How is that thing so strong?" Hook was on the verge of tears as he watched from afar. "My hard-earned money''s going down the drain! Attack Adam! Nie Yiyi, attack his psychic body!"

    Nie Yiyi turned to take a nce at Adam, and herpetitive nature won out in the end as she abandoned her attack on Mummy, simultaneously revoking her promise to refrain from directly attacking Adam.

    "Hey, that''s cheating!"

    Adam hurriedly invoked Mummy to his side at the sight of the rapidly approaching Nie Yiyi.

    Mummy sped over to Adam''s side as a streak of light, but a de of wind arrived before it, slicing through the ground beside Adam before he could transform.

    "You win." Nie Yiyi raised her de and pointed it at Adam''s neck as she spoke. "But let this fight be a lesson to you. As an invocator, you can''t afford to let down your guard at any time!"

    "I understand. You admit defeat, but you''re still not willing to ept it."

    At this point, Adam had already fused as one with Mummy, and in this form, Mummy was only going to be more powerful and agile.

    Nie Yiyi didn''t say anything further before vanishing on the spot.

    With her departure, the boundaries of her psychic world also kicked into effect. Adam and the others made no effort to resist, and they were all evicted from her psychic world.

    "You''ve really pissed her off now!"

    After emerging from Nie Yiyi''s psychic world, everyone was still in the minibus, and Kim Hee-cho gleefully turned to Hook to ept his cut of the payment for the recently concluded job.

    Meanwhile, Shae scooted over to Adam''s side, then nudged him with her elbow as she repeated, "You''ve really pissed her off now!"

    "I guess so."

    "You''ve never had a girlfriend, right?"

    "It hasn''t even been that long since I awakened," Adam replied.

    "When you''re dealing withpetitive girls like her, you have to learn to let her win. Not only did you defeat her, you backed her into a corner as well. That had to have been very hurtful to her pride." Shae pursed her lips with disapproval as she spoke. "How are you gonna get with her like this?"

    After delivering that lesson in love, she continued to look at Adam with an expression that said: "you see what you did wrong?"

    "Who told you I want to enter a rtionship with her? Do we not have enough stuff on our te already?"

    "Even so, you need to have some fun in life. Otherwise, if you''re going to be a psychic mutant sooner orter. I thought I was already really boring, I didn''t think you would be even more boring than I am. Are we gically predisposed to be dull people?"

    "Who knows?"

    "By the way, how did you be so powerful?"

    "That''s a secret that I don''t want to disclose to anyone for now, including you," Adam replied with a shake of his head. "To be honest, even if I wanted to tell you, I wouldn''t know how to go about it. Even I don''t have much of a clue how everything works myself."

    "That''s fine," Shae replied with a shrug. "It''s not like I''ve beenpletely transparent with you, either. All I want to know is whether I''ll be able to use that mummy as well."

    "You can."

    "Good."

 Chapter 86: The Dragon and the Eight Onis

    <h4>Chapter 86: The Dragon and the Eight Onis</h4>

    In the short-term future, the two things that Adam was most concerned about were the hunt for psychic mutants and Shae''s fight for the right to session. Out of those two things, thetter was the first to take ce.

    On the third day after they returned to Sandrise City from Ash, Adam was in the midst of helping Hook film a video when both he and Shae received a call at the same time, instructing them to go to the Feurs Estate.

    The Feurs Estate belonged to the Kim Family, and in Shae''s memory, it was a ce that even her parents had very rarely visited. ording to them, the Feurs Estate was her grandfather''s house, and also the ce where he liked to stay the most.

    That so-called grandfather was the original host of the parasitic psyche in Shae''s psychic body, and it was unclear whether he still retained any sentient will.

    As Adam and Shae arrived at the designated address, the former was stunned by what he saw.

    "I can''t believe a ce like this exists in a ce as modernized as Sandrise City!" Adam inspected the trees around him as he reached out to stroke the rough trunk of one of the trees. "This tree has to at least be hundreds of years old!"

    This ce had apletely different atmosphere from the noisy and debaucherous environment in Sandrise City, and it was alsopletely different from those cramped apartment buildings.

    This was a ce that took up a huge area, and it was right next to Sandrise University. There were no tall buildings in the entire area, and everything had been left untouched.

    It wasn''t that Adam hadn''t visited any homes of wealthy individuals since his awakening. Deranged Pig, Cowboy, and Sadou could all be considered to be wealthy people, but their residences all had the same style as the city. However, the style of this estate waspletely different from that of the entire city. Not only did it take up a massive area and present a severe waste of resources, most striking of all was the fact that it looked like a relic that belonged to several centuries ago.

    "Coming here, I feel like I''m very close to the top of the human social hierarchy," Adam jibed as he walked over the soft and loamy soil, but there was a very serious look on his face. "Looks like your grandfather was no ordinary person. At the very least, he seems to have been far wealthier and more powerful than your parents."

    "Indeed. The fact that he was able toe into contact with the human farm at such an early stage indicates that he was most likely a core member of some very powerful organizations."

    Talking about this clearly put Shae in a very bad mood.

    Out of everyone in her "family", her so-called grandfather was the one that she hated the most.

    Not only was he the main perpetrator who had directly disavowed her entire existence, even now, he was still clinging to her psychic body like a disgusting parasite.

    Ever since Shae found out that there was another "person" in her brain, she would always unconsciously touch her own head, as if doing so would allow her to evict the unwee parasite.

    The two had only been walking along the dirt road for a short while before a sightseeing car pulled up next to them.

    "Get in the car. It''ll take you close to 20 minutes to walk there." The one calling out to them was Cowboy.

    "Why are you here? Whose car is this?"

    "I stole it from the mechanical valet. As for why I''m here, I came to help you, of course." Cowboy pulled out an electronic contract and handed it to Shae as he spoke. "Get awyer to take a look at this. We had to work hard to secure this for you."

    Shae took the contract from Cowboy, and she quickly discovered that it was a veryplex document that was littered with jargon such as "stock inheritance", "stock split", and "right to session breakdown". Shae was virtuallypletely unable to understand these professional terms, but she could roughly tell that this was an agreement that transferred her parents'' assets over to her.

    "This is tooplex for me to understand."

    "That''s alright, our organization wouldn''t work against you, so you can rest assured. If you can''t understand, then find a professionalwyer to take a look for you," Cowboy replied while driving. "What we want are power and speaking rights. We''re not interested in money. By the way, your cousin and Masao Yamamoto are also going to be in attendance, so you have to be more forceful and assertive during the meeting."

    The name "Masao Yamamoto" was one that was firmly entrenched in Adam''s memory, and if he recalled correctly, this was already the third time that he had heard this name.

    The first time was from Deranged Pig, the second time was when he was informed that Masao Yamamoto was a major shareholder in Golden Teeth Incorporated, and this was the third time.

    Masao Yamamoto was also the only living person that he knew of that was definitely privy to the human farm''s location.

    After riding in the sightseeing car for four or five minutes, Adam and his group arrived in front of arge house. There were some tables, chairs, and benches ced on thewn in front of the house, and tables wereden with fruits and other food items, giving the setup an appearance that resembled a casual family gathering.

    There were already some people on thewn who were immactely dressed in professional attire, and they were chatting with one another in small groups. Shae''s arrival immediately caught the attention of one of those groups.

    "That''s my cousin," Shae said as she subtly gestured toward a man who appeared to be around 30 years of age with her eyes.

    The man''s skin tone was rather simr to Shae''s, but aside from that, they bore no resemnce whatsoever.

    Shae had a round face with round eyes, while her "cousin" had a very angr face with a hook nose, and it was clear from his appearance alone that he was quite a sinister character.

    There was another man who appeared to be around 50 to 60 years of age standing beside him, and he looked to have been cast in the exact same mold as Shae''s cousin. Hence, it was safe to assume that this man was Shae''s uncle.

    However, those two weren''t the focus of Adam''s attention. Instead, his attention was drawn to a man who appeared to be roughly 50 years of age with a mustache on his face. The man was very short, but also very well-built. He was wearing a Japanese kimono, giving him a vintage appearance.

    What intrigued Adam the most was the man''s eyes, which were as ck as ink and resembled a pair of abysses. The stiff muscles on his face also made him appear very rigid and violent.

    There was no need for an introduction for Adam to identify this man.

    In the instant that he caught sight of Masao Yamamoto, a me of resentment was instantly ignited in Adam''s heart. He was even struck by the urge to invade Masao''s psychic world and uncover all of the secrets that he wasn''t yet privy to, then kill him on the spot.

    "Keep yourself in check. There are surveince cameras here that are directly connected to Mechguard''s data center, so you better not do anything rash," Cowboy cautioned.

    "Don''t worry, I won''t do anything stupid. Do you know much about Masao Yamamoto? I''m assuming he''s an adapter, right? How strong is he?"

    "I''ve never fought him, so I don''t know, but I''m assuming he''s quite strong. Not only has he invested in many mediapanies, he also has close ties with the Oni Organization. With its Dragon, eight Onis, and 36 Tigers, the Oni Organization is one of the most powerful hitmen organizations in the world, and they have a resounding reputation in the ck market.¡±

    "What''s this dragon and eight onis?"

    Adam had conducted some research on the Oni Organization following that assassination attempt from Oni no Hanzou, but the information that he was able to gather through normal inte searches was very sparse. In fact, most of it was rted to games, and there wasn''t much useful information at all.

    "The hitmen in the Oni Organization are ranked in a hierarchy of five tiers, namely Dragon, Oni, Tiger, Wolf, and Dog, in descending order. Oni no Hanzou, the man who was sent after youst time, is one of the eight Onis of the Oni Organization, so there are seven more hitmen just as powerful as him in the organization. There are 36 hitmen in the organization who are slightly inferior to him, but still very fearsome in their own right, and the so-called Dragon is the leader of their organization. I''d say he''s on about the same level as Boss May."

    "May? Is she really that strong?"

    "Why else do you think the pawn shop can do whatever it wants without any fear of retaliation?" Cowboy made his way out of the sightseeing car as he spoke.

 Chapter 87: Thousand-eyed Entity

    <h4>Chapter 87: Thousand-eyed Entity</h4>

    Adam also left the car, and at the same time, they were already being approached by Shae''s cousin.

    "Long time no see, Shae."

    "Indeed, long time no see, Tanner. I don''t believe we''ve met that many times in general." Shae was still quite young and was not a fan of the pretentious fa?ade that adults always put on. "There''s no need to be all friendly with me. We''re going to bepeting with one another, aren''t we?"

    "Don''t be like that. At the end of the day, we''re still family, and we don''t have topete with one another." Tanner drew closer to Shae, then lowered his voice as he continued, "Truth be told, I don''t necessarily want to fight with you over inheritance rights. There are a lot of illegal and ambiguous elements in the documents presented by your side, but like I said, we are family, and I''m not opposed to sharing some of our family''s wealth with you. However, when ites to decision-making in Golden Teeth Incorporated, I think it would be best if you didn''t get involved."

    Tanner was quite a bit older than Shae, so he had better control over his own emotions and wasn''t incensed by Shae''s words. Instead, he presented a sugar-coated threat that was disguised as a suggestion for her own good.

    He could turn a blind eye to how Shae had secured her right to session, and he could allow Shae to seize the assets that she wanted, but he didn''t want Shae to be able to y a part in thepany''s decision-making. Essentially, what he was saying was that if she insisted on fighting for speaking rights, then he would bring up the legitimacy of her right to session as a point of contention.

    "On top of that, we''ll continue to issue you dividends in ordance with the shares that you hold, so you''ll be receiving a stable ie without having to worry about anything. Doesn''t that sound great?" Tanner was speaking in a very courteous manner. "You''re still too young right now. In a few years, once you''re in your twenties, and you''re still interested in getting involved in the decision-making process, then that''s certainly not out of the question."

    "That''s a very reasonable suggestion, but I refuse," Shae replied with a shake of her head.

    If she were still oblivious to her past and hadn''t gotten involved in this mess, then perhaps she would''ve epted this offer. Then again, if she hadn''t gotten herself into this mess, then she would''ve never received the assistance of the resistance army, so she would''ve never had the right to session in the first ce.

    This was a paradox, and at this point, she no longer had a choice in the matter.

    "My parents were the ones overseeing the operation of Golden Teeth Incorporated, so it''s only right that I inherit the operating rights from them."

    "Are you sure you don''t want to reconsider?" Tanner''s expression immediately darkened upon hearing what Shae had to say, and his hook nose paired with his sinister expression gave him the appearance of a malicious vampire. "It''s important to understand when you should ept a way out when it''s offered to you. Otherwise, things could end up badly for everyone, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "You''re not going to be able to convince me. I''m taking the operating rights, and that''s not negotiable!"

    "What right does a stray mutt like you have topete with me?" Seeing as his attempt at negotiation had failed, Tanner immediately did away with all semnce of pleasantries. "I know how you came into our family! You were brought here from god-knows-where! Do you really think you''re a member of our Kim Family?"

    "You think you¡¯ll get me riled up by saying all of this?" Even though Shahe normally had a terrible temper and would snap at the drop of a hat, she was remarkably calm and collected in the face of Tanner''s insults. "I was legally adopted, so ording tow, I am no different from a biological child to my parents. Aren''t you grasping at straws by trying to put my status as a member of the Kim Family into question? You should be telling me about how many people are supporting you, or how much of thepany''s shares are held by your backers, or how many major shareholders you''ve recruited to your side and are willing to vote for you. Aren''t those the things that truly matter here?"

    Tanner was clearly rather embarrassed by Shae''s retort, and he was just about to rebuke her when Masao Yamamoto emerged from behind him.

    "You have a sharp tongue, little girl. Looks like I made the right choice digging you out of that mound of flesh and blood all those years ago."

    "You were the one who brought me into the Kim Family?"

    Shae was shocked to hear this, and she was just about to say something when Cowboy suddenly interjected.

    "Aren''t you being a little rude invading her psychic world right in front of me? Did you think we wouldn''t send anyone to protect her?"

    Another person arrived on the scene while Cowboy was speaking, and it was none other than the warlock from before. He was also present at the gathering.

    Adam was thest one to arrive. His telegnosis still wasn''t as sharp as that of Cowboy and Warlock, so it took him a few seconds to notice that something was amiss.

    "He invaded my psychic world?" Shae looked at the guests around her, then cast her gaze toward the estate in the distance. "When did he do that?"

    "Right when he was talking about how he dug you out of that mound of flesh and blood." Cowboy pulled a cigar out of his pocket as he spoke. "Is it a fight that you''re looking for, Masao?"

    Masao was standing on thewn as he inspected the two people before him with an intrigued expression.

    "I didn''t expect to see two of Wax Figure''s most trusted subordinates here. I would certainly be interested in testing out your skills."

    Masao Yamamoto''s body suddenly began to expand as he spoke, and all of a sudden, he had grown from a short yet muscr old man into a giant figure that was seven to eight meters tall. His face had taken on a monstrous visage, and he had sprouted an extra pair of arms. In addition to that, there were countless densely packed eyes growing all over his chest and back.

    Even in his current state, Adam couldn''t help but feel extremely unnerved under the scrutiny of those eyes, and he felt as if his skin were crawling.

    His ability to strike fear into the heart of others is even more potent than the anomaly of fear!

    Adam didn''t dare to take this monstrous form of Masao Yamamoto''s lightly, and he immediately invoked Mummy, then fused as one with it before picking up Shae and running away to the side.

    As he did so, he wrapped his metallic bandages around Shae, thereby enveloping her in a protective cocoon.

    Adam had no intention of fighting in this battle, nor was he going to let Shae get involved.

    The first reason for this was that didn''t want his secret to be exposed to the enemy, and the second reason was that Masao Yamamoto was far too powerful for him to oppose. In fact, he was even more powerful than Oni no Hanzou, and if he were to go up against such a fearsome opponent, he could easily be killed in an instant.

    Masao Yamamoto could see Adam running away with Shae, and he immediately spread open an enormous hand, upon which countless dark clouds converged from the distance. With the arrival of the dark clouds came a burst of murmuring that resembled cyberhexes being uttered, or the voices of ghostly apparitions, and hearing the sound immediately struck one with a splitting headache, as well as a feeling akin to having countless ants crawling over one''s body.

    Thankfully, Mummy was the anomaly of pain, so it had exceptional pain tolerance, both in terms of physical pain and psychological torment. However, the same couldn''t be said for Shae, and she began to howl in agony. Her eyes instantly turned bright red, and blood was flowing out of her ears and nostrils. Such was the severity of her agony that she couldn''t help but sprout her second head, but even so, that didn''t do much to lessen her pain.

    Right as Adam was about to invoke his other anomalies so that one of them could fuse with Shae and alleviate her suffering, Cowboy suddenly fired a holy light bullet up into the sky.

    The holy light exploded within the dark clouds, illuminating the clouds with golden radiance.

    However, that still wasn''t enough, and Warlock raised his hands to form an array in the sky, which sucked in countless dark clouds like a massive vacuum.

    The rest of the dark clouds overhead crumbled into acid rain that came cascading down from above.

    All of the houses and trees on the ground werepletely eroded into nothingness under the acid rain.

    Thankfully, Adam possessed exceptional defenses, and he was able to shield Shae from all of the attacks with his back.

    "Are you alright?"

    "I''m ok." Shae was gasping for air, and her bloodshot eyes were full of fear. "How is he this powerful?"

    "I don''t know..."

    "Will those two be able to beat him?"

    "Again, I don''t know."

 Chapter 88: Gathering

    <h4>Chapter 88: Gathering</h4>

    Adam truly didn''t know what the oue of the battle was going to be. Cowboy and Warlock were the most powerful adapters that he knew. When it came to adapters of an even higher level, he had either never met them before, or he had met them, but never seen them in action, such as May.

    "Let''s hide and make sure we keep ourselves safe. The best thing we can do to help them right now is to not get in their way."

    Adam was well aware of what his role in this battle was, and after the acid rain subsided, he immediately continued to run away with Shae still wrapped up in his bandages, and he only drew to a halt after he was already far away from the battlefield.

    Having gotten so far away from the battlefield, Adam wasn''t even able to clearly see what was happening in the battle anymore. However, judging from the rumbling explosions ringing out in the distance and the lights of different colors shing over the sky, it was clear that the battle was very intense.

    "Is this how powerful elite adapters are? It''s like watching a battle between two armies!"

    Shae had never witnessed a battle between advanced adapters before, and she was thoroughly enthralled by what she was seeing.

    "It definitely is a spectacle to behold. I was also shocked the first time I saw something like this." Adam gave Shae a recount of his first encounter with Cowboy. "At the time, a man by the name of Oni no Hanzou from the Oni Organization took on a mission to assassinate me, but Cowboy also happened to be there, and the two got into a fight. It didn''t take long before the entire street waspletely destroyed. It was like watching a battle between a pair of superheroes! But even that battle wasn''t as intense as this one. Masao Yamamoto is even more powerful than Oni no Hanzou."

    "Are we going to die here?"

    "I don''t think so. The surveince cameras here are directly connected to Mechguard''s data center. Once it''s detected that everyone''s been standing still for too long, it''ll be determined that a psychological sh is taking ce, and Mechguard officers will intervene. No matter how powerful Masao Yamamoto is, there''s no way he''ll be able to take care of both Cowboy and Warlock in a short time."

    ¡­¡­

    Indeed, Adam''s judgment proved to be correct, and the battle only wore on for five minutes before drawing to a halt.

    At this point, Cowboy''s clothes were already in tatters, while half of the barrel of the revolver in his left hand had already been eroded away. As for Warlock, he looked as if he had been possessed by evil spirits, with squirming eyes growing all over his entire body, and it seemed that he was already in very bad shape.

    The two of them were clearly well and truly on the back foot, but if the battle were to continue, they would still have been able to drag on the fight for a long time with their self-preservation tactics.

    However, Masao Yamamoto decided to relent.

    "Not bad at all. To think that you were able to keep up with me for so long, looks like Wax Figure''s quite capable when ites to training his subordinates."

    "What do you think you''re talking about? We weren''t trained by Wax Figure!" Cowboy took a moment to smooth down his hair, then spat onto the ground in an uncouth manner. "Do you want to keep going?"

    "Let''s stop here for today," Masao Yamamoto replied before immediately departing.

    Cowboy and Warlock exchanged a nce before also leaving the psychic world.

    Shae was able to sense their departure from her psychic world, and she informed Adam of this development.

    "Should we go as well?"

    "Sure."

    After returning to the real world, Adam noticed an immediate change. The breeze felt more realistic, and the lushwn also felt softer beneath his feet. He opened his eyes and inspected the scene before him.

    The battle that had just taken ce had been quite intense, but it hadn''tsted very long, so Adam had thought that it wouldn''t have attracted any attention. However, as he swept his gaze over his surroundings, he discovered that virtually everyone was looking this way.

    Cowboy''s voice rang out from behind him.

    "That bastard, Masao, set us a trap, and we fell right into it."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "He''s showing off his power to intimidate all of the shareholders."

    Not only was this gathering attended by the members of the Kim Family, some of the other shareholders of Golden Teeth Incorporated had also been invited.

    Only after hearing Cowboy''s exnation did Adam realize the implications involved.

    Masao Yamamoto''s invasion of Shae''s psychic world wasn''t a spur-of-the-moment decision that he had made on a whim. Instead, he had clearly nned this in advance.

    If possible, he wanted to nt a mark of fear in Shae''s mind during the battle and truly strike fear into her heart. If he could do that, then everything else, including the negotiation, would''ve gone far smoother for him than if Shae had been more resilient and defiant.

    Even if he couldn''t aplish that objective, he could still secure a dominant victory over Cowboy and Warlock to show all of the shareholders just how massive a disparity in power existed between them. All of the other shareholders of Golden Teeth Incorporated were naturally also very wealthy people, and the average person may have been unfamiliar with concepts like adapters and psychic worlds, but that was not the case for them.

    Instead, they were extremely sharp observers, and not only did they immediately notice the conflict that was taking ce, they were even able to tell who had secured victory judging from Cowboy''s paleplexion.

    The shareholders could decide who took charge of thepany, so everyone, even those who weren''t afraid of being threatened, would be more inclined to instate the more powerful party as thepany''s top dog.

    This was an open conspiracy, and what was most damning about it was that Cowboy had no choice but to y along.

    However, at the same time, only someone with sufficient power would be able to pull off something like this. Otherwise, not only would the n fail to achieve the intended effect, Masao would''ve been shooting himself in the foot instead.

    "I didn''t expect Masao Yamamoto to be so strong," Cowboy continued. "I thought Warlock and I would''ve at least been able to hold our own against him. Looks like we''ll have to update the files that our organization has on him."

    While Cowboy was speaking to Adam, Masao Yamamoto approached Shae.

    "Ms. Kim..."

    Having witnessed the battle that had just taken ce, Shae had be a little fearful of this man, so she instinctively wanted to step back to keep her distance from him, and she was only prevented from doing so by a nudge from behind from Adam.

    "Sometimes, when you get too heavily involved in something, major consequences will arise. Even if you have allies and backers on your side, those consequences will still fall on you. No one can protect you from everything. That''s life."

    Masao Yamamoto turned and departed after delivering that threatening and cryptic message.

    Tanner took a nce at Shae, then also departed with a disdainful sneer.

    After that, it was time for the family gathering.

    Nothing of particr interest took ce during the gathering. Under the instruction of awyer from the organization, Shae was constantly approaching the other shareholders attending the gathering, making small talk and chatting with them about rather inconsequential subjects.

    That so-calledwyer was none other than Warlock.

    In contrast with his mysterious visage in the psychic world, Warlock in the real world was an archetypal serious and professionalwyer.

    "He''s not like you at all." Adam didn''t dare to eat anything during the gathering, and he stood beside Cowboy as he jibed, "You look exactly the same both in the psychic world and in the real world."

    "That tells you that I''m true to myself, unlike that two-faced bastard. He looks serious and unscrupulous on the outside, but deep down, he''s a very fun and lively character." Cowboy didn''t share the same qualms as Adam, and he tossed a grape up into the air as he spoke, then caught it in his mouth. "He''s a shareholder in manyw firms in Sandrise City, and he''s also a very capablewyer himself. If you ever get in trouble with Mechguard, you can go to him for help."

    "I see." Adam shifted his gaze away from Warlock before turning his attention to Shae. "It looks to me like even though those shareholders aren''t openly ostracizing Shae, they''re clearly more friendly with Tanner. This isn''t going to spoil our chances of securing the operating rights, is it?"

    "It''s not that simple. These shareholders are all sly old foxes. The loss that we suffered today will only be one of many factors that they need to consider. Besides, the shareholders aren''t casting their votes today, this is only a dinner gathering. All we have to do is ensure that everything else goes smoothly so we can seize back the momentum, then grant the shareholders certain benefits in private, and we can still easily turn the tables. As for things like right to session and operating rights, at the end of the day, it''s all just a contest of money and power. In cases where the two parties fighting for supremacy are roughly evenly matched, the neutral parties be very important. From here onward, they''ll do many things to create momentum for themselves, so you have to be careful. I have a feeling that there''s more toe from the psychic mutants."

 Chapter 89: Nursing Hub

    <h4>Chapter 89: Nursing Hub</h4>

    Cowboy''s prediction proved to be spot on.

    In the few days following the gathering, many more murder cases perpetrated by psychic mutants took ce all over Sandrise City. Some of these horrific crimes weremitted by individual psychic mutants, while other cases clearly disyed signs of organized group activity.

    The stir caused by the recent terrorist attack still hadn''t subsided yet, and these frequent murder cases only served to further increase the publicity of the psychic mutant outbreak. All news stations were constantly releasing stories rted to these incidents, and the general public was calling for the government to take more forceful measures in order to ensure the safety of the masses.

    Right as public opinion was reaching a peak, a young congressman began to call for congress to establish an "Adapter Inspection Department" in order to better protect the interests of the general public.

    When this proposal was first made, it garnered a majority of public support, but it didn''t take long before dissenting voices arose to condemn the proposal.

    The first to object to the idea was the Dataist Union. They argued that the Adapter Inspection Department was going to be different from Mechguard, which consisted solely of robot officers that carried out justice in strict ordance with thew.

    If such a department were to be established, it would have far too much power at its disposal, and it would pose far more of a threat to society than the psychic mutants that it sought to destroy.

    From the perspective of the Dataist Union, it was very difficult for adapters to be monitored by inspection departments as all shes between adapters took ce on a psychological ne. If certain people were to be granted the right to monitor adapters, then they would have free rein to exercise the power bestowed upon them by the legal system as they pleased.

    Unregted power was definitely going to be misused. This was the argument posited by the Dataist Union.

    In the face of this argument, another congressman from the opposition party stepped forward, suggesting that a supervision department was established above the inspection department with the purpose of supervising the inspectors.

    This proposal garnered support from some celebrities and inte personalities.

    This proposal had clearly been made to muddy the waters, and as soon as Adam saw Deranged Pig supporting the idea on television and on the inte, he immediately knew that the resistance army was behind this.

    Seeing as the perpetrators behind the psychic mutant outbreak wanted to seize more power and establish the rules, the resistance army was going to use that to its advantage, muddying the waters so that the rules were no longer clear-cut.

    While this back-and-forth tug-of-war was taking ce, some things were marinating beneath the surface, and Adam had a feeling that something big was about to happen.

    One day, he received two calls, the first of which was from Red Spider, informing him that May had found a ce where arge number of psychic mutants were staying. In addition to that, they had found out the target that the psychic mutants were nning to attack next, and they were preparing tounch a capture mission that very same night.

    The second call from Cowboy, informing Adam that their undercover agents had received news that the psychic mutants were going to be receiving assistance from other adapters.

    "They''re going to target a school for their next attack. Their n is to kill arge number of children, and they''ll do everything in their power to ensure that the attack goes smoothly. With that in mind, I feel like the power of the pawn shop alone won''t be sufficient to stop them. When the timees, our organization''s second-inmand will be leading a team of adapters in person to provide reinforcements." Cowboy was telling Adam his n through the call. "At the same time, we''ll be bringing some people to capture footage and some security personnel from the real world. In addition to that, we''ll also be contacting Mechguard. If they manage to sessfully carry out such a malicious attack, then the formation of the inspection department will be all but inevitable."

    "Sounds like the footage that we capture is going to be very important."

    "Indeed. Through our footage, we have to show the people that these psychic mutant attacks aren''t just random attacks staged by deranged individuals. Instead, it was all nned by certain people. If we can do that, then we''ll be able to shift the me onto the congressmen proposing the formation of the inspection department and put a wrench in their ns."

    "I see."

    "Before that, I want you to introduce me to Boss May. We''re going to be fighting alongside one another, so I want to have a chat with her in person."

    Adam contemted the request for a moment before deciding to agree. Even though doing this would expose his identity, he didn''t have much choice under these circumstances.

    Thus, he gave Cowboy May''s contact details, then left a message for Red Spider, and after that, he packed some things and prepared to go to the pawn shop.

    Right as Adam was about to leave, he was paid a visit by Shae.

    "I''ming with you. Warlock told me about everything."

    "It''s going to be very dangerous."

    "When am I not in danger?" Shae countered with a nonchnt smile. "Nowadays, even when I go out to buy something, I''m worried about being assassinated, so what''s the difference."

    "I guess that''s true," Adam replied with a nod. "I can''t argue with that, so it''s up to you."

    "I called up Nie Yiyi and Hook as well?"

    "You called up those two?" Adam was rather amused to hear this. "Surely there''s no way they woulde, especially Hook. That guy''s a massive coward!"

    "Do I hear someone badmouthing me behind my back?"

    Right at this moment, a figure with a greaseden face emerged from a corner of the dormitory building. Regardless of what season it was, he always seemed to have a face full of grease.

    "I''m going with you, I''m just going to not fight, like usual. Those psychic mutants are like a bunch of rabid dogs. Surely they wouldn''t insist oning after me once I conceal myself."

    "I guess, but this isn''t like you at all," Adam said in a rather perplexed manner. "No matter what you say, this is still an extremely dangerous mission. What reason do you have foring?"

    "I passed 1,000,000 followers."

    Hook pulled out a social media ount before showing it off to Adam. There were many videos on his ount, including the one that Adam had helped him film a couple of days ago. In the video, Adam answered questions about his battle against psychic mutants, and that was the key to his growth in followers

    The terrorist attack fromst time had catapulted him into inte stardom, but if he were to refrain from participating in this operation, then his clout would quickly be surpassed by new events, and no one would pay any more attention to him.

    "I want to be famous, so I have to pay the price to maintain my fame. My mission during this operation is to serve as a battlefield correspondent. I even bought a set of equipment that''ll allow me to film everything and upload it to the inte."

    "I didn''t think I would actually ever see anyone go so far for fame," Adam said with a shake of his head, and as he turned around, he noticed Nie Yiyi also arriving from another direction. "You came as well! What''s your reason foring?"

    "I want to push myself. I''ve reflected on myself extensively after losing to youst time."

    "What did you think about?"

    "I realized that It was still being too easy on myself. At the ce where I undergo training, there''s a very popr saying: ''true horror lies between life and death''."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "It has manyyers of meanings. I don''t know how to exin it to you, but those who have trulye face to face with death and survived, regardless of whether it''s suicide, an ident, or an attack, those who have seen true horror ande out the other side will inevitably be a lot more resilient. Through their experience, they will have gained a type of irreceable mental fortitude. Compared with those people, I''ve been far too safe and sheltered. I want to step into the storm and see what that will bring me."

    "Let me make this clear in advance: this is going to be a very dangerous operation."

    Adam couldn''t decide how others lived their lives, but he had an obligation to provide them with the information necessary for their decision-making. Thest thing he wanted to see was for someone to make a wrong decision as a result of misinformation from him.

    "I wouldn''t go if it wasn''t dangerous."

    Nie Yiyi was very determined.

    "Alright, in that case, let''s set off."

    Thus, Adam''s four-man team departed from the academy and traveled to the pawn shop by car.

    Once again, Adam arrived on the debaucherous street that the pawn shop was situated on, but this time, his mental state waspletely different.

    The first time he hade here, his heart had been filled with anger, cynicism, and disorientation, with disorientation being the most pronounced of the emotions that he had felt. The disorientation had stemmed from the fact that he didn''t know what he was, nor could he see what the future held.

    Coming back to this ce now, he had already learned about his own past, and all he had to do was unravel the bigger mystery and eradicate those who were pulling the strings, killing off those immortals who should''ve never had ess to immortality to begin with.

    Inside the pawn shop, Red Spider was particrly serious on this day. She wasted no time with words as she led Adam and his group to the top level of the building, where 34 people were already waiting for them.

    "The vast majority of the people here are adapters. They are the backbone of the pawn shop, and they''re going to be yourrades for this operation," Red Spider introduced.

    Adam nodded in response while doing his best tomit everyone''s physical appearance to memory. 34 people didn''t sound like a lot, but it was actually an enormous number.

    Adapters were extremely rare to begin with, and due to the special ability that adapters possessed, it was very easy for them to earn a living. As a result, there were far more frence adapters than there were ones that were part of organizations or working forpanies.

    Furthermore, the ones that had been called up for this operation were most likely all mature adapters with a certain level ofbat prowess, which made this number all the more impressive.

    The Oni Organization was a hitmen organization renowned across the entire world, and even they only had a Dragon, eight Oni, and 36 Tigers, which only amounted to a total of 45 mature adapters.

    "Do we know the location of the psychic mutants?"

    "We don''t know their exact location, of course. Otherwise, we could just call Mechguard and get their officers to apprehend them. All we know is their target of attack and the rough area that they''ll be operating in..."

    While Red Spider was speaking, May caught sight of Adam. On this day, she was wearing a ck cheongsam, but in addition to that, there were also many mechanical devices attached to her body, presumably to assist her in battle.

    "Good to see you."

    Adam nodded in response.

    "Oh, and you''ve brought a few friends with you."

    May''s gaze roamed over Shae and the others, and it was as if her eyes could see straight into one''s soul.

    In the end, her gaze settled on Nie Yiyi, and she praised, "These are some good friends that you have."

    After that, she didn''t waste any more time with small talk as she turned to address everyone in the room.

    "Let me make this clear: no one is allowed to die today! Prepare to set off. I won''t disclose the address for now, you''ll all know where we are once we get there."

    With that, Boss May led the team of adapters out of the room.

    Everyone followed her to the underground carpark, where a bus that was disguised as a school bus had already been waiting for quite some time.

    The yellow bus was extremely nondescript and unremarkable, and it wouldn''t attract any attention even if it were to be driven along the streets. After everyone had gotten into the bus, allmunicator signals were temporarily blocked, following which the bus slowly set off. After traveling for a full two hours, the bus arrived in another densely popted area.

    .

    This ce was Area 66, thergest nursing hub in all of Sandrise City, home to thergest childcare center, kindergarten, and primary school in the entire city.

    Not only was there a huge number of children in this area, the streets were also packed with workers, as well as the parents and rtives of those children.

    Even though many women chose to pursue the path of nurturing their children through artificial wombs in order to avoid the pain and bodily harm that came with pregnancy and childbirth, this didn''t mean that they cared for or loved their children any less than they otherwise would''ve.

    Not only did this area boast a very high poption density, many of the people here werepletely defenseless against terrorist attacks, so if this area were to be targeted by an attack, then the consequences were going to be catastrophic.

 Chapter 90: Mirror Lake Primary School

    <h4>Chapter 90: Mirror Lake Primary School</h4>

    After arriving in Area 66, the first thing that Boss May did was instruct Red Spider to leave the bus and contact Mechguard. After receiving thetest information that Mechguard had to offer, she began to assign missions to everyone.

    "ording to what we''ve heard back from Mechguard, we still haven''t managed to determine the exact location of the psychic mutants. The total poption of Area 66 is around 4,000,000, and all-in-all, there are 13 main roads, 77 minor roads, threerge childcare facilities, 10rge primary schools and kindergartens..."

    May was giving everyone a detailed description of the situation in Area 66.

    Sandrise City was a massive metropolitan area with a total of 100 areas and a poption of 350 million.

    This sounded utterly ridiculous, but in reality, simr metropolitan areas had already arisen as far back as 100 years ago. Even a century ago, the Tokyo metropolitan area had already reached a staggering poption in the tens of millions, and at the time, the whole of Japan itself only had a poption of around 120 million.

    Ever since the conception of super smart apartmentplexes and the Metaverse, the major metropolises had be more and more populous in order to cut down on all types of costs, particrly the cost of data transmission.

    It sounded preposterous for a single area to have a poption in the millions, but there was a very good chance that a certain smart apartmentplex could be housing hundreds of thousands, or even over 1,000,000 residents. Furthermore, a single mega nursing facility could hold hundreds of thousands of infants.

    "... Hence, even with the assistance of Mechguard, it''s going to be virtually impossible to pick out the psychic mutants from all of the people in this area. We don''t know the locations of the psychic mutants carrying out the attack, but we can ascertain their target of attack to be those three major childchare centers, as well as those primary schools and kindergartens. The three major childcare centers will be the most important targets for us to protect.

    "I will be stationed at one of them in person, and there will be reinforcements stationed at the other two as well. As for therge primary schools and kindergartens, I will be assigning you to teams corresponding with those locations. If you get attacked, focus mainly on stalling the enemy and try to minimize risk as much as possible. Keep in mind that we have Mechguard on our side, so as long as the attack runs over a certain duration, Mechguard officers will definitely be able to track down the perpetrators.

    "No matter how advanced those long-range synapse transmission devices are, they can only epass a limited area. As soon as they''re spotted and identified by the electronic eyes of the Mechguard officers, it won''t take long for those officers to destroy the physical bodies of all of the attackers. Without their bodies, their minds will naturally also perish. Does everyone understand the n?"

    "Yes!"

    "Good!"

    "We hear you loud and clear, Boss!"

    "Of course!"

    The pawn shop wasn''t an official army, so the responses were all varied and chaotic, but thankfully, everyone was on the same page. Even though there was no uniformity in their responses, everyone had issued a response, and there were even people raising questions.

    "Boss, what should we do if the ce we''re assigned to protect doesn''t end up getting attacked?"

    "Yeah, and who are our reinforcements?"

    "Are they strong?"

    These three questions were all quite important.

    May addressed these questions with a nod, then leaned back against the windshield of the bus as she answered, "All of you will be given signal transmitters that you can set off if the location you''re assigned to is attacked. If those who are stationed nearby fail to discover any attackers, then they''ll provide reinforcements to those who are being attacked. Of course, if your team has three people, then you only need to send two people as reinforcements.

    "Thest member of the team has to stay behind in case of any unforeseen attacks. As for the reinforcements that I mentioned earlier, they''ll being from three sides. Out of the three, the Psychic Church will be providing the most reinforcements. I''m sure they don''t need any introduction. The southern and northern congresses will also be sending people..."

    "The northern congress? You mean the resistance army fromst time?"

    "That''s right."

    "The northern and southern congresses are working together?"

    "On the surface, they still have to work together, but make sure to be wary of the people from the southern congress. They''re in favor of establishing an adapter inspection department."

    May didn''t delve into this subject any further, only reminding issuing some words of caution to everyone.

    "We are a for-profit organization, and we''re only serving the authorities for the sake of self-interest, so remember at all times to avoid risk as much as possible. That''s all I have to say about that, let''s begin assigning teams now."

    May conducted her team assignment in a very intuitive fashion, taking the powers and level of familiarity of the team members into consideration.

    Adam''s team was pretty much already assigned. A team of four wasrger than what was standard, but the overallbat prowess of the team was quite mediocre. At their request, they were all assigned to the same team, then given a location to protect.

    After exiting the "school bus", the four of them examined the map on theirmunicators.

    "Looks like our target is Mirror Lake Primary School."

    "How do we get there?"

    "Let''s get a taxi."

    There were many passersby in the nearby area, and after exiting the carpark, they were greeted by the sight of a seemingly endless stream of cars on the streets.

    All of the normal people in the area werepletely oblivious to the storm that was about to arrive, and everyone was still going about their daily lives as usual.

    Adam and his group were standing together, and one of them was arranging a taxi booking, while everyone else was examining the map.

    "The location that we''ve been assigned to is up here in the north. The two closest targets to our location are Hank Street Primary School and Fuqing Brothers Primary School. If we need to call for reinforcements or are called on to provide reinforcements, we''ll most likely be interacting with those two locations."

    "Do you remember who was assigned to those two ces just now?"

    "I don''t."

    "Has anyone even been assigned to those ces yet?"

    "Not sure. Oh, herees the taxi!"

    As they were speaking with one another, a self-driving car arrived, and after getting into the car, it took about 20 minutes for the group to reach their destination.

    As soon as they emerged from the car, they were approached by two security guards who conducted an identity verification procedure.

    "Who are you?"

    Adam was rather taken aback to run into a situation like this as soon as they arrived at their destination. "Have you already received news of what''s happening?"

    "Tell me who you are!"

    The two security guards were both very burly in stature, and in addition to that, they were cyborgs whose bodies were fitted with special weapons that only security personnel working at schools could equip.

    "We''re from the pawn shop."

    "We''ll need to verify your identity." The two security guards pulled out a strange device. "This is a fingerprint scanner that can directly verify your identity from the Mechguard database."

    Adam reached out and pressed a finger against the device. At the same time, he was carefully watching the two security guards with his telegnosis fully activated in case he was dragged into the psychic world.

    A storm was imminent, and due to his special identity, he had to exercise the utmost caution with everything that he did. Aside from his teammates, he trusted no one.

    Beep beep beep...

    A string of electronic tones rang out, and the identity verification process waspleted, following which the two security guards led Adam and his group into the school.

    "The people from the congresses and the Psychic Church have arrived before you, so we''re already aware of the situation." After verifying their identities, the hostility that the security guards was disying toward Adam and his group immediately subsided. "Sorry for being so strict with our examination procedure, we appreciate your understanding."

    "That''s perfectly fine, it''s just standard procedure. I''m d you''re taking your responsibilities seriously."

    Adam entered the school before inspecting his surroundings.

    Even thoughnd in Sandrise City was extremely precious, Mirror Lake Primary School took up quite arge area. Not only did it have a yground and a sports field, there was even ake in the school''s premises, presumably the namesake for the school.

    Theke wasn''t veryrge, with a diameter of only around 100 meters, and it was quite round in shape, much like a mirror.

    No wonder this ce is named Mirror Lake Primary School.

 Chapter 91: The Four Powers

    <h4>Chapter 91: The Four Powers</h4>

    After entering the school, Adam immediately began to familiarize himself with its environment. If they were to be attacked, the ce that they were in right now would be projected in the psychic world, so this would be the battlefield if a battle were to arise.

    In contrast with Adam, Shae''s attention was focused elsewhere.

    "You just mentioned that the people from the congresses and the Psychic Church have already arrived, right?"

    "That''s right, they already arrived a few hours ago, and they notified us that the pawn shop would be sending people here as well."

    "Why are we sote?" Shae asked as she turned to Adam for an answer.

    After all, out of their team of four, he was the only one who actually belonged to the pawn shop.

    "I don''t know, either." Adam had no idea exactly how May had nned everything, so he could only take a guess. "If you ask me, the pawn shop is only here to help, so we''re only here to provide assistance."

    Shae considered this exnation for a moment and decided that it made sense.

    The congresses represented the government, and the government had a duty to capture these psychic mutants responsible for terrorist attacks, so they had an obligation to participate in this operation.

    As for the Psychic Church, that was also a semi-official organization. Most importantly, Carlin Asylum was being managed by Li Peng, one of the Psychic Church''s bishops. Hence, they were one of the main liable parties for this psychic mutant outbreak, and they also had an obligation to clean up the mess that they had caused.

    .

    However, the pawn shop was different. It was a solely privately owned for profit organization, and even though it had a coborative rtionship with Mechguard for the purpose of further development, at the end of the day, it had no direction obligation to participate in this operation and was only here to provide assistance.

    "No wonder May kept telling us to avoid risk as much as possible," Shae murmured.

    "Avoiding risk is the way to go. What could a ragtag team of noobs like us possibly do anyway?" Hook mused.

    "If we''re not going to take any risks, then there''s no point for me to be here!" Nie Yiyi objected.

    "Quit bickering! The battle hasn''t even begun yet, and we''re already fighting among ourselves. All of us have our own objectives, so we just have to focus on being ourselves."

    As the group was quarreling with one another, they were led by the security guards into arge building that served as both a school building and an office area.

    They rode the elevator to the top floor, arriving in arge room that could''ve been a conference hall or the principal''s office, and there were already around a dozen people gathered in the room.

    After bringing Adam and the others into the room, the two security guards turned to a white-haired old man and reported, "Principal, these people are from the Fairness Pawn Shop. We''ve already verified their identities."

    "Wee! Pleasee in." The principal made his way toward Adam and the others, and he could see that Adam was walking at the very center of the group, so he immediately approached Adam to shake his hand. "I am the principal of Mirror Lake Primary School, my name is Zhou Tan."

    "Hi, my name is Adam, and these are my colleagues."

    Adam only took a quick nce at Zhou Tan before shifting his attention to everyone else in the room.

    There really wasn''t much to observe in the principal of a primary school. He was a gentle and refined man who appeared to be around 60 years of age, wearing a pair of ck-rimmed sses that had been popr the previous century. Even if he were doing nothing but walking on the street, going about his daily activities, one could easily pick him out as a principal.

    Hence, Adam ced most of his attention on the other people present.

    There were several people standing behind the principal, presumably also administrators of the school, so they could also be ignored.

    In addition to them, there were two groups of people standing in the room, and there was a clear divide between them, much like ayer of oil sitting on a body of water.

    The people in the group that was closest to Adam were all wearing signature robes of the Psychic Church. These robes were given to members of the Psychic Church upon entry into the organization, and there were no rules stipting that the robes had to be worn, but it was considered customary for members of the Psychic Church to wear these robes in official settings in order to disy their allegiance.

    There were a total of seven people from the Psychic Church present. As thergest adapter organization in the world, the Psychic Church naturally possessed a huge number of members, so it was no surprise that they had sent far more people than the pawn shop.

    However, Adam could sense that these seven adapters weren''t all that powerful. This feeling stemmed from his telegnosis. Telegnosis was an amalgamation of all one''s senses, and those with powerful telegnosis were capable of sensing danger.

    Danger presented itself as a sense of pressure, and the more pressure that one sensed from another person, the more powerful that person was going to be.

    As for the other group, that one only consisted of two people, but they were clearly far more formidable.

    Those two were from the congresses, and even though they were standing together, both of them were exuding a very clear sense of mutual animosity, and it was as if there were an insurmountable gulf standing between them.

    Furthermore, the two of them were also disyingpletely different attitudes toward Adam.

    After Adam''s brief chat with Zhou Tan, the first to approach him was one of the congress representatives, and he was very warm and friendly toward Adam.

    "Hello Adam, Cowboy''s told me a lot about you."

    It seemed like this was nothing more than a standard greeting, but it told Adam everything that he needed to hear.

    There were three pieces of information presented in that simple greeting: the man was clearly on very good terms with Cowboy, which indicated that he was from the northern congress resistance army, and the fact that he had heard about Adam meant that he was an ally.

    "Hello!" Adam was more than happy to reciprocate the friendliness disyed to him. "These are schoolmates of mine from Layton Academy, and we''re all very close friends."

    "Layton Academy?" the representatives from the Psychic Church interjected, and they were looking down on Adam and his group with haughty expressions as if they were masters looking down on trainees. "What is the pawn shop thinking sending a bunch of schoolkids to a mission like this? If we get attacked, will we have to babysit you along with all of the children here? This is ridiculous!"

    "You wanna say that again?"

    In the face of such tant mockery, Shae''s signature fiery temper immediately red up.

    She had reined in her temper during the gathering as she had to secure the trust of the shareholders, and in addition to that, Masao Yamamoto was far too powerful to directly oppose, so even if she had given in to her temper, it wouldn''t have done her any good.

    However, someone like her could rein in her temper once, but that didn''t mean that she could do it every time, and she immediately snapped here, with her anger fueled by the indignation that she had sufferedst time.

    "I may only be a student, but I''ve heard that only talentless adapters turn to the Psychic Church for employment. You get a stable ie and a strong backer by working for the Psychic Church, but at the end of the day, you''re just a bunch ofpdogs with no freedom."

    "What did you just say? Are you looking down on the Psychic Church?"

    A middle-aged woman from the Psychic Church immediately stepped forward with abative expression.

    "No no no, I''m not looking down on the Psychic Church. Otherwise, I wouldn''t be going to Layton Academy," Shae replied with a shrug, but as soon as the tense atmosphere was defused slightly, she added, "I''m just looking down on you. The Psychic Church is a very powerful organization, but even the most illustrious organizations will inevitably have some scum among their ranks, isn''t that right?"

    Shae turned to the rest of her group as she spoke.

    "Why are you dragging us down with you?" Hook sighed with a resigned expression. "I don''t want to make an enemy out of the Psychic Church."

    "The battle hasn''t even begun yet, and you''re already fighting among yourselves." The representative of the southern congress finally spoke up, and she took a nce at the two quarreling parties before changing the subject. "Now that the representatives of the pawn shop have arrived, let me exin our n to all of you again. We justmunicated with the principal earlier, and we decided that if we get attacked, we''ll immediately raise the rm. Once the students hear the rm, they''ll think that a fire drill is taking ce, and that''ll give us a reason to evacuate them to the Mirror Lake."

    "Hold on, if we get attacked, wouldn''t we already be in the psychic world? Are there fire rms in the psychic world as well?"

 Chapter 92: Bell

    <h4>Chapter 92: Bell</h4>

    The one who had raised the question was Nie Yiyi. She hadn''t been present during thest attack, and for someone who was solely focused on improving her ownbat prowess, it was clear that she wasn''t very studious when it came to the theoretical lessons being taught in ss.

    "Haven''t you been taught this by the teachers at Layton Academy?" The middle-aged woman from the Psychic Church was interjecting once again, and she lowered the hood of her robe to reveal a very ordinary and unremarkable face that looked as if it belonged to someone around 40 years of age. "If they''re going to initiate arge-scale psychic invasion, they''ll find a powerful adapter to drag everyone into their psychic world, but due to therge number of people that''ll be dragged into the psychic world at once, the fundamental makeup of that psychic world will be altered. The memories of every single one of the students at the school will impact the psychic world, so the environment of the psychic world will be infinitely approaching reality."

    The woman rolled her eyes at the group from the pawn shop as she spoke, and she became even more convinced that this was just a group of students who didn''t know even the most basic general knowledge, and that they had been sent here by May just to make up the numbers.

    The representative from the southern congress could see that the two sides were about to begin bickering again, and he hurriedly interjected, "The students of Mirror Lake Primary School have participated in many fire drills in the past, and as soon as they hear the fire rm, they''ll make an organized evacuation toward the Mirror Lake. Inside the school building, there are a total of four levels that are dedicated to ssrooms. We''ll assign one person to protect each level, then gather all of the students beside theke so we can protect them all in one ce."

    Adam felt this to be quite a reasonable n, but at the same time, there also seemed to be something wrong with it.

    Before Adam had a chance to pinpoint exactly what was wrong with the n, Nie Yiyi raised a very good question.

    "It''s definitely going to be difficult to protect all of the students if they''re spread out everywhere, but if we gather them together, only for the enemy to unleash a powerfulrge-scale attack, wouldn''t that result in even more casualties?"

    "Don''t worry about that, I''m a guardian ss adapter!" the representative of the northern congress interjected. "My ability is to conjure up a protective barrier that can epass arge area and protect everything within the barrier."

    "Alright, in that case, this seems like a good n."

    Seeing as their ally had already spoken, Adam no longer had any objections to this proposed course of action.

    After some discussion, Adam and his friends were assigned to the fourth floor. Of course, the woman from the Psychic Church was unconvinced that Adam and his friends were up to the task, so she volunteered to also be assigned to the fourth floor.

    Shae raised an objection to this proposal, but it was turned down.

    After all, the Psychic Church had more representatives, and they were fighting for their honor. The psychic mutant outbreak was a direct result of their negligence, and if they were to allow those psychic mutants to cause more death and suffering, then the societal pressure facing the Psychic Church would be infinitely amplified.

    After arranging all of that, Adam and the others traveled to the fourth floor and began to examine itsyout.

    At this time of the day, all of the students were still attending sses as normal, and after making an inspection of the building, Adam had a rough idea of itsyout.

    "The first to fourth floors are allprised entirely of ssrooms, and the floors above are the office and administration area. The fourth floor that we''re guarding is the highest floor of the teaching area, and there are a total of 17 ssrooms on this floor. Due to the fact that we''re going to be evacuating the children under the guise of a fire drill, no one will be taking the elevators. Instead, they''ll all be going through this fire exit."

    Adam was pointing at the manual staircase down below as he spoke.

    The staircase was quite wide, and connected the fourth floor to the lower floors.

    "If those psychic mutants still have some sense of logic left and haven''tpletely gone insane yet, then there''s a very good chance that they''ll choose to target this area in their attack. After all, all of the students will be gathered on the passageway leading to the fire exit, so if we do get attacked, we have to be extra vignt."

    "What''s a student like you doing going around preaching like an adult? Do you think this is a game?" Everyone else in the group was already ustomed to following Adam''s arrangements, but that didn''t apply to the neer. "I''m acting on my own."

    This neer was none other than the middle-aged woman from the Psychic Church, and it had just been established that her name was Orster.

    Her sole reason for joining this group was because she didn''t trust these students to be able to do their job properly, so she was naturally unwilling to conform to Adam''s instructions and insisted on acting on her own.

    Afterpleting the required arrangements, Adam didn''t speak with Orster any further. In contrast, Shae was still asionally bickering with her. Meanwhile, Nie Yiyi was meditating in preparation for the potential battle toe, while Hook had already brought out his filming equipment and was preparing to capture footage for his next viral video.

    The inte here was already being monitored, and allmunication signals would be sent to the data center to undergo a screening process.

    Time slowly passed by as everyone waited for the storm to arrive.

    They waited all the way until it was close to the end of the school day, but there were still no signs of an attack.

    "Are they not going toe?" Hook made his way over to Adam with a disappointed expression. "I''m not going to have any material for my next video!"

    "The probability of our location being attacked wasn''t particrly high to begin with," Adam said as he provided Hook with his in-depth analysis. "Firstly, even the information that we received may not necessarily be urate. Even if the information is urate, if there''s a mole among us, that could lead to the psychic mutants calling off the attack. Even if they go through with the attack anyway, their main targets will be the major childcare centers, and it''s not very likely that they would choose to attack the primary schools. Even if they do choose to target the primary schools, our one may not necessarily be one of the locations that they attack."

    "Yeah, I guess you''re right. The school day ends in a few minutes, and we haven''t received any calls for reinforcements, either. It looks like..."

    Before Hook even had a chance to finish, the bell signaling the end of the school day had already begun to ring.

    "Well, looks like that''s it..."

    "Our job here seems to be done, but I''m going to head to the school gate and continue to keep an eye out for... Hold on, something''s not right!"

    Adam was midway through his sentence when he detected that something was amiss.

    During his week-long stint of training with Sadou, most of that time had been spent honing his telegnosis. In particr, he had spent countless repetitions training the transition back and forth between the real world and the psychic world.

    Some psychic worlds infinitely approached the real world in terms of realism, but the biggest difference was how rigid psychic worlds were.

    There was no sense of life in the breeze brushing over one''s face, and the stone material of the building''s walls felt a little insubstantial beneath Adam''s hand. Furthermore, the second half of the bell, thest few rings, to be more urate, sounded slightly t and dead.

    Under normal circumstances, Adam would''ve perhaps failed to notice these minute differences, but now that he was on high alert, he immediately sensed the disturbance. Thus, he quickly attempted to invoke his anomalies, and they instantly appeared at hismand, indicating that they were already in the psychic world!

    "Hellhound, st a fireball up at the sky!"

    In the instant that Adam realized that they were in the psychic world, his first thought was to notify everyone else. At the moment, he was standing at the entrance of the fire exit, and after being invoked, Hellhound rushed back into the corridor before releasing an Explosive Fireball up into the sky.

    Boom!

    The fireball exploded up above, and the light of the fire illuminated the entire school.

    With such a tant signal, even an idiot would immediately be able toprehend what was happening.

    In the next instant, a piercing fire rm rang out, drowning out the sound of the afterschool bell, and all of the teachers began to lead the students out of the ssrooms in an orderly evacuation.

    "Don''t be in a hurry to go home, everyone! There has been a fire in the school!"

    "Shane, stop running! Stay where you are, you don''t get to go home yet!"

    "Follow me to the fire exit!"

 Chapter 93: Mole

    <h4>Chapter 93: Mole</h4>

    After alerting everyone to the ongoing situation, Adam was still concerned for the safety of the children, and he rushed back to the corridor, where he saw a few teachers organizing the children to be evacuated through the fire exit.

    He looked around with a wary expression, but didn''t spot any suspicious individuals. He then turned to Orster, only to find that she had been rather slow to react and had only justpleted her transformation.

    Even if you were an adapter, you wouldn''t undergo your normal transformation if you weren''t aware that you were in the psychic world.

    Orster''s psychic body was a stunning beauty, in stark contrast with her unremarkable appearance in real life. In this form, she had a voluptuous chest and backside, and her lips were full and alluring. She was very beautiful, for sure, but it was a little too over the top.

    In particr, her massive rear end resembled a millstone, and it seemed like it was only going to weigh her down in battle.

    Adam wanted to see what her psychic body looked like so he didn''t end up mistakenly targeting her during the uing battle.

    However, his arrival kicked off a small-scale panic. Some of the children had just witnessed Hellhound sting an Explosive Fireball into the sky, and with Adam''s arrival, the children were also exposed to the sight of Mummy, and many of them began crying and screaming in horror.

    "Hey, no running! Don''t be afraid, this is a Halloween dress rehearsal organized by our school."

    The teachers were frantically yelling over the screaming children to maintain order, and after ensuring that everything was fine, Adam temporarily retreated back to the fire exit. At the same time, he withdrew his invoked entities.

    All of these children were still in primary school, and even the oldest among them were only 11 or 12 years old, while the youngest ones were only six or seven years of age. As such, theirprehension ability was very limited. In addition to that, even the average adult had very limited exposure to concepts such as adapters and psychic worlds, so it was certainly unreasonable to expect children to understand.

    Thankfully, it was clear that the teachers held a great deal of authority in the hearts of the students, and it didn''t take long for them to restore order after fabricating some lying and cajoling.

    "Hurry up and get into a line, everyone, just like we practiced before! Stop running, Michael! You''re going to step on someone!"

    The fire rm was still ringing, and the teachers were still yelling frantically over the rm. Even though the situation was very chaotic, the students were still able to make their way to the fire escape without much further dy.

    Inside the passageway, Adam''s telegnosis was fully activated, and he was constantly looking out for sneak attacks. However, the students made it all the way to the bottom floor without a hitch.

    What''s going on here? Why are they not attacking after dragging everyone into the psychic world?

    Adam was very perplexed. After all, ording to what May had told them, stalling for time would only be beneficial to them and detrimental to the enemy.

    The longer this went on, the greater the chance that Mechguard''s attention would be drawn to the scene.

    Something''s not right here.

    Adam couldn''t think of a reason why the enemy would do this, so as a precautionary measure, he invoked Clown and Nun and instructed them to scout the nearby area.

    Both of the anomalies were at an infantile stage and didn''t possess muchbat prowess, but one of them was able to conjure up illusions and had a concealment ability, while the other was able to possess objects and manifest darkness, so both made for great scouts.

    After the two miniature anomalies were invoked, Clown leaped forward a few times before concealing itself, vanishing on the spot. Meanwhile, Nun took some time to inspect the environment around itself, then flew into the body of a boy as a streak of ck light.

    The boy was the one that the teacher had referred to as Michael earlier. He was a real troublemaker, and while everyone was evacuating in an orderly fashion under the instructions of the teachers, he was constantly darting around, tripping over the students beside him on several asions.

    He seemed to revel in causing chaos, and the louder the fire rm became, the more excited he grew, and he wasn''t considering the consequences of his actions at all.

    His egregious personality immediately resonated with Nun, and it instantly possessed the little boy, drawn to him by the negative energy that he was giving off. The possession process went without a hitch, and Nun didn''t encounter any obstruction before the possession wasplete.

    Following the possession, Michael''s face instantly turned as white as a sheet, which only worked to further entuate the dark rings that had appeared around his eyes. He quickly inspected his surroundings, and while the teachers weren''t looking, he snuck out of the line.

    Adam was witnessing all of this as it unfolded, but he did nothing to stop it. Michael''s presence already posed a severe threat to the safety of others, so it was a good thing that he was detaching himself from the rest of the students.

    Adam''s mission was to protect everyone, so Michael''s departure was a perfect development in his eyes.

    The students slowly scaled down the fire exit staircase amid the chaos, from the fourth floor all the way down to the front of the school building. It was rather cramped with so many people gathered together, and everyone began to move toward the clearing in front of the Mirror Lake ording to the original n.

    During this time, Adam still didn''t spot any attack signals, and the children continued to move toward the Mirror Lake as they had rehearsed many times in past fire drills.

    However, right at this moment, a child suddenly rushed toward Adam at a speed far faster than what the average person should''ve been capable of. The child was none other than Michael.

    He arrived by Adam''s side, then pointed at theke in the distance as he said in a dry and raspy voice, "Anomalic... power..."

    "What do you mean?"

    Adam cast his gaze toward theke in the distance, but failed to detect anything.

    "Under... the...ke..."

    As an anomaly that was capable of possession, Nun was most sensitive to special types of power out of all of Adam''s anomalies, and that allowed it to sense some things that Adam couldn''t.

    At this point, it was already abundantly clear what Nun was referring to.

    There was anomalic power under theke. Anomalic power was something that was possessed by both emotional anomalies and psychic mutants, and the presence of anomalic power under theke indicated that the psychic mutants had already set up an ambush there in advance.

    They were waiting for all the children to make their way to theke beforeunching their attack!

    Everything makes sense now!

    Ever since the psychic mutants were released, their objective had always been to sow panic in the masses, and in order to achieve this goal, they had to manufacture a serious incident.

    Their goal couldn''t just be achieved by killing a few people or causing a small-scale incident.

    If they wanted an overwhelming majority of the general public to support the establishment of an adapter inspection department, then they needed to perpetrate an incident that affected a massive scale. Ideally, the victims would be children, and arge number of children, at that. Just killing a few or even several dozen children wasn''t enough, they had to wipe out an entire school.

    Hence, they were waiting for the perfect opportunity. The fire exit passageway was a good ce to lurk, but it still wasn''t good enough. They wanted to gather everyone in one ce and wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

    <i>How do they know that all of the children will be evacuated to theke? </i>

    Adam inspected the surroundingndscape, and even though the school wasn''t exactly massive, it wasn''t a small establishment, either, and there was more than one ce that could fit all of the children at once.

    It was quite a stretch to say that they predicted that all of the students would gather at the clearing beside theke solely because they had heard the fire rm.

    Could it be that someone tipped them off in advance?

    Adam''s gaze roamed over the surrounding area before settling on the representative of the southern congress.

    Her form in the psychic world was much the same as his appearance in the real world. The only difference of note was that he was wearing a pair of strange and heavy-looking metal gloves, and at the moment, he was in the process of instructing everyone to proceed toward theke.

    Adam didn''t know who it was that had leaked this information, but regardless of who it was, he had to stop this right away.

    "Everyone, stay where you are! Don''t go to theke!" Adam yelled, and the people around him reflexively stopped in their tracks.

    However, his voice still wasn''t loud enough to reach everyone, and he inhaled deeply before yelling in an even louder voice, "Everyone, stay where you are! There''s danger by theke!"

 Chapter 94: Leech

    <h4>Chapter 94: Leech</h4>

    Adam''s loud cries finally attracted the attention of the majority of people around him, and all of the school administrators and adapters who were maintaining order gathered around him, asking him why there was suddenly a change of ns.

    "What''s going on?"

    "Why can''t we go to theke?"

    "It''s dangerous over there!" Adam reiterated. "The psychic mutants are lurking underwater!"

    Adam took a nce at the representative the southern congress as he spoke, and the representative was avoiding his gaze slightly, but that still wasn''t enough to serve as definitive proof of guilt.

    Upon noticing Adam''s intrusive gaze, he immediately put on a calm fa?ade before asking, "How do you know there are psychic mutants underwater?"

    Adam scrambled momentarily for a justification before making one up on the spot.

    "My special ability allowed me to detect them!"

    "Really? Have any of you felt anything off? We''re still quite a distance away from theke. Even for someone with exceptional telegnosis, surely it''d be very difficult to detect anything. I have to say, your ims are a little suspicious." Orster was also speaking up now, and she immediately sided with the representative from the southern congress. "We were patrolling the same level of the school building, and he never left the building the entire time. I reckon he''s just feeling insecure as a young student among all of us seasoned adapters, and he''s making up this story to draw some attention to himself."

    "I know we don''t really see eye-to-eye with each other, but have you considered the consequences of outright dismissing me like this?" Adam''s temper was also beginning to re up in the face of Orster''s obnoxious arrogance. "Are you going to risk the lives of so many people just to spite me?"

    "I agree with Adam." Shi Feng of the northern congress also joined in on the conversation, and he was siding with Adam. "It may be a little cramped over here, but there''s still enough room for everyone. Even if Adam''s ims are a little contentious, we should still err on the side of caution, seeing as the lives of so many students are on the line, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "But it''s way easier to hide people in the school building, and they''ll have a vantage point now that we''re on the ground level. Hey! What are you filming for?"

    The representative of the southern congress was just about to raise her opinion when she noticed a steam-powered robot adapter hiding at the back of the group, filming her with a piece of special equipment.

    "I''m just keeping some records of what''s happening here," Hook exined as he continued to film without pause.

    With a camera trained on her, the representative of the southern congress didn''t speak any further, and as a result, Orster was also left high and dry without any support, unsure of how to proceed.

    Thus, Shi Feng suggested, "If we want to know what''s happening, then all we need to do is send out a scout. I have to stay here to protect the students. Who wants to go and scout out theke?"

    "..."

    His question was met with silence from everyone.

    Adam definitely didn''t want to go. He was certain that there was danger afoot there, and he had witnessed the power of psychic mutants before. They were adapters who had fused as one with their emotional anomalies, and the ones in question had been locked up in a maximum security asylum before their escape. No matter how one looked at it, they had to be far more powerful than the average adapter.

    He was no match for them, and he didn''t have a death wish.

    "Why''s no one saying anything? Wasn''t that old hag over there really convinced that there''s no danger beside theke?" Shae said in a goading voice to break the silence. "What? You don''t even believe yourself now? All you do is run your mouth, but you can''t back it up? Didn''t you say that we''re just a bunch of useless students? Surely you can''t expect our ipetent selves to scout out theke!"

    "No way, surely she''s not that spineless! Didn''t you see how arrogant she was when she was talking trash earlier? Why is she suddenly such a coward when it''s time to put her money where her mouth is? Is this what everyone in the Psychic Church is like? Also, if I recall correctly, didn''t these psychic mutants escape due to your Psychic Church''s negligence? Are you hoping for others to clean up your mess for you because you''re too scared to do it yourself? If you''re that shameless, then your skin really is as thick as your ass!"

    Orster was furious to hear this, and she immediately opened her mouth to retaliate, only to be interrupted by Shae again.

    "Are you just going to keep bickering with a bunch of ipetent students like us? There are so many people watching, why don''t you show us what you''ve got?"

    "Fine, I''ll scout out theke!"

    Orster was so enraged that her psychic body was warping slightly, and she didn''t hesitate any longer as she immediately made her way toward the Mirror Lake.

    The school building was roughly 800 to 900 meters away from the Mirror Lake, and Orster strode directly toward theke after departing from the group.

    After reaching theke, she examined the entire shore of theke, but didn''t discover anything amiss.

    "There''s nothing here!" she yelled from theke. "What did I tell you? It''s perfectly safe over here! Continue with the original n!"

    "What do you think, Adam?" Shi Feng asked as he approached Adam. "Are you sure there are psychic mutants hiding there?"

    Shi Feng was speaking very quietly in a voice that was reserved for close allies. He wanted to know if Adam was just doing this to prove a point, or if he actually felt like there was danger afoot by theke.

    "I''m almost certain there are psychic mutants in theke. Even if that''s not the case, all we have to do is stay here and stall for a while. A lot of time has already passed, and the psychic mutants can''t afford to wait much longer. Let''s just stall for a few more minutes, and they''ll be forced to strike sooner rather thanter."

    While Adam and Shi Feng were quietly conversing with one another, they were approached by the representative of the southern congress.

    "There are no issues with theke. Let''s proceed as normal."

    "We still haven''t checked underwater yet!" After hearing what Adam had to say, Shi Feng immediately began employing stall tactics. "We need to examine the entirety of theke to be sure, not just the shore. Only after confirming that it''s safe there can we proceed as normal."

    "Everyone is way too densely packed here! If we get attacked now, we''re definitely going to suffer severe casualties. Everyone, listen to me and continue toward theke!"

    The representative of the southern congress was trying to sway everyone to her side, but at this crucial juncture, all of the teachers turned to the principal, Zhou Tan, for his opinion on the matter.

    As teachers of the school, there was no need for them to follow the instructions of any outsiders. They shared no personal ties or superior-subordinate rtions with these adapters, so they naturally turned to the principal for instructions on how to proceed.

    As for the students, they had no opinion of their own. The average age of these students was only eight years old, and in their eyes, their teachers held absolute authority. Aside from their teachers, they didn''t follow anyone else''s instructions.

    "Look at this situation right now, Principal Zhou. With so many children packed so tightly in one ce, if an explosion takes ce now, the consequences will be catastrophic!"

    The representative of the southern congress was beginning to apply pressure to Zhou Tan.

    "Let''s just wait for a few more minutes. A few minutes isn''t going to change anything. I still say it''s better to err on the side of caution given what''s at stake here."

    Shi Feng''s voice rang out to oppose the representative of the southern congress, and his opinion clearly held more weight than one that was raised by a student like Adam.

    Just like Shi Feng said, it was only a few minutes, and Zhou Tan could afford to wait out that duration before making a decision.

    "Everyone, remain where you are. Teachers, make sure to keep a close eye on your students and ensure everything remains in order..."

    As soon as Zhou Tan''s voice trailed off, a resounding boom suddenly rang out from the Mirror Lake.

    Perhaps the psychic mutants lurking in theke had heard the decision that was being made, or they had simply run out of patience. In any case, they sprang up from thekebed and out into the open.

    The psychic mutant was in the form of a massive leech-like monster, and it was clear just from the degree of mutation that they had undergone that they were far more powerful than Mice King.

    Not only did the leech possess no humanoid traits, it was far more massive than the average person as well.

    As soon as the giant leech monster appeared, it immediately opened the mouthpart on the top of its head, releasing a tongue that was as sharp as a sword.

    The tongue shot out at an extremely rming speed. In fact, this was the fastest attack that Adam had ever seen, and all he saw was a blur sh past his eyes before Orster''s chest waspletely pierced through, leaving a massive gaping hole.

    She didn''t even get a chance to attack before she was killed on the spot.

 Chapter 95: Average Level

    <h4>Chapter 95: Average Level</h4>

    That was way too fast!

    This was the fastest Adam had ever lost an ally in all of the battles that he had participated in.

    Orster had been killed in a matter of seconds, and not only was she unable to test out the powers of her assant, even as her teammate, Adam had no idea how powerful Orster was or what abilities she possessed.

    Aplex look appeared in Shae''s eyes at the sight of Orster''s abrupt death. She detested the arrogant woman, but she didn''t want her to die.

    "Don''t get too hung up on this. If she didn''t die, then these students would''ve perished in her ce! She opposed us at every turn and was always trying to establish superiority over us, and in the end, she fell to her own hubris. What''s happened has already happened, focus on the battle right now!"

    Adam wasn''t affected in the slightest by what he had just witnessed, and he immediately invoked Mummy and Hellhound before fusing with the former.

    Shi Feng also wasted no time with words as he unleashed his protective ability, releasing a light barrier that epassed everyone around him.

    At this point, the psychic mutant was already at the end of its wits.

    His mission was to kill over 1,000 students in as short a time as possible. The electronic eye of Mechguard had already been attacked by hackers, and with all of the data bombs being hurled at them, the Mechguard officers will essentially be rendered blind for some time.

    However, due to the existence of the Dataist Union, this was not going to be a very long time at all.

    The original n was for him to wait until all of the students reached theke before initiating an attack, but it seemed that he would have to adapt.

    Due to the time constraints, as soon as the psychic mutant appeared, it immediately pounced toward everyone with its massive body squirming vigorously. Despite its enormous size and the fact that it seemed to have no limbs, it was still able to move extremely quickly, covering a distance of 800 to 900 meters within the span of 10 seconds. Upon arriving before everyone, it reared up to attack the children that were densely packed together, but its massive tail struck the protective barrier conjured up by Shi Feng.

    A loud thump rang out as the barrier withstood the impact, and ripples surged across its surface.

    Psychic mutants were deranged, but they weren''t stupid, and upon seeing the protective barrier, the giant leech monster immediately tracked down Shi Feng in the crowd by tracing the light paths that generated the barrier.

    It then spread open its disgusting mouthpart andunched its spear-like tongue through the air again.

    .

    The tongue instantly punched a hole through the protective barrier amid a sound akin to shattering ss, then sped directly toward Shi Feng.

    He wanted to resist, but most of his power was dedicated to protecting the students, and in addition to that, the tongue was traveling toward him so quickly that he had no time to react.

    Right as the tongue was about to pierce through his chest, a figure appeared before him, shielding him from the attack.

    The very same attack that had been powerful enough to punch through the protective barrier and kill Orster on the spot was taken head-on by the figure, and not only did they not die, they remainedpletely unscathed.

    "Adam?" Shi Feng looked on with wide eyes as Mummy took a few steps back toward him. "How are you so strong? This doesn''t match the data that we have on you!"

    "Now''s not the time to be talking about this! We have to think of a way to take care of this psychic mutant first!"

    While the two of them were speaking to one another, the leech monster had already withdrawn its tongue, following which it viciously attacked the opening in the protective barrier with its body. After two or three heavy ms, the opening was erged slightly, and it opened its mouth before releasing countless tiny leeches into the area epassed by the barrier.

    "Quick, we have to stop it!" someone yelled from up above, following which an Explosive Fireball wasunched up into the sky, blowing up countless leeches.

    However, there were some that managed to sneak through and fell onto the ground.

    As soon as the leechesnded, they began to viciously attack the defenseless schoolchildren.

    The area was very small and densely packed with people, and primary school children had veryckluster mobility, so around a dozen of them fell prey to the leeches in the blink of an eye. The leeches attached themselves to the children''s bodies, and it only took a leech a few seconds to suck a child''s bloodpletely dry. The fist-sized leeches grewrger andrger as they continued to feast, and in the end, they grew to be asrge as the average adult human and were capable of devouring students whole.

    The leeches were like a pride of lions tearing their way through a pen of sheep, and before long, dozens of casualties had already been suffered.

    "Fuck!"

    The adapters couldn''t just stand around and watch any longer, and all of the adapters from the Psychic Church and Adam''s team sprang into action at once to attack the leeches.

    A single wind de unleashed by Nie Yiyi was able to sever the bodies of three leeches, but afternding on the ground, Nie Yiyi looked down to find that the leeches that had already been sliced into two were squirming incessantly as the halves of their bodies fused together again.

    "Damn it!"

    Nie Yiyi shed her des through the air, slicing a leech in front of her into several pieces, but it was still able to slowly recover to its original form.

    Thankfully, Shae arrived on the scene in her werewolf form before sting a burst of fire out of her mouth, incinerating the leech that was trying to regenerate itself into ashes.

    By the time the two of them killed the three leeches, the rest of the leeches had also been taken care of by the Psychic Church''s adapters.

    In total, the Psychic Church had sent seven adapters, and with the passing of Orster, there were still six left.

    Through the battle that had just taken ce, Adam was able to determine the level of ability that the six of them possessed. They were all rtively mature adapters with roughlyparable levels of power.

    In terms of overall power, they could most likely stand toe to toe with a level two anomaly, and they were roughlyparable with the Golden Iron Triangle that Anomaly had dealt with in the past, but their abilities didn''tplement one another like those of the Golden Iron Triangle did. They were hovering right around the average level of ability for the majority of adapters in society.

    None of the six adapters from the Psychic Church were exceptionally powerful, but thankfully, there were quite a few of them, so they were still quite useful in battle.

    While Adam was observing the battle that was taking ce on the other side, Shi Feng''s voice rang out from behind him.

    "It''s starting to st out leeches again! We can''t keep letting it do whatever it wants. We''ve already suffered severe casualties just from that one wave of leeches alone!"

    "Looks like we''ll have to seize the initiative and strike back!"

    Shi Feng''s protective barrier was able to ensure the safety of the majority of students, but there was no way that it could protect everyone if the enemy were to target any particr spot on the barrier to attack.

    "You''re no match for it! Look after yourself above all else!"

    "It''s fine. I may be no match for it, but it can''t kill me, either!"

    Emboldened by his exceptional defensive prowess, Adam charged directly out of the area epassed within the protective barrier without any hesitation.

    The ss-like protective barrier was very difficult to break through from the outside, but it posed about as much resistance as a gentle film of water for those passing out of it from the inside. After rushing out of the protected area, Adam immediately leaped up into the air, raising his carving knife before plunging it into the leech''s abdomen.

    The leech monster''s defenses were ratherckluster, and the knife plunged into its body as if it were piercing into butter, burying itself to the hilt with ease.

    Adam then twisted the de around before slicing downward with his bodyweight, and he was able to disembowel the leech monster, inflicting a horrific wound that was several meters in length onto its massive body.

    The giant leech monster immediately let loose an agonized scream as it twisted and writhed violently.

 Chapter 96: Battle Experience

    <h4>Chapter 96: Battle Experience</h4>

    The violent thrashing of the leech monster''s body produced two cascade effects, one of which helped Adam''s cause, while the other was far more detrimental.

    The good news was that the leech monster was distracted by its agony and temporarily ceased attacking the students, but the bad news was that as it was thrashing its massive body, it released a huge amount of mucus.

    Adam was still situated where the leech monster''s wound was, and as the mucus came crashing down, he had no time to dodge and was instantlypletely drenched.

    Immediately thereafter, his body began to sizzle audibly from intense corrosion.

    The sound was extremely loud, and in mere moments, his entire body began to bubble and froth as if he had been tossed into a pot of scorching hot oil.

    .

    This is some nasty stuff!

    This was one of the most powerful attacks that Adam had faced to date, and if he hadn''t undergone histest evolution, he would''ve definitely suffered severe acid burns all over his entire body. In fact, there was a decent chance that he would''ve already perished by now.

    Thankfully, after devouring all of Nun''s anomalic power, Adam''s defenses had been drastically enhanced, and with his physical resistance that far exceeded that of a normal level three anomaly, he was more than capable of withstanding this attack.

    However, that didn''t apply to everyone else.

    "Stay back! Don''t get close to this thing!"

    After Adam sliced that massive wound into the leech monster''s body, everyone else also rushed from the barrier to join him, including Shae, Nie Yiyi, and the adapters from the Psychic Church.

    Out of the Psychic Church''s six adapters, four specialized in meleebat, while the other two were long-range attackers, and Adam''s warning arrived right as the melee attackers rushed onto the scene, but theypletely ignored him.

    After all, even though Adam had beenpletely drenched in mucus, there was only some bubbling on his body, and it didn''t appear as if he had been harmed in any meaningful way.

    Most importantly, Adam hadn''t made any remarkable disys of power. He had only done two things of note in this battle thus far, the first of which was blocking that attack for Shi Feng, while the second was inflicting that wound upon the leech monster.

    For the first instance, the leech monster''s tongue seemed to have exhausted most of its power piercing through the protective barrier, so it wasn''t all that remarkable that Adam was able to block it, and the second instance wasn''t a clear indication of Adam''s powers, either.

    Hence, the adapters of the Psychic Church paid no heed to Adam''s warnings as they rushed toward the leech monster and began to strike at it with their own unique attacks.

    A few blows were dealt, and they were instantly effective.

    The leech monster''s defenses were very weak, and the Psychic Church''s adapters were able to immediately punch a hole into its body with theirbined efforts. However, mucus then came gushing out of the hole, and one of the adapters had their fist and the entirety of their arm melted away in an instant.

    The second adapter was in an even more horrific state. He specialized in kicking attacks, and the mucus melted away half of his body, leaving him howling in agony with only his upper body remaining.

    The third adapter was struck in the face by the mucus spray, and he was instantly disfigured into a faceless freak.

    There were a total of four adapters from the Psychic Church who were attacking the leech monster, and only the spear-wielder among them was able to escape injury, but his spear had also melted away.

    The retaliation from the leech monster instantly made the adapters of the Psychic Church realize just how fearsome it was.

    "Get back! Don''t attack it up close! Get back!" the spear-wielding adapter yelled as he frantically retreated, but he had only taken a couple of steps before the leech monster''s sharp tongue pierced through his chest.

    Damn it, why are these people so arrogant?

    Adam was feeling extremely frustrated and exasperated as he watched his "allies" perish one after another.

    He didn''t have any emotional ties to these people, but in this situation, they were hisrades.

    They weren''t all that powerful, but they definitely weren''t weak, either. If they had ced their trust in him and taken the time to familiarize themselves with the leech monster''s methods of attack, then they would''ve been able to provide good assistance to Adam.

    However, due to their hubris and recklessness, they had suffered severe casualties in the span of just a few short seconds, and it was truly a great pity.

    "Save them!" Adam yelled before immediately rushing toward the man whose face had been melted off.

    Even though he was missing his chin, he was still fit for battle.

    The faceless adapter in question was situated very close to the leech monster, and Adam lunged forward, saving him from a lethal attack with ease, then quickly carried him out of the fray while shielding him with his back.

    After being carried out of the fray, arcs of electricity emerged over the man''s palm, and he brushed his hand over his own face, upon which the missing cheekbones, skin, and flesh began to slowly regenerate.

    "Shank... you..."

    His tongue had only just been regenerated, so it still hadn''t grown back to its original length, and as a result, his expression of gratitude toward Adam was rather unintelligible.

    "Why do you and the others have so little battle experience? I''ve never seen anyone so reckless!" Adamined.

    "We don''t... battle much..." the man stuttered in response, and Adam was instantly enlightened.

    He suddenly realized that even though he had only recently awakened, he had actually already umted a great deal of battle experience, and most of those battles were ones where his life was on the line.

    However, under normal circumstances, normal adapters didn''t have to be so desperate.

    The average adapter could easily ensure a high quality of life without taking many risks. Even if an adapter wanted to earn some quick money as a hitman, they only needed to take on one job per year, and there were even some who onlypleted a job once every two or three years.

    No one liked to risk their life, and even hitmen and adapter psychotherapists were very cautious, very rarely taking the risk to engage in battles of life and death.

    As for adapters from the Psychic Church, they were even more sheltered.

    The majority of adapters who joined the Psychic Church were looking for a cozy job in arge organization without much career progression, but also minimal risk.

    Working for the Psychic Church was a leisurely job that granted them great benefits packages and a strong backer, and even though the ie wasn''t very high, it was enough to get by.

    There was no way that adapters with that type of mindset would''ve taken part in many tough battles.

    Perhaps there weren''t many opportunities to go into battle throughout the entirety of their careers, and light sparring matches between colleagues certainly couldn''tpare with the intensity of a battle like this.

    "You''re used to being pampered, so even if you had the ability to perform in battle, you no longer know how to use your powers. Get back and use your healing abilities to treat the wounded, and tell those two long-range attacking colleagues of yours to stay far away!"

    In the wake of the brutal reality check that they had just been dealt, the arrogance of all of the Psychic Church''s adapters hadpletely faded, and the middle-aged man from the Psychic Church immediately departed to carry out Adam''s instructions.

    At this moment, Nie Yiyi just so happened to have also rescued the Psychic Church adapter who had lost his arm, and she tossed him at the middle-aged man as well.

    "How do we do this?"

    Nie Yiyi hadn''t sustained any injuries. She had developed a strong bond of trust with Adam during the many battles that they had fought side by side with one another, so she had immediately put herself out of harm''s way after hearing Adam''s warning.

    "I''ll take on the leech monster by myself in meleebat, while everyone else attacks from afar. In the meantime, charge up your attack and prepare to strike when the opportunity arises!"

    "Got it."

    Nie Yiyi nodded in response before springing away.

    Adam wasted no further time as he charged toward the leech monster again.

    At this point, the wounds that the leech monster had sustained were already mostly healed. Just like Mice King, it seemed that all psychic mutants had exceptional self-regenerative abilities.

    Adam paid no heed to this as he prepared to employ the strategy adopted by the armored warriors from the Golden Iron Triangle, preupying the leech monster so that it didn''t have any spare capacity to attack anyone else.

    This was a very effective strategy when one''s allies outnumbered the enemy, and it fully tapped into the potential of an adapter with exceptional defensive prowess.

    Before the leech monster had a chance topletely recover from its injuries, Adam leaped up onto its enormous body with his carving knife raised, then climbed all the way onto its head as if he were scaling a mountain. He plunged his carving knife into its body, shing its head open before slicing around its mouthpart in a circle to sever its head, thereby ridding it of its most powerful attacking weapon.

 Chapter 97: Gravity

    <h4>Chapter 97: Gravity</h4>

    With Adam keeping the leech monster preupied, everyone was able to get far away from the creature.

    Having already shed with the leech monster several times, even the inexperienced adapters of the Psychic Church had found a suitable n of attack. They were making sure to keep their distance from the leech monster while bombarding it with all types of attacks from afar.

    One of the two long-range attackers was attacking the leech monster with a cannon, while the other was hurling energy bombs, and both of their attacks were quite powerful.

    In addition to that, there was also Shae''s Explosive Fireballs, so there were three regr long-range attackers in the camp.

    Meanwhile, the two meleebat adapters who had just been rescued by Adam and Nie Yiyi were also hurling projectiles at the leech monster to harass it.

    As for Nie Yiyi herself, she was situated far away, umting the power of cyberglyphs. The wind pressure around her body was slowly increasing, and she was waiting for a suitable opportunity tond a decisive blow on the leech monster.

    The leech monster was extremely frustrated by the bombardment of attacks that it was facing, and it wanted to knock Adam away with its speed and burly frame so that it could rush over to the long-range attackers and finish them off in one fell swoop, but Adam was proving to be extremely tenacious.

    In his current form, not only did Adam possess exceptional defensive prowess, the past issues surrounding hisckluster speed and offensive capabilities had also been addressed. He was far faster and more agile than he had been in the past, and as soon as he realized that the leech monster was hatching a n to make a charge for the long-range adapters, he immediately hacked away at the parts of its body that it was trying to use tounch itself forward, thereby foiling its n.

    In its frustration and desperation, the leech monster''s body began to bulge, and it fired off a series of balls of flesh.

    The balls of flesh flew up into the sky before exploding into corrosive acid bombs, but the adapters were situated very far away from the leech monster and were already prepared for a potential attack, so the hit rate was very low.

    Right at this moment, the representative of the southern congress suddenly entered the fray.

    "I think it''s about time we got rid of this psychic mutant once and for all!"

    Up to this point, Adam still didn''t even know her name, and as he made that righteous deration, he made a grabbing motion with her hands before spreading them open again.

    He was wearing a pair of strange metal gloves, and as soon as he involved herself in the battle, Adam immediately sensed that something wasn''t right.

    It was as if a gravitational field had taken shape beneath his feet, and all of his movements had be extremely sluggish as a result.

    Her ability is gravitational control!

    Not only was Adam feeling the effects of the heightened gravity, the leech monster seemed to have been affected even more heavily due to its enormous weight, and it instantly forced t against the ground.

    However, before it was ttened to the ground, it managed to release one final acid bomb.

    The strange ball of flesh was dancing through the air, and under normal circumstances, it was very difficult for such an inurate attack to strike adapters who were already prepared for danger, but it was right at this moment that the situation took a turn.

    The adapters had disyed more than enough speed and agility to dodge thest wave of acid bombs, but this time, their movements had be extremely sluggish, and it was as if they had been rooted to the ground. They could only look on helplessly as the acid bomb exploded right above them before showering them in corrosive acid.

    Out of the five surviving adapters of the Psychic Church, four of them were instantly punched full of holes by the corrosive "acid rain". The excessive exposure to the acid hadpletely ruined their bodies, making it appear as if they had been struck by a barrage of bullets from a machine gun, and their agonized howls only rang out very briefly before they perished on the spot.

    The sole survivor out of the five adapters was the one that Adam had rescued earlier.

    He was an adapter who specialized in meleebat, and generally speaking, adapters like him were stronger and more agile than long-range attackers. As such, he was able to just barely struggle free from the constraints of the heightened gravity and jump out of the scope of the attack, thereby avoiding a fate of instant death.

    "Prince, you motherfucker!" Shi Feng immediately erupted into a furious tirade upon witnessing what was happening from within the protective barrier. "I can''t believe you''d actually do something like this!"

    "What are you talking about?" Prince asked with an innocent expression. "What am I doing? I''m just helping everyone in battle, am I not?"

    "You''re still gonna y dumb even now? I should''ve known a southern congress bitch like you can''t be trusted! Why don''t you just kill us all? We''ve already lost most of ourrades and you''re still ying dumb? Are you afraid that the footage of what you''re doing here is going to be released to the public?"

    Prince offered no response to this, and an expression that said "thanks for reminding me of that" appeared on his face, following which he abruptly clenched his hands together once again.

    In the wake of that gesture, the gravity acting on Adam''s body became even more crippling, and even remaining on his feet became an extremely grueling task, so his mobility was virtually reduced to zero.

    However, at the same time, the leech monster was freed from the effects of the heightened gravity, and a part of its body split off before falling onto Adam,pletely gluing him to the spot.

    The leech monster was sick of having to deal with Adam''s tenacious and frustrating tactics. In light of Adam''s incredible defensive prowess, the leech monster didn''t even try to finish him off after he was immobilized on the spot. Instead, it gave up on attacking him altogether, leaving him behind as it rushed toward Nie Yiyi, Shae, and the others.

    Aside from Shi Feng and Adam, there were only three adapters left, and Nie Yiyi and Shae were already wounded, so this was the perfect opportunity tond the finishing blow on them.

    "Get in the barrier!" Shi Feng yelled frantically, and Nie Yiyi, Shae, and the final survivor from the Psychic Church immediately rushed toward him as quickly as they could.

    The leech monster fired another batch of acid bombs into the air, and while fleeing toward the protective barrier, the gravity acting upon Shae, Nie Yiyi, and the final Psychic Church adapter was drastically amplified once again.

    Nie Yiyi was almost tripped over by this abrupt increase in gravitational force, and the cyberglyphs on her body immediately began to glow brightly as she released a formidable burst of energy.

    Nie Yiyi had just used her remarkable explosive power to ovee the increased gravity, and she was employing the same strategy once again, allowing her to escape from the scope of the corrosive acid before it reached her.

    However, Shae wasn''t so lucky.

    Her explosiveness was far inferior to Nie Yiyi''s, and she was only just barely able to run by relying solely on Hellhound''s brute strength. She was unable topletely evade the previous attack, and the same applied on this asion as well.

    She was only just barely able to trudge to the edge of the area epassed within the acid bomb explosion when the aid sshed onto her legs, eating away arge section of the skin, fur, and muscles on her legs.

    "Are you alright?"

    Having already survived two close brushes with death, the final survivor of the Psychic Church had well and truly learned his lesson, and while fleeing toward the protective barrier, he had intentionally kept close to Shae. In her werewolf form, her stature far exceeded his, and he used her massive body as a shield to keep himself safe from the acid attack.

    However, he then somewhat redeemed himself by dragging the injured Shae into the protective barrier before the next wave of acid bombs arrived.

    "I''ll treat you!"

    The Psychic Church spread open his hands, and arcs of electricity began to sh over his palms again. Compared with his skills in meleebat, he clearly excelled more in his healing abilities.

    As the arcs of electricity passed over Shae''s body, the missing skin and flesh began to slowly regenerate, and the effect was very pronounced.

    "What do we do now?"

    The two sides had been roughly evenly matched just a short while ago, but the battle had suddenly be apletely one-sided affair.

    Not only did they have to oppose the psychic mutant''s attacks, they also had to look out for the backstabbing Prince. Topound their woes even further, there were tens of thousands of students on the scene that they had to protect, making this a mission that was impossible toplete.

 Chapter 98: Abrupt Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 98: Abrupt Arrival</h4>

    "What else can we do aside from stall for time? At the very least, time is on our side."

    Nie Yiyi was holding her des as she stood at the edge of the protective barrier, casting her gaze out toward Adam, who was still trying to struggle to his feet.

    Looks like the heightened gravity can only be maintained for a short period of time.

    Having been freed from the effects of the heightened gravitational force, Adam twisted his own body vigorously from side to side, using his carving knife to slice through the restrictive substance around him.

    By the time he emerged out into the open, the leech monster was already beginning to attack the protective barrier again.

    It was using its tongue to punch one hole after another into the barrier, then mming its enormous body into it over and over again, and before long, the entire barrier was on the verge of copse.

    The remaining adapters were unable to seize the initiative and attack the leech monster, nor were they able to defend their territory. After witnessing the battle that had just taken ce, all of the students were screaming and crying, and not only were the teachers unable to maintain order, they were also terrified themselves.

    The fear that arose in the hearts of the students was mostly instinctive. They were scared of the horrific monster outside the barrier.

    As for the teachers and school administrators, they were afraid of death. They knew that dying here would equate to death in the real world, and the panicked screaming and bawling of tens of thousands of people culminated in a deafening crescendo.

    They''re all so noisy!

    Situated right in the midst of the chaos, Nie Yiyi was suddenly struck by a sense of peace. In this perilous situation of life and death, she had be extraordinarily calm. She swept her gaze over the scene unfolding around her, and after taking everyone into consideration, including Adam, the psychic mutants, the students, and her teammates, she arrived at a conclusion.

    If we want to survive, it seems like there''s only one option we can pursue.

    All of a sudden, Nie Yiyi vanished on the spot.

    Her objective wasn''t to attack the psychic mutant. By the time she reappeared, she had already arrived at the edge of the protective barrier, and she swung her de viciously at Prince''s neck.

    Her attack was blocked by Prince, but it showed everyone what needed to be done.

    Not only did the leech monster possess an enormous body, it also had exceptional regenerative abilities, making it extremely difficult to kill. However, the same didn''t apply to Prince. His gravitational control was very troublesome to deal with, but he was just a normal adapter, and all it would take would be a single up from him for him to be killed.

    Most importantly, his presence on the battlefield made things several times more perilous for everyone else.

    His abilities were far too annoying to deal with. The leech monster was a very formidable foe, but the uracy of its attacks was veryckluster, and only when paired up with Prince did it truly be a massive threat.

    In fact, Nie Yiyi even had a feeling that the enemy had intentionally set up thisbination and specifically sent Prince to this school in order to help the leech monsterplete its mission.

    "Die!"

    After her first attack was thwarted, Nie Yiyished out once again, but the gravity acting on her body suddenly increased, causing her to slow down drastically, and Prince took advantage of this opportunity to open up some distance between them.

    However, he had only just managed to distance himself from Nie Yiyi when an Explosive Fireball came flying directly at him. His gravitational field had a very minimal effect on energy attacks, so he had no choice but to take evasive measures.

    Boom!

    The shockwaves from the explosion swept over his entire body, sending him flying for close to 20 meters, but he remained virtuallypletely unscathed.

    Among all of the adapters present, no one possessed this level of physical resistance aside from Adam, so it had to be said that Prince''s overall prowess was very impressive.

    However, it was still a struggle for him to deal with so many assants at once, particrly when one of those assants wasn''t necessarily inferior to him when it came to absolute power.

    Prince had only just steadied himself after being knocked away by the explosion when he felt a gust of cold wind sweep toward him from behind. He immediately took evasive measures, but the oing de was too quick, so he had no choice but to activate his gravitational field, and he was only just barely able to dodge the attack after slowing down his assant with heightened gravity.

    The attacker on this asion was naturally none other than Adam.

    After escaping from his restrictions, Adam''s initial n was to stop the leech monster from destroying the protective barrier, but he had drawn inspiration from Nie Yiyi''s actions. As her teammate, he immediately understood what she was trying to do, and he had almost managed to strike down Prince with that surprise attack from behind.

    "What the hell are you all doing? Attacking a congressman is a serious crime!"

    "You''re still pretending even now?"

    Compared with his allies, Adam possessed superior strength and speed, and the gravitational field was unable topletely constrain him. He struggled to his feet, then rose up tosh out with his carving knife again.

    Prince was able to block the attack, but he could clearly sense that this "student" was far more powerful than he imagined. Every single time, he was forced to unleash his super gravitational field to slow down Adam and contain him.

    This was very taxing for him, and in addition to that, he also had to deal with Nie Yiyi, who was a more skillful attacker with a more diverse repertoire of attacks. She was like a spitting viper lurking off to the side, constantly attacking the holes in his defense.

    After just a few exchanges, Prince was already feeling quite physically drained.

    "The courts will pass judgment on your actions!" Prince condemned while fleeing to the side with Adam and Nie Yiyi hot on his trail.

    However, right at this moment, a loud thump rang out, and the protective barrier finallypletely shattered in the face of the relentless barrage of attacks unleashed by the leech monster.

    Looking at the specks of light that were the remnants of the protective barrier falling from the sky, Adam heaved a sigh of despair.

    "It''s all over..."

    Not only were they not going to be able to kill Prince in a short time, it wasn''t going to matter even if they could. At this point, the leech monster had begun sting miniature leeches into the sky again, and without the protective barrier above them, the students werepletely defenseless. It was only going to take a few minutes before all of these miniature leech monsters became fully developed, by which point all of the students would be dead.

    In the face of these monsters, the children werepletely powerless to resist, and they couldn''t even run away. They were likembs to the ughter, unable to do anything but ept the terrible fate that awaited them.

    A nauseating vomiting sound rang out, and the leech monster released another massive batch of miniature leeches. These leeches fell onto the students down below without encountering any resistance, and they immediately opened their mouths to devour the blood of their victims.

    The leech monster still wasn''t done there, and it fired off several massive acid bombs at the areas that were most densely packed with children.

    The acid bombs exploded in the sky, and right when the entire area was about to bepletely smothered in acid, the leech monster suddenly let loose a bloodcurdling screech before vanishing on the spot.

    The miniature leeches and the acid in the sky also disappeared along with it.

    Having just brushed shoulders with death, all of the students and teachers still had horrified looks on their faces, but their horror quickly gave way to surprise, and they had no idea how they had been saved.

    However, the adapters knew what had to have happened, and Prince''s expression changed slightly before he quickly put on an ted fa?ade.

    As for Adam and the others, they were truly ted. They knew that the abrupt disappearance of the psychic mutant could only mean one thing: their physical body had perished!

    Sure enough, in the next instant, the psychic world that had been given rise to by the psychic mutant began to shatter, and in the blink of an eye, Adam found himself back on the fourth floor of the school building.

    All of the students also reappeared in the ssrooms, and this was the first time that they had experienced this jarring transition from the psychic world back to the real world, so all of the them instantly erupted into panic and chaos as soon as they awakened.

    Some of them were still immersed in the fear they were experiencing in the psychic world, and they were blindly trying to run away. Others were bawling their eyes out, and there were also some particrly brave ones among them who were discussing what had just happened with the students around them.

    The teachers also had lingering fear in their hearts, but they were frantically yelling to restore order, and meanwhile, Adam was waiting for the Mechguard officers to arrive on the scene.

 Chapter 99: First-person Perspective

    <h4>Chapter 99: First-person Perspective</h4>

    Not even two minutes had passed by when a "spider" climbed up the wall outside the school building, then leaped up and arrived right before Adam on the fourth floor.

    "Why are you here?" Adam asked as he looked at Red Spider with a surprised expression.

    "What? Am I here too early?" Red Spider was still as casual andckadaisical as ever. "There wasn''t much happening on May''s end, so I decided toe over and check on you. Did I make it here on time?"

    "Were you the one who killed the psychic mutant?"

    "No, he was killed by the Mechguard officers. They arrived as soon as the electronic eye resumed normal operation, but I helped them track down the culprit. He was hiding beside a nearby subway station. Oh, there he is."

    Red Spider pointed at the front gate of the school as she spoke, and Adam turned to discover several Mechguard officers carrying a body along.

    Adam was too far away to clearly see the psychic mutant, but he could tell that it was quite a portly individual, and he appeared to be no different from the average person.

    "It''s strange to think that such a normal person could be so terrifying in the psychic world. Is he dead?"

    "Yep. The Mechguard officers blew a hole into the back of his head. Looks like I got here right in the nick of time, didn''t I? What''s the situation in there right now?"

    "You definitely dide right on time. If you hade even a littleter, there would''ve been mass student casualties. Even now, there are probably a few dozen casualties. Unfortunately, we were unable to protect everyone. Also, there''s something else I have to tell you..." Adam drew closer to Red Spider and lowered his voice before continuing, "There''s a representative from the southern congress in our group, and he was assisting the psychic mutants during the battle."

    "Do you have evidence of that?"

    "We do. Hook filmed everything."

    "Good. Don''t raise the rm, and leave the rest to us. All you have to do is take the footage and get out of here." Red Spider paused to contemte the situation momentarily, then continued, "I''ll apany you and your friends, and we''ll go find May together."

    "What about the situation at the other locations?"

    "Forget that! You wouldn''t have anything to worry about if you didn''t have footage, but now that you''re in possession of video evidence, that bastard from the southern congress will definitelye after you to silence you. There''s no time to waste, we have to leave right now!"

    Red Spider immediately instructed Adam to contact the others as she spoke.

    The two of them made their way down from the fourth floor, and they quickly found their allies on the other levels of the building. Aside from Hook, Shae, and Nie Yiyi, there was also the sole survivor from the Psychic Church, Shota Sato, and Shi Feng from the northern congress.

    Once everyone was gathered together, Red Spider made them aware of the dangerous situation that they were in, but before she even had a chance to talk about how they were going to proceed from here, she was immediately met with a dissenting voice.

    "There are so many of us, why do we have to be scared of Prince? On top of that, there are Mechguard officers here, so wouldn''t it actually be more dangerous to leave the school now?"

    The person raising the objections was Shota Sato. In real life, he was a middle-aged man who appeared to be around 30 years of age with apletely unremarkable appearance. If it weren''t for the fact that he was wearing a Psychic Church robe, he could''ve easily passed for a normal office worker walking on the streets.

    "If it''s just him, then there would obviously be nothing for us to fear. However, as I''m sure you''re already aware by now, he''s on the same side as the psychic mutants. Right now, this area is extremely chaotic, and as far as I''m aware, at least six ces have been attacked, and there are most likely quite a few psychic mutants who are still in hiding and haven''t revealed themselves. At this point, there''s a good chance that he''s already informed his co-conspirators of what''s happened here, so we can''t stay here any longer. The threat that Mechguard officers pose to adapters is very limited."

    "But what about the students? We can''t just leave them!"

    Shota Sato''sbat prowess was quite mediocre, and he wasn''t very smart, either, but his heart seemed to be in the right ce.

    "This location has already been attacked, so there won''t be anyone elseing anytime soon. After all, given what just happened, if someone else hade to provide reinforcements to the enemy, they would''ve already seeded in their mission. On top of that, Mechguard''s video signal here has already been restored, but there are still many blind spots in Area 66. If I were a psychic mutant, I would choose to attack one of the blind spots. Psychic mutants are deranged, but they''re not stupid."

    "Alright, I agree with what you''re saying, but I still think we should take down Prince first!"

    "You do realize you''re talking about taking down a congressman." Red Spider pointed at a mechanical eye that was hovering alongside the Mechguard officers on the yground. "You see that thing? If it catches usmitting any violence against a congressman, we''ll have already broken thew. They don''t care if our actions are justified. Without any evidence and before any court rulings, he''s considered to be innocent. Given how rigidly Mechguard officers carry out thew, if we''re caught attacking a congressman, we''ll be executed on the spot!"

    Red Spider feigned a pistol with her hand and pressed it against her temple as she spoke.

    "Alright, I''ve run out of patience, we can''t afford to waste any more time here. If you want to stay, then be my guest. Everyone elsee with me!"

    Red Spider had quite a short temper, and if it weren''t for the fact that Shota Satou was an ally, she wouldn¡¯t have wasted so much time answering his questions at all.

    After that, she turned to depart without dy.

    Shota considered the situation momentarily before leaving with everyone else. Meanwhile, Prince was standing under the electronic eye, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he watched Adam and his group depart.

    "They''re a sharp bunch, but that''s not going to help them. Nowadays, power and infallible nning are the keys to everything."

    His arm sprang open as he spoke, revealing a miniatureputer inside. An image was projected in front of him from theputer, depicting the battle that had just taken ce.

    However, this footage was captured from Prince''s first-person perspective, and initially, it showed everyone attacking the psychic mutant together.

    However, Shi Feng suddenly began to denounce him, seemingly out of the blue, following which Nie Yiyiunched a vicious assault against him, yelling for him to die as she did so, and she was quickly joined in her efforts by Shae and Adam.

    From his perspective, the sequence of events initially consisted of everyone working together in battle, but all of a sudden, his allies collectively turned on him and tried to kill him.

    In the footage, something invisible like a gravitational field was essentially non-existent, and throughout the entire process, he didn''t say anything to expose himself, and he had manipted the angles perfectly so that he was cleared of all wrongdoing. From his perspective, he had actively participated throughout the entire battle, helping everyone ward off the psychic mutant.

    "All we need to do now is destroy the other piece of footage. Without a third-person perspective, things will go without a hitch." A "warm" smile appeared on Prince''s face as he mused to himself, "The legal system is truly a marvelous thing. As long as there''s sufficient evidence, you can tell any story and have it be acknowledged as the truth."

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, Adam and his group were traversing through the streets in a special bulletproof car.

    The Mechguard officers that had beenying in ambush earlier had already been deployed onto the streets, so there were very few cars and pedestrians around.

    Even though none of the general public hadn''t received any information, it didn''t exactly take a genius to figure out something was happening given the situation on the streets.

    Given the context of the psychic mutant incidents that had been frequently taking ce ofte, everyone had retreated to the safety of their homes unless they had urgent matters to attend to.

    Red Spider was driving extremely fast, and instead of traveling out of Area 66, she was driving toward the central region of the area. Just as Shota had said, Area 66 was a safe haven of sorts. At the very least, their physical safety was assured given the prevalence of Mechguard officers in the area.

    "Slow down! What if we''re suddenly dragged into the psychic world and we end up in a car crash?"

    "That''s not a problem, the car has a self-driving function!"

    Right as Red Spider''s voice trailed off, everyone suddenly felt a burst of violent tremors run through the entire car, as if it had crashed into an obstacle.

 Chapter 100: The Two Onis

    <h4>Chapter 100: The Two Onis</h4>

    "Do any of you sense anything?" Adam asked as he looked at the people around him.

    "We seem to have crashed into something." Shae opened her window slightly before taking a peek outside. "There''s nothing out there."

    "Then that feeling of impact most likely came from the reciprocation of our physical bodies," Adam deduced as he felt the wind blowing in from outside. "We''ve already been dragged into the psychic world."

    "When did it happen?"

    "I don''t know. It was a very seamless transition, so we''re definitely dealing with an elite adapter." Adam was rather frustrated that his telegnosis had failed him. "Looks like I have to do more training!"

    "What do we do now?''

    "What else can we do? We get out of the car, of course. We can''t just wait in here like sitting ducks to be blown up!"

    "You''re right."

    Shota seemed to have realized how stupid his question was, and he hurriedly emerged from the car with everyone else. There were still pedestrians and cars driving along as normal around them, and it was unclear whether these were actual people in the area who had also been dragged into the psychic world by the synapse transmission device or if they were simply manifestations of the memories belonging to the host of this psychic world.

    However, there was no time to ponder such trivial matters. Their lives were in severe danger here, so they had far more important things to worry about.

    As soon as he emerged from the car, Adam caught sight of a familiar figure, one that he had fought before and had shown him just how powerful elite adapters could be. It was Oni no Hanzou.

    "Be careful, the man up ahead is an extremely powerful adapter. He''s one of the eight Oni of the Oni Organization, Oni no Hanzou."

    As usual, Oni no Hanzou was still in his half-samurai, half-ninja get-up, wearing a set of ninja garbs with a pair of samurai swords on his back. His posture was a little hunched over, but he still looked extremely agile, nheless.

    He was rushing along the railing on the road beside the green belt, traveling at a very high speed.

    Oni no Hanzou was on apletely different levelpared with Adam and his group. In their previous run-in, Adam had only managed to ward off Oni no Hanzou''s assassination attempt with the help of the scarecrow anomaly after he had already expended a great deal of power during his battle against Cowboy.

    Neither Cowboy nor the scarecrow anomaly was here at this moment, so there was aplete mismatch in the overallbat prowess of the two sides.

    "Why is the Oni Organization getting involved in this? Aren''t they an organization of hitmen? Why are they working together with psychic mutants?"

    "They''re not working together with the psychic mutants, they''re coborating with those bastards from the southern congress," Shi Feng corrected as he looked on while Oni no Hanzou gradually slowed down. "All psychic mutants arepletely deranged, so it''s all well and good instructing tomit murder and cause destruction, but they''re unable to carry out any intricate ns. In contrast, these hitmen are sane but have no sense of moralpass, and they''re willing to do anything as long as the price is right?"

    "Why has he stopped?"

    After rushing along the railing for some time, Oni no Hanzou drew to a halt around 200 meters in front of everyone, and he didn''t immediately attack. It seemed that he was waiting for something, and there was a hint of wariness in his eyes as his gaze fell upon Adam.

    He didn''t have to wait long before a shadow slowly emerged on the ground to his left, following which a witch wearing an oni mask crawled out of the shadow.

    "That''s Oni no Miko! Two of the eight Onis have been sent after us!" Red Spider was astonished to see this. "This isplete overkill! Why are they taking this mission so seriously?"

    "Can we beat them?" At this point, Hook was so terrified that he was already trembling uncontrobly. "Adam, you''ve fought Oni no Hanzou before, haven''t you? Do we stand a chance?"

    "None whatsoever," Adam replied with a shake of his head.

    "Then let''s surrender!" Hook instantly adopted his steam robot form, concealing himself within a cloud of mist before vanishing into thin air.

    However, he had only just activated his self-concealment ability when Oni no Miko suddenly pulled out an enchantment tag. The tag released a pair of glowing cyberglyphs that read "Illusion Eradication" in Chinese characters, and Hook was instantly squeezed out of a certain pocket in space before falling face-first onto the ground!

    "Hold on, let''s be civilized! There''s no need for a fight, we can just talk things out! You want the footage that I recorded, right? I can just give it to you! There''s no need to turn to violence. Everyone''s just trying to make a living here, you''re also doing this for money, aren''t you?"

    "That''s right," Oni no Hanzou replied with a nod. "We''re being paid one sum of money for taking your lives, and another for securing the footage, and I want both!"

    The arrival of Oni no Miko instilled Oni no Hanzou with a great deal of confidence, and he immediately initiated an attack.

    "That kid in the middle is an invocator, and he can invoke an anomaly that''s no less powerful than you and me," Oni no Hanzou cautioned while hurling several kunai knives through the air.

    Adam waspletely speechless after hearing this.

    So he called up an ally because of me!

    With that in mind, Adam was beginning to regret the disy of power he had made to Oni no Hanzou during theirst encounter as he was being severely overestimated here.

    Oni no Hanzou on his own would''ve been an insurmountable foe, but there was still a chance for everyone to escape. However, with another Oni-level hitman on his side, there was virtually no chance that they would escape from this ordeal alive.

    "Run!"

    As the kunai knives exploded in mid-air, Adam instantly invoked Mummy before fusing as one with it, then used his body of steel to protect the people beside him, particrly Red Spider.

    In the psychic world, Red Spider had lost her prosthetic limbs, so she was virtually no different from the average person. In the face of attacks from an adapter as fearsome as Oni no Hanzou, even the residual shockwaves alone would''ve been enough to kill her.

    "Hook, open your cabin!"

    "Got it!"

    Hook immediately did as he was told, and Adam tossed Red Spider into his cabin. An excited look appeared on Hook''s face, and his physical capabilities instantly spiked through the roof. He then turned to flee, and he was running far faster than he was normally capable of, but no matter how fast he was, he couldn''t outrun a ninja.

    Given that Hook was in possession of the incriminating footage, there was naturally no way that Oni no Hanzou was going to allow him to escape, and he crouched low to the ground before quickly giving chase. His footsteps were extremely light, but he was extraordinarily fast, so fast that he was leaving a trail of afterimages in his wake.

    The chase onlysted less than 20 seconds before Oni no Hanzou caught up to Hook, following which he sprang up into the air before firing off a chained grappling hook from his arm. The grappling hooktched onto Hook and stopped him cold in his tracks, and immediately thereafter, Oni no Hanzou drew his twin katanas before shing them several times through the air. None of the attacks managed to strike Hook, but several shadow des had inexplicably appeared on his body.

    The orientations of the shadow des werepletely identical to the angles at which Oni no Hanzou had unleashed his katana strikes, and all of the shadow des struck the vulnerable joints on Hook''s body, instantly tearing him into pieces.

    "Hook!"

    Adam was desperate to save Hook, but there was no way for him to do so as he had beenpletely immobilized.

    Prior to setting off after Hook, Oni no Hanzou had cautioned Oni no Miko about Adam''s abilities.

    As a result, Oni no Miko was clearly regarding Adam as an opponent on the same level as herself, and right as Oni no Hanzou sprang into action, she cast an extremely powerful singr restrictive ability onto Adam.

    At this moment, there were countless ghostly hands rising up from the shadow beneath his feet, and they were all intertwined with one another in a chaotic mass to bind his entire body. Not only did these ghostly hands possess tremendous strength, they also seemed to be capable of sapping one''s energy. Trapped within this prison of ghostly hands, Adam was unable to muster up any strength, rendering him powerless to escape anytime soon.

    After immobilizing Adam, Oni no Miko pulled out a bow and arrow used for exorcisms from her back, then fired the arrow, and as it flew through the air, a projection of a massive ghostly head appeared on the arrowhead.

    Adam was struck by an intense feeling of foreboding in the instant that he saw the arrow.

    The arrow was far more powerful than the ones that ck Archer from the Golden Iron Triangle had been capable of firing.

    Even with his current body of steel, Adam was certain that the arrow would be able to inflict severe harm upon him.

 Chapter 101: Hyakki Yagyou Emaki

    <h4>Chapter 101: Hyakki Yagyou Emaki</h4>

    Thankfully, Shae had alreadypleted her fusion with Hellhound at this point, and she sted an Explosive Fireball straight into Adam''s body. The violent force of the explosion coupled with Adam''s struggling allowed him to free himself from the restrictions before the arrow reached him.

    Even though he had dodged the arrow, the ghostly head projection still grazed his body, and a section of his bandages was instantly corroded.

    Her offensive prowess is even more powerful than Oni no Hanzou, but it seems like her psychic body is rather frail.

    Adam really wanted to try and retaliate against the witch, but it was unclear whether Hook was dead or alive, so he had no choice but to attend to his friend first.

    He rushed toward Hook as quickly as he could, then leaped up into the air before unleashing his Bandage Proliferation ability. The resulting of bandages cut off all avenues for evasion for Oni no Hanzou, following which heshed out with his carving knife in a vicious attack.

    In the face of Adam''s attack, Oni no Hanzou made no effort to take evasive measures, and he blocked Adam''s carving knife with his katana, but he was forced back quite a few steps by the impact of Adam''s almighty blow. Prior to taking on his Aka Oni form, Oni no Hanzou was inferior to Adam when it came to pure strength.

    How has already improved so much since Ist saw him?

    Oni no Hanzou was quite surprised by the fact that Adam was able to force him back with just a single attack, and he took a quick nce at the of bandages closing in around him before unleashing his body recement technique, escaping from the confrontation and leaving behind only a wooden log in his ce.

    "Are you still alive?"

    After Oni no Hanzou made his escape, Adam hurriedly crouched down and picked up the head of the steam robot from the ground.

    "I won''t be for much longer..." the robot head replied in an extremely feeble voice as it opened its eyes. The special nature of Hook''s psychic body had saved his life on this asion.

    "Step aside! I need to treat him right away."

    Shota Sato also arrived on the scene, then put his healing ability to use again. His hands began to sh with arcs of electricity, and they resembled an electric welding machine that quickly reassembled the scattered parts of Hook''s body.

    After surviving close encounters with death, some people became more resilient, while others became more cowardly, and Hook clearly belonged to thetter category.

    As soon as he was revived, he immediately burst into tears.

    "I should''ve nevere on this mission! Why was I so obsessed with being an inte celebrity? I''m throwing my life away! I should''ve just stuck to what I do best and earned money the old-fashioned way! Even in the worst-case scenario, I could''ve gone back and inherited the pub! Why did I decide to get involved in something like this?"

    Boom!

    Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko naturally weren''t just going to stand by idly and watch as Shota administered treatment on Hook, and both of them unleashed powerful attacks, but thankfully, Shi Feng was able to step up and keep their attacks at bay with his protective barrier.

    How did he do that?

    Oni no Miko''s offensive prowess was superior to that of the leech monster, yet somehow, Shi Feng was able to block her attack even though he was unable to do the same against the psychic mutant, and that was very perplexing to Adam and the others.

    "Why are you all looking at me like that? It''s like you''re all expecting me to be useless! At the very least, I''m way stronger than Prince!" Shi Feng exined with an exasperated expression. "The reason why I couldn''t keep out the leech monster was because I had to protect those tens of thousands of students. Spreading my barrier so far and wide was extremely taxing on my psychic power, and it also made the barrier really thin. Now that I''m only having to protect you lot, I can keep out attacks of this level with ease!"

    "That''s really impressive! How long can you keep this up for?"

    "I don''t know. It looks like those two are about to pull out some trump cards!"

    In the distance, Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko were growing rather agitated by their inability to break through the protective barrier. Oni no Miko pulled out a ragdoll before tossing it onto the ground, and the ragdoll rapidly swelled in size to invoke a shikigami.

    There was dense ck smoke rising up from the shikigami¡¯s entire body, and it was presented in the form of a samurai that was five meters tall and d in a suit of Japanese armor.

    As soon as the shikigami emerged, it immediately fused as one with Oni no Miko, further increasing its height by a meter. It drew its katana before sending it crashing down onto the protective barrier, cracking the surface of the barrier. At the same time, Oni no Hanzou also adopted his Aka Oni form, then raised his giant mace before delivering an almighty blow onto the already cracked protective barrier, instantly shattering it into pieces.

    After the barrier was broken, Adam rose up to oppose Aka Oni,shing out with his carving knife, only to be sent flying back close to 20 meters by a blow from the giant mace.

    At the same time, Nie Yiyi also went on the attack, exploiting a hole in the shikigami''s defenses to plunge her de into its cheek, but a hand suddenly extended out of its cheek to grab onto her de.

    The shikigami then shed its katana at Nie Yiyi, and she had no choice but to abandon her de and take evasive measures. However, even though she was able to avoid a direct blow from the katana, she was unable to dodge the power imbued within the attack, and she was sent flying for 20 to 30 meters, sustaining severe injuries that had caused her to throw up a mouthful of blood.

    "Run!"

    While Adam and Nie Yiyi were attacking the two hitmen, everyone else immediately attempted to escape, but Oni no Miko wasn''t about to let them off the hook.

    First, she undid her fusion with the shikigami, then pulled out an ancient panting from her witch robes.

    The painting seemed to be depicting the Hyakki Yagyou Emaki. It was an eerie painting filled with ghostly energy, and a plume of dense ck smoke permeated out of it before forming all types of ghostly apparitions in the air.

    There were flying heads, one-eyed monsters, wheels with human faces, demonic creatures with necks as long as giraffe necks¡­

    The formidable army of ghostly apparitions set off in pursuit of Adam and his group, and they seemed to bepletely devoid of weight and substance, able to fly through the air extremely quickly. Hook wasn''t able to get very far away at all before his body was bound by a giraffe-necked apparition, following which a massive head descended from the sky to tten him to the ground.

    Shae was also caught by an apparition, which swallowed up her entire body, and despite her best efforts, she was unable to break free.

    Meanwhile, Shota Sato was chased down by a horse-faced apparition that sank its teeth viciously into his body to inflict severe injuries.

    Only Adam and Nie Yiyi were able to hold their own for now amid the onught.

    In the blink of an eye, the battle had bepletely one-sided, and Oni no Miko was very displeased to see this.

    "Since when did you be such a coward, Hanzou? Why did you ask me for help against this bunch of weaklings? Where''s that powerful anomaly you were talking about?"

    "That bastard still isn''t using his full power!" At this point, Oni no Hanzou had also reverted back to his human form, and he was watching Adam with a wary expression. "How about we kill him first so he can''t spring any surprises on us?"

    "Sure. I''m curious to see what other tricks he has up his sleeve."

    Oni no Miko was unconvinced that Adam was hiding his true power, and she pulled out her bow and arrow again, while Oni no Hanzou charged directly toward Adam.

    As he did so, he was constantly producing clones. His body first split into two, then two split into four, and by the time he reached Adam, the entire street was full of his clones.

    Adam had only just hacked a one-eyed apparition into pieces with his carving knife when he suddenly detected a shadow being cast onto him from above, and he raised his head to see countless Oni no Hanzou clones descending upon him. There were hundreds of these clones storming him all at once, and they had even managed to obscure the light of the sun.

    After leaping up into the air, the hundreds of Oni no Hanzou clones each fired a grappling hook from their arms, and was instantly bound to the spot, unable to evade. Meanwhile, Oni no Miko let loose another ghost head arrow, and this time, there was no one to help Adam break free from his bindings.

    Thus, he could only watch as the arrow struck him square in the face.

    1. A shikigami is a type of deity from Japanese folklore.

    2. A depiction of a Japanese idiom from folkore, which trantes into "Night Parade of 100 Demons".

 Chapter 102: Deity Invocation

    <h4>Chapter 102: Deity Invocation</h4>

    The ghostly head tore away Adam''s defense, and the arrow pierced directly through his head. Adam was left reeling for a second from the impact, and by the time he opened his eyes again, all he could see was the fletching of the arrow protruding out of his nose.

    However, even so, he still didn''t die. Mummy was the epitome of the perfect tank, and one could criticize it for having a pitiful offensive repertoire, but it definitely couldn''t be denounced as weak.

    It was only a level three anomaly, yet it possessed the defensive prowess of a level five anomaly, and this wasn''t just reflected in how hard and resilient its skin was. In his current form, Adam''s head and heart were no longer vital regions, so having an arrow directly pierce through his head wasn''t even a fatal blow.

    "Interesting!"

    Oni no Miko was quite intrigued to see this, and she fired off another arrow without any hesitation.

    The second arrow struck Adam in the heart, the third struck his abdomen, and the fourth right between his legs...

    Having been bound by the hundreds of Oni no Hanzou clones, Adam was a sitting duck and could only watch as one arrow after another pierced through his body.

    Even with his incredible life force in his fused form with Mummy, Adam was feeling feebler and feebler in the face of these repeated blows. His vision began to blur, and there were more and more arrows being shot into his body.

    He felt like he was on the verge ofpletely losing consciousness.

    There was simply far too massive a disparity in power, and there was no way that he could turn the tables against two opponents far more powerful than himself.

    This might be it...

    In the instant right before Adam''s psychic body was about to dissipate, a burst of golden light suddenly shed across the sky. The golden radiance severed all of the chains attached to the grappling hooks that were holding Adam in ce, thereby freeing him from his bindings.

    Having just been saved from certain death, Adam wasted no time, plunging his carving knife straight into the ground to unleash his Vampiric Halo. The ring of light instantly swept over the entire battlefield, and all of the apparitions that came into contact with the light shriveled up in the blink of an eye. Countless Oni no Hanzou clones were also destroyed in an instant, and with that influx of psychic energy, Adam was able to quickly recover most of his life force.

    After that, he looked up to examine the source of the golden light, and he saw a sleazy old man in a taoist robe standing in mid-air. Upon focusing his gaze on the man, Adam discovered that it was none other than Sadou.

    "Taoist Bean Army?"

    After catching sight of Sadou, Oni no Hanzou immediately retreated to distance himself from Sadou and return to Oni no Miko''s side.

    A grim look appeared on Miko''s mask, and it was clear that the two of them were extremely wary of Sadou.

    "Are you going to stick your nose into this?"

    Oni no Miko lowered her bow as she looked up at Sadou.

    "We''re all here for money, aren''t we?" Sadou shrugged as he adjusted his taoist robe. "They offered me too much money for me to refuse."

    Shi Feng was ecstatic to see Sadou''s arrival, and he dered in a triumphant voice, "The southern congress isn''t the only one capable of calling up powerful allies! If we didn''t have some tricks up our sleeve, the two congresses would''ve already beenbined into one decades ago!"

    Adam was rather taken aback to see Sadou, but upon deeper thought, he realized that there really wasn''t much to be surprised about.

    It was clear that Sadou had close ties with the northern congress. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have agreed to take on Adam as a student at Cowboy''s request. Money was certainly a factor in that decision, but interpersonal rtionships were also an important decisive factor.

    For example, there was no way that the northern congress would turn to the Oni Organization for help as neither side would''ve been willing to entrust their secrets with the other.

    "So be it. I''ve always wanted to see what the so-called number invocator of Sandrise City is capable of." There was a clearpetitive edge to Oni no Miko''s voice as she spoke.

    From the battle that had just taken ce, Adam was able to deduce that she was also an invocator.

    Her invocation of the Hyakki Yagyou, her fusion with the shikigami, and her long-range attacking abilities were all very typical of invocators. It seemed that she had never faced Sadou in battle before, and while she was definitely apprehensive, she also seemed to be somewhat excited about the opportunity to test her skills against him.

    She waved a hand through the air as she spoke, and the army of ghostly apparitions in the area immediately switched targets, converging from all directions to attack Sadou.

    Sadou wasted no time with words as he pulled what appeared to be a handful of green beans out of his taoist robe. The beans were tossed into the air, transforming into an army of heavenly soldiers and generals d in golden armor.

    So he really can give rise to an entire army just by spreading beans! No wonder his nickname is Taoist Bean Army.

    Adam couldn''t help but look up with admiration at the incredible abilities that these top-tier adapters possessed.

    A fierce battle ensued in the sky as the golden-armored warriors shed with the ghostly apparitions, and it seemed that the heavenly warriors held the upper hand. Not only were they more organized and orderly in their strategies and formations, they were individually more powerful than their opponents as well, and it didn''t take long before the golden light in the skypletely dominated the ck smoke.

    Oni no Miko''spetitive fire was stoked even further upon seeing this, and she immediately invoked her shikigami before fusing as one with it, then leaped up into the sky, charging directly toward Sadou while using the heads of the Hyakki Yagyou as a staircase.

    "I was just about to get to you!" Sadou dered. "I offer my body to the gods!"

    This was Sadou''s signature ability, and his body trembled violently for a moment, following which it began to glow with scintiting radiance. Once the light faded, it was revealed that he had transformed into a divine general wielding a dual-edge halberd with a third vertical eye on his be.

    "All hail the arrival of Eng!"

    Afterpleting his transformation, Sadou swung his halberd down with ferocious power.

    The shikigami raised its katana to oppose the attack, but it proved to be no match, and after just a single sh, it was sent tumbling down from above, smashing a massive crater into the ground.

    Immediately thereafter, Eng''s vertical eye sprang wide open before releasing a beam of golden light. The light struck the shikigami''s body like aser beam, instantly burning arge hole into its body.

    "Hanzou, help me!"

    Oni no Miko''s voice rang out from the shikigami''s mouth, and Oni no Hanzou had already sprung into action before her cry for help.

    After witnessing the might of Eng, Oni no Hanzou didn''t dare to adopt his Aka Oni form. Instead, he unleashed his shadow clone technique, and soon, the entire street was once again filled with his clones. All of these clones were holding swords that were enveloped in explosive tags, which were hurled up at the divine warriors in the sky.

    Rumble!

    Hundreds of explosive tags exploded beside Sadou in unison like several hundred grenades being set off at once, and the entire sky was inundated under a thick nket of ck smoke.

    "You think your clones will stump me? Two can y at that game!" Sadou''s voice rang out from within the dense smoke. "Great Sage, I offer my body to you!"

    A thunderous roar rang out as golden light pierced through the thick smoke, revealing a golden monkey.

    The golden monkey was wearing a suit of golden chainmail armor with an intricate phoenix feather cap on its head and a pair of cloud-walking boots on its feet. As soon as it appeared, it plucked off a pinch of fur from its own body before tossing it up into the sky.

    The pinch of fur instantly transformed into countless golden monkeys that were wielding metal staves, and they rushed into battle against the Oni no Hanzou clones.

    The clones were no match for these fearsome monkey warriors, and all of them were quickly eradicated. Even his true body had been forced to revert back to its original form from the beating that it was receiving at the hands of the golden monkeys.

    Right as Sadou was about to put an end to the battle, the sound of apuse suddenly rang out.

    The scene was extremely loud and chaotic, given themotion ringing out from the battle between the golden-armored divine warriors and the army of ghostly apparitions, but the entire area inexplicably fell silent as soon the apusemenced.

    A man in a kimono approached the battlefield from afar while apuding, and he praised, "As expected of Taoist Bean Army, the title of the number one invocator is certainly not wasted on you! Can you do me a favor and let us leave?"

    1. Eng is a deity in Chinese folklore.

    2. The Great Sage is a title that was granted to Sun Wukong, a Chinese deity that is also known as the Monkey King.

 Chapter 103: Conclusion

    <h4>Chapter 103: Conclusion</h4>

    Who''s there?

    Adam was fully immersed in the battle between these top-tier adapters, particrly the incredible power that Sadou was disying, and he was abruptly snapped out of his reverie by the sound of the apuse.

    He turned toward the direction where the voice wasing from and was greeted by the sight of a man wearing an oni mask with his upper bodypletely bared.

    The oni mask was a very clear indication of his identity, but the most attention-grabbing feature on his body was his azure dragon tattoo, depicting a massive azure dragon that stretched all the way from his abdomen before wrapping around his shoulder.

    In the east, it was considered to be taboo to have a dragon tattoo on the shoulder as it was considered to be a harbinger of terrible fortune. Unless one possessed immense power that could ovee the curse of such a tattoo, it was supposed to bring instant death.

    Not only was this man''s dragon tattoo coiled around his shoulder, its facial features were extremely menacing, and the fact that his psychic body bore such a vicious tattoo in the psychic world was an indication of the man''s immense self-confidence and the absolute control he had over his own fate.

    "I didn''t think you woulde as well, Oni-faced Dragon."

    "Things are getting out of hand, so I had no choice but toe. Ever since that run-in between the northern and southern congresses, it''s already been a very long time since this many people have died. As I''m sure you''re aware, it''s not just money on the line this time. Instead, our actions will have a direct bearing on the power bnce of adapters."

    Oni-faced Dragon? Who could that be?

    Adam was watching the masked man while specting about his identity.

    Cowboy had once told him that the Oni Organization had a Dragon, eight Onis, and 36 Tigers. Adam had already seen two of the eight Onis, and both of them were elite adapters.

    As for the masked man, his aura and the reactions disyed by everyone else in the face of his arrival were both clear indications of his identity. He was the Dragon of the Oni Organization, the true leader of the hitman organization.

    "We don''t have much time left. Is it a fight that you want, or are you going to let us go?"

    Sadou seemed to be unable to maintain his Great Sage form for very long, and while he was speaking with Oni-faced Dragon, his psychic body had already reverted back to its original form. "Now that you''re here, of course I''m going to have to let you all go."

    "Good. Also, we''re taking him with us," Oni-faced Dragon dered as he pointed at Hook.

    Hook immediately let loose an anguished wail upon hearing this. "No! Please! Why do you want me? Isn''t it the footage that you want? I can give it to you! I didn''t dare to make any copies of it, and I haven''t uploaded it to the inte, either. How about this? I''ll toss all of my video equipment out of the carter, and we can all just forget that this ever happened!"

    "I still haven''t said anything yet!" Sadou protested in an exasperated manner, then turned to Dragon. "Having said that, I agree with his proposal. What about you?"

    "I''m taking him with me."

    "You can try!"

    Sadou adjusted his taoist robe as he stared intently at Oni-faced Dragon.

    A silent impasse ensued between the two of them for about five seconds. At this point, all of the pedestrians and cars in the area had already fled the scene in ordance with thews of behavioral logic in the psychic world.

    It was only five seconds, but for Hook, it felt like five minutes.

    He knew that judgment was being passed on his life.

    "Fine, I''ll allow it," Oni-faced Dragon conceded, then turned to Hook as he continued, "If you withhold any data, I wille to find you in person!"

    Immediately thereafter, he departed from the psychic world with Oni no Miko and Oni no Hanzou.

    At the same time, Adam and the others opened their eyes in the real world.

    They were still in the self-driving bulletproof car, which was traveling very slowly along the road. There was an indentation on the side car window that had been left behind by an unknown object, and it was the source of that feeling of impact that everyone had experienced in the psychic world.

    .

    However, no one paid any heed to the indentation, and they immediately began discussing what to do next.

    "Are we really just going to hand over the footage?"

    Adam was very reluctant toply with the enemy''s demands. At this point, it was clear that the southern congress and the psychic mutants were co-conspirators, and this footage was the key to exposing this conspiracy to the entire world.

    "Of course! Did you not see how strong those people were? I''m not taking any risks!"

    Hook was frantically looking around, and he wasn''t even considering the question of whether he was going to hand over the footage or not. Instead, he had already progressed to the next step, which was considering exactly how he was going to hand over the footage. He pulled out the psychic world footage capture device before looking around again.

    "How do I give them the footage?"

    Shortly thereafter, an answer to his question arrived in the form of a mechanical bee delivery agent. The mechanical bee hovered outside the car window, and the parcel chamber on its abdomen sprang open as it repeated the same instruction over and over again.

    "Please ce the parcel that needs to be sent in the parcel chamber..."

    "Please ce the parcel that needs to be sent in the parcel chamber..."

    ¡­¡­

    "This must be it!"

    The car was still driving along, and arge-scale psychic battle had just taken ce here, so surely there was no one who needed to post a parcel. As soon as Hook saw the delivery bee, he immediately opened his car window before anyone had a chance to stop him.

    "Let''s think about this first."

    "Think my arse! I don''t want any part in this! All I want is to enjoy life!"

    Hook tried to ce the footage capture device into the mechanical delivery bee''s parcel chamber as he spoke, but as soon as he reached out, both Shi Feng and Red Spider grabbed onto his arm to stop him.

    "You don''t get to call the shots here!"

    Shi Feng was a congressman, while Red Spider was a bodyguard for hire from the pawn shop. Neither of them had any attachment to Hook, and they were both cold-blooded professionals who were dedicated to their cause above all else.

    Back when Adam first awakened, Red Spider had watched dozens of people lose their lives just so she could coax him into the car.

    When it came to ruthlessness, the northern congress was only going to be more extreme than the pawn shop.

    The fact that both of them were stopping Hook at once was a clear indication that they regarded the footage to be more valuable than his life.

    "What are you doing?" Hook was no idiot, and he immediately realized the situation that he was in. "I''m dead if I don''t hand over the footage!"

    His words fell upon deaf ears.

    The two people he was pleading with had no regard for his life, so it didn''t matter how many times he emphasized that point to them.

    Adam didn''t want to see Hook die, so he explored the problem from a different angle.

    "Do we know why Sadou let them go just now?"

    "We can only assume that he wasn''t confident in his ability to beat them," Red Spider replied. "Alternatively, perhaps he could fight them to the death, but he''s only doing this for money, so he wouldn''t take such a great risk lightly. Thebination of Oni-faced Dragon and two elite hitmen definitely isn''t one to be messed with."

    "Then do we know why Oni-faced Dragon was in such a hurry to leave?"

    "That''s because there are Mechguard officers monitoring the situation outside, so he doesn''t want any battle to go on for longer than five minutes."

    "Alright, so from this, we can determine that Sadou isn''t willing to risk his life for this cause. I know Sadou personally, and his personality is very simr to Hook''s. He''s a big enjoyer of life, so there''s no way that he would step in to help us more than once against someone as powerful as Oni-faced Dragon. If we don''t follow through on our agreement, I''m certain that Sadou wouldn''t fight Oni-faced Dragon to the death for our sake." Adam pointed at the mechanical bee outside, which was bing more and more insistent as it continued to urge Hook to ce the footage capture device into its parcel chamber. "Oni-faced Dragon is clearly in a hurry to finish things here. If we dy any longer, we could be killed at any moment. With Miko and Hanzou on his side, I''m guessing it won''t even take them 10 seconds to kill all of us, so you''d better consider our situation carefully."

    "You''re right, but if we make a copy of the footage..." Before Red Spider had a chance to finish, the mechanical delivery bee''s eyes gradually began to glow red, and she immediately changed her mind upon seeing this. "Fine, I''ll allow it."

    "I guess we have no choice," Shi Feng also conceded.

    Thus, the two of them released Hook''s arm, and he eagerly ced the footage capture device into the parcel chamber.

    Everyone watched the mechanical bee fly away, and after waiting for some time, they were finally able to confirm that they were safe.

 Chapter 104: Bad Guys

    <h4>Chapter 104: Bad Guys</h4>

    Even though they were no longer in any danger, the atmosphere in the car was very grave.

    No one had gotten what they wanted.

    Hook had lost his im to fame, Adam and Shae had lost the leverage that they were counting on using to uncover the secrets of their past, Shi Feng had lost the opportunity tounch a smear campaign against the southern congress, Red Spider had failed toplete the mission assigned to her, and Shota Sato had lost all of hisrades from the Psychic Church.

    If anyone had gotten what they wanted, then it could only have been Nie Yiyi.

    Her objective foring on this mission was to experience the horror ofing face-to-face with death. She was looking forward to fighting powerful enemies in battle, and she had gotten what she wanted. She had brushed shoulders with death on several asions during the two battles that she had just endured, and she could''ve easily already been dead by now. In addition to that, she had been able to witness many formidable adapters in action.

    The psychic mutant, Oni-faced Dragon, Sadou, Oni no Miko, Oni no Hanzou... Every single one of them was far more powerful than she was. In particr, the likes of Oni-faced Dragon and Sadou stood at the very pinnacle of the adapter world, and watching them in action had been a riveting experience.

    She was from the Green Gang, but she had never seen any of the gang''s top leaders. At the academy, she mostly dealt with students and teachers, and among them, she was already near the top.

    However, the gap between herself and the likes of Sadou and Oni-faced Dragon was simply unfathomable.

    How are those people so powerful? What could they possibly have experienced to grant them such incredible psychic power and willpower?

    Nie Yiyi was pondering these questions with tightly furrowed brows, and the car continued to slowly drive onward under a glum and oppressive atmosphere.

    Half an hourter, they arrived at thergest childcare center in Area 66, where they met up with May.

    Upon their arrival, May was in the process of instructing people to remove the transmission devices on the ground.

    "Yes, there are still ejector synapse transmission devices on the wall! Are you blind? Those ck dots disguised as bugs, take them all down!"

    May''s telegnosis was very sharp, and before she even turned around, she already knew that everyone had arrived.

    "It''s good to see that you''re all still alive," she remarked with a pleased nod as she turned to face Adam and his friends.

    "How did things go on your end?"

    "Not bad. I managed to hold down the fort," May replied. "They sent dozens of psychic mutants here, and they were a little troublesome to deal with, but they''re all either dead or have been captured."

    May pointed in another direction, where Mechguard officers were taking some disheveled and unkempt individuals into custody. It was clear from a quick nce that these were very abnormal people, and even though there were Mechguard officers behind them, they were still spouting random nonsense.

    Adam just so happened to catch sight of a familiar figure among the detained psychic mutants, and he drew a little closer with an intrigued look on his face.

    "Isn''t that Mice King?"

    Adam wasn''t very familiar with the majority of psychic mutants who had escaped from Carlin Asylum, but he was particrly knowledgeable about Mice King. After escaping from Mice King during that attack on the underground pub, Adam had specifically done research on him, so he was very familiar with Mice King''s height, appearance, and past experiences.

    "I''m surprised he''s also been captured."

    "There''s nothing to be surprised about, they''re just a bunch of lunatics," May remarked with a yawn, indicating that the battle she had just endured had been somewhat taxing on her psychic power.

    "Why aren''t those nutcases executed on the spot?"

    Compared with Adam, Shae was more extreme in her mindset, so the questions that she raised were also sharper.

    "Officially speaking, there are uses in thew designed to protect the mentally insane. On an unofficial basis, these psychic mutants make for very valuable test subjects. They were all adapters to begin with, but they went on to be controlled by certain factors and lost their autonomy. Every single adapter could potentially be a psychic mutant under the wrong circumstances, so studying these psychic mutants benefits the entire adaptermunity atrge. There are also some deeper underlying reasons at y as well..."

    May turned to Adam, then lowered her voice slightly as she continued, "I''m talking about producers and consumers of nk tes. This technology only came into maturity about a decade ago, so no one can be sure if there will be any long-term after-effectster down the road. Installing a normal person''s persona into the brain of an adapter will result in the adapter''s synapses housing someone else''s psychic data, and it''s very difficult to say whether mutation will take ce in the future. Hence, there are people paying big money to support the field of adapter research. Carlin Asylum alone receives an astronomical sum in donations every year."

    So once again, it''s the immortals pulling the strings behind the scenes.

    After hearing what May had to say, Adam developed a clearer understanding of the immortals of the world who controlled unimaginable amounts of wealth and power.

    These powerful figures yed a role in everything, including legition, the media, the Metaverse immortality scam, psychic mutant research, taking adapters from orphanages and welfare homes...

    The entirety of society was operating under the rules established by these people, and everyone was working to provide the services that they desired.

    "Thankfully, it''s finally all over now. Almost all of the escaped psychic mutants were sent out for these attacks, and they''ve all either been killed or detained, so that should put an end to these attacks for now," May said as she heaved a sigh of relief. "The only piece of bad news is that one of the schools was sessfully infiltrated, but that doesn''t have anything to do with us. The rest is up to the northern and southern congresses."

    Most of the psychic mutants had been detained throughout Area 66, and Adam thought that he would finally be able to rest easy for some time in the wake of these attacks.

    After all, with all of the psychic mutants taken care of, the arm wrestle between the nothern and southern congresses was going to progress to the next stage, and there was no need for small fry like him to get involved.

    Looking at all of the civil servants cleaning up the scene, Adam decided that he was going to dedicate himself to taking on more jobs and eradicating more anomalies so that he could make further strides as an adapter.

    However, the anticipated period of peace never arrived.

    ¡­¡­

    During theing few days, all of the news outlets were reporting theserge-scale attacks.

    Around 800 students had perished during the attacks, and they were immediately ssified as extremely severe terrorist attacks.

    Everyone was riled up and calling for the psychic mutants to be punished, but with intentional steering of public discourse from the media, the focus was quickly shifted elsewhere.

    "The psychic mutants are only a bunch of lunatics who do things without any reason or logic, so the key to the problem is the people who set all of these attacks into motion!"

    This was a frequently discussed topic, and initially, it was the northern congress that was fanning the mes, but this time, it was the southern congress that was taking advantage of the situation to thrust this subject under the limelight.

    Everyone in the two congresses were well aware of who was responsible for instigating these attacks, and right when the northern congress was feeling rather perplexed about why the southern congress was seemingly engaging in self-sabotage, a piece of footage was released to the public.

    A terrifying anomaly raised its carving knife beforeshing out violently at a congressman who was in the midst of a battle.

    The anomaly had an extremely fearsome appearance that resembled a mummy, and looking at its physical appearance alone, it was even more sinister to behold than the psychic mutant.

    It was a natural emotional response to detest something that looked so hideous.

    Not only was the congressman being attacked by the anomaly, he had been surrounded by a group of adapters who seemed to have the support of a representative from the northern congress.

    We''ve been framed as the bad guys!

    All of the fine hairs on the back of Adam''s neck instantly stood up on end as he watched the footage, and he was struck by an immense sense of foreboding.

    The perspective of the footage was masterfully manipted so that Prince was framed as the victim, while everyone else was attacking him for no reason.

    There were also some shots of students being murdered included in the footage, and even though there were no explicit points being made, the natural conclusion that one would arrive at from watching the footage was that the demise of these students had been directly caused by the in-fighting among the adapters.

    The legal system championed evidence above all else, and with such concrete evidence being presented, Adam saw no possible way to clear his own name.

    Before he had a chance to consider what he was going to do next, he received a text message from an unknown number.

    "The arrest warrants are still in the process of being issued. Go to the following address, and make it quick! Everyone else has also already been notified."

    1. The Greeb Gang was a secret society that came into existence in China during the Qing Dynasty. If you''re interested, you can check out the following Wikipedia link for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gang#Origins

 Chapter 105: Shadow City

    <h4>Chapter 105: Shadow City</h4>

    There was no signature at the end of the text, and that was presumably because the sender didn''t dare to enclose their name with the message.

    However, the only ones who would dare to send him a message at a time like this had to be either the pawn shop or the northern congress.

    Thus, Adam immediately packed up his belongings and left without any hesitation.

    Initially, he didn''t dare to take any modes of public or private transport, but he then came to the realization that it was impossible topletely avoid the surveince of Mechguard''s cameras.

    After arriving at that realization, Adam cast aside his inhibitions and took the void rail directly to the edge of the city. The closer he drew to the edge of the city, the sparser the surrounding buildings became. By the time he reached the terminal station, there was nothing but barren wilderness around him.

    Adam slowly made his way through the wilderness ording to the address in the text message, and he found it rather strange that the number of pedestrians and cars around him was slowly decreasing.

    Aren''t the areas on the outskirts of Sandrise City supposed to be mostly filled with factories and waste treatment nts? If we go even further out than that, then it''s all farnd and small viges and towns like Ash, so why is there such a massive barren area here? Is it because the soil here is infertile?

    Adam crouched down andid a hand onto the sandy soil beneath his feet.

    Right as Adam was pondering these questions, the rumbling of a car engine rang out in the distance.

    The sound drew closer and closer, and a dune buggy with massive wheels quickly came into sight before stopping in front of Adam.

    "You''re Adam, right?"

    There were two people on the dune buggy, and both of their faces were covered in tattoos and piercings. They were also equipped with all types of prosthetic limbs, most of which had been illegally retrofitted, and they were holding a strange assembled electronic device, which seemed to be what they had used to track down Adam.

    "That''s me," Adam replied with a nod.

    "What a boring ass name! Get in the car, we were told to pick you up."

    Adam didn''t ask any questions as he jumped onto the dune buggy.

    "Toss away yourmunicator and remove all of your chipped prosthetic limbs." One of the men took Adam''smunicator as he spoke before tossing it onto the ground beside the dune buggy. A methrower then extended out of his back, sting out a plume of fire to incinerate themunicator.

    While this was happening, the other man pulled out a probe and scanned it over Adam''s entire body from head to toe before giving a quick nod. "He''s clean."

    "Let''s go!"

    The man who had just destroyed Adam''smunicator jumped back into the driver''s seat, then mmed the pedal down as far as it would go, elerating from 0 to 100 in five seconds. The enormous g-force from the drastic eleration almost threw Adam out of the buggy, and it was clear that the vehicle had also been modified.

    Looking at the mes sting out of the buggy''s rear end, Adam was struck by the feeling that he seemed to have booked himself a one-way ticket out of the civilized world.

    "Who asked you to pick me up?" Adam asked.

    Up to this point, he still didn''t know who these two men had been sent by. However, given his current situation, he had no choice but to go along with everything despite knowing nothing.

    "I don''t know. We''re getting paid to do this."

    The reply from the two men yielded no useful information, but it actually made Adam feel a bit more at ease.

    Shortly thereafter, he asked a second question: "Where are we going?"

    "Shadow City?"

    "What kind of ce is that?"

    "It''s a ce that''s above thew, the 101st Area of Sandrise City! Yahoooo!"

    The man sucked some type of liquid up his nose as he spoke, and he immediately entered a frenzied state.

    The dune buggy sped through the desert for close to two hours before finally arriving at what appeared to be an abandoned city. Thendscape here was riddled with ruins, wild grass, and animals, and there weren''t any signs of human activity. It was like a post-apocalyptic city.

    After arriving at the city, the two men drove the buggy to a sealed-off subway station, then turned to face the surveince camera for identity verification, and a gate was quickly opened to reveal a passageway that led downward.

    The passageway was extremely deep and was lined with cold and oppressive lights, much like the Moscow subway station from 100 years ago.

    "Let''s go!"

    The two men wasted no time as they casually parked the buggy on the side of the road, then began to make their way down the passageway on foot.

    Adam kept a count as he descended the staircase, and only after scaling down over 500 steps and in excess of 100 meters did they finally reach the end of the passageway, where they arrived at a subway station.

    There were Mechguard officers in the subway station, and Adam''s immediate instinctive reaction upon seeing this was to run away, but after taking a closer look, he discovered that these Mechguard officers were retrofitted units rather than official officers.

    They were assembled from scrap Mechguard parts that had been sourced from god-knows-where, and most of them were missingponents like limbs, making for a stark contrast whenpared with legitimate Mechguard officers.

    However, if one were to take these automatons lightly due to their seedy appearance, then they would be making a grave error.

    Even though these automatons look to be in terrible condition and were even missing limbs, they had all been retrofitted to enhance their firepower output. For example, the closest automaton to Adam was missing an army, but it had been reced with a piece of heavy artillery, and the one next to it was missing both legs, but it had been retrofitted with tank treads.

    These modifications appeared to be quite out of ce, but in a battle, these automatons weren''t inferior to official Mechguard units.

    This was not just a case of small-scale illegal modification. Instead, what was being presented to Adam was a true army of automatons. It was astonishing to think that there was such an army lurking on the outskirts of Sandrise City, and it was no wonder that this ce was considered to be above thew.

    While Adam was staring absentmindedly at the army of scrap automatons before him, a metal bell suddenly rang above his head, following which a "train" began to make its way toward them.

    While the vehicle was traveling on the railway tracks, it was more like a minecart as it waspletely open-top, and there were already some passengers from various ces riding on it. Some of the passengers had faces riddled with tattoos, and it was quite clear that they were locals, while others were more normal in appearances, except their eyes were rather vacant, and one could presume that they were criminals on the run from thew.

    "Get in!"

    The two men who had brought Adam here jumped onto the minecart, and Adam also followed suit without any hesitation.

    The minecart rumbled along in a bumpy manner. These subway railway tracks clearly hadn''t been maintained for a very long time, and there were some stretches of the journey that were so rough and bumpy that one could be sent flying out of the cart if they weren''t careful.

    Adam was grabbing tightly onto the metal railing in the minecart, patiently waiting to arrive at their destination.

    After traversing through the cavernous underground tunnel for an indeterminate period of time, Adam suddenly heard amotion in the distance, and the cart gradually elerated before drawing to a halt in front of a za.

    It was a very jarring transition to emerge from a silent tunnel into a lively za, and Adam felt as if he were in a dream.

    "Wee to Shadow City!"

    Adam jumped down from the minecart amid the sound of the loud greeting being transmitted over loudspeakers, then cast his gaze toward the underground city before him.

    There were people everywhere, and they were all behaving quite strangely. Some were using psychological drugs and wereying on the ground like piles of sludge, some were strutting along the streets with the illicitly retrofitted heavy weaponry on their bodies on full disy, some were engaged in a heated argument, but the verbal altercation didn''tst long before it came to a conclusion with someone having their head blown off.

    Intracranial fluids were sent flying everywhere, sttering onto the shoes of nearby bystanders, but it seemed that everyone was already ustomed to this.

    1. 100kmph is roughly 60mph.

 Chapter 106: Shithole

    <h4>Chapter 106: Shithole</h4>

    What a wild ce this is!

    The underground city waspletely different from Adam''s image of the world.

    Ever since he first awakened, he had spent all of his time in Sandrise City.

    Even though there was a great deal of shady business going on in the city''s dark underbelly, on the surface, everything was in good order. If it weren''t for the recent psychic mutant attacks, there were virtually no crimes that could be seen taking ce on the streets.

    Mechguard was simply too powerful a force to oppose. It was the embodiment of order and justice, enforcing thew in the most rigid and unforgiving fashion, and no one dared to step out of line.

    Hence, the atmosphere in the entirety of Sandrise City was very oppressive.

    Everyone was working, and everyone led exhausting lives, but no one was able to vent any of their pent-up stress for fear of repercussions.

    In contrast, Shadow City was the embodiment of chaos, and everything that was suppressed in Sandrise City was allowed to flourish freely here. It seemed that every single person in the city was out to pick a fight with someone.

    "Let''s go."

    The two men apanying Adam called out to him, then led him through the chaotic za before arriving in a small alley.

    The sewage system here wasn''t very well-developed, presumably because this was an underground city, and as soon as they arrived in the alley, Adam was immediately beset by the foul odor of urine and fecal waste. The ground in the alley was absolutely filthy, and the air quality here was also terrible due to theckluster venttion system.

    The entire city was filled with gray smog, and after passing through a few streets in the alley, they arrived in front of a shop at the end of the alley.

    "We''re here."

    Adam looked up to find that the shop''s name was "Uncle Lin''s Fire Shop". There was no way to tell what kind of shop this was from the strange name alone, but looking at the items behind the disy windows and the adornments on the storefront, it was clear that this was a prosthetic limb retrofitting shop, and one that catered to heavy artillery retrofitting, at that.

    Situated at the storefront was the barrel of a cannon, while the items on disy were either gatling guns orser weapons, all of which were extremely illegal.

    If one were to be caught by an electronic eye in Sandrise City with parts like these retrofitted onto their body, they would instantly attract countless Mechguard officers that would wipe them off the face of this world in seconds.

    This is clearly an illegal business, so it looks like it wasn''t the pawn shop that picked me up.

    Adam opened the door and entered shop, upon which he was greeted by the sight of a bald and burly Asian man.

    "Hello."

    The burly man merely nodded in response, then turned to the two thugs who had brought Adam here, and after verifying their identities, he gave them a sum of money before sending them away.

    "Take a seat."

    Adam took a nce at the messy shop to find that there was barely anywhere to stand with all the parts littered all over the ce, let alone any ce to sit, so he remained standing on the spot as he asked, "Can I ask who brought me here? Also, where are my friends?"

    As soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, another group of people entered the shop. This time, it was a different pair of thugs apanying Shae.

    "What''s going on?" Shae was initially ted to see Adam, following which a dumbfounded look appeared on her face. "When did you get here?"

    "I just got here, and I don''t know anything, either. I don''t even know who it was that asked us toe here." Adam gestured toward the bald Asian man as he spoke. "You can ask him."

    "I''ll tell you everything once everyone''s here. I don''t want to have to waste time saying things more than once."

    The bald man pulled out an essory that was as thin as a needle as he spoke, then began to repair a machine using the essory in a sewing motion like a tailor. Despite his rugged appearance, he was doing a very fine and delicate job, but it was still quite a strange sight seeing a burly man who was over two meters in height holding such a tiny tool.

    Adam didn''t say anything further upon hearing this, and he waited patiently in silence. It didn''t take long before Hook, Shota Sato, and Nie Yiyi arrived one after another.

    "Why are you here?" Adam was rather surprised by Hook''s arrival. "You didn''t even attack Prince at the time."

    Hook didn''t feature at all in the video file released by Prince. In reality, he really did refrain from joining in on the attack against Prince. As a professional coward, Hook never engaged himself in any direct battle.

    "I''ve already been deemed to be on the same side as all of you. If I don''t run away, they''ll capture me and force me to speak against you," Hook replied.

    He knew himself very well, and he was aware that he would''ve definitely folded to the demands of the enemy had he been captured.

    "Why isn''t Shi Feng here?"

    "As a congressman, the procedure required to detain him is a lot moreplicated." It was Shota Sato who replied on this asion. He was a member of the Psychic Church and was older than Adam and his friends, so he was far more familiar with how the government operated. "On top of that, he can''t afford to run away now. If he does that, then it''ll be an indirect confession to the court and to the general public that he''s at fault, and that would be detrimental to the northern congress''s cause."

    "What do we do now?"

    "Ask him."

    Seeing as everyone had arrived, the bald Asian man heaved a faint sigh as he stood up amid a pile of parts, then gave a self-introduction. "My surname is Lin, and my name was changed because I was previously a fugitive on the run. Nowadays, everyone calls me Baldie Lin. I''m a mechanic, and I was the one who sent out the people who brought all of you here."

    "Who asked you to bring us here? Is this ce safe?"

    "I can''t tell you who asked me to bring you here, and this ce definitely isn''t safe, but at the very least, it''s out of Mechguard''s reach."

    "Why is that?" Adam was rather perplexed. Even though this ce was underground and had a retrofitted army, Mechguard possessed a regr army that far outnumbered the retrofitted army here and had ess to an enormous amount of resources. Thus, if Mechguard were to attack this ce, it would''ve been very difficult for everyone here to weather the storm.

    "Because this ce is a giant shithole! If they dare to attack this ce, shit will stter everywhere!" Baldie Lin chuckled. "Think about how many shady underground industries a massive city with a poption in excess of 300 million would give rise to. These industries are like human excrement, they''ll inevitably be produced wherever there are people. There''s no end to it, and it''s impossible to prohibit.

    ¡°This city used to be just a set of ruins. In the past, there used to be all types of gangs, underground businesses, drug dens, organ traffickers, illegal retrofitting workshops, sex workers... You name it! All of that used to run rampant in Sandrise City, but after the Dataist Union took over Mechguard, it became very difficult for these shady industries to survive in Sandrise City, so all of the excrement flowed here to form this massive shithole.

    ¡°This shithole has ties with everyone, including the northern and southern congresses, high-ranking government officials, and countless majorpanies. Every organization has dirty work that needs to be done behind the scenes, and that is why this shithole exists. No one wants to blow up this shithole because it won''t be good for anyone."

    "So we''ll be able to avoid being captured by Mechguard here?" Adam asked, identifying the crux of the issue.

    "That''s right."

    "What about other people like hitmen organizations?"

    "We can''t do anything about that. This ce is a shithole to begin with, so it only makes sense for there to be a few maggots around, isn''t that right? That''s why you were all sent to me. I''m going to conduct some retrofitting on all of you, and when I''m done, I guarantee you that no one will be able to recognize you anymore. As for what happens after that, all we can do is wait for the oue of the tug of war between the northern and southern congresses."

    "I suppose there''s no other way."

    Thus, under Baldie Lin''s care, Adam and his group began to undergo a series of retrofitting.

    Firstly, they were given facial tattoos that were a signature of Shadow City. After that, they were equipped with some fake prop prosthetic limbs, and finally, they were given a change of hair color and attire. At the end of the process, they werepletely unrecognizable.

 Chapter 107: The Death Matches of Shadow City

    <h4>Chapter 107: The Death Matches of Shadow City</h4>

    This is such a strange feeling,?Adam thought to himself as he inspected his own reflection in the mirror.

    He had pink hair, and there were designs simr to tree rings tattooed onto his face. An electronic lens had also been installed over his eye, and it was disying all types of data. In addition to that, he was wearing a strange mask that resembled an oxygen mask, seemingly for the purpose of filtering out the smoggy air here.

    A set of sharp teeth resembling sandworm mouthparts had been drawn onto the front of the mask, and that, in addition to his tight-fitting leather attire and the miniature cannon that had been installed onto his arm, made it impossible for anyone to distinguish him from the locals in the area.

    Adam took a nce at the time on hismunicator to find that it was already close to nighttime. However, there was no sunlight in this underground city, so there was no perceptible concept of time.

    Hismunicator was also a retrofitted product, having had its positioning chip removed and an independent operating system installed. With this independent operating system, the information of themunicator didn''t enter the database, so it couldn''t be monitored by the Dataist Union and Mechguard, making it an essential tool for all those who were working against thew.

    Even though it was already nighttime, the others were still undergoing their makeovers, and Adam didn''t have anything to do anyway, so he switched on the television to watch the news.

    "ording to reports, those used of attacking the congressman have already been authorized for capture..."

    "ording to insiders, the suspects have gone on the run and can no longer be contacted..."

    "We will now be releasing images of the suspects..."

    "The number of casualties suffered during the psychic mutant terrorist attack has risen once again, and the number of deaths has already climbed to 6,637..."

    "There are people who are calling for all psychic mutants to be put on trial, but that goes against our legal regtions and our policy of care toward minorities and the mentally ill..."

    "Due to the attack, Shi Feng of the northern congress has been impeached by many parties, cing him in a very difficult position in his political career."

    ¡­¡­

    Many of the pieces of news being broadcast on the television had something to do with him, and after watching for a while, Adam had developed a rough understanding of what was happening in the outside world. However, all of these news stories were quite repetitive in nature, and after watching for a while longer, he switched off the television before leaving the room.

    Outside the room was a dim corridor that was lined with many retrofitting rooms. Passing through the corridor, Adam arrived in the shop, then carefully traversed through the cluttered piles of parts on the ground before emerging into the alley outside.

    There were some passersby traversing through the alley, and most of them only took a casual nce at Adam before looking away. His get-up was far toomonce in this city.

    Emerging from the alley, Adam arrived on the street outside, then took in the underground city around him with his eyes.

    He was certain that absolute chaos couldn''t possibly exist in a ce inhabited by humans.

    Sure enough, after passing through several streets and alleys, he discovered that there were rules in this ce as well, and that there was a very clear system of hierarchical segregation.

    The locals here clearly seemed to be of a loftier status than outsiders, and the main differences between the locals and the outsiders here seemed to be the facial tattoos and all of the illegally retrofitted prosthetics.

    The tattoos were quite easy to replicate, but most people were resistant to the idea of facial tattoos as the majority of the outsiders who fled to this city still wanted to return to the civilized world, and receiving and removing facial tattoos was quite a hassle.

    Furthermore, even if they could emte the facial tattoos, it was very difficult to imitate the illegal prosthetics. Unless the counterfeits were installed by a master craftsman, it would''ve been very easy to see right through them.

    Looks like Baldie Lin is quite a skilled artisan!

    Additionally, there was also a very clear hierarchy system even among the locals, and the differenceid in the designs of their facial tattoos. The different powers in the local area all had differing facial tattoos.

    "Piss off! Get out of my way!" A man with a viper tattooed onto his face pushed aside a little girl who was standing in his way, shoving her straight into a pile of trash on the side of the road.

    The surrounding bystanders were alreadypletely ustomed to this, and the little girl didn''t even say anything as she stood up before dusting herself off. She then caught sight of Adam looking at her, and she flipped him off as she cursed, "What the fuck are you looking at, bitch?"

    Adam initially faltered slightly at the sight of the little girl''s reaction, then brandished the miniature cannon on his arm, and the little girl immediately fled into the crowd.

    It seems like everyone is mentally ill to a certain extent in this godforsaken city...

    Adam still possessed an intense yearning for power, particrly after he witnessed Oni-faced Dragon and Sadou.

    If he had been more powerful, he would''ve been able to stand up for himself back then, and he wouldn''t have fallen into this predicament. Instead, he would''ve been able to protect Hook''s footage and have the southern congresspletely at his mercy.

    .

    If everyone here is mentally ill, would it be possible for me to find some emotional anomalies here to strengthen myself?

    As this thought urred to Adam, he suddenly caught sight of the sky overhead. In reality, the sky in this underground city was just a glorified ceiling, and at this moment, there was a massive advertisement ying on this ceiling.

    The advertisement depicted several fierce-looking figures, and beneath those images were the names and nicknames corresponding to those figures.

    "Red Demon... Frost Giant... Titan... What are these weird names? Are they professional wrestlers?"

    The advertisement then went on to introduce the matches that were scheduled to take ce on this day.

    After watching for a while, Adam finally understood what type of matches these were. As it turned out, these were death matches that were unique to Shadow City, where the first half consisted of fights to the death between cyborgs. The use of firearms was prohibited in order to avoid harming the audience, but all other weapons were permitted, and judging from the snippets of the matches being disyed in the advertisement, it was an extremely gorey affair.

    As for the second half, that was a sh between psychic worlds.

    Some of the matches consisted of adapters battling emotional anomalies, but the majority of matches were between emotional anomalies. After all, adapters were extremely rare, and very few of them were desperate enough to turn to something like this for money.

    In any case, Adam was very intrigued by these matches, and he wanted to see exactly how they orchestrated their psychic battles.

    Thus, he opened hismunicator and followed the map to the sports stadium. Shadow City wasn''t a veryrge ce, but it had quite arge poption, and upon arriving at the sports stadium, Adam was truly staggered by just how many people were gathered there.

    Are these matches that popr? Is this like the Super Bowl or the World Cup of Shadow City?

    Never did he think that these matches would be able to draw in such a massive audience. Not only was the sports stadiumpletely packed, there were even more people outside the stadium.

    The area outside the stadium was fully equipped with carparks, food courts, campsites, beer vendors, betting stalls... It was like a full-blown carnival!

    Adam wanted to enter the stadium to watch the matches, but even the cheapest ticket cost in excess of 2,000 dors. He was certain that his bank ount had already been frozen, so he was essentially dead broke.

    Thankfully, after looking around briefly, he discovered many money-making opportunities.

    There were many people betting on the open spaces outside the sports stadium.

    The content of these bets was identical to that of the matches taking ce inside the stadium, with matches between cyborgs, non-retrofitted humans, and psychic battles.

    However, the matches outside were clearly of a far lower caliber than the ones scheduled to take ce inside the stadium, and most of the spectators were people who couldn''t afford tickets or were seeking out some pre-match entertainment before entering the stadium.

    Adam followed the sound of the rowdy voices and made his way over to an arena where a psychic battle was taking ce, then took a nce inside.

 Chapter 108: Psychic Combat

    <h4>Chapter 108: Psychic Combat</h4>

    He was very curious about how such low-end matches could possibly entice adapters into participation, but upon reaching the arena, he was stunned by what he saw.

    What is this?

    The two people who were preparing to face off in battle were both extremely thin and frail. It was as if they had suffered some type of condition that resulted in muscr atrophy, and they were essentially nothing more than skin and bones, relying entirely on their prosthetic limbs for movement.

    Furthermore, they were wearing some type of hollow helmet on their heads, and there were sharp metal spikes on the inside of the helmets, piercing directly into their skulls to connect with their brains. With each jolt of electricity that passed through the helmets, the two would spasm violently.

    "What are those things?" Adam asked.

    A teenage girl beside him rolled her eyes at him, then briefly inspected his get-up as she scoffed with a derisive expression, "How are you a local when you don''t even know about this?"

    "Er..." Adam offered no response, realizing that the more he said, the more he was going to expose himself.

    Thankfully, the girl was very chatty, and she pointed at the helmets as she exined, "These are neuron exploiters, an invention of our Shadow City. They can stimte the brain to temporarily enhance neuron function, granting normal people the same abilities as adapters for a short time."

    "Is that right?" Never did Adam think there would be such strange inventions in Shadow City that could temporarily enhance the neurons of normal people to the same level as adapters.

    However, looking at the physical state that the users were in, it seemed that attaining this ability came at an excessive cost.

    "How much longer will these people be able to live?" Adam asked in a hushed voice.

    "Who knows? These psychicbatants all sustain irreversible damage to their bodies and brains, and they generally don''t live past seven years."

    "Are they doing this out of their own volition?"

    "Most of them are. As long as they can earn enough money, after they die, they can enter the Dark Metaverse."

    "I see."

    "You''re an outsider, right? That''s a nice disguise you have there. If you hadn''t said anything, you would''ve had me fooled." The girl was a local resident of the area, and it was clear that she was very well-versed with the rules here, speaking with a sense of maturity beyond her years. "What did you do in the past?"

    "I used to be a hitman," Adam replied, painting himself in a menacing light in the hope that the girl would be intimidated into keeping their encounter a secret.

    However, to his surprise, the girl became even more excited after hearing this, and she even took the initiative to introduce herself.

    "You''re a hitman? That''s fantastic!" The girl reached out to shake Adam''s hand, then lowered her voice so that it was audible only to the two of them as she said, "Hello, Mr. Hitman. My name is Hailey, and it''s a pleasure to meet you!"

    Adam merely nodded in response, not wanting to speak with this chatty girl any longer.

    Hailey could see that Adam was growing impatient with her, so she hurriedly cut to the chase. "Given yourck of understanding of Shadow City, I presume you''ve only recently arrived here, so you most likely don''t have anyundered money to use, right? Do you need money?"

    Adam continued to remain silent, but an intrigued look appeared in his eyes.

    Hailey was clearly someone who was at the bottom of the societal hierarchy and had developed exceptional skills of observation. She could tell from the change in Adam''s expression that she had struck the nail right on the head with her guess, and she hurriedly continued, "I have a great way to make money. Do you want to hear it?"

    "Go ahead?"

    "Before I begin, I have to confirm something. You''re an adapter, right?" Hailey asked in a careful voice. "Nowadays, there are very few non-adapter hitmen. After all, everyone''s scared of Mechguard."

    "That''s right."

    "Great! If you need money, you can participate in our psychicbat matches, and you''ll be able to earn lots and lots of money. My ultimate dream in life is to be a manager for a psychicbatant, and I''ve beening here every day since I was eight years old, but I''ve never found an opportunity. I''ve studied up on lots and lots of professional specialized knowledge in this area. If we join forces, we''ll be sure to make a name for ourselves here!"

    "You talk way too much! Aren''t you afraid of getting involved with someone like me? I''m wanted for some very serious crimes!"

    "I wouldn''t be able to live in Shadow City if I were scared of everything! All of us have to fight every day just to survive. Look around you, who isn''t wanted for some serious shit here?" Hailey shrugged in response.

    While Adam and Hailey were speaking with one another, a bell simr to the ones heard at boxing matches rang out, indicating that the battle was about to begin.

    At this point, the pair of severely emaciatedbatants had already put on their equipment, and they were ced together by the host. After that, the two machines were connected, and the two of them instantly entered the psychic world and fell unconscious.

    At the same time, a projection device that was meant for surveince purposes was brought out by another worker to disy the battle that was taking ce in the psychic world.

    In the image, the twobatants had already entered a white space. In contrast with their frail and atrophied physical appearances, the psychic forms of the twobatants were a pair of muscr men. After they appeared in the white space, the pair ofbatants took a nce at one another, but they didn''t immediately begin fighting.

    Meanwhile, the host began to introduce the psychic statistics of the twobatants while taking bets.

    "Our stall doesn''t take part in the gambling, we only take 10% of the winner''s earnings. You can ce your bets on who you think is going to win, and the one who ces the highest bet can select the venue for the fight. You may begin cing your bets now!"

    "Who do you think is going to win, Mr. Hitman?"

    "How am I supposed to know? The two of them look roughly the same, so I can''t really tell anything just by looking at them," Adam replied with a shake of his head. "Having said that, I''m very curious to see what they''re capable of."

    This was the first time that he had seen a sh between ordinary people in the psychic world, so he was very intrigued.

    With the host fanning the me of excitement, the arena was bing rowdier and rowdier. Most of the spectators ced down their bets, then began to chug down beer while cheering for their fighter.

    Meanwhile, the one who had ced the highest bet chose the venue for battle.

    "Alright, this gentleman has chosen the mostmonce and fairest warehouse setting as the venue for the battle. I''m sure I don''t need to make too much of an introduction about the warehouse setting. There are very few weapons in the warehouse, only somemon tools such as spanners, shovels, and fire axes. It''s clear that this gentleman wants to see a true contest of strength between our twobatants! Let''s cut to the fight now!"

    While the host was speaking, he made his way over to the machine that connected the twobatants before inputting a series ofmands.

    Momentster, the image in the projection slowly began to change, transforming from a white and featureless space into a warehouse.

    The warehouse resembled a factory warehouse from the previous century with wooden crates and broken containers littered all over the ce. and aside from some trash and hay, there were only somemon tools on the ground.

    In the instant that the pair ofbatants arrived in the warehouse, they knew that the battle had begun, and they immediately crouched down to pick up weapons from the ground.

 Chapter 109: Manager

    <h4>Chapter 109: Manager</h4>

    The firstbatant immediately picked up a spanner as soon as he arrived in the warehouse, then rushed toward a certain direction.

    The otherbatant also rushed in the same direction, and through the image being disyed, Adam could see that there was a fire ax there.

    It was clear that both of thebatants were very familiar with this setting, and they both wanted to im that weapon.

    Thebatant who didn''t waste time picking up the spanner was the first to arrive, but right as he was about to pick up the fire ax, a spanner flew through the air before striking him right on the forehead, inflicting a gruesome wound that immediately began to bleed profusely.

    At the same time, in the real world, the emaciated body of thebatant who had been struck also spasmed violently.

    However, despite the injury that he had sustained, the woundedbatant didn''t back down, fighting through the pain as he grabbed the fire ax, then swung it at the enemybatant.

    Thetter was able to evade the first attack, but what followed was a string of ax attacks that came his way.

    While Adam was focused on watching the unfolding battle, Hailey gently nudged him with her elbow. "What do you think?"

    "What do you mean?"

    "What do you think of them? Are they strong?"

    "Not at all," Adam replied with a shake of his head. In fact, the twobatants could be described as downright atrocious fighters.

    Previously, he had coined a ssification system for his anomalies, consisting of infantile anomalies, level one anomalies, level two anomalies, level three anomalies, etc.

    Among them, a level one anomaly was roughlyparable or slightly superior in power to a student adapter, while a level two anomaly represented the average power level for a mature adapter.

    These twobatants were no match even for someone like Hook, and their psychic bodies weren''t much more powerful than the phsycial bodies of the average human.

    A fierce battle was taking ce between the two, but it didn''t take long for the ax-wieldingbatant to capitalize on an opening in his opponent''s defense, allowing him to swing him fire ax viciously down onto his opponent''s shoulder to inflict a severe wound.

    Even though his opponent was at a clear disadvantage, he showed no mercy, swinging down his ax several more times to inflict more injuries, causing his opponent to copse to the ground.

    At this point, it was clear beyond a doubt that one of thebatants was unfit to continue, and only then did the host sever the connection between the twobatants'' psychic worlds, but even so, the severely woundedbatant was still unable to survive.

    After the connection was severed, the physical body of the severely injuredbatant began to spasm uncontrobly. The grievous wounds sustained by his psychic body had reduced in severe brain damage, and given his already terrible physical condition, he was unable to endure the trauma and fell dead on the spot as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

    "That''s it? Of course you''d drop dead, you useless piece of trash!" The stall owner was very displeased to witness the demise of one of thebatants. "What a waste of money that was! Someone drag him out of here and feed him to the dogs!"

    The stall owner was barking instructions at his workers, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the audience. The winners were exchanging their betting chips for money, while the losers were cursing loudly as they threw their chips down onto the ground.

    "Was thatbatant bought by the stall owner?"

    "Technically, no, but he would''ve had to sign an indenture."

    "Then why wasn''t the fight stopped before it was toote? If you ask me, the oue was already decided after the first ax blownded." Adam''s questionpletely betrayed hisck of understanding of the customs and traditions of Shadow City.

    "How would they be able to attract spectators if they did that? Even back 100 years ago, movie actors were saying that sex and violence were the main driving forces behind movie ticket sales, and the same applies to these matches. ording to the rules here, no one is allowed to end a match before an absolutely decisive oue is reached." Even though Hailey was very young, she always spoke in a way that made her seem far older than she was.

    "Also, this works to prevent match-fixing as much as possible."

    Adam hade into contact with other girls of Hailey''s age before, such as Kim Garcia and Chloe, but they werepletely different from her.

    The values of someone who had grown up in Shadow City werepletely different from those of someone who had grown up in the civilized world.

    Adam didn''t approve of what he was seeing, but given his current situation, he hardly had the spare capacity to be concerning himself with things like this.

    "If they''re so weak, then whey don''t you go and have a try?"

    "How much money will I be able to earn?" The matches in the sports stadium were about to begin, and Adam wanted to go in and watch.

    "That depends on who your opponent is. The more powerful your opponent, the higher the appearance fee will be. Of course, as a newbie, you won''t be assigned ot anyone at the top of the pack." Hailey had already adopted the role of manager as she spoke. "Come on, I''ll sign you up for a fight."

    "Sure." Adam needed money anyway, so he didn''t have much choice.

    Hailey immediately jumped up with delight, then began to rush around, visiting the nearbybat stalls, and after about 15 minutes, she managed to arrange a fight for Adam.

    "Hurry! I''ve found a good match for you. The match was already scheduled, but one of thebatants died on the way here, and you''re recing him. However, this is a higher-end fight, so the opponent is probably going to be quite tough. Are you confident that you''ll be able to win?"

    "Let''s go there and take a look first," Adam replied before following Hailey to thebat stall.

    This stall was indeed a bit more sophisticated than the previous one, with spectator stands that were constructed from steel and a muchrger projection screen. Furthermore, with the stands in ce, spectators were able to see the match even from further away, so the stall was able to attract arger crowd as well.

    Hailey led Adam to the back of the spectator stands, where they met a man with arge moustache.

    "This is yourbatant?" the stall owner asked as he sized up Adam. "That''s a healthy-looking young man. He''s an adapter?"

    "I already told you he was, but you wouldn''t believe me!"

    "How was I supposed to believe you? No one would believe it if they heard a little pipsqueek like you talk about managing an adapter!" the man countered. "If you really are an adapter, how about you work with me instead?"

    "Hey, you can''t take my client!" Hailey immediately tried to assert her dominance, only to shoved aside by the man without even a nce directed her way.

    Thankfully for her, Adam had no intention of jumping ship. Being managed by someone like her granted him a great deal of flexibility, and he could leave at anytime, but things most likely weren''t going to be so simple if he joined a certain organization.

    "It''s alright, I''m only here for one match."

    "You sure you don''t want to reconsider?"

    "I''m sure."

    While the man was questioning Adam, the spectators were beginning to grow quite impatient, and they were yelling for thebatants to take the stage.

    The spectators in Shadow City were an extremely aggressive bunch, and if the match didn''t begin on time, they could easily erupt into a riot and demolish the entire arena.

    With that in mind, the man didn''t try to persuade Adam any further and led him out from behind the spectator stands.

 Chapter 110: Desert

    <h4>Chapter 110: Desert</h4>

    Adam stepped onto the stage with the mustached man, and he was first almost blinded by the bright lights before hearing a loud chorus of boos from the spectators.

    "What the hell? Who''s that? This isn''t a cyborg fight!"

    "Who''s that supposed to be?"

    "Where''s Red Cat?"

    Some of the spectators were perplexed by Adam''s arrival, while others were calling for anotherbatant.

    In the face of all of these dissenting voices, the mustached man remained calm and gave Adam a grand introduction.

    "Today, we''ve decided to give you all a treat. Thebatant standing next to me is an adapter that I invited toe here from the main arena at a massive price! He will be the one facing off against ck Bear today!"

    "An adapter? What a load of bullshit! Why would an adaptere here instead of fighting in the main arena?"

    "Exactly! What kind of adapter would be that desperate?"

    "You''ll know whether he''s an adapter or not in just a minute. If he''s an imposter, then I give all of you full permission to rush onto the stage and chop him into mincemeat!"

    As a seasoned fight organizer, not only was the mustached man able to instantly ignite the emotions of the spectators, he had also dumped all of the ountability onto Adam.

    He was also quite skeptical about Adam''s status as an adapter.

    After all, the chances of a teenage girl bringing an adapter to a shady stall like his were very low.

    However, given that the fight was about to begin, he had no time to verify Adam''s adapter status. Regardless of whether Adam was an adapter or not, he had dumped all ountability onto Adam, so at the very least, he could ensure that his business wasn''t going to be demolished if the spectators weren''t delivered what they were promised.

    "Now then, ording to the rules, we show you thebatants, then take your bets." The mustached man made his way over to Adam as he said, "If you''re an adapter, then you won''t need to wear the helmet, but you''ll still need to use the connector for venue selection purposes."

    "I understand," Adam replied as he epted the connector, then took the spot that belonged to Red Cat.

    "Are you alright with this?" the mustached man asked as he made his way over to the otherbatant.

    "If I''m fighting an adapter, then I need extrapensation."

    "Alright, we''ll give you twice the original cut of the profits."

    "Sounds good to me." Thebatant wanted to nod in response, but all he could do was twitch the muscles on his neck slightly, and it was clear that he waspletely beyond saving.

    "Alright, we now enter the disy stage!" The mustached man gave Adam a look as he spoke, and Adam dragged the otherbatant into the psychic world using the connector.

    Due to the role yed by the connector, Adam had no choice but to enter that white space after entering the psychic world.

    Standing not far away in front of him was an extremely burly and hirsute man. The man was over 220 centimeters tall, and with his almostically muscr frame and the dense ck hair that covered his entire body, he resembled a ck bear more so than a human.

    As for Adam, he had also taken on an alternate appearance.

    Adam''s psychic body was quite simr in appearance to his physical body, but at the moment, he was a highly wanted fugitive that was being hunted not just by Mechguard, but also by organizations like the southern congress and the Oni Organization.

    His physical body had been disguised, so he naturally had to disguise his psychic body as well. This was a very difficult task for the average person, but it was very simple for him.

    In the instant that he entered the psychic world, he immediately invoked Nun before fusing with it.

    He had chosen this anomaly primarily because it had virtually never been disyed in a public setting. Even when he had invoked Nun during the battle at Mirror Lake Primary School, no one had been around to see it, and right after it was invoked, it immediately possessed that student, thereby vanishing out of sight.

    Thus, confidentiality was the main reason why Adam had decided to use nun, and the second reason was that he really wanted to develop this anomaly.

    After watching the battle between Oni no Miko and Sadou, he had developed a new understanding of how invocator-ss adapters battled.

    Due to the special nature of invocators, they were capable of nurturing more than one invoked entity to deal with different situations. At the moment, Adam''s most powerful anomalies excelled in terms ofbat prowess, but they were far toockluster when it came to abilities, so there were many instances where he waspletely stumped in special situations.

    Among all of his anomalies, Nun possessed the most abilities and was also the most powerful one, so he really wanted to develop it.

    After fusing as one with Nun, all of Adam''s facial muscles hadpletely atrophied, and there were also pitch-ck rings around his eyes, making himpletely unrecognizable.

    "Ohhh, he really is an adapter!"

    "He looks pretty scary too! Like a ghost!"

    "We''re in for a real treat today!"

    The spectators were very excited to actually be seeing a real adapter in the arena, and everyone immediately erupted into a frenzy of excitement.

    The mustached man was very pleased by the audience''s reaction, and he dered, "Now that you''ve all had a good look at ourbatants, you can begin cing your bets now!"

    The first batch of spectators quickly made their bets, with most of them putting their money on Adam.

    However, the second batch of spectators wasn''t in such a hurry to make their choice.

    "Hold on, just because he''s an adapter doesn''t mean he''ll definitely win."

    "Exactly! If he''s really that strong, then he wouldn''t be fighting in an arena like this. I read on the inte that most adapters aren''t actually very strong, so he may not be as strong as ck Bear."

    "On top of that, if everyone bets on the adapter, the payout will be really low anyway, so we may as well take a chance and bet against him!"

    "Precisely!"

    Thus, those who felt as if they had found a loophole in the system quickly ced their bets on ck Bear.

    Due to the presence of an adapter, the crowd was growingrger andrger, and the mustached man intentionally stalled for some time so that more people could ce their bets before announcing themencement of the match.

    70% of the spectators ced their bets on Mr. Hitman! I wonder if he can back up his hype. qheoitqehtqoiethetoiqheoithwqohthoiewhtoiewqhtoqewhhqwt

    Hailey was also feeling an immense sense of pride as she watched all of the spectators cheering for Adam in the stands.

    "The gentleman with the mohawk has ced the highest bid of 30,000, so he gets toe up onstage and select the venue for the fight!"

    "I choose the desert!" the man yelled from the spectator stands, choosing not to step onstage.

    "Fantastic choice! There are no weapons in the desert, so this will be a pure disy of thebatants'' abilities! Let the show begin!"

    With that emphatic announcement from the mustached man, Adam felt the space around him begin to change. His psychic body remained still on the spot, but the data of the white space began to permutate, transforming into a different environment altogether.

    Momentster, he found himself in an abandoned city in a barren desert.

    Most of the walls in the city were constructed from mud and rocks, looking as if they were a product from several thousand years ago. The walls weren''t very sturdy to begin with, and after thousands of years of wind erosion, the city had been reduced to ruins.

    Adam naturally wasn''t familiar at all with this venue, so he decided to climb onto the highest wall beside him to inspect the environment.

 Chapter 111: A Mouthful of Sewage

    <h4>Chapter 111: A Mouthful of Sewage</h4>

    It''s so weak!

    During the climbing process, Adam was able to experience just how weak this form was.

    He was so weak that he had to climb up this wall, which was only around four meters tall. If he had fused as one with Mummy, then he would''ve been able to jump straight over a wall of this height with ease.

    At the moment, Nun was only an infantile anomaly, while Mummy had already undergone three evolutions, so they were onpletely different levels.

    It had been a very long time since Adam hadst fused with such a weak anomaly, and it was quite a jarring experience, one that he found to be far from enjoyable.

    After climbing to the top of the wall, Adam inspected his surroundings to find that this "city" was very small. In fact, it was more appropriate to call it a town, and he quickly spotted his opponent, which wasn''t a difficult task, considering how eye-catching the giant hairy bear of a man was amid these ruins.

    Adam''s original n was to call his opponent over for a direct battle, but after noticing that his opponent hadn''t spotted him yet, he climbed back down from the wall.

    He was unsure of how powerful his opponent was, and he was in a very weak form, so it was best to be more cautious.

    With that in mind, he slowly approached his opponent while ensuring that he was well concealed the entire time, and finally, he heard the sound of footsteps. He immediately crouched low to the ground, waiting to ambush his opponent when he got close, but things didn''t quite go as nned.

    "I can smell you!" ck Bear roared from the other side of the wall that Adam was hiding behind, then smashed straight through the wall with a powerful punch. Adam hurriedly dove to the side to take evasive measures, getting out of the way right before the wall came crashing down onto him.

    "You don''t look very strong at all," ck Bear said with a cocky expression after toppling the wall with his fist. "I''ve heard that even adapters vary greatly in power. You must be among the weakest adapters out there! Your aptitude as an adapter is wasted on someone like you!"

    Aside from the animosity that onebatant would normally feel toward another in a situation like this, ck Bear also seemed to have a personal vendetta against Adam born out of his envy at the fact that Adam was an adapter.

    Spurred on his fury, ck Bear let loose a thunderous roar as he leaped up into the air, swinging his fists down toward Adam like a pair of hammers.

    If Adam had fused with Mummy, he wouldn''t even have had to bother with dodging an attack of this caliber. With Mummy''s body of steel, ck Bear would shatter his own arms upon impact.

    However, he couldn''t afford to do that in his current form. He hurriedly mbered to his feet before rolling to the side to just barely dodge the attack, then struck ck Bear with a punch to the ribs, causing him to stumble back, but the attack wasn''t very effective at all.

    "This adapter is trash!"

    "Is that all he''s got?"

    The spectators were bing rather agitated upon seeing this, and in particr, those who had maderge bets on Adam were already beginning to loudly denounce Adam for hisckluster disy.

    "Where did this piece of trash evene from? I''ve seen footage of adapters in battle on the dark web, and this guy isn''t even as strong as the average student adapter!"

    "I got all excited for nothing!"

    "No wonder he had toe to an arena like this one!"

    How is he this weak?

    Out of all of the spectators, no one was more depressed than Hailey.

    She had thought that Adam was a powerful adapter from the civilized world, one that alter the course of her destiny and make her dreamse true, but this was a far inferior disy to what she had expected to see.

    "That tickled a bit."

    In the psychic world, ck Bearid a hand over his ribs, where a fist-shaped indentation had appeared. Adam''s punch had broken one or two of his ribs, but it wasn''t a significant injury at all.

    "A punch from you barely does anything to me, but looking at your scrawny frame, a single punch from me would shatter all of your bones!" ck Bear chortled as he rushed directly toward Adam like a rampaging bulldozer, relying purely on brute force without any finesse or technique to speak of.

    Having battled so many formidable foes in the past, ck Bear''s primitive style of attack was almostughably clumsy in Adam''s eyes.

    In the face of this significantlyrger and more cumbersome opponent, Adam picked up a lump of earth from the ground in an unhurried manner, then hurled it directly at his opponent''s face.

    ck Bear reflexively raised a hand to shield his own face, but the lump of earth was severely eroded and had no structural integrity. Thus, it instantly exploded into powder as soon as it crashed into ck Bear''s arm, forming a smokescreen that obscured ck Bear''s vision, thereby granting Adam an opportunity to attack.

    The knees were a very vulnerable part of the human body, and seeing as one''s psychic body arose from one''s consciousness, the vulnerable parts of one''s physical body were generally reflected in their psychic bodies as well.

    First, he aimed a vicious kick at ck Bear''s kneecap, and while ck Bear was thrown off bnce, he grabbed onto his crotch, following which his fingernails suddenly elongated before tearing off a chunk of flesh from his opponent''s body.

    The excruciating pain instantly drove ck Bear into an enraged frenzy, and he wrapped his arms around Adam''s body, trying to snap his spine and constrict him to death.

    "How dare you use these dirty tricks on me! I''m going to crush your chest and make you throw up your heart out of your mouth!"

    At this moment, Adam was indeed in a great deal of difort. Thankfully, his physical constitution wasn''t as frail as the spectators thought it was. He had avoided a direct confrontation up to this point as he hadn''t yet gauged his opponent''s powers, nor was he aware of what he was capable of in this form, so he had chosen to err on the side of caution.

    In the past, almost all of the battles that he had endured wererge-scale battles of life and death, so he was quite inexperienced when it came to fights like this.

    Those past battles had led to the development of a very cautious fighting style, but now that he knew what he was dealing, he was naturally able to switch to a more aggressive approach.

    "Is that all you''ve got? Surely you have some more left in the tank," Adam goaded. He wanted to test the limits of his physical resistance in this form.

    Having defeated many anomalies in the past, he had absorbed a great deal of anomalic power. Even though the vast majority of the anomalic power had been absorbed by his invoked entities, his psychic body had been steadily growing stronger as well, and his physical constitution was no longer as frail as it once was.

    "In terms of pure strength, you''re already close to a mature adapter, but your abilities are too weak."

    With ck Bear constricting him with all his might, Adam''s face quickly became bright red from asphyxiation, and his spine and ribs were all creaking under the immense pressure.

    "My abilities are too weak? What the hell are you talking about?" ck Bear scoffed in a furious voice. "You call yourself an adapter, yet this is all you''ve got? Where are your abilities? What else can you do aside from throwing rocks and using dirty sneak attacks? Show me your abilities!"

    "Alright, if you say so..." After testing out his own physical resistance, Adam knew that it was time to put an end to this game.

    Thus, he opened his mouth up wide, and due to the fact that he was fused as one with Nun, his oral cavity was filled with nothing but inky darkness.

    His mouth continued to gape open wider and wider, quickly going beyond the physical limits of the human body, expanding all the way to the size of a basin.

    In the instant that his mouth opened up to its widest point, a stream of putrid sewage came gushing out, pouring itself all over ck Bear''s head.

    This Fountain of Contamination was one of the nun anomaly''s original abilities.

    At the height of its powers, a mouthful of sewage from the nun anomaly was able to contaminate the barrage of wind des unleashed by Nie Yiyi to instantly nullify the attack.

    The sewage attack unleashed by Adam here naturally wasn''t that powerful, but simrly, ck Bear couldn''t even begin topare with Nie Yiyi, and as soon as the sewage sttered onto his body, his skin immediately began to peel away from its corrosive properties. At the same time, his strength was alsopletely sapped as if it had been sucked away by some type of contamination, and he copsed to the ground in a limp heap.

 Chapter 112: Humans, Automatons, Wild Beasts

    <h4>Chapter 112: Humans, Automatons, Wild Beasts</h4>

    That''s quite a useful ability,?Adam thought to himself as turned to look at ck Bear.

    In his current form, there wasn''t much of a disparity in power between him and ck Bear, but this ability had allowed him to almost instantly incapacitate his opponent.

    Furthermore, this ability was only going to be more and more fearsome as Nun continued to grow more powerful.

    So the sewage is able to contaminate energy, as well as the human body. Not only does the contaminated subject receive bodily harm, their energy will also be contaminated, thereby debilitating them in two ways,?Adam analyzed as he crouched down to inspect ck Bear''s condition.

    Given his current appearance, his sharp ws, and his terrifying, demonic eyes, which were staring intently at ck Bear, it was very easy for misunderstandings to arise, especially among the spectators.

    "It looks like he''s not so weak, after all."

    "Yeah, he looks a little scary."

    "What is he doing? Is he considering killing his opponent?"

    The mustached man hurriedly severed the psychic connection between the twobatants upon seeing this.

    ck Bear''s consciousness returned to his body, and he had be even more feeble due to the injuries that his psychic body had sustained. Thankfully, the psychic trauma that he suffered wasn''t very severe, so he didn''t die on the spot.

    After returning to the real world, ck Bear was only able to move his eyes, and he turned to glower at Adam with a resentful expression. He opened his mouth to hurl some insults at Adam, but he was too feeble and fell unconscious before he could say anything.

    As for Adam, he waspletely fine, and following his return to the real world, he was dered the victor of the match.

    After that came the payouts.

    Once all of the winners had been paid what they were owed, the mustached man approached Adam with a card.

    "Here''s your appearance fee. It''s a total of 24,000, and it''s all in this card." He pulled out a machine as he spoke, then inserted the card into it to disy the ount information.

    This was a type of contraband card that could only be found in Shadow City. There was no ount or name, but all of the money in the card could be used as normal.

    "This is amazing!" Hailey got up on the tips of her toes as she grabbed the card from the mustached man. "I don''t even earn this much in three years!"

    "Are you interested in working for me, Mr. Adapter? You seem to be pretty strong. If you work for me, I guarantee you that you''ll earn more than this amount every match." The mustached man extended another offer to Adam.

    "Maybe next time," Adam replied with a shake of his head before Hailey had a chance to say anything, then dragged her away with him as he departed. "I''lle find you again if I need you."

    "Alright, my stall will always be here."

    After departing from the stall, Adam led Hailey to apletely deserted area before taking the card from her.

    "What are you doing? ording to the rules of the industry, the money that you earn should be split 20:80 between us, so you owe me 4,800."

    "Alright, let''s settle the payment now." Adam cast his gaze toward the sports stadium to find that it was already extremely rowdy and bustling inside, indicating that the matches had already begun.

    "There''s no hurry. What are your ns from here, Mr. Killer?" Hailey suppressed the urge to take the card from Adam as she began to map out a n for the future. "You''re really strong, how about you participate in the qualification matches in the stadium?"

    "Not interested," Adam replied as he made his way toward the stadium.

    "Then why are you going there?"

    "I want to watch the matches," Adam replied as he continued onward, while Hailey trailed along behind him like ackey.

    The two of them made their way over to the ticket booth, then paid for an electronic pass. Right as he was about to enter the stadium, Hailey hurriedly said, "Get me a ticket as well! Part of the money in that card belongs to me."

    "Alright." The match that Adam had just fought in had been arranged for him by Hailey, so it was only fair that she received a cut of the payment. Thus, Adam purchased another ticket, and the two of them made their way over to the entrance of the stadium, where they were examined by some retrofitted automaton security guards before being granted entry.

    Even from outside, the collective voices of the spectators were already deafening, and it was even louder inside the stadium.

    What a lively ce!

    Adam had been to many bustling ces before, both online and offline.

    After all, Sandrise City had a massive poption, and the Metaverse was also a very busy ce.

    However, never had he been to a ce as deranged as this one. This wasn''t thergest gathering of people that he had ever seen, but the atmosphere was extremely manic. Everyone looked as if they were on drugs, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs as if they had gone insane.

    Some of the spectators were cheering on thebatants they were backing, while others were simply screaming for the sake of screaming, spewing unintelligible nonsense that didn''t mean anything.

    While entering the stadium, Adam had even witnessed someone douse theirpanion in petrol before setting them alight.

    "What the fuck is this ce?" After witnessing this chaotic scene, Adam immediately activated his telegnosis to its maximal capacity for fear of meeting his demise due to a momentarypse in concentration.

    "That''s just how things are here. Order and reason aren''t required in this ce." Hailey was alreadypletely ustomed to this. "Those who need order and reason have already gone to live in Sandrise City. There are no rules or surveince here. You can kill anyone you want as long you''re prepared for the risk of vengeance. This is a ce where you can do whatever you want!"

    Hailey seemed to have also been infected by the atmosphere in this ce, and her voice abruptly trailed off into a high-pitched scream.

    What a bunch of nutjobs!

    Adam shifted his attention away from the spectators and cast his gaze toward the match that was taking ce up ahead.

    The sports stadium had been constructed to resemble an ancient Roman colosseum, with spectators situated in tall stands, while thebatants fought down below.

    Adam hade in just in time for the climax of a battle between a pair of cyborgs.

    Regardless of whether it was in terms of appearance or bodyweight, these two cyborgs were fundamentally different from the people outside who had only had some prosthetic limbs retrofitted onto their bodies. Essentially, it was no exaggeration to call these two a pair of humanoid mechas. Their brains and nerves were still human, but every other part of their body, including their bones, were no longer human.

    Are human nerves capable of moving such enormous and heavy bodies?

    The twobatants were downright massive, and one of them, a hulking cyborg that was over three meters tall, pounced onto his opponent like a wild beast, knocking them down onto the ground.

    After knocking his opponent to the ground, the cyborg opened hisrge, metallic mouth before biting down viciously onto his opponent''s neck, aiming to bite through all of the neural transmission lines there.

    However, the abdomen of the cyborg that had been knocked down suddenly opened up to reveal an abdominal cavity that was filled with electric saws.

    The cyborgying on the ground used the saw-like teeth in its abdominal cavity to chomp down onto his opponent like a great white shark, and the electric saws screeched against the metal, producing a ghastly sound and intense flurries of sparks.

    I have to admit, this is quite the spectacle!

    Even though Adam didn''t enjoy watching humans being pitted against each other like wild beasts, he couldn''t help but be impressed by the exciting spectacle unfolding before his eyes.

    In particr, the knowledge that the twobatants were living humans added a strange extrayer of excitement and impact than watching a pair of automatons duking it out.

    Even though the electric saw cyborg was the one on the ground, he quickly gained the upper hand. His electric saws had already sliced so far into the beastly cyborg''s body that a small section of his opponent''s spine was already visible. The spine was originally protected by ayer of metallic casing, but the casing had been sawn open to reveal countless neural transmission lines.

    As these lines were severed by the electric saws, the beastly cyborg gradually lost the ability to move his lower body.

    However, he was still biting ferociously into his opponent''s neck, and soon, he was also able to bite through the opposing cyborg''s spine, upon which the electric saws instantly stopped working.

    Has he made aeback?

    Adam looked on with a surprised expression to see that even though the beastly cyborg''s body had already been torn into shreds by his opponent''s electric saws, he was still able to move his head, despite losing the ability to move the rest of his body.

    He was using his lower jaw as a base, opening and closing his mouth over and over again to chew through his opponent''s head with his incredible bite force.

    It was no longer supported by energy from the rest of its body, so it was burning through its final reserves of energy. In the end, the electric saw cyborg''s cranial protective casing was punctured, and he fell dead on the spot as intracranial fluids sttered in all directions.

 Chapter 113: Artificial Anomalies

    <h4>Chapter 113: Artificial Anomalies</h4>

    Brutal, gorey, extremely impactful, deafeningly loud...

    Those were the most direct feelings that Adam experienced after watching this "grand sporting event" of Shadow City. This was a ce that allowed one''s most primal evil urges to flourish. Even for someone like him, a mentally stable individual who had only juste from the civilized world, he still couldn''t help but be struck by a peculiarbination of difort and excitement after watching such a match.

    The stimtion of simultaneously watching a battle between mechas and a murder beingmitted right before his eyes had sent his heart rate shooting through the roof.

    However, it was clear that the battle between the cyborgs wasn''t the grand finale. What the spectators wanted to see the most was a psychic battle.

    Surely the psychic battle won''t be as gorey and violent as the cyborg battle...

    With his limited imagination, Adam couldn''t fathom a battle more brutal than the one that he had just witnessed.

    After all, no matter how much money and influence the organizers had, there was no way that they could recruit an adapter of Masao Yamamoto''s caliber to participate in their matches. In Adam''s eyes, only a battle between level three anomalies at the very minimum would be able to present a visual spectacle more impactful than the cyborg battle that had just taken ce.

    He had already fought in a psychic battle outside, and there weren''t any particrly powerfulbatants, nor was the level of brutality anything to write home about, so why were the spectators so excited?

    Hailey could see what Adam was thinking, and she gave him a mysterious wink as she said, "Just keep watching."

    A short whileter, the arena was cleaned up, and the host took the stage. After briefly warming up the crowd, he began to introduce the uing match.

    "Next up is what you''ve all been waiting for: the sh between psychic anomalies! The twobatants for today have both been meticulously curated by our stadium. The firstbatant is one that we like to call the Skinned Anomaly!"

    The Skinned Anomaly? What the hell is that supposed to be?

    Adam was just as curious as everyone else, and as the host continued with his introduction, Adam rose to his feet before casting his gaze toward the passageway leading into the arena. A short whileter, a "monster" was wheeled out from the passageway.

    The "monster" wasying on a sickbed with all types of medical equipment attached to its body in order to ensure its survival, including catheters, oxygen cylinders, and different types of liquid medicine.

    Upon closer inspection, Adam discovered that this was no monster. Instead, it was a person!

    However, most of this person''s skin had been peeled away, revealing the bright right muscles and sinews underneath. His limbs had also been severed, making him resemble a bright red ball of flesh, and it was a truly horrific sight to behold.

    "Thisbatant has was skinned and delimbed several months ago, and during these past few months, his agony has been slowly fermenting. At this point, the anomaly in his psychic world has already reached full maturity, and we''ve confirmed this by connecting his psychic world to a projection device to see what''s inside. Now then, without further ado, I present to you the Skinned Anomaly!"

    With an enthusiastic roar from the host, a machine was connected to thebatant''s head, and a massive three-dimensional projection that epassed the entire stadium was produced.

    Inside the projection was an anomaly that resembled a skinned frog. Even though the anomaly had no skin, its limbs were very long and powerful, and it was clear from its physical appearance that it possessed exceptional mobility.

    "We''ve collected extensive data on this anomaly. Due to the mutation of thebatant''s desire to have his limbs and mobility restored, this anomaly is extremely fast. Let me give you all a demonstration."

    While the host was speaking, a thug that waspletely tied up from head to toe was dragged into the arena. The thug had a horrified look on his face, and he was repeatedly yelling phrases such as "I didn''t attack the stadium director", "I''ve been framed", and "please clear my name", but no one was listening to him, and his desperate pleas were quickly drowned out by the raucous voices of the spectators.

    The thug was dragged over to the sickbed, following which a spiked helmet was ced onto his head. The spikes in the helmet instantly punctured his skull before piercing into his brain.

    Adam recognized this type of helmet. It was the very same type of helmet that was used to temporarily grant normal people the abilities of adapters, and it was used by all of thebatants outside.

    After the helmet was ced onto the thug''s head, the host connected him to the same machine as the gruesome ball of flesh on the sick bed.

    After that, the mostmonly used warehouse venue was selected.

    In the instant that the two entered the psychic world, the image in the giant three-dimensional projection began to change, and soon, the Skinned Anomaly and a horrified human appeared in the warehouse.

    The thug''s psychic body was very weak. Just like the majority of normal people, his psychic body was just as weak as the average human''s physical body. In the instant that he appeared in the warehouse, Adam could clearly see the intense horror deep in his eyes.

    The thug was trembling uncontrobly as he desperately tried to escape from the warehouse, but as soon as he made a move, the Skinned Anomaly instantly shed past as a red blur, then drew to an abrupt halt.

    None of the spectators were able to see exactly what had happened, and by the time everyone could see what was happening again, the thug was already being brutally mutted by the Skinned Anomaly.

    So fast!

    Adam''s attention wasn''t focused on the gorey scene that was driving the spectators into a bloodthirsty frenzy. Instead, he was reying the previous instant in his mind.

    The Skinned Anomaly was truly extraordinarily fast. Adam had already witnessed many powerful anomalies and adapters, but the Skinned Anomaly definitely ranked near the top in terms of speed.

    Of course, that wasn''t the only thing that he was stunned by.

    In the past, all he knew was that people who were suffering from difficult life circumstances or psychological trauma would develop emotional baggage that would slowly give rise to emotional aberrations, which would then evolve into emotional anomalies if they were allowed to develop unchecked.

    However, never had he considered that anomalies could be artificially created by intentionally inflicting severe torture onto someone. The one who had thought of this idea had to be more terrifying than any anomaly in existence.

    "That man who''s been skinned, where did his original persona go?" Adam asked.

    "What original persona?"

    "Even if an emotional anomaly has appeared in his psychic world, his original persona should still be there."

    "Who knows? Maybe it was devoured by the anomaly? Either that or the organizers have some type of special method that they can use to kill off his original persona. Right now, he is nothing more than the anomaly, an embodiment of hatred and destructive tendencies."

    While the two of them were speaking to one another, the Skinned Anomaly had already killed its victim, and the thug''s body in the real world had also stopped moving. At this point, he was nothing more than a braindead vegetable.

    "Did you all see that? The Skinned Anomaly is one of the stars that''ll be featuring our grand finale today!"

    The host gave a dismissive wave of his hand, instructing the workers to take the thug''s body away, then began to deliver a grand introduction for the Skinned Anomaly''s opponent.

    "I''m sure all of you will agree that you''ll be getting your money''s worth watching the Skinned Anomaly in action. Now then, I''m sure some of you are curious: what kind of opponent could possibly be a match for such a powerful anomaly? Without further ado, allow me to introduce the Thousand-eyed Anomaly, a being even more horrific than the Skinned Anomaly!"

    Another severely mutted individual was wheeled out of another passageway amid a chorus of booming music.

    The Skinned Anomaly had been created by skinning and delimbing its host, while the secondbatant was one who had had his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose removed, thereby stripping him of his senses. After that, he was locked away in apletely isted space for several months to give rise to another terrifying anomaly.

    After witnessing this pair of artificial anomalies, Adam suddenly developed a deep understanding of what type of ce Shadow City was.

    This ce really is a shithole!

    While Adam wasmenting the state of this underground city, a three-dimensional projection of the Thousand-eyed Anomaly had already appeared.

    As its name suggested, the Thousand-eyed Anomaly had 1,000 eyes growing all over its body. Its arms, legs, head... Every single part of its body was riddled with eyes, and even its body resembled a giant eyeball.

    The brief introduction of the second anomaly drew to a conclusion amid thunderous cheers from the spectators, following which another sacrificialmb was dragged onto the stage as the victim used to demonstrate the second anomaly''s powers.

    This second subject didn''t appear to be a local of Shadow City. His face was very clean and devoid of tattoos, and he was wearing a very stylish set of casual clothes. Judging from the material used, the set of attire seemed to be from a high-end luxury brand.

    "My dad''s rich! He has more money than you can dream of! Let me go and he can pay you any sum you want! I can pay for all of your tickets! You have to believe me! Just let me make one all and I guarantee you I''ll be able to get you all the money you want!"

    The sacrificial subject was screaming with all his might, and his voice was amplified by the speaker in the arena so that it was clearly audible to all of the spectators, who only became more excited the more he pleaded.

    Compared with sacrificing a local, they would much rather see an outsider from the civilized world be sacrificed, particrly someone like this, who clearly came from a privileged background. The thunderous cheers ringing out within the stadium was a clear indication that the spectators were very pleased with this appetizer event.

    However, Adam was rather perplexed.

    "Aren''t the organizers arranging these matches to earn money? Why does it seem like they have no interest in verifying whether that rich kid is telling the truth or not?"

    Looking at the expression on the subject''s face and considering the life-or-death situation that he was in, Adam didn''t think that he was lying.

 Chapter 114: Thousand-eyed Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 114: Thousand-eyed Anomaly</h4>

    "If you think these matches are being held just to make money, then you''re severely belittling the stadium director."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "The director once said that he''s a philosopher," Hailey exined with a pout. "There seem to be some conflicting points between being a philosopher and earning money, and I don''t know why the director is into philosophy, but as your manager, I can dig up all types of information for you, including what I just told you."

    Adam offered no response to this. He wasn''t convinced that this young girl, who appeared to be only around 13 to 14 years old, could actually amount to anything.

    However, just as Hailey predicted, no one disyed any interest to the sacrificial subject''s pleas.

    It seemed that the director of this ce really was a "philosopher" who wasn''t interested in money. No one paid any heed to what the sacrificial subject was saying, and no one cared about the ransom that he was offering.

    All of them merely watched with excitement as the sacrificial subject was driven to a mental breakdown by the sight of the helmet that was being brought to him.

    Indeed, anyone would have a mental breakdown if they knew that they were going to have to face that giant monster in the three-dimensional projection in battle.

    "No!" The sacrificial subject continued to howl in despair as the worker ced the spiked helmet onto his head, and at this point, his entire body was already spasming uncontrobly from extreme fear.

    However, the worker disyed no mercy as he switched on the helmet, then connected it to the same machine as the anomaly''s host, sending them both into the psychic world together.

    As the two of them entered the psychic world, the projected image changed drastically.

    A forest environment appeared in the giant three-dimensional projection, and the Thousand-eyed Anomaly and the sacrificial subject both appeared in different corners of the forest.

    In a state of fear and panic, the sacrificial subject''s first reaction as soon as he arrived in the forest was to run. He didn''t know where the anomaly was, so he could only pick a random direction in a blind panic and flee for his life.

    Thankfully, luck was on his side, and he was fleeing in the right direction, thereby making it more difficult for the Thousand-eyed Anomaly to track him down.

    After arriving in the forest, the anomaly initially searched through the surrounding area, killing all of the birds and animals that it encountered in the process, reflecting its instinctive urge to hunt and kill.

    However, its initial search failed to dig up its target. Compared with hunting birds and animals, the anomaly was clearly more interested in humans.

    "No one will escape... No one will survive... No one will see the light of day..." In the real world, the host of the anomaly had been deprived of the ability to speak, but in the psychic world, he was constantly mumbling to himself.

    The anomaly remained still on the spot as it spread out its entire body, and as it continued to murmur to itself, all of the eyes all over its body abruptly sprang open, releasing dazzling radiance.

    The light was incredibly bright, and as its eyes were opened, the entire forest was basked in a deathly white hue simr to theplexion of a deceased individual. The light was so bright and piercing that all of the spectators who were watching the three-dimensional projection could only continue watching through narrowed eyes.

    "There you are... I''ve found you..."

    The white light epassed an enormous area, quickly spreading to the part of the forest that the sacrificial subject was running through. In the instant that the white light shone onto him, the clothes on his back were suddenly set alight, and a symbol of an eye appeared on his back.

    "I can see you... I can see your heart, your liver, your spleen, your stomach, your everything..."

    As the anomaly continued to murmur to itself, the marked subject suddenly fell to the ground and began throwing up violently.

    Initially, all he threw up was some stomach acid and bile, but as the eye on his back began to glow with white light, he threw up everything inside himself.

    Within mere moments, he had thrown up the entirety of his own being, and in the end, all that was left of him was a sheet of skin that drifted down onto the ground.

    The stadium immediately erupted into a frenzy of excitement at the sight of the gruesome execution, and the cheering in the stadium was elevated by several more decibels.

    "Alright, alright, don''t get too excited everyone. The main course is still yet to be served! Now that both anomalies havepleted their demonstrations, I''m sure you''d all agree that they''re extremely powerful emotional anomalies. You can now ce your bets on the anomaly that you think has the best chance of winning. In order to avoid swaying your judgment, I won''t say anything else. The timer is set for 15 minutes, you can use any of the electronic devices beside you to swipe your card and ce your bets!"

    "Hey, who do you think is going to win?" Hailey was watching as the spectators around her frantically cast their votes, and the real-time odds were being disyed on the device in front of her. Judging from these odds, it seemed that more people were betting on the Thousand-eyed Anomaly.

    This was no surprise, considering the extremely formidable and memorable disy that it had just put on.

    "I think the Skinned Anomaly will win," Adam replied.

    "Why? I feel like the Thousand-eyed Anomaly is more powerful."

    "I agree."

    "Then why do you think the Skinned Anomaly will win?"

    "Because the Skinned Anomaly possesses qualities that give it an innate advantage over the Thousand-eyed Anomaly." Having experienced so many battles of life and death, Adam was drawing on his experience to help him make his judgment. "If it were a bunch of Thousand-eyed Anomalies up against a bunch of Skinned Anomalies, then the former would definitelye out on top, but in a one-on-one battle, I think the Skinned Anomaly will win?"

    "Are you sure?" Hailey was itching to ce a bet of her own.

    "Of course not. They''ve only made very basic demonstrations, and I don''t know if they possess any other abilities," Adam replied with a shake of his head, but Hailey was still unable to suppress the urge to get in on the action.

    Gambling was deeply engrained into the culture of Shadow City, and Hailey was very much immersed in this culture.

    The essence of chaos was the pursuit of unpredictability. It would be no fun if she could know in advance with 100% certainty which side would win.

    With that in mind, Hailey immediately bet all of her funds on the Skinned Anomaly without any hesitation.

    After around 15 minutes of rowdymotion, the betting machine stopped operating, following which the host dered themencement of the match.

    "As usual, the one who ced the highest bet gets to choose the match venue." The host picked up an electronic screen as he spoke. "The highest better is a gentleman going by the moniker of ''Chicken'', and they''ve ced a bet of 1,888,888 on the Thousand-eyed Anomaly. The venue that he chose is the warehouse! I personally hate the warehouse, but there''s no denying the fact that it''s always been rated as the fairest match venue due to its simpleyout."

    "Your chances of winning have gone up even further now," Adam remarked.

    "How are you so sure?"

    "The warehouse is a closed environment, while the Thousand-eyed Anomaly excels more in long-rangebat." As Adam offered Hailey his analysis, he couldn''t help but recall his battle against the Golden Iron Triangle. Back then, it had been all thanks to the setting that he was able to bring down ck Archer.

    His battle against the Golden Iron Triangle wasn''t his most dramatic battle, but it was the one that had taught him the most lessons, including how to effectively work with allies, how to use meat shields to distract the opponent, and how to use the environment in battle, all of which were lessons that had been taught to him by those three.

    "Let the match begin!" While Adam was still lost in his memories, the host announced themencement of the battle, snapping him out of his train of thought.

 Chapter 115: Battle Between Anomalies

    <h4>Chapter 115: Battle Between Anomalies</h4>

    With themencement of the battle, a pair of terrifying figures, each of which was around three meters tall, appeared in the dimly lit warehouse.

    The warehouse was veryrge, and there were a series of containers and wooden totes littered throughout. There were old lightbulbs from a century ago on the ceiling of the warehouse, providing some dim light.

    The two anomalies had appeared in different corners of the warehouse, and as soon as they did, they immediately began to search for prey, spurred on by their killing instincts.

    Of course, when it came to scouting, the Thousand-eyed Anomaly held the upper head.

    It possessed 1,000 eyes and countless sensory organs, and it immediately sensed that something wasn''t quite right as soon as it appeared in the warehouse. A series of tiny feelers emerged from its body, and it seemed to be able to taste the danger in the air. Immediately thereafter, all 1,000 of its eyes sprang open, illuminating the dimly lit warehouse with dazzling radiance.

    All of a sudden, the old lightbulbs overhead began to emit the same dazzling white light, instantly basking the entire warehouse in a deathly white glow that enveloped the Skinless Anomaly''s entire body as well.

    .

    "There you are... I see you... You''re a scary fe..."

    As soon as the Thousand-eyed Anomaly tracked down its target, it immediately began to murmur to itself. Its demonic murmuring was extremely harrowing to listen to, but Adam knew that this tendency arose from the condition of its host.

    Not only had the host of the Thousand-eyed Anomaly been stripped of his eyesight, he had been deprived of his ability to speak as well. The more a personcked something, the harder they would strive to find that thing, so it only made sense that the Thousand-eyed Anomaly was such a serial chatterbox.

    "Indeed, you really are a scary fe... Let me see what you have..."

    As the Thousand-eyed Anomaly continued to murmur to itself, a symbol of an eye suddenly appeared on the Skinned Anomaly''s back. In the instant that the symbol appeared, the Skinned Anomaly was immediately struck by a sense of intense difort. Smoke began to rise up from its entire body as if it had been set alight, and it suddenly began to throw up violently.

    However, in contrast with the frail sacrificial subject, the Skinned Anomaly only threw up some type of green fluid before letting loose a loud shriek and vanishing on the spot, scouring through the warehouse with its incredible speed.

    As it sped through the warehouse, one tote after another was knocked over. The warehouse was quiterge, but itpleted an exhaustive search very quickly, and it didn''t take long for it to track down its opponent.

    The two anomalies met, and neither one of them backed down.

    They were the embodiment of negative emotions, and they were filled with an intense innate desire to kill.

    "Let me take a good look at you..."

    The Thousand-eyed Anomaly''s eyes suddenly widened at the sight of the Skinned Anomaly, and it attempted to use the same attack on its opponent once again, but in the instant that it did so, the Skinned Anomaly abruptly vanished on the spot.

    In the next instant, its arm had already been plunged into the Thousand-eyed Anomaly''s body, and its speed was downright mind-boggling.

    The Skinned Anomaly''s arm had pierced through the Thousand-eyed Anomaly''srgest eye, inflicting severe injuries upon it, but at the same time, it also gave the Thousand-eyed Anomaly an opportunity to retaliate.

    A strange beam began to shoot out of all of the eyes on its body, and due to how close the two anomalies were, it was impossible for the Skinless Anomaly to evade the attack.

    The green beams struck the Skinless Anomaly, instantly petrifying a part of its body. Its skinless body gradually became as hard as rock, then began to crack and split open.

    That''s a very useful ability!?Adam thought to himself as an intrigued look appeared in his eyes.?If I had an ability like that, my powers would be significantly enhanced.

    After petrifying the Skinless Anomaly, the Thousand-eyed Anomaly''s body began to transform. Its feelers converged to form a strange trumpet shape, following which it released a soundwave attack in the form of a sharp screech,pletely shattering the Skinned Anomaly''s petrified body.

    A burst of raucous cheers rang out from the spectator stands as the Skinned Anomaly''s body crumbled into countless pieces.

    Many of the spectators who had ced their bets on the Thousand-eyed Anomaly were cheering loudly, but there were also many spectators who were disappointed by how quickly the long-anticipated match had ended.

    "I shouldn''t have listened to you!" Hailey mmed a fist down onto her own leg, frustrated by her ill-advised bet on the Skinned Anomaly. "I was originally going to ce my bet on the Thousand-eyed Anomaly."

    "Anomalies of the same caliber shouldn''t be able to kill one another so quickly..."

    At this point, Adam was already an expert in anomalies. In fact, when it came to his understanding of anomalies, perhaps he was superior in this regard even to top-tier adapters like Oni-faced Dragon.

    All anomalies had different standout traits. Some were fast, some were strong, some were extremely difficult to kill, some possessed unpredictable abilities...

    However, regardless of what an anomaly''s forte was, after reaching a certain level, all anomalies had certain trump cards up their sleeves, and that was why anomalies were superior to other types of invoked entities.

    Nun could possess objects and living beings...

    Clown could manifest clones...

    Mummy possessed incredible physical resistance...

    Vampire could replenish itself by sucking the blood of others...

    Scarecrow was an all-round powerhouse...

    Even Hellhound, whose self-preservation abilities were the mostckluster out of all of Adam''s anomalies, possessed two heads that essentially gave it an extra life, and its Explosive Fireballs could produce explosions that stalled the enemy to allow it to escape.

    If the Skinned Anomaly were a one-trick pony with nothing more than speed up its sleeve, then that would be a severe letdown.

    Sure enough, right as Adam was wondering how the Skinned Anomaly was going to get itself out of this predicament, a change began to take ce in the projected image.

    At this point, the Skinned Anomaly''s petrified body had already been reduced to a pile of "rocks".

    Right as everyone thought that it was already dead, those "rocks" began to glow with red light, and their material began to slowly change. Anomalic power quickly began to seep into the rocks, transforming it back into soft and supple flesh.

    The pile of flesh then began to squirm in an attempt to reassemble itself.

    "That fight''s not over yet!"

    Even the spectators could see what was happening, so the Thousand-eyed Anomaly naturally wasn''t oblivious to this turn of events.

    It immediately released those petrifying beams out of its eyes again to attack the pile of flesh. However, this time, the effect was veryckluster. A small part of the pile of flesh was petrified once again, but most of the Skinned Anomaly''s body was still able toplete its reassembly.

    Is it able to develop a certain degree of immunity to repeat attacks?

    Adam was watching the unfolding scene with an intense, unblinking gaze, and at this point, the reassembly of the Skinned Anomaly''s body was alreadyplete.

    Due to the fact that it had lost a part of its body, the Skinned Anomaly''s stature was greatly diminished, but its brutality and killing instincts hadn''t waned in the slightest. In the face of the opponent that had just made its body crumble into pieces, it immediately began to put its speed advantage to good use.

    All of a sudden, the Skinned Anomaly vanished on the spot amid a sh of red light, transforming into a red blur that was impossible to track with the naked eye.

    The red blur shed rapidly through the air, and with each pass, a part of the Thousand-eyed Anomaly''s body was torn away.

    When it came to close-quartersbat, the Thousand-eyed Anomaly waspletely powerless to resist.

    It didn''t take long before the Thousand-eyed Anomaly was reduced to extremely terrible condition, but right at this moment, dazzling white light erupted from its body like a sh grenade, plunging the entire stadium intoplete chaos.

    Many of the spectators were temporarily blinded by this scintiting eruption of light.

 Chapter 116: Footage

    <h4>Chapter 116: Footage</h4>

    Adam was naturally no exception to this, and it took him a long time to recover his vision after the sh of light subsided.

    By the time he turned his sore and teary eyes back to the three-dimensional projection, he discovered that the battle was already over.

    Who won?

    The two anomalies were bothying still on the ground with their bodies severely mutted, and it was impossible to tell which one of them had secured the ultimate victory.

    However, the host quickly stepped onto the stage to announce the oue of the match.

    "ording to our electroencephalographic data, I hereby dere the Skinned Anomaly to be the winner of this match!"

    A chorus of disgruntled voices instantly rang out in response to this verdict, but everyone knew that the event organizers were too powerful to mess with, so none of the spectators dared to do anything aside from loudly voicing their displeasure.

    "As I''m sure all of you are aware, we never rig any of our events. In order to support this verdict, I''ll be releasing our electroencephalographic data for all of you to see. We''ll start with the Skinned Anomaly." The host ced a certain device onto the host of the Skinned Anomaly as he spoke, disying a normal electroencephalographic reading.

    However, the electroencephalographic reading of the host of the Thousand-eyed Anomaly was very abnormal. The reading was apletely t line, which indicated that he no longer had any brain activity, confirming to everyone that his psychic body had already perished.

    At the same time, the Skinned Anomaly twitched slightly in the three-dimensional projection, and its body was disying signs of recovery.

    "We keep video footage of every single one of our matches. That explosion of light in the end was too bright for anyone to see anything, so the footage has been sent backstage to have the brightness lowered. It''ll be ready soon, so please wait patiently in the meantime."

    ¡­¡­

    "You were right! The Skinned Anomaly really did win."

    Following that exnation from the host, most of the spectators were already convinced of the oue. Furthermore, after inserting her card into the machine, Hailey discovered that the money owed to her had already been paid out.

    This made her even more excited, and she couldn''t help but praise, "As expected of a seasoned hitman, you have a really sharp eye!"

    "There was an element of luck involved," Adam replied with a shake of his head. "I''m really curious to see what happened after that eruption of light."

    ¡­¡­

    Around 15 minutester, the processing of the footage waspleted, and the Skinned Anomaly had also already made a partial recovery. The workers wheeled the host of the Skinned Anomaly away, then began to y the footage.

    After the eruption of light, the battle continued.

    The light was so bright that the Skinned Anomaly was instantly blinded, but it didn''t panic, and it was relying on its senses of hearing and smell to gauge the location of its opponent.

    The blinded Skinned Anomaly unleashed two more attacks at an incredible speed to severely wound the Thousand-eyed Anomaly, but the Thousand-eyed Anomaly also disyed two more abilities after the eruption of light.

    First, it emitted a high-frequency soundwave st that was inaudible to human ears to rob the Skinned Anomaly of its hearing. After that, a type of strange ck smoke rose up from its body to deprive the Skinned Anomaly of its senses of taste and smell.

    Having lost four of its five senses, the Skinned Anomaly was darting around like a headless fly,pletely losing track of its opponent''s location.

    The Thousand-eyed Anomaly pounced on this opportunity to unleash a ferocious barrage of attacks, and the Skinned Anomaly seemed to be unable to use that ability that allowed it to return from the dead consecutively in a short time. As a result, it sustained a string of severe injuries, having had its flesh torn open and its bones shattered.

    However, right at this moment, the Skinned Anomaly seemed to have detected something, and it suddenlyshed out,tching onto its opponent, who was hiding behind a certain container.

    This time, it made sure to capitalize on this opportunity, refusing to let go of the Thousand-eyed Anomaly as itshed out repeatedly with its fists and ws at an incredible frequency like a gatling gun. In just a single second, it was able to unleash dozens of attacks, and it didn''t take long before the Thousand-eyed Anomaly was torn into shreds.

    However, the Skinned Anomaly was also severely injured by the Thousand-eyed Anomaly''s desperate retaliation.

    "I see... So that''s what happened..."

    "What do you mean?" Hailey was feeling very exhrated after watching the footage, but she still had no idea what had happened at the end. "How did it find the other anomaly at thest second?"

    "It used its sense of touch." Back when Adam had faced off against the clown anomaly, he had also employed a simr method to track down his opponent. "The Thousand-eyed Anomaly didn''t deprive its opponent of its sense of touch, and due to the fact that the Skinned Anomaly had no skin, it was particrly sensitive to pain. With its heightened sensitivity, it was able to sense the direction that the wind wasing from, thereby allowing it to ascertain its opponent''s location."

    "I see." Hailey nodded in response, but she wasn''t actually all that interested in hearing the technical breakdown. "In any case, I won!"

    Adam nodded in response and prepared to depart.

    There were still other events that were yet toe, so the stadium was still as rowdy as ever, but he had already seen everything that he hade here to see.

    As he departed from the stadium, Hailey naturally followed along as well.

    The two of them emerged from the stadium exit, and Hailey asked, "Where are you going?"

    "I''m going back."

    "What about our n?"

    "We have no n. Don''t follow me anymore." Despite what Adam said, Hailey was still trailing along behind him, so he could only try and intimidate her. "I''m a hitman, and one thing a hitman absolutely cannot do is let others know where they live. Anyone who finds out has to die! Do you still want to follow me now?"

    "Alright, then let me leave you with my contact details!" Hailey insisted on leaving her contact details on Adam''smunicator before finally agreeing to leave.

    Adam didn''t care either way. As long as he could get this annoying kid to leave him alone, these trivial things didn''t matter to him.

    Following Hailey''s departure, Adam followed the slightly muddy path and returned to Baldie Lin''s shop.

    At this point, it was alreadyte in the night, and Nie Yiyi, Hook, and Shae''s makeovers had also beenpleted. The four of them were seated in a small room at the back of the shop in a rather depressing silence.

    In the end, it was Shae who broke the silence. "Where did you go just now?"

    "I went to have a look around."

    "Do we have to be in hiding for the rest of our lives?" Hook was the second one to speak. "All of my social media ounts have been banned. All of those followers that I gathered are gone."

    "Perhaps we really will have to lose touch with the civilized world." Nie Yiyi was thest one to speak.

    Now that they had been swept up in this crisis, even though they weren''t in any immediate danger, they were essentially dead as far as the rest of society was concerned.

    They weren''t locals of Shadow City, but even the locals here could return to the civilized world. After all, not everyone in Shadow City was a fugitive. Even if they were, they certainly weren''t being hunted by so many powerful organizations as Adam and his group were.

    What was most depressing to everyone was that they couldn''t think of any way to turn the tables.

    With Prince''s video evidence, the southern congress held all the cards, so they couldn''t do anything aside from hide in this underground city.

    "It seems like our only hope would be for the pawn shop or the resistance army to help us track down Oni-faced Dragon, then secure the footage that Hook recorded."

    "That footage probably doesn''t even exist anymore," Hook said in a depressed voice. "If I were them, I would destroy that footage right away. There''s no reason why they would keep such self-incriminating footage around."

    "That''s where you''re wrong." Having had a more privileged upbringing than Hook, Shae had a bit more insight when it came to the upper echelons of society. "Just because the Oni Organization is working together with the southern congress doesn''t mean that they''re close allies working solely for one another''s benefit. The best way for different organizations to hold some sway over each another would be to keep incriminating evidence on one another. Besides, even a single organization isn''t guaranteed to be apletely unified entity. Even in the southern congress itself, there are constant internal conflicts taking ce, so don''t be too pessimistic. In any case, if I were Oni-faced Dragon, I definitely wouldn''t destroy the footage."

    "Shae''s right. However, it''s definitely not going to be an easy task to recover the footage from the Oni Organization anytime soon," Nie Yiyi sighed. "We''re going to have to prepare to stay here in hiding for an extended period of time."

 Chapter 117: Scrap Robot

    <h4>Chapter 117: Scrap Robot</h4>

    The atmosphere in the room was extremely depressing.

    Deep down, everyone knew that it was going to be next to impossible to recover the footage from Oni-faced Dragon.

    Firstly, Oni-faced Dragon was the leader of a criminal organization, and if it were that easy to capture him, then he would''ve already been detained 1,000 times.

    Secondly, an adapter of his caliber definitely possessed extremely powerful telegnosis that would allow him to detect any danger well in advance. In order to target him, at least several adapters just as powerful as he was would have to be deployed, and even then, the chances of sess were quite slim.

    The northern congress may not have had any adapters of such a lofty caliber. Even if they did, there was no guarantee that they would agree to take on such a task, and even if they did, there was no guarantee that they would seed.

    Thus, chances were that they were going to have to stay in Shadow City for a very, very long time.

    This was the consensus that everyone had arrived at, and the more they discussed their situation, the more hopeless everything seemed. In the end, Shae''s agitation got the better of her.

    "Screw it, I''m going to take a shower and go to bed. I''m exhausted from the trip here, and this ce stinks like shit!"

    Shae tossed away her jacket in a frustrated manner, then stormed out of the room. Everyone else exchanged a nce, then also called it a night and each went to a different corner of the room.

    The room was too small for all of them to stay in, so Adam could only depart with a resigned expression. "It''s too cramped in here. I''ll sleep outside."

    Adam arrived in the storefront before taking a look around, and in the end, he could only find a spot under the counter, where he slowly fell asleep against a pile of parts on the ground.

    He was utterly exhausted after such a long day.

    First, he became a wanted fugitive. Then, he was brought to this criminal''s paradise, the Area 101 of Sandrise City that he had never even heard of before. After that, he witnessed a battle between artificial anomalies, and finally, it dawned on him that he was most likely going to have to stay here for a very, very long time.

    All of these events had dealt him a massive psychological blow, and after these repeated blows, he was feeling utterly exhausted, even though he was an adapter who was already ustomed to pain.

    Adamid down on the hard ground and slowly dozed off as he thought about his future...

    After sleeping for some time, he suddenly felt something nudging him.

    "Wake up... Wake up..."

    Even though he was exhausted, he was also extremely on edge, and he instantly opened his eyes in an rmed manner, upon which he discovered that he was being nudged by a robot.

    In reality, the object was more like a children''s science project assembled from scrap metal rather than a robot.

    Its main body was amunicatorplete with some USB ports, and there was a circuit chip glued to its forehead. It had no legs, only a palm-sized arm, and it was slowly crawling out from a pile of parts like a miniature mechanical zombie.

    What the hell is that? Did a broken robot in here suddenly start working again?

    Adam was somewhat relieved to see the scrap robot. There were so many broken parts in here, so it wasn''t all that surprising to see a broken toy robot around.

    However, right as he was about to turn over and continue sleeping, he suddenly heard the robot calling his name, much to his shock and rm.

    "Adam, do you still remember me?"

    Adam instantly sat up, but he did so too quickly, and his head banged into the underside of the counter with a dull thump.

    A broken toy had crawled over to him like a zombie, then called out his name.

    Adam''s first reaction to this was that he had been dragged by someone into the psychic world.

    He hurriedly activated his telegnosis after he sat up, then attempted to invoke his anomalies, but no matter how hard he tried, his efforts proved to be futile.

    His telegnosis was telling him that this was reality, and he couldn''t establish any connection with his anomalies, either.

    "This is the real world." The scrap robot began speaking once again. "Don''t be afraid, I''m here to help you."

    "Who are you?" Adam picked up the robot and carefully inspected it, only to find that it really was just apletely unremarkable amalgamation of scrap parts.

    "Do you still remember what happened back in the Witch Pub in the Metaverse?"

    "The Witch Pub..." Of course Adam still recalled that ce. That was the first time that he had gone to the Sex, and it had been an extremely memorable experience. The memory that stuck out the most to him from that trip was the giant witch, which had stuffed him straight into her body, and the peculiar dream-like sequences of events that followed were also clear in his memory.

    He recalled that he had just had his first time with a female performer dressed up as an office worker, but the performer then suddenly transformed into that giant valkyrie outside before issuing him a warning about psychic mutants.

    That was the first time that he had received news about psychic mutants, and it had arrived even before the resistance army and the pawn shop had gotten into contact with him.

    Even to this day, he still didn''t know who it was that had sent him that message, but it appeared that the same person was behind this.

    "You''re the one who warned me about psychic mutants that time?"

    "That''s right, it was me." It was very clear that this robot wasn''t conversing with him using canned phrases from a program. Instead, it was merely a mouthpiece serving to deliver a message from someone on the other side.

    "Who are you?" This was a question that had been weighing on Adam''s mind for many days and nights.

    "I don''t want to tell you for now," the scrap robot replied in a direct and straightforward manner without any attempt to deceive or cate Adam. "It won''t benefit you in any way to know who I am."

    "Are you here to help me again?"

    "That''s right. I have a very important piece of information that can help you resolve your current predicament." As the robot was speaking, its voice began to be intermingled with the sound of crackling electricity, and it seemed to be on the verge of falling apart.

    "Why are you helping me?" Instead of asking for what information the robot had, this was the question that Adam wanted answered the most.

    He had thought that the robot would tell him that it was doing this for their mutual benefit. He had heard that narrative far too many times before. As a set of examples, both Cowboy and May were motivated by self-interest.

    However, the response from the robot came as quite a surprise to Adam.

    "Because the world is too boring and depressing. I want to liberate the entire human race."

    "..."

    Such a grand and lofty objective reminded Adam of some people in the Dataist Union. "Alright, what information can you provide to me, and what do you need me to do?"

    "That piece of footage hasn''t actually fallen into the hands of Oni-faced Dragon."

    "If it''s not with him, then where is it?"

    "It''s here in Shadow City. I don''t know exactly where it is in Shadow City, so you''ll need to search for it on your own. If you don''t believe me, you can verify my im yourself. That''s all I can tell you. Remember to be more brave!"

    As soon as the robot''s voice trailed off, it fell to the ground in a lifeless heap, leaving just as abruptly as it had arrived.

    There were still many questions that Adam wanted to ask, but the person on the other side had essentially hung up on him, and the robot remained unresponsive no matter what Adam said or did.

    Thus, the conversation concluded just like that, and the robot''s final words were encouraging Adam to be more brave, which Adam recalled was something that he had been toldst time as well.

    How does being brave have anything to do with the situation that I''m in? Do I have to be more aggressive in my approach? Or is there a really tight timeframe that I''m working with?

    Adam couldn''t decipher the meaning behind those words, but after pondering that interaction for a while, his mood became a little more buoyant. At the very least, there was now a glimmer of hope for him and his friends to leave this ce.

 Chapter 118: Whereabouts

    <h4>Chapter 118: Whereabouts</h4>

    The next day, Adam approached Baldie Lin first thing in the morning.

    "Hey, can you help me get into contact with someone on the outside? I still don''t even know which side you''re on. Can you tell me?"

    "No."

    "I see," Adam replied as a contemtive look appeared in his eyes.

    Seeing as Baldie Lin was refusing to reveal the organization that he owed his allegiance to, it was most likely the pawn shop. The pawn shop was constantly maintaining the image of a legitimate business, and they were regrly working with Mechguard, so they had to stay within the boundaries of thew at all times, at least on the surface.

    However, the northern congress and the resistance army were different. They were organizations that made the rules, but also ones that broke the rules, and they didn''t have to abide by so many conventions and restrictions in their operations.

    "What do you want?" Baldie Lin asked as he rolled his eyes at Adam, clearly just trying to avoid trouble as much as possible.

    "I want you to contact the outside world in my stead and say that the footage of the incident isn''t in Oni-faced Dragon''s possession."

    "Is that it?"

    "That''s it."

    "Alright, leave it to me. I''ll keep you updated."

    During the following two days, Adam was constantly waiting for updates. Of course, he didn''t just sit and do nothing during this time. Instead, he explored various parts of this underground city with Shae and the others to develop aprehensive yet general understanding of this ce.

    Only after developing an in-depth understanding of the city did Adame to realize just how twisted this ce was.

    The city was home to a poption of over 4,000,000, higher than the poption in any of Sandrise City''s other 100 areas. One had to realize that the key behind the ability of the other areas of Sandrise City to hold suchrge poptions was the rise of the Inte of Things (IoT) and smart apartments. A singlerge smart apartmentplex could house 1,000,000 people.

    However, there were no tall buildings here, nor any convenient avenues to secure food. Furthermore, the entire city was only around 30 square kilometers in size, so theoretically speaking, it shouldn''t have been able to hold such arge poption.

    However, despite the practicalities, the city was able to defy the odds and house this disproportionately massive poption. Furthermore, the city received a huge number of visitors, and during peak visit periods, its poption swelled to far beyond 4,000,000.

    Aside from that, there were two other things that Adam found to be downright astonishing.

    Firstly, there were nows here. The stadium director believed that chaos was the primary motivating force behind human survival, and that anyws would give rise to order, which would in turn create oppression.

    The retrofitted mechanical army here was only responsible for defending the city against external threats, and it yed no role in governing how the people in the city conducted themselves.

    Murder, drug trafficking, sex work, and gambling were all perfectly eptable here. In fact, there was even an incident where a deranged individual blew around a dozen buildings, killing several hundred people, but the incident wasn''t pursued at all.

    However, order would always find a way to arise even in the most chaotic ces.

    If you killed someone, then you had to be prepared for revenge. If you spread terror and panic, then you had to be prepared for others to step in and snuff out the panic and terror at the source.

    In the end, the bomb-maker was captured and killed by the "heroic" people of Shadow City.

    This chaotic state of affairs was already quite astonishing in itself, but there was something else that Adam found to be even more shocking, which was that Shadow City''s natural rate of poption increase was higher than that of Sandrise City.

    This natural rate of poption increase only took into ount purely naturally conceived humans without machine surrogacy. What was even more astonishing was that even if mechanical surrogacy births were counted, the birth rate here was still higher than that of Sandrise City.

    This type of birth rate was alreadypletely unheard of in modern society, yet such a miraculous phenomenon was taking ce here of all ces. Adam couldn''t fathom why this was the case, nor did he care enough to ponder the matter. After developing a rough understanding of how Shadow City operated, all he was interested in was an update from Baldie Lin.

    On this day, he and Shae were watching the subway trains in the underground railway system when he received a message from Baldie Lin. It was a very short message, but its contents were extremely encouraging.

    "It''s confirmed to be true. Come back right now."

    "Yes!" A glimmer of hope for them to return to the civilized world had arisen, and Adam gave Shae''s back a vigorous thump in excitement before grabbing her and rushing back to the shop.

    "Let''s go! It''s been confirmed that Oni-faced Dragon doesn''t have the footage! We have to get back right away!"

    The two of them rushed all the way back from the subway station to Uncle Lin''s Fire Shop, and upon entering the shop, they discovered that everyone else was already there. Baldie Lin closed the door of the shop, then gathered everyone together in a circle.

    "I just received news that Hook... Your name''s Hook, right?"

    "That''s right. It''s already been three days, how do you still not remember my name?"

    "Because you''re ugly," Baldie Lin exined with brutal honesty, then continued, "After the footage captured by Hook was ced into the mechanical delivery bee''s parcel box, it didn''t fly to its original designated destination."

    Baldie Lin pulled up a piece of footage as he spoke, and judging from the angle at which the footage had been shot, it had clearly been captured by Sandrise City''s streetside surveince cameras. In the footage, Hook was in the process of stuffing his video recorder into the parcel box.

    "This mechanical delivery bee is one that Oni-faced Dragon intercepted from a legitimate freightpany, so it''s considered to be an authorized entity, which is why it can fly around the city without being impeded by Mechguard. Theoretically speaking, he must''ve modified the mechanical delivery bee, which means that the video recorder that you ced into its parcel box should''ve been delivered to him, right?"

    "That''s right."

    "Logically speaking, that''s what should''ve happened, but there was a point of contention here. This point was already identified back when the footage was first retrieved, but no one paid any attention to it. Take a look here..." Baldie Lin switched through a few images as he spoke. "ording to an investigation conducted after the event, this is where Oni-faced Dragon actually was. He was about two blocks away from your vehicle, but the mechanical delivery bee flew away in the opposite direction."

    "That could just be because he didn''t want to ept the parcel under full view of the surveince cameras. Who would be stupid enough to do that?"

    "That''s right. Initially, that was what our people thought as well, so they didn''t think much of this. However, after receiving Adam''s message, they carefully analyzed the footage to find that after Oni-faced Dragon''s car left the scene, it was driven to a certain location, and before it left the area monitored by the city''s surveince cameras, the car was seen driving around in circles in a certain area for quite some time. That can only mean that they''re trying to shake off pursuers or have lost their target. Additionally, after essing more of the city''s surveince footage, we were able to map out the path that the mechanical delivery bee took and determine that it traveled out of the city. Given all of this evidence, it seems that there''s a very good chance that Oni-faced Dragon really isn''t in possession of the footage."

    "If he doesn''t have it, then where is it?" Shota Sato asked.

    "It''s here in Shadow City." It was Adam who replied on this asion.

    He didn''t want to reveal his secrets to others, particrly to a member of the Psychic Church like Shota Sato. The Psychic Church itself wasn''t apletely unified organization to begin with, so it couldn''t be fully trusted.

    Hence, he had already prepared a response for when Shota Sato inevitably asked the question of why.

    "After sensitive itemse out of Sandrise City, where do they most often go? In the small viges and towns outside of the city, everyone knows one another, so it''ll be extremely conspicuous if an outsider shows up to ept a parcel, would it not? As for other major cities, that''s too far away."

    "What you''re saying makes sense, but it''s a bit of a stretch," Shota Sato said as his brows furrowed slightly.

    "Do you have any better ideas?" Nie Yiyi countered.

    "At the very least, this gives us some hope!" Hook was also eager to buy into the idea. "Otherwise, what are we going to do? Spend the rest of our lives here in this ce?"

 Chapter 119: Psychic Battle Royale

    <h4>Chapter 119: Psychic Battle Royale</h4>

    "You''re right."

    Shota Sato was even more eager to get out of this ce than everyone else. In contrast with Hook and his friends, who were regrly cing themselves in harm''s way, Shota avoided risk as much as possible at every turn. The majority of the lower-level members of the Psychic Church worked for the organization with the intention of doing the bare minimum while enjoying all of the benefits that came with a job at the Psychic Church. Hence, most of them shied away from dangerous situations, which was why Shota was particrly disgruntled by the predicament he was currently in.

    He still had his reservations about Adam''s assessment of the situation, but at the very least, a path forward had been presented, and he would just have to grit his teeth and walk down that path.

    "The only question I have is how are we going to find the footage? There are millions of people here, all of whom are potentially mentally unstable, and weapons run rampant in this city. Not only is searching for a piece of footage here like searching for a needle in a haystack, it''s an extremely dangerous task as well," Shota Sato said.

    "That''s true..." It was undoubtedly going to be very difficult to find a certain item in a city like this.

    "If someone with power and influence were dealing with a situation like this, they would generally approach the top dogs in the area to work together. For a person, it''s difficult to find something in the sewers, but it''s far easier for a rat, and if you can find the king of the rats and get them to help you, then that''s essentially already half the job done."

    Thanks to Shae''s privileged upbringing, she was able to view the issue through the lens of someone from a higher socioeconomic ss to identify the crux of the matter.

    "ording to the observations that we''ve made over the past two days, I''m sure all of us have already gathered some general information. The top dog of this city is a man who goes by the title of director. This director is the organizer of the arena matches and the lord of this city. However, he prefers to be referred to as director rather than lord, but what he prefers the most is to be referred to as a philosopher."

    "It''s not going to be easy to get him to do your bidding." It was Baldie Lin who spoke on this asion.

    He was a true local of Shadow City, so he naturally knew more about the director than Adam and his group.

    "The director is a madman, someone who clearly has something wrong in his head. You definitely won''t be able to get him to work with you through conventional means."

    "How should we approach the situation then?" Shota Sato asked. "ording to the Psychic Church''s standard protocol, we would first get into contact with this director, then grant him certain benefits in exchange for his cooperation."

    "That would normally work, but the director refers to himself as a philosopher, and philosophers aren''t easily swayed by practical benefits."

    "Then what can we do?"

    "You can participate in the super battle royale. Each year, the champion of the battle royale can make a wish to the director, and the director will do everything in his power to grant that wish. Someone has once secured an astronomical sum of a billion through their wish. That''s the quickest and likeliest way I can think of for your to achieve your objective."

    "What is this super battle royale about?"

    "The super battle royale is also known as the Psychic Battle Royale. Have you visited thergest sports stadium in the city yet?"

    "I have."

    "Me too."

    "I haven''t..."

    Out of everyone in the group, only Adam and Nie Yiyi had visited the stadium. The former was interested in anomalies, while the other had an insatiable thirst for battle. Otherwise, most people who had only recently arrived in the city wouldn''t go to watch the matches held in the stadium.

    "In that case, it''ll be a lot easier for me to exin. For those who haven''t visited the stadium, you''ll just have to take my word for it. The gist of the matter is that the people here are huge fans of all types ofbatpetitions, and the gorier the fights are, the better. The most popr form ofbatpetitions here is psychic battles."

    "Hold on, surely adapters wouldn''t participate inpetitions like this." Even though Shota''s personality was far milder than Orster''s, he was still a member of the Psychic Church, so he possessed the same pride that all members of the Psychic Church did, instilling within him the notion that adapters were fundamentally superior to normal people.

    "Most of the participants aren''t adapters. Instead, they''re artificial adapters. I don''t want to spend too much time exining the logistics to you, you''ll have to see it for yourself to know what it''s all about. The battle royale is different from normal fights in that it brings together over 100 participants, and it''s the most heavily anticipated annual event in the entire city.

    ¡°Thebatants who have earned the most points for the year will be able to form teams of four, and they''ll be ced into a massive psychic setting where they''ll be hunted by emotional anomalies. The team that survives to the very end and earns the most points will be crowned as the winner."

    Despite Baldie Lin''s exnation, most of the people around him were still looking rather confused, and he was beginning to run out of patience. "You won''t learn anything just by hearing me talk! Go to the stadium and see for yourselves. There are many finer details that you can only grasp through seeing. There are two months left until the tournament anyway, and that''s plenty of time."

    After that, Baldie Lin returned to his work, leaving everyone to their own devices.

    During the past few days, Adam hade to understand that Baldie Lin was absolutely obsessed with mechanics. Most of his waking hours were spent studying mechanics, and he wasn''t interested in anything else, nor was he very warm and weing to his guests.

    Basically, he was opposed to anything that would get in the way of his studies.

    The reason why he had chosen to settle in Shadow City was also different from everyone else. He was solely here because he could acquire all types of illegal parts in this city to refine his creations.

    "Let''s go pay the stadium a visit." Everyone knew that they weren''t going to get any more information out of Baldie Lin, so they all stood up and were quickly on their way to the sports stadium.

    After returning to the stadium, Adam used the remaining bnce on his card to purchase tickets for the three people in their group who still hadn''t seen the matches so that they could develop a better understanding of this ce. After all, it was very difficult to properly exin what the matches consisted of and what concepts such as artificial anomalies and artificial adapters were all about.

    While the trio was inside watching the matches, Adam and Nie Yiyi went straight to the ticket booth. Adam''s intention was to directly enquire the workers at the ticket booth about how to participate in the matches and the rules of the fights, but he was stopped by Nie Yiyi.

    "We''re supposed to be locals right now. Wouldn''t it be suspicious if we went around asking things that locals should already know?" Nie Yiyi asked.

    They were wanted fugitives right now, so they had to keep their identities a secret. In particr, now that they knew that the Oni Organizaiton hadn''t gotten their hands on the footage that Hook had captured, they were in an even more perilous situation as it was very likely that the southern congress or the Oni Organization could send people to Shadow City to investigate the whereabouts of the footage.

    "You''re right, I didn''t consider that at all. We''re not even familiar with a lot of jargon used in this ce, so we could easily expose ourselves if we''re not careful."

    After a moment of contemtion, Adam pulled out hismunicator.

    Hailey''s contact details were stored on themunicator, and there was an attached note that read "Make sure to call me!".

    "I didn''t think that I would have to contact her again so soon."

    "Who?"

    "Just a local that I met while watching the matches herest time. At the time, I had no ns to participate in these matches, so I didn''t ask her any questions, but it looks like we''ve had a change of ns."

    Adam dialed Hailey''s number as he spoke, and not even a single full dial tone had beenpleted before the call was connected. "Hello? Is that you, Mr. Hitman?"

    "Well, that was fast..."

    "I constantly have mymunicator on me. I hold it even while I''m sleeping! What do you need? Do you need my help? I''m happy to offer my services at any time. Where are you right now?"

    "I''m at the stadium."

    "Alright, I''ll be there in 10 minutes. Make sure you don''t go anywhere!"

    The call was still connected as Hailey set off to meet Adam, and all of a sudden, a string of loud noises rang out from the other end of the line, as if a bunch of pots and pans had just fallen onto the ground.

 Chapter 120: Live Every Day as if It Were the Last

    <h4>Chapter 120: Live Every Day as if It Were the Last</h4>

    A short whileter, Adam caught sight of a disheveled young girl, looking around while holding amunicator to her ear.

    "Where are you, Sir?"

    "I''m on your left with my arm raised."

    "Ah, I see you!"

    Hailey ended the call before rushing over to Adam, panting heavily as she said, "You... You''ve finally contacted me, Sir! I was worried sick that you wouldn''t call me! What are we doing? Is my illustrious career as manager about to begin?"

    "That''s right," Adam replied with a nod. He was feeling rather embarrassed and apologetic. He had been so cold and aloof to her prior to this, yet now, he needed her help. "You can take a higher cut of the profits if you like."

    "No, no, it''s not about the money. There''s no point in umting too much wealth in Shadow City anyway because you never know if you''re going to suddenly drop dead someday. On top of that, I''m just a little girl, so having too much money will only send me to an early grave." Hailey wasn''t bothered at all by Adam''s previous cold attitude toward her. Instead, she turned to Nie Yiyi before asking, "Who''s this?"

    "A friend of mine."

    "Is she also an adapter? Can I serve as manager for both of you?" Hailey was even more excited now.

    "We want to participate in the battle royale. How do we get in?"

    "You can only qualify on points or through a rmendation from a super team." As expected of someone whose dream was to be a manager. Adam had thought that there were many finer details pertaining to the tournament that she would have to do some research on or enquire the workers at the ticket booth about, but after asking a few questions, Adam began to grow a little suspicious.

    For someone who wasn''t even officially a manager, Hailey was a little too professional and knew a little bit too much.

    "How do we earn points?"

    "By taking on fights. The fights are split up into different levels, and the higher the level, the more points you''ll earn, but newbie contestants can only start from low-level matches."

    "If we begin right now, how long will it take for us to earn enough points to qualify for the battle royale?"

    "That''ll depend on the opponents that you choose and your win rate."

    "What if we maintain a 100% win rate?"

    "In that case, you''ll earn enough points in no time, but that''ll be very difficult," Hailey replied in a very professional manner. "To be frank, you do seem quite strong, but I would only rank you as a B tierbatant. For someone of your level, it''s virtually impossible to maintain a 100% win rate over any extended period of time. Trust me on that, I have a very sharp eye when ites to these things. Also, unless you''re hiding some tricks up your sleeve, I''d advise against participating in the battle royale."

    "How are you so sure?"

    "The death rate is too high. At your level, your chances of survival are almost non-existent."

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­¡­

    On this day, Adam spoke extensively with Hailey. Hailey was very direct and forthright with her words, and Adam didn''t offer any exnations for his actions. All he did was sign a managerial contract with her, then asked her to arrange a match for him as soon as possible.

    Hailey readily agreed, telling him that she was going to register him on the same day, and that she would be able to arrange an F tier ranked fight for him the very next day.

    After the registration process waspleted and everyone else had finished watching the matches in the stadium, all of them emerged from the venue with the bustling crowd. Shae and the others had all been thoroughly shaken by what they had seen. Never did they think that there would be "sporting events" like the ones they had just witnessed in this world.

    "Even though these matches are extremely brutal, if they were allowed to be uploaded to the inte, I''m certain the views would be extremely high." That was Shota Sato''s assessment of the matches. He was the one who had been most heavily impacted by what he had seen, and for a long time, he was unable to banish those brutal images from his mind.

    For someone like him, who had always lived in an ivory tower, suddenly being dragged into the depths of hell naturally presented an extremely jarring contrast.

    In contrast with Shota''s reaction, Hook was already nning to back out.

    "I heard just now that there are going to be artificial anomalies in the battle royale as well. That''s way too dangerous! Can I sit this one out?" Hook''s cowardly nature instantly came to the fore after he witnessed the brutality of the artificial anomalies. "Each team can only have four people, and I''m useless in battle anyway, so the four of you can enter without me. Isn''t that ideal?"

    "We''ll see," Adam replied in an ambiguous manner.

    In his eyes, Hook was the more suitable candidate to upy the fourth spot in the team.

    Shota Sato''sbat prowess was far superior to Hook''s, but his abilities were very far from diverse. Furthermore, his individualbat prowess wasn''t sufficient to have a substantial impact on the rest of the team. Thus, he was in a very awkward position, with no special abilities to speak of, and even if he were to y a support role, he would be far inferior to either one of Hook or Shi Feng.

    However, Hook was currently terrified, so Adam didn''t press the issue.

    "I''ll fight some matches first to test the waters. Also, there''s another problem." Adam turned to Hailey as he said, "All of my friends have enemies, so it would be very risky for them to show their psychic bodies. Is it possible for me to carry the entire team into the battle royale based solely on my own efforts?"

    "It''s definitely possible. The ones who manage to secure a spot in the highest tier will be able to choose their teammates. Some of the more powerfulbatants will intentionally adopt this strategy to hide the powers of their teammates. However, I have to remind you once again that with your powers, it''ll be very difficult to reach even the B tier, and it''s virtually impossible for you to secure a rank higher than that."

    "How powerful are the highest-rankedbatants?"

    "They''re roughlyparable or even superior to artificial anomalies."

    "That does sound quite powerful. Let''s focus on arranging tomorrow''s match first."

    "Alright."

    ¡­¡­

    On the way back, Adam and the others were discussing their agenda.

    "My proposal is that I fight in these matches on my own first, and only if I get stuck and can''t make any further progress will we consider exposing your psychic bodies. What do you all think?"

    "I also want to fight." Nie Yiyi was extremely fixated on improving her own powers. "I''ll contact the Green Gang over the next couple of days and see if they can give me an update on the situation. If circumstances permit, I also want to participate in the matches."

    "You don''t have any way to disguise your psychic body, so it''s best that you refrain from participating in these matches."

    "You can''t make decisions for me, but I''ll take your advice into your consideration." Nie Yiyi split off from the group and departed as she spoke.

    As a morally ambiguous power in the east, the Green Gang had businesses and connections everywhere, primarily dealing in the retail and intelligence industries. The organization had convenience stores and supermarket branches all over many parts of the world, and of course, its influence extended into Shadow City as well.

    There weren''t many people in their group, but they had a very diverse range of affiliations, and the only one who had no powerful connections was Hook.

    On the way back, everyone was walking along in silence, absorbed in their own thoughts. Adam didn''t pay any heed to what everyone else was thinking. Instead, he was pondering ways to elevate his own powers in a short time.

    The best way was naturally still to find suitable "patients".

    He would''ve had to have been an idiot not to make use of such a broken shortcut. Even to this day, Adam still didn''t know where his flowerpots and his ability to absorb anomalic power came from, but he had made use of these assets on many past asions without any negative side effects.

    Not only were there no negative side effects, he had managed to learn a great deal about the best way to utilize these assets.

    For example, it was best for him not to challenge anomalies too much more powerful than himself. Not only was that a very dangerous endeavor, there was also too much residual anomalic power for him to digest, and most of it went to waste. The most powerful anomaly in his flowerpots was one that he waspletely unable to control, so it was a huge waste.

    On the flip side, it was also best not to challenge anomalies who wereparable in power to or weaker than himself as they didn''t yield sufficient anomalic power to have much of a positive impact.

    Thus, if he could choose the right opponents, he would be able to earn ranking points and elevate his own powers as quickly as possible while avoiding excessive waste.

    Adam took a nce around him, and he had initially thought that it would''ve been a very simple task to find people disying clear signs of mental health issues in a city like this, but even though everyone on the nearby streets appeared quite menacing and deranged, they also seemed to be very rxed.

    They were able to live every day as if it were theirst, so there was no stress or pressure thinking about the future.

    The people here didn''t have goals or ns, nor were they ving away for a chance at "immortality" after they passed away. No one knew if they were going to be suddenly killed under inexplicable circumstances one day for no reason, so they were able to live their lives with reckless abandon.

 Chapter 121: Pressure

    <h4>Chapter 121: Pressure</h4>

    Adam wasn''t entirely convinced that the rxed looks on everyone''s faces weren''t just forced facades, so he detached himself from the group to take a closer look for himself.

    "Where are you going?"

    "There''s something I want to check."

    "I''lle with you."

    Shae followed along behind him, temporarily separating from the rest of the group as well.

    She didn''t say anything or ask Adam what he was doing. Instead, she merely followed him in silence as he diverted off the wide street and made his way down a narrow alley, where he caught sight of a lone straggler.

    The straggler was squatting in a corner, smoking a cigarette in an expressionless manner, and upon noticing Adam''s scrutiny, he immediately erupted into a torrent of abuse, throwing up ssic phrases such as "What the fuck are you lookin'' at?", "I''ll gouge your eyes out if you keep staring at me!" and "That''s a fine-looking chick you have with you there. Is she your bitch?".

    Deranged and aggressive. Just like most of the people in this city.

    Adam approached the straggler in silence while scrutinizing the cocky expression on his tattooed face, and he couldn''t bring himself to believe that someone like him was truly free of mental health issues.

    "What the fuck do you want?" At this point, the straggler could already sense that something wasn''t quite right. As a local of Shadow City, he had developed a high degree of sensitivity to even the slightest inkling of danger, and he immediately spat out his cigarette while reaching for the gun that was holstered to his waist. However, before his hand had a chance to reach the gun, his psychic world had already been invaded.

    Adam had already activated his neuron transmitter in secret, then invaded the straggler''s psychic world from a distance after lowering the transmitter''s mechanical electrical synaptic output.

    Not long after entering the straggler''s psychic world, Adam invoked Nun and ordered it to possess the straggler''s psychic body.

    After that, the possessed straggler led Adam on a tour of his psychic modules.

    From his birth to his formative development, then to the first time that he left Shadow City to go to Sandrise City...

    Just as Adam expected, the straggler had not had an easy life.

    He didn''t know who his father was, and his mother was a local resident of Shadow City who raised him like a pet, spurred on by her maternal instincts. He had quite a few brothers and sisters whom he regrly fought with over food and toys, and it was also verymon for him to receive beatings from his older brothers.

    At about 11 to 12 years of age, he had already learned tomit theft and robbery in densely popted ces, and he had also picked up the vices of smoking and drinking.

    He left Shadow City for the first time at 15 years old, and that was also the first time that he experienced discrimination.

    Following him into the psychic module that contained this chapter in his life, Adam saw that his first stop after leaving Shadow City wasn''t actually Sandrise City. Instead, it was a vige near Sandrise City.

    However, those viges were extremely xenophobic, particrly toward residents of Shadow City.

    They had heard far too many stories about Shadow City, and they knew that all of its residents were cold-blooded killers who wouldmit murder at the drop of a hat, who were deranged bottom-dwellers of society who refused to follow the rules and had been abandoned by society as a result.

    The vigers didn''t kick him out, but they made his life there extremely difficult.

    Everyone treated him with disdain and gave him the cold shoulder, and even the business owners refused to sell anything to him. After enduring this discrimination for some time, he finally snapped and turned on a group of people whom he had heard denouncing him behind his back.

    However, that didn''t amount to anything. Those people refused to engage in a direct conflict with him, and after avoiding him, they immediately contacted the police.

    Even though he had lived his entire life in Shadow City up to that point, he had heard about fearsome Mechguard officers were, so he immediately fled the vige.

    After that, he traveled to Sandrise City. He had heard that people in the big cities were all very busy, so no one had the spare time and energy to care about what others were doing.

    Initially, upon his arrival in Sandrise City, he got himself into a great deal of trouble due to problems surrounding his identification information. However, he was then able to secure a fake ID through some illegal organizations, thereby allowing him to roam the city with a rtive degree of freedom.

    The city wasvish, alluring, pristine, and orderly.

    In the beginning, the straggler fell in love with this ce, but it didn''t take long before he fell into the depths of despair.

    Everything required money in the city, and there were many ces that he couldn''t even go to. It was as if everything in the city were segregated by invisible barriers, ones that were impossible to bypass.

    Most importantly, the skills in thievery that he had relied on to make ends meet in Shadow City could no longer be used in Sandrise City. There were surveince cameras, Mechguard officers, andw-abiding citizens everywhere, and soon, he fell into crippling debt.

    He owed money to the loan sharks and the organizations that had organized his fake identification documents, and he felt as if shackles were gradually being thrown onto his back, making it difficult for him to even draw breath. Every single day, he felt as if he were wading through a swamp, impeded and controlled at every turn by an invisible hand.

    Adam noticed that it was also during this time period that more and more aberrations began to appear in his psychic modules.

    On the busy streets, Adam could see all types of emotional aberrations everywhere, such as taxi drivers, gangs who had arranged bank cards for him, the advertisements in the sky, the pedestrians on the ground...

    Many of the people around him began to mutate, and there were far more aberrations in that psychic module than any of the other ones in his psychic world.

    Finally, the straggler crumbled under the pressure, fleeing Sandrise City and returning to Shadow City, where he had remained up to this point.

    Following his return, he whiled his days away by drowning his sorrows, and he no longer yearned for the outside world. Somehow, he was much happier than before. He hadn''t done anything positive or constructive during the past few years, but his mental health was remarkably good.

    There was barely even any emotional baggage in his mind, let alone emotional aberrations and anomalies.

    This observation dealt Adam another heavy blow, and at this point, he was even beginning to believe that the stadium director was a philosopher, a notion that he had previously dismissed as downright ridiculous.

    After making these observations, Adam silently withdrew Nun and exited the straggler''s psychic world.

    After returning to the real world, Adam saw Shae looking around while standing at the entrance to the alley, and the unconscious straggler had clearly also been dragged from his original spot to somewhere that was more inconspicuous and out of sight. It was clear that she had been standing on lookout duty while Adam was exploring the straggler''s world.

    Following Adam''s awakening, the straggler also gradually returned to his senses. Here in Shadow City, power was the absolute currency, and the one with the bigger fists was always right. The straggler was well aware of this golden rule, and he immediately rushed out of the alley after regaining consciousness.

    "What are you doing?"

    "I''m searching for emotional anomalies."

    "Why''s that?"

    Adam paused for a moment to construct his words, then told Shae a partial truth, even though Nie Yiyi and the others had most likely already guessed this partial truth. "I grow stronger by battling psychic anomalies."

    "I see." Shae wasn''t very surprised to hear this. She had already heard Adam mention something simr in the past, and she had witnessed the transformation that Adam had undergone after his battle against the nun anomaly. She was no idiot, and she immediately asked, "I''m assuming you need to search for a suitable target?"

    "That''s right, but surprisingly, all of the locals of Shadow City seem to be very healthy."

    "If locals don''t fit the bill, then let''s target outsiders. There are many fugitives on the run here. Compared with fugitives who can still lead rtively normal lives, like Oni no Hanzou, all of the fugitives who''ve fled to this city are ones who have no other choice. I''m sure a considerable proportion of them must be suffering from mental health problems."

    "Alright, that sounds like a good idea."

    "When do we begin?"

    "Right now."

 Chapter 122: The Target

    <h4>Chapter 122: The Target</h4>

    Where would they be able to find the greatest number of outsiders in Shadow City? The first ce that sprang into Adam''s mind was the subway station.

    He had arrived in this city by taking that form of transport himself, and the entrances and exits of the subway stations were also thergest passageways that connected Shadow City to the outside world, so there had to be a rtive abundance of outsiders there.

    Thus, Adam and Shae immediately sprang into action, taking a bronze horse, a form of transportation that was unique to Shadow City, to the subway station, then stood in wait on an inconspicuous part of the za.

    They had learned during their exploration of the city over the past two days that a train would pass through the subway station once every 20 to 30 minutes.

    Sure enough, after just a few minutes, the first train arrived, but unfortunately, it was carrying nothing but corn.

    The second train was an open-top carriage that resembled a mine cart, and close to half of the passengers were outsiders, identifiable by their darting eyes and their panicked demeanors.

    "Do we strike?" All of the outsiders who were exiting the subway station were filled with apprehension and wariness.

    "How? We can''t just use our synapse transmitters. That would cause way too much chaos that could blow the situation up in our faces!"

    Abducting someone was a rough job, but abducting someone without incurring bacsh required technique and finesse.

    "They''re getting off the train now. Let''s take a look first..."

    Adam and Shae continued to observe as most of the passengers exited the train.

    Just like Adam and his group, many of the passengers were first-time arrivals, and most of them had guides. Those who didn''t have guides but were also calm andposed were the ones who clearly weren''t visiting the city for the first time.

    Among this group of people, there were a few who attracted Adam''s attention. It was clear that they were first-time visitors of the city, but they had no guides, and their eyes were as sharp and piercing as the eyes of a hawk. Most importantly, Adam could sense something familiar about them.

    "Look over there!"

    "Yeah, I''ve noticed them as well."

    Shae was also observing the same group of people in secret. Their attire was quite casual, but all of them stood ramrod straight and walked with firm, purposeful footsteps. Even though they weren''t particrly tall or physically imposing, they gave off a sense of danger.

    Perhaps the average person wouldn''t be able to detect this sense of danger, but as an adapter who had already experienced countless life-and-death situations, Adam had a vague sense that this group was not to be messed with.

    "Don''t you feel like they''re familiar somehow?"

    "I do. I don''t recall ever seeing them before, but it feels like I have."

    "Could it be that we''ve met them in the psychic world?" Adam theorized. "There are five men and one woman in that group... Could they be Oni no Hanzou, Oni no Miko, and their allies?"

    "Surely it''s way too much of a coincidence encountering them here."

    "Who knows? Don''t make eye contact! They''re looking this way." Regardless of whether it was a coincidence or not, Adam didn''t want to take the risk, and he hurriedly lowered his head right as the group turned in the direction that he was in.

    Thankfully, he and Shae were hiding in a corner of the za, and the za was quiterge with many other people around, so Adam and Shae didn''t attract the group''s attention.

    All of a sudden, the woman in the group stopped in her tracks, and she spread her hands open as her nose twitched slightly as if she were sensing something through her telegnosis. "I''m feeling a familiar sense of danger. Do you feel that?"

    "There''s danger at every turn here, so sensing danger is nothing out of the ordinary. This is that guy''s territory, so make sure to keep a low profile."

    "Got it." The woman opened her eyes before continuing on her way.

    Only after the group had passed them by did Adam raise his head.

    "I feel like that''s them."

    "If they''re here, then I''m even more convinced that the footage in this city." The arrival of the Oni Organization''s hitmen instilled within Shae a sense of both fear and excitement. "In any case, we finally have some hope now."

    We can''t afford to lose again.

    A determined look appeared in Adam''s eyes as he cast his gaze toward the passengers.

    After a while, Adam''s gaze finally settled on a straggler with a disoriented look in his eyes.

    He was a short and stubby man, and his attire was quite expensive, but also a little dirty and ragged. He seemed to have fled to Shadow City on very short notice, and he didn''t even have a guide.

    After emerging from the subway station, he looked around and was horrified to find that the entire za was filled with thugs with facial tattoos. He immediately fled the scene in a blind panic, but little did he know that not only was Adam onto him, two other groups of thugs also had their eyes on him.

    There was never a shortage of thugs in Shadow City.

    After following the man into a dead-end, Adam finally crossed paths with the other two groups of thugs. At this point, the man that they were following was alreadypletely cornered.

    "What''s going on here? We were the ones who spotted him first." A thug with a green crocodile tattooed on his face emerged from one of the other two groups, and as he stepped forward, his green crocodile tail also began to whip from side to side.

    The crocodile tail was his prosthetic limb, and it was filled with weapons

    These weapons were very shy and menacing to behold, but most of them were far less dangerous than they looked. Even so, Adam was definitely no match for him in a physical brawl.

    Right as he was hesitating about whether to fire his transmitter, a thug from the other group with a red turtle tattooed on his face suddenly spoke up.

    "Who cares if you spotted him first? That''s not how things work in this city. The one with the bigger fists always gets to make the rules. If you want him, you can have him for 20,000, or you can give us his kidneys and we''ll split him. As for these two..." Red Turtle turned to Adam and Shae before asking, "Where are you two from?"

    "We..." Adam was temporarily stumped by this question.

    After listening to that brief conversation, Adam had developed a rough grasp on how the people here liked to do things.

    Both sides were afraid of retaliation, so the locals were more reserved and civilized with one another, only resorting to violence if negotiation didn''t work out. Sure enough, even amid the chaos, there were some rules to be followed.

    Havinge from the civilized world, Adam knew that if some rules were broken, the consequence would be catastrophic, and it would be extremely difficult for him to do anything in this city.

    Hence, after a moment of contemtion, he replied, "I''m from the Green Gang."

    "The Green Gang? Don''t you guys only run convenience stores and dabble in selling intelligence? Since when did you start doing human trafficking?"

    "That''s not our objective, we only need some information."

    "I see..."

    Crocodile and Red Turtle both contemted the situation in silence for a moment.

    "What do you want to do?"

    "I just need to ask him some things. It won''t take very long, and he''s all yours once I''m done."

    The two thugs didn''t stand to lose anything, so they both nodded in agreement, telling Adam to wrap things up as quickly as possible.

    "Keep an eye on them for me. If they show any signs of aggression, don''t hesitate to drag them into the psychic world!" Adam said in a low voice as he led Shae into the alley, then crouched down to inspect his target.

    The target was a short and chubby middle-aged man dressed in formal and slightly outdated attire. His hair was a little disheveled, but Adam could tell that his original hairstyle would''ve been quite immacte and well-groomed.

    Judging from his appearance, he was most likely a government employee.

    "What do you want?" The man was trembling slightly as he looked at Adam with a fearful expression.

    "I want to find out some things about you."

    Adam wasted no time with words and immediately invaded the man''s psychic world.

    Upon reopening his eyes, Adam discovered that the setting around him had changed from a filthy and muddy underground alleyway to a spacious and well-lit room in an office building. The chubby middle-aged man was conducting some official duties in front of Adam, and in the instant Adam appeared, the man immediately closed the document that he was about to sign.

    In the instant that the document was closed, Adam caught a brief glimpse of the text on the cover.

    It looks like he works for the National Medical Products Administration.

 Chapter 123: The Never-ending Cliched Story

    <h4>Chapter 123: The Never-ending Cliched Story</h4>

    "Who are you? Where did youe from?"

    In contrast with his persona in the real world, which was as timid and cowardly as a turtle, the man''s psychic body had a fa?ade of confidence and authority, the type that was only granted to someone by power and influence.

    "Who am I? If we had enough time on our hands and you were a patient of mine, perhaps I would answer your questions, but now..."

    Adam raised a hand to invoke Nun as he spoke. The more he used this anomaly, the more he came to realize just how useful it was.

    The sight of Nun gave the man such a fright that he immediately sprang up out of his chair, as if some type of terrifying memories had been brought to the surface, and he immediately tried to call out for security, but it was already toote.

    The scream had only just left his lips when he was already possessed by Nun, and at the same time, Adam had also invoked and fused with Mummy.

    Oh, it feels good to be powerful again.

    It had been a very long time since he had fought in this form, and he had sorely missed this feeling of wielding a level three anomaly''s power at his fingertips.

    After fusing with Mummy, Adam didn''t immediately leave the room. Instead, he took some time to inspect the document that the man was about to sign.

    As it turned, it was a document for an assessment of food safety and quality. After rummaging through the folder for a while, Adam found some more documents that allowed him to learn the man''s name and upation.

    The man''s name was Samit, and he was an official working at the National Medical Products Administration, primarily overseeing food safety assessments.

    Of course, food safety assessment applications had to be signed off by multiple departments, and even in his department alone, three people had to provide their signatures for the document to be effective, so he didn''t actually possess a great deal of jurisdictive power.

    Adam had only just begun to develop an understanding of the man''s official role when a pair of cyborg security guards barreled through the door, then immediately attacked Adam without any hesitation.

    One of the security guards had an arm that was charged with electricity, allowing him to use it as a taser, while the other security guard released a projectile out of his shoulder to try and ensnare Adam.

    Unfortunately for them, attacks of this caliber were downright pitiful against a level three anomaly, and Adam tore the apart with ease before throwing the pair of security guards out of the room.

    "Is there something wrong with him?" Adam knew that Nun was able to read some of the dark memories in the hearts of the subjects that she possessed, and this was the exact same ability that she had once used to try and coerce Li Qi into suicide.

    "There is..." At this moment, Samit''s features were extremely twisted, and his face had taken on a pitch-ck hue. "His heart is full of fear..."

    "Good!" Adam had spent a great deal of time and effort trying to track down a suitable target, and he would''ve been very disappointed if the target that he had selected had been unsuitable, after all. "Looks like my hard work is paying off. Trace his fear and find its source!"

    Nun closed its eyes and did as it was told, and it instinctively began to slowly make its way forward. First, it strode out of the office in Samit''s body, arriving in the office area outside.

    Just like most people who constantly worked long hours, many of their colleagues in the psychic world had turned into emotional aberrations.

    It was inevitable that some form of conflict would eventually arise between people who spent so much time working together. Adam disposed of these aberrations with ease, then followed Samit to the entrance of arge, independent office before opening the door.

    As soon as the door of the office was opened, Adam''s nostrils were immediately assaulted by a foul stench, following which a massive aberration that wasrger than a bear and as portly as a toad squeezed its way out from inside.

    The verb being used here was "squeeze" as it was unable to even fit through the doorframe, only managing to exit the office after bulldozing its way straight through the door and arge section of the wall.

    As soon as it emerged, it immediately picked up the possessed Samit before attempting to devour it, but before it had even managed to ce Samit into its mouth, Mummy had already appeared directly above it.

    With a downward swing of Mummy''s carving knife, the aberration''s entire body was sliced into two. However, it didn''t perish. Instead, it tossed Samit aside before frantically using half of its mouth to devour its own flesh.

    As it did so, the two halves of its body began to slowly fuse back together.

    This thing is definitely way more powerful than the average emotional aberration. The fact that it was able to survive an all-out attack from me indicates that it most likely already has anomalic power in its body.

    Adam didn''t want to waste too much time here. This aberration was indeed quite powerful, but it was only around the same level as those sludge aberrations from Peter''s psychic world. Thus, with a few more wings of his carving knife, he was able to hack the aberration into pieces, following a cloud of ck anomalic power emerged.

    "Devour this!"

    Anomalic power of this caliber wasn''t going to have much of an effect on Mummy anymore, but for the infantile Nun, it was a full-blown feast.

    Still controlling Samit''s body, Nun began to devour the anomalic power in the air at Adam''s behest.

    As Samit took a deep breath, the anomalic power entered his body through his nostrils in ck streams, following which his muscles began to bulge, and his face became even darker and more terrifying to behold. It was clear that Nun had be more powerful and was on the verge of evolution.

    "Is that all of it? Are there no other targets?" Adam wasn''t satisfied at all by these meager returns.

    Having failed to evolve, Nun was still incredibly weak.

    "The source of fear... hasn''t been erased... Shivani... Shivani is the root of fear..."

    "Take me to her!" Adam was just about to depart from this ce when he caught sight of a document on the table in the office, and Shivani''s name was disyed on the document.

    Adam hurriedly strode over to the table to inspect the document, upon which he discovered that Shivani was a female reporter of Indian descent.

    ording to the document, she had constantly been investigating Samit under the suspicion that they were epting bribes in exchange for granting eligibility to foods that didn''t satisfy health and safety standards.

    Not only was Samit being investigated, a series of other auditors were also being scrutinized, including his superiors.

    It was exactly because he feared this woman so much that the document was in such a conspicuous ce in his psychic world.

    After reading through the document, Adam found that Shivani had already managed to gather some evidence to support her case.

    "Looks like she''s a very righteous supporter. No wonder he''s so afraid of her that''s developed mental health problems and fled to Shadow City."

    Adam shook his head with a dismayed expression as he set down the document.

    Samit had done something extremely deplorable.

    There was a foodpany by the name of Sweet Energy Foodstuff that sold a massive quantity of products every year. Thepany worked together with smart apartments, allowing the residents of those apartmentplexes to instantly receive orders of energy-replenishing food through the Inte of Things.

    The products sold by thepany were nutritionally abundant, cost-effective, and came in arge variety of different vors.

    They were a very popr option among students and office workers, but there was an additive used that went against regtion as it had been proven to be carcinogenic.

    Thepany had enough money to bribe Samit and the other auditors. This was a cliched story that seemed to always arise in human society, and there seemed to be no end to these stories in sight.

    After memorizing Samit''s address, Adam wasted no time as he set off with Nun to search for the root of his fear.

 Chapter 124: The Camera Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 124: The Camera Anomaly</h4>

    After leaving the office building, Adam and the possessed Samit made their way through many psychic modules in Samit''s psychic world before finally encountering the root of his fear in front of a smart apartmentplex.

    This was a camera-like anomaly that was over 3.5 meters tall with an elongated praying-mantis-like body. Despite the remarkable length of its body, its waist wasn''t even as thick as the average human, and it was standing at the foot of the apartment building, slicing open the chests and abdomens of all of the people who passed by.

    It would then use itsrge "eyes" to slowly take photographs of its victims'' skin, hair, internal organs, and even their fascia.

    Its eyes consisted of a camera, and it was able to capture an image with every single blink. These images were then printed out of its body onto the street to produce one gorey photograph after another.

    A fighter for justice in the real world, a demon in the psychic world...

    Adam couldn''t help but see the irony of the situation as he looked at the anomaly before him.

    He knew that psychic anomalies were manifestations of what their hosts were most afraid of and what had hurt them the most, but in the past, the real-world equivalents of most of the anomalies that he had encountered were also quite deplorable, such as the anomaly in Kim Garcia''s psychic world, and the clown anomaly that had gued Twerking Karen''s daughter, both of which had been manifested from nefarious characters.

    Killing this anomaly will restore your peace of mind, which is much better than what you deserve, but thankfully, there are people waiting on the outside to take your organs!

    With that in mind, Adam didn''t waste any more time and immediately charged toward the anomaly.

    At this point, most of the passersby on this street had already been killed by the anomaly, so Adam''s approach naturally attracted its interest.

    It turned around, then blinked a few times at Adam to snap several pictures of his body.

    Adam paid no heed to this andshed out with his carving knife.

    The camera anomaly used its scythe arms to ward off the attack, but it was sent flying by the impact of the sh, crashing into a pickup truck to instantly reduce it to a pile of scrap metal.

    Judging from the power disyed by the camera anomaly, Adam was able to determine that it was a level two anomaly.

    A difference of a single level was an enormous, insurmountable gulf, so Adam wasn''t viewing the anomaly as a threat at all, and he immediately rushed forward to put an end to its existence as soon as possible.

    However, an unexpected turn of events subsequently unfolded.

    Right as he was in the process of charging toward the anomaly a second time, his opponent blinked at him a few more times.

    A sh of light appeared before Adam''s eyes as if a camera sh had been set off right in front of him, following which he felt as if his body had been captured in a still frame. Everything around him had be faster, but he had be slower.

    Upon noticing this change, Adam immediately began to struggle vigorously, and with his tremendous strength, he was able to shatter the air around him with a loud pop.

    However, at the same time, his neck was struck by the camera anomaly''s scythe arm, sending sparks flying in all directions, and he was forced to stumble back several steps to steady himself.

    What just happened?

    Adam was feeling rather perplexed. Just now, he felt as if he had somehow been fixed into ce. Not only was he unable to move his body, even his thoughts seemed to have been blocked.

    Adam was quite curious about this ability and decided to test it out once again.

    Thus, he raised his carving knife and charged toward the camera anomaly for a third time. Initially, the anomaly tried to flee the scene, but it was no match for Adam''s speed, and it was caught in less than 10 seconds. In that dire situation, it began to blink at Adam once again.

    As the sound of a clicking camera shutter rang out, that feeling of fixation arose once again. However, Adam was already prepared this time, and he immediately struggled with his body to quickly free himself from the immobilizing effects.

    However, due to how close the twobatants were, he was struck by another blow to the neck.

    A loud ng rang out, and a gash was sliced into the bandages around his neck, revealing the steel-like skin underneath.

    Adam was quite taken aback by the camera anomaly''s offensive prowess. As a level two anomaly, its destructive capabilities already exceeded that of the vast majority of other anomalies at the same level. In fact, even Nie Yiyi wouldn''t have been able to unleash such a powerful strike unless she was given time to charge up her attack.

    Its abilities and offensive prowess are both exceptional, so its weakness must be...

    Adam didn''t give his opponent any more chances as he shed his carving knife through the air to slice the anomaly''s body into two.

    The anomaly waspletely powerless to resist and was instantly killed.

    In terms of life force, it was inferior even to that superior of Samit''s from before.

    That thing had only been a half-anomaly, yet even it had survived a blow from Adam''s carving knife. However, this was a level two anomaly, yet Adam hadn''t even felt any resistance as his carving knife passed through its body. In terms of defensive prowess and regenerative ability, it was firmly at the bottom of the back among level two anomalies.

    What a heavily skewed set of attributes! Even with its ring weaknesses, it''s still extremely dangerous. Against most other level two anomalies, it would most likely be able to kill its opponent in an instant.

    The camera anomaly''s offensive capabilities and abilities were both outstanding for a level two anomaly, but its weaknesses were also far too prominent. Not only were its defenses and life force downright pitiful, even its intelligence was sorelycking.

    Adam had encountered cunning anomalies before, such as the clown anomaly and the nun anomaly. If they were to encounter an opponent that they couldn''t defeat, then they would run away at the drop of a hat. However, the camera anomaly was aplete cavemanpared with them, knowing no other approach than to fight fire with fire.

    In Samit''s mind, this reporter who''s determined to uncover the truth is probably as hardheaded as hardheaded can be. In his eyes, going against the National Medical Products Administration and such a major foodpany is probably no different frommitting suicide.

    Adam heaved a faint sigh as he instructed Nun to devour the anomalic power left behind by the camera anomaly.

    At the same time, he took advantage of this opportunity to inspect his surroundings, and he just so happened to notice the photographs of himself that the camera anomaly had just captured.

    He picked up the photograph to find that not only did it hold his visage, there were also some apanying pieces of information.

    "Prominent traits: extremely strong defenses, no psychological or physical weaknesses, mediocre abilities, average offensive prowess."

    What kind of ability is this? Is it able to assess an opponent while also immobilizing them?

    Adam turned to the camera anomaly''s carcass with a stunned expression, astonished by how useful its abilities were. If it weren''t for the fact that he was going to have to rely on Nun for his uing matches, he was even tempted to leave its anomalic power rather than allow Nun to absorb it.

    Clearly, this anomaly was the more useful asset.

    You''ll be the next one that I develop.

    Adam was very pleased to have obtained such an exceptional anomaly. It was going to be useful regardless of whether it was used as a fusion partner or as an independent invoked entity.

    Its exceptional control and scouting abilities gave it the power to potentially topple opponents of a higher caliber than itself.

    With so many formidable enemies and the battle royale on the horizon, the addition of this anomaly to his collection was only going to give him a significant boost.

    While these thoughts were running through Adam''s mind, Nun had already finished devouring the residual anomalic power in the area. After this influx of anomalic power, Nun had gone a long way to returning to its former peak, evolving all the way into a level two anomaly. At this point, the darkplexion of the possessed Samit had be even more pronounced, and his fingernails had be long and sharp, while his movement speed had also been increased by severalfold.

    That''s a job well done.

    Adam was still mindful of the tense situation outside, and after making sure that there were no other suspicious entities in the area, he withdrew Nun and left Samit''s psychic world.

 Chapter 125: Kant

    <h4>Chapter 125: Kant</h4>

    As soon as he opened his eyes, Adam was greeted by the sight of Shae locked in a tense standoff with Crocodile and Red Turtle. Crocodile clearly had a shorter fuse than Red Turtle, and he was already at the end of his wits.

    However, at this point, he had already guessed that Adam and Shae were adapters, so he was still reining in his aggression.

    "How much longer is he going to take? If others show up, we''ll have to split him with even more people! Hurry up!" Crocodile urged.

    "All done," Adam dered as soon as he opened his eyes.

    "Done? Finally! We''re taking him away." Crocodile and Red Turtle had already run out of patience long ago. If it weren''t for the fact that Adam and Shae were adapters who were supposedly from the Green Gang, they would''ve already taken Samit away by force.

    "Hold on a second!" Adam called out to stop them.

    "What''s your problem, man? You think you can walk all over us as you please?" At this point, Crocodile and Red Turtle had already united together against what they perceived to be amon enemy, and they had each pulled out weapons of their own. "If I set off this bomb here in this tiny alley, you''re both going to die even if you''re adapters! Do you want to try me?"

    "I don''t want any trouble. We''re all doing this for money, and I have a better idea for how we can all earn money quicker."

    After realizing that Adam harbored no ill will, the two thugs became a lot more open and receptive. "Is that right? Go ahead."

    "I''ve already uncovered his identity. He''s the supervisor of a small department in the National Medical Products Administration, and he fled to Shadow City as he''s guilty of corruption and epting bribes. He has no powerful backers, so taking him out won''t incur any repercussions. Most importantly, he''s got a lot of money." Adam pointed at Samit''s pocket as he spoke. "Compared with taking him apart for organs, wouldn''t you much rather empty his pockets instead?"

    "You''re right, but we could''ve forced all of that information out of him even without you," Crocodile said with an unimpressed shrug.

    "That may be true, but you can never know for sure whether he''s telling the truth or not. If you don''t know the right questions to ask and the right direction to pursue, the benefits that you''ll be able to squeeze out of your targets will be very limited. For example, this guy may never tell you his true identity. After all, he''s dead either way, isn''t that right?"

    "Hmm..."

    "What you''re saying makes sense." Red Turtle was the first one toe around. "How do you want to do this?"

    "Bring all of the people that you capture to me. Our Green Gang only wants information from them, and if we find out any useful information, such as the target''s upation and how much money they have, we''ll pass that onto you."

    "I''m fine with that. What about you?" Red Turtle asked as he turned to Crocodile.

    "That sounds good to me as well, but what''s in it for you? You''re just giving us the target and the information without any marypensation?"

    "We have a superior source of ie." Adam knew that if he couldn''t convince these two that their coborative partnership was logically sound, then there was a very good chance that the foundation of trust between them could bepromised. "All we need to do is dig up some dirt on these people, then extort their corrupt superiors, and we''ll get even more money out of it than you will."

    "That makes sense." Both of the thugs readily epted this alibi. "Alright, we''ll be taking him then. Leave us with your contact details and we''ll bring people to you as we capture them."

    "Good!"

    After establishing a verbal agreement, the two thugs departed with Samit and theirckeys, while Adam and Shae also departed.

    "Did you get anything out of that?"

    "I did. It was a very rewarding experience."

    Adam paused momentarily after giving his response to enter his own psychic world for a brief inspection, and sure enough, the camera anomaly had already been nted in his flowerpot.

    "Why do you want to work with them?"

    Adam opened his eyes just in time to hear that question from Shae.

    "They''re more efficient and aren''t as conspicuous as we are. There''s no way that we''ll be so lucky that we can find suitable targets every time."

    "But they''re criminals."

    "I don''t have enough time to care about that."

    After returning to Baldie Lin''s shop, a peaceful night passed by.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile.

    After arriving at Shadow City, Oni no Hanzou and his group stored their luggage and equipment away, then traveled to a strange castle with a handwritten letter from Oni-faced Dragon.

    "Is this the ce?" a man with mechanical parts retrofitted all over his body asked as he inspected the electronic map.

    "That''s what the map says. I haven''t been here before, either." In the real world, Oni no Hanzou was a short middle-aged old man.

    The term "middle-aged old man" seemed to be an oxymoron, but it was a very apt description of him. His face belonged to a wizened old man, but he possessed the strong and healthy physique of a middle-aged man.

    After arriving in front of the castle, he was just about to ask where the entrance was when several electronic heavy cannons appeared on the tall walls of the castle.

    "We''re here to pay the director a visit. We heard that Mr. Director is an avid philosopher, so we''ve brought him an original manuscript from Immanuel Kant as a present."

    As soon as Oni no Hanzou''s voice trailed off, the castle wall up ahead slowly opened up, and an emissary emerged from inside. The man was wearing a ck robe, and his face was riddled with scars, while his facial features were also twisted out of shape, giving him the appearance of a host for an artificial anomaly.

    However, in contrast with those empty husks of human beings, this man was fully conscious and had immacte manners.

    "Pleasee in, everyone."

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­¡­

    Adam was naturally oblivious to what Oni no Hanzou was up to. After a night of rest in Baldie Lin''s shop, he received a call not long after the lights were switched on in the underground city the next day, informing him that his first match had already been arranged.

    "Alright, I''ll be right there." Adam put on his clothes before preparing to set off.

    "I''lle with you."

    "Me too."

    "Count me in."

    "I''ll sit this one out."

    As usual, everyone aside from Hook was eager to apany Adam.

    The best thing about Shadow City was that it wasn''t a veryrge ce, onlyparable in size to one of Sandrise City''s 100 other areas, so it only took a short time for them to travel to the sports stadium via bronze horse.

    The sports stadium was a massive building, and it had been constructed in ordance with the designs of ancient Roman colosseums. However, the area beneath the spectator stands where the foundation of concrete and steel beams was situated was actually hollow, holding a series of small side arenas.

    The death matches held in Shadow City were split up into three tiers. The matches taking ce in the stalls outside were extraneous matches, while the ones taking ce inside the stadium were official tournament matches, and only the most spectacr tournament matches were shown on therge stage at the center of the main arena.

    "Over here, Sir!" Hailey immediately spotted Adam as soon as he and his group arrived, then rushed over to them in an excited manner. "Come with me. Everything''s already been taken care of. Take a look at the information on your opponent for your first match."

    "My opponent should be very weak considering this is an F tier match, right?"

    Adam epted the file from Hailey, and sure enough, his opponent was a severely atrophied and emaciated artificial adapter. His file contained very little information, only giving a brief ount of his psychic body and his past match oues.

    "Not necessarily. It''s actually the contestants who are constantly stuck in the C and D tiers that are generally the weakest," Hailey exined, fully living up to her role as a professional manager. "F tier matches form the initial obstacle that all contestants have to get over. Hence, there are asionally some powerfulbatants among them, such as yourself."

    "That makes sense." Adam nodded in response.

    F tier matches were essentially only a screening process, so there was a chance that he could encounter a formidable opponent here, but overall, the chances of that were theoretically quite low. Furthermore, he held an instinctive sense of disdain toward artificial adapters, so he only took a brief nce at the file before entering the stadium with Hailey.

 Chapter 126: Fighter

    <h4>Chapter 126: Fighter</h4>

    The F tier arena was rather quiet with very few spectators, but there were many rings.

    Each ring was around the size of a boxing ring, so it was rather cramped as some contestants were wheeled on with machines attached to their bodies.

    Adam made his way inside and inspected his surroundings to find that there was more professional personnel among the spectators than pure spectators. These professional personnel included managers, talent scouts, and other contestants. Everyone was searching for valuable partners and opponents.

    In order to avoid exposing themselves as outsiders, Adam and his friends remainedpletely silent, leaving all of the logistics to Hailey.

    Around 15 minutester, they were approached by a worker who appeared to be a referee.

    "You''re contestant Lean Mean Killing Machine, right?"

    "Huh?" Adam turned to Hailey, who nodded in response.

    "Alright, that''s me I guess."

    "Ok, you can go in for your match now."

    Adam followed the referee to one of the rings, and on the way there, he gave Hailey a reprimanding tap on the forehead. "What the hell is this name?"

    "It''s so badass!" Hailey was a very professional manager, but she was still a young girl at heart, and she was a big fan of shy names like this. "Very contestant needs to register a nickname anyway. If you don''t like it, you can spend money to have it changedter."

    "Forget it, it doesn''t matter anyway."

    Adam jumped onto the ring, and at the same time, an artificial adapter who resembled a skeleton in a sack of skin was wheeled onto the ring by his manager.

    Not much time was wasted on words, and the referee gave a brief introduction of the almost non-existent rules before dering themencement of the match.

    Essentially, the rules were that there were no rules. All one had to do to secure victory was to beat their opponent to the extent that they no longer had the ability to continue fighting. All F tier matches were held in the warehouse setting, and deaths were to avoided if at all possible. Otherwise, a fine would have to be paid. That was the extent of the rules.

    Adam was connected to his opponent''s machine, and before entering the psychic world, the man stared intently into Adam''s eyes as he said in a determined voice, "I''m definitely going to beat you."

    "Try me!"

    In the next instant, Adam arrived in the familiar warehouse setting.

    Immediately thereafter, he invoked Nun before fusing as one with it, and his face instantly turned pitch-ck, while ck smoke began to rise up from his body, making him appear as if he had been possessed by a malicious spirit.

    It''s definitely be a lot more powerful than before...

    Adam swiped his arms through the air, and his fingernails produced a sharp whistling sound as he did so.

    After fusing with Nun, he began to search for his target, but this time, his opponent was very open and aboveboard, calling out to him from the other side of the warehouse.

    "Come out and face me!"

    Oh? He seems very confident.

    Adam was worried that this was a trap, so he snuck over to the spot where the voice hade from, and he discovered that his opponent really was standing on a patch of open space without any cover in the surrounding area, looking as if he wanted to engage Adam in a direct showdown.

    After confirming that this wasn''t a trap, Adam also emerged from his hiding spot while thinking back to the file that he had read on his opponent.

    His file was very concise. Prior to entering this F tier match, he had only participated in two extraneous matches, both of which he had won with ease. The descriptions of his two previous battles were extremely simple and concise, so there was barely any information on him at all.

    However, his bold confidence was rather intriguing to Adam.

    "You''re exposing yourself out in the open without any fear of a sneak attack. It seems like you''re very confident in your own ability to win."

    "Confidence is a part of the power of one''s persona. My confidence brings me strength."

    In the psychic world, Adam''s opponent was presented with the appearance of a poverty-stricken oriental hero with a muscr build, wearing coarse linen garments and a conical hat on his head.

    Unlike Adam''s previous opponents, he didn''t try to taunt or provoke Adam at all. Instead, he asked, "Are you ready?"

    "Ready as ever." Adam was bing more and more interested in his opponent, and he raised his guard as he waited for his opponent to make a move.

    After receiving the go-ahead, Adam''s opponent sprang up into the air, disying an ability simr to qinggong. Despite his muscr build, he was as light as a feather as he sprang up into the air.

    After springing up into the air, Adam''s opponent thrust his palms toward him several times from afar, releasing several bursts of palm pressure. Adam reflexively dodged to evade the attack, then heard a string of resounding booms ring out behind him. He then turned to find that a palm indentation had appeared on the concrete ground.

    "That''s some impressive attacking power!" Adam praised while retaliating with Nun''s specialty ability, Fountain of Contamination.

    He opened his mouth, and a torrent of sewage erupted forth before sweeping toward his opponent from all directions.

    After evolving into a level two demon, Nun''s Fountain of Contamination had finally regained some of its former glory, and it was no longer solely gushing out of just Adam''s mouth.

    In the face of the oing wave of sewage, Adam''s opponent took evasive measures by springing up into the air again.

    His body was as light as a feather, and each time he propelled himself off a container, he was able to spring up several meters, allowing him to avoid the wave of sewage.

    Thus, Adam had no choice but to enter the fray himself, closing in on his opponent and using his sharp ws to cut off all avenues for retreat, thereby making it impossible for his opponent to continue taking evasive measures.

    Having been forced into a corner, Adam''s opponent let loose a loud roar, and golden light erupted from his entire body as a dazzling golden bell emerged around him, shielding him from all of Adam''s oing attacks.

    <i>That''s a very impressive defensive ability! </i>

    Adam''s nails scratched against the golden bell to raise a flurry of sparks, while the wave of sewage also crashed into the golden bell, but it was only able to contaminate part of the bell and failed to break through its defenses.

    Thankfully, this ability seemed to be very taxing to use, and Adam''s opponent was only able to maintain the golden bell for several seconds before withdrawing it due to excessive psychic power exertion, then hurriedlyshed out to knock back Adam and open up some space between them.

    "You''re very strong," Adam praised in an earnest voice. "You''re the most powerful artificial adapter I''ve ever seen."

    "Our neural aptitude is inferior to yours, but there will always be people out there with immense conviction and willpower, so we''re not to be underestimated. Every single artificial adapter is fighting while prepared to die at any moment!" Adam''s opponent took a moment to catch his breath as he spoke, then quickly returned to action. "Keep your guard up! Here Ie!"

    He seemed to have identified that Adam''s sewage attack was going to be very troublesome to deal with, so he chose to engage Adam in close-quartersbat.

    Using his advantage in speed and agility, he evaded two of Adam''s attacks in quick session before engaging him in direct battle.

    Meleebat wasn''t Nun''s forte, but it definitely wasn''t weak in this area, either, and Adam raised his ws to retaliate without any hesitation. Nun''s ws were capable of directly opposing Nie Yiyi''s des, so they were extremely hard. However, his opponent was able to evade all of his w swipes.

    His absolute speed wasn''t all that remarkable, but he was extremely adept at evasion, and he was always able to retaliate while dodging Adam''s attacks, unleashing a diverse range of attacks such as finger strikes, palm strikes, punches, and w swipes.

    Every single one of his attacks was able to strike Adam in a vital region, such as his ribs, throat, and knees, and after just two minutes of meleebat, Adam had already been dealt around a dozen heavy blows. If it weren''t for the fact that he currently possessed the body of a level two anomaly, he would''ve most likely already fainted and been ruled as unfit to continue.

    1. Qinggong is a staple in Chinese fantasy martial arts novels and films, essentially making the practitioner''s body extremely light, thereby allowing them to fly, run over water, etc.

 Chapter 127: Fighter Li

    <h4>Chapter 127: Fighter Li</h4>

    "That guy''s really strong!"

    "How is the first match already this difficult?"

    "He''s about to lose!"

    Outside the ring, everyone was watching the ongoing battle, and they were astonished by how powerful Adam''s opponent was.

    Most of them had witnessed powerful adapters in action in the past. In reality, even in the context of the entire world, adapters like Sadou ranked near the top.

    However, the power disyed by the likes of Sadou and Masao Yamamoto was suffocatingly dominant. In the psychic world, they were formidable one-man armies, and their power was extremely direct and awe-inspiring.

    In contrast, Adam''s opponent was nothing more than a mere antpared with the top adapters in the world, but his technical proficiency was remarkable. No one had ever seen such precise and clinical technique from any adapter of the same level or even of a higher caliber.

    Out of all of Adam''spanions, Nie Yiyi was the most offensively adept fighter, but even she had to concede inferiority in this regard.

    "It feels like every single move that he makes has already been rehearsed thousands upon thousands of times in his head. His movements flow so smoothly and seamlessly that it almost feels choreographed. Every single move he makes just so happens to counter his opponent to perfection, and what makes this even more impressive is that he''s never fought Addy before."

    Addy was the nickname that Adam had been assigned here. In order to avoid being exposed, everyone was using alternative nicknames.

    There are many things that I can learn from him.

    Nie Yiyi was watching the battle with an intense, unblinking gaze. She felt as if she were seeing her ideal path of future progression. In terms of growth in absolute power, she was making fast progress, but nowhere near as fast as Adam, and that was something that she had always felt extremely disgruntled by, but she was also powerless to do anything about it. However, the disy that Adam''s opponent was putting on showed her an alternative path.

    "Is he going to lose?" In contrast with everyone else, Hailey was watching the match with a great deal of concern.

    She was feeling a veryplex mixture of joy and worry.

    She was ecstatic that Adam was disying far more power thanst time, and she finally understood why he was so confident. Given his current level of power, as long as the right opponents were arranged for him, there really was hope for him to qualify for the battle royale.

    However, what she was concerned about was that his opponent seemed to be even more powerful than he was.

    "He''s not going to lose," Shae said in a very calm andposed manner.

    "How are you so sure?"

    "Just keep watching."

    ¡­¡­

    In the psychic world, Adam felt as if he were being suffocated by the ferocious barrage of attacks being directed at him. Whenever he tried to open up some distance between himself and his opponent, his attempts were always thwarted. If things were to continue like this, he was definitely going to lose.

    Having experienced so many close brushes with death, even though Adam''s fighting technique was still rather rough around the edges, he had developed a great deal of mental fortitude, and despite the predicament that he was in, he was able to remain calm and collected as he let loose a shriek that was capable of scattering the mind of the listener.

    Upon falling prey to this ability, Adam''s opponent instantly stiffened, and Adam took advantage of this opportunity to unleash several w strikes in session, slicing through the arteries on his opponent''s neck to cause heavy bleeding.

    After a brief moment of disorientation, Adam''s opponent immediately made a hand seal, and the ancient Chinese character for "peace" appeared on his forehead, instantly restoring rity to his mind. Immediately thereafter, he opened up some distance between himself and Adam, then tapped the acupoints around his neck and shoulder a few times, and the bleeding was instantly stopped.

    After the bleeding ceased, he immediately tried to close down the space between himself and Adam again, but he was surprised to find that Adam was taking the initiative to charge at him.

    "Has he gone insane?" Hailey''s hands balled up into tight fists upon seeing this. "He clearly can''t win in a close-quarters fight! He finally managed to open up some space, he should''ve used that ck water to spray his opponent!"

    "Keep watching. He still has some cards that he hasn''t shown yet."

    In the psychic world, Adam''s opponent found it rather strange that Adam was voluntarily approaching him, but he had absolute confidence in his own abilities, and after a brief hesitation, he charged toward Adam as well.

    A brief momentter, the two of them shed, and the entire scene suddenly fell intoplete darkness.

    "What happened? Has there been a power outage?" The referee immediately began to examine the machine after the image went dark. However, he discovered that the machine was running as normal, and right as he was perplexed about how to proceed, the image flickered back to life.

    At this point, Adam''s opponent had already copsed onto a puddle of his own blood. His limbs were slightly mangled, and his injuries weren''t very severe, but he was clearly unfit to continue.

    Furthermore, Adam''s ws were already resting on his throat, so he was clearlypletely at Adam''s mercy.

    "What are you waiting for? Hurry up and announce the result!"

    Hailey had no idea how Adam had made this stunningeback, but she still immediately urged the referee to announce the oue of the match.

    "Ah, right... The winner is Lean Mean Killing Machine!"

    After announcing the oue of the match, the referee went about disconnecting the machine in a well-rehearsed manner.

    After returning to the real world, Adam made his way over to his opponent, and he couldn''t help but feel a little emotional at the sight of his opponent''s feeble body. In the psychic world, he was such a formidable fighter, yet he was nothing more than an emaciated sack of skin and bones in the real world.

    Adam''s opponent awakened not long after he did, and he said, "There''s no need to look at me like that. I chose this path for myself."

    There was no resentment in his eyes, nor any disappointment from suffering a defeat. Instead, he seemed to be merely curious. "How did you defeat me at the end? Why do I feel like someone else suddenly appeared behind me?"

    "You''re right, that''s exactly what happened, but I''m afraid I can''t reveal anything more than that."

    "Alright, Ipletely understand, seeing as you still have to deal with your uing matches. I hope we''ll meet again in the future. This was a spectacr match, and it taught me many things. In the future, I have to be more alert to unexpected tactics from my opponents. Thank you."

    "Likewise, I should also thank you."

    As soon as Adam stepped out of the ring, he immediately felt something tighten around the back of his neck, and before he knew it, Hailey was already hanging off him like a sloth.

    "You did it! You won your first match!"

    "Can you get off me?"

    "Alright, fine." Hailey released Adam''s neck, but her excitement hadn''t waned in the slightest. "This is my first official victory as a manager, and it was against such a powerful opponent. How many more trump cards do you have up your sleeve, Mr. Lean Mean Killing Machine? Also, how did you beat him at the end there?"

    "I can''t tell you for now. When can you arrange the next match? Make it as soon as possible?"

    "I can arrange it today! It''s still only morning right now. Let me go check if there are any matches avable. It''s pretty easy to find F tier opponents."

    Hailey quickly skipped away in an ted manner, following which Adam was approached by Nie Yiyi.

    "Did you use your invoked entity?" she asked in a voice that was audible only to the two of them.

    "I did. I used my Lights Out ability plus my anomaly of distortion. His absolute power wasn''t superior to mine, so there was no way that he could''ve held his own against two anomalies at once."

    "Not necessarily. That kind of sneak attack will only work once. I''m sure he''ll have countermeasures prepared next time you face him."

    Nie Yiyi had a very high opinion of this technically polished fighter, and she even took the initiative to approach him for a chat, seemingly to exchange insights and experiences from fighter to fighter.

    Watching them from afar, Adam could see that they were immediately hitting it off, and in the end, they even exchanged contact details.

    Adam also rated his opponent very highly, and he picked up his file agin before taking a look so that he could remember his name.

    "Fighter Li!"

 Chapter 128: Gentle

    <h4>Chapter 128: Gentle</h4>

    As the lowest level ofpetition, there were many new contestants entering F tier matches. The overall skill level was very uneven, but the ceiling wasn''t very high, and encountering an opponent of Fighter Li''s caliber was very much a low-probability event.

    After winning his first match, Adam was quickly arranged a second match by Hailey. This time, his opponent was very weak, around the same level as thebatants typically seen in the extraneous matches. His psychic body was a very ordinary muscr man, and aside from possessing more strength than the average person, it had no other abilities.

    An opponent of this caliber wasn''t evenparable to the average psychic aberration, so Adam was able to conclude the fight in just two seconds, and that concluded the first day of matches for him.

    During the next few days, Adam continued to participate in matches, and due to the consecutive victories that he was able to score, he was quickly promoted to the E tier, then promoted once again to the D tier.

    At this level, Adam could clearly sense that the quality of his opponents was bing far more consistent.

    Most of the contestants who managed to reach the D tier possessed powersparable to level one anomalies, and due to the fact that the vast majority of them were artificial adapters, they employed a diverse range of tactics in battle, making Adam''s matches far more technical in nature.

    For example, the opponent that he had faced earlier in the day was an illusion conjurer who was capable of making any object reflective in order to disrupt his opponent''s senses.

    During the early stages of his battle against Adam, he didn''t unleash any offensive abilities. Instead, he used his signature ability to clean up the entire warehouse so that all of the containers became reflective, and the ground was also polished to a mirror finish. Even the metal ceiling up above was reflecting everything down below.

    As a result, there were reflections everywhere, and as a result, Adam waspletely unable to discern where his opponent was. The attacks wereing from all directions, but out of the countless attacks, only one was real, and Adam found himself constantly being struck.

    Thankfully, his opponent wasn''t very powerful. Otherwise, there was a very good chance that Adam would''ve lost that match. Even though he had been honing his telegnosis this entire time, it had always been one of his weakest suits, so the only way that he couldbat an illusion conjurer opponent was through the use of brute force.

    He made repeated use of his Fountain of Contamination, throwing up gushing waves of sewage that polluted everything around him.

    His opponent''s attacks weren''t very effective against him, but even the slightest contact with his sewage was too much for his opponent to bear. There was simply an insurmountable gap in power between them.

    As the sewage flowed through the warehouse, all of the pristine containers were polluted and corroded. Adam didn''t know where his opponent was, so all he could do was release his Fountain of Contamination randomly in all directions. Before long, an agonized scream rang out, and he knew that the match was over.

    Sure enough, by the time Adam tracked down his opponent, they were alreadypletely unfit to continue,ying beside a puddle of sewage in an extremely feeble state with rotten ulcers all over their body.

    At this point, the referee immediately announced the conclusion of the match.

    "Lean Mean Killing Machine! Lean Mean Killing Machine!"

    Upon emerging from the psychic world, Adam was immediately greeted by the sound of enthusiastic cheering from the spectators.

    Spectators were already beginning to show up for D tier matches, and the match venue had also be a lot more official, with rings that were surrounded by spectators.

    Due to Adam''s spotless record and his special identity as an adapter, he was already umting a group of fans.

    These people were avid fans of both psychicbat and gambling, and there was one thing that gamblers really liked to do, which was to find a dark horse and support them for mary gain in the form of winning bets.

    Adam was someone who could earn them money, so they naturally weren''t going to be stingy with their cheers and apuse.

    "Lean Mean Killing Machine is a total badass! The name''s a little stupid though..."

    .

    "No, it''s not! All top-level professionals have names like this! Death Tornado, Terror Bulldozer... Those are both names of S tierbatants!"

    "I reckon he''s going to get promoted again soon. They clearly can''t find any good matches for him in the D tier!"

    "I hope he gets promoted soon. The odds for D tier matches are very low, so there''s not much money to be earned."

    Adam made his way down from the ring amid a chorus of cheering and spirited discussion. This time, only Nie Yiyi and Shae were waiting for him.

    Nie Yiyi was already itching to register two days ago, and now that she could see that the quality of Adam''s opponents was only improving as he moved up the ranks, she was even more eager to join in on the action. "Screw it, I don''t think there''s any danger. The northern and southern congresses are still duking it out, and the news stories are all focused on them. No one''s going to notice small fry like us. I want to register!"

    "My advice is to wait and see for now. I can''t shake the feeling that there are hitmen from the Oni Organization here in this city."

    "I don''t want to wait. The people you saw may not necessarily be the people that you think they are."

    While Nie Yiyi was speaking, Hailey suddenly rushed in from outside.

    She wasn''t even present to watch Adam''s match, so she had to have made a more important discovery.

    "F... tier... Strong... Really strong..." Hailey was sweating profusely, and she was panting so heavily that she couldn''t even string together an intelligible sentence.

    "I don''t know what you''re saying. Take a moment to catch your breath first."

    "There are... really, really strongbatants... F tier match..."

    "Are you saying that a really strongbatant has appeared in the F tier?"

    "That''s right. He only just popped up yesterday, and he had a match scheduled for today, so I went to take a look," Hailey replied. "He was incredibly strong! I''d say he can easily im a spot in the S tier."

    Adam had full trust in Hailey''s professional judgment. She was quite young, but her ability to rate and ssifybatants was immacte.

    The first time that Hailey had seen him in action, she told him that he wouldn''t be able to qualify for the battle royale. After that, she told him that he would be able to just barely scrape his way into the event, but the process was going to be very arduous, and he would have to choose the right opponents. Her assessment had always been very reasonable and level-headed.

    Having watched just a single F tier match, she was already convinced that he was strong enough to rank alongside S tierbatants, so he definitely had to be extremely formidable.

    A thought urred to Adam upon hearing this.

    "Let''s go take a look."

    After emerging from the venue for D tier matches, they made their way around the stadium to the F tier venue.

    There weren''t supposed to be any spectators here, but it seemed that there was already some hype building for thebatant that Hailey had mentioned, as evidenced by the small crowd of spectators that had gathered here.

    Adam squeezed his way through the crowd of spectators, and sure enough, the sight that he was greeted by was one that he had expected to see.

    In the ring was a muscr middle-aged man who had a very old and wizened appearance, and as soon as he stepped down from the ring, he was reced by a woman with a paleplexion and a fox mask on her face.

    That same sense of familiarity welled up in Adam''s heart again, and the woman''s intuition was even sharper.

    She immediately turned to Adam from afar, picking him out with her gaze among the crowd, and Adam was struck by a tremendous sense of difort as their eyes met.

    Powerful adapters possessed powerful personas, and due to the massive disparity in the power of their personas, their auras werepletely different. At this moment, Adam felt like a kindergartener being scrutinized by an authoritative teacher. He couldn''t articte exactly what was wrong, but he felt extremely ufortable all-over.

    "I recognize you, kid!" The woman spoke to Adam from afar, and surprisingly, her voice was very gentle and alluring. "The differences between us will be settled sooner orter."

    After that, she turned and connected herself to her opponent.

    What''s going on? Why didn''t she attack us? If she''s here, there''s a good chance that Oni no Hanzou is also here, and if they strike now, we''re dead for sure!

    Adam, Shae, and Nie Yiyi were all quite perplexed.

    One had to realize that the Oni Organization was an organization of professional hitmen. In the civilized world, even Mechguard was powerless to do anything about them, and they were even colluding with the southern congress.

    The organization always acted virtually without any fear of repercussions, and given the way that they conducted themselves, it only made sense for them to kill Adam and his friends on the spot.

    Regardless of why they were here, it certainly couldn''t hurt their objective to get rid of a few pesky enemies who could potentially get in their way at some point.

    Why are they suddenly so subdued? What could they have gone through?

    Adam was very curious, and at the same time, the match in the ringmenced.

 Chapter 129: Broken Parts

    <h4>Chapter 129: Broken Parts</h4>

    "What do we do? Do we get away while we still can or stay to watch her match?"

    At this point, both Shae and Nie Yiyi had already realized who the woman was, and they were deliberating about how to proceed.

    As for Adam, seeing as they had already beenpletely exposed, he became remarkably calm.

    "She hasn''t attacked us right away, so that means that she has no ns to touch us for now. There''s no way that an F tier match is enough to stall her, so there have to be other reasons for this."

    Adam was very curious about what Oni no Miko and the others had endured. Meanwhile, the match had already begun.

    After entering the psychic world, Oni no Miko still had the same appearance, dressed in a witch robe with a mask on her face. However, what was different from thest time that Adam had seen her was that there was something on her back.

    It was a chaotic, inky-ck object that resembled a twisted dark cloud with lightning shing within it.

    What is that thing? It follows her everywhere she goes like a curse. She didn''t have that thing on herst time, how did it get there?

    While Adam was pondering these questions, Oni no Miko sprang into action, quickly tracking down her opponent before taking care of him in the blink of an eye.

    Her opponent''s psychic body was only the most standard muscr man that waspletely befitting of the F tier. Pitted against one of the top assassins in the world, it was no surprise that the match had concluded in such a brief and anticlimactic fashion.

    However, the speed at which Oni no Miko had ended the match had left asting impact on all of the spectators, and even the non-professional personnel present could tell that she was extremely powerful.

    In contrast with everyone else, Adam''s attention was focused on that twisted dark cloud on Oni no Miko''s back. He theorized that the significant change in her personality was very much rted to that cloud on her back.

    "Hailey, you mentioned that there was another really powerfulbatant participating in F tier matches, right? Did they also have a cloud like that on their back?"

    "He did. His one looks exactly the same as hers."

    "Do you know what that thing is?"

    "Isn''t that one of their abilities?" Hailey was rather perplexed. "I thought it was something that came with belonging to a certain faction."

    "I see..."

    Hailey clearly had no idea what these clouds were, so Adam didn''t ask any further questions.

    At this point, the match had already concluded, and Oni no Miko soon opened her eyes.

    However, to Adam''s surprise, after her awakening, she promptly left the ring and departed with herpanion. During that time, she only took a single nce at Adam''s group, and she didn''t say or do anything aside from that.

    "What''s going on with them?"

    "I don''t know. This is definitely not their style."

    Adam hade into contact with the Oni Organization more than Shae and Nie Yiyi had, and he could still clearly recall his first encounter with Oni no Hanzou. At the time, Oni no Hanzou hadn''t even uttered a single word before invading Adam''s psychic world to try and put an end to his life. Direct and unapologetic brutality had always been the Oni Organization''s signature style.

    "I feel like they''ve been restricted somehow."

    "By who?"

    "Who else could possibly restrict them in this city?"

    "Do you know those two?"

    Hailey was very curious about Adam''s past, but she didn''t dare to pry too much into his private affairs. However, she simply couldn''t help herself now.

    It was incredible to her that these two ultra-powerfulbatants, the likes of which hadn''t been seen in years, were acquaintances of the mysterious Mr. Hitman.

    "Yes. They are our enemies."

    Adam replied with a very obvious statement, then briefly inspected the crowd in the venue before departing.

    "What do we do now?" After arriving on a clearing outside the stadium, Adam convinced Hailey to leave after a great deal of persuasion, then turned to Shae and Nie Yiyi. "Not only have those two arrived in this city, they''re participating in these psychicbat matches as well. I don''t think I need to tell you just how suspicious that is. They''ve most likely learned the footage has ended up in this city, so we..."

    .

    "Not necessarily. At the very least, I don''t think they can be sure," Nie Yiyi interjected. "To be honest, even we aren''t sure whether the footage is in this city or not. The only evidence that we have to support this notion is your personal opinion and some circumstantial evidence from the surveince footage in Sandrise City. If they knew for sure that the footage was here, then they would''ve definitely sent more people. The footage is a pivotal weapon that can have a decisive impact on the tug of war between the northern and southern congresses, so there''s no way that they would''ve sent so few people after it."

    "I agree," Shae chimed in with a nod. Her short temper had slowly begun to give way to a calmer demeanor ofte. "The loss of the footage was already very suspicious to begin with. If they really knew exactly where the footage is at all times, then they wouldn''t have lost it in the first ce. Perhaps they also developed the same theory as us after seeing the surveince footage. On top of that, the fact that they''re fighting in these matches indicates that they have no idea where the footage is. They''re most likely trying to secure the assistance of the director by winning the battle royale to help them track down the footage."

    "Exactly. There''s no other reason why hitmen from the Oni Organization would participate in these matches."

    "You''re both correct." After taking a moment to contemte what Nie Yiyi and Shae had just said, Adam decided that their analysis was very logically sound. "In any case, what do we do now? I don''t think we''ll be able to beat them in the battle royale."

    "We can try and target them through some alternative means," Nie Yiyi said as a devious gleam appeared in her eyes.

    "You mean..."

    "Why don''t we give them a taste of their own medicine and assassinate them?"

    ¡­¡­

    Of course, Nie Yiyi wasn''t referring to a psychic assassination. They were simply far outmatched by the Oni Organization''s hitmen in the psychic world.

    Instead, she was referring to an old-fashioned physical assassination.

    During the past few days, Adam had found out that the Green Gang had deep-rooted forces and influence in this city. Even though they mainly specialized in running convenience stores and trading intelligence, that certainly didn''t mean that they were apletely toothless organization that posed no threat to anyone.

    In order to survive in Shadow City, an organization had to have some special tricks up its sleeve.

    The only concern that everyone had was that they didn''t know how effective a physical assassination was going to be on top-tier adapters.

    "All of them will undoubtedly possess exceptional telegnosis, but we still have to give it a try!"

    They couldn''t afford to back down here. If they couldn''t find the footage, then they were going to have to spend the rest of their lives as sewer rats in this godforsaken city.

    Of course, the chances of a physical assassination seeding were quite low, so Adam had other ns prepared.

    First and foremost, the most important thing was to continue to be more powerful. Recently, his luck had been quite terrible. He had identified many potential targets, but none of them had been useful to him. For this purpose, Adam had already asked Nie Yiyi to recruit the help of the Green Gang.

    Secondly, they had to find more help.

    If their assassination n failed, then they would have to face the Oni Organization''s hitmen in the battle royale, and their best chances of sess would be to recruit powerful allies of their own.

    Both the northern congress and the pawn shop had extremely powerful adapters among their ranks, but after returning to Baldie Lin''s shop, Adam and the others had sought out assistance from many sides to no avail.

    The pawn shop''s decision was understandable. It was a legitimate business, and the people calling the shots had already taken a huge risk asking Baldie Lin to bring a group of highly wanted fugitives to Shadow City.

    However, the northern congress had also directly refused to provide them with assistance, much to Adam''s chagrin and befuddlement.

    "This is the key to turning the tables, so why are they refusing to send people to help us?"

    Adam was very perplexed after receiving this response. In his mind, he was certain that the resistance army would''ve been willing to send strong reinforcements.

    "Politicians value stability above all else, and that often requires severing ties with all sources of instability and unpredictability." Baldie Lin was helping Adam and his group contact the outside world, and he set down hismunicator as a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "The northern congress is like a massive machine. If a single part negatively impacts the operation of the entire machine, then the best solution would be to take off that part. At the very least, that would effectively minimize losses. When buildingrge-scale machines, risk has to be avoided at all costs. You say you know where the footage is, but how likely is it that you''re right? And even if you are, what are the chances that your n will seed? All you can provide is a set of circumstantial evidence."

    "The footage could be lost, or perhaps it''s not lost at all. Even if it is lost, it could''ve ended up somewhere entirely different. Even by my most generous estimates, the probability that the footage has ended up in Shadow City is only 30%, and even if the footage has ended up here at some point, who''s to say it hasn''t been transferred away?

    ¡°This is the most dangerous and unpredictable ce in all of Sandrise City, why would the footage be kept here by whoever''s taken it? There are far too many unanswered questions. Who was controlling that mechanical bee? What is their objective for taking the footage? Could this be a trap that was intentionally set by the southern congress?

    "Even if it isn''t a trap, we''re dealing with someone that was able to steal something so important from right under the Oni Organization''s nose. What powers are this person affiliated with? Is it someone we can afford to mess with? Alternatively, what will we need to give them in exchange for the footage?

    ¡°All in all, I''d say the probability that the footage is still here is less than 10%, and the chances of finding it are less than 5%. If the northern congress goes all-in and sends reinforcements, their opposition will also get involved. Rather than rely on what could well be nothing more than false hope, it would be much better to simply remove the broken part."

    Baldie Lin was spinning political maneuvers into a mechanical analogy, and his analysis was extremely sound. "Shi Feng has already publicly cut all ties with you, and when necessary, the northern congress will also cut ties with him. Right now, you''re like pieces of stinky trash that no one wants to touch. On top of that, the southern congress must be keeping a close eye on you right now, so if the northern congress is caught contacting you, the consequences will be catastrophic."

    "I see. Right now, the only ones we can rely on are ourselves!"

    After seeing through these political factors, Adam immediately gave up any unrealistic hopes of receiving external assistance.

 Chapter 130: 18th Level of Hell

    <h4>Chapter 130: 18th Level of Hell</h4>

    That night.

    A group of people were walking along a dim street in Shadow City.

    These people were all wearing masks and dark robes, seemingly already ustomed to concealing themselves from others.

    They seemed to be walking quite slowly, but in reality, they were moving very quickly, but as soon as they arrived at a certain corner, the two people at the forefront of the group suddenly stopped in their tracks.

    "What''s wrong, Sir?"

    The four people behind them also immediately stopped.

    "There''s an ambush around the corner. The danger is presenting itself in dot form, so there are most likely snipersying in ambush. Go and take care of them, Ironback Tiger."

    "Yes, Sir!"

    A man at the back of the group removed his gray robe to reveal his mechanical body.

    He was a cyborg, one that had undergone an extremelyprehensive retrofitting process. Even the spine, which was the most difficult body part to rece, had been swapped for a mechanical substitute. In addition to that, his entire body had been retrofitted, including his limbs, his face, his chest, and of course, he had the nickname of "Ironback" Tiger for a reason. His back was the most noteworthy part of his body as it had been fitted with many weapons, making him resemble a humanoid tank with missiles hanging off the sides.

    After receiving that order, Ironback Tiger sprang up into the air before rounding the corner.

    Despite his enormous frame, he was extraordinarily fast. The sound of operating mechanical parts rang out as he covered a distance of over 10 meters with just a single step, taking him to the designated location in a split second.

    At the same time, the sound of gunshots rang out.

    The bullets of the sniper rifle hurtled toward his face with incredible momentum, and he raised a hand to shield himself. The bullets crashed into his arm, creating a flurry of sparks and forcing him back a few steps.

    After steadying himself, Ironback Tiger quickly inspected his surroundings with his electronic eye, locking onto the snipers through thermal imaging. A series of weapons then sprang out of his arm as he fired off a ferocious barrage, and at the same time, grappling hooks sprang out of his back. The jet sters on his legs then sprang into action, propelling him up into the air with the help of the grappling hooks before he crashed through a window at the end of the street.

    A short whileter, he emerged with a pair of lifeless bodies before tossing them onto the street.

    In the civilized world, a pair of bodies tossed onto the street would instantly attract a brigade of Mechguard officers to the scene, but here, it would only take five minutes at most before these bodies were taken by organ harvesters.

    Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko could sense that the crisis had been averted, and they made their way onto the scene.

    "Looks like a pair of Asian faces," Oni no Hanzou mused as he inspected the bodies. "There aren''t many Asians in Shadow City. I have a rough idea of who''s behind this."

    On the previous night, a bomb had been fitted onto their vehicle, and just now, they had been targeted by snipers. In the span of just two days, they had suffered two assassination attempts.

    "Should I go and issue them a warning, Mistress Miko?"

    "Don''t do that. The director has already warned us not to stir up any trouble in Shadow City."

    "But we''re the ones being targeted here!"

    "It doesn''t matter."

    Oni no Miko shook her head as she massaged her own temples. Just the mere thought of what had happened the previous night was enough to give her a throbbing headache.

    Never had she felt so frustrated before.

    That day, she and Oni no Hanzou had visited Shadow Castle with full sincerity, but they were treated to the most horrific sight that she had ever seen, even for an assassin of her caliber. It was the castle''s torture chamber.

    Oni no Hanzou had visited human farms in the past and witnessed the nk te production process. That process was gorey and inhumane, but at least it granted a swift death.

    The infants that were killed were done so in a rtively painless manner, and their lives came to an end before they had even begun.

    However, the sounds of screams were constantly echoing throughout Shadow Castle as subjects were tormented in all types of ways, both physically and psychologically.

    It was like the 18th level of hell.

    ording to eastern mythology, hell had 18 levels.

    If a person hadmitted bad deeds during their lifetime, they would be sent to hell, and each of the 18 levels of hell were designated for people who hadmitted different sins.

    For example, those who liked to gossip and spread rumors and untruths were sent to the tongue-pulling hell, where they endured the torment of having their tongues pulled out. The most diabolical thing about this torture method was that the tongue wasn''t immediately pulled out. Instead, the demons of hell pulled out the tongues of the sinner by one centimeter per day using pliers, and the tongues were infinitely elongated for never-ending pain.

    There was also the bronze pir hell, where arsonists and those who destroyed evidence were sent to.

    In the bronze pir hell, sinners were tied to massive hollow bronze pirs using chains so that they were forced to embrace the pir, following which fiery coals were poured into the pir. Eventually, the pir would burn red hot, subjecting the sinner to infinite burning pain.

    The most terrifying thing about the 18 levels of hell wasn''t all of the different types of torture. Instead, it was the immortality of the sinners, which ensured that there would be no end to their punishment. Before they atoned for their sins, they were going to spend their entire existence in constant agony and torment.

    Shadow Castle was like the embodiment of such a hell, but there were far more torture methods implemented than in the 18 levels of hell. The enforcers didn''t want their subjects to die as they wanted to harness their pain as a type of power for producing anomalies.

    Oni no Miko was a ruthless assassin who had killed countless people in her lifetime. In addition to that, as a top-tier adapter, she possessed a powerful persona, so it was very difficult for her to be traumatized, but that day in Shadow Castle, she felt more than a little ufortable.

    What happened after that was even more inexplicable to her. In the instant that they met the director, both she and Oni no Hanzou had cyberhexes ced upon them. She didn''t even know how the cyberhexes had been cast onto them, and no matter what they did, the cyberhexes refused to be removed.

    Not even Oni-faced Dragon was capable of something like this, and right when she was at the height of her fear, thinking that they were going to be killed, they were greeted by a man who appeared to be an elegant and refined schr, who told them that he didn''t like to kill. Everything that had taken ce in Shadow Castle that night had felt like a fever dream to her, and after leaving the castle, the only thing that she could remember was that she couldn''t cause trouble in Shadow City.

    "That''s right, we can''t stir up any trouble," Oni no Hanzou chimed in. "After we finish what we''re here to do, we''ll leave this ce right away. In any case, these amateur assassins don''t pose any threat to us anyway."

    With that, the group of six departed from the filthy alley.

    The next day, Adam went to the F tier venue after finishing his match, and there, he saw Nie Yiyi.

    After that encounter with Oni no Miko, Nie Yiyi figured that she had nothing to lose, so she had begun participating in matches as well.

    In her mind, if the Oni Organization''s hitmen wanted to kill them, then they would''ve done so already. She had always been extremely keen to capitalize on this opportunity to hone her fighting skills, and now that her identity had been exposed, she no longer had any qualms. Thus, she was unable to suppress her yearning for battle any further, and she approached Hailey to be her manager.

    Given Nie Yiyi''s abilities, she was naturally able to secure victory easily in these F tier matches.

    After leaving the ring, she made her way over to Adam, then reluctantly said, "The Green Gang has already picked out two suitable candidates for you. I''ll take you to see themter. Also, we''ve already attempted three assassinations, and not only have they all failed, we''ve lost quite a few people as well. The gang is afraid that our targets will retaliate, so they''ve called off all further assassinations."

 Chapter 131: Clan

    <h4>Chapter 131: n</h4>

    "I have no idea why these people from the Oni Organization are being so docile. After the failed assassinations, the gang was about to transfer this branch to another location, but our sources show that they haven''t disyed any intention of retaliating. Anyway, let''s go. I''ll take you to see if the targets we''ve found are suitable."

    On the way back, Nie Yiyi was a lot more talkative than usual, and it was very clear that this was the only time she had been in a good mood in Shadow City. Even her footsteps had be a lot lighter and more spritely, and it seemed that fighting had done her a world of good.

    As long as she was permitted to fight and improve, she was as happy as happy could be.

    "Aren''t you going to participate in the matches, Shae?"

    "I''ll pass. I can''t do anything on my own," Shae replied with a depressed expression. "I also really want to be more powerful, but without Adam, I probably can''t even beat a D tier opponent."

    Prior to getting swept up in this mess, Shae had only been a normal student, and a junior student, at that. She could beat up the likes of Hook with no problems, but she definitely didn''t have the marbles topete in these matches.

    "Have it your way. You''ve got a real-life hack to use anyway."

    Nie Yiyi rolled her eyes at Adam as she spoken, then sped up slightly with a displeased look on her face.

    A short whileter, the three of them arrived in front of an Asian supermarket.

    They made their way around the supermarket to the back entrance, and after having their identities verified, they were brought into a teahouse.

    As it turned out, there was a two-story oriental teahouse at the back of the supermarket, and all of the tables, chairs, benches, and teaware were quite antiquated in appearance.

    There were some young guards inside the building, but mostly, it was just old men drinking tea.

    All of the old men were of oriental descent, dressed in Tang suits that gave them a clean and dashing appearance.

    As soon as Nie Yiyi and the others arrived, an old man holding a pair of jade baoding balls rose to his feet. He habitually wore a fake smile on his face, and he gave Nie Yiyi a nod before turning to Adam and Shae.

    "You two must be Yiyi''s friends. Come in and have some tea. Young people like yourselves probably won''t like your tea too concentrated and bitter. Here, give this a taste."

    Sitting down in front of the tea table, the old man brewed a light cut of tea in a very elegant and well-rehearsed fashion. Adam picked up a cup of tea before taking a sip, and a refreshing fragrance immediately wafted into his nostrils.

    "I''ve already heard about your situation from Yiyi. Normally, we don''t get involved in things that are so dangerous. We''re just a gang that runs supermarkets, we can''t afford to mess with the southern congress or the Oni Organization."

    The old man was rotating the pair of baoding balls in his hand as he spoke, causing them to tter together audibly. "However, our Green Gang was only able to exist for the past few centuries on the merit of the n system. All those who join our gang are considered to be family to us.

    ¡°If we turn our back on that connection, then there would be no need for the Green Gang to continue to exist. Hence, we won''t weigh up the pros and cons in everything we do like those cold-blooded politicians, nor will we pursue profit above all else like those businesspeople. Sometimes, we choose to dabble in some things, even if a loss is guaranteed, such as right now."

    "I understand. Thank you." Having experienced so much, Adam was no longer the nk te who didn''t know anything about how this world worked, and he knew what the old man was trying to say. "If we can weather this storm, we''ll be sure to do everything in our power to help Yiyi if anything happens to her in the future."

    Nie Yiyi represented the Green Gang, so by extension, Adam was essentially making this promise to the entire organization.

    "You enjoy your tea, I''ll go fetch the targets for you. Jiang Junior, bring them here." The old man called out in a powerful voice, and a response immediately rang out from the second floor.

    A short whileter, a cyborg with mechanical parts retrofitted all over his body emerged from a booth on the second floor with two people, then hoisted them over to Adam.

    At the moment, both of them were unconscious, and one of them was a portly man with greasy hair, and his entire body was giving off a foul stench, while the other one was far thinner in build with a paleplexion.

    "Yiyi told me that you''re looking for people with mental problems to simte fights against artificial anomalies. However, people with mental health problems are very difficult to find in Shadow City."

    "Is it because this ce is too chaotic?"

    Adam thought back to the psychic world of the straggler that he had invaded a few days ago. The man appeared to be quite aggressive and deranged on the outside, but his mental health was immacte.

    "I''m not quite sure what you''re referring to." It was clear that Adam and the old man were talking about entirely different things. "All of the people in Shadow City with mental health problems are taken by the director to serve as hosts for artificial anomalies. Only hosts who had mental problems to begin with can give rise to the most powerful artificial anomalies, and the director seems to possess a special ability that allows him to sense those people."

    "How does he do that?"

    Adam was very curious about this mysterious director.

    "Who knows? We know very little about him." The Green Gang was one of thergest intelligence organizations in the ck market, yet even the people in its Shadow City branch knew very little about the director, and that in itself was already extremely telling. "All we know is that he''s aplete and utter lunatic. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what he''s doing and what he''s pursuing."

    "Why haven''t these two been captured?"

    "That''s because they haven''t been here for very long. The director only scours the city for people with mental problems every once in a while. These two have only been in the city for less than half a year, and ording to our sources, that one over there perpetually stays indoors, barely ever setting foot out of the small room that he''s staying in. From a psychology perspective, there''s generally something wrong with people like him."

    The old man was pointing at the greasy fatso as he spoke.

    "That''s true," Adam replied with a nod. "What about the other one?"

    "That guy''s demented serial killer. Back in Sandrise City, he kidnapped and imprisoned many young women. However, apparently, one of the women that he was keeping locked up in his underground dungeon managed to escape, and he was worried that he was going to be detained by Mechguard, so he fled to Shadow City.

    ¡°Someone like him is the perfect host for an artificial anomaly. These idiots have no idea what kind of ce Shadow City is. Otherwise, there''s no way they would''ve dared toe here," the old man chuckled. "If I were him, I would rather be captured by Mechguard thane to a ce like this. Outsiders like them know far too little about this city."

    At the end of the day, a serial killer was still just an average person, so it was very difficult for them to dig up information on a ce like Shadow City.

    "Alright, that''s about all I have to say about them. You can take them away, or we can vacate this room for you, whichever option you prefer. Oh, by the way, all of the information I have on these two were given to me by my subordinates, so I can''t guarantee that the information is 100% urate.

    ¡°However, seeing as you''re all adapters, I''m sure it''s a very simple task for you to verify everything." The old man transferred his baoding balls to his other hand as he spoke, then reached out to offer Adam a handshake. "My name is Liu Fu. Everyone here likes to call me Uncle Fu."

    "My name is Adam, and this is my friend, Shae. I''m fine to go ahead here, Uncle Fu." Adam reached out to shake the old man''s hand, and even though Liu Fu was already at quite an advanced age, his hand was very thick and solid, and he had a stronger grip than Adam despite being several decades his senior.

    "Alright, take them to the neighboring spare room, Jiang Junior. Once Adam and his friends have gone in, no one is permitted to disrupt them."

    "Yes, Uncle Fu."

    The cyborg that had carried the two men out picked them up once again before taking them to the spare room. After setting the two down onto the ground, he didn''t bother to close the door and stationed himself right beside the entrance.

 Chapter 132: Mathematician

    <h4>Chapter 132: Mathematician</h4>

    Adam exchanged a nce with Nie Yiyi and Shae, then entered the room without saying anything.

    After closing the door, Adam turned to his two friends.

    "Which one should we do first?"

    "Let''s go with the fat one."

    Adam invaded the fatso''s consciousness as he spoke, and he was immediately greeted by an astonishing sight.

    Never had he seen such a strange psychic world. He was standing on a string of numbers, and looking up at all of the symbols drifting across the sky, he had no idea where he was, nor where he was supposed to go.

    Immediately thereafter, Nie Yiyi also arrived in the psychic world, and her reaction was much the same.

    "What is this ce? Why does it seem like we entered a database?"

    "Why did you alsoe in?"

    "I''m here to give you a hand. Don''t try to keep me out of a fight," Nie Yiyi replied as she continued to inspect her surroundings.

    She was standing on a ¡°¦Ð¡± symbol, and there were numbers and symbols all around her, some of which she recognized, while others werepletely unfamiliar to her, but she was able to develop a rough idea of what these symbols were. "These all seem to be mathematical symbols."

    "It looks like it. I can recognize many of them, but I have no idea what they''re supposed to mean when strung together like this."

    "Why does his psychic world look like this?" Even now, Adam was still reeling from what he was seeing. "I''ve only been attending Layton Academy for a short time, so my theoretical knowledge isn''t great. Have you learned about anything like this?"

    "I remember a brief mention of a situation like this in a textbook. There are very few examples of this." Nie Yiyi jumped from the ¡°¦Ð¡± symbol onto an ¡°¦Á¡± symbol, then leaped onto the number "7". "This guy is probably a mathematician, and a really good one, at that. Otherwise, his psychic world wouldn''t look like this."

    "What did the textbook say about this?"

    "It says that when someone excels in a certain field, particrly extremely standout figures in fields like art and mathematics, there are very few material things in their psychic worlds, and they can subsist virtually solely on their psychic worlds."

    "Even so, there should still be substantial psychic modules. You go take a look over there, I''ll go search in that direction."

    "Alright."

    Having devised a strategy, the two of them jumped away in opposite directions.

    Only after jumping over the numbers and symbols for a very long time did Adam catch sight of a cluster of very small psychic modules. He hurriedly jumped out of the mathematical universe, finallynding on something substantial.

    As a safety precaution, Adam immediately invoked Mummy before fusing with it.

    What a tiny module.

    Adam could see that this was a primary school, and after entering the school, he quickly spotted the fatso in a ssroom after a brief search.

    At that point, the fatso wasn''t fat yet, and Adam was only able to identify him purely based on the sense of familiarity that he felt toward the psychic body.

    In this memory, the fatso was in his formative years, and he was arguing with his teacher in the ssroom. There were some basic mathematical equations on the ckboard, but he was telling the teacher that his equations weren''t sufficiently clean and concise. He proimed that there were clearly better substitutions, and that the equations didn''t have to be so long andplicated.

    Of course, his criticisms were only met with ridicule from his ssmates and exasperation from his teacher.

    "This equation has already been used for over a century, and it was developed by mathematicians. It''s a good thing to have critical thinking skills as a student, but blindly questioning and disputing things will only make the learning process more difficult for you. At the same time, you also run the risk of bing overly cynical."

    Thankfully, the teacher was quite lenient, and he only offered the fatso some constructive advice rather than stern criticism.

    However, it was clear that the fatso felt very ufortable after returning to his seat. He looked at the students around him and the teacher standing at the front of the ssroom, and his eyes werepletely dazed and confused.

    Slowly, those students and teachers began to mutate into aberrations.

    These aberrations didn''t possess any offensive tendencies, and they certainly weren''t going to evolve into anomalies. In fact, they belonged to the weakest ss of emotional aberration. However, they released a type of disturbance that made the fatso appear even more ostracized, misunderstood, and confused.

    That''s probably one of the reasons why you''re so reclusive and averse to social interaction.

    Adam heaved a faint sigh before helping him clear away his emotional baggage.

    I wanted to find a psycho, but I ended up finding a genius!

    After leaving the psychic module, Adam searched through the man''s psychic world for a while longer, but ultimately didn''t find anything worthy of note.

    After that, he traveled to another psychic module, where he was reunited with Nie Yiyi.

    "How are things going on your end?"

    "I haven''t found anything. He seems to be rtively healthy, just a little reclusive. This guy''s a genius, but he has a set of stupid and stubborn parents. His family was rather underprivileged, and his parents and siblings didn''t understand him. They felt like he was a bit of a nutcase. Have you found anything on your end?"

    "No. I went to his primary school first, and I saw some childhood trauma there, but it was all pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. After that, I found out the reason why he came here. Through his mathematic calction, he seemed to have developed a way to make certain Metaverse engines release more data. As a result, he became targeted by some powerful people, so he fled to this ce."

    "The situation on my end is pretty much the same. This guy barely has any substantial psychic modules. All of his thoughts are in the form of numbers and mathematical symbols. Let''s get out of here, there''s nothing to fight in this psychic world."

    "Sure."

    Thus, Adam and Nie Yiyi departed and returned to the real world.

    "How did it go?"

    "He''s not a psycho, just a genius." Adam gave Shae a brief recount of the fatso''s past, then turned to Nie Yiyi. "What do you n on doing with him?"

    "He''s not a bad person, and our Green Gang isn''t a nefarious organization, so we have no intention of hurting him. In fact, if possible, we can even provide him with some help." Nie Yiyi picked up the fatso as she spoke and prepared to drag him out of the room, only to wince in dismay as she grumbled, "How long has it been since this guyst showered? He stinks! No wonder his entire family hates him."

    "We''ll never understand what''s going on in the mind of a genius."

    Adam gave Nie Yiyi a hand, and the two of them carried the fatso out of the room.

    After Nie Yiyi had given everyone outside a brief rundown of the fatso''s past, they returned to the room and turned to the other subject.

    Hopefully this is not another wasted trip.

    He had already worked with Red Turtle and Crocodile quite a few times, but most of the people that they had brought to him were unsuitable for his needs. The poption of Shadow City was far smaller than that of Sandrise City, and with the director periodically scouring the city for mentally ill individuals, as well as the mental health benefits provided by the chaotic nature of the city, it was very difficult for Adam to find a suitable subject.

    ording to gamblers'' logic, surely all of my bad luck must''ve already run out with all those failures. I''m sure this one will be a suitable subject.

    Adam took a deep breath before invading the second subject''s psychic world.

    As soon as he arrived in the man''s psychic world, he immediately knew that something was wrong.

    Everything around him was extremely dark and sticky, and the air was as viscous as glue, while the ground beneath his feet resembled a swamp.

    The environment of this psychic world alone was already extremely terrifying, and Adam had only seen two psychic worlds with such noticeably oppressive environments.

    One of those psychic worlds was Li Qi''s, but even though his psychic world was filled with darkness, there were still some glimmers of light. Most importantly, it seemed that his psychic world wasn''t that terrifying during the day, and it was only extremely forbidding at night.

    The other psychic world belonged to Deranged Pig''s daughter, Kim Garcia. The overall environment in her psychic world was even darker and more oppressive than Li Qi''s and most importantly, that environment remained constant regardless of whether it was daytime or nighttime.

    Li Qi had a level three anomaly residing in his psychic world, while Kim had been gued by an even more powerful anomaly, yet here in this psychic world...

    "It feels even worse in here than it did in Kim Garcia''s psychic world," Adam said as he inspected his surroundings. "If there''s an anomaly in this environment, I don''t think we''ll be able to beat it."

 Chapter 133: Beer Bar

    <h4>Chapter 133: Beer Bar</h4>

    With Adam''s current wealth of experience, he was able to roughly gauge the power of an emotional anomaly based on the environment of the psychic world that they resided in.

    "If there''s an anomaly in here, it would have to at least be at the same level as the scarecrow that we encountered the first time we worked together. An anomaly of that caliber is way too dangerous for us to deal with."

    "Don''t you want to at least give it a try?" Nie Yiyi''spetitive nature wasing to the fore once again. "To be honest, I agree with your assessment. I''m always very keen to test myself against powerful opponents, but under normal circumstances, I definitely wouldn''t take such a massive risk.

    ¡°Anomalies of this caliber are way too powerful, and we have no information on this one. If it''s an anomaly that excels in sneak attacks, we could be killed in one hit before we even realize what''s happening."

    "Indeed. I recall that the nun anomaly was extremely adept in making use of sneak attacks. One of the adapters in the team that tried to treat Li Qi before us was killed. However, I know what you''re going to say next." Adam crouched down before cing his hand against the sticky ground to find that the liquid on its surface had a disgusting texture that resembled thick phlegm. "The situation that we''re in is about as bad as it gets, and we don''t have much time left, so we can''t afford to pass up any opportunity."

    The battle royale was fast approaching, and perhaps they could''ve previously been able to secure victory as long as they had some luck on their side, but with the arrival of the Oni Organization, no amount of luck was going to save them.

    They were going to have to face Oni no Miko, Oni no Hanzou, and the helpers that this formidable duo had brought with them, and their chances of securing victory were next to zero.

    "You are the one who has developed the fast among all of us. I''ve witnessed your growth firsthand, and if we have hope at all of securing victory, that hope can only lie with you. Sometimes, it''s necessary to take risks."

    "I understand." Adam had also made up his mind. "This first trip will primarily be for scouting purposes. If we encounter any danger, then we have to get out of here right away. The biggest difference between normal people and adapters is that normal people can''t set up psychic barricades, so if we want to leave, we can do so at any time."

    Nie Yiyi nodded in response.

    After arriving at a decision, the two of them began to conduct a search.

    This time, they didn''t have Hook as a guide, nor was there anyone on the outside that could sever the connection for them at any moment, so they were very careful and cautious in their approach.

    Adam invoked and fused with Mummy, while also releasing Hellhound to observe their surroundings. After searching through the area, they discovered that this didn''t seem to be anywhere in Sandrise City. In fact, it didn''t even appear to be in the same country.

    The nearby buildings appeared quite old and dpidated, as if they were from several decades ago, and there was also a ringck of all types of automatons. The lights of the advertisement signs shing in the distance made them feel as if they had returned to 2020.

    "What is this ce?" Adam picked up a flyer that was stuck to the ground. The flyer carried text of two differentnguages. Aside from the generguage, there was also a type of very unfamiliar text. "Looks like this is a very remote ce."

    "That''s not important."

    Nie Yiyi emerged from the sticky wilderness onto a road.

    On the side of the road was a beer bar that was lit inside, and shadows of humanoid figures were being cast against the light.

    In addition to the beer bar, there also seemed to be a vige in the distance.

    "There are people in there."

    "Yes, but they''re moving around in a very strange and chaotic way. I have the better defenses, so I''ll go in and take a look first. You stay out here and prepare to back me up if required."

    "Alright."

    In this type of psychic environment, neither of them dared to let their guard down. Nie Yiyi drew her des, while Adam instructed Hellhound to stay outside with her. He then also drew his own weapon, and only then did he dare to approach the beer bar.

    The closer he drew to the bear bar, the more he was able to hear the strange sounds ringing out from inside.

    Adam slowly pushed the wooden door of the beer bar open with a loud creaking sound, and he was greeted by a peculiar sight.

    Inside the beer bar was a bunch of strange-looking emotional aberrations with human faces,rge beer bellies, and genitals that were over a meter in length. These aberrations were drinking while urinating and yelling at the top of their lungs in the beer bar.

    "What the fuck are you doing? Don''t just open the door and note in! You''re letting all the cold air in!"

    The aberrations didn''t fear Adam at all. Instead, they began to hurl abuse at him for stalling at the entrance of the beer bar.

    Adam offered no response, and after a moment of contemtion, he entered the beer bar.

    The aberrations paid no heed to him as they continued to drink and urinate, filling the entire beer bar with a foul stench.

    Adam didn''t say anything as he made his way over to an aberration before carefully observing it. The aberration was rather disgruntled by Adam''s intrusive gaze, and it swung a beer mug straight into Adam''s head. This was a very heavy blow, packing more power than the average emotional aberration was capable of mustering up.

    However, Mummy was a level three anomaly that excelled in defense, so the strike from the beer mug didn''t hurt him at all. He retaliated with a punch that struck the aberration in the face, knocking it to the ground while all of the other aberrations cheered in excitement.

    The aberration that was knocked to the ground was feeling thoroughly humiliated by the cheers, and it flew into a blind rage as it mbered up from the ground with a furious roar, then picked up a chair before swinging it violently at Adam. Its movements appeared to be very well-rehearsed, as if it were a professional pub fighter.

    Does this scenee from the host''s memories? It seems that he previously lived in this pub for a long time, and during his stay, he developed a strong sense of resentment toward the rowdy drunkards that frequented the pub.

    After assessing the situation, Adam allowed the wooden chair to be swung into his face, then retaliated with his carving knife, slicing the aberration into two.

    A loud scream rang out alongside the sound of the wooden chair shattering into pieces, and the brief scuffle drew to a conclusion.

    The other aberrations clinked their mugs together and continued to cheer for a while after the aberration''s death, then went back to chatting and drinking.

    This is a very clear scene in the host''s memory, so perhaps I may be able to find him here.

    Adam continued searching, and he found that aside from the patrons of the establishment, there was also a bartender at the front of the pub.

    The bartender''s appearance was different from everyone else''s. Aside from a set of enormous genitalia, it also had a massive frog-like mouth, which seemed to reflect the notion of greed.

    Adam directed his attention toward the bartender just in time to see a patron of the pub finish their drink, then slip the bartender some money. The bartender shed him a smile, then took him to the back of the beer bar.

    Adam followed them and discovered that there was a recreation room at the back of the beer bar, with chess sets and card tables at the front, and a bed in the back.

    After leading the customer into the recreation room, the bartender whistled with his huge frog-like mouth, and a woman emerged from a room even further down the back.

    In the instant that Adam caught sight of the woman, he immediately became more alert and cautious. This woman was an anomaly!

    In contrast with emotional aberrations outside, the woman had a cloud of ck mist that was unique to aberrations drifting around her. Furthermore, her body was more lithe and powerful than the other anomalies, but its appearance was downright nauseating.

    The anomaly had the appearance of a middle-aged woman, but her chest and genitalia were frighteningly massive. After the aberration was brought into the room, he was promptly devoured by the anomaly, following which her abdomen began to squirm in a peristaltic motion, and in the end, she spat out some gold.

    After devouring the aberration, the anomaly turned to Adam before asking, "Do you wanna have a go as well, handsome? It''ll be 100 a pop."

    "I''m good."

    In his current mummified form, Adam was far from handsome, and even though he was turning down the anomaly''s offer, she was already making her way toward him.

    It seemed that a battle was unavoidable.

 Chapter 134: Multiple

    <h4>Chapter 134: Multiple</h4>

    Due to the special nature of the environment here, Adam didn''t dare to let down his guard even in the slightest against this anomaly. After all, in his mind, there was a very good chance that this anomaly was even more powerful than the scarecrow anomaly.

    Hence, his first reaction to the anomaly''s approach was to avoid a direct confrontation.

    Thus, he immediately unleashed his only long-range offensive ability, Vampiric Halo, to temporarily force back the anomaly, then crashed through the wall of the beer bar with his body of steel to flee outside.

    Nie Yiyi hurriedly arrived on the scene after hearing themotion. "What''s going on?"

    "I''ve discovered an anomaly!"

    "How strong is it?"

    "I don''t know for now."

    While Adam was speaking, the anomaly had already rushed out after him. She opened her mouth before releasing a long lizard-like tongue, which swept through the air as it was whipped at Adam.

    Its attack isn''t very fast.

    Theckluster speed of his opponent''s attack left Adam feeling rather perplexed, and he swung his carving knife through the air in a probing attack. To his surprise, he was able to slice the anomaly''s tongue in half with ease.

    Not only is its attack quite slow, its defenses are also very mediocre as well. Why does this anomaly seem so weak?

    Adam was even more perplexed to see this, but he still didn''t dare to growcent and maintained his distance from his opponent.

    Meanwhile, Hellhound and Nie Yiyi also entered the fray.

    "It doesn''t seem to be very strong at all." Nie Yiyi had also noticed that something wasn''t quite right. "Is this a trap?"

    "I don''t know. I''m going in, you stay back and support me."

    Adam was quite confident in his defenses, and in the end, he made up his mind to directly engage the anomaly, charging directly at her with far superior speed beforeshing out with his carving knife.

    To his surprise, his attack was able to inflict severe damage upon the anomaly, causing her body to release a huge volume of sludge like a crushed grape, drenching Adam''s entire body.

    However, the sludge was also entirely harmless, and it seemed to be nothing more than the anomaly''s blood.

    It seems to be really weak, so why is the environment here so oppressive?

    Right as Adam was bing more and more perplexed by the situation, a small child suddenly rushed out of the beer bar.

    The child had a deathly grayplexion, and his eyes werepletely ck without any white sections. All of a sudden, he let loose a loud scream, and Adam was instantly struck by a sense of crippling feebleness. It was as if all of the strength in his body had been sapped away, and he didn''t even have the strength left to raise his carving knife.

    This is an incredibly powerful single-target cyberhex ability!

    Back in the underground parking lot, Adam had previously faced a cyberhex-casting opponent, but that adapter was nowhere near as powerful as this child.

    As the anomaly of pain, Mummy possessed a very high level of resistance to cyberhexes, but even so, he was stillpletely immobilized.

    The female anomaly could see that Adam was in a severely debilitated state, and she dragged her broken body over to him before attempting to stuff him into her private regions.

    Adam had witnessed the female anomaly''s digestive ability, and he knew that even with his physical resistance, he most likely wouldn''t have been able to escape a gruesome fate if he were to be stuffed into her genitalia.

    Thankfully, Nie Yiyi''s attacks arrived in a timely fashion. She shed her des through the air to release two des of wind, one of which severed the female anomaly''s arms, while the other forced back the child anomaly.

    The female anomaly''s injuries were very severe, but she didn''t seem to be able to feel any pain, and she let loose a sharp screech before aiming her severed arms at Nie Yiyi from afar and releasing a torrent of sludge.

    Meanwhile, the child anomaly also cast a cyberhex upon Nie Yiyi at the exact same moment,pletely debilitating her so that she was reduced to a sitting duck that waspletely doused in the wave of sludge.

    The sludge didn''t have any harmful properties, but as the female anomaly uttered a string of cybercode, the sludge began to release a strange aroma. Upon breathing in this scent, Adam''s thoughts instantly became scattered and chaotic, and he was even struck by the urge to attack his allies.

    As the anomaly of pain, Mummy possessed exceptional defenses in all facets, so Adam was able to just barely cling to a shred of sanity. However, the same didn''t apply to Nie Yiyi. As soon as the female anomaly began to utter that string of cybercode, she immediately raised her des to attack Adam, only to be stopped by Hellhound.

    "Carry her to me!"

    Havingpletely lost her sanity, Nie Yiyi was attacking like a deranged drunkard with countless holes in her defense, so Hellhound was able to sink its fangs into her body with ease.

    It immediately followed Adam''s instruction, carrying Nie Yiyi over to him from afar between its jaws. Adam then grabbed onto Nie Yiyi''s arm and left the psychic world by force before the two anomalies could attack them again.

    After opening his eyes, there was still a hint of lingering fear on Adam''s face.

    Those two anomalies were so strange!

    Nie Yiyi also opened her eyes, but they were stillpletely dazed, and she was silent for a long while. Clearly, the chaotic state that her psychic body had been in had extended into the real world.

    She stood up before looking around like someone who had just woken up from a deep sleep, and only after close to 20 seconds had passed did she recall who she was and where she was.

    "What happened in there?" Shae asked in an urgent voice. "Was there an anomaly?"

    "There was. In fact, there was more than one, and both of them were really strong."

    "How strong?"

    "A little weaker than the nun anomaly, but they possess some very strange abilities."

    "Why are there two anomalies in there?"

    "I''m not sure. This is the first time I''ve ever encountered a situation like this as well. However, it''s certainly not impossible to deal with those two anomalies."

    Thinking back, even though the pair of anomalies possessed some troublesome abilities, their speed, and offensive and defensive prowess were all quiteckluster, so if they could sessfully catch them off guard with a sneak attack, Adam was confident that he would be able to kill them in a very short time.

    In terms of pure power, the two anomalies most likely weren''t at the level three standard. Instead, they were only a pair of top-tier level two anomalies that possessed some very troublesome abilities. If Adam could make sufficient preparations and prevent them from working together, he would be able to take care of them both even without any assistance.

    Nie Yiyi was also of the same opinion.

    "Those two anomalies are really annoying to deal with, but they also have very prominent weaknesses. If we go in again, we should be able to kill them."

    "Should we try again then?"

    "I''ll go in as well this time."

    Shae didn''t want to be left out on this asion. She had chosen not to enter the psychic world out of habit so that she could keep a lookout for Adam and Nie Yiyi in the real world, but after some consideration, she had decided to ce her trust in the Green Gang.

    In any case, they were already on the Green Gang''s turf, so if they decided to turn on her, then she wouldn''t be able to oppose them all on her own anyway. Hence, there was no reason for her to remain in the real world while Adam and Nie Yiyi entered the psychic world.

    "That''s a good idea. We should have better chances of sess with all three of us going in together."

    After taking a brief rest to recover some energy, the three of them invaded the subject''s psychic world together.

    Upon arriving in the psychic world, the ground underfoot was still as squelchy and sticky as ever. However, as Adam inspected his surroundings, he was greeted by the sight of apletely different scene.

    "This isn''t the same psychic module as before." This time, he had appeared in an underground chamber, theyout and construction of which was very simr to that of the underground chambers typically found in Sandrise City. "We have to return to the same psychic module fromst time."

    "This ce is so oppressive... Even breathing here is a chore." Shae was struck by an immense sense of difort as soon as she entered the psychic world. "Invoke Hellhound for me, I''m having trouble breathing."

    Adam nodded in response and invoked both Hellhound and Mummy. As a safety precaution, only after both he and Shae had fused with the two anomalies did he push open the door and make his way outside.

    Immediately thereafter, he heard a desperate cry for help.

    "Help... Help... Where am I right now? Someone help me!"

    The cries for help were apanied by a woman''s sobs.

 Chapter 135: One After Another

    <h4>Chapter 135: One After Another</h4>

    Is this a trap being set by an anomaly or something else?

    Adam quickly inspected his surroundings to find that he was in a ce simr to a wine cer or the underground warehouse of a factory.

    There were a series of identical rooms in this ce, and Adam''s trio had just emerged from one of those rooms.

    They had arrived in the corridor, where they were greeted by the sight of around a dozen identical doors.

    The cries for help wereing from one of the rooms, and after a moment of contemtion, Adam made his way over to that room. The door of this room was locked, and the person inside seemed to have heard the footsteps ringing out outside as her cries for help immediately became louder and more desperate.

    "Is there someone there? Can you hear me?"

    "Who are you?" Adam asked.

    "Me? I''m just a normal person. I just got off work and was on my way back home, and after that... I don''t remember anything. I don''t remember how I ended up here."

    After hearing the woman''s response, Adam twisted open the lock on the door before entering the room.

    Inside was a woman in a set of professional attire. She was quite tall and slender with decently good looks, and she appeared to be around 26 to 27 years of age.

    The Green Gang had told Adam that there was a very good chance that the subject was a demented serial killer who had fled to Shadow City to avoid retribution for his crimes, and seeing this woman now, it seemed that this information was urate.

    With that in mind, Adam slowly approached the woman, but she immediately erupted into terrified screams.

    "Were you the one who abducted me? Why are you dressed up like a mummy? Are you a psycho?"

    "Don''t be afraid, I''m not a bad guy." The woman was only a manifestation of this psychic world, so Adam didn''t make much of an effort to try andfort her. "Stop screaming! Something''s happening!"

    As the woman continued to scream, the entire underground area began to tremble, and all of a sudden, something crashed through the ceiling before putting an end to the woman''s life with a tentacle.

    "What an annoying woman with her annoying screams..."

    The monstrous creature that had just crashed through the ceiling seemed to have an intense distaste for women, and after killing the woman in the room, it turned to Adam, who was also looking right back at it.

    This was a mutated hunter that resembled an alien, and judging from the ck smoke emanating from its body, it was also an anomaly.

    Adam immediately seized the initiative,shing out with his carving knife, and the anomaly raised an arm to protect itself before sending Adam flying with a sweep of its tail.

    Adam crashed through the wall with a loud thump, havinge off decidedly second-best in the wake of that initial sh.

    How can there possibly be so many anomalies in a single person''s body?

    Two anomalies in a single host was already apletely unprecedented situation for Adam, but now, a third one had appeared, and it was even more powerful than the previous two.

    All of a sudden, a rumbling voice rang out from above.

    "Who has interrupted our meal?"

    .

    Apanying the voice was a greasy substance that slowly squeezed its way out of the hole in the ceiling, then came crashing down with a loud thump, revealing itself to be yet another extremely portly anomaly.

    This was an anomaly dressed in strange attire with a chef''s hat on its head. It seemed to be on very friendly terms with the alien-like anomaly, going so far as to throw an arm around its shoulder as if they were a pair of close friends.

    "Who are these people?"

    "They''re intruders! All intruders, witnesses, and whistle-blowers must die!"

    The alien-like anomaly rushed at Adam yet again, and the two of them quickly became entangled in a fierce brawl.

    On the other side, the chef-like anomaly also entered the fray, opening its massive mouth to tear at Adam''s body.

    Both of these anomalies were extremely powerful, having already reached the level three standard, and even with Adam''s outstanding defenses, he could feel his body beginning to tear. Hence, he immediately warned hispanions to keep their distance.

    "Stay away! These two are really strong!"

    However, his warning came a little toote. At this point, Nie Yiyi had already entered the fray, and she immediately unleashed a barrage of wind des. However, despite the incredible cutting power imbued within the des of wind, the effect that they had after striking the pair of anomalies was very minimal.

    The chef anomaly used its bby rolls to envelop the des of wind,pletely nullifying them with ease.

    As for the alien anomaly, it simply allowed the des of wind to strike its body, but they were barely even able to leave a mark on its armor-ted skin.

    Nie Yiyi''s attacks werergely ineffective against them, but their retaliation posed a lethal threat to her. The chef anomaly casually swung a hand through the air, and a series of women''s faces appeared on its burly arm as it sent Nie Yiyi flying with a single strike. At the same time, a burst of intense resentful energy was injected deep into her body, causing herplexion to pale significantly.

    The chef anomaly then set off after Nie Yiyi in hot pursuit, but thankfully, Shae was able to catch her in a timely fashion, then forced back the chef anomaly by sting a wave of fire out of her mouths, effectively saving Nie Yiyi''s life.

    All of a sudden, yet another voice rang out from up above.

    "Oh no, we''ve been found out! No, no, no, this is terrible!"

    A third anomaly emerged as this panicked voice echoed throughout the room. This anomaly had a human face that was identical to its host''s but its face was twisted to the extreme with horror and rm, seemingly extremely fearful that someone had discovered the crimes that he hadmitted.

    The anomaly was panicking while frantically trying to wipe everything away.

    Two of these three anomalies were already confirmed to be level three anomalies, and they were far too formidable for Adam''s trio to oppose. Thankfully, the only one that Adam had to deal with was the alien anomaly as the chef anomaly had already been drawn away. At this point, the panicked anomaly still hadn''t entered the fray yet, and Adamshed out with all his might to kick the alien anomaly away, then immediately left the psychic world.

    At the same time, Shae also departed from the psychic world with Nie Yiyi in her arms.

    Even after the three of them awakened in the real world, they were still panting heavily. The situation that had just unfolded had been quite perilous, but what shocked them the most was the revtion that had just dawned upon them.

    Prior to this, they would''ve never believed that a single person could be harboring so many anomalies.

    "What on earth is going on?"

    "I''ll go ask Uncle Fu about this."

    Nie Yiyi rose to her feet, then opened the door of the room as she massaged her throbbing temples.

    "How did it go, Big Sister Nie? Is that the person you''re looking for?"

    "Don''t call me big sister, you''re older than me." Nie Yiyi made her way over to the tea table as she spoke.

    n connections formed the basis of the Green Gang, so even though there was a hierarchy established for its members, there was very little sense of distance from person to person. For example, Nie Yiyi was speaking to Uncle Fu as if they were equals, and it didn''t seem like a conversation taking ce between a subordinate and a superior at all.

    "Uncle Fu, is that all of the information that you can provide on the subject? Is there nothing else that you can tell us?"

    "What''s wrong?"

    "The subject is very strange."

    "How strange are we talking?"

    "Let me put it this way: he''s a very strange case even among the mentally ill."

    "I''m afraid we don''t have any additional information. If you want to know more, get Jiang Senior to interrogate him. He once worked at Shadow Castle, and he was able to dig up all types of information on all types of people during his time there." Uncle Fu turned to Jiang Junior as he instructed, "Hey, get your dad toe see us."

    "Yes, Uncle Fu," Jiang Junior replied, and a short whileter, he brought someone in from outside.

    The man was very ordinary in appearance, and he was wearing a hat while carrying a basic toolbox on his back. After receiving a rough rundown of the situation, he entered the spare room with the toolbox still on his back.

    "What do you want to know?" Jiang Senior asked before closing the door.

 Chapter 136: Bundled Data

    <h4>Chapter 136: Bundled Data</h4>

    "We want to know a bit of everything, really. We want to know about his childhood experiences, why he has so many evil urges, how many young women he''s imprisoned and killed in the past, and how he felt when killing those people," Nie Yiyi replied after some brief consideration.

    One''s childhood experiences were the foundation of their personality, and often the root of one''s emotional anomaly.

    As for how many people he had imprisoned and killed, that would reflect just how much his evil urges had been allowed to expand and govern his actions.

    Furthermore, the emotions that he felt when killing his imprisoned victims would shed light on the attributes of his anomalies. Emotions like anger, anxiety, fear, and guilt would all give rise to anomalies of different attributes.

    "Got it, I''ll make sure to question him very thoroughly. Do you want toe in?"

    "I''ll pass, I don''t want to watch."

    "I''ll pass as well."

    Adam and his friends had no intention of going in. Even an idiot knew what was going to happen next.

    Sure enough, after entering the room, Jiang Senior roused the subject from his unconscious state, and Adam and his friends had no idea what torture methods were employed by Jiang Senior, but the subject didn''t stop screaming even for a single moment in the following three and a half hours.

    At the end of the session, Jiang Senior emerged from the room, and he was such a seasoned professional that there wasn''t even a single drop of blood on his body.

    "He''s confessed basically everything."

    "That''s really impressive!" Adam couldn''t help but praise.

    "His name is Sithu. To answer your question about his childhood, he spent his formative years living on an ind in the Pacific Ocean, and his mother worked as a prostitute in a bar."

    Adam immediately thought back to the beer bar he had during his first venture into Sithu''s psychic world. All of the aberrations inside had enormous genitalia, and the attacking methods employed by his mother were also very strange.

    The fact that his mother was an anomaly in his psychic world indicated that he sorely detested his mother as a child, yet the child that had rushed out to protect his mother had most likely also been him.

    He detested his mother, yet he also felt inclined to protect her. The more conflicted one''s emotions were, the more prone those emotions were to bing twisted, and those emotions would only be more and more twisted amid this emotional tug of war.

    "What happened after that?"

    "After that, his mother disappeared after he grew up into an adult, and he traveled to Sandrise City."

    "Did she disappear, or was she killed by him?"

    "I''m not sure. When he was talking about this part of his life, his emotions were clearly very unstable. A small child persona came out and began to spout nonsense. By the way, he has multiple personalities. It''s very clear that he''s suffering from schizophrenia."

    "Schizophrenia!"

    "So that''s what it is!"

    Adam and his friends were enlightened by this revtion.

    "So not only does he have multiple personalities, every single one of them has mutated into an anomaly. What a remarkable case!"

    "To think that adapters like us have to rely on non-adapters to dig up information for us..."

    Generally speaking, adapters were supposed to be the ones who could venture deepest into one''s psyche to dig up the most closely guarded secrets, such as business secrets or confessions to crimes.

    However, Sithu''s psychic world was a terrifying ce with a bunch of powerful anomalies inside. For the average adapter, entering such a psychic world was almost guaranteed to spell certain death, so it was actually more effective for a professional like Jiang Senior to interrogate the subject for information.

    "How many personalities does he have?"

    "I can''t say for sure, but I was able to clearly discern roughly five personalities during my interrogation. As for whether there are more than that still in hiding, I can''t tell you."

    "Five... How many anomalies did you two encounter in there?" Shae asked.

    "We encountered two anomalies, one of which seemed to be his mother, while the other one was himself in child form. In addition to the three anomalies that we encountered in there together, that amounts to a total of five anomalies."

    His mother clearly wasn''t one of his personalities, so there was at least one more persona that was still lurking beneath the surface.

    "What were the defining traits of the personas that you saw?"

    "One of them was a child..."

    "Yes, we saw that one," Adam said as he began to keep a count with his fingers.

    "One of them wanted to kill me as soon as it saw me. That one was most aggressive in its speech."

    "That''s probably that alien anomaly."

    "There was another one that was very interested in blood. In fact, when that personality came out, he began licking his lips even at the sight of his own blood."

    "That sounds like the chef anomaly."

    "There was also a persona that seemed to be horrified, and that was the one that confessed the most. It told me everything that it knew, and most of the information that I was able to obtain came from that persona."

    "That''s thest anomaly that we saw," Adam mused with a nod. "What about the final one?"

    "The final one was a female persona that didn''t appear to be as deranged as the others ones. She told me that she was the one who released the woman from his underground dungeon, and she warned us not to go into his psychic world again because there''s something extremely dangerous lurking in there. However, she didn''t get a chance to borate before she suddenly disappeared with a loud scream. It seems like she was forcibly dragged back by another one of his personas."

    "Something extremely dangerous..." Adam repeated with a contemtive expression. "She''s clearly warning us that there''s something even more terrifying that we don''t yet know about lurking in there."

    "Forget the unknown, we can''t even deal with the anomalies that we''ve seen so far," Shae said in a defeated voice. "We''ve already seen five anomalies, and all of them are really strong. Those things are all manifestations of his personas, so I''m sure all of them are already aware of our existence. If we go in now, we''re going to get killed for sure."

    "Ultimately, the problem is that we''re still too weak." This was the ideal subject, but they were powerless to exploit it. Adam felt like he was standing in front of a mountain of gold, but was unable to carry it away. He didn''t want to leave it, but at the same time, he was also powerless to do anything. "Let''s keep him here for now and find some other ways to grow stronger, thene back to him when we''re ready."

    "We still have Hook and Shota who can help us out. If possible, I can call in Mr. Li to help us next time as well."

    "Mr. Li? You mean Fighter Li?"

    Adam had a very strong impression of Fighter Li. In terms of pure technical proficiency, he was superior to even most top tier adapters.

    Setting aside absolute power and looking purely at technique, Fighter Li could stand toe to toe even with the likes of Oni no Hanzou.

    "That''s right. We''re friends now, and we''ve already sparred many times in the psychic world. He''s always interested in facing different opponents, so I''m sure he won''t turn down an opportunity to fight against anomalies."

    No one knew a fight addict better than a fellow fight addict, and Nie Yiyi was very confident that Fighter Li would be willing to help.

    "If we count in Fighter Li, we''ll have five battle units and a scouting unit. That''s still not enough. We should wait until I be a bit stronger before we go in again."

    ¡­¡­

    For Adam and Nie Yiyi, the next few days were constantly spent fighting in the ring.

    Through these constant battles, Adam was able to master more and more fighting techniques, and he was even beginning to develop some techniques that were unique to him. Finally, he was able to experience the process that normal adapters went through to be stronger.

    These constant battles and victories instilled within him a sense of immense confidence, and confidence was the key to the development of the power of one''s persona. Thus, his increased confidence also elevated his absolute power.

    Furthermore, with the extensive experience that he was gaining through his battles, he was able to develop more and more techniques, and eventually, these techniques would add up to give rise to abilities.

    At this point, Adam had already developed his first autonomous ability, which was "Observation".

    This ability didn''te from his anomalies. Instead, it stemmed from his psychic body itself, so he could use this ability no matter which anomaly he was fused with. This ability couldn''t be used to enhance his powers, but it allowed him to see through his opponent''s moves more urately. This was a very rudimentary passive ability, perhaps one that the likes of Fighter Li and Nie Yiyi had already attained long ago.

    In any case, attaining this autonomous ability was undoubtedly an improvement for Adam.

    As a result of his constant battles, he was also promoted to the C tier. At this point, there were already many spectators and a high level of ie to be earned for each match, and his record had remained immacte up until now.

    The matches were going very smoothly, but the procurement of anomalies, which was even more important, was proving to be extremely difficult.

    None of the Green Gang, Crocodile, or Red Turtle had been able to find any suitable candidates for him. The people that they found either had no mental problems, or their mental problems weren''t severe enough to satisfy Adam''s needs.

    On this day, he was contacted by Crocodile once again, and he immediately rushed off to meet Crocodile following the conclusion of his matches.

    Having already worked together so many times, a certain level of trust had been established between the two, and they were conversing with one another far more casually than before.

    "You''ve already called me up more than 10 times, but you haven''t even been able to find a single suitable subject. I already told you that if you want to earn money, you have to catch the people that look like they''re guilty of something!" Adam arrived at the headquarters of Crocodile''s faction, then took a nce at the tied-up young man in the room before asking, "What''s this guy''s past history?"

    "How am I supposed to know what his past history is? I asked you toe here so you can tell me!" Crocodile wasn''t the brightest bulb in the box, and he spoke in a very aggressive fashion, but he was a good fighter with a righteous personality, and he was very fair when splitting money, so hisckeys were very loyal to him. "You told me to look for people who look like they''re guilty, but if you ask me, who isn''t guilty if they''vee to Shadow City from Sandrise City? If they''re not guilty of one crime or another, why would theye here? For tourism?"

    "Forget it, I can''t get through to an idiot like you!" Adam didn''t waste any more time as he crouched down in front of the subject. Even though Crocodile and Red Turtle had failed to find any suitable subjects for him, he had managed to dig up some valuable information for them, so the two gang leaders were quite happy to work with him. "Go stand at the entrance and keep a lookout. Make sure no one interrupts me."

    "Y''all hear that? Get out of here! If anyone dares toe into this room or makes any unnecessary sounds, I''ll put you in a wheelchair!" Crocodile yelled as he chased hisckeys out of the room, giving Adam the privacy that he desired.

    Now that he had some peace and quiet, Adam began to inspect the subject''s facial features.

    He had been searching for mentally ill individuals every day, and at this point, he was able to roughly gauge one''s mental condition from their outward appearance alone. For people with certain mental attributes, the way that their facial muscles were set was different from those who didn''t suffer from any mental illness. This couldn''t be used as a concrete parameter for him to form his judgments, but it was certainly well worth looking at.

    Even though the subject was in a state of unconsciousness, his lips were tightly pursed, and his facial muscles were also in a very unnatural, stiff state. It was clear that he lived in a constant state of anxiety.

    We might be onto something here!

    Adam was very excited to see this, and he immediately invaded the man''s psychic world.

    ¡­¡­

    On this asion, he appeared in what seemed to be apany.

    The construction style in the room was very simplistic and high-tech, and it was clear from the construction materials used that this was a very high-end ce.

    A ce that was simplistic yet extravagant in appearance hinted at twice the extravagance as it was very expensive having to use a rtively small amount of materials to create an air of luxury and opulence. However, thispany certainly didn''t seem to becking in money.

    Adam searched for the logo of thepany in a curious manner as he wanted to see whatpany was this wealthy, and he was stunned by what he discovered.

    No wonder this ce is so rich, it''s the Metaverse''s Gaia Headquarters!

    Adam was astonished to see that he had arrived in one of the main branches of the Metaverse.

    This waspletely different from Cowboy''s gamepany, which had been established on the foundation of the Metaverse. Using a tree as an analogy, Cowboy''spany was like a fruit or a leaf on the tree, while the Gaia Headquarters was like the trunk of the tree.

    Half of the basic logic that the entire Metaverse ran on was controlled by the Gaia Corporation.

    What does this guy do here?

    Spurred on by his curiosity, Adam quickly tracked down the host, and judging from the work that he was doing, he seemed to be a programmer.

    Adam crouched down beside him to watch him work, and even though he was far from a programming expert, after a while, he was able to understand the nature of the man''s job. Essentially, he was responsible for archiving useless data, and this useless data were "people" in the Metaverse who weren''t self-sufficient and had no one on the outside to financially support them.

    They were treated like pieces of trash,pressed over and over again before being ced into a storage space.

    Judging from the watch and essories that the man was wearing, Adam could tell that he was very wealthy. At the very least, his ie had to be significantly higher than what was earned by the other programmers that Adam had encountered before.

    However, looking at his expression, it seemed that this job ced immense psychological pressure upon him. His expression was extremely stiff, and his fingers were trembling slightly each time hepressed the data.

 Chapter 137: Benevolence and Righteousness

    <h4>Chapter 137: Benevolence and Righteousness</h4>

    Looking at how much the programmer''s fingers were trembling, it was as if he were pulling the trigger of a gun to carry out executions rather thanpressing data with a mouse.

    Perhaps he really is killing people with what he''s doing...

    Adam turned his attention toward the programmer''s work badge to find that it carried the name "Liu Shouyi".

    "Hey!"

    "Huh?" Liu Shouyi was greatly startled by the sound of Adam''s voice, and he turned around with a slightly panicked expression as he asked, "Who are you? Which department do you belong to? Why have I never seen you before? How did you get in here?"

    Just like in dreams, people in the psychic world retained basic logical thinking abilities, but they were always going to be a bit more sluggish and oblivious. In the real world, if Adam had been standing behind him for so long, he would''ve surely already noticed.

    Adam looked deep into Liu Shouyi''s eyes, trying to discern his emotions as he replied, "I''m here to help you. What you''re doing right now seems to be making you feel very afraid... or should I say, guilty?"

    Adam''s question had drawn out the darkest part of the target''s mind, and sure enough, the entire psychic world around them immediately disyed a reaction. Firstly, all of Liu Shouyi''s colleagues in the surrounding area immediately turned toward them, following which some of them contacted their supervisors, while others called out for security.

    In Adam''s past experience, the superiors of those who worked in such oppressive environments generally were generally manifested as aberrations or anomalies in the psychic world.

    This was because those superiors were a major source of psychological pressure for those subjects, and with emotional baggage building up over long periods of time, even if those superiors didn''t evolve into anomalies, it was a verymon sight to see them appear as aberrations.

    However, the situation this time waspletely different.

    Right as Adam fused with one of his anomalies and turned around to prepare for battle, he was greeted by the sight of an "angel".

    This "angel" had a very strange appearance. Not only was it of oriental descent, it had a bulging belly and bby rolls all over its body. Most importantly, this supposed angel''s wings were ck, but there was no faking the holy light radiating from its body.

    Adam had seen this type of light in Li Qi''s psychic world, and the holy light radiating from this angel''s body was rather faint, but it definitely did exist.

    In order to verify that this angel was indeed considered to be a positive force in this psychic world, Adam turned to gauge Liu Shouyi''s reaction, and sure enough, following the angel''s arrival, the anxiety and guilt in his eyes had abated slightly.

    At this point, the security guards downstairs had also stormed into the room, and this was the first time that Adam was facing a situation like this, so he didn''t know whether to fight or try and defuse.

    "Let''s all be civilized now. I''m here to help Liu Shouyi."

    After a few seconds of contemtion, Adam refrained from choosing violence. After all, up to this point, he still didn''t know how powerful Liu Shouyi''s anomaly was, assuming one existed at all, and if he were to make an enemy out of Liu Shouyi from the get-go, that could very muche back to bite himter down the line.

    After so many days of searching, he had finally found what appeared to be a suitable subject, and he couldn''t afford to squander this opportunity.

    "You''re here to help him?" the angelic supervisor asked as he scrutinized Adam. "Who are you?"

    "I''m..."

    In his current form, Adam was quite terrifying to behold, but everyone in the psychic world was like bystanders in a dream, and they weren''t particrly afraid of him.

    Seeing as Adam couldn''t provide an answer to the question, two of the security guards quickly approached him, then grabbed onto his arms to escort him out of the building.

    The two security guards were very weak, only slightly stronger than the average person. They weren''t very tall, either, and Adam knew that there was no way that they would''ve been able to do anything to him. Even if he were to only use 10% of his current strength, he would''ve been able to easily send the pair of security guards flying back by over 10 meters, but he refrained from doing so.

    Once again, he didn''t want to get on the host''s bad side before he ascertained just how powerful the anomaly in this psychic world was.

    "Alright, I''ll leave."

    Adam took a nce a the portly angel oncest time before allowing himself to be escorted out of the room by the pair of security guards.

    After being escorted out of the building, he was subsequently taken out of theplex, and he couldn''t help but marvel at all of the high-end buildings that he saw outside.

    The Gaia Corporation must be extremely wealthy, considering this entire massive area belongs to them.

    The Gaia Corporation''s headquarters was situated on the outskirts of Prosper City, which was another metropolis like Sandrise City, wherend was worth its weight in gold, and it was extremely rare to see a singlepany''s industrialplex taking up virtually half a district in such a metropolis,

    After being kicked out of the Gaia Corporation''s headquarters, Adam didn''t waste any more time here.

    This wasn''t the real world, and in here, there were many ways to learn more about someone''s past, such as through their psychic modules.

    All of one''s deep-rooted memories would leave psychic modules in their mind, and Adam didn''t have to go very far before the surrounding streets came to an abrupt end. He stepped over a dark rift, arriving in another one of Liu Shouyi''s psychic modules.

    In this module was a mansion that was constructed halfway up a mountain. In contrast with the smart apartments inhabited by the impoverished and underprivileged, this mansion took up a massive area, withrge distances separating the living areas, and privacy was also quite good.

    Outside the mansion was a massive private pool and spa with a group of gorgeous women ying inside, but Liu Shouyi was staying indoors with a glum look on his face.

    "What''s wrong with you? Why do you look like that all the time?"

    Seated across from him was his superior, Liu Shouren, who was sipping on some champagne.

    The names "Liu Shouren" and "Liu Shouyi" were very simr, and Adam had been quite surprised by this discovery after spotting the name on the angel''s work badge right before he was escorted out of the building. Given the simrity in their names, they were most likely not just colleagues at work, but also brothers.

    In the east, the characters for "ren" and "yi" carried special meanings.

    "I... You already know why."

    Liu Shouyi seemed to be rather unsure of how to reply to this question, or simply reluctant to offer a response.

    "I know what you''re thinking." Liu Shouyi took a quick nce at their surroundings as he spoke, then ced hismunicator somewhere far away before raising the music to the highest volume, seemingly worried about their conversation being monitored. "You''re worried about all those dead people, right?"

    "That''s right. Their data is already iplete, if that data ispressed even further, even their most basic memories will have beenpressed into the smallest of data packs. Even if someone pays the money to have their date ''resurrected''ter on, the extracted data will be filled in by artificial intelligence based on previous memories. Essentially, thosepressed people are dead!"

    "Listen to me!" Liu Shouyi took a deep breath, then dered, "They''re already dead to begin with!"

    "But their memories still exist..."

    "That''s not something we should be worrying about, do you understand? Why did wee all the way here from the east? So we could enjoy better lives! We studied harder than anyone else as kids, enduring more hardships than anyone around us. Have you forgotten what we did all of that for?" Liu Shouyi picked up the bottle of champagne on the table as he spoke. "How much did this bottle of champagne cost? 17,000! Does it taste good? Who knows?

    ¡°Perhaps hillbillies like us don''t have the refined taste to truly appreciate things like this, but at the very least, we can drink it whenever we want! How much did this bag of chocte cost? 450! The average person can''t afford this bag of chocte even after putting in an entire day of manualbor! And those women outside, look at how sexy they are! With our shitty looks, if we didn''t have money, they wouldn''t even look at us, do you understand?"

    "But... But... We''re killing people! We''re killing tens of thousands of people every month! We''re butchers!"

    1. In Chinese, the character for "ren" (ÈÊ) means benevolence, while the character for "yi" (Òå) means righteousness. These two characters are often used together (ÈÊÒå) to describe someone as both benevolent and righteous.

 Chapter 138: Benevolence and Righteousness (2)

    <h4>Chapter 138: Benevolence and Righteousness (2)</h4>

    "We''re not butchers! Those things are people, they''re just iplete pieces of data! All you''re doing ispressing that iplete data. If you and I don''t do this, someone else will do it anyway. There is no absolute right or wrong in this world, money is the only truth! With enough money, we can also be immortal, we can also have our data and memoriespletely preserved in their entirety like those rich bosses!"

    "Is there really no right or wrong in this world?"

    "No. Perhaps those concepts existed in the past, but not right now," Liu Shouren said before swirling the champagne in his ss and taking another sip.

    "Our parents gave us the names benevolence and righteousness because..."

    "Our parents are already dead, and they died because they didn''t have money. Have you forgotten that? Also, what even are benevolence and righteousness? Think about all of the eastern historical figures that are referred to as benevolent and righteous, they were all martyrs! What does that tell us? It tells us that those who uphold the values of benevolence and righteousness all have to die for their beliefs!

    ¡°Screw that! Insignificant ants can''t do anything to influence this world in a meaningful way! We can''t be heroes no matter how hard we try! Thews are decided by all of the people up there. Everything you do is legal, so even if what you''re doing is wrong, it''s thewmakers that are wrong, not you. It has nothing to do with us, so don''t overthink it."

    After preaching to Liu Shouyi, Liu Shouren opened the window before whistling at the beautiful women ying in the pool outside, and all of them got out of the pool before making their way into the room.

    After hearing what Liu Shouren had to say, Liu Shouyi''s brows were still tightly furrowed, but some of the psychological pressure that was weighing down on him had been alleviated.

    Adam was observing this from his hiding spot off to the side, and he finally understood the reason for Liu Shouren''s appearance in Liu Shouyi''s psychic world.

    He was an unsightly angel of darkness, but an angel nheless.

    Liu Shouyi didn''t agree with his ideology, but Liu Shouren''s words really did have a significant positive effect on his emotional well-being.

    However, what Adam was more interested in finding out was how Liu Shouyi had ended up in this sorry state and found himself in Shadow City.

    ¡­¡­

    After leaving the mansion, Adam turned to another direction, and after passing over a spatial rift, he arrived in another one of Liu Shouyi''s psychic modules, this one containing a joyous experience in which he secured first ce in the Mathematical Olympiad during his youth.

    After that, Adam passed through several more modules in a row, containing various scenes from his childhood, the death of his parents, and his first rtionship, among other experiences, but he found nothing of use in those modules, and in the end, he returned to the Gaia Corporation.

    However, this time, the point on the timeline waspletely different, so the scene that the psychic module contained was also different.

    Judging from the fine wrinkles on Liu Shouyi''s face, Adam was able to determine that this was most likely something that had only happened recently.

    At this moment, Liu Shouyi was in a dimly lit room with a dark, shadowy figure seated across from him. Judging from the facilities in the room, Adam could see that this was a psychic treatment suite in the corporation building.

    Manyrgepanies had psychic treatment suites like this, but the vast majority of the therapists there were just normal psychiatrists. However, looking at the projection device set up in the room, Adam could tell that this therapist was an adapter psychotherapist.

    The fact that an adapter had been hired to fill the role of a normal psychiatrist was another testament to the Gaia Corporation''s immense wealth.

    "Rx. I can sense that you''re very tense and anxious." The adapter didn''t seem to have noticed Adam''s presence, and she continued speaking to Liu Shouyi as normal. "It seems like you''re under a lot of stress due to your work. Rest assured, there have been many examples of people with conditions like yours in our corporation, and they''ve all been able to make full recoveries thanks to my treatment."

    "No, I''m not nervous, and I''m definitely not dissatisfied with my work. I hold nothing but gratitude for our corporation."

    "I can sense that you lying..."

    "I''m not lying, I''m telling the truth!"

    .

    Liu Shouyi seemed to be rather fearful of the adapter, and he was unconsciously raising his voice to try and make himself sound more convincing, but the adapter remainedpletely unconvinced.

    "Rx. Our corporation takes care of its employees very well, and these periodic psychic treatment sessions are mandatory. I''ll get you back to your normal, cheerful self in no time!"

    After that, the adapter paid no heed to Liu Shouyi''s objections and invaded his psychic world without any warning.

    Perhaps video footage of the treatment process had to be submitted to the higher-ups for verification, or perhaps it was for some other reason, but in the instant that the adapter invaded Liu Shouyi''s consciousness, the projection and recording devices in the room were immediately switched on at the same time.

    This is the first time I''m seeing someone''s psychic world being invaded while I''m in their psychic world!

    Seeing as neither Liu Shouyi nor the adapter seemed to have noticed him, Adam was more than happy to observe the process.

    All of this had already happened in real life, and prior to gathering sufficient information, he had no ns to act prematurely.

    Thus, Adam watched as the adapter invaded Liu Shouyi''s psychic world, then made his way over to the projector to see what was happening.

    Sure enough, after entering Liu Shouyi''s psychic world, the adapter didn''t administer any treatment to Liu Shouyi at all, nor was she interested in any of the psychic aberrations or psychic anomalies that could''ve been present in his mind.

    Just like Adam, all she did was go from one psychic module to another to examine Liu Shouyi''s memories. Whenever she entered a module in which Liu Shouyi expressed his dissatisfaction with his work, the adapter would always pause there for a while, as if to ensure that these expressions of dissatisfaction were recorded.

    After the number of these memories reached a certain threshold, an rm began to ring out, and the doors of the psychic treatment suite were opened, following which a group of people entered the room.

    Among them were senior leaders of the corporation, mechanical security guards, and a woman with a very strange appearance.

    After entering the room, theypletely ignored Adam and headed straight for Liu Shouyi.

    "There are more and more people who are bing discontent with their work like him," one of the senior leadersined in a displeased voice. "We''re paying them even more than most business owners out there, yet there are still so many people who are unhappy. I genuinely can''t understand why."

    "Indeed. Humans just aren''t as easy to use as machines. If the Alpha God Artificial Intelligence Development n hadn''t failed, we wouldn''t even need to have these people continue working for us. I''ll leave the rest to you, Madam Tree."

    The woman who was being referred to as Madam Tree nodded in response, then also invaded Liu Shouyi''s consciousness.

    After that, she specifically picked out the psychic modules in which Liu Shouyi had expressed his dissatisfaction toward his work, then captured each of the Liu Shouyis in those modules before slicing his skin open with her fingernail and stuffing something that appeared to be a seed into his body through those gashes.

    The seeds slowly took root in Liu Shouyi''s psychic body before sprouting into seedlings, and once that happened, all of Liu Shouyi''s memories seemed to have undergone slight changes.

    All of his expressions of discontentment became milder and more cid, and as those seeds continued to grow, branches began to emerge out of Liu Shouyi''s nostrils, ears, and even his eyes. After that, he became much calmer and more content than before.

    "All done."

    Madam Tree left Liu Shouyi''s psychic world after doing all of that.

    "I knew we could count on you. Those seeds can''t be removed by anyone else, right? I''ve heard that there are some people who are already experiencing some problems."

    "What was that?" Madam Tree asked in a displeased voice.

    The senior leader hurriedly exined, "Please don''t misunderstand, I''m not doubting your abilities. There have been no problems in the past, but I heard that something recently happened to a supervisor in a branch of ourpany. Is it possible that they''ve gone to a special adapter psychotherapist to remove some of the seeds that had been nted in them?"

    "That''s impossible. No one canpletely remove the seed memories unless they''re an even more powerful adapter than I am. As far as I know, the only one capable of doing this is the lord of Shadow City, but he''s a self-proimed philosopher, and there''s no way a philosopher would do something so specific. He doesn''t have that much spare time on his hands."

    After that, Madam Tree gave the senior leader no further opportunity to speak before departing from the room.

 Chapter 139: Bubble World

    <h4>Chapter 139: Bubble World</h4>

    Among the few theoretical lessons that Adam had attended at Layton Academy, there just so happened to be one on memory imntation.

    It wasn''t that he wanted to learn about this, but the lesson was mandator as it concerned the most fundamentalws. It was considered to be a serious crime for adapters to alter other people''s memories for no just cause.

    On the flip side, this lesson wasn''t all that important because the majority of adapters didn''t possess the ability to alter other people''s memories, so most of the students didn''t pay much attention to this lesson.

    Regardless of whether it was Adam, Shae, Nie Yiyi, Hook, or even any of the opponents that Adam had encountered in the past, none of them possessed the ability to alter the memories of others.

    This was an ability that was just as rare as it was prohibited.

    The logic behind this was that an integral part of one''s identity was their memories. Essentially, a person''s past was preserved through their memories, and if their memories were to be altered, it was really fundamentally no different frommitting murder.

    If a person was no longer themself, could that original person still be considered to be alive?

    This seemed to be a philosophical question, and it was also one that concerned nk tes.

    nk tes were humans who had had all of their memories removed before someone else''s consciousness was installed into their mind. Essentially, this was an extreme form of memory alteration.

    Thus, this scene had quite a severe impact on Adam.

    He''s clearly already epted his fate, yet his memories have to be altered just because he expressed some dissatisfaction and poses a risk of exposing these dark secrets?

    Adam was far from pleased to see this, and he decided to step in right away rather than wait any longer.

    In reality, he had always been in the room, but somehow, no one seemed to have noticed him at all. Adam had never encountered a situation like this before, and he had made attempts to intervene and make some changes, but he continued to be ignored.

    "Hey!" Adam turned to the adapter psychotherapist, and he was already prepared for battle. "I''m talking to you!"

    However, the adapter continued to go about her business without paying any heed to him, and the same applied to Liu Shouyi as well.

    In the real world, Adam definitely wouldn''t haveshed out in a situation like this.

    After all, he had no idea how powerful this adapter was, and judging from what Madam Tree had just said, she seemed to be an adapter who was on par with the lord of Shadow City, so he was definitely no match for her.

    However, the good thing was that this was Liu Shouyi''s psychic world. He had no idea how powerful these people were, and what decided their strength was Liu Shouyi''s subconscious assessment of their powers.

    Seeing as there was no reaction from the adapter, Adam decided to strike first.

    At this point, he was already fused as one with Mummy, and he threw a jab with his bandaged fist. However, as soon as his fist came into contact with the adapter''s body, it immediately passed right through as if he had punched nothing more than an illusion.

    Immediately thereafter, the entire scene crumbled away like a soap bubble that had just been popped.

    The bed, all of the facilities, Liu Shouyi, the room, the building, and even the entire psychic module were shattered in an instant like bubbles being popped one by one.

    What''s going on?

    With the entire psychic world gone in an instant, Adam was left standing in a vast expanse of darkness. Peering into the distance, he could see that there were still other psychic modules further away, but there was no longer anything left here.

    All of it had disappeared.

    How could someone''s psychic world possibly be like this?

    The more Adam thought back over what had just happened, the more suspicious he became.

    The first point of suspicion was naturally the unexinable disappearance of this psychic module. The fundamental building blocks of psychic modules were one''s memories, and aside from cases in which one suffered physical damage to their hippocampus, this method of memory erasure waspletely unheard of.

    The second area of suspicion was all of the parts of Liu Shouyi''s memories that simply didn''t make logical sense.

    Just now, Liu Shouyi was clearly in an unconscious state, having already had his psychic world infiltrated by that adapter psychotherapist, so how could he have possibly been aware of Madam Tree''s visit? In his unconscious state, there was no way that he should''ve had this memory.

    Furthermore, Madam Tree had already altered his memories and attitude toward work, but on the way here, Adam had still witnessed many elements of discontentment in Liu Shouyi''s memories. If Madam Tree''s visit had actually transpired in the real world, then he shouldn''t have retained that memory of his argument with his brother in that mansion.

    None of them seemed to make any sense.

    It was almost as if these bubble-like psychic modules had been artificially imnted into Liu Shouyi''s mind, and if that were the case, then this was also very perplexing.

    At the moment, there were only two possible exnations that Adam could think of for this, the first of which was that Liu Shouyi waspletely delusional, and this memory was purely a figment of his imagination. This would make some sense as delusions were very unstable, and they could be easily shattered.

    The second theory was that another adapter had already entered Liu Shouyi''s consciousness before Adam, and not only had they removed all of the seeds nted by Madam Tree, they had also left behind this piece of footage for those who came after them.

    Adam was leaning more toward the second possibility. The reason for this was that what he had just witnessed had presented itself as a psychic module. If it had purely been a delusion that was so fragile that it could be shattered upon contact, then it would''ve only been a passing delusion that wouldn''t have remained in his memory. Thus, it was self-contradictory for the memory to be sufficiently deep-rooted that it had formed a psychic module, but also so fragile that it could be broken so easily.

    However, the second theory was just as bizarre. Which adapter would''ve possibly gone out of their way to do something like this?

    Furthermore, that adapter had to have been an extremely powerful one.

    With those questions in his mind, Adam continued to explore Liu Shouyi''s other psychic modules, but failed to find any useful information. As for that bubble-like psychic module, it seemed to have only been a one-time entity that couldn''t be revisited after it was destroyed.

    What is going on in here?

    After going on a long journey in Liu Shouyi''s psychic world, Adam was currently standing in a shopping mall, still struggling to make sense of what he had witnessed. All of a sudden, he felt something flying toward the back of his head, and he reflexively dodged to the side, immediately following which a small counter in front of him was smashed into smithereens with a loud thump.

    He turned around to find an anomaly whose entire body seemed to be entirelyprised of sludge.

    This is an anomaly that has arisen from feelings of guilt.

    Adam rushed back in retreat to open up some distance between himself and the anomaly. This psychic module contained a massive high-end shopping mall with all types of luxury items and essories, making it the perfect paradise for most women.

    This was a psychic module that contained a memory of a date that Liu Shouyi had gone on. Not far away, Liu Shouyi was on a date with his first-ever girlfriend, but the arrival of the anomaly had sent everyone rushing away in fear and panic, including Liu Shouyi and his girlfriend.

    Adam had seen this type of sludge entity once before in Peter''s psychic world. Peter was a man who had done many bad things, but due to the fact that he periodically received psychotherapeutic treatment, his guilt hadn''t evolved into an anomaly, whereas this sludge entity had already be an anomaly.

    The sludge anomaly possessed an enormous body that stood at close to four meters tall, the lower half of which was stillpletely in sludge form, while a pair of arms and a head had spouted out of its upper body. It was holding a pair of steel pitchforks in its hands, while a pair of horns were protruding out of its head, and its entire body was giving off menacing ck energy.

    ording to Liu Shouyi himself, he had pressed" many people in the past, leading to the guilt in his heart snowballing over time, despite his brother''s best efforts to convince him that he wasn''t at fault.

    The more negative emotions he felt, the more powerful his anomaly became.

    As for how powerful this anomaly was, Adam would have to find out through battle.

    With his exceptional physical resistance in his current form, Adam certainly wasn''t going to shy away from battle, and he immediately charged forward beforeunching himself up into the air, then brought his carving knife down in a vicious strike, fuelled by his enormous strength and the momentum generated by his bodyweight in free fall.

    .

    The anomaly also raised its steel pitchforks in retaliation, and a loud ng rang out as Adam was sent flying back by over 10 meters, while the anomaly was also forced back by seven or eight meters as its lower body squirmed back over the ground.

 Chapter 140: Battle Between Tanks

    <h4>Chapter 140: Battle Between Tanks</h4>

    That''s some impressive strength!

    Adam''s knife-wielding arm waspletely numb after that sh, and a small chip had also appeared on the knife''s de.

    Even though he was outmatched in strength, he was ted following the sh.

    I''ve finally found a suitable opponent!

    By his rough estimation, his opponent was most likely a level three anomaly, whose overall powerful was roughlyparable with Adam''s own in his fused form with Mummy.

    Even though the opponent possessed superior strength, Mummy''s forte was its defense, so a disadvantage in pure strength wasn''t a worthy cause for concern. As long as his opponent wasn''t on apletely different level of power, he had the confidence to match it in battle.

    Level three anomalies were currently the ideal prey for Adam. He couldn''t kill anomalies of a higher caliber than that, while lower-level anomalies wouldn''t contribute much to his development, so this was the perfect target.

    Right as Adam was reveling in the excitement of finally encountering a suitable target, the sludge anomaly came charging at him once again with its pitchforks raised. It injected all of its strength into the pitchforks, then took advantage of its massive frame to bring the pitchforks down from a staggering height.

    Adam immediately tried to dodge, only to find that his feet seemed to have been glued to the ground. He looked down with his peripheral vision to find that sludge had risen up from the marble floor beneath him, and it had enveloped both of his feet to impede his movement.

    As a result, he had no choice but to raise his carving knife and withstand the attack head-on.

    He had charged up power for his previous attack, yet he had still been outmatched in strength. This time, the roles were reversed, with his opponent seizing the initiative while he was on the defense, and he was immediately struggling to hold up under the pressure.

    The carving knife was only able to buffer the attack to a slight degree before the steel pitchforks mmed down onto his shoulder, and the ground beneath his feet was instantly shattered, unable to withstand the tremendous force being exerted upon it.

    A resounding boom rang out as a huge hole was smashed into the marble floor beneath Adam''s feet, and he was mmed down from the third floor to the second floor.

    "That felt good!"

    Adam twisted his neck from side to side as he stood up from the giant crater on the second floor.

    All of the opponents that he had gone up against recently had been too strong or too weak, and most of them had very technical fighting styles, making the battles feel as if they were games of tag that simply weren''t as satisfying as direct and straightforward brawls.

    Now that Adam was up against an opponent that also excelled in strength and physical resistance, not only was he not ufortable in the slightest, this was right up his alley.

    "Again!" Adam roared in provocation to prevent the anomaly from going after someone else and getting out of his line of sight.

    In contrast with the likes of Clown and Nun, this anomaly had a much simpler and more predictable personality, and it immediately fell for Adam''s provocation, tumbling straight through the hole on the third floor in pursuit of Adam.

    As soon as the sludge anomalynded on the second floor, Adam immediately charged at it again with his carving knife raised.

    This time, he wanted to test out his opponent''s speed. He rushed toward the sludge anomaly, feigning a full-frontal assault as he swiped his knife through the air, then immediately lowered his center of gravity as he rushed over to the anomaly''s side before shing at its abdomen.

    As expected, with its enormous body and itsck of legs, the sludge anomaly wasn''t very agile. Even though it attempted to use its pitchforks to defend itself, it was too slow, and Adam''s carving knife plunged straight into its abdomen.

    However, the attack didn''t seem to have been very effective.

    The sludge anomaly¡¯s defenses weren''t particrly strong, but after Adam plunged his carving knife into its body, the wound quickly healed, and a burst of suction force erupted out of its stomach cavity in an attempt to draw in Adam''s knife and disarm him.

    Adam was greatly rmed by this and hurriedly pulled his knife out in a forceful motion, and it was also right at this moment that his opponent''s pitchforks came plunging down once again.

    In the past, there was no way that Adam would''ve been able to dodge this attack, but after fighting in so many arena matches, he had umted an abundant wealth of battle experience, and his Observation ability allowed him to predict his opponent''s movements in advance, so he was already prepared to take evasive measures before the sludge anomaly''s attack had evenpletely taken shape.

    He quickly turned sideways, allowing him to evade the oing attack, then also altered the course of his attack from a horizontal sh to an upward swipe that was aimed at one of the sludge anomaly''s arms.

    The sludge anomaly''s lower body was entirelyprised of sludge, but the texture of its upper body resembled that of a statue, and in contrast with its thick and bulky abdomen, its arms were obviously far thinner.

    Sure enough, Adam''s quick thinking immediately reaped dividends, and in the face of his all-out attack, the sludge anomaly''s arm was sliced off cleanly before falling onto the ground.

    However, before he had a chance to celebrate this development, an arm suddenly spouted out of the sludge anomaly''s abdomen before sending him flying with a punch.

    Adam flew back through the air and crashed through a pair of ss doors before mbering back to his feet in a luxury store, where he cast his gaze toward his opponent.

    After sending Adam flying with its attack, the sludge anomaly didn''t set off in pursuit to press its advantage. Instead, it picked up the detached arm on the ground before cing it back in its rightful ce.

    As soon as the arm was reattached, the sludge anomaly''s statuesque upper body began to turn as soft as mud, and the two parts of the arm were quickly fused back together again.

    The only minute difference from how the arm had originally been was that the section of the arm that contained the wound seemed to be of a slightly lighter color, but that was truly only the most minor of differences.

    While the sludge anomaly waspleting the arm reattachment, the third arm that had spouted out of its abdomen slowly shrank back into its body, indicating that it clearly couldn''t maintain that form for very long.

    So it possesses regenerative and bodily mutation abilities. That''s about what I expected.

    Adam wasn''t afraid of this opponent, despite the problems that it posed, because he had some experience in fighting simr opponents.

    In order to defeat a sludge entity with outstanding regenerative abilities, the key was to constantly whittle away at its body. In the process, it would be forced to deplete its anomalic power to heal itself, thereby making it weaker and weaker over time. If the circumstances had been right, he should''vepletely destroyed that detached arm. That way, even if the sludge anomaly could grow a new arm, its body would slowly be smaller and smaller.

    Time and patience were the keys to fighting an anomaly of this nature.

    After devising a suitable strategy, Adam raised his carving knife and engaged himself in battle against the sludge anomaly once again.

    A short whileter, he was sent flying back by the anomaly''s pitchforks yet again.

    However, Adam was following an overarching strategy, so he was unfazed by these minor road bumps, and he continued to sh with the sludge anomaly over and over again.

    Over the course of their battle, the entire shopping mall waspletely demolished.

    Both of them possessed immense physical resistance and destructive capabilities, and they were quite massive in stature, so they resembled a pair of tanks that crashed directly through everything in their paths. All of the shops and railings that were unfortunate enough to get in their way were instantly destroyed, and even the walls of the surrounding buildings were smashed through with ease as if they were nothing more than papier-mache structures.

    This battle between giants was truly a stunning visual spectacle to behold, and as the battle wore on, Adam was gradually running out of stamina.

    After over an hour of intense battle, he was beginning to gasp for air.

    In this form, I probably rank somewhere in the lower mid-tier among level three anomalies.

    After warding off another one of his opponent''s attacks, Adam could feel that his stamina was severely depleted. His legs were like jelly, and he felt as if he were treading on cotton. Even the carving knife in his hand had be particrly heavy.

    As for his opponent, its massive frame had also been whittled down significantly during the course of their battle, but overall, it was still in better condition than Adam.

    It seemed that the oue of the battle was about to be decided.

    Both of them werepletely spent forces that had nothing more left to give.

    The sludge anomaly seemed to have identified this, and while Adam was stumbling around unsteadily, it swung its pitchforks down over and over again, not giving Adam a chance to catch his breath as it smashed him deep into the ground.

    Adam was only able to block a few more attacks before his legs gave out from under him, and he copsed down onto the ground.

    The sludge monster immediately adjust its method of attack, stabbing at Adam with its pitchforks to send sparks flying in all directions, but Mummy''s steel-like skin was so hard that the pitchforks weren''t able to inflict much damage at all.

    The sludge anomaly could see that its attacks weren''t very effective, to say the least, so it split off a part of its body to fill the crater that Adam wasying in with sludge, attempting to kill him throughpression and asphyxiation.

    This was a much more effective method of attack, and soon, Adam''s was bing feebler and feebler as he struggled to breathe.

 Chapter 141: Another Level Three Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 141: Another Level Three Anomaly</h4>

    At this rate, Adam was going to be defeated, and he knew that he had to alter his strategy.

    Throughout this entire battle, he hadn''t invoked any of his other anomalies to help him, and the reasons for this were very simple.

    Firstly, encountering an opponent with a simr level of power and simr attributes to himself was quite rare. Such a direct and brutal brawl had contributed a great deal to his umtion of battle experience, and he didn''t want to give up any opportunity to be a more seasoned fighter.

    Secondly, his opponent was a level three anomaly, and aside from Mummy, Adam''s most powerful anomalies were only level two anomalies. A level two anomaly could easily perish in battle against a level three anomaly if he weren''t careful.

    His carelessness had already led to Vampire''s demise, and he didn''t want to waste any more of his invoked entities.

    However, the situation was different now. Just like Adam, the sludge anomaly was apletely spent force, retaining only 20% of its peak power at a generous estimate. At its current level of strength, it was going to struggle even against level two anomalies, so this was the perfect opportunity to call in reinforcements.

    With that in mind, Adam didn''t hesitate any longer as he invoked Distortion, Hellhound, and Nun, in that particr order.

    The first to be invoked was natural Distortion. Itcked the ability to discern friend from foe, but it was also Adam''s most powerful level two anomaly. As soon as it appeared, it immediately pounced onto the sludge anomaly, twisting its body into a distorted ball of sludge.

    The sludge anomaly was fighting to maintain its form with all its might, and one second, it was able to retain its shape, only for its body to bepletely distorted again in the next second.

    It seemed that the two were roughly evenly matched, and thus, a massive ball of constantly shapeshifting sludge had appeared on the ground in the shopping mall.

    The second anomaly to be invoked was Hellhound, and under Adam''s instructions, it sted two jets of mes out of its mouths at the sludge that was sealing the crater that Adam was situated in.

    The scorching temperatures of the mes baked the soft and viscous sludge into hardened chunks, and Adam was able to break apart those y-like chunks to free himself.

    The third anomaly to appear was Nun, and by the time it was invoked, Adam had already freed himself from the pool of sludge. Its job was to attack the sludge anomaly, which was still constantly being twisted and warped by Distortion.

    A torrent of sewage gushed out of its mouth, and the sludge anomaly''s struggles instantly became a lot weaker.

    While the sewage was contaminating its body, it was also being bombarded by Hellound''s Explosive Fireballs.

    In the face of the alternating sewage and fire attacks, the sludge anomaly''s body quickly began to harden and wither away until finally, it fellpletely still.

    Adam approached the hardened pile of sludge, then raised his carving knife before bringing it down in a violent motion to deal the final blow.

    In the face of this relentless assault, the sludge anomaly''s tolerance threshold was finally breached, and it was shattered into a pile of ck, scummy residue.

    Following its demise,rge amounts of anomalic power began to seep out of the sludge anomaly''s remains, and Adam''s anomalies immediately tried to pounce on the feast like a pack of starving wolves presented with a pile of fresh meat. However, Adam didn''t give them the opportunity to enjoy the feast and immediately withdrew all of them back into his body.

    "I''m sorry to do this, but I need to allocate everyst bit of power avable to me as efficiently as possible. Otherwise, I won''t be able to deal with the dangers toe."

    The anomalic power left behind by a level three anomaly was an extremely precious resource, and it would''ve been a downright egregious waste to allow his anomalies to split it among themselves. Only by focusing this power could he achieve big things.

    If Adam were to absorb all of this anomalic power now, it still wouldn''t be enough to trigger an evolution in Mummy, but it would''ve definitely been able to increase Mummy''s powers by twofold. That was clearly a far superior option to allowing a bunch of level two anomalies to split this anomalic power.

    However, Adam didn''t intend to do this. As opposed to enhancing an existing level three anomaly, the better choice was to nurture another level three anomaly.

    Mummy was too cumbersome and limited in its abilities, making it very ill-equipped to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Out of all of his anomalies, Adam wanted to evolve Camera and Nun the most.

    This was because both of these anomalies possessed a diverse range of abilities that could make up for Mummy''s shorings in this area.

    <i>If I had to choose between Camera and Nun, Camera seems like the better option. </i>

    Camera''s abilitiesplemented Adam better than Nun''s did. Firstly, it possessed incredible offensive prowess, able to wound a defensively oriented level three anomaly even while only being a level two anomaly itself.

    Its offensive abilities made it capable of posing a potent threat to opponents of a higher caliber than itself.

    By Adam''s estimations, it would be very difficult for the average level three anomaly to harm the likes of Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko, but Camera was a different story.

    Furthermore, not only was Camera an offensive juggernaut, its abilities were also nothing short of incredible. There was no need to borate on just how amazing its ability to temporarily stop time was, and in addition to that, it also possessed that extremely useful scouting ability.

    With all of these attributes up its sleeve, even if couldn''t defeat an opponent in an initial sh, it would still be able to secure useful information on the enemy.

    The only problem was that this anomaly''s attributes were extremely skewed.

    In stark contrast with its incredible offensive prowess, its defenses were pitifully weak, making it a bona fide ss cannon. Adam recalled that even as a level two anomaly, its defenses were still inferior to those of a half-anomaly. Its body was so fragile that it was virtually a walking house of cards.

    Despite all of that, it''s still the most suitable option.

    After some extensive contemtion, Adam still decided to invoke Camera in the end.

    Due to the fact that it had only just been captured, it was still in its infantile form, standing at only around the same height as a small child. Its thin body was supporting a disproportionatelyrge camera head, presenting a rather adorable sight to behold.

    "Eat up."

    Camera didn''t require any encouragement from Adam as it instinctively pounced onto the anomalic power as soon as it caught a whiff, eagerly devouring the feast as quickly as it could.

    As it continued to absorb anomalic power, its stature also began to grow, swelling to around 180 centimeters in height, while the delicate little sprouts on its arms also transformed into a pair of scythes.

    Looks like it''s already be a level one anomaly.

    At a certain point, the anomalic power being absorbed by Camera seemed to have reached a certain threshold, and its body elongated once again, this time exceeding two meters in height. At the same time, its scythe arms had also be sharper, but its entire body had a rather grayplexion, most likely due to the influence of the sludge anomaly.

    However, this wasn''t a cause for concern.

    As it continued to absorb anomalic power, Adam was unconsciously growing a little anxious.

    He recalled that the first time Hellhound and Mummy evolved, they were unable to absorb further anomalic power after a certain point. It was as if they were full and were unable to digest any more.

    However, thankfully, Camera was a level two anomaly to begin with, so Adam was confident that it should''ve been able to evolve further.

    Adam looked on with bated breath as all of the anomalic power on the ground was finallypletely devoured, but Camera showed no signs of reaching the limits of its absorption capacity, and it began to evolve on the spot.

    This time, it didn''t grow any further in stature. Instead, its body had taken on a slightly blurry and transparent appearance, much like an assassin hiding in the shadows or a soldier in camouge uniform, allowing it to blend in with its surroundings.

    At the same time, its scythe arms had also grown sharper, and even Adam couldn''t help but feel intimidated by the menacing gleam that they were giving off.

    "Is the evolution processplete? Here, take a swipe at me."

    .

    Adam was ecstatic to witness Camera''s growth, and he extended an arm forward with the intention of testing out Camera''s powers in its current form.

 Chapter 142: The Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Object

    <h4>Chapter 142: The Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Object</h4>

    Adam was very confident in his own defensive capabilities. Even after enduring such a lengthy battle against the sludge anomaly, he hadn''t suffered any substantial damage, and not a single grievous wound had been sustained.

    Of course, he was also very confident in Camera''s offensive capabilities.

    It was the ssic showdown between the unstoppable force and the immovable object, and anyone would be eager to find out the answer to the question of which one woulde out on top.

    Adam knew that Camera wasn''t very intelligent, so he cautioned, "Don''t attack my body, just swipe at my arm."

    As soon as his voice trailed off, Camera immediately sprang into action. All Adam could see was a blur sh in front of his eyes before Camera was already upon him.

    Its extreme speed and its semi-transparent body made its attacks as stealthy as they were lethal.

    A sh of light swept past Adam''s eyes as Camera''s scythe-like arm came shing down.

    Even though Adam''s original intention was to take the attack head-on, he still reflexively raised his arm in self-defense, and as a result, the attack that was originally aimed at his forearm struck him on the hand instead.

    A loud screeching sound akin to the noise made by metal grating on metal rang out, but the sound was very short and sharp, ringing out only for an instant amid a flurry of sparks before abruptly cutting off.

    Adam focused his gaze onto his hand to find that half of his palm had been sliced open, and Camera''s scythe arm was currently caught between the base of the bones of his index and middle fingers.

    Both Adam and Camera were quite shocked to see this. Camera was staring at Adam with its lens-like eyes, as if it were wondering why its scythe arm had gotten stuck rather than slicing straight through Adam''s hand, while Adam was astonished because no other anomaly of the same level as Mummy had ever been able to inflict so much damage upon it with just a single attack.

    If this blow hadnded on his neck, half of his neck would''ve been sliced open!

    "That was incredible!"

    Adam plucked out the scythe arm with his other hand while looking at Camera with an ted expression.

    Prior to this, he had no confidence whatsoever in his ability to secure victory in the battle royale, but with this trump card up his sleeve, he had finally managed to muster up some confidence.

    Even Oni no Hanzou or Oni no Miko would be sure to severe injuries from an attack like this! The problem is that if Camera can''t kill them with a single strike, they would be able to destroy it with ease in retaliation, considering how fragile it is.

    Adam gently bumped into Camera''s body to gauge its physical resistance, only to find that it was still as frail as ever.

    Given how extremely skewed its attributes were, Camera was a trump card that could only be used as a surprise unit.

    Now''s not the time to be thinking about things like this. In any case, I''ve already gotten a lot out of today. It''s time to leave this ce.

    Adam had already wasted far too much time in his battle against the sludge anomaly. At the moment, his physical body was still on someone else''s territory, so as a safety precaution, he decided that it was best to leave the psychic world right away.

    As soon the urge to leave arose in his mind, the connection was instantly severed, and Adam''s consciousness returned to his body as he slowly opened his eyes.

    Liu Shouyi was still situated directly in front of him, and Adam didn''t know what Crocodile had done to put Liu Shouyi into his unconscious state, but he still hadn''t woken up.

    This man was harboring too many secrets, and Adam had no intentions of sharing those secrets with anyone else. He couldn''t shake the feeling that the Metaverse, Madam Tree, the human farm, and the upper echelons of human society were all somehow interconnected with one another.

    .

    In other words, if he wanted to unravel the secrets surrounding his own past, it was definitely an option to follow these leads and gradually work his way up to the top.

    With that in mind, he opened the door.

    "Holy shit, it''s almost nighttime right now! Why were you in there for so long? You didn''t fuck him, did you?" Crocodile had already been standing outside the room on lookout duty for a long time, and as soon as he spotted Adam, he immediately began toin. "If you hadn''t told me not to disturb you, I would''ve gone in ages ago! You better tell me you found out some useful things after spending so much time in there!"

    "Well..."

    "Don''t tell me there''s no money to be made! I''m gonna lose it if you made me wait out here all this time for nothing!"

    "There''s definitely money to be made. He''s got quite a bit of wealth under his name, but there''s some more information that I want to dig out of him. How about this? I''ll give you some money in private, and you make sure he doesn''t cut up. Deal?"

    Adam''s original n was to take Liu Shouyi back with him, but he was dealing with a lot of trouble and could find himself in danger at any moment, so it was better to leave Liu Shouyi with Crocodile.

    "Do you think I''m stupid?" Crocodile scoffed with a disdainful sneer. "I''m a big guy, and I''m probably too honest for my own good, but I''m not stupid! There''s definitely more money to be made from him if you want to keep him. I''m not asking for much, all I want is half of what you''ll be getting out of him."

    "I''m telling you the truth, all I want is to find out some more information from him."

    "I don''t believe you."

    "How can I make you believe me?"

    "I won''t believe you no matter what you say, but I can believe anything you tell me as long as you give me enough money." Crocodile held up a pair of fingers, then quickly raised a third finger as well. "Give me 2... No, 3,000,0000! Give me 3,000,000, and I''ll keep him for you. You can do whatever you want with him, it''ll be none of my business."

    "Alright, I can do that, but I don''t have enough money on my at the moment." Adam had earned quite a bit of money from the matches he had been fighting in, but 3,000,000 was still toorge a sum for him to fork out at once. "I''m about to go up a tier in the tournament soon, and as I''m sure you''re aware, moneyes really fast from fighting in these matches. I''ll transfer you a deposit, you look after him for me in exchange. There''s no need to keep him locked up, just let him live here like a normal person."

    "Sure thing. As long as you pay up, I''m open to anything, but you have to make the transfer now!"

    After transferring the money to Crocodile''s ount, Adam asked him to rouse Liu Shouyi from his unconscious state.

    They had used a special concoction to knock him unconscious, and he quickly woke up after sniffing some type of chemical powder.

    "Who are you?" Anyone would be given quite a fright if they were to suddenly wake up in an unfamiliar environment with a bunch of menacing-looking thugs around them, and Liu Shouyi was no exception. "What''s going on?"

    "What''s going on? Didn''t you know what you were getting yourself into when you decided toe to Shadow City?"

    "I did hear that this is awless ce..."

    "That''s right! Under normal circumstances, someone like you who came to the city without a guide should currently be on an operating table, getting their organs removed, but there are some things that we want to ask you first."

    As opposed to being fearful of the prospect of having his organs harvested, Liu Shouyi seemed to rx a little instead, and he sighed, "Someone like me deserves to suffer such a fate."

    "That may be true, but surely you don''t want to die now, right?"

    Prior to the eradication of the sludge anomaly, Adam fully believed that Liu Shouyi was prepared to die. In his past experience, Adam knew that a level three anomaly was already enough to drive someone to suicide.

    For the average person, a level three anomaly was generally the limit of what one could tolerate.

    Nun had been a level three anomaly, and its presence in Li Qi''s consciousness had been enough to drive him to suicide on multiple asions.

    Compared with Li Qi, Liu Shouyi''s psychological burden was even more severe, so it was only to be expected that he had severe suicidal tendencies.

    However, now that the anomaly had already been destroyed...

    Liu Shouyi faltered momentarily upon hearing this question, and he was surprised to find that he seemed to be in a far better mental state than he had been in for quite some time. "I... I''m not sure..."

    "I''m an adapter, and I''ve already cured you of your mental illness," Adam revealed. "Now, I have a few questions that I need you to answer."

 Chapter 143: Mysterious Individual

    <h4>Chapter 143: Mysterious Individual</h4>

    Adam gave Crocodile a subtle nce as he spoke.

    "You want me to leave again, right? Fine! He already paid up, so we gotta do what he says. Let''s get out of here!"

    Following Crocodile''s departure, Adam turned back to Liu Shouyi, and Liu Shouyi was also looking at him as he asked, "What do you want to ask?"

    "I want ?to ask some questions about the Gaia Corporation."

    Liu Shouyi''s expression instantly stiffened upon hearing the words "Gaia Corporation", as if some terrifying memories that were branded deep in his mind had been brought to the surface.

    "Who are you?"

    "I''m nobody."

    Adam contemted the situation momentarily, and he realized that if he didn''t reveal anything about himself, then there was no way that he would''ve been to secure Liu Shouyi''s trust. All Liu Shouyi would think would be that Adam was an employee of the Gaia Corporation who was trying to coax him into saying something he shouldn''t.

    "To tell you the truth, I''m a nk te. I''m sure you''ve heard that term before, right?"

    "I have. My brother told me that those who are wealthy enough can have nk tes arranged to achieve immortality."

    "Who''s arranging those nk tes? The Gaia Corporation?"

    Liu Shouyi fell silent once again.

    "Come with me. I''ll show you some of my experiences to prove to you that I''m telling the truth."

    Adam dragged Liu Shouyi into his own psychic world as he spoke, and there, he showed Liu Shouyi some of his memories, including his awakening in that underground chamber, the ordeal that he had suffered after being tricked into an underground passage inhabited by the homeless man, his first encounter with Red Spider...

    Trust was the most important factor behind the facilitation of interpersonalmunication, and information symmetry was the foundation of trust.

    After showing some of his experiences to Liu Shouyi, Adam was naturally able to gain partial trust from him.

    "So you really aren''t from the Gaia Organization..." Liu Shouyi was looking a lot more rxed after exiting the psychic world. "You''re a nk te... It looks like you''ve had it far rougher than I did."

    "That''s why I want to know all of the secrets behind me. Does the Gaia Organization have anything to do with nk tes?"

    "I don''t know." Even though the response was still "I don''t know", Liu Shouyi was clearly being far more earnest. "I''m just an employee, I don''t get to see any of the things that the higher-ups get up to. However, I''m almost certain that some of the senior leaders of our corporation have switched bodies at one point or another.

    ¡°asionally, a senior leadership position in the corporation would suddenly be given to apletely fresh face, but they seem to know everything from day one on the job, including even manypany secrets andplex programs. The only difference between them and their predecessors is that they''re younger and even better at what they do. In the past, I was always perplexed by this, but if I''m not mistaken, they''ve all used nk tes before."

    Adam nodded in response, then asked, "Do you remember a woman by the name of Madam Tree?"

    "Madam Tree? Who''s that?"

    Adam could tell that Liu Shouyi''s puzzled expression waspletely genuine, and he knew that the memory containing Madam Tree in his mind really had disappeared like a popped bubble. Hence, he decided to phrase the question differently. "Have you encountered any other adapters since you left the Gaia Corporation? Alternatively, have you sought out any adapter psychotherapists to treat your condition?"

    "No. I came straight here after I was fired."

    .

    "Are you sure?"

    "I''m certain," Liu Shouyi replied in an affirmative voice.

    "Why did you choose toe to Shadow City?"

    "Because the concept of immortality doesn''t exist here. I''ve heard that this is a very chaotic ce, but an internalwork is being used here, and the residents of this city are prohibited from logging into the Metaverse. In my eyes, this is a clean and pure ce."

    "This ce is clean and pure? You''re just asking to have your kidneys harvested now!"

    "At the very least, there''s no systemic fraud going on here. Even if I did end up dying in this city, I was willing to ept my fate."

    Given that Liu Shouyi''s mental condition was so severe that it was enough to give rise to a level three anomaly, it was no wonder that he held his life in so little regard.

    At that point, the mental baggage was simply too much to bear for the average person, and it would either drive them to suicide or insanity.

    "You mentioned you were fired, is that correct?"

    Thinking back to the Gaia Corporation''s strategies and processes, Adam realized that it was a truly seamless system.

    They used adapters to conduct periodic psychoanalysis on their employees, then altered the memories of the employees that they deemed to be problematic.

    Even after those memories were altered, they were still concerned that the values of those employees and the corporation''s values didn''t align, so those employees had to be fired.

    That was already threeyers of security, and additionally, the power, influence, and control that the Gaia Corporation held over the information on the inte acted as a fourth safety.

    No one could find any negative press about them on the inte.

    Thus, there was no external controversy directed at the corporation, and all of its internal problems were ironed out through the aforementioned foolproof process. It was truly a near-perfect system.

    "Did you really feel like there was no one helping you from inside the corporation?"

    "Who could''ve possibly been helping me?"

    "How about your brother?"

    "He''s still working for the corporation, and he feelspletely fine about it. He doesn''t think he''s doing anything wrong, and he warned me not to get in the way of him earning money," Liu Shouyi sighed.

    It seemed that in the end, the two brothers had ultimately gone their separate ways due to their conflicting values.

    Adam had asked all of the questions that he wanted to have answered, but he still felt no closer to unraveling the mystery.

    However, this hadn''t been an entirely fruitless endeavor.

    At the very least, he had been tipped off to the fact that there was a mysterious adapter or an unknown group in the Gaia Corporation that was sabotaging thepany from the inside.

    Adam had encountered a mysterious helper in the Metaverse before as well, and if he weren''t mistaken, those two entities were most likely one and the same.

    As for exactly who this person or these people were, Adam had no idea, and Liu Shouyi was clearly alsopletely in the dark. Adam was nning to ask them directly the next time he met them.

    "Alright, I''ve asked all the questions I want to ask. You can stay and live here from now on. I''ve already asked Crocodile to ensure your safety."

    Adam patted Liu Shouyi on the shoulder before getting up to depart. Liu Shouyi was still useful to him, but not right now. At the moment, his top priority was to clear his own name so that he was no longer a wanted fugitive.

    Whatever that mysterious entity was, they had informed him that the footage was in Shadow City. Now that he was aware of what this mysterious entity had been doing in the Gaia Corporation, he became even more convinced that the information that they had provided was reliable.

    "I''m off."

    Adam promptly departed after quickly bidding farewell to Crocodile.

    ¡­¡­

    In theing days, Adam continued to fight in arena matches while also requesting the Green Gang, Crocodile, and Red Turtle to continue searching for potentially suitable subjects for him.

    However, the search wasn''t progressing very smoothly, and the matches also weren''t going to very well.

    Hailey had once told Adam that given the power he had disyed, he would''ve only been able to reach the B tier at the very most. Of course, at the time, Adam had concealed most of his power.

    However, at this point, he really was beginning to experience difficulties.

    Upon reaching the B tier, the overall level of his opponents had reached quite a lofty standard, and it was often the case that he would find himself enduring grueling battles during his matches.

    Even though he was still able to maintain a spotless win record, Hailey and all of the spectators could see that he was already close to reaching his limits.

    In particr, on this day, he was fighting in a match for promotion to the A tier, and his opponent was also a B tierbatant with a spotless record.

    This was a very heavily anticipated match. People enjoyed seeing powerfulbatants going on lengthy win streaks, but they were even more eager to see a long win streak being snapped.

    The tragic disappointment of someone''s path to sess being brutally cut short made for a brilliant narrative that was sure to draw inrge crowds.

    The organizers of the event were clearly also well aware of this, and they made sure to spare no expense in promoting the match. As a result, on the day of the match, the entire stadium was already packed to the rafters by the time Adam arrived.

 Chapter 144: Iron Man

    <h4>Chapter 144: Iron Man</h4>

    "I didn''t think that there would be so many people."

    Adam inspected his surroundings as he made his way into the arena with Hailey. This was the A tier arena, which had over 10,000 seats, every single one of which had been filled.

    "Of course there''d be a lot of people! The organizers have been promoting this match for a long time, and it''s a promotion match, so it''s been granted special permission to be held in the A tier arena. Aside from the S tier matches being held in the main stadium, A tier matches are the highest level ofpetition," Hailey exined. "Also, don''t you feel like you''re focusing on the wrong things?"

    "What do you mean?"

    "The opponent you''re going to be facing is someone who''s also been able to maintain a spotless record in the B tier. Have you seen footage of his matches?"

    "I have, he''s pretty strong."

    "He''s not just pretty strong, he''s stronger than you!" Hailey said in an exasperated voice. "In yourst few matches, you''ve already been pushed very close to your limits. All of them were very close wins."

    "You''re right, my opponent''s really strong, and my wins have been quite close recently."

    Combatants who ranked near the top of the B tier were already quite formidable, roughlyparable with upper mid-tier level two anomalies.

    In his fused state with Nun, Adam was roughly around that level at a slight stretch.

    Even in the outside world,batants of this caliber would''ve been viewed as mature adapters.

    Previously, Adam hadn''t revealed any of his trump cards because he was afraid of blowing his cover in front of Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko, and now, he was still holding back in order to train himself. Crushing his opponents with brute strength was never going to allow him to improve his technical proficiency.

    "Your victories were close, but your opponent''s victories certainly weren''t! At the very least, his powers would ce him in the upper mid-range of the A tier. I already told you that you could''ve avoided this battle, then fought three or four more opponents near the bottom of the B tier, and you could''ve still earned promotion..."

    "That''s too slow. I don''t get enough points, and there''s too little money on offer as well."

    "You''re going to regret not listening to your manager!" Having hung out with Adam for so long, Hailey had developed a good grasp on his personality, and over time, her attitude toward Adam had be far more casualpared with the respect that she had treated him with in the beginning. "Just you wait! Don''te crying to me after you get the crap beaten out of you!"

    "Don''t worry, I''ll win for sure."

    While Adam was speaking, another wave ofmotion rang out within the arena as his opponent stepped onto the stage.

    Compared with Adam, his opponent clearly had more support, and the spectators in the stands were loudly chanting his name. It was clear that many of them had already cedrge bets on him.

    "Iron Man! Iron Man! Iron Man!"

    "Get him, Iron Man! Fuck him up!"

    This time, Adam''s opponent was a legitimate adapter, rather than a normal person boosting their neuron functions through the use of external devices.

    It was clear from the tattoos on his face that he was a local adapter to Shadow City, and that was one of the reasons why he was so popr.

    He had the standard deranged and chaotic disposition unique to the local residents of Shadow City, and as soon as he appeared in the arena, he immediately gulped down some type of strange beverage with a very high alcoholic content, then pulled out a lighter and forcefully spitting out the beverage into the open me.

    The me instantly rose up to over half a meter tall, and he leaped into the ring as he cackled maniacally.

    He then looked down upon Adam, who still hadn''t gotten into the ring yet, and he yelled, "If you beg for mercy now, I can spare your life! Otherwise, I''m going to tear off all of your limbs and turn you into a braindead vegetable!"

    "Is there a screw loose up there?"

    Adam raised an eyebrow as he tapped the side of his own head in a provocative gesture, partly for theatrical effect, and also to bring his opponent down a notch.

    Momentum and confidence were integral to the power of one''s persona, and the difference in a pair ofbatants'' respective levels of confidence could have a substantial effect on their powers in the psychic world.

    Having already fought in so many matches, Adam was already familiar with this type of pre-match ritual.

    "How are you going to tear off my limbs? Using that big mouth of yours? Well, I''ve got an extra limb between my legs, do you want to suck that one off as well?" Adam sneered as he also jumped into the ring.

    His provocative words were audible to everyone in the entire arena through the loudspeakers, and all of the spectators burst into raucousughter.

    Iron Man immediately erupted into a fit of fury upon hearing this. "What the fuck did you say? I''m..."

    "Calm down!" his manager yelled from below the ring. "You''re going to lose control if you allow yourself to get angry! Stay calm and get him back during the match!"

    "You''re right." Iron Man pointed a finger directly at Adam''s nose as he spat through gritted teeth, "I''m going to kill you even if I get fined for it, you hear me?"

    He then slid his thumb over his own throat in a slitting gesture as he spoke.

    "Come kill me if you can!"

    "Does he have a death wish?" Hailey was on the verge of tears after hearing Adam''s constant provocation. "Just fight the match as normal, there''s no need to get up to all these theatrics! These spectators are just here for a show, they don''t care what happens to you! He''s actually going to kill you if you keep this up! We have to forfeit this match. I''ll go find the stadium employees..."

    "Hey, don''t do that..."

    "What are you guys doing?"

    Right at this moment, Shae casually made her way into the arena from outside.

    "Why did you only just get here?"

    "What''s the problem? I went to go get some ice cream. I gotta admit, the ice cream here in Shadow City is the best I''ve ever had, especially that blood explosion vor. What type of fruit did they use for that? It''s got a really rich vor. Here, I bought you one as well."

    Shae offered an ice cream to Hailey as she spoke.

    "Now''s not time to be eating ice cream! He''s about to get beaten to death!"

    "Why are you such a pessimist?" Shae asked with a nonchnt shrug.

    "He can''t beat Iron Man!"

    "I''ve seen the footage of Iron Man''s matches. He''s pretty strong, but he won''t beat Adam. Don''t worry."

    "You..."

    ¡­¡­

    While the two of them were bickering with one another, the host had already taken the stage. This was a very important match, and he didn''t want anything to go wrong, so after stepping onto the stage, he immediately began to stir up the emotions of the spectators.

    "I think I heard someone crying just now. Who''s crying, you ask? It''s Lean Mean Killing Machine''s manager, of course! The little girl''s crying because she''s scared that her fighter''s about to die!"

    All of the spectators burst intoughter once again to cut off Hailey mid-sentence. Even though she was a very professional manager, she was still just a kid, and hearing so many peopleugh at her made her feel as if she were being burned at the stake, leaving her unsure of whether to respond or not.

    In the end, all she managed toe up with was an indignant "I didn''t cry!"

    The spectators were even more amused upon hearing this.

    Seeing as he had managed to sessfully distract Hailey from pulling out of the match, the host hurriedly cut to the chase. "Alright, this match has been hyped up for days now, and I don''t want to waste everyone''s time with more talking. All of you paid money to watch these two fight, not to hear me talk, so without further ado,batants, are you ready?"

    "I can already smell blood in the air."

    Iron Man licked his lips as he glowered at Adam with an intense murderous look in his bloodshot eyes.

    "Is it the smell of your own blood?" Adam retorted as he flexed his neck from side to side. "Hurry up and begin the match!"

    "Alright, let''s get this show on the road! Switch on the projectors, and let the fight begin!"

 Chapter 145: Crying

    <h4>Chapter 145: Crying</h4>

    With that loud announcement from the host, Adam and Iron Man were connected through the machine, following which the venue for the fight was decided.

    This time, the match was to take ce in an ancient abandoned steel mill.

    The main attraction of this setting was that there were many pieces of steel-making equipment littered throughout the area that could be used in battle, and there were also many steel furnaces that hadn''t cooled down yet.

    These steel furnaces were the only reason why Adam was receiving any bets at all.

    In the eyes of most of the spectators and analysts, Adam had virtually no chance of beating Iron Man. There was simply far too vast a disparity in the powers that they had put on disy during their recent matches leading up to this one, and everyone was of the opinion that Adam''s fate was already sealed.

    However, in his fused form with Nun, Adam had disyed many remarkable abilities, such as Lights Out, Fountain of Contamination, and Disconcerting Screech, which had allowed him to defeat opponents more powerful than himself on multiple asions.

    For this match, those who had ced their bets on Adam were more so cing their bets on the venue rather than on Adam himself.

    As soon as the pair ofbatants entered the ring, a pair of "professional gamblers" in the stands immediately began their analysis.

    "That something killing machine guy is a pretty mediocre fighter. Even if he makes it to the A tier, he''ll be ranked near the bottom. Even if Iron Man just stands still and lets him attack, I don''t think he''ll be able to break through Iron Man''s defenses. His only chance at victory is to push Iron Man into one of those steel furnaces. This venue was only chosen to give him a slim chance."

    "Exactly! The odds on him 1:6, it''s well worth the gamble! These spectators are all idiots!"

    "If everyone was a genius, then no one would be a genius!"

    "That Lights Out ability and those steel furnaces make for the perfectbo!"

    ¡­¡­

    Indeed, that was also Adam''s strategy going into this match.

    After fusing with Nun, he began to search for his opponent, making sure to keep himself well concealed in the process.

    This was an old steel mill from over 100 years ago, so it wasn''t veryrge, but it certainly wasn''t a small area, either, and it wasn''t that easy to find someone in here.

    However, all of a sudden, Iron Man began yelling in a provocative voice, instantly exposing his location.

    "Come on out, you little shit! Stop hiding! I''m right here,e and get me!"

    After hearing Iron Man''s provocation, Adam suddenly didn''t want to hide anymore, either.

    He was here to hone his battle techniques, and even though sneak attacks were also one of those techniques, he was also starting to get a little angry at his opponent''s constant provocation.

    "Fine, you want a fight, then a fight is what you''ll get!"

    With that, Adam also revealed his own location.

    ¡­¡­

    "Oh god, he''s an idiot!" Hailey and all of the spectators who had ced their bets on Adam were inplete despair upon seeing this. "How could he challenge Iron Man to a direct confrontation?"

    "What the fuck is he doing? Who the fuck does he think he is?"

    "He''s a match-fixer! He''s throwing the match on purpose!"

    "We want our money back!"

    ¡­¡­

    There were very few people in Shadow City who dared to dabble in match-fixing because the consequences were simply far too dire. Match-fixers could be beaten to death by angry spectators, and if they were to fall into the hands of the director, they would suffer an even worse fate, forced to endure the most horrific torture imaginable.

    Hence, even though everyone was using Adam of match-fixing, no one was actually serious about those usations.

    In the psychic world, Adam casually swaggered over to Iron Man and caught his first glimpse of his opponent.

    It was an imposing and menacing figure whose entire body was giving off a metallic sheen.

    In fact, his entire body was made from metal.

    "You''ve got some guts, I''ll give you that. I''ll grant you a quick and painless death."

    Iron Man was a hulking figure who stood at over 3.5 meters in height, and bands of muscles of steel were bunched together all over his entire body, giving him the appearance of an impregnable fortress.

    Adam paid no heed to any of this as he charged directly at his opponent. He wanted to see exactly how powerful Iron Man was.

    As he rushed forward, sharp ws sprang out of his fingertips, and he used the momentum built up in his forward charge to sh at his opponent.

    This was an all-out attack from a level two anomaly, and the average person would''ve definitely had their abdomen torn into ribbons, or even had their entire body sliced into shreds, but Adam''s ws could only raise a few trails of sparks and leave several faint marks after shing over Iron Man''s body.

    "Is that all you''ve got?" Iron Man didn''t bother to take evasive measures, and he didn''t even retaliate as he looked down at the faint marks scratched onto his body. "How did someone like you get assigned to be my opponent? Show me what else you''ve got!"

    "dly!"

    Adam waspletely unfazed by his failed attack. Seeing as his opponent possessed outstanding physical defenses, he would just have to attack through alternative means.

    He leaped up into the air before unleashing his Fountain of Contamination ability, releasing a torrent of sewage out of his mouth that rained down all over Iron Man''s body.

    This attack was far more effective, and Iron Man began to be eroded by the sewage as the metal on the surface of his body began to ke amid a string of loud sizzling, while plumes of dense smoke rose up from his body, giving the impression that Adam had truly gotten the better of his opponent.

    However, Adam knew that the effects of the attack were far from ideal.

    Sure enough, even before the smoke hadpletely faded, Iron Man''s mocking voice rang out once again.

    "That was a decent attack, but if you want to kill me with that attack, you''ll have to shower me with it over and over again for years on end!"

    At the same time, Iron Man finallyshed out with his huge fists of steel, and Adam was able to dodge the first wave of attacks, but the barrage of punches came thick and fast in a relentless assault.

    Thankfully, Iron Man''s speed was far inferior to its defensive prowess, and Adam was able to roll along the ground to dodge several more punches, while also luring in Iron Man until he was situated right beneath a steel furnace.

    There, he immediately activated his Lights Out ability without any hesitation, and the entire area was instantly plunged into darkness.

    Immediately thereafter, a loud crack rang out as Adam''s ws pierced through the steel furnace beside him, releasing the red-hot molten steel inside, which came cascading down onto Iron Man like a waterfall.

    Iron Man''s head turned bright red from the scorching molten steel, and as he waved his arms to scatter the molten steel, countless specks of burning steel were also sprayed onto Adam, inflicting burns onto several parts of his body.

    However, his injuries were nowhere near as severe as his opponent''s.

    ¡­¡­

    "That''s it! Keep doing that!"

    The spectators who had ced their bets on Adam were finally beginning to find their voices again.

    However, everyone quickly came to realize that the situation was no better than before.

    Iron Man''s defenses were far more formidable than everyone had imagined, and the molten steel had been unable to aplish anything aside from scorch his skin bright red. After the scorching temperatures slowly subsided, it was revealed that he hadn''t sustained much damage at all.

    "It''s over!"

    At this point, Hailey was already crying out loud.

    She wasn''t crying when the host was mocking her just now, it no longer mattered to her whether she was embarrassing herself or not, all she wanted was for Adam to survive.

    "We surrender! We''re backing out of the match!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

    However, the host paid no heed to her. This was the brutal nature of the matches in Shadow City. If anyone could just pull out midway through a match, then there wouldn''t have been so many casualties.

    "Don''t cry, Hailey. It''s alright, he''s not going to lose."

    "He''s going to die!" Hailey was bawling her eyes out at this point. "Do you have no heart? How are you still so calm?"

    "Because he still has more tricks up his sleeve. Don''t cry, just keep watching," Shae consoled as she gently stroked Hailey''s hair.

    Sure enough, something was happening in the psychic world.

 Chapter 146: Whos the Real Iron Man?

    <h4>Chapter 146: Who''s the Real Iron Man?</h4>

    Inside the psychic arena, Iron Man was rubbing his own red-hot head as he shook off the remaining molten steel off his body, then slowly began to approach Adam.

    "You''ve used up all of your tricks now, right? You should be able to pass on without any regrets now!" Iron Man sneered in a mocking voice, much like a cat toying with a mouse that was on the verge of death.

    He wasn''t in a hurry to kill Adam. Instead, he wanted to vent his fury. He wanted to get payback for all of Adam''s pesky provocation and for embarrassing him in front of so many people.

    Of course, that was only the reason that was presented on the surface, but it wasn''t the most important reason.

    Everyone was here to fight matches, and some trash-talk was inevitable, but no real vendettas ever arose just from trash-talking alone. His main objective for doing this was to establish his dominance and send a message to everyone.

    He knew that if he wanted to stand out after being promoted to the A tier, then he had to draw more attention to himself by disying both power and personality.

    He had chosen to make brutality his foremost personality trait.

    Only with a personality that stood out would he attract sufficient attention, and therefore be able to earn more from his matches.

    "Get over here. It''s time for me to carry out my promise and tear your limbs off one by one!"

    Iron Man abruptly elerated as he spoke, charging directly at Adam as he reached out with his massive steel hands.

    Using his Observation ability, Adam was able to easily predict his opponent''s attack, and he sprang up into the air, leaping onto another steel furnace, then reverted back to his base form as he withdrew Nun into his body.

    "Has he given up?"

    Many of the spectators were aware of Adam''s ability to transform, and Iron Man had naturally also gathered this information prior to the match.

    It wasn''t particrly remarkable to see an adapter capable of transforming. There were certain adapters with mutation abilities, and those abilities were used to enhance their bodies.

    Generally speaking, rescinding such an ability meant reverting back to a weaker form.

    "It''s not gonna help even if you beg for mercy now. I already said that I''m going to tear off all of your limbs, and I have to go through with it. Otherwise, people will think that I only make empty threats in the ring."

    Standing under the steel furnace, Iron Man cracked his metallic knuckles one by one, and the spectators outside were all of the opinion that the match was as good as over.

    All of the spectators who had ced their bets on Adam were kicking themselves for allowing themselves to be fooled by his spotless record, while Hailey was begging Shae to tell her what other trump cards Adam had up his sleeve.

    "I know he likes to hide his true power, but there''s such a huge gap between him and his opponent. Is his trump card really going to be enough to allow him to win?" Hailey asked in a concerned voice. "Iron Man''s physical resistance is far superior even to what the footage of his previous matches suggests. Even molten steel isn''t able to melt through his skin, what could possibly break through his defenses?"

    "Just wait and see."

    Shae was intentionally teasing Hailey. The more agitated Hailey became, the more Shae focused on her ice cream, and she refused to tell Hailey where her confidence wasing from.

    Hailey felt like a cat on a hot tin roof, sweating profusely as she stared at the projector with an anxious expression.

    ¡­¡­

    Inside the psychic arena.

    After reverting back to his base form, Adam was standing on the scorching steel furnace, looking down at Iron Man from above.

    "Let me ask you a question."

    "Go ahead."

    "Are you really nning to kill me?"

    "I never go back on my word!"

    "I see. In that case, I won''t hold back, either."

    "What kind of nonsense are you spouting now? Do you really think..."

    All of a sudden, Iron Man''s voice trailed off midsentence as he noticed Adam undergoing a transformation.

    His body began to swell rapidly in size, and bandages that looked as if they were made from steel began to appear all around him. Within the span of no more than just a few moments, he had already transformed into a giant mummy.

    "You''ve got more than one type of mutation?"

    Iron Man was astonished to see this, and the disinterested spectators were also reinvigorated.

    "Let me see what this new form of yours can do!"

    Iron Man sprang up into the air as he spoke, then threw a punch straight into Adam''s face, sending him flying off the steel furnace.

    In the face of an unknown opponent, Iron Man didn''t dare to get cocky, and after sending Adam flying back through the air, he immediately sprang forward in pursuit, barreling straight into Adam in mid-air before straddling him as he continued to rain down punches.

    His fists came crashing down in a relentless and ferocious barrage, and every single one of his punches struck Adam in the face.

    His attacks were so devastatingly powerful that the concrete ground beneath Adam''s head was being violently pulverized.

    "He doesn''t seem that strong in this form, either."

    "It looks a little clumsy."

    "Is it not able to retaliate?"

    The spectators were also quite stunned to see this.

    At the very least, Adam had disyed impressive speed in his first form, and he was able to retaliate using his sharp ws and the waves of sewage that he was capable of throwing up, but in this second form, it seemed like he was nothing more than an oversized punching bag.

    While the majority of the spectators werepletely perplexed by what they were seeing, Hailey noticed something interesting.

    She rubbed her eyes to wipe away the tears that were blurring her vision, then carefully peered into the projector, scrutinizing the parts of Adam''s body that were withstanding his opponent''s attacks.

    As a result, she saw that even though the ground beneath Adam''s head was being shattered by the force of his opponent''s punches, neither his face nor the back of his head seemed to have sustained any damage.

    Inside the psychic arena, Iron Man was also beginning to develop the sense that something was not quite right.

    Not only was his opponent''s head not giving at all under his punches, his fists were beginning to throb with pain.

    "Is this a damage reflection cyberhex?"

    Iron Man was quite a seasoned fighter, and as soon as he realized that something was wrong, he immediately sprang up into the air, jumping back to several meters away from Adam before inspecting his own fists.

    As a result, he discovered that his fists were riddled with small indentations, as if they had been struck repeatedly by a hammer, and two of his fingers were already slightly warped.

    "What kind of ability is this? This is a damage reflection cyberhex!"

    For the first time, a hint of panic appeared on Iron Man''s face.

    Adam slowed stood up from the ground, then dusted off his own head as he remarked, "Is it possible that you exerted too much force in your punches and injured yourself as a result"

    "I exerted too much force?" Iron Man thought back to the sequence that had just transpired, and he realized that he had indeed used his full power in all of his punches due to the unknown nature of his opponent. "What does that have to do with how my fingers got injured? What kind of ability did you use?"

    Iron Man was clearly trying to coax information out of him, and Adam duly obliged.

    "Is it possible that your fists are too soft, while my head is too hard?"

    In terms of defensive prowess, Iron Man had never encountered another opponent of the same level superior to him.

    Unbeknownst to him, he wasn''t even on the same level as Adam in his current form.

    Iron Man wasn''t very fast. In fact, he wasn''t even as fast as Nun, and his abilities were also very limited. Essentially, he was a downgraded version of Mummy. Hisbat prowess was at about the peak of level two anomalies, but he still hadn''t reached level three territory yet.

    In contrast, Mummy was a bona fide level three anomaly, with defenses that rivaled most level four anomalies and even some level five anomalies.

    "My fists aren''t as hard as your head? What kind of nonsense is that?"

    For a fighter like Iron Man, his greatest fear was to be defeated in the area that he excelled in the most.

    This type of defeat was an irreparable blow to one''s confidence, the most crushing andprehensive type of defeat possible.

    If someone had beaten him by leveraging their abilities, then he could pass off the defeat as a result of his carelessness.

    If someone had beaten him with an all-out attack, then he could''ve said that he would''ve had a chance at winning had he just dodged the attack.

    If someone had beaten him by taking advantage of the environment, then there were even more excuses that he could''ve made.

    However, being defeated like this in a contest of defensive prowess was something that he waspletely unable to ept.

 Chapter 147: Decline of a Psychic Body

    <h4>Chapter 147: Decline of a Psychic Body</h4>

    Prior to being defeated, one would instinctively try to struggle.

    Prior to having one''s confidencepletely crushed, one would fall into a deranged state of denial.

    This was exactly the state of mind that Iron Man had fallen into. He desperately wanted to prove something to himself as he let loose a guttural roar and charged at Adam once again. "Let me see just how long you can keep up this damage reflection ability for!"

    He swung his fist through the air as he spoke, striking the side of Adam''s face to send him flying back with tremendous force.

    Adam crashed into a metal post after being sent flying, and the post was instantly bent over to resemble a huge horseshoe.

    Iron Man refused to let up as he struck Adam with a few more punches, but the more hits hended, the more painful his hands became. It was as if he were using a wooden mallet to strike a tank, and more and more indentations were appearing on his fists.

    In the end, he was forced to cease in his attacks due to the unbearable pain, and he turned to rip a steel post out of the ground, then raised it like a spear, plunging it viciously down over and over again.

    Trails of sparks were sent flying with every single blow, but even after the jagged tip of the "spear" had been worn smooth, Adam still remainedpletely unscathed.

    "I already told you. Why won''t you believe me?"

    Looking into Iron Man''s deranged eyes, Adam retaliated for the first time in his "new" for. First, he sliced the steel post in half with his carving knife, then kicked Iron Man aside with ease.

    After that, he threw his arms around Iron Man''s waist and pushed him toward the nearest steel furnace.

    "If you still don''t believe me, then let''s run an experiment."

    Adam carried Iron Man like an oversized child and barreled his way straight into the steel furnace.

    Iron Man struggled frantically within the scorching hot molten steel, and the deranged look in his eyes quickly turned into fear.

    He could feel his own body beginning to burn red hot, and it was already showing signs of softening as scorching pain began to surge through his body.

    He wasn''t afraid of being doused briefly in molten steel, but bathing in molten steel like this was an entirely different story. His seemingly indestructible body was beginning to soften and even melt.

    However, that wasn''t what rmed and terrified Iron Man the most. Instead, it was his opponent.

    .

    In contrast with his own body, which was slowly turning bright red, Mummy''s bandages had only changed slightly in color, and it was very clear that his opponent had far superior heat resistance than he did.

    He began to panic.

    In that instant, he finally believed that Adam''s face was truly harder than his own fists.

    "Spare m..."

    Iron Man wanted to beg for his life, but he wasn''t even able to fully articte a sentence before molten steel gushed into his mouth, causing him even more pain.

    Thankfully for him, Adam had crashed his way straight into the steel furnace, so the molten steel inside had been gushing out of the opening this entire time. After a few minutes, only a thinyer of the molten steel was left inside the furnace, and that wasn''t enough time for Iron Man to burn to death.

    After that, Adam tossed Iron Man out of the furnace so that he wasying on the ground, which waspletely covered in molten steel.

    At this point, Iron Man resembled a pile of formless mud, and he was only just barely clinging onto life.

    Adam waded through the molten steel as he sshed his way toward the Iron Man like a deity of deathing to harvest his life, and Iron Man couldn''t help but tremble uncontrobly in fear.

    His confidence had already beenpletely demolished.

    What was most distressing to him was that he had dered that he was going to kill his opponent, so there was a very good chance that his opponent was going to do the same thing to him, now that the roles of hunter and prey had been reversed.

    The host most certainly wasn''t going to call off the match at such a crucial juncture. This had always been one of the major selling points of these arena matches in Shadow City.

    Combatants dying in the ring was a far toomon sight here.

    With his life hanging in the bnce, many thoughts sprang into Iron Man''s mind. He thought of his 11 wives at home. He thought of the millions in savings that he had still yet to spend. He thought of the fact that he was still only in his twenties...

    He couldn''t bear to lose those things, and the thought of having to part with them was only further fueling his fear of death. In the face of such crippling fear, he had no time to think and instinctively began to beg for his life.

    "Please don''t kill me. I surrender. I apologize for being so cocky. If you kill me, you''ll have to pay arge fine, it''s just not worth it... Please spare me!"

    As Iron Man desperately begged for his life, Adam noticed that his body was shrinking, and cracks were beginning to appear on the parts of his body that had originally already cooled down.

    Is this what happens to a psychic body after one''s confidence is crushed?

    Adam had witnessed adapters developing in the past, but this was the first time that he had witnessed an adapter''s decline.

    An adapter''s psychic power came from many sources, including confidence, decisiveness, and courage, and all of those factors contributed to making a psychic body more powerful.

    However, after losing those things, one''s psychic power would begin to decline.

    Humans were capable of changing, both for the better and for the worse.

    Iron Man was beginning to decline. His psychic body was bing weaker and weaker, and his defensive prowess was also beginning to regress.

    He had be fearful, vulnerable, and devoid of confidence.

    "You''re right. It''s not worth having to pay a fine to kill you." At this point, Adam felt no need to continue beating an already defeated opponent, and he looked up at the sky before spinning around to try and find the right "camera angle".

    "Hey, what''s the host doing? It''s about time you dered the oue of the match, isn''t it? Unless you feel like there''s a need for this match to continue."

    "What a truly spectacr battle that was! The oue has clearly already been decided." Outside in the real world, the host was naturally able to hear Adam''s voice, and he immediately dered, "I''m sure no one will have any objections when I say that this match is over. Iron Man has already lost the ability to continue, and Mr. Lean Mean Killing Machine has scored an easy victory while also treating us to a visual spectacle that was no less enthralling than an S tier match. Fuck the other Iron Man, Mr. Lean Mean Killing Machine is the real Iron Man! What an unstoppable juggernaut he is! Everyone, please give him a warm round of apuse!"

    "What did I tell you? I told you Iron Man is no match for him." Below the ring, Shae had already finished her ice cream, and she tucked the cone down Hailey''s cor as she chuckled, "Mr. Killer is stronger than you think!"

    "Shut the hell up! Are you the manager or am I the manager? Why are you keeping all of this information from me?" Hailey pulled out the cone with an enraged expression before throwing it against the ground with all her might. "You''re all disrespecting me! Stop treating me like a child, do you hear me?"

    "Loud and clear!"

    "What else are you keeping from me?"

    Shae was momentarily stumped by this question, and as she thought back to her recent experiences, she replied, "To be honest, I don''t really know. He''s always had a ton of secrets."

    There were many things that she didn''t know about Adam, and also many things that Adam didn''t even know about himself.

    In any case, the victory had been secured.

    After watching such a spectacr match, even the spectators who had lost money betting on Iron Man were very satisfied. Hence, even though the stands were very rowdy, there were very few people who were upset at the oue.

    They had just witnessed the rise of another A tierbatant, one that was very likely going to be an S tierbatant in the future.

    At the same time, they had witnessed the fall of another B tierbatant who had been a hot favorite for promotion to the A tier.

    For the residents of Shadow City, witnessing these monumental moments was more important than money.

    The people in Shadow City valued money just as much as those in the civilized world, but they valued their own feelings even more than money.

    As long as they could have a good time, everything was fine and dandy.

 Chapter 148: S Tier

    <h4>Chapter 148: S Tier</h4>

    Following this match, Adam''s reputation received a massive boost, and his performance naturally caught the attention of some other S tierbatants as well.

    There was no set number of S tierbatants, but generally speaking, only around a dozen were alive at a time. All of them were constantly plotting against one another both openly and in secret, and many factions were formed between them as well.

    These factions had primarily been formed in anticipation for the battle royale. The prize for winning the battle royale was simply too alluring to pass up. Here in Shadow City, receiving a wish from the director was essentially a one-way ticket to anything that anyone could want.

    Of course, there were also S tierbatants who weren''t locals of Shadow City at all. All of them wanted to approach the lord of Shadow City for one reason or another, or simply wanted to use his power.

    The higher one climbed up the ranks, the more aware they would be of just how powerful the lord of Shadow City was. As a self-proimed philosopher, it was very difficult to recruit his services using any materialisticpensation. The only way to reliably make him do one''s bidding was toe out on top in this battle royale.

    Hence, all of the S tierbatants could roughly be split up into three factions.

    The first faction was the local faction, which was quite self-exnatory. The local residents of Shadow City were deranged andwless, but they also harbored a strange sense of belonging, and that was what brought these people together.

    Shadow City had a resident poption of several million, and the city had an extraordinarily high birth rate. In addition to that, power was revered above all else in this city, and it was only to be expected that some powerful psychicbatants would emerge from such an environment.

    The second faction consisted of the outsiders, such as Adam and Oni no Hanzou, all of whom were participating in these matches for their own private reasons.

    The third faction was the strongest of the three. They had no particr objectives, and they were all adapters who had flocked to Shadow City from all over the world for training purposes. Their only goal was to be more powerful, and even though they were generally against the idea of teaming up, all of them were extremely formidable individually. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have survived to this point.

    These three factions all had different objectives, but every once in a while, they would gather together to discuss battle techniques or to exchange information.

    On this day, they were all gathered in a conference hall, and the topic of discussion was rted to Adam.

    "A few newbies who''re worthy of attention have recently popped up."

    There was a very sexy and voluptuous woman among the S tierbatants gathered in the room. She seemed to have a very bubbly and outgoing personality, and she was always the first one to speak during these meetings.

    "You''re looking as fine as ever, Medusa. Did you just say several newbies worthy of attention have popped up at once? That''s quite rare," a midget quipped as he took a sip of wine. "How could so many strong newbies have popped in such a short time?"

    "I''m keeping tabs on a total of five newbies. The first one is this young girl."

    Medusa pressed a button on the remote in her hand, and the projector immediately released a 3D image of Nie Yiyi. The image depicted one of her battles against another adapter, and her weapons were sweeping up fierce gusts of wind in all directions.

    "Trash!" the midget scoffed. "How is she worthy of any attention?"

    "There''s something special about her. She possesses the tenacity and self-belief required to do great things. Of course, she''s not the most prominent of the five. The second one is this man, Fighter Li."

    The image transitioned into one of Fighter Li''s battles, and this time, several people sat up straighter to pay closer attention to the image.

    "He''s very weak, but he''s extremely technically proficient, no less so than any of us. What a pity..."

    "Indeed. No matter how technically adept he is, his shorings are too severe."

    "Any of us could easily crush him with absolute power."

    After everyone had made theirments on Fighter Li, Medusa paused the image, then said, "This was his first match. Next, I''ll be showing you his seventh match, then his 12th and 19th matches."

    She pressed the resume button, and only the highlights of each battle were shown, but all of the S tierbatants in the room were still extremely intrigued.

    "He''s developing at an astonishing rate!"

    "He''s growing stronger with every single battle!"

    "How confident is this guy?"

    "It''s a good thing that he''s a cripple! Otherwise, he would definitely develop into a formidable foe."

    "Artificial adapters simply don''t live long enough to make anything out of themselves. Each time they''re stimted by that machine, it causes way too much damage to their brains and bodies. In their limited lifespans, there''s no way they can climb to the top."

    "What a pity. Who are the others? You mentioned five in total, didn''t you?"

    After everyone had finished discussing what they had just seen, Medusa continued, "The third one is a very strangebatant. Initially, he appeared as an assassin with a diverse range of abilities, but he was somehow able to transform into a tank mid-match. ording to analysis from professional personnel, he''s either an adapter who''s capable of undergoing multiple different mutations, or an invocator capable of fusing as one with his invoked entities."

    The footage of Adam''s match began to y.

    This was his match against Iron Man, and by transforming from Nun into Mummy, he was able topletely turn the tables in an instant, beating Iron Man at his own game andpletely crushing his confidence.

    Even some of the S tierbatants present couldn''t help but be impressed as they watched Adam carry Iron Man straight into the steel furnace.

    "He''s got some impressive defenses, that''s for sure."

    "Even in the S tier, I''d say his defenses are up there with the best."

    "What do you think, Diamond?"

    Diamond was a man with tattoos all over his body, and he was standing in a corner of the room. He was Iron Man''s brother. It was quitemon to see multiple adapters in the same family, and not only was he eight years older than Iron Man, he was a far more formidable adapter as well.

    "He''s nothing but cannon fodder! Aside from his defenses, he possesses no other attributes worthy of being in the S tier. Next!"

    "Thebatants that I''ve shown thus far are only just barely at the S tier in terms of power, or only have the potential to be promoted to the S tier in the future if they continue to develop, but the next two will be sure to make some big waves even in the S tier matches."

    The image continued to y, disying footage of Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko''s matches.

    They were still as powerful as ever, dispatching virtually all of their opponents in seconds, so they didn''t reveal much at all, but that only made them appear even more powerful.

    "These two are really strong!" The midget rose to his feet for the first time, but he was actually shorter standing than he was seated. "In a one-on-one battle, not many of us here would be able to defeat them. Where did they suddenly pop up from?"

    "I recognize those two." There was a man in ninja attire in a corner of the room, and he was staring intently at the projected image of Oni no Hanzou. "They''re both top assassins from the Oni Organization. I presume they came here to fight in these matches because they want the director''s help with something."

    "The Oni Organization? If I recall correctly, that was the organization that killed your father, wasn''t it, Ikkaku?" a shriveled-up old man chuckled, and his voice was as unpleasant to listen to as the sound of rats gnawing on wood. "Surely you wouldn''t want to pass up such a great opportunity for revenge."

    "I know what you''re trying to do, you old fart!" Ikkaku said in a cold voice. "There''s no need to try and instigate conflict. The fact that they''ve appeared here means that I must face them directly. Cowering now would be an admission of fear, and an admission of fear is an admission of weakness."

    Powerful adapters like them had to do everything in their power to ensure that their mental state was sharp at all times, and emotions like fear would directly impact their powers.

    "In the civilized world, perhaps I wouldn''t be able to do anything to them, but here in Shadow City, they''re asking to be taken out!"

 Chapter 149: Match Against Oni no Hanzou

    <h4>Chapter 149: Match Against Oni no Hanzou</h4>

    Adam was unaware that he had caught the attention of all of the S tierbatants, but it wasn''t like that mattered to him anyway.

    As the days passed by one after another, he fought his way through several A tier matches, and his opponents were bing more and more powerful, but he was still able to maintain his spotless record.

    Generally speaking, Iron Man was a good standard to judge the strength of A tierbatants.

    On average, A tierbatants were a little weaker than Iron Man, but those at the top of the A tier were slightly more powerful than him. However, it had been quite a smooth ride through the A tier thus far for Adam. His fusion with Mummy ensured that he was able to keep his win streak alive, and due to the boost in the points that he received as a result of his win streak, he had already earned the right to challenge high-rankingbatants in the A tier.

    On this day, he ran into an unavoidable and familiar foe: Oni no Hanzou.

    F tierbatants were a dime a dozen, but A tierbatants were far rarer, with only several dozen in total, and only three who had a spotless record.

    They were Adam, Oni no Hanzou, and Oni no Miko.

    Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko weren''t going to fight one another, and if both of them avoided matches against each other, then it was inevitable that Adam would be arranged to face one of them.

    "Someone''s going to have to cop their first loss." Hailey had delivered the news of Adam''s next opponent to him, and there was an eager smile of anticipation on her face. "Do you still have any other trump cards hidden up your sleeve, Mr. Killer?"

    Adam had disyed several sudden boosts in power, making it impossible for her to urately gauge his abilities.

    As a result, she had developed a sense of blind faith in him. In her eyes, he always seemed to have more to give.

    "On paper, Mr. Hanzou is far more powerful than you, but who knows? You definitely still have other trump cards, right?"

    "How are you always able to make the wrong guess every single time? You''re a good manager, but you''re a terrible gambler!" Shae replied before Adam had a chance to say anything, but she was no longer asposed as she was while watching Adam''s match against Iron Man. "He''s no match for Oni no Hanzou. There''s a huge gap between them!"

    "Really?" Hailey could tell from Shae''s grim expression that she wasn''t lying, but she was still holding onto a shred of hope as she turned back to Adam. "Really?"

    "It''s true, I''m no match for him. I''ve already been defeated by him many times, and I''ve only survived those encounters due to various reasons. This time, he has no reason to spare my life."

    Thinking back to his encounters with Oni no Hanzou, he was only able to survive the first time because Cowboy had stepped in to save him by offering Oni no Hanzou a huge sum of money, and in their most recent encounter, it was Sadou who had intervened to rescue him out of a dire situation, but they were still forced to hand over Hook''s footage.

    On both of asions, powerful allies had stepped in, and concessions were made in exchange for Adam''s life.

    Both of those factors had yed an integral part.

    Otherwise, there was no way that Adam would''ve been able to survive those encounters with this top-tier assassin who had reigned supreme in the ck market for several decades.

    Adam knew very well that this was going to be a battle of life and death.

    During the past few days, it had already be clear to Adam that the only reason why Oni no Hanzou had been so subdued and docile in Shadow City was because he was wary of the director.

    Oni no Hanzou didn''t dare to kill Adam elsewhere in Shadow City for fear of repercussions, but it was perfectly within the rules to kill someone in a match, and those rules had been set by the director himself. As long as the director didn''t change those rules for some reason, Oni no Hanzou would be able to kill Adam in a match without any consequences.

    "What are we going to do then? You''re no match for him, and it sounds like there''s bad blood between you two as well." Hailey''s optimism hadpletely faded at this point. "This match is theoretically mandatory because you''ll have your rank and points erased if you refuse to participate, but surely that''s still better than losing your life!"

    "No, I have to fight this battle."

    Adam was doing this for the footage, and the same most likely applied to Oni no Hanzou as well.

    If he couldn''t earn enough points to qualify for participation in the battle royale, then the footage would fall into the hands of the Oni Organization, and he would be stuck in this godforsaken city for the rest of his life.

    Perhaps anyone else could simply wait to participate in next year''s battle royale, but that option wasn''t open to him.

    "Can''t we use Nie Yiyi''s points?"

    Shae was also against the idea of allowing Adam to fight in this match. She knew that there was a huge gap in power between the two, and that a fight between the two could only end with one oue.

    "Nie Yiyi''s already suffered quite a few defeats, so we can''t count on her."

    Nie Yiyi''s powers were far inferior to Adam''s to begin with, and she was only roughly on par with the average A tierbatant. After reaching the A tier, her win-loss record had been roughly even, and she was unable to earn any more points as a result.

    "That''s still better than having you rush to your death! You''re no match for him!"

    "I want to give it a try."

    Adam didn''t want to back down, not just because he didn''t want to give up this opportunity to clear his name, but also because he didn''t want to give in to fear.

    After witnessing Iron Man''s rapid decline, he had been reminded of another important source of power for all adapters.

    Due to the spotless record that he had maintained thus far, not only had he be a far more technically proficient fighter, his confidence and mentality had also undergone a change, thereby leading to a significant boost in his powers.

    This newfound confidence was not yet stable, and it could easily be shattered.

    If he could step over this hurdle, then he would be able to reach a whole new level, whereas if he were to back down, he had a feeling that a mental block would form in his mind, one that he would never be able to get over.

    In fact, he even had a feeling that if his mentality were too weak, then he wouldn''t be able to control anomalies of a higher level.

    "This is a battle that I have to fight, but I can''t go into it blind. I have to be prepared!"

    ¡­¡­

    After making up his mind, Adam decided that it was time to make a move on Sithu.

    Recently, the Green Gang, Crocodile, and Red Turtle had all been searching for suitable targets for him, and they had managed to bring him some people suffering from mental problems, but the majority of them had been small fry.

    Some of them did have mental problems, but most of them only had minor problems, with even the severest cases only harboring level one or level two anomalies, which had a negligible effect on Adam''s development at his current stage.

    Feeding them to his higher-level anomalies wouldn''t have much of an effect at all, so it was better to feed them to his lower-level anomalies. As such, out ofck of options more than anything else, Adam had evolved both Clown and Sludge into level two anomalies.

    The overall improvement was far from significant, and if he wanted to make significant strides in power in a short time, then the only option would be to turn to Sithu.

    He had been imprisoned by the Green Gang in an underground chamber this entire time, and he was provided with three meals a day to ensure his survival.

    On this day, Adam called up all of his most trustworthy allies, namely Hook, Nie Yiyi, Shota Sato, Shae, and Fighter Li.

    Even though Adam wasn''t very familiar with Fighter Li, Nie Yiyi had grown quite close with him, and she had sworn on her integrity that he was worthy of trust.

    Of course, due to his terrible physical condition, he had to be wheeled over to the Green Gang''s headquarters on a metal bed by Nie Yiyi. There was a skull pration device specifically designed for artificial adapters attached to the bed, and with such a gruesome device hanging over his emaciated body, it was quite a pitiable sight to behold.

    However, any hint of pity or sympathy that one held for him would instantly disappear with one look into his eyes, which were reflecting nothing but determination and confidence. His confidence wasn''t the type that was filled with empty bravado. Instead, it was strong and understated, and despite all of his physical shorings, anyone who looked into his eyes would instinctively feel as if they were the inferior party.

    "This is the ce that you told me about, where I can fight in a trial of life and death?" Fighter Li asked as he turned his head with great difficulty to look at the deathly pale man chained to the wall.

    "That''s right. There are multiple extremely powerful anomalies in his psychic world," Nie Yiyi said. "We already invaded his psychic world once, but we were forced to retreat. You have to be careful, his psychic world is more dangerous than any arena."

    "That suits me just fine." Fighter Li''s determination didn''t waver in the slightest. "My only qualm is that an ordinary person like him may not be able to handle having so many of us invade his psychic world at once."

 Chapter 150: Elevator

    <h4>Chapter 150: Elevator</h4>

    "Who cares about that? He''s a deranged serial killer! Not only did he kill a lot of people, he seems to have even eaten some of the women that he kept locked up in his underground dungeon. There''s no need to have any sympathy when ites to someone like him," Shae said. "Don''t tell me you preach unconditional love or something like that."

    "I certainly do not. People like that won''t be able to survive in Shadow City. Don''t forget what kind of ce this is." Fighter Li wasn''t affected in the slightest by Shae''s teasing. "In that case, let''s begin. I want to see the anomalies that Nie Yiyi was telling me about."

    Inplete contrast with Fighter Li, who was raring to go, Hook was always far more reluctant and distressed in situations like this, but this time, he chose not to back down.

    He knew that Adam''s match against Oni no Hanzou wasing up soon, and that it was going to be a one-on-one battle this time.

    Hook was naturally aware of how much danger Adam would be facing in a match like this. He had always been the member of the who had contributed the least, and this was the perfect time for him to make himself useful.

    "Once we get in, I''ll use my scouting abilities to try and split up the anomalies. Ideally, we''ll be able to target them one by one."

    "It''s rare to see you devising a strategy." Nie Yiyi patted Hook on the shoulder as a gesture of approval. "That''s a huge improvement!"

    "Let''s get ready to go in."

    Adam took a moment topose himself before crouching down.

    Sithu hadn''t showered in many days, and all of his urination and defecation were done here as well, so the entire room was filled with a foul stench. As soon as he caught sight of people approaching him, he immediately began to spout all types of nonsense, begging for mercy one second, then threatening to kill them the next, and right now, he was staring at Adam''s neck while licking his lips.

    "I''m sure yourrynx would be very delicious..."

    "Sure."

    Over time, Adam''s mental fortitude had grown steadily, even without his own realization. The killing intent radiating from the man before him didn''t faze him in the slightest, and he casually knocked him out with a punch, then pressed a finger onto his head after giving everyone else some time to get into position.

    In the blink of an eye, Adam had already invaded the man''s psychic world.

    Upon arriving here again, the first thing that Adam was struck by was how difficult it was to breathe. It was as if the air were filled with glue, making it extremely sticky and viscous.

    Looking up at the sky, it felt as if even the light of the sun were gray. The entire area was filled with shadowy light, while the ground resembled a sticky swamp that was giving off the foul odor of rotting meat.

    Dark, damp, sticky, suffocating.

    The environment in Sithu''s psychic world was still the same as it had been during Adam''sst visit.

    Following Adam''s arrival, everyone else quickly entered the psychic world as well.

    Fighter Li was in his usual coarse linen garments with a conical hat on his head.

    Shota Sato''s appearance had changed slightly, but overall, his psychic body still bore a strong resemnce to his physical form, with the exception of the pair of metal gloves that had appeared over his hands.

    Hook was still in his steam robot form.

    Nie Yiyi had grown into a tall and slender warrior with long, powerful legs, and a pair of des in her hands.

    As soon as Shae entered the psychic world, she was immediately urged to fuse with Hellhound, transforming her into a female werewolf.

    Meanwhile, Adam also immediately fused as one with Mummy.

    With that, the entire team was ready for battle.

    "It feels awful in this ce!"

    Hook raised his foot as he looked down with a disgusted expression. He was clearly standing on a concrete road, but for some reason, he felt as if he had trodden on bubblegum, and viscous strands were pulled up from the ground as he raised his foot to examine it.

    "Now''s not the time toin, we have to search for straggling anomalies." Adam inspected his surroundings, taking in the lights, environment, and the tall buildings in the area, following which he determined that they seemed to be in Sandrise City. "There''s an underground dungeon somewhere in Sandrise City where multiple anomalies are gathered, so let''s not go there for now."

    "Where should we go then?"

    "Last time I came here, there was a beer bar from the host''s childhood. There are two rtively weaker anomalies there, so our best course of action should be to go after them first."

    If they could destroy the two anomalies at the beer bar, Adam''s powers would be further enhanced, thereby making him better equipped to tackle the more powerful anomalies lurking in the underground dungeon where the young woman was being held captive.

    "Alright, let me see..." Hook pulled out a telescope as he spoke, but after looking around for a while, he didn''t seem to have been able to find any clues. "Let''s go to the top of the tallest building in this area. That''ll make it easier for me to find other psychic modules."

    Adam nodded in response.

    The tallest building in the area was very easy to find, and they quickly made their way over to the elevator outside the building before piling into it.

    "Make some room! You''re taking up way too much room, Hook!"

    "You''re one to talk!" Hook took a nce at Shae in her werewolf form, then opened up his cabin door. "If it''s too cramped in the elevator for your liking, then you can get in here."

    "No way! It''s disgusting in there..."

    The two continued to bicker while squeezing their way into the elevator. Thankfully, logistical problems had clearly been considered in this massive building, and the entire team was able to just barely fit into the elevator, including the likes of Adam, Hook, and Shae, who took up far more space than the average person.

    However, it was far fromfortable to be crammed into this elevator like a can of sardines.

    After pressing a button on the panel, the elevator quickly rose up, ascending to an altitude of several hundred meters from the ground level.

    The ground was getting further and further away, and right as all of the streets down below had be as thin as fingers in the eyes of everyone in the entire group, the elevator suddenly drew to an abrupt halt with a loud ng, stopping at an awkward point between two levels.

    "What''s going on?"

    "In the movies I''ve seen in the past, usually, when this happens, the elevator is about to go into free fall..."

    Before Hook even had a chance to finish his sentence, a loud snap rang out from above, and the elevator began to plummet at a speed that was even faster than the speed of its ascent up to this point.

    "You just had to say it, didn''t you?"

    Nie Yiyi immediately sliced open the elevator, then flew out like a sparrow with the assistance of the power of wind. She circled around in the air before plunging her des into the ss on the outside of the building, and her des slid down to shatter the ss beneath them while also gradually slowing down her descent.

    At the same time, everyone else in the elevator also sprang into action. Fighter Li punched through the ss in front of him, then leaped before clinging to the side of the building like a lizard.

    In contrast with these more technically proficient adapters, Adam''s strategy was far simpler and more barbaric. Hepletely smashed the elevator open from the inside, then plunged his entire body into the concrete structure outside the building.

    Soon, everyone with the exception of Hook had used their abilities to break out of the elevator and were hanging outside the building.

    "Help!"

    Hook was still trapped in the plunging elevator, and Adam hurriedly released his bandages to catch him.

    However, while saving Hook, he made sure to remain on his guard.

    Modern elevators were extremely stable, and there was no way that it would''ve plummeted like this for no reason. The only possible exnation was that there was foul y involved.

    Sure enough, while Adam was inspecting his surroundings, a ck shadow suddenly came crashing down from above, striking him with such a tremendous impact that the entire concrete structure that he was clinging to waspletely destroyed. As a result, he had nothing to hang from, and he began another rapid descent.

 Chapter 151: Aerial Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 151: Aerial Crisis</h4>

    What was that?

    The ck shadow had shed past so quickly that he didn''t have any time to react.

    During his rapid descent, Adam plunged his arm into the ss wall of the building, shattering one ss panel after another, but the strategy really did work to slow his descent.

    Soon, he was able to steady himself once again, yet right as he tried to do something, the ck shadow arrived again.

    This time, he was able to catch a clear glimpse of it. It was a gargoyle-like anomaly that was entirely inky-ck in color, with glowing lines running down its body. Not only was it capable of flight, it was extremely fast, making it very difficult to deal with on a battlefield high up in the sky like this one.

    Hook tried to force his way into the building so he would at least have some stable footing to battle his opponent from, but not only was the anomaly rmingly fast, he was being weighed down by Hook, so his movements were restricted.

    As a result, Adam could only watch as the gargoyle anomaly crashed into him once again.

    This time, the angle at which the anomaly crashed into him was even more damning, sending him flying off the edge of the building.

    "Hook, brace yourself!"

    In this dire situation, the first thing that Adam decided to was to rid himself of the dead weight attached to him. As he issued the warning to Hook, he tugged forcefully on the bandage, swinging Hook toward the building next to them like an oversized yoyo.

    The sound of shattering ss rang out as Hook crashed straight into the building, but due to the reaction force of swinging Hook through the air, Adam was even further away from the building now.

    The wind was howling past his ears, and he reflexively looked down, upon which he was immediately struck by a rush of intense vertigo. Even with his body of steel, a fall of several hundred meters would more than likely put an end to his life.

    With that in mind, Adam hurriedly released his bandages again, trying to use them to hang off the building, but the gargoyle anomaly was extremely cunning. After witnessing this ability of Adam''s, it was prepared for him to use it again. As soon as the bandages were released, the gargoyle anomaly immediately sted a jet of ck mes out of its mouth to send the bandages veering off their original course.

    Adam was furious to see this, and he looked around frantically to search for signs of flying vehicles.

    There weren''t many flying vehicles in Sandrise City, but many people had secured flying licenses. Unfortunately for Adam, there weren''t any flying vehicles passing through the area.

    With that hope dashed, Adam turned back to the gargoyle anomaly, hoping that it would attack him again so he could grab onto its body and take advantage of its flight ability to keep himself aloft.

    However, that hope was also quickly dashed. After deflecting Adam''s bandages, the gargoyle anomaly merely circled around him, disying no intention to attack.

    It''s trying to prevent me from doing anything until I fall to my death!

    Adam could see what the gargoyle anomaly was trying to do, and right as he was scrambling frantically to think of countermeasures, he was suddenly struck by a huge impact from the side, sending him flying horizontally through the air.

    Adam turned to discover that Fighter Li was crawling over the outside of the building like a gecko, pursuing Adam during his descent while unleashing powerful palm thrusts in his direction, trying to blow him to the other side.

    After realizing what Fighter Li''s intentions were, he turned to the direction that he was being sent flying toward to find that there really was a tall building there. It was shorter than the one that they had initially nned to scale, but it was still a very tall building in its own right.

    At this point, falling to the other side was a decent option. It was only going to be a fall of several dozen meters from here, one that was bearable given his physical durability.

    "Thanks, Brother!" Adam yelled while turning his attention to the gargoyle anomaly.

    In his eyes, this was an extremely cunning gargoyle with fast reflexes and high intelligence, so there was no way that it would allow him to make a safending without any intervention.

    Sure enough, as Adam was flying toward the tall building on the other side of the street, the gargoyle anomaly spread its wings and came flying at him again.

    Looks like it''s determined to bring me down!

    Adam pulled out his carving knife from his bandages to prepare for battle, but right before the gargoyle anomaly entered a range where his attacks could reach it, it suddenly drew to an abrupt halt in mid-air, then pped its wings vigorously several times, sweeping up gusts of fierce ck wind that blew Adam even further away.

    At this point, Nie Yiyi had also arrived on the scene. She made a hand seal, and the cyberglyphs all over her body shed as she unleashed a de of wind to strike the gargoyle anomaly.

    However, immediately thereafter, a tentacle suddenly shot out, wrapping itself around her before dragging her into the building.

    After that came the sound of Nie Yiyi''s agonized screams.

    Fighter Li was Adam''s ally, but he wasn''t his friend. Out of all of the people here, the only one that he had a close bond with was Nie Yiyi, so it only made sense that he would prioritize her safety above everyone else''s. Sure enough, as soon as he heard her screams, he immediately abandoned Adam without hesitation, smashing his way through the ss to enter the building and rescue his friend.

    Well, isn''t that just great...

    Stranded all alone in mid-air, he had virtually no chance of victory over the gargoyle anomaly.

    Time passed by very slowly, but the speed of his descent was only bing faster and faster.

    100 meters shed past in the blink of an eye, and he had already passed by the slightly shorter building. He knew that if he didn''t do something soon, then it would be toote.

    In this perilous situation, he had no choice but to take a risk.

    First, he released his bandages to try and hook onto the building next to him, and unsurprisingly, the gargoyle anomaly immediately tried to disrupt him with its mes again. However, in the instant that those ck mes emerged in its mouth, Camera suddenly appeared beside Adam, then quickly pressed down its shutter in the gargoyle anomaly''s direction.

    The time around the gargoyle seemed to have been frozen, and it only manage to break free from the time-stop effect after some extensive struggles. By then, Adam''s bandages had alreadytched onto the building beside him, and he swung down like a ball attached to the end of a string, crashing straight into the building like a cannonball.

    On the way down, Adam plunged through countless walls and sets of floorboards. The momentum generated from being in free fall for close to 200 meters was certainly nothing to be scoffed at. Even for a piece of pure iron, a fall from that height would be enough to significantly warp its shape.

    Even with his body of steel, Adam still wasn''t able to survive the fallpletely unscathed. On the way down, many of his bandages were snapped, and his body was also warped by the tremendous impact.

    Thankfully, he was crashing through the walls and floors of the building, rather than solid ground, and each time he crashed through one of those surfaces, his downward momentum would be reduced slightly, so he was gradually slowing down in his descent.

    After a string of consecutive crashes, he finally came to a rest amid a pile of rubble and wreckage.

    The first thing that he did after drawing to a halt was to withdraw Camera right away. Thankfully, it still hadn''t fallen to the ground yet, so it was still alive.

    However, Adam could sense that it had been wounded. It was most likely the case that while Adam had been crashing through the building, the gargoyle anomaly had attacked and wounded Camera thanks to its aerial advantage.

    After mbering out of the rubble, Adam looked down to inspect his own body.

    Many of his joints were bent the wrong way, there were quite a few indentations on his chest and abdomen, and many of his bandages had been torn away to reveal sections of his steel-like body underneath.

    I''m in really bad condition, and my movement seems to be limited as well.

    Adam tried to run, but he was only able to take a few steps before his mangled legs gave out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground.

    It was also right at this moment that the gargoyle anomaly descended through the hole that Adam''s body had created while he was crashing through the building.

 Chapter 152: Switching Forms

    <h4>Chapter 152: Switching Forms</h4>

    Judging from the power of its attacks, Adam was able to tell that the gargoyle anomaly was a level three anomaly, and quite a powerful one, at that.

    Even at the height of his powers, he wasn''t confident that he would''ve been able to defeat such an opponent in a one-on-one battle, and he certainly had no chance of winning in his current state.

    Should I release Camera to fight it?

    Adam was quickly pondering what course of action he should be taking next.

    Camera was an anomaly with extremely skewed attributes, possessing incredible offensive capabilities, but downright pitiful defenses. On top of that, it was already injured, so it could easily meet its demise if had to go up against such a formidable foe.

    Camera was one of Adam''s most important trump cards, so he had to preserve it at all costs if he wanted to have any chance of beating Oni no Hanzou in their uing match.

    Let''s assess the situation first before making a decision.

    Before Adam had a chance to decide what he was going to do next, his opponent seized the initiative to jump on the attack.

    First came a st of ck mes out of its mouth, followed by a series of attacks from its sharp ws.

    Even though Adam was in terrible condition, he still had his basic defenses intact. As such, the sequence of attacks didn''t worsen his injuries by much, but his mobility had be even more limited.

    At this rate, defeat was inevitable. After being sent flying over and over again by his opponent''s attacks, Adam undid his fusion with Mummy while still in mid-air, then invoked Clown before fusing with it.

    With this new fusion, his injuries were neutralized, instantly healing most of them.

    In this form, there was no way that Adam would dare to directly oppose a level three anomaly, so he immediately turned and fled, hoping to use theplexyout of this office building to his advantage.

    The gargoyle anomaly naturally gave chase, but as it did so, it discovered that its opponent had split up into dozens of identical clones that were all rushing away in different directions.

    Through his recent efforts, Adam had evolved Clown back to the peak of its powers, and its clone conjuring ability had also fully recovered. With this ability, it was able topletely confound the gargoyle anomaly.

    Right as the gargoyle anomaly was wondering which clone it should''ve been pursuing, the shadow behind it suddenly began to twist and warp, following which a burst of immense distortive force acted upon its body.

    As it struggled to resist the distortive force, a clown pounced onto its body, locking a hand around its throat while stabbing at its eyes using a dagger that it was holding in its other hand.

    The gargoyle anomaly howled in pain as it thrashed violently from side to side. Thebined power of a pair of level two anomalies was naturally no match for a level three anomaly, and it didn''t take long before the gargoyle anomaly managed to throw them off. However, right as it did so, the air around it suddenly began to congeal again.

    A scythe arm came swiping down from above, followed by a crisp crack...

    The gargoyle''s defenses certainly weren''tckluster, even among level three anomalies. Even after having its eyes stabbed multiple times by Clown''s dagger, it had still only sustained minor injuries, but just a single strike from Camera was enough to split its body cleanly into two halves.

    After being cleaved into two, an incredulous look appeared on both halves of the gargoyle anomaly''s face, following which the two halves of its body began to slowly fall away in either direction.

    After copsing to the ground, the two halves of the gargoyle anomaly''s body suddenly began to glow brightly, and Adam hurriedly withdrew Camera back into his body upon seeing this.

    As it turned out, he had done so not a moment too soon. Almost in the exact same instant that Camera vanished on the spot, a violent explosion erupted.

    Adam and Distortion were sent flying back several dozen meters by the explosion of ck energy and powerful shockwaves.

    Aftering to a rest, Adam immediately began to cough up violently while throwing uprge mouthfuls of blood. In contrast with Mummy, Clown''s defenses were almost nonexistent, and he almost perished from that explosion.

    Blood was still gushing out of his mouth as he struggled to his feet, but he was only able to take two steps before reaching his limits. As a result, he had no choice but to swap out Clown with Nun, and only then was he able to recover sufficiently to not pass out on the spot.

    However, the recovery effect from switching to a different form was less effective than before. Ultimately, his invoked entities were still just manifestations of his psychic body, so there was a limit to how much he could recover given the terrible shape that his psychic body was in.

    With that, I should be able to evolve Nun into a level three anomaly as well!

    After taking a moment to catch his breath, Adam hurriedly rushed over to the epicenter of the explosion. At this point, the dust had already settled, and sure enough, there was a great deal of anomalic power lingering in the area.

    However, what was very strange was that this anomalic power was rapidly dissipating.

    There seemed to be an invisible ck hole in the air that was devouring the energy at an rming rate.

    What''s going on here?

    This was the first time that Adam had encountered a situation like this, but there was no time for him to think. He hurriedly released all of his anomalies at once and instructed them to fight over the anomalic power with the ck hole in the air.

    The band of anomalies immediately pounced onto the anomalic power like a pack of starving wolves, but they were only able to absorb a small portion of it, while the majority vanished into thin air.

    Adam was left sorely disappointed and perplexed by this.

    Ideally, it would''ve been best to allocate all of the anomalic power to a single anomaly. Splitting it among everyone resulted in all-round enhancements across the board, but there was virtually no chance that any of his anomalies would evolve from such a distribution strategy. However, the urgent nature of the situation just now meant that he had no choice but to do this.

    After absorbing the anomalic power, Adam''s anomalies were able to recover from most of their injuries, and their physical constitutions had also been enhanced. Adam fused back together with Mummy, then withdrew all of his other anomalies before rushing to the other building as quickly as he could.

    He had seen the tentacles that had just dragged Nie Yiyi away. Those tentacles belonged to the alien anomaly, which was a level three anomaly that Nie Yiyi was definitely no match for.

    However, she wasn''t the one that he was most worried about. Herbat prowess was only second to Adam''s in their group, and she had Fighter Li on her side as well, so she most likely wasn''t going to be in any life-threatening danger.

    However, the same couldn''t necessarily be said about the others.

    Shae, Sato, and in particr, Hook, were all quite mediocre when it came to theirbat prowess. If any of them were to be attacked by a level three anomaly, there was a chance that they could be killed in an instant.

    Please be safe!

    Adam was praying with all his might as he rushed frantically to the other building.

    However, scaling a building that was several hundred levels tall took far too long, and by the time Adam arrived on the scene, all he saw were piles of wreckage and rubble, indicating that an intense battle had taken ce here. There were also some trails of blood at the scene, as well as some severed limbs, but none of the anomalies or his allies were anywhere to be seen.

    What happened here?

    Adam picked up a metallic arm from the ground, and he identified it to be one of Hook''s arms.

    Did he die?

    "Is anyone here?" Adam yelled, but he received no response.

    Thus, he had no choice but to leave the psychic world for now.

    As soon as he returned to the real world, he was greeted by the sight of his allies'' limp and unconscious bodies.

    Fighter Li was naturallyying on his bed as usual, but everyone else was alsoying sprawled out on the ground in an unconscious state.

    Adam''s heart sank slightly upon seeing this, and he hurriedly inspected everyone''s psychic condition.

    "Don''t worry, none of them have be vegetables." Fighter Li was the only one aside from Adam who was conscious. "They''ve all sustained severe injuries, but none of them are dead."

    "What happened in there?"

    "There were so many anomalies, about five or six in total. I didn''t get a clear look at all of them. They were all extremely strong, and they seemed to know one another very well, disying outstanding teamwork. We were no match for them, and..."

    Fighter Li''s voice abruptly cut off as he erupted into a violent coughing fit. His physical condition was already far from ideal to begin with, and having sustained damage to his psychic body, his lifespan was reduced once again.

    "Take your time."

    "Even if those anomalies had been fighting on their own and hadn''t been working together, they would''ve still been able to easily overwhelm us."

    "That''s no surprise. Overall, they''re allparable to level three anomalies on average."

    "Level three anomalies? What''s that?"

    "It''s my own ranking system. A level three anomaly is roughly on the same level as I am."

    Adam was thinking back to the anomalies that he had previously encountered in Sithu''s psychic world, and all of them were extremely powerful.

    They had dared to venture into his psychic world on this asion as the majority of the anomalies that Adam had previously encountered were quite passive. Those anomalies couldn''t sense anything outside of the psychic world of their host, so they didn''t know when the psychic world was going to be invaded.

    Thus, Adam had thought that they would''ve been able to divide and conquer the anomalies one by one.

    However, this time, the anomalies seemed to have predicted the arrival of Adam and his group, and they had set up an ambush in advance that had almost resulted in Adam and his allies beingpletely wiped out.

    Could this have had something to do with him?

    Adam turned his attention to the man chained to the wall.

 Chapter 153: Suspended Animation

    <h4>Chapter 153: Suspended Animation</h4>

    All of a sudden, it urred to Adam that this man was different from all of the other patients that he had treated in the past.

    Firstly, he possessed multiple personalities, and each of those personalities possessed different traits.

    Secondly, he was far more heavily affected by his anomalies than anyone that Adam had ever encountered, to the extent that many of the personas in his psychic world had already transformed into anomalies.

    The anomaly in Li Qi''s psychic world had been his mother, who had inflicted severe psychological trauma upon him during his childhood.

    The anomaly in Wang Shuai''s psychic world had been his wife, who was trying to bleed him dry in their divorce proceedings.

    The anomaly in Chloe''s psychic world had been the fraudster from the bar who had deceived and hurt her...

    In all of these cases, the anomalies in their hearts had been someone else, whereas this man had already be one with his anomalies, so essentially, they were one and the same.

    With that in mind, a possibility had arisen to Adam, which was that as he and his group were preparing to invade the man''s psychic world, he was able to somehow pass on this information from the real world to his personas in the psychic world. As a result, his anomalies were notified in advance, and they were able to prepare an ambush.

    "What are you nning to do next?" Fighter Li asked, bringing Adam out of his train of thought. "Are you going back in, or are you going to wait until your friends have their injuries attended to first?"

    "I''ll wait for everyone to receive treatment first. As for this piece of scum, I''ll get Jiang to take care of himter. They''ve already prepared all of the stuff required to cut up and dissolve his body."

    Adam intentionally took a nce at the man chained to the wall as he spoke, and sure enough, even though he was already in a very feeble state, he suddenly perked up and began to yell frantically in a panicked voice after overhearing Adam.

    "You can''t kill me! I still have many secrets! I''m sure you''ll want to hear them! I still have several young women locked up in Sandrise City. I have more than one underground dungeon! If I die, they''ll all starve to death, and I''m the only one who knows where those underground dungeons are!"

    "So what?" Adam shook his head as he picked Shae up from the ground. "I don''t work for Mechguard or the government. In fact, I''m a fugitive on the run. What does it matter to me if those women die or not?"

    After that, Adam began to carry his friends out of the underground chamber one by one.

    Outside the underground chamber was the Green Gang''s teahouse, and Jiang Junior was greatly rmed by the sight of Adam carrying out his friends. "Did something happen?"

    "Yes. It wasn''t anything serious, but everyone''s injured."

    "Where''s Big Sister Nie?"

    "She''s still in there."

    "I''ll go get here."

    Jiang Junior made his way into the underground chamber as he spoke, then carried Nie Yiyi out into the teahouse before contacting Uncle Fu and the doctor to have everyone treated.

    "What do we do that guy?"

    After carrying Nie Yiyi into the teahouse, Jiang Junior began to brew some revitalizing tea.

    This was a very bitter type of tea, so much so that it gave off an extremely bitter and rank odor even during the brewing process, but it was a favorite among members of the Green Gang, and it was said to be able to sharpen focus and raise alertness.

    "Pretend to have him killed."

    "What do you mean pretend to have him killed?"

    Jiang Junior held a cup of revitalizing tea right under Nie Yiyi''s nose, and she slowly awakened, seemingly from the stimtive effects of the tea''s strong smell.

    "Adam, you''re still alive!"

    "I wouldn''t die that easily."

    "Did you leave the psychic world before you fell to your death?"

    The best thing about fighting in the psychic world as an adapter was that one could leave at any moment, but the disconnection process required a bit of time.

    "No. I managed to kill that anomaly. What happened on your end? Li only gave me a rough rundown of what happened."

    "After I was attacked by that alien anomaly, I sustained some rather severe injuries, but I managed to hold it off until Li arrived. After that, we forced the alien anomaly into retreat before going off to search for the others. The opponents were extremely difficult to deal with, so as soon as we found an opportunity to leave the psychic world, we..."

    Nie Yiyi also burst into a coughing fit before she had a chance to finish.

    "Save your breath, Big Sister Nie. Give us the full story after you''ve had some time to recover." Jiang Junior hurriedly interjected with a concerned expression, then turned to Adam before asking, "By the way, what did you mean when you said you wanted me to pretend to kill him?"

    "I''m going to go to him with a knife, then make a shallow gash on his throat so he feels pain, but I won''t actually sever his throat or any of his arteries. At the same time, I''ll hit him with a strong sedative. Do you have any injectable sedatives here?"

    "We do. My father used to be an enforcer at Shadow Castle, and members of our gang also frequently get injured, so we have a lot of that stuff prepared at all times," Jiang Junior replied. "But I still don''t understand what''s the point in pretending to kill him!"

    "We''re trying to fool him."

    "What''s that going to achieve?"

    "It''ll make it so that he won''t know in advance when we''re going to invade his consciousness."

    ¡­¡­

    At this point, Adam''s scheduled match against Oni no Hanzou was only less than 30 hours away.

    Everyone was still yet to recover to peak psychic condition, but Adam wasn''t going to wait any longer. If he were to sustain injuries while inside Sithu''s psychic world, then he would also require time to recover before the match.

    Hence, after some consideration, Adam decided that it was best to act as soon as possible.

    That night, Jiang Senior arrived with the required tools.

    "Leave this stuff to the professionals. You''re too inexperienced to know how deep of an incision you can make before you slice into his throat."

    With that, Jiang Senior opened the door to the underground chamber before making his way inside with his toolbox.

    A horrified look immediately appeared on Sithu''s face at the sight of Jiang Senior.

    He was extremely fearful of this man. To put it more urately, one of his personalities was terrified of this man.

    He desperately pleaded for mercy, but to no avail.

    Jiang Senior pulled out a small knife, then rested its de against Sithu''s throat without any sympathy, as if he were about to butcher a pig.

    "Everyone dies eventually, although in this day and age, that''s a bit of an outdated saying..."

    Jiang Senior shed his knife across Sithu''s throat in one quick motion as he spoke, and blood immediately came gushing out of the gash amid a burst of sharp pain.

    Sithu sobbed and howled at the top of his lungs, and in his state of fear and agonized delirium, he failed to notice the small electronic injection device that had slid out of Jiang Senior''s sleeve into his hand.

    The injection device rested momentarily against the gash on the man''s throat, and that was all it took for it to expel its contents into the man''s body.

    After that, Jiang Senior packed up his tools, then tossed his blood-sttered gloves into one of the stic bags that he always carried with him before turning to depart.

    "Enjoy the feeling of impending death."

    ¡­¡­

    Outside the underground chamber, Jiang Senior gave Adam a slight nod before departing. Standing outside the underground chamber, Adam could hear Sithu screaming and swearing at the top of his lungs, but his voice quickly grew feebler and feebler before fadingpletely.

    He knew that it was time to act.

    "How are you feeling?" he asked as he turned to Fighter Li''s bed.

    "I''m good to go again. My injuries weren''t all that severe to begin with, and I''ve learned some valuable lessons from thatst battle."

    "You''re developing so quickly that it''s almost like you''re using real-life hacks!" Adam remarked as he shook his head in amazement.

    Out of all of the adapters that Adam knew, Fighter Li was the one who disyed the fastest rate of improvement aside from himself.

    However, his rapid development was thanks to the unique abilities that he possessed, but Fighter Li''s development was solely a result of his conviction and self-belief.

    "It''s going to be just the two of us this time."

    "That just makes it more of a challenge."

    "In that case, I won''t waste any more time."

    Adam wheeled his bed down into the underground chamber before closing the door.

 Chapter 154: Chunks of Meat

    <h4>Chapter 154: Chunks of Meat</h4>

    Inside the underground chamber, Sithu had already been sedated into a state of unconsciousness.

    There was some blood on his neck, but thanks to Jiang Senior''s expert technique, he hadn''t actually bled very much at all. The skin on his throat had been sliced open to produce a sense of sharp pain, while the effects of the sedatives simted the feebleness that came from slowly bleeding out, culminating in a very convincing package to lull someone into thinking that they were actually dying.

    However, it had all been a lie.

    "If we still get discovered this time, don''t worry about me and leave the psychic world right away."

    "Don''t worry, I have many ways to get out of a battle."

    "Good."

    Adam nodded in response. Fighter Li was a far more technically proficient adapter than himself, so issuing any further precautions would''ve onlye across as condescending. Thus, Adam wasted no further time with words as he put on Fighter Li''s helmet for him andmenced the next psychic invasion.

    Once again, the two of them entered Sithu''s psychic world, but this time, Adam didn''t immediately fuse as one with Mummy as that form would''ve attracted a great deal of attention. Instead, in order to keep a low profile, he chose to fuse with Nun.

    "This is a different ce fromst time," Fighter Li immediately remarked as he sniffed the air around them. "There''s a very strong smell of blood in the air."

    "It seems like we''re outside a ughterhouse."

    Adam had also noticed the smell in the air, and after cautiously conducting a search, he was able to roughly identify where they were based on the blood and lipids present in the sewage system.

    <i>The fact that there''s a psychic module of this ce indicates that it holds an important memory for the host, so it''s definitely worthy of exploration. </i>

    If Hook were present, then they would''ve been able to directly search for straggling targets, but without Hook''s presence, they could only conduct a blind search.

    During the search process, they also had to take care not to be detected by those anomalies.

    The two of them made their way in the opposite direction to the one that the sewage was flowing in, and they quickly caught sight of a semi-automated ughterhouse.

    After entering through its bright red doors, they saw a line of cattle on a conveyor belt being branded on the forehead one by one before lining up to be killed.

    Further down the conveyor belt, the cattle underwent a series of industrialized processes, including being skinned, bled, and having their organs removed.

    There were many people in Sandrise City who consumed artificial meat, but there was also no shortage of people who preferred genuine meat.

    However, in this day and age, people wanted to eat meat, but couldn''t bear to witness animals being ughtered. Hence, most of these ughterhouses were situated in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of cities, where they operated in the shadows to produce meat products for those who lived in the light of society.

    "Warning, keep out... Warning, keep out..."

    Right as Adam and Fighter Li were about to progress further into the building, they were stopped in their tracks by an automaton.

    At the same time, Fighter Li''s ears twitched slightly, and he heard some sound in the distance.

    "Someone''sing... Their footsteps are very heavy, and they seemed to be carrying some type of heavy object..."

    Adam immediately concealed himself upon hearing this, while Fighter Li also sprang up into the air, using his qinggong to spring up onto the ceiling, where he ducked behind some cover to ensure that he was out of sight.

    A short whileter, a man made his way into the ughterhouse with several huge suitcases. Following his arrival, he dialed a number, and it didn''t take long before a portly man who appeared to be a butcher arrived on the scene as well.

    The fatso was wearing a work badge, indicating that he worked at the ughterhouse, while the man with the suitcases was quite thin and had the same face as Sithu did in the real world. However, his limbs were quite strange, and Adam immediately identified the man to be the anomaly of horror that he had seen once before.

    This was the most fearful of all of the personas in Sithu''s psychic world.

    Sithu was unable to deal with the crippling fear in his heart, and that fear had spilled over to give rise to this anomaly.

    He was afraid of far too many things. He was afraid of his heinous crimes being uncovered, he was afraid of retribution, he was afraid of Mechguard. he was afraid of death, he was afraid of going to prison. He was afraid of everything, and in the end, that had caused him to be one with the anomaly.

    Hence, this anomaly of horror wore a perpetually fearful expression, and it was constantly looking around in anxious, jerky movements, as if it were expecting an ambush at any moment.

    "Hurry up! We''ll both be screwed if someone sees us!" the anomaly of horror hurriedly hissed in a sharp and urgent voice as soon as it caught sight of the butcher.

    "Calm down!"

    After arriving on the scene, the butcher scanned his work badge to deactivate all of the automatons and surveince equipment.

    "Every time youe here, you look like you''re about to have a panic attack! We''re definitely going to get caught someday if you keep this up," the butcher grumbled.

    "Hurry and process all of this meat!" the anomaly of horror urged in an anxious voice.

    "Is it fresh?"

    "It''s all fresh meat. The chef just butchered it today. He always likes to keep the leftovers in the freezer, he has no idea how dangerous that is! If someone finds out, then it''s over for all of us!"

    "Shut up! You say the same thing every time," the butcher snapped. "Leave the meat with me and get out of here."

    "No, I have to make sure that you process all of this meat before I leave. Otherwise, I won''t be able to sleep at night!"

    The anomaly of horror began to mumble broken phrases such as "process the meat" and "I have to see it for myself", and the butcher wasn''t able to convince it to leave, so he had no choice but to take it into the ughterhouse.

    After the two of them were out of sight, Adam and Fighter Li reappeared in unison.

    "Should we follow them?"

    "I don''t see why not. We''re already here, so we can''t just go back empty-handed. Also, they don''t seem to be prepared for us this time."

    Judging from the anomaly of horror''s words and actions, Sithu''s anomalies seemed to be oblivious to Adam''s arrival in his psychic world.

    After a brief discussion, the two of them made their way deeper into the ughterhouse.

    The ughterhouse was very well equipped,plete with conveyor belts, meat cutters, meat hooks, cold storage, and automatons that oversaw the various processes taking ce in the ughterhouse.

    Theoretically speaking, no butchers were required here as administrators alone would''ve sufficed, so perhaps this butcher was only a manifestation of Sithu''s imagination.

    Adam and Fighter Li followed the sounds to a semi-automatic cutting machine, then hid behind a hanging cow carcass, where they continued to spy on the two.

    At this point, the butcher had already opened all of the suitcases. These suitcases were specially made with a stic lining inside to prevent blood from seeping out, and inside them were the limbs of some of Sithu''s victims.

    .

    The butcher crouched down to examine the quality of the meat, then took some pictures before beginning to process the meat.

    Some of the parts were made into meatballs, while others were sliced into steaks and mixed together with beef after some special markings were made on them. In this bloody environment, the extra pieces of meat weren''t conspicuous in the slightest.

    "There''s a strange smell in the air..." the anomaly of horror mumbled as it turned its long and thin neck to inspect its surroundings. "I smell something strange."

    "What are you talking about?"

    The butcher''s patience was really beginning to wear thin at this point.

    "There''s a dangerous smell..." The anomaly of horror lifted up its shirt to reveal its thin and shriveled body, which was currently covered in goosebumps. "I can sense danger!"

    It began to sniff at the air as it spoke while slowly approaching Adam''s hiding spot.

    "I immediately felt like something wasn''t quite right as soon as I came in. It''s like we were seen... We can''t let anyone see us... We have to wipe away all evidence..."

 Chapter 155: Photographs and Selling Meat

    <h4>Chapter 155: Photographs and Selling Meat</h4>

    All anomalies had their own unique attributes, and that was something that Adam was well aware of. Hence, it was no surprise to him that the anomaly of horror was particrly sensitive to danger.

    .

    In fact, it would''ve been very strange if an anomaly of this nature didn''t have acute senses when it came to danger.

    The anomaly of horror was getting closer and closer, and right as Adam was considering whether it was best to seize the initiative and spring into action, the anomaly suddenly stopped.

    "Hold on, I can''t go look for myself. If there''s actually someone here, I''ll be exposing myself directly to them!" With that in mind, the anomaly of horror quickly returned to the butcher''s side, then said with a fawning expression, "Go and take a look over there for me. I can sense danger from that direction."

    The anomaly of horror''s sharp fingernail was pointed directly at Adam''s hiding spot.

    "There''s no way there''s any danger here," the butcher scoffed in a dismissive manner.

    "Go and take a look for me, and I''ll give you something good in return." The anomaly of horror picked out some photos from itsmunicator as it spoke. "You were saying that your customers like to pick out their food, and that the younger and more beautiful the victims are, the higher their meat will sell for, right? How about this? You go and take a look over there for me, and I''ll send all of these photos to you."

    "That sounds good to me."

    The butcher nodded with a pleased expression as he examined the photos.

    After looking through the photos, the butcher casually strode toward Adam''s hiding spot, and Adam knew that he and Fighter Li couldn''t remain concealed any longer. Thus, he abruptly activated his Lights Out ability as soon as the butcher got close, plunging the entire area intoplete darkness.

    Within the darkness, Adam was still able to see everything, and he immediatelyshed out at the butcher with his sharp ws.

    In his mind, the butcher had alreadypletely renounced his humanity, so he should''ve been an anomaly as well. Hence, Adam was attacking with all his might, yet his ws passed through the butcher''s body like hot knives through butter, and his physical resistance wasn''t superior at all to an average person''s.

    Adam was rather perplexed by this.

    Could it be that in Sithu''s mind, he''s not an anomaly? Could it be that he''s a good person in Sithu''s eyes?

    There was no one to answer that question.

    As the butcher''s body was sliced into shreds, and the entire area was plunged into darkness, the anomaly of horror''s anxietypletely boiled over, and it instantly began to flee for its life.

    At the same time, a sh of golden light appeared above the anomaly before striking it on the leg.

    "How are you able to see in the dark?" Adam asked with an intrigued expression as he looked at the anomaly of horror, which had fallen to the ground.

    As he was speaking, the effects of his Lights Out ability gradually wore off, and the surrounding area was illuminated by the bright white industrial lights once again.

    "After my match against you, I trained my ability to fight in the dark. That''s quite amon environment that I could run into in battles, and if I can''t get used to battling in such an environment, then that would be a major weakness," Fighter Li exined as he slowly descended from the ceiling beforending on the ground as quietly and elegantly as a cat.

    "That''s amazing," Adam couldn''t help but praise. "If you were an adapter, you would definitely be even more powerful than Taoist Bean Army."

    "I don''t set anyone as a target for myself. My only targets are the opponents in front of me."

    Fighter Li was intently scrutinizing the anomaly of horror in front of him. Up to this point, the anomaly had disyed nothing but cowardice and weakness, but Li wasn''t taking it lightly at all, and he was stillpletely focused on the battle at hand.

    "I knew there was an ambush! There''s danger at every turn! Hold on, I feel like I''ve seen you two somewhere before..." The anomaly seemed to have some type of recollection of Adam and Fighter Li. "I remember you two! You tried to kill mest time!"

    The anomaly of horror screamed in rm before fleeing once again.

    In the beginning, Adam and Fighter Li were able to keep up with its speed, but as it ran, its limbs grew longer and longer, allowing it to run faster and faster. Soon, the sleeves of its pants and shirt were unable to contain its limbs any longer, and it began to crawl away like a spider at an extremely fast speed.

    "It''s going to get away at this rate! We have to disrupt it!"

    Fighter Li thrust his palms through the air as he spoke, releasing bursts of force that struck the anomaly''s long and spindly limbs to strike it down once again.

    At the same time, Adam unleashed two of his abilities in conjunction with one another, namely Fountain of Contamination and Disconcerting Screech.

    A sharp screech that scattered the listener''s mind rang out, while huge volumes of ck sewage gushed out of his cavernous mouth.

    After absorbing a part of the gargoyle anomaly''s power, none of Adam''s anomalies had evolved, but all of them had be significantly more powerful.

    As a result, Nun had developed from a middling level two anomaly into a very powerful level two anomaly.

    At this stage, Adam waspletely able to handle the burden of using these two abilities in unison. He could feel his stamina dropping, but the effect wasn''t very pronounced at all.

    The waves of sewage were propelled by the soundwaves as they swept directly toward the anomaly of horror.

    Right as the anomaly of horror was about to mber up from the ground, it was inundated by the wave of ck sewage, causing it to howl with pain.

    Its voice was filled with horror and agony, and it was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but Adam could clearly see that despite its violent reaction, it''s injuries weren''t very severe at all. It seemed that it was simply scared, more than anything else.

    Fighter Li had clearly also identified this, and he immediately sprang up into the air before unleashing a string of countless palm thrusts in rapid session. Immediately thereafter, he removed the conical hat on his head, then injected arge amount of inner power into it before hurling it at the anomaly of horror like a frisbee.

    The conical hat was rapidly revolving as it flew through the air, and its edge was glowing with golden radiance.

    "Don''t kill me! Don''t kill me!"

    The anomaly of horror frantically tried to dodge the conical hat, but the hat swerved around mid-flight as if it were being remote-controlled, changing directions sharply to sever the anomaly of horror''s head before flying back into Fighter Li''s grasp like a boomerang.

    "I''m going to die! I don''t want to die!"

    Despite the fact that it had been decapitated, the anomaly of horror was screaming louder than ever, and its body scooped its head on its own, while its face had be so twisted with fear that it waspletely unrecognizable.

    Its screams of horror were so loud and ghastly that even Adam and Fighter Li were struck by a very pronounced sense of difort.

    It was as if all of their courage had been instantly sapped away, leaving them with only one thought, and that was to flee for their lives.

    What a powerful cyberhex!

    Adam knew that this was one of his opponent''s abilities, but he still couldn''t suppress the fear in his heart, and he really did begin to flee the scene in a blind panic.

    Fighter Li''s situation was much the same. He was also beginning to flee despite his best efforts to remain rational, but while he was running away, he was also chanting a rity mantra, and afterpleting the mantra, he abruptly thrust both of his palms straight into his own forehead.

    "Remain calm!" Li roared as he drew to an abrupt halt.

 Chapter 156: Surrounded

    <h4>Chapter 156: Surrounded</h4>

    Li had a way to suppress this irrational sense of fear, and Adam had his own way of oveing it as well.

    While fleeing the scene, Adam forcibly suppressed the fear in his heart, then rescinded his fusion with Nun before invoking Mummy and fusing with it instead.

    This scream of horror was clearly a psychic cyberhex ability. As the anomaly of pain, Mummy possessed exceptional defenses, both physically and psychologically, allowing Adam to more effectively ward off all types of attacks.

    Sure enough, after fusing as one with Mummy, most of the fear in his heart instantly receded, and even though he still felt terrified, he no longer felt so fearful that he was running away uncontrobly.

    "We can''t let it get away!"

    Adam forcibly overcame his fear as heshed out with his bandages to try and capture the fleeing the anomaly.

    This anomaly''sbat prowess wasn''t anything special, but its ability was extremely troublesome to deal with. This type of restrictive cyberhex could wreak immense havoc in battle if it were paired with other anomalies.

    "I can''t get caught... I can''t get caught..."

    Looking at the wave of oing bandages, the anomaly of horror fled for its life once again while clutching its head tightly to its chest. All of its limbs seemed to have a mind of their own, allowing it to traverse through the cluttered ughterhouse in an extremely smooth and agile fashion, quickly taking it out of the encirclement formed by the bandages.

    "Li!"

    With a thunderous roar, Adam was finally able to snap Fighter Li back to his senses. He bit through the tip of his own tongue, using the painbined with his rity mantra to lift the cyberhex of horror before re-entering the fray.

    His conical hat was hurled through the air once again, and under the maniption of his inner power, the conical began to whiz through the ughterhouse, evading all of the obstacles as it sped directly toward the anomaly of horror as if a tracking device had been installed onto it.

    Having already been decapitated by the conical hat, the anomaly of fear didn''t dare to take any chances this time, and it immediately sprang up from the ground before clinging onto the ceiling, hanging upside-down using its limbs like a spider to evade the attack.

    However, right at this moment, a chill ran down the anomaly of horror''s spine, and a dagger was driven into its back.

    A burst of clown cackling rang out, and the anomaly of horror turned to look behind it, but didn''t see anything.

    Clown had already concealed itself after making that sneak attack.

    After absorbing the anomalic power of the gargoyle anomaly fromst time, many of Adam''s anomalies had be significantly stronger, and even the likes of Clown coulde in useful in battles now.

    After fusing as one with Mummy, Adam had invoked many of his other anomalies for fear of any unforeseen circumstances.

    Given how unclear the situation was, he had no intention of fighting his opponents one-on-one, and if an opportunity arose for him to gang up on an opponent, then he certainly wasn''t going to pass it up.

    The anomaly of horror was at aplete loss as it stared at the knife wound on its back, and right as it was about to continue fleeing for its life, the space around it waspletely sealed, following which a pair of scythe arms shed down to slice it into pieces.

    "Is it over?"

    Sure enough, ganging up on an enemy was definitely the way to go. Even though the anomaly of horror was a level three anomaly, it was nothing more than amb to the ughter in the face of all of Adam''s anomalies and Fighter Li.

    "I don''t think so..."

    No anomalic power was being produced by the remains of the anomaly of horror, which meant that it wasn''tpletely dead.

    Sure enough, even after being dismembered into pieces, the anomaly of horror still hadn''t given up on running away. As a level three anomaly, the anomaly of horror didn''t possess muchbat prowess, but its desire to survive and its fleeing abilities were top-notch.

    The pile of dismembered body parts began to struggle on the spot before fleeing in different directions.

    The arms were relying on the fingers to escape, while the legs were jumping around erratically like grasshoppers.

    "We need to split up and chase them down!"

    Adam invoked all of his anomalies, while Fighter Li also set off in pursuit of the fleeing body parts of the anomaly of fear.

    Finally, after three minutes, they managed to gather all of the body parts back together again, then had them incinerated by a st of fire from Hellhound.

    As the remains of the anomaly of horror slowly burned away, the anomalic power that Adam had been eagerly awaiting finally appeared.

    That ck hole isn''t going to appear again, is it?

    With the experience of what had happenedst time, Adam ordered all of his anomalies to devour the anomalic power as quickly as possible while making preparations to intercept that mysterious force, should it appear again.

    Sure enough, in the instant that the anomalic power emerged, a vortex also appeared in the air, and it sucked away arge proportion of the anomalic power, while Adam was powerless to do anything about it.

    Adam adopted several courses of action and even recruited Fighter Li''s assistance to try and oppose the vortex, but it was all to no avail. All he could do was urge his anomalies to speed up and devour as much anomalic power as possible.

    Around a minuteter, all of the anomalic power waspletely gone, and once again, Adam had only managed to obtain a small proportion of it.

    "What is that thing?" Fighter Li asked as he pointed at the vortex, which was gradually fading away. "How could there possibly be something like this in someone''s psychic body?"

    "I don''t know, either. I''m even more interested in the answer to that question than you."

    This was the second time that his prey had been stolen from him, and it was a very vexing feeling.

    However, it was still better than nothing. The power of a level three anomaly was still a great source of sustenance for the lower-level anomalies in his body, and all of his anomalies had grown a little stronger after devouring that portion of the anomaly of horror''s power.

    "Let''s keep going. We weren''t ambushed this time, so it''s clear that the efforts we made to fool the host were effective. As long as those anomalies don''t band together, picking them off one by one is a rtively simple task."

    Right as Adam''s voice trailed off, all of the machines in the ughterhouse that had been switched off suddenly sprang to life again. One cow after another was ced onto the conveyor belt before being killed, dissected, sliced, minced...

    At the same time, the sound of heavy footsteps rang out within the ughterhouse.

    "I enjoy the smell of death, but I''m even more fond of the smell of food..." A cleaver-wielding anomaly slowly stomped its way into the ughterhouse, dragging its rotund body over the ground as the machines began to operate again. "This feeling makes me stronger."

    At the same time, the roof of the ughter was smashed open, and the alien anomaly also descended through the opening.

    Soon, a total of seven anomalies had gathered topletely surround this ce, and some of the anomalies were ones that Adam had seen before, while others werepletely new faces.

    How did this happen? Do these anomalies have some type of psychic connection with one another?

    Out of the anomalies that Adam recognized, he knew that the mother and son pair possessed extremely powerful restrictive abilities, while the alien anomaly and the chef anomaly were very fearsome in direct battle. Just the four of them alone would''ve been quite difficult to deal with, and with the other three thrown into the mix as well...

    "Should we retreat?"

    "I think we should."

    There was no way that the two of them could oppose seven powerful anomalies at once. It was like a feast being presented to Adam, but he had no choice but to retreat for now.

    The best thing about adapters invading the psychic worlds of normal people was that they could leave at any moment, and the plug could even be pulled by someone on the outside.

    This was because normal people didn''t have the ability to construct psychic boundaries, and at the moment, neither of them were engaged in battle, so they could leave in an instant.

    "Let''s go!"

    Both of them were extremely seasoned fighters, and in the instant that they made their decision, they immediately prepared to depart from the psychic world. However, during the disconnection process, they suddenly encountered some type of obstructive force, and Adam was shocked to find that he was still right where he was a moment ago.

    "What''s going on? How can anomalies create psychic boundaries? Isn''t that an ability that''s unique to adapters?" Fighter Li asked as he turned to Adam.

    "I''m not sure what''s going on, either." Adam was even more astonished. "This is the first time I''ve encountered something like this."

    "Didn''t the Psychic Church teach you about this? I''ve heard that they''ve managed to cote a lot of knowledge about adapters in the civilized world."

    "The problem is that I only went to school for a short time beforeing here," Adam sighed with a resigned expression. "There was simply too little time avable to me to justify wasting it in the ssroom. What do we do now?"

    "We''ll have to fight for our lives." A cold tone crept into Fighter Li''s voice as he spoke, and the steely resolve toy down his life also surfaced in his eyes. "I wouldn''t have had long to live anyway, it''s perfect for someone like me to die in battle."

 Chapter 157: Chaotic Battle

    <h4>Chapter 157: Chaotic Battle</h4>

    As Fighter Li resolved himself to die in this battle, his aura suddenly began to rapidly elevate.

    In the process, he disyed to Adam an area in which artificial adapters were superior to organic adapters, and that was their ability to embrace death.

    From the moment that they chose to be artificial adapters, they knew that their lifespans would be severely cut short. Some of them did it for the money, some reveled in the apuse and acim that they received as psychicbatants, and some were forced into the industry.

    As for Fighter Li, he viewed this as the means to an end, a way for him to pursue his ultimate goal in life.

    It was a life that was going to be as brief, but as also as spectacr, as fireworks.

    His resolve to die wasn''t just a tough front that he was putting on, and the psychic energy that he derived from this sense of resolve was limitless.

    Standing beside Fighter Li at this moment, Adam couldn''t help but be swept up by his resolve.

    Those who were warm and friendly to others could make those around them more open and cheerful, while those who lived every day like theirst could ignite the courage in the hearts of theirrades.

    I''ve been living too carefully all this time. I''ve always been a pawn conforming to the ns of others. It wouldn''t be a bad ending for me if I were to die here on my own terms.

    With that in mind, Adam also cast aside his fear of death, and in that instant, he was able to sense his own psychic power.

    As a result, Mummy''s powers were also boosted, and its muscles began to bulge.

    At the same time, the chef anomaly was already charging at him while swinging its cleaver through the air.

    .

    "You''re going to die sooner orter anyway, don''t drag this out andpromise the freshness of the ingredients!"

    After its cleaver strike was parried away by Adam''s carving knife, the chef anomaly opened its massive mouth before biting viciously onto his body.

    Its bite force was nothing short of terrifying, and it was able to even chew through metal. A string of loud snapping sounds instantly rang out from Adam''s shoulder as several of his bandages were severed by the chef anomaly''s teeth.

    Thankfully, aside from its immense bite force, all of the chef anomaly''s other attributes were quite ordinary, and Adam was able to plunge his carving knife into its neck several times in session, creating a huge prating wound that forced the chef anomaly to release Adam''s shoulder from its mouth.

    At the same time, Camera also entered the fray, slicing the chef anomaly into pieces with its scythe arms.

    However, not only did Adam have allies to assist him in battle, the same applied to his opponents as well. In the same instant that Adam turned the tables on the chef anomaly, he was dealt several heavy blows in quick session by the alien anomaly, immediately following which heard the scream of the child anomaly.

    Adam recalled that this was an extremely powerful single-target cyberhex ability belonging to Sithu''s infantile persona, and it was no less effective that the scream of the anomaly of horror.

    In the instant that Adam heard the scream, his body immediately began to be extremely feeble. At the same time, a long tongue wrapped itself around his body before dragging him through the air.

    Sithu''s mother, the anomaly with the enormous genitalia, had dragged Adam over itself and was about to stuff him into its genitalia.

    This was yet another anomaly with extremely skewed abilities, possessing pitifulbat prowess, but immense single-target destructive capabilities.

    Adam had once witnessed an aberration being stuffed into its genitalia, and that aberration was eroded away and turned into gold in the blink of an eye.

    This was something that Adam had never wanted to experience for himself, but unfortunately, he didn''t have much choice in the matter at this moment.

    The cavity within the prostitute anomaly''s genitalia was filled with mucus, and as this mucus came into contact with his body, his bandages began to slowly turn golden in color. After being turned into gold, the hardness of the bandages was severelypromised, and they were snapped violently with a forceful contraction of the anomaly''s abdominal cavity.

    Never had Adam been in such a perilous situation since Mummy had evolved into a level three anomaly, and he frantically instructed his anomalies to help him while doing everything in his power to shrug off the effects of the cyberhex and recover his strength.

    As time passed, the debilitating effects of the cyberhex began to slowly wear off, and Adam drew his carving knife before shing viciously at his surroundings.

    However, the carving knife''s de had also been turned into gold, thereby severely reducing its hardness and sharpness.

    Thankfully, Hellhound swooped in to save the day with a timely Explosive Fireball to blow up the prostitute anomaly''s abdominal cavity, thereby freeing Adam as he stumbled onto the ground amid a pool of mucus.

    As the mucus spilled out of the prostitute anomaly''s body, Hellhound was affected by its mind-altering properties and began to attack its allies.

    That was a really close one!

    Adam mbered up from the ground in a feeble state as he inspected his surroundings. The battle had only just begun, yet it was already extremely perilous.

    All of the enemy anomalies were either level three anomalies that possessed formidablebat prowess or level two anomalies with special tricks up their sleeves. On a battlefield with so manybatants in action once, it was far more chaotic and perilous than any one-on-one battle.

    Adam had an extensive wealth of battle experience, but the majority of those battles had either been one-on-one battles, or were battles where his side held the numbers advantage.

    This was the first time that he was fighting in a battle where he was severely outnumbered, and it was quite the rude awakening.

    He turned to Fighter Li, expecting him to be in an even worse situation, but to his surprise, Fighter Li was keeping up quite well with the three anomalies that he was locked in battle with.

    All three of these anomalies were superior to Fighter Li when it came to absolute power, and they held a numbers advantage as well, but if anything, that "advantage" only seemed to be working against their favor. The three anomalies were like a trio of massive hunting dogs, while Fighter Li was as speedy and agile as a lyxn, constantly weaving between his opponents to not only evade their attacks, but also asionally lure them into attacking one another to sow chaos among their ranks while also creating opportunities for retaliation for himself.

    The moreplex the environment, the more one''s technical proficiency would stand out.

    In a one-on-one battle, technique was also very important, but in such battles, there was always a structure and a rhythm to the exchanges taking ce.

    Even someone like Adam, who was far less technically proficient than Fighter Li, would be able to maintain some degree of control in a one-on-one battle.

    However, as the number ofbatants in a battle increased, it became more and more difficult to maintain this control.

    On a chaotic battlefield like this, attacks were flying haphazardly in all directions, and all Adam could do to secure victory over his opponents was by relying on numbers and brute force.

    Man, I wish I had that much skill!

    As Adam was watching Fighter Li in action, the effects of the cyberhex had already slowly worn off, and his strength was gradually returning to him.

    The first thing that he did after recovering his strength was withdraw Camera back into his body.

    Not only was it a ss cannon, it had instantly attracted the attention of all of the enemy anomalies by slicing the chef anomaly into pieces in an instant. The alien anomaly had already pounced at Camera, and it had only taken a few exchanges for Camera to be injured.

    Meanwhile, the chef anomaly opened its mouth and began to devour the pieces of its own body. As it did so, it began to grow a new body.

    Level three anomalies all had different tricks up their sleeves, and they were very generally very difficult to kill.

    I have to target the weakest ones first!

    The child anomaly and the prostitute anomaly were both level two anomalies with frail defenses, making them the easiest targets to kill. With that in mind, Adam charged directly at them with Nun and Hellhound in tow.

    The other enemy anomalies naturally tried to intervene, but they were stopped in their tracks by a sludge anomaly and a bunch of clowns.

    These two had already evolved to be level two anomalies, and Adam had intentionally kept them out of the battle until this point.

    These two anomalies weren''t particrly effective in battle, but their abilities and attributes made them extremely annoying to deal with.

    Sludge was an anomaly of guilt, so it was very difficult to kill, while Clown''s abilities made it an infuriating opponent to deal with.

    With the diversion provided by those two, Adam was able to sessfully rush over to the infantile Sithu before shing his carving knife down onto its deathly pale face.

 Chapter 158: Super Explosion

    <h4>Chapter 158: Super Explosion</h4>

    The child anomaly was a level two anomaly with veryckluster defenses, and it was easily felled by an all-out attack from a level three anomaly.

    Adam''s giant carving knife shed all the way down the length of the child anomaly''s entire body, splitting it into two.

    In order to ensure that it didn''t somehow manage to survive due to certain special abilities, Adam picked up the two halves of its body and tossed them both at Hellhound.

    In the instant that the two halves of the body were thrown up into the air, they were immediately struck by a pair of Explosive Fireballs, instantly incinerating them to ashes.

    That''s one down!

    Anomalic power rose up from the ashes, and Hellhound was situated closest to the charred remains of the child anomaly, so it was able to enjoy the feast before any of Adam''s other anomalies.

    Of course, the vortex also reappeared.

    The child anomaly was only a level two anomaly, so it released far less anomalic power than the gargoyle anomaly did, but the suction force released by the vortex didn''t weaken in the slightest. Furthermore, it had only a single anomaly contending with it this time, and all of the anomalic power was sucked away in just a few seconds. Hellhound was only able to enjoy a few mouthfuls of its feast before it was taken away, and all it could do was howl in fury at the vortex.

    .

    "Focus on the battle first!"

    This was a battle of life and death against extremely formidable opponents, so they couldn''t afford to waste time crying over spilled milk.

    After killing the child anomaly, Adam and his anomalies switched their target to the prostitute anomaly.

    "Hellhound, Nun, use long-range attacks!"

    The prostitute anomaly wasn''t very powerful, either, but it had two trump cards up its sleeve, one of which was the all-devouring ability of its genitalia, while the other was the mucus within its body.

    Anyone who came into contact with the mucus would temporarily enter a frenzied state, where they would attack blindly, unable to discern between friend and foe. Even adapters weren''t immune to this effect, so it was naturally no surprise that anomalies, which were the embodiment of chaos, were also unable to resist those effects.

    Thankfully, the prostitute anomaly''s defenses were also quite mediocre, and it began to howl in agony as its body was severely ravaged by abination of corrosive sewage and exploding fireballs.

    Its agonized cries attracted the attention of the other enemy anomalies, and several tentacles immediately shot out before wrapping themselves around Hellhound, Nun, and the screaming prostitute anomaly.

    The alien anomaly was one of the anomalies that were ganging up on Fighter Li, but they weren''t making much progress there, so it had decided to rescue the prostitute anomaly.

    However, its intervention hade toote.

    After being wrapped up by the alien anomaly''s tentacles, Hellhound and Nun instinctively began to retaliate and struggle. Hellhound was able to tear the tentacle apart with its fangs, while Nun severed the other tentacle with its sharp ws.

    Thus, the only one that was dragged over to the alien anomaly''s side was the prostitute anomaly.

    "Damn... You''re already like this..." the alien anomaly said in a disappointed voice as it inspected the prostitute anomaly''s already severely ravaged body. "You''re already too wounded to continue... I may as well... get you to make one final contribution!"

    The alien anomaly plunged its tentacles into the prostitute anomaly''s body as it spoke, then began to inject gray energy into it. Before long, the prostitute anomaly''s body had swelled up to resemble a giant balloon from the influx of energy.

    The energy was very strange in that it was somehow able to prevent itself from leaking out, despite all of the holes in the prostitute anomaly''s body.

    After the injection of energy wasplete, the tentacle anomaly hurled the prostitute anomaly onto the battlefield.

    "No... Help me..."

    The balloon-like prostitute anomaly was howling in agony and horror, but to no avail.

    As it flew through the air, its body continued to expand further and further until it exploded violently, sending an eruption of blinding light sweeping over the entire battlefield.

    First came the light, mes, and shockwaves, then came the resounding explosion.

    The explosion was so powerful that the entire ughterhouse was blown apart, and all of thebatants on the battlefield were also swept up in the swirling maelstrom of energy with no exceptions.

    Adam was like a small raft on a turbulent sea as he was thrown from side to side by the shockwaves, and his body crashed into the machinery and carcasses in the ughterhouse on countless asions. The only thing that he could do as he was tossed around like a ragdoll was to hurriedly withdraw all of his anomalies back into his body.

    Even so, the vast majority of them still sustained such severe injuries that they were on the brink of death, and they certainly weren''t fit for further battle.

    The explosionsted close to 20 seconds before finally subsiding, and the entire ughterhouse had already been razed to the ground.

    Adam slowly mbered to his feet amid the rubble. At this point, there wasn''t a single bandage on his body that was left intact, leaving his severely injured bodypletely exposed.

    The explosion had been so violent that even Adam had sustained horrific wounds, so it was no surprise that the entire battlefield had been wiped clean ofbatants.

    After struggling to his feet, he immediately turned to the direction that Fighter Li was in. As an adapter who relied heavily on technique, the bane of Fighter Li''s existence were these indiscriminate and extremely powerful attacks that epassed huge areas.

    "Li, are you still alive?"

    Adam was not very optimistic about Li''s chances of survival, but to his surprise and tion, he received a feeble response.

    He immediately hurried over to find that Li was already on the brink of death.

    His clothes had all been torn shreds, as had his conical hat. His body waspletely broken by the heavy objects and debris hurled at him by the shockwaves of the explosion, and every single bone in his body was broken, making him resemble a human bean bag as heid sprawled out amid the rubble.

    Thankfully, there was a glowing golden bell projection that was protecting him, allowing him to just barely cling onto life.

    "I''m so d you''re alive! I''ll get you out of here right away..."

    Not only had Adam and Fighter Li been injured by the explosion, all of the enemy anomalies had been wiped out as well.

    "They''re not all dead..."

    Li was only able to muster up a feeble warning before falling unconscious.

    Adam had no time to process what Li had just told him. If he couldn''t get Li out of the psychic world right away, there was a very good chance that he would end up as a braindead vegetable in the real world.

    Li had been recruited to help him, so he had to do everything in his power to save Li.

    With that in mind, Adam immediately set about breaking the psychic boundaries in this psychic world. At the same time, he invoked Camera to keep a lookout while he worked.

    Camera had been withdrawn into his body earlier, so it had been spared from the explosion.

    While he was doing all this, a series of vortexes appeared in mid-air, and Adam counted four of them in total.

    The four vortexes were rapidly sucking in anomalic power, and it didn''t take long before there was no anomalic power left on the battlefield. This time, Adam didn''t try topete with the vortexes. They were too far away for him to reach, and he had more important things to do.

    There were four vortexes, and the child anomaly was killed earlier, so there are still two surviving enemy anomalies.

    Adam was quite surprised as he ran a brief calction in his mind.

    The enemy anomalies clearly had the overall advantage in power, so why had they resorted to creating such a massive explosion that had proven to be far more detrimental to them than to Adam and Fighter Li?

    Could it be that the alien anomaly is just not very smart?

    Different anomalies had different levels of intelligence. This type of variance was only to be expected, considering anomalies could arise from all types of negative emotions.

    For example, an anomaly that had arisen from the emotion of anger naturally couldn''t be expected to be very rational or cunning, and it made sense that on such a chaotic battlefield, they could''ve been overwhelmed by their impulsive urge to destroy everything.

    However, all of this still felt quite suspicious to Adam.

    Adam had witnessed many strange things in Sithu''s psychic world. Aside from his schizophrenia, all of his anomalies seemed to possess some type of psychic connection. In addition to that, the anomalic-power-devouring vortexes and the psychic boundaries were things that shouldn''t have existed in the psychic world of a normal person suffering from mental illness.

 Chapter 159: Raven

    <h4>Chapter 159: Raven</h4>

    As Adam was pondering the situation while chipping away at the psychic barrier, two anomalies gradually emerged from the rubble.

    The first one was the alien anomaly, the perpetrator behind the explosion.

    It was a strange humanoid anomaly with tentacles growing all over its body, all of which were squirming incessantly like parasites. It was the one that had created the explosion, but it appeared to bepletely unscathed, and it seemed that it possessed certain attributes that granted it extreme resistance to explosions.

    The other surviving anomaly was the chef anomaly. Its physical resistance was inferior to Adam''s, but its regenerative abilities were outstanding, thereby making it extremely difficult to kill.

    Even after being blown up into pieces, its head and skeleton still remained, and as it munched away at the pieces of its own charred remained, its body was slowly regenerating.

    If there are only two enemy anomalies left, then I hold the upper hand.

    Prior to the explosion, Adam and Fighter Li had been at a disadvantage.

    Adam was struggling to contend with four anomalies at once, and Fighter Li was only able to rely on his superior technique and agility to stall for time against his three opponents. Had he been caught off guard even by a single attack, then he would''ve been instantly doomed.

    If Li had perished, then there was no chance that Adam would''ve been able to defeat seven anomalies at once.

    However, the situation waspletely different not. In the wake of that super explosion, the tables had beenpletely turned.

    Li no longer had the ability to continue fighting, but the enemy camp had lost a total of fivebatants, thereby suddenly giving Adam the advantage. However, he had no intention of re-entering the fray. Instead, he was trying to break through the psychic boundaries as quickly as possible while his opponents were also recovering.

    In his mind, the psychic boundaries would''ve been quite easy to destroy.

    Back when he was trapped in the psychic world by that psychic mutant, he and Hook had been able to break through the psychic boundaries in quite a short time.

    That psychic mutant hade prepared, and there were many other powerful psychic mutants on his side as well, so the psychic boundaries they had established had to have been quite sturdy.

    In contrast, Sithu was only a non-adapter who suffered from schizophrenia, so surely the psychic boundaries in his psychic world wouldn''t have posed much resistance at all.

    However, that proved not to be the case. Adam had already dug through severalyers of psychic boundaries, but he still wasn''t able to open up a pathway back to the real world.

    How is this possible?

    Meanwhile, the alien anomaly was in no hurry to attack, and the chef anomaly had finally devoured enough meat to reassemble its own body.

    In this reassembled form, it was clear that not all of its flesh hade from its original body. It had devoured too much beef in its efforts to restore itself, and as a result, it had be evenrger and more bloated. It was like a monster that had been stitched together using haphazard chunks of flesh, and as soon as it made a recovery, it immediately charged at Adam with its cleaver raised.

    Even as the chef anomaly was charging at him, Adam didn''t stop what he was doing. Instead, he turned his gaze to the alien anomaly. As long as that thing didn''t move, he wasn''t going to do anything, either.

    The chef anomaly was nothing more than a tank, and as a fellow level three anomaly, Adam didn''t have to fear it at all.

    In addition to that, he had allies on his side.

    Right as the chef anomaly was about to get close, Adam invoked Distortion, which he had withheld from the battle this entire time. Given how erratic and uncontroble Distortion was, releasing it too early would''ve only made the battlefield even more chaotic, and it was certainly a possibility that it could''ve targeted Fighter Li.

    However, there was barely anyone left on this battlefield at the moment, and most of his anomalies had been injured in the explosion, so this was the perfect opportunity for Distortion to shine.

    As soon as Distortion appeared, it immediately pounced onto the chef anomaly, exerting immense distortive force onto its reassembled body. As a result, its flesh was bound up like a grotesque pretzel, making its appearance even more unsettling to behold.

    At this moment, the chef anomaly resembled a mountain of flesh that had been bound by countless rubber bands, causing its entire body to bulge and indent in an uneven fashion.

    Of course, Distortion alone wasn''t going to be enough to take down the chef anomaly.

    While the chef anomaly was bound by Distortion, Adam instructed Camera to attack the chef anomaly as well, and it was quickly forced onto the back foot.

    Large chunks of its body were being sliced off, and with each chunk that fell away, it was losing upwards of 50 kilograms of weight.

    "Attack its head!" Adam instructed while continuing to chip away at the psychic boundaries.

    The chef anomaly''s powerful regenerative abilities stemmed from its intake of flesh, so as long as it was able to eat, and there was meat avable for it to consume, it was essentially unkible.

    After receiving that instruction, Camera shifted its attention to the chef anomaly''s head, but in response, the chef anomaly shrank its head into its abdominal cavity so that it was enveloped by countless chunks of flesh.

    At the same time, it was opposing Camera''s scythe arms with its cleaver, and an intense battle ensued.

    Camera''s attacks were extremely fast, and it was able to cleave offrge chunks of the chef anomaly''s flesh with each strike that itnded, but due to its pitiful defenses, it didn''t dare to get too close for fear of being killed by a single attack.

    Thus, the battle became a contest of attrition, and neither side was able to gain the upper hand.

    During this time, Adam''s attention remained focused on the other anomaly. As long as it didn''t strike, he was also going to refrain from doing anything.

    Time slowly passed by, and the psychic boundaries were gradually being chipped away, as was the chef anomaly''s body. It seemed that everything was progressing in a positive direction.

    Five minutester, Camera was finally able to slice away all of the chef anomaly''s flesh with Distortion''s help, then severed its head with a swipe of its scythe arm.

    After that, it unleashed several more attacks in session to slice the head into pieces.

    With that, the chef anomaly perished, disintegrating into a vast cloud of anomalic power.

    Part of the anomalic power was devoured by Camera and Distortion, but once again, the majority of it was sucked away by the mysterious vortex.

    Without any anomalic power lingering in the area to keep it distracted, Distortion immediately tried to pounce onto Camera. Adam knew that this was going to happen, and he hurriedly withdrew Camera into his body.

    Having lost its target, Distortion turned to the alien anomaly in the distance instead. Adam was just about to stop it, but at the same time, he was rather curious about what was going to happen.

    In a turn of events that was rather inexplicable, but also not unexpected to Adam, the alien anomaly didn''t retaliate at all as it was being attacked by Distortion. Instead, it was weing Distortion''s attacks as if it had a death wish.

    Its joints were bent the wrong way, its neck was elongated before being snapped...

    It was a level three anomaly, yet it was working with Distortion to sabotage itself, and it didn''t take long before its entire body was scrunched up into a ball of mangled flesh, putting an end to its life on the spot.

    What is going on?

    Even following its demise, the tentacles on the alien anomaly''s body were still writhing and squirming. The anomalic-power-sucking vortex had already reappeared, but it was as if the alien anomaly wasn''tpletely dead.

    Could it be that those tentacles really are parasites?

    While Adam was perplexed by the situation, a dense nket of dark clouds suddenly began to gather in the sky before absorbing everything in the surrounding area.

    Sithu''s psychic world was originally incredibly dark, sticky, and bloody, but all of the unpleasant elements in the environment were sucked away by the dark clouds in the sky alongside all of the negative emotions in the psychic world. As a result, the sky was made to resemble a swamp that was churning and squirming incessantly.

    In the end, it transformed into a massive six-eyed raven.

    For some reason, as the raven opened its eyes and turned to Adam, it expressed its gratitude to him.

    "Thank you for getting rid of all of those pesky pieces of trash for me. As thanks, I''m going to give you somepensation."

    The raven released a cloud of ck mist out of its beak as it spoke, and it was a cloud of extremely pure anomalic power.

 Chapter 160: Decision

    <h4>Chapter 160: Decision</h4>

    An anomaly had just bestowed anomalic power upon him...

    Adam was at aplete loss for what to do as he stared at the cloud of anomalic power before him.

    This was a situation that he waspletely unable toprehend, and after some hesitation, he decided tomunicate with the raven.

    "What are you?"

    This was the most important question to unraveling this entire mystery.

    "I am one of Sithu''s personalities."

    Adam nodded in response. In essence, this anomaly was just like all of the other anomalies in Sithu''s psychic world.

    "Why haven''t you appeared at all before this?"

    "That''s because I''m a recessive personality. I am unable to show myself while the other dominant personalities are around."

    The concepts of recessive and dominant personalities were a blind spot in Adam''s knowledge. As a nk te who had only spent a very short time taking adapter lessons, there were far too many things that he didn''t know.

    Having said that, even though he didn''t know the reasons why multiple personalities could arise in one''s mind, the terms "recessive" and "dominant" made the concepts fairly self-exnatory.

    "Did you kill all of the other personalities?"

    "You were the one who killed them, I only gave you some help." As the raven spoke, it continued to p its wings, and that was where the dark clouds were being released from. "Alternatively, it can be said that we helped each other."

    The aura that the raven was giving off indicated that it was clearly extremely powerful. Adam had only witnessed this type of aura from Masao Yamamoto and Sadou. Beings of their caliber were able to alter the environment in a psychic world with each and every move that they made, and they were certainly far too powerful for Adam to contend with.

    With that in mind, a thought suddenly urred to Adam.

    "Were you the one who created those vortexes?"

    "That''s right. We are one and the same, and I possess the ability to absorb power through them. I am giving you this power in exchange for my physical body to be set free. Is that possible? What I''m saying is that I would like you to release me from the underground chamber."

    All of Sithu''s personalities had been deranged, anxious, violent, or cowardly, but this recessive personality was exceptionally calm and collected and spoke with very clear logic and eloquence.

    If it weren''t for the fact that it had presented itself to Adam in the form of a giant raven, he could''ve easily mistaken it for a refined and well-mannered gentleman, rather than an anomaly that had arisen from negative emotions.

    Adam didn''t trust anomalies, and by extension, he didn''t trust anything that they said.

    However, he was at the raven''s mercy at this moment. He was no match for the raven in this psychic world, and Li was on the verge of death, so he couldn''t afford to dy any longer.

    "So you''ll let me leave after I ept your proposal? If I ept, I''m probably going to get turned into one of your puppets, just like that alien anomaly."

    With that in mind, Adam became even more hesitant.

    Even after the alien anomaly''s death, its tentacles were still able to move. On top of that, it was the perpetrator behind the explosion, and all of these circumstances were extremely suspicious.

    "You can choose to refuse. In that case, I''ll just have to temporarily hypnotize you so that you''ll release me. Make your choice..."

    ¡­¡­

    After emerging from Sithu''s psychic world, Adam immediately wheeled Li''s bed out of the underground chamber before calling for help.

    At this point, Fighter Li was barely breathing, and after inspecting his condition, Jiang Junior immediately made a call to the doctor. Despite thete hour, the doctor arrived as quickly as he could, and after some fluid injections, it seemed that Fighter Li was temporarily in a stable condition.

    Organic adapters were able to easily recover from any damage that they sustained to their psychic bodies. For example, even though Nie Yiyi had been severely wounded in the psychic world, she would be close to making a full recovery after a night''s sleep.

    However, the same didn''t apply to Li. His adapter abilities had been bestowed upon him by the machine, which was forcing him beyond his limits to begin with. Any harm sustained by his psychic body would''ve only exacerbated his brain trauma, and given that his psychic body was almost killed, he could''ve easily ended up in a brain-dead state.

    Following that battle, he was only just barely clinging onto life.

    Adam stayed with him until he was in a stable condition, then looked after him for a night after he was delivered to the best nearby hospital. Only around noon the following day was he truly out of life-threatening danger, and even though he still hadn''t woken up, he had managed to pull through.

    At this point, Nie Yiyi and Shae had also arrived at the hospital.

    After a night of rest, theirplexions were still awful, but they were able to move around on their own now.

    "This is worse than being hungover! I wanna throw up..." Shaeined as she approached Adam.

    In contrast with her casual demeanor, Nie Yiyi was far more serious.

    "Why didn''t you tell me?"

    "You were unconscious at the time."

    "You almost killed him."

    .

    Adam nodded in response, making no effort to deny the usation.

    The atmosphere in the room had suddenly gotten rather tense, and Shae hurriedly stepped in as a mediator.

    "Don''t me him, he had no choice. What else could he have done with his match against Oni no Hanzouing up so soon?"

    Nie Yiyi''s expression eased slightly upon hearing the mention of the uing match.

    "How confident are you?"

    "Not at all."

    "Then don''t show up. Worsees to worst, we''ll just have to stay here. I don''t think living here is all that bad. It''s hell anywhere we go anyway. Compared with how oppressive it is in Sandrise City and the civilized world, I feel more rxed here."

    "I feel the same," Shae immediately chimed in. "Even if you somehow manage to survive this ordeal, we''ll be screwed once you make an enemy out of the entire Oni Organization. It''s better to just pull out of the match and live here."

    "I can''t ept that." Adam shook his head in response. "There are so many questions that I haven''t found out the answers to and so many people who''ve wronged me, yet haven''t received just punishment. I have to fight in this match no matter what."

    ¡­¡­

    It was impossible to dissuade someone who had already made up their mind.

    Even though everyone knew that he was going to get himself killed, no one could do anything.

    Everyone arrived on the day of the match, including Nie Yiyi, Shae, Sato, Hook, Hailey... Even Baldie Lin, who had always been detached and uncaring, had made an appearance.

    The pawn shop had tasked him with bringing Adam and his friends to Shadow City, so he felt obligated to witness what could quite possibly end up being Adam''s final moments.

    The match was an extremely grand event.

    The stadium had been promoting the match many days in advance, and the degree of promotion and fanfare that this match received even exceeded that of the average S tier match.

    This was a promotion match, and bothbatants had maintained perfect records up to this point. Most importantly, judging from their past matches, bothbatants possessed S tier power, with one of them tipped to make big waves even in the S tier.

    Furthermore, this match was being held in the main stadium rather than the A tier arena.

    Tens of thousands of spectators were in attendance to watch the match.

    Hailey was sitting in the same seat that she had been in when she had watched her first match with Adam in the stadium, and for the first time, as she looked at the sea of rowdy spectators around her, she feltpletely lost and jaded.

    It had always been her dream to be a fight manager, but at this moment, she was feeling rather disillusioned.

    She turned to Shae before asking, "Are these matches all just one massive farce?"

    Shae remained silent for a long while, yet just when Hailey thought that perhaps her question had been drowned out by all of them yelling and cheering around them, she suddenly heard a response.

    "I don''t know... Perhaps my entire life is all just one massive farce..."

 Chapter 161: Stadium Director

    <h4>Chapter 161: Stadium Director</h4>

    While Hailey was still pondering the meaning behind Shae''s words, a thunderous wave of cheers suddenly rang out as the host led thebatants into the stadium.

    Instead ofing out one by one, both of thebatants had emerged together.

    The host didn''t give them much of an introduction as the majority of spectators present in the stadium were already familiar with the twobatants. There were only around a dozen people in the S tier, and as a pair of A tierbatants with S tier power and spotless records, they were even more renowned than the average S tierbatant.

    Adam was standing on one side of the massive arena, wearing thevish attire that had been prepared for him by the stadium, looking across at the masked figure on the other side.

    His opponent was also looking back at him.

    "Hello, we meet again," Oni no Hanzou greeted from afar, disying the politeness typically associated with someone of Japanese descent.

    He wasn''t looking down on his opponent at all. Not only had Adam disyed astonishing potential for growth, Oni no Hanzou had paid the price for underestimating Adam in the past.

    In his eyes, the fact that Adam dared to turn up for this match indicated that he had to have some tricks up his sleeve.

    That scarecrow anomaly from their first encounter had already proven to be quite a formidable foe, and with that thing on his side, Adam could definitely put up a stern fight.

    However, as a professional hitman, Oni no Hanzou naturally had some tricks up his sleeve as well, and he had absolute confidence in his abilities.

    As the two of them were staring each other down, the host began to speak. "I''m sure all of you are familiar with these twobatants. They have their own monickers, but everyone likes to call them Shadow Ninja and Killing Machine! Both of thesebatants possess S tier power, but it''s not difficult to tell from their past matches that Shadow Ninja is the superior adapter.

    ¡°However, Lean Mean Killing Machine always likes to hide some tricks up his sleeve. In the match where he truly announced himself as a force to be reckoned with, he transformed into a mummy at the final moment, beating Iron Man at his own game andpletely crushing his confidence, resulting in a severe decline in hisbat prowess.

    ¡°Today, he''s going up against his toughest opponent yet. Will he be able to pull something else out of the bag to score an unexpected victory? That''ll be up to you to decide!"

    With that final deration, the host was telling everyone that they could begin to ce their bets.

    They were going to use their cash to decide whether they thought Adam still had more left to give.

    Even though the host hadn''t said much on this asion, he left a very long interval for bets to be ced, and everyone in the stadium was discussing spiritedly among themselves as they chugged down alcoholic beverages while making their bets.

    Surprisingly, many of their spectators decided to ce their bets on Adam.

    ording to the real-time odds calctor, close to 40 of all betters had ced their money on Adam.

    However...

    "What the hell''s wrong with you, Hook?" Shae immediately grabbed onto the back of Hook''s cor as soon as she noticed the bet that he was preparing to ce. "You wanna bet on Oni no Hanzou? Do you have a death wish?"

    .

    "I also want Adam to win, but he has no chance," Hook sighed with a shake of his head as he forcefully tugged his cor out of Shae''s tight grip. "I''ve been working together with Adam even longer than you have, so I know how he stacks up against Oni no Hanzou better than you do. There''s no chance that he''s going to win, and he refuses to listen to reason. There''s not much we can do if he''s determined to throw his life away.

    ¡°We still have to live our own lives. After he loses this match, there''s no chance for us to qualify for the battle royale, and we''ll have to live out the rest of our lives here as fugitives. Everything requires money here, there''s nopassion for those without money in this city. You guys should ce down some bets as well. Especially you, Yiyi, you''ve earned quite a bit of money from your matches, haven''t you?"

    Nie Yiyi paid no heed to him, but Hailey responded in her stead.

    Instead of saying anything, she suddenly turned to Hook before sinking her teeth into his cheek, biting down with so much force that she immediately drew blood. Hook howled in pain as he tried to push Hailey away, only to find that Shae had grabbed onto his arms to hold them into ce.

    ¡­¡­

    The bets continued to be ced, and once everyone had a chance to ce their bets, the host decided that it was time tomence the match. However, all of a sudden, a new wave of cheering rang out, this wave even louder than the one that had greeted the arrival of the twobatants, and everyone was chanting a single word.

    "Director!"

    "The director''s here!"

    "He very rarely shows up except for the most important matches!"

    "Director!"

    "Director, look over here!"

    All of the cheering naturally drew Adam''s attention as well, and he raised his head with an intrigued expression to find that several people had just entered the stadium through a special passageway. Setting aside the rest of the people who were clearly stadium employees, the one at the forefront of the group appeared to be the so-called director.

    Adam was also very curious about this lord of Shadow City.

    He had thought that such a powerful and influential figure would be just as serious as the politicians in the outside world, or be wearing a benevolent and rtable facade like the directors ofrge corporations, but as it turned out, the director had chosen to present himself in an extremely pompous and mboyant fashion.

    His entire body was clothed in a strange metallic robe, which seemed to have been woven out of thin metal threads.

    Despite its metallic material, it appeared to be very soft. The colors of the robe were also very ostentatious, with a predominantly ck and white color scheme, much like the yin-yang symbol that was popr in the east, where the ck and white halves were distinctly separate, but also contained pieces of one another.

    However, in addition to the ck and white color scheme, there were also all types of vibrant colors on the robe, giving it the appearance of a kaleidoscope, and even looking at it from afar, Adam couldn''t help but be struck by a rush of dizziness.

    Hold on, there''s no way those robes could create such a dizzying visual effect from so far away... Could it be that it''s actually my psychic body that''s being impacted?

    As soon as this realization dawned on Adam, he was immediately struck by a sense of rm and fear. He hadn''t sensed any neuron transmitters being fired, so it waspletely iprehensible to him how the director was able to impact him on a psychic level from so far away.

    As for Oni no Hanzou, he seemed to be even more fearful of the director than Adam.

    His gaze was avoiding the director in an unnatural manner, and it seemed that some bad memories had just surfaced in his mind.

    Not only could fear give rise to anomalies, it could also chip away at one''s mental fortitude.

    As long as an adapter hadn''t mutated and been devoured by their anomaly, negative emotions like fear would have a detrimental effect on theirbat prowess. Adam was well aware of this, so he knew that this was a brilliant opportunity to deal his opponent a psychological blow.

    "I didn''t think there would be someone even you''re so afraid of." Adam began to approach his opponent while goading him with his words. "Have you met him before? What happened during your meeting?"

    "You''re 100 years too young to be ying mind games on me!"

    Adam''s words did seem to have sessfully triggered some unsavory memories in Oni no Hanzou''s mind, but he quickly regained hisposure as he sat down with his legs crossed in a meditative state, ignoring everything that was going on around him.

    As a powerful adapter, his mental fortitude was not so easily shaken.

    Adam wasn''t disheartened by this, and he continued to pester Oni no Hanzou with constant goading. He knew that this wouldn''t be enough to crush Oni no Hanzou''s mental fortitude, but if he could weaken his opponent even by a little bit, then he would have a slightly greater chance of survival.

    In order to survive, he was willing to resort to these underhanded tactics.

    Finally, it was about time tomence the match.

    Under the director''s instructions, the host cut short Oni no Hanzou''s meditation, then instructed them to connect themselves to the projector before preparing for battle.

 Chapter 162: Oriole

    <h4>Chapter 162: Oriole</h4>

    The site for this match was randomly selected, so none of thebatants, employees, or spectators knew in what type of setting the match was going to be held.

    By the time Adam reopened his eyes, he found himself standing on a snowfield.

    Gusts of bone-chilling wind were howling all around him, and there were mountains that extended all the way up into the clouds in the distance. The entirendscape waspletely buried under a featureless nket of white snow.

    Adam''s brows furrowed slightly as soon as he took in the surrounding environment, and on the outside, Nie Yiyi was also quite concerned to see this.

    In a battle between twopletely unevenly matchedbatants, the moreplex the environment was, the more the power gap between the two could be bridged. This was becauseplex environments presented unpredictable elements that could influence the battle beyond the control of thebatants, so this simple environment was extremely bad news for Adam.

    "What a beautiful ce this is. It reminds me of Hokkaido..." Standing on the snowfield, Oni no Hanzou was in no hurry to attack. Instead, he was inspecting his surroundings with his eyes narrowed slightly, seemingly in blissful enjoyment. "This type of environment isn''t very suitable for a ninja assassin like me. Instead, it''s more suited to a showdown between a pair of samurai."

    "Are you trying to distract yourself with the scenery to forget your fear?" Adam immediately fused with Mummy as soon as he arrived on the battlefield. "This open environment isn''t exactly beneficial to you, either."

    "That''s true, but I don''t need to rely on environmental factors to kill you."

    As soon as Oni no Hanzou''s voice trailed off, he immediately kicked away the snow piled up in front of him.

    Countless snowkes were instantly sent flying up into the air while gusts of fierce wind swept through the surrounding area. It was as if a hint of killing intent had been injected into the beautiful scenery,pletely changing itsplexion in an instant.

    "Wind release!"

    After kicking the snow away, Oni no Hanzou made a hand seal as he inhaled deeply, then exhaled to produce a ferocious gust of wind that

    It was as if a snowstorm had been swept up across the entire area.

    Oni no Hanzou wasn''t able to influence the environment in a psychic world as easily as the likes of Raven and Masao Yamamoto, but he could achieve the same effect when unleashing his techniques.

    In the fierce storm, every single snowke was flying at an incredible speed, making them as sharp as razors, but that was of no concern to Adam. What he was afraid of was Oni no Hanzou himself. The snowstorm formed a perfect smokescreen that made it very difficult for Adam to track his opponent.

    Adam was quickly looking around in search of his opponent when he suddenly caught sight of a shadow in the snow, and he hurriedly threw a fist in that direction.

    However, at the same time, he was struck by a burst of sharp pain in the neck, apanied by Oni no Hanzou''s mocking voice.

    "Wrong choice!"

    Adam gritted his teeth through the pain as he immediately threw a punch behind him, but his opponent had already disappeared.

    "I''ve studied your matches. In this form, you''re nothing more than a durable punching bag! Over the years, I''ve killed countless opponents who excelled in defense. I have to be able to deal with any type of opponent thrown my way in order to betterplete my missions."

    Oni no Hanzou''s voice rang out from within the wind and the snow, and Adam turned to the direction that the voice hade from, upon which he immediately spotted his opponent.

    He had caught sight of Oni no Hanzou just in time to see himplete a hand seal, following which he used his katana to slice open his own skin. The weapon was already exceptionally sharp, but it had be even sharper as a result of this process.

    Adam immediately charged at his opponent, but Oni no Hanzou was even faster as he concealed himself within the snowstorm again.

    All of a sudden, a streak of light shed through the air at a strange angle, and Adam had only just twisted around when he felt a sharp pain on his waist. As it turned out, the sharpened kunai knife had sliced through his bandages, then went on to slice open his skin and flesh as well.

    "Your defenses are indeed quite remarkable, seeing as you were able to withstand one strike, but what about two, or three?"

    Oni no Hanzou''s voice was like a candle me in the wind, flickering in and out of existence all around Adam.

    Adam was already inferior to his opponent in terms of speed and technique, and the smokescreen posed by the snowstorm ced him in an even more disadvantageous position. After stumbling around andshing out blindly like a headless fly, his entire body was riddled with wounds.

    At this point, the snowstorm also finally subsided, revealing the pair ofbatants to the spectators.

    Adam''s body of steel had already been sliced into ribbons, with gashes all over the ce, and thergest of those wounds, which was on his waist, had sliced through half of his abdomen.

    All of the spectators were both shocked and dismayed to see this.

    "Is it already over?"

    "This is what we bought tickets to see?"

    "What the hell happened in that snowstorm?"

    The battle had presented a veryckluster viewing experience. Not only had one of thebatants already been felled during the brief span of time in which the snowstorm had raged, none of the spectators had been able to see anything.

    "There''s too much of a gap between them," Nie Yiyi sighed as she closed her eyes, not wanting to watch any longer.

    Hailey also burst into tears upon seeing Nie Yiyi''s despairing expression.

    She tugged on Shae''s arm, swaying it from side to side, hoping to find somefort there.

    "You always say that he''s definitely going to win. It''s the same this time, right?"

    "I... I don''t know..." Shae replied with a shake of her head, and Hailey grew even more distraught at this response.

    ¡­¡­

    Inside the psychic world, Oni no Hanzou made his way over to Adam. At this point, Adam had only just mbered up into a seated position. He was unable to stand up due to his injuries.

    Oni no Hanzou rested his katana against Adam''s neck, preparing to decapitate him.

    "Anyst words?"

    "I want to ask you what your purpose in life is, working as a hitman for so long."

    "Life has no purpose. Perhaps I''ll only find an answer to that question once I''ve lived long enough."

    Oni no Hanzou raised his kunai knife as he spoke, then brought it down in one sharp motion, but this time, his movements were far slower than before.

    An anomaly had suddenly sprung out of his shadow to bind his entire body, resulting in a reduction in the speed of his movement.

    Adam took advantage of this opportunity to release all of his remaining bandages to bind Oni no Hanzou.

    Immediately thereafter, Hellhound emerged out of thin air, then sted an Explosive Fireball straight into the gap between the bandages.

    A violent explosion erupted, and Oni no Hanzou''s body was blown up into pieces, but those pieces were chunks of wood, while his true body was already nowhere to be found.

    One should always remain alert and never fall intocency.

    Oni no Hanzou''s power stemmed not just from his abilities, but also his mindset.

    Prior to the intentional disy of weakness that Adam had put on, Oni no Hanzou had already unleashed his body recement technique, substituting himself for a wooden stump.

    "That was a nice try, but it looks like I''ll be getting thestugh, after all."

    Another streak of light shed through the air, aimed directly at one of the wounds on Adam''s neck.

    The gash there was already quite deep, and this was an all-out attack from Oni no Hanzou, so if the strike were tond, then Adam would be decapitated for sure.

    However, right as the mantis was preparing to decapitate the cicada, the oriole struck from behind.

    A sh of light suddenly erupted behind the streak of light left behind in the air by his kunai knife.

    The sh of light was very sharp and piercing, much like the sh of blinding magnesium light from old cameras.

    In the instant that the light appeared, Oni no Hanzou was caughtpletely off guard. In that instant, he felt as if his body had been frozen into ce, and even his thoughts had slowed down.

    At the same time, the fine hairs on the back of his neck instantly rose up on end. Throughout all of his battles against Adam, this was the first time that he had felt genuine peril.

    He had failed to anticipate that Adam would have two traps set for him.

    He struggled with all his might against the restrictive force, but it was already toote, and a de that was even sharper than his kunai knife shed through his body.

 Chapter 163: Shadow Clones

    <h4>Chapter 163: Shadow Clones</h4>

    The de was extremely fast and just as sharp.

    Adam had experimented with Camera''s scythe arms in the past, and its offensive firepower was so potent that even Mummy''s defenses had struggled to keep up. If Mummy were to withstand such an attack head-on, then it would''ve at least been severely wounded, if not killed on the spot.

    In his base form, there was no way that Oni no Hanzou would possess superior defenses to Mummy.

    Hence, the scythe arm passed through his body without any impediment, instantly splitting him into two.

    All of the spectators outside were quite surprised to see this, but the ones who were most shocked were Oni no Miko and Adam''s friends.

    They were more aware than anyone else of how massive the power gap between Adam and Oni no Hanzou was, so none of them had anticipated this astonishing turn of events. All of a sudden, theplexion of the battle had be rather murky.

    One of the subordinates behind Oni no Miko immediately stepped forward with a concerned expression upon seeing this, only to be stopped by her. "Don''t be rash. Even if he''s fallen for this trap, he won''t be defeated so easily."

    She was more astonished than anyone, but she still forced herself to maintain herposure and continue watching.

    All advanced adapters possessed exceptional telegnosis, and the more powerful an adapter was, the more sensitive their telegnosis would be. Even though the sensitivity of their telegnosis had been negatively affected by the cyberhexes cast onto them by the director, Oni no Miko was confident that Oni no Hanzou wouldn''t havepletely failed to sense that attack ahead of time.

    Inside the psychic world.

    This attack was one that Adam had been preparing for a long time. He had allowed himself to sustain severe injuries in the snowstorm, then sprung his first trap only to have it fail, all so that he could lull Oni no Hanzou into this one moment of false security.

    If the attack were tond as intended, then there was no way that Oni no Hanzou would''ve been able to survive, despite all his powers.

    However, as Adam watched half of Oni no Hanzou''s body fall onto the ground before him, he noticed that it was only half of his chest along with the full arm that was attached to it.

    The wound was extremely smooth and even, reflecting the immense offensive power of the attacker.

    Did it not work?

    Adam was rather disappointed as he saw the position of the wound. If the attack had been three more centimeters closer to the midline of Oni no Hanzou''s body, then he would''ve been dead for sure, but it appeared that he had managed to dodge just enough at thest moment.

    Sure enough, after that half of Oni no Hanzou''s body fell to the ground, he immediately made a hand seal to stop his bleeding. Camera''s scythe arm came shing down again, but at that point, Oni no Hanzou had already fled the scene.

    Now that Oni no Hanzou''s guard was back up, it was very difficult even for Camera tond an attack.

    "You''re a very cunning little brat. To think that even I would fall into your trap... That invoked entity of yours is very powerful, and it''s one that I''ve never seen before."

    Oni no Hanzou''s voice wasing from within the snow on the ground, and Adam hurriedly instructed Camera to retreat to his side.

    He knew that this sneak attack had partially seeded not because of how cunning he was. Oni no Hanzou had been working as a hitman for several decades, building up a vast wealth of experience during that time, and there was no way that Adam could''ve outsmarted him.

    Instead, the main factor behind the sessful sneak attack was Camera''s incredible set of abilities and attributes.

    Even back when it had only been a level two anomaly, Adam had almost fallen prey to thebination of its Time Stop ability and its monstrous offensive prowess.

    If someone were unaware of this lethalbination, then there was a very good chance that they would be caught off guard. The fact that Oni no Hanzou was able to survive the attack was already a testament to his exceptional skills.

    However, a sneak attack could only work once. After the element of surprise wore off, it was next to useless, and Adam knew that the truly grueling part of the battle was about toe.

    Thump!

    While his mind was still racing, the snow on the ground in front of him erupted, and Oni no Hanzou shot out from within before swinging his katana at Camera.

    Despite the fact that Adam was in terrible physical condition, Oni no Hanzou had chosen to ignore him and target Camera instead.

    "Come back!"

    Adam hurriedly withdrew his trump card in the face of Oni no Hanzou''s attack.

    Camera was too frail, and there was a very good chance that it would be killed on the spot by one of Oni no Hanzou''s attacks.

    Thus, Oni no Hanzou''s katana struck nothing but empty air.

    At this moment, his missing shoulder and arm had already been reced by a massive red arm that was aplete mismatch with the rest of his body.

    If Adam weren''t mistaken, that arm was most likely one that Oni no Hanzou had borrowed from Aka Oni.

    Having fought Oni no Hanzou on several asions, he had seen Hanzou in both his base form and his Aka Oni form, but he had never seen this semi Aka Oni form.

    "It''s been a very long time since I sustained such a severe injury..."

    Oni no Hanzou was swinging his katana with his massive oni arm, which was stronger and more offensively powerful than his original arm.

    Furthermore, in this form, he was more agile than he was in his full Aka Oni form.

    It could be said that this was Oni no Hanzou''s ultimate form.

    "Are you still not going to invoke that scarecrow of yours?" On the surface, Oni no Hanzou appeared to be looking at Adam, but another pair of eyes had opened up on his oni arm, and it was inspecting the surrounding area in a wary manner. "Where is it hiding? If it''s still not going toe out, then the battle''s going to end soon!"

    Having fallen into Adam''s trap once, Oni no Hanzou had be extremely wary of Adam''s invoked entities.

    Even though he was speaking to Adam, he had already activated his telegnosis to its fullest extent.

    "Is it still not going to appear?"

    The scarecrow was the thing that Oni no Hanzou feared the most. It was the most powerful anomaly in Adam''s body, and in terms of purebat prowess, it wasn''t inferior to Ono no Hanzou.

    However, unbeknownst to Oni no Hanzou, Adam had no way of invoking the scarecrow anomaly.

    "If you''re going to keep hiding your trump card, then you can take it to the grave!"

    After cautiously inspecting his surroundings for some time, Oni no Hanzou finally ran out of patience and attacked again. On this asion, he unleashed his shadow clone technique at a severe cost to his psychic power.

    Countless oni-armed Hanzous instantly appeared on the battlefield.

    In this semi Aka Oni form, these shadow clones were more powerful than his normal shadow clones, but they also required more psychic power to conjure up. However, this was not the time to be sparing his psychic power.

    After unleashing his shadow clone technique, not only would he be better equipped to deal with the scarecrow, it would also be able to confuse the camera anomaly. He had no intention of tempting fate by taking the risk of falling prey to another one of those sneak attacks.

    "It''s over." Both Shae and Nie Yiyi closed their eyes in despair upon seeing this. "He doesn''t even have any weaknesses to exploit now."

    "Is he going to lose?"

    "It''s pretty much a done deal at this point."

    Hailey immediately burst into loud sobs, but his sobbing was quickly drowned out by the screams of excitement from the surrounding spectators.

    The shadow clone technique unleashed by Oni no Hanzou hadpletely ignited everyone''s excitement. Even in S tier matches, it was very rare to see such spectacr techniques.

    During his prior matches, Oni no Hanzou had never used such advanced techniques. All of his opponents had been dispatched in seconds, so there had never been a need for him to turn to such techniques.

    With the way that this match was shaping up, everyone felt as if they had well and truly gotten their money''s worth.

    "The end is close now!"

    "To be honest, Lean Mean Killing Machine is pretty strong..."

    "Yeah, he almost won. That attack only missed Shadow Ninja''s heart by a tiny margin."

    "Nah, he had no chance. Shadow Ninja may have fallen prey to a sneak attack, but there was always a massive power gap between them."

    "Nheless, I''ve been very impressed with Lean Mean Killing Machine. At first, I thought he was an assassin build, then I thought he was a tank, but now, it ''looks like he''s an invocator." There was nock of knowledgeable personnel among the spectators. "He''s definitely worthy of being promoted to the S rank, but he''s still a long way away from reaching Shadow Ninja''s level. Unless he has some other trump cards up his sleeve, I struggle to see him winning this match."

    "Do you think he has other trump cards?"

    "Who knows? He''s always been full of surprises. That''s why so many people were willing to bet on him even though he''s up against Shadow Ninja."

    "What other abilities could he possibly have? It''ll have to be a really powerful trump card to ovee such a massive power gap."

 Chapter 164: Clones VS Clones

    <h4>Chapter 164: Clones VS Clones</h4>

    Right as Hailey was bawling her eyes out while all of the spectators around her were roaring with excitement, Nie Yiyi suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder.

    "Jiang? What are you doing here?" Nie Yiyi was greeted by the sight of a familiar face as she turned around. "Aren''t you supposed to be keeping an eye on Sithu?"

    "The bastard escaped!"

    "When?"

    "I don''t know. No one from outside of our group has been in the underground chamber, but when I went down there today, he was gone!"

    "So be it, it doesn''t matter. He''s just a serial killer, not an adapter, he won''t pose any threat. Just make sure to be on your guard," Nie Yiyi sighed in an absent-minded manner as she turned her attention back to the giant 3D projection in the stadium

    "What''s up? Is he about to get killed?"

    Jiang Junior also turned his attention to the projection, and as soon as his voice trailed off, countless oni-armed clones converged around the defenseless and severely injured Adam before hacking at him viciously with their katanas.

    Mummy''s forte had always been its defense, but with the increased offensive firepower granted by the arm of Aka Oni, the shadow clones were still able to pierce their katanas into its body.

    Thus, Adam was quickly hacked into pieces, but no one was able to see the process taking ce as he had already beenpletely inundated by all of the shadow clones that had surrounded him.

    "Is that it?" Jiang Junior wasn''t very interested in the match. "Is that mummy Adam?"

    "Can you shut up?" Jiang Junior was really starting to get on Hailey''s nerves. "You''re really annoying, you know that? I hate people who don''t know when to shut up!"

    "Who the hell are you? It''s little girls like you who should learn when to keep their mouths shut!"

    "Women hate men like you who can''t shut the hell up!"

    "I never asked you to like me! Besides, I barely know that kid, you can''t expect me to care about him like you do!"

    "When I say women hate men like you, I mean all women!"

    Hailey was getting so agitated that she was jumping up and down on the spot, and Jiang Junior was just about to rebuke her again when he caught a glimpse of Nie Yiyi''s despairing face out of the corners of his eyes, which finally convinced him to remain quiet.

    He didn''t care about Adam, nor did he care about what others thought of him, but he didn''t care about Nie Yiyi''s impression of him.

    "Fine, fine, I won''t say anything... If he can''t beat his opponent, then he''ll just have to die. Tons of people die every day in Shadow City," Jiang Junior grumbled to himself in a low voice.

    Indeed, death was not something to be mourned over in Shadow City.

    Everyone witnessed countless deaths in Shadow City every single day. If they had to mourn for every dead person they saw, then they would have no time to do anything aside from mourn.

    He wasn''t saddened in the slightest by Adam''s impending demise, but all of Adam''s friends were feeling distraught.

    Hailey was the one disying the biggest reaction, while Shae waspletely rooted to the spot.

    Hook had always had a keen eye when it came to observing his surroundings, and he could sense that Shae seemed to havepletely frozen up. He gently tugged on her arm and began to try and console her, which was an astonishing turn of events given how much they constantly bickered with one another.

    "Don''t get sucked into it, it''s not worth it. You still have your own life to live. If you want to avenge him, you''ll have to wait until you get stronger first."

    Shae continued to stare at the projection in silence, and her face was being cast into light and shadow intermittently in ordance with the scene shing before her.

    All of a sudden, her eyes suddenly lit up.

    Immediately thereafter, a resounding explosion rang out, and all of the shadow clones that were bunched together were instantly sent flying back by the violent explosion.

    As it turned out, anotherbatant had appeared on the battlefield. To be more specific, it was another anomaly.

    "He''s still alive!"

    "How is he still alive?"

    "There''s no way Mummy could''ve withstood attacks of that level!"

    "You''re right, but it seems like that''s Clown in there instead of Mummy!"

    Sure enough, standing at the very epicenter of the explosion was a giant clown.

    In its current form, Clown had swelled to close to three meters in height, and the clown makeup on its face was sterner than before. Just as colorful as the makeup on its face was its striped clown costume, which struck the beholder with a sense of disorientation just from looking at it.

    In contrast with the past Clown, which only had a dagger to y with, this iteration of Clown was juggling grenades while carrying a rocketuncher on its back. There were time bombs hanging all over its body, as well as old weapons and equipment from 100 years ago, such as a miniature submachine gun, making it appear as if it had gone back a century in time and robbed an arsenal.

    The explosion just now seemed to have been triggered by one of the explosives hanging off its body.

    "That''s a really high-level anomaly!"

    "It does look really strong. I recall that he had a clown anomaly, but it definitely wasn''t this strong thest time I saw it." Shae and Nie Yiyi were beginning to discuss what they were seeing. "Could this thing have evolved from that anomaly?"

    "It looks like it, and judging from its appearance, it seems to have evolved more than once."

    It was often the case that the strength of an anomaly could be judged based on its outward appearance alone, and given Clown''s current spectacr appearance, it was clear that it was definitely not a level two or level three anomaly.

    However, under this grand appearance, there were some rather strange-looking tentacles growing on its body.

    "Ohhh, I feel good..."

    On the psychic battlefield, Clown was speaking in a sharp, inhuman voice, and it pulled out the miniature gatling gun strapped to its waist in a deranged manner as it spoke, then began to fire off rapid shots at the shadow clones in the distance.

    All of the bullets struck either the clones or the snow on the ground, instantly blowing countless holes into the snow.

    The bullets fired from the miniature gatling gun were so powerful that they were more like the projectiles of a heavy cannon. Each bullet that struck the ground would leave behind a crater that was half a meter wide, and all of the shadow clones that were struck by the bullets were instantly blown up into pieces.

    "I''m starting to look like Cowboy, aren''t I?"

    After firing off an entire magazine of bullets, Clown blew away the smoke rising up out of the barrels of the miniature gatling gun, then erupted into a burst of high-pitched cackling.

    "Is this your trump card?"

    All of the shadow clones that were sent flying by the explosion mbered to their feet with wary expressions, thenunched a new wave of attacks, with hundreds of shadow clones rushing at Adam from all directions.

    The first unit of shadow clones leaped high up into the air before releasing their katanas.

    In response, Clown instantly vanished into thin air.

    However, when it came to concealment techniques, Oni no Hanzou was an expert, and the second unit of shadow clones immediately switched targets,unching their grappling hooks in a certain direction to drag the concealed Clown out of thin air. Immediately thereafter, the third unit of shadow clones arrived on the scene, using their katanas to slice Clown into pieces.

    However, the pieces of Clown''s body only transformed into more clowns, which transformed into more clowns themselves after they were also sliced into pieces.

    As a result, the number of clowns on the battlefield was rapidly increasing, quickly approaching the number of shadow clones that they were up against.

    All of the spectators immediately erupted loud cheers upon seeing this. They had purchased tickets to see a one-on-one battle, yet they were being treated to a spectacle of a battle between two small armies!

    Each side had hundreds of units, and every single one of them was able to use weapons and some of their true bodies'' abilities. All of a sudden, bullets and bombs were flying everywhere, while kunai knives and katanas shed through the air.

    These clones were so formidable that any one of them could easily kill the average A tierbatant.

    Not only was the scene unfolding on the battlefield astonishing to all of the spectators, many of the A tierbatants who hade to watch the match were also greatly rmed, including Oni no Miko.

 Chapter 165: Ghoul Incineration

    <h4>Chapter 165: Ghoul Incineration</h4>

    Oni no Miko had remained calm and collected this entire time, but a hint of panic and worry had finally crept into her voice.

    "Has he been hiding everything this entire time?"

    Given her far superior telegnosis, she was able to spot many more details from the battle than all of the spectators around her.

    Clown''s body couldn''t be split up into clones infinitely. Instead, after splitting up beyond a certain point, it would be killed.

    There were as many clowns on the battlefield as Oni no Hanzou''s shadow clones, but even so, Adam still held the upper hand.

    Individually, all of the clowns were more powerful than Oni no Hanzou''s shadow clones, and their weapons and firearms were extremely effective. Due to the scorching heat released by the constant explosions, the snow and ice on the entire snowfield were beginning to melt away.

    "Mistress Miko, will Mr. Hanzou..."

    "I don''t know. At this point, it''s a battle of stamina..."

    Oni no Miko was staring intently at the unfolding battle while calcting the amount of psychic body that Adam and Oni no Hanzou had already expended.

    Maintaining so many shadow clones at once was extremely taxing on Oni no Hanzou''s psychic power. Essentially, psychic power was the equivalent of stamina in the psychic world, serving the same purpose as stamina in the real world.

    No one possessed boundless psychic power, but the more powerful an adapter was, the more psychic power they possessed.

    As a ninja, Oni no Hanzou wasn''t suited to long and drawn-out battles, but Clown was also a very technical anomaly, so it was difficult to predict which one woulde out on top.

    The battle between the two small armies continued to rage on, and after a while, both sides had suffered severe casualties. Even the surviving clones on the battlefield were beginning to be rather indistinct, seemingly flickering in and out of existence.

    One of the clowns pulled out a grenade, but it failed to explode after being hurled through the air.

    Meanwhile, a shadow clone vanished on the spot, unable to be maintained any longer.

    This type of battle was far too taxing for both Adam and Oni no Hanzou, and at this point, it was no longer worth keeping the clones around. In the next instant, all of the clones on the battlefield began to disintegrate like soap bubbles, quickly leaving only Clown and Oni no Hanzou''s true bodies on the battlefield.

    Oni no Hanzou was panting heavily as he cast his gaze toward Clown and proposed, "How about we call this one a tie?"

    "Even if I agree, the director won''t let us off the hook so easily!"

    Clown was clearly in slightly better condition than Oni no Hanzou, and it was cackling like a madman as it pulled out its miniature gatling gun in a deranged manner before firing it at Oni no Hanzou.

    "Adam seems to be in a state of delirium."

    All of hispanions who had fought alongside him on multiple asions were rather perplexed by the scene that was unfolding before their eyes. Overall, Adam had always quite cautious in his approach to battle, preferring to establish concrete ns before springing into action.

    However, in this battle, he was fighting in apletely different style, almost like a deranged madman.

    "Could it be that this anomaly is too powerful, and it''s controlling him rather than the other way around?"

    "That''s definitely a possibility... Hopefully, the battle ends soon. I have a really bad feeling about this..."

    Not only were Adam''s friends on the outside concerned for his mental state, the longer the battle progressed, the more chaotic Adam''s mind was bing. Even though the setting was a snowfield, all he saw was red.

    His thoughts were gradually fading, and all that remained was the desire for ughter.

    I have to end this battle as quickly as possible!

    Adam clung desperately onto his final shred of rationality and reason as he instantly concealed himself on the spot, then appeared directly above Oni no Hanzou''s head immediately thereafter.

    Oni no Hanzou was just about to retaliate when he suddenly noticed that several more anomalies had appeared around Clown.

    He had only just made their observation when his body abruptly tightened as if it had been bound by something.

    Right as he was about to resist, the surrounding area suddenly turned pitch-ck, and at the same time, he fell under the effects of Camera''s Time Stop ability once again.

    By the time Oni no Hanzou struggled free and just barely evaded Camera''s swinging scythe arms, his body was already riddled with bullet holes.

    "It''s boom-boom time!"

    Before Oni no Hanzou had a chance to react, a burst of loud and insistent beeping suddenly rang out around him, following which devastating explosions erupted around in all directions.

    In his current state, there was no way that he would''ve been able to withstand a consecutive string of such powerful explosions, so he was forced to fully take on his Aka Oni form in order to prevent himself from being blown up into pieces.

    However, he was already apletely spent force. Even in his Aka Oni form, his body was still severely ravaged, and his psychic power reserves had beenpletely depleted, leaving him unable to use any further jutsus.

    As for Adam, his psychic power was also severely depleted, but he was in far better physical condition than Oni no Hanzou, and he had multiple anomalies on his side, so the writing was well and truly on the wall.

    "This is it!"

    Clown cackled in a deranged manner as it sped toward Oni no Hanzou, dodging his attack in mid-air before stuffing a grenade into a hole in his abdomen.

    A resounding boom rang out, and another huge hole was blown into Aka Oni''s body.

    Right as it was stumbling around unsteadily from the force of the explosion, Camera swung its scythe arm at it from behind, slicing its massive body into two.

    Looks like I really will be dying while on a mission...

    The top half of Aka Oni''s body fell onto the ground, and its eyes were zed over for a moment before a determined look resurfaced within them.

    As a top-tier adapter, Oni no Hanzou was far superior to the average person when it came to certain traits, such as resilience, courage, and conviction.

    Even though his death was already sealed, he was still able to remain calm and assess the situation as rationally as possible.

    "This is all I can do to help you, Miko..."

    As Oni no Hanzou was murmuring to himself, he unleashed his final jutsu, Ghoul Incineration.

    His body was already crimson in color, but it instantly became an even brighter shade of crimson, following which his entire body erupted into mes.

    At the same time, Clown and Camera''s bodies also caught on fire.

    Ghoul Incineration was a self-sacrificial jutsu that could only be unleashed at the cost of the user''s life, but the user could choose two targets to be afflicted by the jutsu.

    Amid the scorching mes, Clown began to shriek in agony, but due to the fact that it was a level five anomaly, it was able to withstand the attack and survive.

    However, Camera was not so fortunate. With its terrible defenses, there was no way that it could''ve withstood such a powerful jutsu, and its body quickly began to melt within the fire. First, its camera head began to resemble melting wax, and shortly thereafter, its entire body also slowly copsed, having been incinerated into a pile of ashes.

    Meanwhile, Oni no Hanzou''s body was also slowly burned into ashes.

    "He did his best."

    In the real world, Oni no Miko was watching with a solemn expression.

    Aside from Clown, Camera was the anomaly that posed the biggest threat to Oni no Miko. If she were to go up against Adam in the battle royale, Camera would''ve undoubtedly posed a massive headache for her.

    No matter how powerful an invocator was, they would always be somewhat susceptible to opponents that possessed extreme offensive prowess.

    With Camera out of the picture, Oni no Miko was confident that she would be able to defeat Adam.

    "Rest easy, old friend. I''ll avenge you."

    With that, Oni no Miko departed from the stadium.

 Chapter 166: Assembling Teams

    <h4>Chapter 166: Assembling Teams</h4>

    Thus, the battle concluded in an extremely brutal fashion.

    Of course, in Shadow City, no battle was considered to be too brutal. Brutality was only considered to be a visual spectacle here, and the more brutal a battle was, the more excited the spectators became.

    Even in the main stadium, it was very rare to see a match of such a high caliber.

    Both Oni no Hanzou and Adam had disyed powers that would ce themfortably near the top of the S tier. In particr, Adam''s terrifying clown anomaly and his supporting army of anomalies had left all of the spectators with a very deep impression.

    Everyone was cheering with all their might, and even those who had lost money betting on Oni no Hanzou had noints.

    At the same time, the S tierbatants were already thinking about the next step.

    "I should go ask Lean Mean Killing Machine if he''s looking for teammates."

    "I definitely wouldn''t mind having him on my team!"

    "Looks like he avenged your father for you, Ikkaku. Are you going to join his team?"

    "No."

    Ikkaku''s indifference certainly wasn''t mirrored by everyone else.

    Not long after Oni no Miko left the stadium, she was stopped in her tracks by a muscr man with diamond-shaped tattoos all over his body.

    "What do you want?"

    Oni no Miko couldn''t sense any animosity from the man, so she gestured for Ironback Tiger to stay back.

    "Hello, Ms. Miko. Please allow me to introduce myself: I am Diamond, an S tierbatant, and I want to assemble a team with you."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "It means exactly what I said. The battle royale is about to begin, and without Mr. Hanzou on your side, the overall power of your team is undoubtedly going to be taking a massive hit."

    Oni no Miko''s identity had already been exposed among the S tierbatants, so Diamond didn''t bother to pretend that he didn''t know who she was.

    "That invocator doesn''t appear to be any less powerful than you are. I know that your Oni Organization has a total of eight Onis, but I''m sure not all of them were able toe here. If you''re the only one left, then it''s going to be very difficult for you to secure victory in the battle royale on your own."

    "That may be so, but I still have them," Oni no Miko countered as she pointed at herpanions.

    "They''re all members of the Oni Organizations 36 Tigers, right? Forgive me for being blunt, but I don''t think you''ll be going very far at all with a team like this. Each team has four people on it, and you''ll need at least two adapters of your caliber to have any chance at securing victory. I can give you a piece of information for free: there''s an S tierbatant by the name of Ikkaku, and there''s a very good chance that he''ll join that invocator''s team."

    "Why do you say that?"

    "Because he has a vendetta against your Oni Organization. His previous target was Mr. Hanzou, but now that Mr. Hanzou is no longer around, he''ll have to target you instead. Even in the S tier, Ikkaku is quite a formidable figure. He may not quite be on your level, but he''s definitely not far away."

    "Alright, and how would youpare yourself to me?"

    Oni no Miko took a step forward as she looked straight into Diamond''s eyes, exerting immense psychological pressure upon him.

    "There''s only one way to find out, isn''t there?"

    Diamond didn''t back down in the slightest as he invaded Oni no Miko''s psychic world.

    ¡­¡­

    Several minutester, both of them opened their eyes at the same time.

    Oni no Miko''splexion remainedpletely unchanged, while Diamond was looking a little weary, but only to the same extent as someone who had stayed up an entire night.

    "I ept your offer to form a team," Oni no Miko said with a nod. "But we won''t be able to split the reward that I''m going to be requesting."

    The Oni Organization''s target was the footage captured by Hook, and they weren''t going to split that with anyone.

    "That''s fine. The director isn''t the only one who can provide me with what I want, the Oni Organization can fill that role just fine."

    "What do you want?"

    "I want three premium nk tes, one male and two female."

    "That''s quite a big ask, but you''re in luck," Oni no Miko said with a smile.

    For her, finding three nk tes was not a very difficult task.

    Of course, nk tes were exceedingly precious, with demand far outweighing supply. Countless wealthy individuals were willing to offer up astronomical sums of money for a nk te, but there was still no guarantee that they could get their hands on one.

    However, the Oni Organization had very close ties with the human farm, so it was even more capable of sourcing top-quality nk tes than the director was.

    "Great! In that case, do we have ourselves a deal?"

    Oni no Miko nodded in response.

    ¡­¡­

    Only around 10 minutes had transpired since Oni no Miko''s departure from the stadium to the establishment of her agreement with Diamond.

    Inside the stadium, the match had only just concluded not too long ago, and Adam was standing in the stadium with an exhausted expression, listening to the host shower him with praise, but he couldn''t really hear what was being said.

    At the moment, he felt as if he had stayed up an entire week without sleep. His ears were burning and ringing incessantly, making it virtually impossible for him to hear anything.

    Amid all the mor, he gazed directly up ahead with his bleary eyes, and all of a sudden, a figure appeared in front of him.

    He raised his head slightly to find that it was a figure wearing a ck and white robe, and it took a while for his dull brain to register who this person was.

    "Director?"

    The man nodded in response. Behind his mask, his pupils were as red as blood, and they didn''t seem to belong to a human. He scrutinized Adam with those bright red eyes as he said in a low voice, "I''m very interested in you."

    "Huh?"

    "I''ve heard about your situation, and I know what you want. I can tell you that I have what you want, and I hope you can obtain it from me. If you win the battle royale, I''m sure we''ll have a lot to discuss with each other."

    "So you do have it..."

    "That''s right, but I''m not going to provide you with any assistance before you win the battle royale. You have to be the one to take control of your own fate."

    With that, the director departed.

    Adam didn''t have much of a recollection of what happened after that. He only vaguely recalled that he was given an S tier electronic token by an employee.

    After that, some more people came to see him, but he couldn''t remember who they were as he was on the verge of passing out.

    In the end, he was carried away by his friends.

    On the way back, everyone seemed to have been extremely excited, with Hailey disying the most memorable reaction, sobbing through her tears and wiping her snot all over Adam''s face as she swooped in to embrace him.

    ¡­¡­

    By the time Adam opened his eyes again, he was alreadyying on a hospital bed, with Fighter Li on the bed next to him.

    "He''s awake!"

    Not long after he regained consciousness, a female voice rang out, following which the door was opened, and Nie Yiyi and the others made their way into the ward.

    As soon as they came in, everyone began to talk at once.

    "You slept quite a long time. 27 hours is more than my record," remarked Hook.

    "Why were you hiding so much power all this time? If you had revealed this back at Mirror Lake Primary School, we wouldn''t have ended up in this situation," Satoined.

    "What''s in the past is in the past, we''re just d that you''re fine now," Shae said, intentionally changing the subject.

    She knew more of Adam''s secrets than anyone else, and she had already guessed that Adam had most likely only attained this level of power recently. Furthermore, it seemed that using his newfound power came with severe aftereffects.

    Nie Yiyi had also arrived at the same conclusion, and she decided to help Shae in her efforts to change the subject.

    "The battle royale is about to begin soon. I was taking a stroll outside today and caught sight of many new faces. Apparently, they''re all from betting organizations, and they''re here to run live streams of the event.

    ¡°I''ve also heard that the annual battle royale is the biggest attraction on the dark web, exceeding the poprity of all other sporting events. I suppose that makes sense, considering you don''t really get to see top-tier adapters duke it out in a battle royale format like this anywhere else."

 Chapter 167: White Robe

    <h4>Chapter 167: White Robe</h4>

    "It''s important for all of you to be careful during the leadup to the battle royale." It was Baldie Lin who was speaking on this asion. He knew far more about Shadow City than anyone else here. "This may be the director''s territory, and he''s very much against the idea ofbatants targeting each other outside of the battle royale.

    ¡°On top of that, there are all types of armed automatons overseeing everything, but there have been instances ofbatants being assassinated or the families ofbatants being abducted. In particr, Adam has to be extra careful. Also, have you chosen your teammates yet?"

    "Who else can I choose? I''ve got all of my teammates here."

    "I suggest you pay the S tier club a visit to see if anyone there would be willing to join your team. It''s going to be very difficult for you to win the battle royale if your team is reliant solely on you."

    "That''s a little bit condescending, is it not?"

    Nie Yiyi had always been quite proud, so she was naturally rather unhappy to hear this. However, having already watched several S tier matches, she knew how she stacked up against those powerhouses.

    "I hate to admit it, but he''s right. Outside of Adam, I''m the strongest one in our group, but I''ve been having trouble even in the A tier matches, there''s very little I can do to help in any meaningful way against opponents of Oni no Hanzou''s caliber. Hence..."

    "I understand."

    Adam nodded in response as he fell into deep thought.

    "Also, we checked the surveince footage, and it looks like you were the one who let Sithu go."

    Adam nodded once again.

    "Okay."

    Nie Yiyi didn''t ask any further questions. She knew that Adam had never been short of secrets.

    ¡­¡­

    By the time Adam left the hospital, there was only less than a week left until the battle royale.

    Following his departure, Fighter Li still remained in the hospital, and that reflected the difference between organic adapters and artificial adapters. Artificial adapters were forcing themselves beyond their natural limits, so they suffered severe brain trauma each time their psychic body sustained injuries.

    Even if their psychic bodies weren''t injured, their brains were still sustaining trauma from those machines that pierced through their skulls.

    In the wake of the battle that had taken ce in Sithu''s psychic world, Adam could clearly sense that Fighter Li''s body had atrophied even further, to the point where he resembled nothing more than a skeleton in a suit of skin. On top of that, he was suffering asional seizures, and it seemed that he wasn''t going to be alive for much longer.

    "I''m sorry. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn''t have asked you to help me."

    "Don''t feel guilty about what happened to me, that''ll only make you weaker. Everything I did in my life was by my own choice," Fighter Li said with a smile, and severalyers of wrinkles appeared on his dry and withered face. "I only do the things I want to do, and no one can force me to do anything I don''t want to do.

    ¡°Everything I experienced were things I chose to experience. I should be thanking you for giving me the opportunity to experience something so exciting. On that day, I saw many things that I had never seen before. Speaking of which, what happened at the end there?"

    The exertion of speaking caused Fighter Li''s condition to worsen even further, and his heart monitoring device was beginning to beep insistently.

    Adam looked around to find that there was no one else in the ward aside from himself and Fighter Li. The hospital staff of Shadow City was as irresponsible as ever, and Nie Yiyi had gone somewhere else as well.

    "After that explosion, I killed the remaining couple of anomalies. To put it more urately, thest onemitted suicide."

    "Anomalies canmit suicide? Don''t they only kill their hosts or devour their hosts to be them? People can be controlled by their emotions, but I never thought that emotions could control themselves."

    "It was in control of itself. Instead, it was being controlled by another anomaly, which was another one of Sithu''s personalities. That one was a recessive personality, so it was only able to take control of his body once all of the other personalities were dead."

    "I see. No wonder his psychic world was so strange if there was someone pulling the strings behind the scenes all along. What happened after that?"

    "We struck a deal. I let him go, and he gave me some things in return."

    "You trust him?"

    "I don''t, but he''s just a normal person, so he poses no real threat. On top of that, he has something that he can use against me as well, so I won''t send anyone to find and kill him."

    Here, Adam was naturally referring to the parasitic tentacles on Clown.

    Raven was a very intelligent anomaly, and one that was also extremely powerful.

    In order to obtain the power Raven had offered to him, he had no choice but to choose one of his anomalies to act as the receiver.

    He knew that without that power, there was no way that he would''ve been able to defeat Oni no Hanzou, and they would be unable to obtain the footage and clear their names.

    Hence, even though he knew that it was a poisoned gift, he still had no choice but to ept it.

    After some consideration, he had chosen Clown as the sacrificial tribute.

    Out of all of his anomalies, Clown was the one that he used the least. Itsbat prowess was quite mediocre, and even if something were to happen to it, it wouldn''t have been a significant loss.

    However, to his surprise, after evolving into a level five anomaly, not only had Clown retained all of its shy tricks, it had also attained exceptionalbat prowess.

    "I see." After getting a rough understanding of what had happened, Fighter Li closed his eyes. He knew that if he continued to ask questions, then he would be prying into Adam''s secrets. "You can go now. I want to rest."

    Adam took a nce at the medical equipment, which was still beeping insistently, and he took a deep breath before departing.

    On the hospital bed, Fighter Li could feel his own life force slipping away with each passing beep.

    After a long while, he heaved a forlorn sigh.

    "It''s a pity that I didn''t get to see more interesting things."

    "Are you about to die?"

    A white-robed figure had appeared at his bedside,pletely avoiding his detection in the process.

    "Who are you?" Even though Fighter Li wasn''t far away from death, he still had his telegnosis, yet he had no idea when this white-robed figure had arrived. "What are you here for?"

    "I''m here to give you a choice. I can grant you a healthy body, one that''ll allow you to be an organic adapter. Does that sound appealing to you?"

    Appealing was a massive understatement, but thanks to Fighter Li''s remarkable mental fortitude, he was able to remain calm and collected as he asked, "What do you need from me in return?"

    "I need you to make the world a more interesting ce. Don''t you feel like this entire world is like a pool of stagnant water, and everyone is living in constant pain and monotony?"

    "Don''t talk to me about the state of the world, what exactly do you need me to do?"

    "I need you to kill people for me."

    "Who?"

    "I have no set targets for you for now, but I assure you they won''t be your friends or those close to you."

    "Alright, you have yourself a deal."

    "Thene with me..."

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, a simr scene was unfolding in a waste treatment nt in Shadow City.

    The area around this waste treatment nt was the least popted area in all of Shadow City. The waste products produced by millions of people were processed in this nt, and due to the fact that Shadow City was an underground city, not all of the sewage pipes were underground. Furthermore, it was very difficult to incinerate rubbish in an underground setting, so much of the rubbish had to be packed up before being sent to the surface.

    The entire nt was filled with filth, and due to the fact that this was an underground city, there was nowhere for the odors to escape. Hence, it was an extremely putrid environment to be in, and no one liked to visit the ce.

    All of the work here was done by machines and automatons, but at this moment, there was someone picking up scraps inside the waste treatment nt.

    As he did so, he was assembling the scraps together, seemingly trying to repair some type of electronic device.

    All of a sudden, another figure appeared before him.

    This figure was wearing a white robe, and he was looking at the scavenger with a gentle expression.

    "Your name is Sith, right?"

    Even though Sithu was currently standing on a mountain of trash, he seemed to be far more at peace with himself than ever before.

    All of the fear and insanity in his eyes hadpletely faded, reced by tranquility and thoughtfulness.

    "Is there something you need from me?"

    "Do you want to be an adapter? I''m sure you''ll be able to do many things if you attain the body of an adapter."

    "Be an adapter?" A smile appeared on Sithu''s face upon hearing this. "Of course I would like that. If you can make me an adapter, I would be willing to serve you and do all of your bidding."

 Chapter 168: Match Footage

    <h4>Chapter 168: Match Footage</h4>

    Recently, Adam had been very careful whenever he was out in public, to the extent that he was forced to cover up his own face.

    Shadow City had be a far more chaotic ce ofte as many of the betting organizations from the dark web had sent people to the city, and following his match against Oni no Hanzou, he had be an extremely sought-after figure.

    For the people who had been sent here by the betting organizations, it was part of their job to assess the mental state that the most prominentbatants were in leading up to the battle royale.

    Unfortunately for Adam, his telegnosis was still quite mediocre for someone of his powers, so if other powerful adapters were sent to assassinate him, then he would be oblivious until the moment he was dragged into the psychic world.

    Furthermore, he had be a celebrity of sorts in Shadow City. As someone whose powers ranked him near the top of the S tier, many people would''ve been able to recognize him had he been walking around on the streets with no disguise.

    Hence, whenever he went out, he had to wear the disguise given to him by Baldie Lin in order to avoid causing a stir.

    In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Adam had stayed indoors as much as possible, watching footage of past matches in Baldie Lin''s shop.

    All of the footage were of S tier matches. Due to prior time constraints, he hadn''t had a chance to learn much about the other S tierbatants, so he was doing his homework now to familiarize himself with the powers and attributes of the other S tierbatants.

    "This time, there are a total of 12 S tierbatants who have been confirmed to take part in the battle royale, and they''ve formed six different teams." While the footage was ying, Hook was giving Adam a rundown of all of the information that he had gathered from both official and unofficial sources. "Out of the 12 S tierbatants, I''ve split them up into two halves: the stronger half, and the weaker half.

    ¡°The stronger half consists entirely ofbatants who are around the same level as Oni no Hanzou was at his peak. Medusa, Diamond, and Ikkaku all fall into this category. In addition, Oni no Miko and Dead Wood are slightly stronger than Oni no Miko, but not by much. The one that is most worthy of attention is this man, Eyeless..."

    Hook was pointing at a swordsman on the screen with a strip of fabric tied over his eyes.

    "He is currently the most powerful S tierbatant, and he was born blind. Given his wealth and advancements in modern medical technology, he could''ve easily had artificial eyes imnted, but he chose not to do so. He feels like being blind is advantageous to the honing of his telegnosis, so he''s quite a strange character, and he hasn''t chosen to team up with anyone for this battle royale."

    "He hasn''t teamed up with anyone? Does that mean he''s going solo?" Adam was rather surprised to hear this. ording to the rules, a team in the battle royale could have a maximum of four members, yet not only had Eyeless not filled this quota, he hadn''t even sought out a single teammate. "Is he that confident in his own abilities?"

    "It''s not confidence. How do I put this? He has the personality of a cultivator from ancient times. He thinks that all adversity and hardships can help make him stronger. Unlike everyone else, he came to Shadow City solely for his own training, and I''ve heard that he''s not doing this for wealth or reputation. If he wins the battle royale, the reward that he wants is a sparring match against the director."

    "... What a strange man."

    Adam turned his attention to the footage of Eyeless''s match, wanting to see just how powerful he was.

    In the footage, he was battling an artificial anomaly that was at least on par with the average S tierbatant, roughly on the same level as the skinned anomaly that Adam had seen once before.

    However, in its battle against Eyeless, it was only able tost a few exchanges before it was vanquished.

    During the entire battle, Eyeless hadn''t disyed many abilities at all. It seemed that he had managed to kill his opponent with just a few casual shes of his sword.

    "That was rather strange. y the footage again."

    Adam watched the footage a second time, but once again, all he saw was a few casual attacks from Eyeless before the battle drew to a conclusion.

    "Judging from the appearance of that anomaly, it should possess very high defensive or regenerative capabilities." At this point, Adam was an expert when it came to anomalies, and he could roughly determine an anomaly''s attributes based on its outward appearance and personality. "How was he able to kill that thing so easily?"

    "That''s the strange thing about him. All of his battles appear to be very uneventful and unremarkable. There was even a battle of his that concluded without any damage being dealt to the surrounding environment, which is extremely rare to see in adapters of his caliber."

    "Is it because he''s focused all of his psychic power onto his sword?"

    "I don''t know about that, but I''ve heard that the wounds that he inflicts on his targets can''t be healed. He pours all of the hardships that he''s endured into his de so that his targets experience the same pain and adversity that he has. All of the spectators refer to his sword as the de of Hardship."

    "He does look really strong." After watching a few more of Eyeless''s battles, Adam was able to make a rough assessment of his power. "He''s quite a bit more powerful than Oni no Hanzou was, but he''s still not that far above everyone else in the S tier. If he''s going solo in the battle royale, then he shouldn''t be that difficult to deal with."

    "That''s where you''re wrong. What you''re seeing now is Eyeless in his current form, but the most remarkable and terrifying thing about him is his ability to make breakthroughs when faced with adversity. Due to his nature, he''s able to persevere for a very long time even on the brink of death or when he''s at a clear disadvantage in battle, and the more pressure he''s under, the faster he grows.

    ¡°Apparently, he wasn''t very powerful when he first came, only ranking near the top of the A tier or on the cusp of the S tier, but he has grown rapidly since then. Unfortunately, I don''t have any footage of any of the matches where he''s been at a disadvantage."

    "I see. I''ll make sure to take note of him."

    There were over 100batants participating in the battle royale, so perhaps one of them would be dead before they even had a chance to run into each other.

    Hence, it was better to haveprehensive information on everyone rather than detailed information on a select fewbatants.

    Adam didn''t have much time left, so there was no way that he could develop an in-depth understanding of all of thebatants.

    "Who else do I need to keep an eye on?"

    "This guy, Diamond. He''s Iron Man''s brother, and he holds family in very high regard, kind of like an old-school gangster. Apparently, he''s participating in the battle royale because he wants to secure nk tes for his parents and his wife."

    "nk tes..."

    "You''ve heard of nk tes, right? They can..."

    "I know what nk tes are, there''s no need to exin them to me."

    Not only had Adam heard of the term, every time he heard it, his body would disy a slight stress response, characterized by chills and cold sweat.

    This was a reaction that arose from abination of emotions, including resentment and anxiety.

    "Given his personality, he''s definitely going toe after you. During the battle royale, most people will try to avoid battle as much as possible in the early stages, preferring to gather resources in preparation for the final showdown. However, he''s not going to be one of those people. Even if he runs into you very early on, he''s still going to hunt you to the end."

    "Looks like I have another enemy to look out for."

    To Adam, Oni no Hanzou and Diamond weren''t just ordinary opponents. Instead, they were his enemies, and he was naturally going to adopt different measures when dealing with enemiespared to dealing with opponents.

    "If these people are so strong, why don''t they form teams with each other? Surely not all of them like to run solo like Eyeless."

    "Many of them are affiliated with different organizations, and they also have personal vendettas against one another. On top of that, everyone has different needs, so it''s virtually impossible for a bunch of S tierbatants toe together and fight for amon goal.

    ¡°Having said that, it also depends on what kind of agreements everyone can strike with one another in private. If you''re looking for S tierbatants to recruit, you can consider Ikkaku and Medusa from the top half of the S tier, and Midget and Dragon Knight from the bottom half."

 Chapter 169: Allies

    <h4>Chapter 169: Allies</h4>

    All of the names that Hook had provided were ofbatants who hadn''t joined any teams and weren''t affiliated with any powers at the moment.

    The day after reviewing all of the footage, Adam tracked down these people one by one through the Green Gang.

    The first person that he approached was Midget, who was dining at a high-end restaurant at the time of Adam''s visit. He had booked an entire booth for himself, and he was dining on dishes from a mish-mash of different cuisines. Aside from him, there were also six or seven extremely tall women in the booth.

    These women weren''t particrly beautiful, but they were strikingly tall, with all of them standing at over two meters in height. It seemed that only women of this height could satisfy Midget''s peculiar fetish.

    "Well, well, well, to what do I owe this honor?"

    Midget didn''t put on a cocky disy in the presence of Adam. In Shadow City, power was championed above all else. Furthermore, the two of them were both going to be participating in the battle royale in a few days, so Midget naturally had no intention of antagonizing Adam.

    "Take a seat. Would you like to order something to eat? The dry fried crab here is delightful."

    "I''ll pass." Adam sat down onto the sofa, then took a nce at the fruit juice in front of Midget before taking a sip. "I came here because I want to recruit you onto my team. What do you think?"

    "I would love to be on your team," Midget replied with a smile. "However, my goal is not to be champion. Hence, if that is your ultimate goal, then I may not be the best teammate."

    "You don''t want to be champion?" This was the first time that Adam had heard anyone say this. "Then why are you even participating in the battle royale?"

    "Most of the people participating in the battle royale don''t have the objective of bing champion. Otherwise, the death rate would be raised to over 90%, and no one would want to participate. I may be putting my life on the line, but I don''t have a death wish!" Midget tossed a fried crab into his mouth as he spoke, then began to crunch on it as he continued, "I know what I''m capable of, and I''m not prepared to take excessive risks to be champion."

    "What is your goal then?"

    "My top priority for the battle royale is the prize money. The prize money offered in the battle royale is very high. After entering the game, I can obtain some resources from all of the locations, and I can exchange those resources with the director for a lot of good stuff, including money. I could earn more in a day in the battle royale than I do from half a year of matches, so I''m mainly in there just to survive for as long as I can."

    Midget smiled as he spat out a crab shell onto the hand of the woman beside him.

    "Regardless of whether it''s the private currency used in Shadow City, or money from the civilized world, both can be obtained in the battle royale. Earning this prize money will be more difficult than working as a hitman in the outside world, but you won''t end up with a criminal record with Mechguard."

    "I see." Adam was able to develop a better understanding of the battle royale after hearing what Midget had to say. "Before talking to you, I thought everyone was going for the win."

    "There aren''t many teams at all aiming to be champion," Midget said with a smile. "Having said that, it''s only to be expected that you would think this way. After all, you''re not a local resident of Shadow City. Our goals are different and I''ll only drag you down, so I suggest you go find someone else to recruit to your team. Otherwise, if we form a team and go into the battle royale with conflicting objectives, it''ll only be detrimental to both of us."

    "I suppose."

    Adam nodded in response, then thanked Midget for his advice before preparing to depart.

    "Hold on a second. I have two suggestions for you, would you like to hear them?"

    "I would love to."

    "If you''re looking for teammates, you can go pay Ikkaku a visit. He has a vendetta against the Oni Organization, and you just killed one of the Oni Organization''s top hitmen. On top of that, his objective in the battle royale is also to be champion, so there''s a chance he''ll be willing to join you."

    "I see. Thank you for that. What''s your second piece of advice?"

    "My second suggestion is that we can look after each other if we run into one another in the battle royale. We havepletely different objectives, so there''s no need for us to fight."

    "Sure." Adam nodded in response.

    Even though he hadn''t managed to recruit Midget as a teammate, this was certainly not a pointless visit.

    "Great! As long as I have enough money, I''ll have women and immortality! I love money!" Midget buried his face into the chest of the woman beside him before inhaling deeply as an intoxicated look appeared on his face, then stuffed another crab into his own mouth. "Life is good..."

    ¡­¡­

    After departing from the restaurant, Adam approached Ikkaku next.

    At the time of Adam''s visit, Ikkaku was training in his own dojo. The dojo epted no disciples, but it was built exactly like the dojos from 200 years ago. There were many pieces of training equipment inside, and the overall style bore a strong resemnce to the ind that Nie Yiyi trained on in her psychic world.

    However, what was different from that ind was that Ikkaku''s dojo had a lot of high-tech equipment as well, but all of those pieces of equipment were disguised as antiquated relics.

    As Adam made his way into the dojo, Ikkaku was in the process of shocking himself with a taser that resembled a bamboo rod, using the pain to stimte his muscles and hone his willpower.

    "You''re the kid that''s being wanted in the outside world, right?"

    With Ikkaku''s acute telegnosis, he had already sensed Adam''s arrival, and he made no secret of the fact that he already knew Adam''s true identity.

    "All of the attention surrounding you has already faded. The news channels are all reporting new stories now, and your status as a fugitive on the run is pretty much set in stone at this point, so there''s no need to hide your identity any longer. You have too many prominent traits that can expose your identity anyway. What have youe to visit me for?"

    "I want you to join my team."

    "I''m not opposed to that, but if I be champion, my wish is to have the Oni Organization eradicated. If that''s not possible, then I want the director to cause as much trouble for the Oni Organization as possible. Are you willing to follow such an agenda?"

    "I''m afraid not."

    Adam had his own wish that he had to fulfill.

    "In that case, it looks like we won''t be able to work together."

    The two of them hadpletely different objectives. Ikkaku''s goal was revenge, while Adam wanted to clear his own name, and neither side would be able to convince the other.

    "You''re very strong, and you''ve helped me out by killing Oni no Hanzou. How about this? I won''t join your team, but we can be allies in the battle royale, nheless. Seeing as we have amon enemy, how about we join forces and prioritize killing Oni no Miko?"

    Adam thought about this proposal for a moment before nodding in agreement.

    "I have no reason not to ept that."

    "Alright, then I''ll see you during the battle royale."

    After departing from Ikkaku''s dojo, Adam paid Medusa a visit.

    However, just like Midget, Medusa had no intention of risking her life to be champion, and she certainly didn''t want to join Adam''s team, given how many powerful enemies Adam had.

    In her words, joining Adam''s team would''ve been a decision that would send her to an early grave.

    Hence, in the end, Adam hadn''t made any progress in the recruitment of teammates.

    Thankfully, even though he wasn''t able to recruit anyone, he had reaped alternative benefits through all of his meetings with the S tierbatants thus far. Hence, even though he had already given up on his search for teammates at this point, he still decided to visit the final person that Hook mentioned, the adapter by the name of Dragon Knight.

 Chapter 170: King Arthur

    <h4>Chapter 170: King Arthur</h4>

    Dragon Knight had an alternative nickname, which was King Arthur.

    One of them was the name that he had given himself, while the other one was what the spectators liked to refer to him by.

    He was called Dragon Knight because he was a Dragon Knight in the psychic world, and he was also known as King Arthur because his weapon was a golden sword that very much fit the description of the sword in the stone in the legends of King Arthur.

    In the psychic world, King Arthur was a gant male Dragon Knight in a suit of armor, but in the real world, she was actually a woman.

    At the time of Adam''s visit, she was drinking beer in a pub. In contrast with thevish meal that Midget had been enjoying, there was only a ss of beer and three nutsid out in front of her.

    Her entire body was enshrouded in a cloak, and if it weren''t for the information that he had received from the Green Gang, there was no way that Adam would''ve identified this homeless-looking person to be King Arthur.

    "Lean Mean Killing Machine, right?"

    King Arthur detected Adam as soon as he drew close.

    Adam nodded in response.

    "You''re here to recruit me?"

    "That''s right."

    King Arthur took a sip of beer, then reached out with a heavily calloused hand to break the shell of one of the nuts in front of her.

    "You''re very strong, and I''ve heard about your past. I have a question to ask you. If you can answer my question and fulfill a requirement from me, then I can be your teammate."

    Adam was rather taken aback to hear this.

    He had already resigned himself to the very real possibility that he wasn''t going to be able to recruit anyone. On the way to the pub where King Arthur was, he had made an important realization, which was that he couldn''t offer others anything to join his team.

    His objective was to win, and his wish was to obtain Hook''s footage.

    Hence, not only was everyone on his team going to be exposed to the maximum amount of risk, the reward was something that wasn''t valuable to anyone aside from Adam and his friends.

    Outside of that, he couldn''t provide anything else.

    Money, status, reputation, even some illegal items... There was nothing that he could offer.

    Hence, he was essentially asking others to risk their lives to achieve their goal for nopensation while abandoning their own objective, and it was simply a terrible deal.

    After making this realization, Adam hade to terms with the fact that he most likely wasn''t going to be able to recruit anyone, and he was only visiting King Arthur here to see if he could get something else out of the visit.

    However, King Arthur''s response was a little unexpected to him.

    "What question could be so important to you?"

    "I dug up some of the news going around in the outside world recently, and apparently, you worked with psychic mutants to ughter children in a primary school, and you even helped the perpetrators attack a congressman from the southern congress during the chaos. Is that true?"

    "No, it''s fake news."

    "In that case, would you be willing to show me your psychic world? I''ll be able to discern the truth for myself."

    King Arthur cracked open another nut as she spoke, and this time, Adam could see that not only were her hands covered in callouses, there were also scars on her wrists.

    "That event should''ve left quite a deep impression on you, right? On top of that, it only happened recently, so there should be a psychic module of it in your psychic world. Would you mind showing it to me?"

    "I definitely mind."

    No one would be willing to casually disy their psychic world to others, particrly someone like Adam, a nk te with so many secrets. However...

    "If you want to enter my psychic world, then you''ll have to be apanied by me at all times, and you can only see what happened on that day. Can you stick to that? If you go around doing as you please after you go in, then only one of us will be able toe back out alive."

    At this point, Adam had the power to back up his words.

    "I have no interest in seeing anything else."

    "Alright, then I agree to your request." However, in order to ensure that King Arthur''s other request was also one that he could fulfill, he asked in advance, "If you find out that I''m telling the truth, what is your other request?"

    "I want you to help me uncover the secrets behind Carlin Asylum."

    "That''s something that I would''ve done myself anyway."

    This was certainly not a request that Adam had to go out of his way to fulfill. Carlin Asylum, the southern congress, the Psychic Church, the Gaia Corporation, the Compassion Company, the human farm, the Ark Learning Children''s Fund... Those were all organizations that he was going to investigate sooner orter.

    Furthermore, they were all interconnected, so as long as he was able to make a breakthrough and infiltrate one of them, he would most likely be able to uncover all of the secrets one after another.

    "Can I ask you why you care so much about what''s going on behind the scenes at Carlin Asylum?"

    Adam couldn''t help but feel a little skeptical about how easy this teammate had been toe by.

    This was an S tierbatant, and if she were joining him with ulterior motives or was a mole being nted in his team by his enemies, then he would be well and truly shooting himself in the foot by recruiting her.

    "Because I used to be a psychic mutant. I grew up in Carlin Asylum as a child."

    "You used to be a psychic mutant?" In Adam''s mind, psychic mutants were all deranged individuals that werepletely who hadpletely lost their sanity, yet no matter how he looked at her, King Arthur seemed to be a measured and rational person,pletely going against his image of psychic mutants. "I thought it was impossible for psychic mutants to return to normal."

    "I haven''t returned to normal, it''s just that I developed a new sane personality after I became a psychic mutant. My dragon steed isn''t actually a dragon, and I''m not an invocator. Instead, that dragon is also me," King Arthur said, revealing one of her secrets.

    She knew that she could only exchange for Adam''s secrets with one of her own.

    The quickest way for two people to establish a friendship was to show each other their scars.

    Adam was quite surprised by this exnation, but he epted it, nheless.

    "If you still have some reservations, I can share with you some of my experiences as well," King Arthur added.

    It was clear that she cared a great deal about uncovering the secrets behind Carlin Asylum.

    "Sure."

    At this point, there wasn''t much left to be said, and Adam immediately dragged King Arthur into his psychic world without any hesitation.

    King Arthur was a man of his word. As soon as he arrived in Adam''s psychic world, he immediately closed his eyes. Sure enough, he was riding a rather strange-looking dragon steed, and he allowed Adam to take him to the relevant psychic module.

    On the way there, he didn''t look at anything and refrained from collecting any other information.

    "We''ve arrived."

    This psychic module contained the memory of what had transpired at Mirror Lake Primary School from Adam''s perspective, so all of the tricks that Congressman Prince had pulled were naturally revealed.

    .

    The things that Prince had done weren''t disyed in his footage, but from Adam''s perspective, everything that he had done was as clear as day.

    However, simrly, things in the psychic world couldn''t be used as evidence in a court ofw.

    Memories could be faked, and there was also the matter of delusions.

    However, King Arthur believed in what he was seeing. As an adapter, he had a far more in-depth understanding of the psychic world than the average person did, so he was better equipped to judge the authenticity of memories. He could tell that this was a genuine memory, but he was still extremely perplexed by what he was seeing.

    "Why were you still hiding your power even at a time like that?"

    In this psychic module, thebat prowess disyed by Adam was a far cry from what he had shown in his match against Oni no Hanzou.

    King Arthur was convinced that no one could''ve possibly made such significant strides in such a short time.

    The only possible exnation that he could think of was that Adam had been holding back, but he couldn''t understand why.

    "With your powers, you could''ve easily overwhelmed your enemies, and you wouldn''t have ended up like this." King Arthur shook his head in befuddlement, and his dragon steed seemed to have sensed his emotions as it heaved a faint sigh. "Forget it. We don''t know what your objective is, but from now on, we are teammates."

 Chapter 171: The Super Bowl of the Underground World

    <h4>Chapter 171: The Super Bowl of the Underground World</h4>

    After sessfully recruiting King Arthur, Adam spent the next few days trying to recruit more teammates, but was unable to make any further progress on that front.

    However, those few days weren''t wasted. Due to the impressive power he had disyed during his match against Oni no Hanzou, many of thebatants were eager to get acquainted with him, and they were also more than willing to make non-binding verbal truce agreements.

    Adam could tell that some of them those agreements were genuine, while others were fake, but even if only a third of them abided by their agreement, that was still certainly better than nothing.

    On this day, the Psychic Battle Royale was finally about to begin.

    This was the Super Bowl of the underground world, and it drew more attention than any other sporting event. Furthermore, due to the fact that everyone''s lives were on the line and the absolute authority of the director, this was thepetition that was least likely to be fixed or tampered with.

    If a gambler wanted to try their hand, then this was undoubtedly their best option.

    It was once said that in essence, all sporting events were war simtions, and the more intense the simtion was, the more fans it would attract. The psychic body royale was the closest war simtion among all sporting events, and it was no exaggeration to call it a miniature war.

    In Uncle Lin''s Fire Shop, everyone was already prepared to depart.

    The Psychic Battle Royale was an all-day event, with high-level individual matches taking ce during the first half of day, as well as some matches between automatons, and performances from guest celebrities were scheduled at halftime.

    Even though this was awless city, the job was quite lucrative, and there were even some rappers who wanted to be able to boast that they had performed in Shadow City for street credit.

    Hence, all of the celebrities scheduled to perform at the halftime show were top-tier entertainers.

    Adam had no interest in watching the halftime show, so he left the shop ratherte.

    After some careful consideration, it was ultimately decided that the team of four was going to consist of Adam, King Arthur, Nie Yiyi, and Hook.

    Even though Hook desperately resisted and expressed over and over again that he was useless in battle and was going to die in the battle royale, he was still forced by everyone to round out the team.

    The reason for this was very simple. In high-level battles, Shae and Sato were virtually useless. Sato was slightly more useful as he had his healing abilities, but he was nowhere near as useful as Hook.

    The battle royale was apetition of survival, and Hook''s ability to identify problems and gather intel made it so that their team would always be in as advantageous a position as possible.

    Furthermore, Hook''s survival skills were actually quite exceptional. He had concealed himself on the battlefield on multiple asions, and that was an ability that Sato didn''t possess, either. Hence, for the sake of everyone''s future, they had no choice but to force him onto the team.

    "Would it possible for you to reconsider?"

    "I already told you that you have no choice in the matter. Don''t make me repeat myself again," Nie Yiyi said in a cold and imcable voice. "I''ve already left Jiang with a message. If you don''t go today, then he''ll get his father toe and collect your corpse. If you don''t think they''ll do it, you can test your luck and see. Also, I''m in a very bad mood right now, so don''t get on my nerves!"

    Recently, Nie Yiyi had been in a perpetually terrible mood.

    It had already been quite a few days since Fighter Li disappeared, and even through her connections in the Green Gang, she waspletely unable to find him. In her mind, he was already dead. After all, for a bedridden artificial adapter, disappearing was essentially no different from a death sentence.

    As for how he had passed away, Nie Yiyi had checked through all of the hospital''s surveince footage, but was unable to find anything, and that was why she was in such a foul mood.

    "Alright, alright, I won''t say anything anymore."

    Hook made the wise decision to shut his mouth, then departed from the shop with everyone to travel to the stadium.

    At this point, the stadium was already surrounded by a sea of people.

    Tickets for the Psychic Battle Royale were extremely difficult toe by, and those who wanted tickets either had to have connections in high ces, or had to spend massive sums of money. Many of the residents of Shadow City were extremely eager to watch the event, but all they could do was find a spot outside the stadium to watch the live broadcast.

    As one of the most highly anticipated participants in the battle royale, Adam was instantly swarmed by countless people as soon as he emerged from the car he was in.

    "It''s Lean Mean Killing Machine!"

    "Please give me a signature!"

    "Why have you only just arrived, Mr. Killing Machine? Are you confident in your chances in this battle royale?"

    "Yo, you better get first ce!"

    "How strong are your teammates?"

    ¡­¡­

    "Looks like you''re a celebrity."

    As soon as Adam and his group emerged from their car, they were instantly surrounded from all directions. Thankfully, they were already quite close to the employee passageway, and an armed automaton quickly forced its way through the crowd to receive them.

    These privately owned armed automatons represented the will of the director, so even though it was being very violent in its movements, no one dared to resist.

    After conducting a facial recognition examination on Adam, the armed automaton led them through the crowd to the employee''s passageway, where a pair of mechanical guards were stationed.

    Everyone outside was yelling at the top of their lungs, and some of the gamblers were even reaching out to try and touch Adam for good luck.

    However, most of them were simply yelling in excitement, or recording some short videos.

    I really have be a celebrity...

    Adam didn''t want to be famous. Even though his entire face was tattooed so it was impossible to identify him from his outward appearance alone, many people had already dug up his identity based on his anomalies and the news reports circting in the outside world.

    At this point, keeping his identity a secret was no longer possible.

    Adam made his way through the employee''s passageway, which was paved with red carpet, then arrived backstage. Therge metal doors were closed behind him, shutting out much of themotion outside.

    "You''rete."

    The first one to speak to Adam following his arrival was King Arthur. She had already been waiting for Adam for quite some time.

    "There''s no point ining early anyway."

    Adam turned to King Arthur to discover that she was presenting herself differently from their first encounter.

    Her clothes were far cleaner, and she wore a steely expression, but the lines of her face were quite gentle and elegant. Now that she was wearing normal clothes rather than a baggy cloak, Adam was able to see that she had quite an impressive build.

    After briefly exchanging some small talk with King Arthur, Adam directed his attention into the stadium. He had done some homework in preparation for the battle royale, and he knew that there were a total of 136 participants, some of whom were local residents, while others were outsiders.

    The outsiders had been invited to participate in the tournament bybatants who had umted sufficient points. Hook was an example of this. Hence, many of the participants were stillplete mysteries at this point, and it was very much a possibility that there were people even more powerful than Oni no Miko among them.

    Of course, adapters of Oni no Miko''s level generally wouldn''t participate in events like this.

    The majority of the 136 participants were just here for prize money and had no intention of fighting to be champion.

    As Adam made his way into the backstage area, everyone took a nce at him, but there were two people whose eyes lingered on him longer than everyone else''s, and Adam responded with a provocative smirk.

    "There''s no hurry. We''ll be able to put an end to our differences soon, Oni no Miko."

 Chapter 172: 136 VS 136

    <h4>Chapter 172: 136 VS 136</h4>

    Compared with the bustlingmotion outside, the backstage area was very quiet.

    The automaton brawling matches and the celebrity performances were all spectacr events to behold, with the atmosphere even further electrified by the bright and colorful lights, but no one in the backstage area was watching as they were all sizing up one another.

    Aside from the mechanical security guards, the only people allowed in this area were the battle royale participants.

    Half of the participants wereying down, while the other half were standing.

    Virtually all of the ones who wereying down were artificial adapters, local residents of Shadow City.

    Those who were standing were naturally the organic adapters. There were dozens of them gathered in this room to present a very rare sight that couldn''t be seen virtually anywhere else.

    No one was saying anything, and it wasn''t just because everyone was observing each other. The other reason for everyone''s silence was the fact that many of the participants had struck agreements with each other in private. In fact, people like Midget had even formed verbal agreements with both Adam and his sworn enemy, Oni no Miko, so speaking carelessly at a time like this could result in some awkward situations.

    Time slowly passed by, and after the halftime performance was over, the host stepped onto the stage to deliver a few words, following which an employee made his way into the backstage area.

    "Everyone, prepare to enter the stadium."

    After that, he opened the doors leading to the stadium, and a cacophony of sound instantly gushed into the room.

    The eruption of sound came entirely from the cheering of the spectators. In contrast with the reception that the automaton battles and celebrity performances had received, this wave of cheers was dozens of decibels higher, cing it on apletely different level.

    Even the most aloof and emotionless people were inevitably swept up by the passion and enthusiasm, and standing under the neon lights, Adam felt like he was well and truly under the spotlight, both literally and figuratively.

    "Don''t let yourself get swept up by the atmosphere. They''ve released stimnts into the air in the stadium." King Arthur''s voice suddenly rang out right as the excitement was beginning to get to Adam''s head. "This type of stimnt acts directly upon one''s central nervous system, so even adapters will be affected, making them more rash and prone to taking risks, which we can''t afford to do."

    This made sense, considering the spectators wanted to see action and conflict betweenbatants in the battle royale right away, but the best strategy to win was to avoid action as much as possible.

    "Everyone, there are a total of 136 participants and 24 teams in this battle royale, and all of the participants have arrived. Some of the teams will be led by S tierbatants, while others will be led by A tierbatants who''ve earned sufficient points to be granted the right to lead teams.

    ¡°I''m sure some of the participants will already be quite familiar to many of you, but there are also some who we''ve never seen in action before, and perhaps they''ll be able to give us some interesting surprises.

    ¡°Of course, due to the high number of participants, the screens will be split up into multiple sections, and you can choose to zoom into whichever section you like to watch your favorite participants. All of the rules have already been exined, so I won''t waste any more time. It''s a battle to see who canst till the end! All participants, get ready!"

    As soon as the host''s voice trailed off, a group of employees emerged to arrange all of the participants to one side of a giant metal ball.

    There were many signal transmitters connected to this side of the metal ball, and Adam could tell from a nce that these were the same type of synapse transmitter as the one that had been retrofitted into his body. Thus, he immediately strapped one of them onto his wrist. Meanwhile, the bedridden artificial adapters also had the devices connected to the machines on their heads with the help of their teammates and the stadium employees.

    While this was happening, a group of people who had been tormented into an unrecognizable state were also wheeled out on the other side of the metal ball.

    These were the other participants of the battle royale, the artificial anomalies.

    There were 136 human participants, and 136 artificial anomalies to match.

    As soon as these artificial anomalies appeared, they immediately began to howl and scream in agony, and all of them had emerged from the very depths of the director''s personal hell.

    Even the organic adapters couldn''t help but be shaken by such a horrific sight, and Oni no Miko couldn''t help but take a step backward. Having witnessed the hellish scenes in Shadow Castle in person, she was even disturbed by what she was seeing.

    Those things aren''t going to be easy to deal with...

    Adam had witnessed artificial anomalies in action, and he knew that the most powerful ones among them weren''t inferior to S tierbatants.

    There were only a total of 12 S tierbatants participating in the battle royale, and some of them had only just barely scraped their way into the S tier, so it wasn''t unfair to say that the overall power of the artificial anomalies exceeded that of the participants.

    These artificial anomalies were a major drawcard of this battle royale, and they were also an added feature that prevented participants from hiding away somewhere for the entire duration of the event.

    "First things first, we release these anomalies into the psychic world. Some of these anomalies will be outside the zone, while the rest will be stationed at the point collection sites. Each point collected can be traded in for 1,000,000, either in Shadow City currency or money in the civilized world, and there some of the point collection sites hold more than just one point."

    Even though Adam was already aware of this, he still couldn''t help but be impressed by the mary incentive on offer in the battle royale. 1,000,000 could allow one to live quite a good life in the outside world, and if they were rtively frugal, there could even be enough money left over for them to live infort for several decades in the Metaverse, not as a ve, but as someone who could actually enjoy life in the Metaverse.

    The past missions that Adam had taken on had all carried a significant element of risk, yet each job had only earned him around 100,000, but in this battle royale, each point collected was equivalent to 1,000,000, and it was said that there were over 1,000 points distributed across the map, so it was no wonder that the event had managed to attract so many participants.

    Adam was doing his best to suppress his excitement, but the people around him, particrly the artificial adapters, were beginning to getpletely worked up.

    For these artificial adapters, if they could collect enough points, then they would be able to extend their own lifespans through various means.

    "Look out for those artificial adapters. They''re different from organic adapters. Once the battle royale begins, they''ll be the ones who take the most risk and truly put their lives on the line."

    Arthur''s voice rang out behind Adam again.

    "I understand. They have no choice."

    Adam understood the concept of just how terrifying a cornered beast could be.

    "And you, make sure you don''t chicken out once we get in there."

    This time, King Arthur was speaking to Hook.

    In the days leading up to the battle royale, the team had undergone some training together. Only by familiarizing themselves with each other''s abilities could they work effectively as a team.

    During the training, King Arthur had identified the massive w in Hook''s personality, which was just how cowardly he was.

    "You can be scared, but make sure to do your job. Otherwise, if we all end up dead, you''ll essentially be dead as well, understood?"

    "Understood." Hook was indeed a coward, but he was certainly no idiot. On the contrary, he was quite intelligent, and he knew exactly what his role was. "I''ve alreadye here, so I might as well give it my best."

    At this point, all of the artificial anomalies had already been ced into the psychic battleground.

    The host had also begun the countdown before the participants were scheduled to enter the battleground.

    Adam looked up at the metal ball in the sky, which was actually a server, one that supported awork simr to a miniature Metaverse. In 10 seconds, he was goi to be sent into that unknown battleground for the most perilous and intense experience of his life.

 Chapter 173: The First Stronghold

    <h4>Chapter 173: The First Stronghold</h4>

    "10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Prepare to enter!"

    With that deration, a flurry of fireworks was set off, and Adam''s psychic body was drawn into the metal ball by a burst of immense suction force.

    By the time he regained his vision, he discovered that he had already arrived on a barren in. There were some tumbleweeds and other nts around him that weremonly seen in the desert, and the ground was entirely paved with sand and rocks.

    The server had ensured that the members of each team were sent to the same ce. After arriving in the psychic world, the first thing that Adam did was confirm that all of his teammates were with him. After that, he inspected the environment as he invoked Mummy before fusing as one with it.

    "Why aren''t you fusing with Clown? You''ve already shown everyone your trump card, so there''s no need to continue hiding it." King Arthur was rather displeased by the fact that Adam was still hiding his power, a gesture that waspletely pointless in his eyes. "You''re way too cumbersome in your current state."

    "I can''t maintain my fusion with Clown for very long," Adam replied, making up a story on the spot. "It''s too taxing on my psychic power."

    "Is that right?"

    Adam nodded in response.

    In reality, Adam was able to maintain his fused form with Clown for extended periods of time, but due to the parasitic tentacles that had been left in Clown''s body by Raven, the longer he remained fused with Clown, the more prone he became to being influenced and controlled by Raven.

    He didn''t understand exactly why this was the case, but having witnessed what Raven had previously done to the alien anomaly in Sithu''s psychic world, he decided that it was best to avoid fusing with Clown as much as possible.

    "Hook, tell us where to go."

    "I''m on it."

    This was an extremely dangerous game, and for once, Hook was disying a serious and decisive side to himself. He wasted no time with unnecessary words as he immediately pulled out his telescope to inspect the surrounding area.

    "Directly up ahead is an anomaly that''s in the process of hunting a target, and it''s moving extremely quickly... Behind us is a cluster of houses. From the looks of it, there are definitely resource cards in there... I can also see another group not far away from those houses. Where should we go?"

    "The director still hasn''t entered the battleground, so the zone still hasn''t taken shape yet. We should take advantage of this opportunity to try our luck in those houses. Perhaps we''ll be able to find some useful cards."

    Adam was the leader of the team, and after he made his decision, everyone immediately traveled toward the cluster of houses that Hook had spotted.

    Adam was slightly interested in the points cards, but he was more interested in the other resources on the map.

    In order to add an extra element of intrigue to the game, the director had ced some other cards at the point collection sites, such as cards that contained different cyberhexes.

    These things were very practical. Even though they were only one-time usage items, the cyberhexes imprinted in those cards had been left by the director himself, so even adapters of Eyeless''s caliber were susceptible to them.

    Aside from cyberhex cards, there were also cards that could disperse anomalies, and even high-level cards that could allow one to control those artificial anomalies. Hence, they were extremely valuable resources.

    Additionally, there were also exit cards that could allow one to exit the game at will, so even those who weren''t interested in collecting points would still prioritize collecting resources before doing anything else.

    The team quickly traveled toward the cluster of houses while following Hook''s instructions. Due to how slow Hook was, he was being carried in the mouth of King Arthur''s dragon.

    "Can you put your dragon away for now? It''s so massive and conspicuous, it''ll be impossible for us to remain hidden with that thing around."

    "She''s not an invoked entity, so I''m unable to make her disappear as I please," King Arthur exined.

    Indeed, King Arthur''s dragon steed was a massive creature. Its lizard-like body was around six to seven meters in length, and it had a pair of small wings on its back that allowed it to fly over short distances. Half of King Arthur''sbat prowess stemmed from his dragon.

    Seeing as it was impossible to keep a low profile, the team didn''t bother to hide at all, charging toward their destination at full speed like a rumbling freight train. As a result, they immediately caught the attention of the other team that was traveling toward the same cluster of houses.

    This team was the same one that Hook had spotted earlier, and due to the fact that they had spawned near this cluster of houses, they had arrived here before Adam''s team, and they had already gotten into a battle formation.

    Right as Adam''s team was rushing toward their destination, a series of vines suddenly rose up from the barren ground to stop them in their tracks.

    "We were the ones who found this ce first, so..."

    "Cut the chit-chat! This is a battle royale, not a children''s game! You can''t just call dibs on something because you found it first!"

    King Arthur patted the neck of his dragon steed, and the dragon immediately tossed Hook aside, then opened its cavernous mouth to release a st of fire that instantly incinerated all of the vines into ashes.

    Having lived most of her life in Shadow City, King Arthur''s host had a far more direct and hostile personality than Adam and his friends.

    "Either back down, or die!"

    King Arthur had already identified the opposing team, which consisted of a pair of A tierbatants with two outsiders. Such a teamposition had no chance against Adam''s team. King Arthur raised his golden sword high above his head as he spoke, and the sword began to give off resplendent radiance, as if it were gathering enormous power.

    The members of the opposing team exchanged a few nces before ultimately choosing to back down.

    However, right as they began to back away, the wall behind them suddenly exploded, and a massive hand reached out before crushing one of them in an instant. Immediately thereafter, an enormous mouth emerged to devour another one of them, following which both the hand and the mouth vanished back into the darkness.

    All of the adapters present were of quite a high caliber, but none of them had been able to sense this surprise attack.

    Due to how close the opposing group had been situated to the house, two of them had perished in the blink of an eye.

    Adam and his team didn''t even get to find out what abilities those two adapters possessed before they were killed on the spot.

    Given the fact that they were A tierbatants, it was likely that they were both at least on the same level as Nie Yiyi.

    "What kind of anomaly was that? It seems to be capable of concealing itself."

    "It''s very rare to see such a massive anomaly relying on stealth."

    King Arthur had also witnessed what had just unfolded, but he wasn''t fazed at all.

    "You two, if you''re willing to fight the anomaly inside with us, we can give you the exit cards if we find any inside, along with some of the points cards," Adam offered, trying to temporarily recruit the remaining two members of the opposing team.

    The opposing team had just lost half of its members from the get-go, so the remaining two members had no choice but to ept Adam''s offer.

    Sure enough, they immediately nodded in agreement.

    After receiving their response, Adam wasted no further time with words, immediately rushing into the cluster of buildings, relying on his defensive prowess to keep himself safe.

    This was a cluster of around a dozen old and dpidated apartment buildings constructed in a style reminiscent of the World War II era. The area wasn''t veryrge at all, so it was presumably going to be an easy task to scour the area for resources.

    The first room that Adam rushed into was the one that the anomaly had just emerged from, but after looking around, he didn''t discover the anomaly, nor did it attack him.

    "It''s run away!" Adam yelled to hispanions, then spotted several cards on a table in the room.

    He made his way over to the table to find that the cards consisted of four points cards. He then made his way to the second floor where he spotted three more glowing golden cards, and with that, he had 7,000,000 in the bag. It was almost outrageous how quickly and easily he had been able to collect such a massive sum of money.

    After searching the building, Adam jumped directly upward, crashing through the roof on the second floor so that he could see the entire cluster of buildings from a higher vantage point.

    There should be some more good stuff here...

    While Adam was inspecting his surroundings, he suddenly heard Hook crying out for help.

    "Help! It''s onto me! I can feel it! I don''t want to die!"

 Chapter 174: Stupid Outsiders

    <h4>Chapter 174: Stupid Outsiders</h4>

    Hook was yelling in a blind panic as he rushed toward King Arthur''s dragon steed.

    The dragon knew exactly what Hook wanted, and it immediately opened its mouth up wide to swallow Hook up. At the same time, a giant hand came crashing down directly onto the dragon''s head, striking it with such tremendous force that the dragon''s head was thrown to the side, and even a few of its teeth were knocked out.

    Having already been alerted by Hook, King Arthur and Nie Yiyi immediately sprang into action, attacking the anomaly as soon as it appeared.

    The first attacks to arrive were Nie Yiyi''s des of wind, which struck the anomaly at an incredible speed, slicing several gashes into its body.

    However, despite the remarkable speed of Nie Yiyi''s attacks, they were naturally far inferior to King Arthur''s attack in terms of power.

    As King Arthur swung down his giant golden sword, it came crashing down like a golden mountain, forcing the anomaly to reveal itself amid a burst of dazzling golden light.

    As it turned out, the anomaly that they were dealing with was one with extremely massive arms. It was only standing at over three meters in height, but its arms exceeded four meters in length, and they were even thicker than its waist. As the anomaly was struck by the massive golden sword, the entire lower half of its body was smashed into the ground.

    "Don''t let it get away!"

    This anomaly had to be killed.

    All of the artificial anomalies had already been tortured to the point that they no longer possessed any modicum of intelligence. All they did was instinctively search for targets before hunting those targets down until one side was dead.

    If they were dealing with a slow and cumbersome tank of an anomaly, then running away would''ve still been an option, but they definitely couldn''t allow an anomaly that was capable of concealing itself to survive this encounter.

    After delivering that initial strike, King Arthur raised his giant sword once again in preparation for a second strike, but before the sword could fall, it was kept at bay by one of the anomaly''s massive arms.

    While using one arm to ward off King Arthur''s sword, the anomaly used its other arm to send Nie Yiyi flying with a punch. Nie Yiyi was able to block the punch with her des, but still couldn''t help but throw up blood from the strike due to herckluster physical resistance.

    Thankfully, at this point, everyone else''s attacks had also arrived. The first one to retaliate was King Arthur''s dragon steed, which spat out Hook before swinging its head into the anomaly''s body like a mace. Meanwhile, the two surviving members of the other team also sprang into action, with one of them invoking vines to bind the anomaly, while the other released a technomantic carpet that wrapped itself around the anomaly''s head.

    The anomaly struggled with all its might against the attacks, and the vines were quickly pushed beyond their limit, beginning to snap one after another. However, at this point, Adam had also arrived on the scene, and he threw his arms around the anomaly, then released his bandages to wrap up a part of the anomaly''s body.

    "Finish it off!"

    While wrestling with the anomaly, Adam was able to get a sense of its power, and he determined that it was slightly more powerful than him in his current form.

    However, it possessed no intelligence and was acting solely on killing instinct, so in a one-on-one battle, Adam would''ve been able to defeat it even without using Clown.

    If it were no match for Adam in a one-on-one battle, then it was obvious what the oue was going to be with so many adapters ganging up on it at once.

    After returning to the fray, Nie Yiyi resumed her assault against the anomaly with the assistance of King Arthur and the technomantic carpet, and the anomaly waspletely destroyed after a several consecutive heavy blows.

    Following the anomaly''s demise, Adam hurriedly rushed onto the scene. Prior to entering the fray, he had been pondering two questions, the first of which was whether artificial anomalies possessed anomalic power, and the second question was that if it did, would it be wise for him to absorb the anomalic power in front of so many people?

    This was something that he had been quite conflicted about.

    If he absorbed the anomalic power, then he would be revealing his own secret to the entire world, but with so many powerful anomalies in one ce, this was an extremely rare opportunity for growth, one that would be a terrible waste to pass up on.

    After inspecting the area for a while, Adam discovered that no anomalic power had been left behind by the vanquished anomaly.

    Well, looks like the decision''s been made for me.

    Adam looked down at the ground with a resigned expression, unsure of whether he should''ve been disappointed or d.

    However, just because there was no anomalic power didn''t mean that they had killed the anomaly for nothing. Following its demise, Adam discovered a ck card in its stomach.

    The card contained the director''s psychic stamp. The front side of the card was an upper body portrait of the director, while a line of text was inscribed onto the backside: "Elementary debilitation card: able to strip a single target of a small amount of mobility for a short time."

    "This is quite a useful card." Adam disyed the card to his teammates, then tossed it at Hook. "Use it when you''re in danger."

    Hook knew that this was a life-saving resource that Adam was giving him, and he hurriedly stowed it away in a grateful manner.

    While he was putting the card away, King Arthur''s dragon steed suddenly turned its head and sted a pir of fire at the adapter who was using the technomantic carpet.

    The adapter was caughtpletely off guard, and his entire body instantly erupted into scorching mes.

    The mes released by the dragon were of an extremely high temperature, and he was incinerated into ashes in mere seconds before the technomantic carpet had a chance to return to him.

    Meanwhile, King Arthur turned on the other surviving member of the other team, shing his giant sword through the air to release a streak of golden light that instantly split thepletely unprepared adapter into two.

    "What a pair of stupid outsiders," King Arthur scoffed as he sheathed his sword, then turned around to find all of his teammates looking at him with bemused expressions. "What? You think what I did was wrong? This is a battle royale, not a children''s game. There''s always a chance that they could turn on us, and with their control abilities, they could pose quite a bit of trouble to us. All those who could potentially cause us trouble must be eliminated!"

    "He''s right." Nie Yiyi decided to side with King Arthur. "We''re in this game to win it, and there can only be one winner, so have to be ruthless at times. ording to the rules of the game, teams that travel together will be punished. They can''t join our team, so it''s better to just have them killed."

    As a member of the Green Gang, it was no surprise that Nie Yiyi had a rather ambiguous moralpass.

    Adam nodded in response, choosing not to verbally agree or disagree.

    "Alright, now that everything''s out of the way, let''s search for resources in this area, then leave this ce as quickly as possible so we don''t waste any more time."

    "Sounds good."

    Thus, the members of the team temporarily split up to search through the cluster of dpidated apartments. In the process, they found some more points cards and a shield card, following which they set off for the next target that Hook picked out for them.

    ¡­¡­

    While Adam and his team was on the move, simr scenes were taking ce throughout the entire psychic battleground.

    Oni no Miko tossed aside the head in her hands, then turned to a man who appeared to be a technomancer as she asked, "Can you find him?"

    "I can only ascertain the rough area that he''s in. The closer he is to us, the more I''ll be able to narrow down the area." The technomancer was the Technomancy Tiger of the 36 Tigers, and he removed his technomancer hat as he spoke, then rummaged around inside it for a while before pulling out a pigeon, which he tossed up into the air. The pigeon quickly flew away in a certain direction, and the technomancer continued, "The direction appears to be right, but the target is also constantly moving, so we can''t urately gauge his location."

    "If you ask me, there''s no need to challenge a powerful enemy at such an early stage."

    This time, it was someone else in the team who was speaking. This was a strange human with a turtle''s shell growing on his back, and he was also one of the 36 Tigers.

    "After all, he''s not our sole target. Collecting resources is the key to winning this game.

    "We''re collecting resources, and so is everyone else. If west till the end, we''ll have to face off against Eyeless and the other S tierbatants, so I think it''s best that we take care of our target from the get-go."

    The one raising this contrasting opinion was Diamond. In the psychic world, he appeared to be no different from a normal person, but in battle, his entire body could crystallize to be as hard as diamond.

    His target wasn''t just to win the battle royale. In addition to that, he was also targeting Adam for what he did to Iron Man.

    "We''ll search for resources while going after him. In any case, we don''t know where to go anyway, so we might as well go after him and try our luck. It''ll definitely be beneficial to us if we can eliminate him before the final showdown."

    After making her decision, Oni no Miko immediately flew away behind the pigeon.

 Chapter 175: Different Combinations

    <h4>Chapter 175: Different Combinations</h4>

    The desert that the battle royale was taking ce in seemed to be infinitely massively, so no one had any sense of direction. Thus, Adam and his allies could only follow Hook to visit the clusters of buildings in search of resources.

    Their team was moving very quickly. Aside from Hook, Nie Yiyi was the weakest member of the team, yet even she could enhance her speed with the help of wind, allowing her to cover 100 meters in roughly five seconds on average. As a result, she was able to travel over a kilometer per minute, and after only seven or eight minutes, they arrived at the next cluster of buildings.

    However, this ce had already been searched before, and the team that had searched the area just so happened to run into Adam and his team while they were leaving.

    "I know them." King Arthur was immediately able to identify the team of four. "They''re the four mecha brothers. All of them are A tierbatants."

    "Well, well, well, if it isn''t King Arthur and Lean Mean Killing Machine. We''ve already searched those buildings and killed the anomaly in there, so there''s no need for you to waste time searching the area again."

    The four of them didn''t recognize Nie Yiyi, but they certainly recognized Adam, who had recently earned a resounding reputation for himself, and King Arthur, who was an established S tierbatant.

    The four of them were all humanoid mechas that bore a very close resemnce in the psychic world, so it was clear that they were either friends or rted by blood.

    Not only were the styles of the mechas very simr, their colors were identical as well. The only difference was the weapons that they were wielding.

    "Leave the cards behind and you can go."

    As a long-time resident of Shadow City, King Arthur wasn''t about to let anyone off the hook.

    "Yo, that''ll work on those spineless outsiders, but the same intimidation tactics aren''t going to work on us!" Even though the four of them were only A tierbatants, they didn''t seem to fear King Arthur at all. "Let us go, and we''ll pretend as if this encounter never happened. If you don''t let us go, then none of us are going to have a good time. Honestly, if Lean Mean Killing Machine isn''t here, we''d be the ones asking you to cough up your cards!"

    The four of them were speaking in perfect synchronicity and saying the exact same things.

    Furthermore, while they were speaking, they had already aimed their weapons directly at Adam and his team.

    Adam had no idea what these guys were capable of, so he turned to King Arthur. "What do you reckon?"

    "I think..."

    Before King Arthur had a chance to answer, the four mecha brothers began to assemble.

    In the blink of an eye, the four mechas had assembled together to form a giant mecha that was around seven to eight meters tall.

    Following the assembly, the barrel of the mecha''s cannon had be thrice as thick, and it turned around to aim its cannon at a building behind it before firing off a st.

    A resounding boom rang out, and the entire cluster of buildings was instantly reduced to ruins in a disy of formidable power.

    Adam had only witnessed this level of destructive power and explosive energy in Sithu''s psychic world. The cannon st wasn''t as powerful as that anomaly''s self-detonation, but at the same time, this was also nothing more than a casual attack from the giant mecha.

    In terms of destructive power, the mecha was no less fearsome than Oni no Hanzou.

    That level of destructive power, coupled with its enormous and clearly extremely durable body, indicated that it possessed a level of power that would''ve ced it in the upper reaches of the S tier.

    It came as quite a surprise to Adam that there were such powerfulbatants in the A tier.

    "Look, we don''t want any trouble. We don''t want to make enemies out of you, especially Mr. Lean Mean Killing Machine, but if you''re just going to try and tantly rob us, then we''ll have to put up a fight. Even if you win, you''ll definitely suffer heavy losses. How about this?" The mecha pulled out three golden cards as it spoke before tossing them at Adam. "Take those cards and let us go."

    Adam caught the three golden cards to find that they were all points cards.

    There were definitely more than just three points cards in that cluster of buildings, but the four mecha brothers were being quite sincere, and they were also quite formidable. Just as they said, if a conflict did arise, then Adam''s team was sure to suffer heavy losses.

    Furthermore, Adam was here to win the battle royale. If he could grab some resources along the way, then that would certainly be extremely wee, but it wouldn''t be worth it if he had to give up too much in exchange for those resources.

    With that in mind, Adam epted the offer made by the four mecha brothers before King Arthur had a chance to say anything.

    At the same time, he tossed the three points cards back to the giant mecha.

    "You can keep those. Even if we can''t be friends, I don''t want to make you my enemy."

    "You''re an upstanding guy, Lean Mean Killing Machine!"

    The mecha caught the cards, then retreated in a cautious manner before rushing away as soon as it had retreated to a safe distance away.

    After rushing away into the distance, the giant mecha split back up into the four brothers. It was clear that maintaining that form was quite taxing on them.

    "How are they only A tierbatants when they''re this powerful?" Adam asked as he turned to King Arthur.

    "Because they need to be together to maximize their powers. Individually, theirbat prowess is quite mediocre, only around the average mark among A tierbatants, but as you saw, they''re a real force to be reckoned with when assembled together. They participated in thest battle royale as well, and they did quite well."

    King Arthur was far more knowledgeable about matters rted to Shadow City than Adam and his friends were.

    Compared with the information gathered by Hook in a short timeframe, King Arthur''s knowledge was more extensive, and he knew about more than just thebatants in the S tier.

    "There are some people like them in the A tier. Otherwise, why would they enter the battle royale? Do they have a death wish?"

    "I see."

    The four mecha brothers reminded Adam of the Golden Iron Triangle that he had faced in the past.

    Individually, the trio of adapters were very mediocre, but when together, their powers were enhanced by severalfold.

    Adam turned back to look at his own teammates, and it seemed that there was no potential for suchbinations.

    "Don''t get your hopes up. S tierbatants are very rare to begin with, and it''s even rare to see S tierbatants thate in sets." King Arthur patted his dragon steed as he spoke, and it opened its mouth to pick up Hook again. "Let''s go to the next location."

    ¡­¡­

    By the time Adam and his team arrived at the next resource location, there was already another team nearby.

    Everyone had spawned at different points on the map, and the people who had spawned near this ce had clearly gotten to it before Adam and the others.

    The style of this team waspletely different from the four mecha brothers.

    Psychic bodies couldn''t lie, and they perfectly reflected one''s personality and their strengths and weaknesses in battle.

    This team consisted of a technomancer with his facepletely concealed within his cloak, a goblin engineer with a cunning grin on his face, an invisible wraith, and a psychic puppeteer.

    With their respective appearances, the four of them formed a very sinister and insidious team.

    They had spawned near this cluster of buildings, but even though a long time had already passed since they reached this point, they were in no hurry to go in. Instead, they had been setting up various things in the nearby area this entire time.

    The goblin engineer had buried countless psychdmines of all types around the area, the technomancer had set up an array that was invisible to everyone else, the wraith had concealed everyone''s aura, and the psychic puppeteer was constantly ready to pounce as they awaited their prey.

 Chapter 176: Midget and Giant

    <h4>Chapter 176: Midget and Giant</h4>

    Adam''s team was on the way to the area where the trap had been prepared, but they were still quite far away, and another team got there ahead of them.

    It was Midget and his teammates.

    In the psychic world, Midget was still a midget, much as he was in the real world.

    However, he had the ability to expand or shrink his body at will. At the upper limit, he could transform into a giant that was over 10 meters tall, possessing boundless strength and astonishing destructive power.

    As for his teammates, all of them were artificial adapters who also possessed outstandingbat prowess.

    He had formed a team with artificial adapters as everyone had the same goal of earning money, so what they needed the most were points cards and exit cards.

    Midget was very cautious and flexible in his approach, avoiding enemies as much as possible, as well as refraining from using any of the battle cards that they found. Upon encountering acquaintances, he would use those battle cards to trade for points cards and exit cards.

    During the past two editions of the battle royale, this approach had earned him a fortune. There were many people who were only participating in the battle royale for money, so it was very easy for him to find teammates withmon objectives, and given his powers and extensive experience, everyone ced a lot of trust in him.

    "Mole, you go and take a look up ahead. I don''t sense anything wrong, but it''s always better to be safe than sorry."

    "I''m on it, Boss!"

    Under Midget''s orders, a man with a mouth that was as long as a mole''s plunged headfirst into the ground. After burrowing into the ground, he was like a fish in water, "swimming" through the sand and rocks without any impediment as he approached the cluster of buildings through an underground route.

    Mole wandered through the cluster of buildings for a while, discovering the anomaly and some cards in the process. Through the use of his abilities, he was able to avoid the anomaly and grab the cards without being detected.

    However, right as he was preparing to leave, the anomaly that had failed to discover him this entire time somehow managed to detect at thest moment, and it crashed directly into the building that he was in before charging after him.

    Thankfully for Mole, his fleeing abilities were far more potent than hisbat prowess, and as soon as he sensed the dangerous situation that he was in, he immediately turned to plunge into the ground. However, the ground that usually parted like water for him had suddenly be as hard as a steel wall, making it impossible for him to dive into it.

    Immediately thereafter, he saw the technomantic array that was just barely visible on the ground.

    Fuck, I''ve been screwed!

    That was thest thought that ran through his mind before he was torn to shreds by the anomaly.

    Outside the cluster of buildings.

    Midget and his teammates had also been alerted by themotion caused by the anomaly crashing through the building.

    He couldn''t see exactly what had happened, but he saw an anomaly barreling its way into a building, following which what sounded like a brief scuffle ensued.

    As a veteran campaigner in these battle royales, he was able to develop a rough idea of what had happened based on observation alone.

    "It looks like Mole was discovered by the anomaly. If he''s not back in a minute, then he''s dead."

    "What do we do then? Do we still go in?"

    The other two members of the team both turned to Midget for further instructions.

    Midget was also rather hesitant about how to proceed.

    "Given Mole''s abilities, it''s usually very unlikely that he ends up getting discovered. However, we can''t judge artificial anomalies with normal logic. There could well be some artificial anomalies whose hosts have had their ears and noses removed, making them yearn excessively for the ability to hear and smell. If it''s just an artificial anomaly, then that wouldn''t be much of a problem. However, we could be in some trouble if there''s another team here."

    "But it looks like the buildings in the area are all rtively unharmed aside from the one where Mole was just attacked. Surely no one else has discovered this ce yet."

    "I agree. Given the destructive power of that anomaly, if another team had visited this area, then they should''ve already been discovered, and the destruction shouldn''t be limited to just a single building."

    Midget''s trio was standing on a vantage point, analyzing theyout of this supply point and the properties of the anomaly there.

    "Like you just said, an anomaly capable of discovering Mole has to be one with extremely heightened senses, so no other team should''ve been able to infiltrate the area without being discovered."

    "That''s all true, but you can never be too careful."

    Midget was still rather hesitant, but the other two artificial adapters were unwilling to wait any longer.

    They needed money to survive, so they yearned for money far more than Midget did. Hence, they were doing their best to convince Midget to act.

    "All of the signs indicate that this is a perfect area to explore. On top of that, Mole has already fallen here. If we don''t enter this supply point, the next one may be even more dangerous."

    "Exactly. We''re participating in the battle royale, surely we have to take some risk."

    Midget''s brows were tightly furrowed as he carefully assessed what his telegnosis was telling him, and in the end, he gritted his teeth as he nodded in response. "You''re right, there''s no way topletely avoid risk in a battle royale. Prepare for battle! We''ll scour the area for cards after we deal with that anomaly."

    "Yes, Boss!"

    The other two members of the team were very excited to hear this, and the trio quickly entered the supply point with Midget leading the way.

    After entering the area, Midget immediately adopted his giant form as a precautionary measure.

    His two teammates were ones that he had carefully selected, and one of them was able to enhance his powers through the use of blessing technomancy, while the other transformed into a suit of armor that encased his entire body.

    A scout plus two support adapters had always been Midget''s preferred teamposition, with himself acting as the sole offensive unit.

    After liberating part of his power to transform into a seven-meter-tall giant, Midget''s new form immediately caught the attention of the anomaly in the supply point, and it instantly rushed out, revealing itself to be a burly tank.

    Midget was rather taken aback by the sight of the oing anomaly. He had thought that the anomaly would''ve had to have been something simr to Thousand Eye, given that it was able to discover Mole.

    However, this anomaly was a 3.5-meter-tall wall of muscle, and none of its features suggested that it had any heightened senses.

    Despite his surprise, they were already here, so it was toote to turn back.

    Thus, Midget immediately charged toward the approaching anomaly before giving it a vicious kick.

    In the face of Midget, the massive anomaly resembled a small child, and it was sent flying for dozens of meters by Midget''s kick, crashing through several buildings before it finally came to a rest.

    However, these artificial anomalies knew no fear, and it immediately mbered out of the rubble to search for its target, only to see a massive foot crashing down onto it from above.

    A resounding boom rang out as the giant foot crushed it back into the ground.

    However, that wasn''t the end of the assault. Midget''s enormous foot came crashing down over and over again, stomping onto the anomaly with relentless brutality. In the face of Midget''s immense power and tremendous body weight, the surrounding ground was stomped to countless pieces, and the anomaly was also being crushed to a pulp.

    At this point, the concealed four-man team outside the supply point was preparing to intervene.

    Of course, they weren''t going to help Midget. Instead, they were going to help the anomaly.

    "Looks like we''ve got an S tierbatant on our hands. That anomaly isn''t going to be able tost much longer."

    "Should wee out right away or cause some trouble for them first?"

    "We''ll cause some trouble first, thene out to deal the finishing blow!"

    "Sounds good to me!"

 Chapter 177: The Strongest Little Guy

    <h4>Chapter 177: The Strongest Little Guy</h4>

    Even though Midget temporarily held the decisive upper hand in his battle against the anomaly, his opponent was no slouch, either, and it had only sustained minor injuries from Midget''s consecutive stomps.

    As abatant who was ranked somewhere in the lower mid-range in the S tier, his true power was only at around the same level as the artificial anomaly he was fighting, and he was only able to gain such a decisive advantage in this battle thanks to the enhancements that he was receiving from his teammates.

    Even so, killing an artificial anomaly was certainly no easy feat, considering the overallbat prowess of their team was far inferior to that of Adam and his team.

    In fact, even though he was the core member of this team, he wasn''t even as powerful as the King Arthur, who was only the second option on Adam''s team.

    "We have to wrap things up, Boss! Otherwise, themotion we''re causing here will attract other teams and anomalies roaming nearby!" the blessing caster urged in an anxious voice.

    "I don''t need you to tell me that!"

    Midget took a deep breath, then erged his own body even further before picking up the anomaly from the ground and tearing at its body using his tremendous strength, trying to rip the anomaly into two.

    In the face of Midget''s unmatched strength, the anomaly''s body was beginning to creak and groan incessantly, sounding as if it were going to be torn apart at any second.

    However, right at this moment, a burst of undead energy was suddenly injected into its body, significantly enhancing its strength and stabilizing its body.

    "We''ve been ambushed!"

    With Midget''s extensive battle experience, he immediately realized that something was wrong as soon as he detected the anomaly''s sudden spike in strength, but it was already toote.

    Right as he was preparing to retreat, ck technomantic light suddenly erupted all around him, and the gravitational force in the area was abruptly enhanced by severalfold. At the same time, countless ck technomantic tentacles erupted out of the ground to bind his enormous body.

    After that, the ground began to rumble, and a series of goblinndmines flew out before clinging to Midget''s body and exploding violently.

    Even though Midget was wearing a suit of armor, his body was still severely ravaged by the string of dozens of consecutive explosions, and as a result, the anomaly slipped out of his grasp.

    These artificial anomalies werepletely devoid of intelligence, so they naturally had no idea what was happening around them.

    However, its instinctive resentment spurred it to immediately retaliate against Midget in vengeance as soon as it was dropped.

    The anomaly plunged its bone spike viciously into Midget''s knee, then released a burst of enormous power topletely pulverize his kneecap.

    Midget''s leg immediately gave out from under him as a result, causing him to fall to one knee, following which the anomaly jumped onto his body to tear at him with its fangs.

    "Heal me!" Midget roared as his body turned bright red, and he finally swelled to hisplete form, where he stood at 10 meters in height.

    In this form, his strength received a significant increase, and thanks to the enhancements he received from his teammate''s blessing technomancy, he was able topletely tear apart the technomantic tentacles around him, then ripped the anomaly off his own body before hurling it away.

    However, right at this moment, the anomaly''s body suddenly stiffened for a moment, as if it had been influenced by something, and it immediately abandoned Midget to attack the blessing technomancer instead.

    Even though these artificial adapters were quite formidable in battle, with some of them possessing power superior even to certain S tierbatants, they had no intelligence or strategy. If a team could exploit this weakness, then they could work as one to eradicate these artificial anomalies rtively easily.

    However, things were very troublesome now that it had somehow figured out that the best strategy was the attack the technomancer.

    The technomancer hurriedly cried out to Midget for help at the sight of the oing anomaly, but all of a sudden, Midget was also momentarily rooted to the spot, as if he were being influenced by something as well.

    All it took was that momentarypse for the anomaly to reach the technomancer.

    The blessing technomancer had nobat prowess to speak of, and he immediately turned to flee. However, he had only taken a few steps before he trod onto one of the goblinndmines, and his body was blown into pieces amid a resounding explosion.

    In contrast, the anomaly only sustained minor injuries from the shockwaves released by the explosion, and after losing its target, it immediately turned back to pounce on Midget, who had returned to his senses at this point.

    Midget was greatly unsettled by the demise of his teammate, and he raised his arms to hold back the anomaly as he yelled, "Who''s there? Come on out, my friend. Let''s talk this over instead of resorting to violence!"

    "What is there to talk about, Mr. Midget?"

    The sinister four-man team finally revealed itself.

    Out of the four of them, the goblin was the only one that Midget recognized.

    He was an A tierbatant who had earned a lot of points, enough for him to lead a team of three, so those three were most likely teammates that he had recruited from the outside world.

    Seeing the familiar face, Midget hurriedly said, "Don''t do this, Goblin. We''ve even shared a meal together before, haven''t we? Let me go this time, and I''ll be sure topensate you handsomely once we get out of here!"

    "Do I look like an idiot to you?" Goblin cackled. "The director has explicitly prohibited the striking of private deals under the promise ofpensation in the real world. If I let you go here and the director decides toe after me, who''s going to save me? Also, everyone always says that there are two really strong little guys in Shadow City, and that you''re the stronger one of the two. That''s pissed me off for a very long time! After today, I''ll be the only strong little guy left in Shadow City!"

    As soon as Goblin''s voice trailed off, he whistled loudly, and many more goblinndmines sprang out of the ground before flying onto Midget''s body.

    At the same time, he set up a cannon on the spot, aiming it directly?at Midget as he ignited the fuse.

    Midget could see that there a peaceful oue was no longer possible to achieve, and with that in mind, he let loose a thunderous roar as he tapped into thest of his power and conviction. His body instantly turned an even brighter shade of red as he withstood all of the explosions.

    However, there was simply too much firepower for him to contend with. Under the effects of the constant explosions, disruption from undead technomancy, psychic control, and the debilitating effects of the array, he was ultimately defeated, and the anomaly was able to punch through his body and smash open his head.

    With that came the first S tier casualty of the battle royale. However, not only were the spectators not saddened in the slightest by this, the demise of Midget sparked a wave of excitement in the stands.

    Then enjoyed watching the rise of powerfulbatants, but they were even more eager to see powerfulbatants fall.

    The higher one rose, the more spectacr their fall, and all of the spectators were loudly cheering for Goblin and his team.

    The outsiders that Goblin had recruited into his team were disying abilities that the spectators had never seen before, and that was also one of the drawcards of the battle royale.

    In contrast with everyone''s excitement, Hailey and the others were staring at the screens in front of them with tightly furrowed brows.

    "That''s where Adam and the others are heading..."

    "This is really bad! Aside from Goblin, there''s no information at all on the other three members of that team, so there''s no way they''ll know what to expect."

    "I hope no one dies..."

 Chapter 178: Falling Into the Trap

    <h4>Chapter 178: Falling Into the Trap</h4>

    Hailey and the others weren''t the only ones who had noticed that Adam and his team were traveling toward that supply point.

    While Goblin and his team were collecting the spoils of battle following Midget''s demise, therge screen in the stadium had already turned to Adam and his team, giving them both a close-up shot and a long shot.

    Soon, a second wave of excitement began to sweep through the spectator stands.

    "Lean Mean Killing Machine is also about to fall into the trap!"

    "Things are about to get interesting now!"

    "I bet you 300 that two of them are going to die there."

    "I agree. That woman and that dumbass steam robot are definitely going to die!"

    "Yeah, those two are pretty trash, not gonna lie."

    ¡­¡­

    Unfortunately for the participants in the battle royale, they weren''t privy to the information that the spectators outside had ess to.

    By the time Adam''s team arrived at the supply point, all that was left was a set of ruins.

    "We heard the sound of battle here just now, so this ce has most likely already been looted." Adam quickly inspected the site from a high vantage point, then turned to Hook as he asked, "Do you see anything?"

    Hook was peering through his telescope, and he replied, "No. It seems like it''s really peaceful in there, but it''s also kind of strange. It''s almost like I''m looking at a mirage, as if what''s actually there has been concealed by someone."

    "In that case, we probably shouldn''t go," Nie Yiyi said. "I feel like there''s bound to be some danger there."

    "You''re right. The area has already been searched anyway, so even if there''s no danger, there''s no point in going there." All of a sudden, Adam seemed to have spotted something. "Did you guys see Oni no Miko just now?"

    Adam felt as if he had just spotted Oni no Miko in the distance.

    "I think I saw her as well," Hook replied. "She seems to be on her own. Could it be that she was involved in the battle just now?"

    "You guys both saw her? Are you sure?" Initially, Nie Yiyi felt this to be rather suspicious, but all of a sudden, her doubts were erased by some unexinable force, and shepletely lowered her guard. "In any case, it can''t hurt to go and take a look. If we manage to catch Oni no Miko on her own, we''ll be able to take care of her quite early on, which can''t be a bad thing."

    King Arthur was just about to raise some objections, but he then suddenly found himself agreeing with their opinions, and he nodded in response. "I''ll leave it up to you two."

    "Alright, then let''s go."

    Adam alsopletely lowered his guard as he led the team into the supply point.

    On the way there, they couldn''t shake the feeling that something wasn''t quite right, but by the time they came to their senses, it was already toote, and they had already arrived at the center of the supply point.

    "I don''t think we should''vee in." Hook was the first one to make the realization. As the most observant and sensitive member of the team, he quickly realized that something was wrong. "I feel like we were influenced by something, and all of us somehow ended up making the wrong choice!"

    "There''s a psychic disruptor here!" King Arthur was a seasoned adapter andbatant, and he immediately thought of that rare branch of adapters. "Someone lured us into this ce!"

    "In that case, this is most likely a trap."

    Sure enough, as soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, he spotted an anomaly in the distance.

    ¡­¡­

    While Adam and his team were discussing the situation, a heated argument was also taking ce on the other side.

    As it turned out, the sinister four-man team were having a difference in opinion. Goblin was actually opposed to this second ambush, and he was going to back out as soon as he spotted Adam from afar.

    However, his teammates were vehemently opposed to the idea.

    In contrast with Midget''s team, where he was the sole decision-maker, Goblin couldn''t call the shots for everyone on his team.

    "I''m telling you, we can''t afford to mess with a team with two S tierbatants!"

    "So what if there are two S tierbatants? The one that we just killed was also an S tierbatant. Even if there are two of them, they''re no match for us!"

    "Exactly! You Shadow City locals think you''re tougher than everyone else, but what you don''t know is that the outside world is where all of the real big fish are. This is only a small pondpared with the rest of the sea!"

    "I don''t care if they''re S tier or SS tier, they''re going down!"

    "You don''t understand! One of them is different from the S tierbatant we just killed!" Goblin was still trying to exin the situation to his teammates, but he was impatiently cut off. "Cut the chit-chat. They''ve already arrived and discovered that artificial anomaly. If that thing dies, we''ll lose a valuable asset."

    "Do we do it or not?"

    "Well, looks like we have no choice now, do we?" Goblin sighed, and he was beginning to regret recruiting these people onto his team.

    They were far too arrogant. Prior toing here, they hadn''t watched any match footage or done any homework. They thought that with their abilities, they would be able to stomp all over everyone as they pleased.

    "Let''s give it a try then. It''s not like we have no chance at all," Goblin sighed as he turned his attention to the supply point.

    Not only had the artificial anomaly not been weakened from its battle against Midget, it had be more powerful instead.

    The reason for this was that the massive ck technomantic array was constantly nurturing the anomaly with its energy, slowly enhancing its powers over time.

    However, even so, there was no way that they could rely on a single artificial anomaly to defeat Adam''s entire team. In fact, it was yet to be seen whether it could even take on King Arthur on its own.

    As the anomaly rushed toward Adam and his team, it was instantly forced back by King Arthur''s holy sword and dragon mes.

    However, after it was forced back into retreat, a burst of undead power was injected into its body, elevating its powers to a new level. This time, its body was radiating cold undead energy that allowed it to charge straight through King Arthur''s attacks before gouging out arge chunk of flesh from King Arthur''s body with a swipe of its ws.

    Having been enhanced by both the ck technomancy and the undead energy, the anomaly''s individual power already exceeded King Arthur''s, and Nie Yiyi hurriedly rushed in to assist him upon seeing this.

    However, she had only just leaped up from the ground when countless goblin bombs emerged before converging rapidly toward her from all directions.

    However, Nie Yiyi was also a seasoned veteran on the battlefield at this point, and she shed her des through the air, releasing ferocious gusts of wind to keep these bombs at bay. After that, she attempted to blow the bombs away with a wave of her hand, only for them to abruptly explode.

    The shockwaves from the explosion burst through the wall of wind, carrying shards of shrapnel that sliced gashes all over her body.

    However, that was only the initial explosion. As a well-established A tierbatant, Goblin was rather mediocre in directbat, but given sufficient time to prepare, even an S tierbatant may not have been a match for him.

    He and his teammates were indeed extremely arrogant, but they also had the power to back up their attitude.

    Nie Yiyi was sent flying by the explosion, and before she had a chance to stabilize herself, a massive ck technomantic hand suddenly erupted out of the ground before grabbing her tightly around the waist.

    At the same time, the second wave of bombs had already arrived.

    A string of resounding explosions rang out, and Nie Yiyi waspletely enveloped in mes.

    Did that kill her?

    Goblin was peering intently into the epicenter of the explosion.

    This first wave of attacks had been intentionally nned to target Nie Yiyi.

    Adam and King Arthur were too powerful to realistically be killed by a single wave of attacks, while Hook was too weak, so killing him wouldn''t have had much of a bearing on the battle anyway. Hence, it seemed like the best option was to focus their powers on getting rid of Nie Yiyi first.

 Chapter 179: Fusing With Nie Yiyi

    <h4>Chapter 179: Fusing With Nie Yiyi</h4>

    Their n had been executed to perfection.

    They had used the anomaly to keep King Arthur upied, and the psychic puppeteer was using his psychic disruption to temporarily keep Adam out of the action. Under normal circumstances, those consecutive explosions would''ve been sufficient to kill Nie Yiyi.

    Having had so much time to prepare, the attacks unleashed by Goblin were equivalent in power to S tier attacks.

    However, the shield card from earlier had yed a pivotal role here.

    "Looks like these resources really are useful."

    Nie Yiyi slowly descended from the dense smoke left behind by the explosion, and she wasn''tpletely unscathed, but she wasrgely unharmed. The only injuries that she had sustained had been from the first round of explosions, and all they did was slightly disfigure her.

    The shield card was known as the director''s white cyberhex, and after it was found, it was given to Nie Yiyi. She was someone who liked to fight at close quarters, but her defenses were quiteckluster, so the shield card was perfect for her, and it really did save her life here.

    There really is danger at every turn in this battle royale.

    With that in mind, Adam didn''t dare to withhold Clown any longer and immediately invoked it. Holding his cards to his chest was not an option at a time like this.

    All of the people who were willing and able to participate in the battle royale had extreme confidence in themselves. Not only had all of the S tierbatants disyed incredible power, the A tierbatants that Adam had encountered had also given him a massive shock.

    Some A tierbatants weren''t particrly powerful individually, but when grouped together, some of them were no less powerful and troublesome to deal with than S tierbatants.

    As soon as Clown was released, it immediately began to cackle in a deranged manner.

    Perhaps it was due to Raven''s influence, or because it was an anomaly of too high a level, much like Distortion, Clown couldn''t be controlled by Adam.

    If he wanted topletely control it, then he had to fuse as one with it, but doing so would allow Raven to exert its influence on his psychic body.

    Hence, Adam hadn''t invoked this anomaly up to this point, but he had no choice but to do so now.

    Sure enough, after being released, Clown had no intention of putting in any work. After cackling like a madman for a while, it suddenly jumped onto the back of King Arthur''s dragon steed and began to y with its revolver.

    "Go and kill that anomaly!"

    Adam attempted to issue an instruction to Clown, but itpletely ignored him and continued to y with its revolver, disying no intention to act.

    "That''s the really powerful S tierbatant you were talking about?" Goblin''s team was still hiding in the shadows, and his teammates immediately burst intoughter upon seeing this. "He''s an invocator who can''t even control his own invoked entities! Does he have schizophrenia, or does he have so much self-doubt that it''s affecting his powers? I can''t think of any other reason why an invocator would be unable to control their own invoked entity."

    After mocking Adam for a while, the psychic puppeteer suddenly decided to instruct the artificial anomaly to disengage itself from its battle against King Arthur and attack Clown instead.

    The artificial anomaly was extremely fast, while Clown was still seemingly preupied with its own revolver.

    However, right as the anomaly''s ws were able to reach its face, the revolver in Clown''s hand abruptly vanished. In the next instant, the revolver appeared on the anomaly''s head, and a string of gunshots rang out in rapid session. The impact of the bullets was so powerful that the anomaly''s giant body was sent flying back through the air.

    Adam thought that Clown would press its advantage, but after forcing back the artificial anomaly, it returned to sitting idly on the back of King Arthur''s dragon steed again.

    The bastard''s trying to force me to fuse with it!

    Adam could tell what Clown''s intentions were. The vast majority of its power came from Raven, and its body was riddled with parasitic tentacles. It was actingpletely ording to Raven''s will, and it was forcing Adam to fuse as one with it so that it could continue to erode Adam''s mind.

    However, at the same time, it wasn''t actively attacking any of Adam''s allies, and perhaps that was because Adam still had some slight control over it.

    This type of passive-aggressive attitude was posing a massive headache to Adam.

    I''ll see if we can win without Clown''s help first. If we can''t, then I''ll do what needs to be done.

    The more Raven wanted to force him to fuse with Clown, the more resistant Adam was to the idea. At this moment, he had already rushed over to Nie Yiyi to implement a new strategy.

    "Let''s fuse together!"

    "What?"

    Nie Yiyi waspletely caught off guard by this proposal.

    "I''m talking about like we trained!"

    Adam opened up his bandages as he spoke, and Nie Yiyi also quickly realized what he was referring to. She immediately pressed herself tightly against his back, allowing his bandages to wrap themselves around her body, leaving only her joints and eyes exposed so that she could see and move.

    This was a strategy that Adam had thought of a few days ago, and it had been quite effective in their battle simtions.

    In his regr form, Adam''s offensive prowess was far inferior to his defensive abilities, while Nie Yiyi was the exact opposite. Thus, the two of themplemented each other perfectly, so it only made sense for them tobine their powers like this. Furthermore, with two heads and four arms, their offensive coverage was also improved.

    After wrapping up Nie Yiyi, Adam rushed toward the artificial anomaly that had just been sent flying by Clown''s bullets. However, he had only taken a few steps when he trod on andmine, and the ground exploded violently beneath his feet.

    However, Adam''s physical resistance allowed him topletely ignore the goblinndmines. His body was propelled up into the air by the explosion, and he was shielding Nie Yiyi from the shockwaves and metal shrapnel with his body.

    The shockwaves barely posed any threat to him, and the flying pieces of metal shrapnel were only able to raise trails of sparks as they shed over his bandages.

    With Adam acting as her meat shield, Nie Yiyi remainedpletely unscathed.

    Afternding back on the ground, Adam continued to pursue the artificial anomaly without pause.

    At this point, the anomaly had already steadied itself, and it instinctively attacked,shing out at Adam''s abdomen with its ws, but once again, the attack was only able to raise a flurry of sparks.

    After withstanding that first attack, Adam retaliated with two punches of his own, but they were also rather ineffective.

    All of a sudden, Adam suddenly sprang up into the air while turning around, allowing Nie Yiyi to unleash the attack that she had already been charging up for quite some time. Her de shed across the artificial anomaly''s body, leaving a massive gash that was over a meter in length.

    Nie Yiyi''s normal attacks weren''t all that powerful, but when she had time to charge up her attacks, it was apletely different story.

    If given the time to charge up her attacks to their maximal extent, her offensive prowess far exceeded even that of King Arthur. Adam had already witnessed the full extent of her power during their first mission together. At the time, the scarecrow anomaly that they had encountered had been at least a level four anomaly, yet she had managed to severely wound it with just a single all-out attack. At the time, Adam had merely been impressed, but as he grew progressively more powerful, he came to realize just how fearsome that attack had been.

    .

    Back then, Nie Yiyi still wasn''t as powerful as she was now. At this point, her overall powers had perhaps only just reached the pinnacle of what could be expected from level two anomalies, stopping just short of the level three standard as her defenses were simply too frail and dragged down her overall score.

    With powersparable to only a level two anomaly, she had almost managed to kill a level four anomaly, punching up two whole levels!

    Hence, Adam was very confident in Nie Yiyi''s offensive firepower. As long as he could shield her and give her sufficient time to charge up her attacks, it certainly wasn''t impossible to dig themselves out of this predicament.

    "Charge up another attack and kill it with the next one!" Adam roared as he turned back around, throwing his arms around the artificial anomaly while also invoking Distortion. With the two of them acting together, they were able to severely limit the anomaly''s mobility.

 Chapter 180: Terrain Advantage

    <h4>Chapter 180: Terrain Advantage</h4>

    "That anomaly''s not gonna be able tost much longer!"

    "This team is definitely more powerful than the previous one, but we''ll still crush them easily as soon as we get involved."

    The first one to reveal himself was the ck Technomancer. With a wave of his staff, he immobilized King Arthur and his dragon steed, then cast a string of consecutive debilitating cyberhexes onto Adam.

    Under the effects of the cyberhexes, Adam was sapped of his strength, and as a result, the artificial anomaly was able to struggle free before Nie Yiyi could finish charging up the attack.

    The second member of the opposing team to appear was Goblin.

    He had been able to climb all the way to the A tier by himself, so he definitely had more tricks up his sleeve than just buryingndmines. After all, some of the match venues were very small, so there was no time for him to set up anyndmines.

    As soon as Goblin emerged, green light began to glow from his body, and many strange parts littered around him began to assemble themselves onto his body, quickly transforming him into a massive log splitter.

    The log splitter had a series cannon on its back and a pair of sawdes, one circr and one long, both of which were producing a deafening screeching noise.

    As soon as Goblin appeared, it turned all of the cannons on its back to face Nie Yiyi before firing them all at once.

    "I''m being attacked!"

    Adam instantly turned around upon hearing this, shielding Nie Yiyi behind him just in time before the cannon sts arrived. He threw his arms over his head, and a string of loud explosions rang out as he withstood all of the oing projectiles.

    However, after the dust settled, Adam discovered that he wasn''t being attacked by the log splitter. Instead, he heard an agonized roar from King Arthur''s dragon steed.

    He immediately turned to discover that the long saw of the log splitter had already plunged into the dragon''s abdomen, and as the saw churned, huge volumes of blood intermingled with pieces of flesh came gushing out of the dragon''s body.

    Goblin had distracted Adam with his first round of attacks, but his true target was actually King Arthur''s dragon steed.

    The dragon immediately tried to retaliate in an agonized rage, but the psychic puppeteer and the ck technomancer instantly made their presence felt, using theirbined powers to temporarily rob King Arthur and his dragon steed of the ability to retaliate.

    At this point in the battle, Adam had identified that the ck technomancer was the most troublesome of the four opponents.

    The entire supply point was epassed within his array, so as long as they were inside this area, they had to deal with constant cyberhexes from the ck technomancer. Essentially, this was his domain, and inside this domain, his individualbat prowess was not inferior to that of an S tierbatant.

    After setting up all of thosendmines, Goblin was also not inferior to the average S tierbatant. Additionally, the enhanced artificial anomaly possessed S tierbat prowess as well, which meant that they were essentially facing a team of at least three S tierbatants.

    "King Arthur, find a way to get out of here!"

    As a seasoned veteran on the battlefield, King Arthur immediately understood Adam''s intentions.

    In this supply point, they were at a severe disadvantage. However, if they could leave this area and free themselves from the array and thendmines, then ck Technomancer and Goblin would instantly revert back to A tierbatants, and the tide of the battle would bepletely turned.

    All of a sudden, King Arthur let loose a loud roar, and golden radiance erupted from his body to dispel the cyberhexes cast onto him, following which he severed the technomantic tentacles around him with his sword.

    After that, he sprang up into the air to attack Goblin with his sword.

    Even though Goblin was in his log splitter form, there was no way that he would be a match for King Arthur in a direct confrontation, so he hurriedly retreated and abandoned his assault against the dragon.

    After freeing his dragon steed, King Arthur immediately jumped back onto its back, then instructed it to fly out of the supply point.

    "We can''t let them get away!"

    Goblin bent over to fire his cannons up at the sky, while the dragon released a pir of mes out of its mouth to ward off the cannon sts.

    Right at this moment, ck light suddenly began to emerge from the ground, and countless chains that looked as if they had been formed by mist flew out to lock down the entire area.

    "You''re not getting out of my array that easily!"

    As the ck Technomancer uttered a string of cybercode, more and more chains began to erupt out of the ground while also releasing immense suction force.

    King Arthur''s dragon steed was only capable of flying over short distances, so its flight abilities were far from ster, and it was instantly stopped in its tracks by the suction force released by the chains. After struggling for a while, it was ultimately forced to descend back down onto the ground.

    "Didn''t you say this team was supposed to be really strong, Goblin? They''re nothing special at all!"

    "This is what we''ve been telling you! You''re always too cautious."

    "Which one should we kill first? Let''s start off with the weakest one. I recall there was a steam robot among them, wasn''t there? Where''s he hiding?"

    "No matter where he is, there''s no way he''ll be able to get out of the array, so let''s kill all of hispanions first."

    ck Technomancer was extremely cocky, and with the array enhancing his powers, he was able to rain down attacks upon King Arthur in a relentless barrage.

    Initially, King Arthur was still able to hold his own, and he was even able to gain the upper hand with the help of his dragon steed, but the goblin log splitter entering the fray and the disruption from the psychic puppeteer, the two of them were constantly sustaining more and more injuries.

    However, that wasn''t even the most infuriating part. What was most frustrating to King Arthur was that they could only remain in one spot, thereby severely limiting their ability to dodge attacks. As soon as they tried to move, they would immediately step on goblinndmines. As a result, the situation was quickly turning against their favor.

    On the other side, Adam was also struggling immensely.

    The artificial anomaly had been possessed by Wraith, thereby granting it intelligence and heightened powers. After an extensive struggle, Adam finally kept it at bay long enough for Nie Yiyi topletely charge up her attack, but as she unleashed the attack, the anomaly''s body took on an insubstantial, wraith-like form, allowing it to dodge the lethal blow before retaliating to injure Nie Yiyi instead.

    At this point, it became clear that he could no longer turn the tables without Clown''s help.

    Meanwhile, King Arthur was also growing more and more desperate as he roared, "What are you still waiting for?"

    "Fine, you can have your wish! Come!"

    Adam split up from Mummy before beckoning to Clown.

    Clown had already been waiting for this for quite some time, and it immediately cackled as it leaped up into the air, vanishing on the spot. In the next instant, it had already fused as one with Adam, instilling his body with boundless power that was contaminated by a chaotic will.

    While Adam had attained immense power, his mind was instantly muddled. He began to make strange sounds, and he felt as if he were drunk, with both his mind and his eyesight bing rather hazy.

    "I think I heard someone just say that we''re nothing special, is that right?"

    One moment, Clown was still standing near the artificial anomaly, but in the next instant, it had already appeared right above ck Techonmancer before plunging its dagger straight at the back of its target''s neck.

    As a technomancer, ck Technomancer''s physical defenses were extremelyckluster, and he didn''t dare to withstand such an attack.

    However, he was too slow to react. Clown''s abrupt sneak attack had caught himpletely off guard, and he was only just barely able to dodge, but a massive gash was still sliced into his neck, causing him to bleed profusely.

    ck Techmancer was greatly rmed and incensed by this, and technomantic energy erupted out of its body in the form of a burst of ck light as he attempted to st Clown away, but as soon as the energy erupted out of his body, Clown vanished once again.

    This time, it appeared directly above the goblin log splitter.

    "It looks like someone really likes to y with bombs!"

    Clown stuffed three grenades into the barrels of cannons on the goblin log splitter''s back as it spoke.

 Chapter 181: 1v10

    <h4>Chapter 181: 1v10</h4>

    Three resounding explosions rang out as the exploding grenades destroyed all of the cannons on the goblin log splitter¡®s back while also blowing away all of the mechanical parts assembled onto his body.

    Goblin frantically swept his electric saws through the air to force back Clown while throwing out more bombs in retaliation.

    However, in his blind panic, he failed to recall that Clown''s forteid in its illusion and clone abilities.

    Oni no Hanzou had been a master of ninjutsu, yet during its battle against him, Clown had disyed abilities that weren''t inferior to Oni no Hanzou''s ninjutsu in the slightest. Goblin and ck Technomancer were nowhere near Oni no Hanzou''s level, so they were essentiallypletely at Clown''s mercy.

    By the time the bombs released by Goblin reached Clown, it had already transformed into an illusion, and the violent explosions were only able to tear its clone apart.

    "ytime''s over!" Clown cackled as it pulled out its gatling gun.

    At the same time, countless clones appeared all around it, and each of them also pulled out a gatling gun before firing them at Goblin in unison like an execution squad.

    With dozens of gatling guns firing at once, the bullets came flying at Goblin even denser than rain, forming a terrifying wave of metal and fire.

    Goblin was only able to withstand the assault for an instant before his defenses werepletely torn apart. He yelled frantically for help, but there was nothing anyone could do for him. The oing wave of metal tore his body to shreds, and his headnded beside his teammates.

    "I told you... not to mess with them..."

    After those final words, Goblin was forever silenced.

    His head hadnded right beside ck Technomancer, who was horrified by the sight of Goblin''s demise.

    A tierbatants didn''t possess anywhere near the same level of mental fortitude as S tierbatants did. They could use the environment to their advantage to elevate their powers to the S tier, but in high-pressure situations, they were far less mentally resolute than more powerful adapters.

    During his battle against Adam, even when Oni no Hanzou''s fate was already sealed, he was still able to perform to the best of his abilities, arguably even beyond his normal limits.

    However, the same didn''t apply to ck Technomancer as he feared death.

    Fear of death could corrupt one''s mental fortitude, thereby weakening an adapter.

    "No, I''m not going to die! As long as the array is intact, they can''t do anything to me!" ck Technomancer muttered, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

    He then withdrew all of the technomantic energy in the array to protect himself, thereby significantly lessening the pressure on King Arthur and Nie Yiyi.

    "Those who fear death will only die faster..."

    As an emotional anomaly, Clown was able to sense its opponent''s emotions, and it immediately directed all of its dozens of gatling guns at him.

    The torrential wave of bullets struck the protective barrier around ck Technomancer, which resembled ayer of dense ck mist. The surface of the barrier rippled violently in the face of the relentless assault, but it was ultimately able to keep the bullets at bay.

    "Is that all you''ve got? That was nothing!"

    ck Technomancer was encouraging himself while further bolstering the protective barrier.

    However, in the next instant, Clown and all of its clones tossed aside their gatling guns in exchange for rocketunchers.

    "Heree the fireworks!"

    Countless explosive projectiles were fired right as ck Technomancer readied his protective barrier, leaving long trails of fire in their wake.

    This time, the protective barrier was finallypletely destroyed.

    Thebined might of dozens of RPG rocketunchers had transformed the entire area into a sea of mes and explosions, which was destroying everything in its path.

    By the time the mes and dense smoke faded, ck Technomancer was revealed with his clothes in tatters.

    At this moment, he was only just barely clinging onto life.

    "If you''re dead, then die! Don''t hold on so desperately."

    Clown slowly made his way over to ck Technomancer before plunging a dagger straight into his heart.

    "You won''t get away with killing me!"

    ck Technomancer threw up a mouthful of ck blood as he unleashed his most powerful cyberhex, and he watched with vindictive glee as Clown screamed in agony while dissolving into a puddle of blood.

    However, before he had a chance to savor his final act of revenge, another knife was plunged into his back.

    "What are you smiling about? It''s all fake!"

    Another clown appeared on right, following which a dagger was also plunged into his lungs from the left.

    "Life is nothing but a game, and seeing as it''s a game, you have to be happy when you y it!"

    The final clown arrived before decapitating ck Technomancer, then sliced a grotesque smile onto his face.

    "There we go. Face your next life with a smile!"

    ¡­¡­

    Adam''s incrediblebat prowess had stunned everyone.

    All of the spectators who had thought that Adam''s team was going to be losing members in this battle had to pay the price for their ill-conceived bets.

    "I didn''t think Lean Mean Killing Machine was this strong!"

    "Damn, did you see what he did to that guy at the end? That smile he sliced onto that guy''s face sent shivers down my spine!"

    "Looking at this battle, Lean Mean Killing Machine and that ninja that he beat earlier are far more powerful than the average S tierbatant!"

    "That definitely seems to be the case. At the time, their battle was quite a visual spectacle, but neither of them had fought against any S tierbatants, so we didn''t know exactly how they were going to match up. Looks like we should''ve never doubted them!"

    "Everyone''s already ranked them in the upper mid-range of the S tier, but it looks like he should be ranked near the very top instead."

    "Speaking of the best S tierbatants, how''s Eyeless going?"

    Some of the spectators zoomed in on Eyeless''s split screen to examine his progress, and sure enough, as soon as he entered the psychic battlefield, he immediately left his teammates behind, using his tremendous telegnosis to find one of thergest supply points on the map.

    There, he had to face all of the anomalies andbatants on his own in a 1v10 battle, but he was able to make quick work of all of his opponents, ying them with ease.

    In thatrge supply point, he was able to find some exit cards, many points cards, and some skill cards, all of which he gave to his teammates with no exceptions after returning to them.

    "You can go now. This is your reward for teaming up with me."

    "Thank you."

    The most fortunate participants of this edition of the battle royale had to be Eyeless''s teammates. They were here just to make up the numbers, and after that, they were able toe out right away with a stack of points cards, bing the first group of survivors.

    "Damn, those are some lucky bastards!"

    Many of the spectators were extremely envious of what they had just seen.

    "If I had known this would happen, I would''ve joined Eyeless''s team!"

    "Apparently, all of those people have helped Eyeless in the past. His life motto is ''a drop of water in need, shall be returned with a spring in deed''."

    "That''s some easy money!"

    "It looks like Eyeless is still quite a bit more powerful than Lean Mean Killing Machine. He was able to easily win his battle, even though he was up against 10 opponents at once. Lean Mean Killing Machine''s powers are more shy, but he''s definitely weaker in substance."

    "He''s definitely near the top of the S tier, but Eyeless will always be the undisputed number one S tierbatant."

    "There''s no arguing with that, but Eyeless may not necessarily win this battle royale." A long-time fan of the battle royale was getting in on the conversation now. "He enteredst year as well, but he failed to win. He has no teammates and he refuses to use skill cards, making it far too difficult for him to win."

    "He''s even more powerful than he wasst year, so it''s hard to say."

    "That may be true, but I would still put my money on Lean Mean Killing Machine. He''s a cold-blooded bastard, and I like that!"

 Chapter 182: The Second Stage

    <h4>Chapter 182: The Second Stage</h4>

    While Clown was taking care of ck Technomancer and Goblin, it wasn''t disrupted by the psychic puppeteer as he was too busy dealing with Adam''s teammates.

    After being freed from the restrictive properties of the array, King Arthur immediately engaged the artificial anomaly in battle, while Nie Yiyi was quickly able to track down the psychic puppeteer under the protection of Mummy.

    Of course, adapters like the psychic puppeteer always hid themselves extremely well, so it was only thanks to Hook that she was able to track him down so easily. While searching for him, Nie Yiyi received directions from Hook, and sure enough, she was able to uncover his hiding spot in no time.

    The oue of that encounter was exactly as one would expect. The psychic puppeteer''sbat prowess in direct battle was even moreckluster than all of his teammates, and he was only able to dy his death for a short while by using his disruptive abilities on Nie Yiyi. Unfortunately for him, his psychic control was nowhere near powerful enough to force Nie Yiyi intomitting suicide.

    The fight was very brief, and he was quickly bound by Mummy before Nie Yiyinded the killing blow.

    Wraith could see that the battle was already lost, and he immediately relinquished control of the artificial anomaly before fleeing for his life.

    However, he wasn''t able to get very far away at all before his entire body was enveloped in the golden radiance released by King Arthur''s holy sword.

    Epassed within the holy light, his wraith-like body began to quickly melt away like an ice cube under sweltering heat, and all he could do was beg for his life while cursing his own arrogance and recklessness.

    By the time Clown arrived on the scene, all that was left was the artificial anomaly, which had been weakened after it was abandoned by Wraith and debilitated even further due to the side-effects of the technomancy cast onto it.

    As a result, it was only a shadow of its former self, and it was promptly dealt with by Clown.

    With that, the battle finally drew to a conclusion.

    Even though the battle was over, Adam''s bloodlust was only continuing to elevate. He turned to King Arthur with his bloodshot eyes, and he was almost ovee by the urge to attack.

    Thankfully, he was able to hold onto his final shred of sanity. He felt drunk, but notpletely drunk, and while he could still think rationally, he hurriedly split up from Clown before withdrawing it back into his body.

    "Fuck, that was hard."

    After withdrawing Clown, Adam was doubled over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily as the dizziness and bloodlust in his head gradually faded. Meanwhile, all of his teammates gathered around him.

    "Fuse back with Mummy. There are stillndmines around, so you still have to be careful."

    Adam nodded in response. Even though thendmines were formed by Goblin''s psychic power, which meant that they should disappear over time, he had only just perished, and his psychic stamp would linger for some time. In Adam''s base form, if he were to step onto one of thosendmines, it would not have been a pretty sight.

    Thus, Adam fused back together with Mummy, then instructed his teammates to begin searching for resources.

    Without the concealment of ck Technomancer''s illusion, everything was revealed to them.

    Adam searched through the copsed buildings for a while, then looted the bodies of Goblin and his teammates, finding many cards in the process.

    By the time everyone finished scouring through the battlefield and gathered back together again, they discovered that there were far more cards than they had expected to get from one supply point.

    "I don''t think a single supply point would generate so many cards. There are even two skill cards here, one for low-level treatment and one for weakening a target''s offensive prowess," Adam remarked as he examined the pair of skill cards.

    These two skill cards were called "Director''s Cyberhex" and "Director''s Counter-cyberhex". Virtually all of the skill cards were named one or the other.

    The Director''s Cyberhex cards bore the image of the director wearing a ck robe, while the Director''s Counter-cyberhex cards bore the same visage except in a white robe.

    The most important information on them were the text descriptions stating what the cards did.

    The white card was one that could slowly heal a target''s injuries over time, while the ck card could inflict a sense of feebleness upon a target, thereby weakening their offensive prowess.

    "Let me use the healing card."

    King Arthur pointed at his dragon, which had sustained the most severe injuries during the recently concluded battle.

    It had been bombed, impaled by a saw, and crashed down from a high altitude, suffering both deep wounds and broken bones in the process.

    The healing card only granted slow healing, so it wasn''t going to be very useful in battle. After inspecting the dragon''s injuries, Adam made no objections and tossed the card at King Arthur, while the other card was given to Hook yet again.

    Hook already had a debilitation card, and the descriptions of the two cards were slightly different, but their effects werergely the same.

    "You''re very good at hiding in battle, and because you don''t possess muchbat prowess, very few people will focus on you. If we get into a difficult battle, you can use these cards on our enemies at your discretion, making sure to target the powerfulbatants on the enemy teams."

    "Got it."

    Hook epted the card without any unnecessary chatter,pletely going against his normal chatterbox tendencies.

    Aside from those two skill cards, the team had also obtained many points cards. Judging from the number of points cards there were, they seemed to havee from more than just a single supply point.

    "They already ambushed a team before us, so these extra cards most likely belonged to the team that came before us," King Arthur analyzed while treating his dragon steed''s wounds. "While scouring the battlefield just now, I noticed some massive footprints. If I''m not mistaken, those footprints most likely belonged to Midget."

    "Does that mean he''s dead?"

    "It looks like it. The footprints didn''t lead out of the supply point."

    "That''s a real pity. I met him a few days ago, and he even invited me to dine with him, even though I didn''t eat anything."

    "Everyone makes their own choices. Did you go see him because you wanted to recruit him onto your team?" King Arthur asked. "If he hadn''t turned you down, he''d probably still be alive right now. Having said that, it''s not like his death is all that tragic. He always enjoyed himself to the fullest, reveling in money and women, so he''s lived a good life. On top of that, he has no vendetta against anyone, and I don''t think he has any unfulfilled wishes, so he wouldn''t have died with too many regrets."

    Arthur heaved a faint sigh as a distracted look appeared in his eyes, looking as if he were thinking about his own past or some unresolved regrets that he had.

    Adam was also a little moved upon hearing this.

    I can''t afford to die here! At the very least, I have to find out all of the secrets of my past before I die! qhewithewoihtoiewhtoiehetoiewqhtoiewqht

    All of a sudden, the sound of a siren suddenly rang out in the sky.

    The sound was extremely loud and prative, almost like an air raid siren, and it wasing directly from the sky.

    "The director is about to enter the battlefield, which means that the zone is about to appear!"

    Sure enough, right as King Arthur made this deration, a green barrier appeared in the distant sky, and it was slowly converging and closing in from all directions.

    As the barrier appeared, the roars of countless anomalies also rang out, as if their powers had been enhanced by this turn of events.

    Simrly, with the emergence of the green barrier, the sky also gradually darkened, and the battle royale entered its second stage.

 Chapter 183: Benefitting from Chaos

    <h4>Chapter 183: Benefitting from Chaos</h4>

    The battle royale originated from a popr inte game from a century ago. Of course, there were some differences, but the rules were very simr.

    Plundering resources was only the first stage. Once the siren rang out in the sky, the director would descend onto the battlefield in person.

    The director was going to do two things after entering the battlezone, the first of which was to implement the zone. The zone was essentially arge-scale cyberhex ability. He was going to nt cyberhexes around the area that all of the participants were in, and anyone who left the boundaries of the green barrier or lingered near it and refused to leave would be afflicted by those cyberhexes, which would slowly torture them to death.

    In addition to that, he was also going to cast counter-cyberhexes onto all of the artificial anomalies on the map, making them even more powerful and violent so that the internalpetition would be more fierce.

    "The barrier is closest to us up ahead, which means that as it continues to shrink, the safest area should be behind us. Let''s go in that direction."

    With the zone acting as apass, there was no need for Hook to point out which way to go next.

    Thus, the team set off in the direction opposite to where the barrier was, and due to the fact that all of the surviving battle royale participants were traveling in the same direction, the likelihood of teams running into one another became far higher.

    Around 10 minutester, Adam''s team arrived at a supply point, but there were already three other teams gathered there.

    "There are three teams already there, but they haven''t started fighting yet. It seems like they''re still in the process of negotiation. Should we step in as well?" Hook asked as he peered through his telescope. "That cluster of buildings is prettyrge, so there should be quite a bit of resources in there."

    "Of course, why wouldn''t we go in? The more chaotic the situation, the more opportunities there are. Even if we avoid everyone now, we''ll eventually have to face them anyway."

    Following the recently concluded battle, Adam''s confidence had been bolstered.

    Even in a situation where they had been ambushed, they were still able to ultimately crush their opponents. This situation clearly wasn''t as perilous, and it was quite apparent that those three teams had no intention of working together, so it was a far more forgiving scenario.

    "I agree," King Arthur said. "We''re not going to get anything done if all we do is avoid everyone."

    "Alright. In that case, I''ll stay here while you guys go in so you don''t have to look out for me."

    Hook knew that he was only going to weigh his teammates down in a four-way standoff against the three other teams.

    With that, the decision was made, and Adam''s trio began to make their way toward the cluster of buildings in the distance.

    King Arthur''s massive dragon quickly attracted everyone''s attention, so the other three teams were already prepared by the time they arrived.

    Even before Adam had reached the supply point, he heard a seductive female voice.

    "Well, well, well, if it isn''t Lean Mean Killing Machine and King Arthur!"

    The woman''s voice was a little pretentious, but it wasn''t distasteful.

    Adam had a feeling that her voice carried certain enchanting properties that made all listeners develop a sense of fondness toward her.

    Adam turned to the direction where the voice hade from, and he was momentarily entranced by the sight of a gorgeous woman with a serpentine lower body.

    This was undoubtedly Medusa, one of the adapters that Hook had ranked in the top half of the S tier.

    She was locked in a standoff against the other two teams with a trio of adapters that Adam had never seen before.

    There were also some familiar figures among the other two teams, namely the four mecha brothers. They were standing together with another team, and it was clear that they had formed some type of alliance.

    "Hey, we meet again." Adam ignored Medusa as he greeted the four mecha brothers instead. "What a coincidence."

    "We spawned in the same direction, so it''s no surprise that we would alle here after the zone appeared." The four mecha brothers turned to Adam in unison. "I think you''re a pretty good guy, Lean Mean Killing Machine. How about it? Do you want to team up with us against that snake?"

    "I wouldn''t get your hopes up there. In the past editions of the battle royale, it''s always been the most powerful participants teaming up together to kick out the weaker participants first. Doesn''t that sound far more reasonable, Mr. Killing Machine?"

    Medusa turned to Adam as she gave him a seductive look.

    "Also, I recall that we''ve met once before. As you know, I''m just like Midget in that I have no intention of fighting to win the battle royale. I''m fine with anything as long as I get my exit cards and points cards. Also, I can guarantee you that if you team up with me, I''ll only take the points cards and exit cards and leave all of the other resources to you. What do you think?"

    Adam had indeed met Medusa once before during his recruitment for teammates.

    He had approached Medusa after Midget, but both of them had turned down his offer at the time.

    Even though Medusa was far more formidable in battle than Midget, she still had no desire to try and win the battle royale. All she wanted was to earn money, and she tried to avoidplications at all costs.

    Her response at the time was that joining Adam''s team would inevitably pit her against Oni no Miko and her team, thereby significantly increasing the amount of risk she would have to incur, and that was why she had turned down Adam''s offer.

    After some consideration, Adam epted her proposal.

    "Alright, let''s get rid of everyone else first."

    "I knew you''d make the right decision!"

    As soon as Medusa''s voice trailed off, she immediately used her petrification technomancy on the four mecha brothers.

    Her serpentine body and her petrification technomancy were the reasons why she had been given the nickname of Medusa.

    As soon as Adam agreed to her proposal, she immediatelyshed out, both as a surprise attack and also to not give Adam any time to go back on his decision.

    As she turned toward the four mecha brothers, her beautiful facial features suddenly took on a terrifying and twisted appearance, following which she opened her mouth to reveal her sharp fangs and let loose a sharp screen.

    The waves of energy released by her screech immediately swept toward the four mecha brothers and the other team.

    "Don''t let yourself get hit by that energy!" the four mecha brothers cautioned as they raised metal shields to protect themselves.

    The shields instantly turned to stone upon contact with the waves of energy, then crumbled away into piles of rocks.

    However, they were able to take advantage of this opportunity to flee toward the supply point.

    Unfortunately for one of the members of the other team, he severely underestimated Medusa''s powers. He was a technomancer, and he conjured up a technomantic shield to try and ward off the waves of energy, but theypletely ignored his technomantic shield, bypassing it in an instant to turn the technomancer into stone. With that, the first casualty of the battle arose.

    As for the other three members of the team, they were able to use various pieces of protective equipment to ward off the attack, then followed the four mecha brothers as they also rushed toward the supply point.

    In the instant that Adam chose to team up with Medusa, they knew that the battle was already lost.

    The two teams had clearly formed an alliance as they were wary of Medusa''s powers. With two teams against one, they were confident that they would''ve at least been able to hold their own, but Adam''s intervention hadpletely tipped the scales.

    This was a massive supply point that resembled a small town, so there had to be quite a few anomalies in there.

    Given that the zone had already taken shape, thebat prowess of the artificial anomalies had also been drastically elevated, so their only chance for survival was to rush into the supply point and hope that the artificial anomalies would be able to hold off Adam and Medusa.

 Chapter 184: Snake Team

    <h4>Chapter 184: Snake Team</h4>

    "Should we go in as well?"

    Medusa didn''t give chase right away. Instead, she turned to Adam, and it was clear that she was quite wary of him, so she didn''t want to pursue the others recklessly.

    In the battle royale, one had no friends aside from their teammates.

    Adam was the powerful adapter here, and she was afraid of being backstabbed by him.

    "Of course. Otherwise, why did wee to this supply point?" Adam could tell what she was thinking, and in order to put her at ease, he suggested, "Let''s go in together."

    "Sounds good! Communicating with smart people really makes things a lot easier," Medusa praised, then opened up some distance between herself and Adam before entering the supply point.

    Adam allowed her to enter first, then slowly followed along.

    This supply point waspletely different from the ones that Adam had encountered before. Those supply points only had several dozen buildings at most, but this one had several hundred, and there were all types of different buildings, giving the ce the appearance of a run-down small town from 100 years ago.

    Not only was there arge number of buildings in this supply point, it also took up a massive area, and Adam had already lost sight of the four mecha brothers.

    After entering the supply, the four mecha brothers had immediately separated themselves so that they were able to hide more discretely among the buildings.

    However, that wasn''t going to be enough to stump Medusa. She had already participated in the battle royale on three previous asions, and not only had she managed to survive each one, she had always been able to kill the people that she wanted to kill.

    "Rattlesnake, find our opponents."

    "Yes, Mistress."

    It was unclear which organization Medusa and her teammates came from, but all of their psychic bodies were rted to snakes, and they also referred to one another in rather strange ways.

    Rattlesnake was a half-human, half-serpentine creature, and she raised her tail as she spoke, shaking it in a brisk back-and-forth motion to create a rattling sound. This ability seemed to be able to release some type of soundwave that spread through the area before reciprocating back to her, allowing her to receive certain signals that the average person wasn''t receptive to.

    "They''re hiding in a building in that direction."

    "Are they not searching for resources?"

    "No. Perhaps they''re worried that they''ll alert the anomalies in the area if they begin searching for resources. If that happens, they''ll be in big trouble, but what they don''t know is that they''re in trouble anyway," Rattlesnake chuckled. "This is my first time participating in a battle royale, so those idiots don''t know about my abilities."

    "Should we take them all down at once, Mr. Lean Mean Killing Machine?"

    "Sure."

    Perhaps it was due to Raven''s influence, or perhaps he had simply grown ustomed to the nature of the game, but Adam was bing more and more decisive about killing.

    In any case, the battle royale was full of enemies, and very few people could survive to the end.

    With that in mind, Adam followed Rattlesnake to a theater.

    An old promotional poster from over 100 years ago was stered to the outside of the theater, and the poster was promoting an eastern kung fu film. The stars of the film were wearing activewear on the poster, and they were rather familiar to Adam.

    So those kinds of films really were popr in that era...

    In this day and age, there was no audience for action films anymore. After all, watching battles in the psychic world was far more thrilling than watching action movies.

    "They''re hiding in there?"

    "That''s right!" Rattlesnake replied with a smile, then turned to Medusa. "Mistress, I''m ready when you are."

    "Let''s begin!"

    Medusa slithered into the dark theater right away, and as soon as she did so, some type of mechanism that had been set up in advance was immediately triggered, alerting the people inside to her arrival.

    "So be it, looks like we don''t have to sneak around anymore. Let''s go all-out and end this as quickly as possible!"

    Medusa let loose a high-pitched shriek that shattered all of the surrounding panels of ss, and the wallpaper also began to peel away.

    "If you want a fight, then a fight is what you''ll get!"

    The four mecha brothers fused back together to form a giant mecha.

    Thankfully, the ceiling of the theater was over 10 meters tall. Otherwise, there was no way that it would''ve been able to contain the enormous mecha.

    After fusing as one, the four mecha brothers raised their weapons and began firing them at Medusa.

    As an adapter who ranked in the top half of the S tier, not only did Medusa possess extremely impressive offensive prowess, she had no weaknesses in the defensive department, either. With a wave of her hand, the entire ground in front of her was raised to form a stone wall that blocked all of the oing bullets.

    "Your bullets are way less powerful than Clown''s!"

    The offensive prowess of a psychic body was directly rted to the power of the psychic body itself. Cowboy was a perfect example of this, and he was able to st buildings apart with his revolvers.

    However, offensive prowess wasn''t just rted to the absolute power of a psychic body. In addition to that, there were also other factors like the power of the psychic body''s abilities and the amount of psychic power expended.

    "Is that right? Then why don''t you have a taste of this!"

    Seeing as their guns were proving to bergely ineffective, the mecha opened its mouth to reveal a cannon before firing off an energy st.

    The energy st was extremely pratively, and it passed directly through the stone wall with a resounding boom before sting a crater that was three to four meters deep onto the spot where Medusa was standing.

    However, Medusa herself was already nowhere to be seen.

    "Whatcha lookin'' at, big boy?"

    While the four mecha brothers were frantically searching for her, her voice suddenly rang out from the ceiling. The giant mecha immediately looked up to find that Medusa had already slithered onto the ceiling and was hanging upside-down from there.

    In the instant that the four mecha brothers raised their heads, they were suddenly struck by a sense of foreboding. Sure enough, Medusa''s face immediately took on a twisted and horrifying appearance, and she let loose another sharp screech, one that was unavoidable for the four mecha brothers in such close proximity.

    "Don''t use the energy shields! Sacrifice some modules instead!"

    The four mecha brothers knew Medusa quite well, so they were aware that her petrification ability was the most annoying weapon in her arsenal. The attack couldn''t be kept at bay using energy-based defensive measures, and if one were to withstand the attack with their physical body, they would be turned to stone unless their defenses were so tremendous that they surpassed Medusa''s offensive limits.

    The best way to deal with this attack was to sacrifice some modules to ward off the attack.

    With that in mind, the four mecha brothers reacted very quickly, releasing two metals out of the giant mecha''s chest before the waves of petrifying energy arrived. Electric currents were surging over the pair of metals to prevent the waves of energy from passing through.

    In the end, the two metals bore the brunt of the damage, and the trace amounts of energy that snuck through only petrified the outermostyer of a small section of the giant mecha''s body, so the effects were quite minor.

    "She''s too damn agile! We''re at a disadvantage fighting her indoors like this!"

    "What the fuck are we waiting for then? We have to st off!"

    The four mecha brothers had a telepathic connection, so they were able to instantlymunicate their ideas with one another.

    Right after warding off the petrification attack, the giant mecha immediately sprang up, sting out a jet of fire like a rocket as it crashed through the roof of the theater before flying into the sky.

    "Prepare the high-explosive cannon!"

    "Nowmencing power umtion... 3... 2... 1... Fire!"

    A loud bang rang out as an enormous ball of energy flew out of the mecha''s arm, descending into the hole in the roof that they had just flown out from before exploding inside the theater.

 Chapter 185: Six

    <h4>Chapter 185: Six</h4>

    That snake is a real bitch!

    That was the conclusion that Nie Yiyi arrived at as soon as they entered the fray.

    By the time they rushed into the theater, the battle had already begun, and not long after their arrival, Medusa''s petrification attack swept through the entire theater. Her teammates had already received some type of signal in advance, so they were able to avoid the attack, but Adam and his teammates were struck head-on by the waves of petrifying energy.

    Thankfully, Adam was able to shield everyone with his own body just in the nick of time, but the King Arthur''s shoulder and the tail of his dragon steed were still caught by the energy waves.

    Only after withstanding the petrification attack did Adame to realize just how fearsome an ability it was.

    The entirety of his back was turned to stone, and it was only thanks to Mummy''s tremendous physical resistance that he wasn''t killed on the spot.

    Even so, this was still the most amount of damage that Mummy had sustained from a single attack since it became a level three anomaly.

    Its bandages had been turned to stone, as had the skin and flesh on its back. As soon as Adam tried to move, his back immediately fell away like dry ster, revealing his spinal column and shoulder des.

    As expected of a top-level S tierbatant...

    Even Oni no Hanzou had struggled to match this level of offensive output.

    During Adam''s match against Oni no Hanzou, he had only been wounded so severely after taking many attacks from Oni no Hanzou''s katana.

    "Avoid getting struck by her petrification attack at all costs!" Adam warned.

    He was able to withstand the attack, but he had very little confidence that his teammates would''ve also been able to do the same.

    "These tables and chairs can all ward off her petrification ability."

    King Arthur had previously faced Medusa in the arena, so he was familiar with all of her offensive abilities.

    He was just about to disassemble the tables ahead of them to form a fortress, but at this point, the mecha had already flown up into the sky. Adam was struck by a sense of foreboding, and he hurriedly urged his teammates to exit the theater.

    Sure enough, they had only just rushed out of the theater before an energy st exploded inside.

    Adam had previously witnessed the power of the giant mecha, but he had never experienced it for himself. Not only was the energy st able to blow up the entire theater, the resulting shockwaves were so powerful that everyone was sent flying.

    During battles of this caliber, the role that Nie Yiyi could y was extremely limited. If she weren''t constantly under Adam''s protection, she would''ve already died twice at this point.

    "Are you alright?"

    Adam mbered up from the rubble on the street before looking down at Nie Yiyi, who he had just shielded once again with his body.

    "I''m fine. You shielded me from most of the impact, so I only broke some ribs." Nie Yiyi was very annoyed by the fact that she was such a liability on the battlefield. "Don''t worry about me. The bandages on your back are already gone, so we won''t be able to fuse together anymore. I''ll stay away from the main battlefield and see if I can pick off some of the weaker enemies."

    Adam nodded in response, epting this arrangement.

    Nie Yiyi didn''t linger any longer and vanished on the spot as a gust of wind.

    Adam turned back to the main battlefield, and he was certain that such a massivemotion would''ve already alerted all of the artificial adapters lurking in the supply point.

    Adam had no idea just how powerful the artificial anomalies had be under the enhancements provided by the adapter, so as a safety precaution, he chose to remain on the spot rather than rushing in recklessly.

    Sure enough, it didn''t take long for the first anomaly to appear. While the giant mecha was still sting away with its weapons, a bat anomaly suddenly appeared in the sky. It wasn''t particrlyrge, but was extremely fast, and with a sh of red light, a module was severed from the giant mecha.

    "What the hell is that?"

    After iming aerial supremacy, the mecha had gained somewhat of an upper hand against Medusa, but the arrival of the bat anomaly immediately forced the four mecha brothers to switch targets.

    "We have to get rid of this thing first. Its attacks are too strong. If we ignore it, we''ll get taken apart in no time!"

    The bat anomaly wasn''t the only one that had been attracted to the scene.

    By the time Adam rushed back to the edge of the rubble, two exceptionally fast terrestrial anomalies had already arrived, and there were still more toe.

    The first two anomalies to arrive possessed bodies that were as thin and wiry as stick insects, and they were extraordinarily fast. The anomalies behind them were slower, but the slower they were, the more massive they were. The final one resembled a truck, with ayer of sticky substance over its musclebound body. It was clear just from a single nce that this was an anomaly that possessed exceptional strength and defenses.

    "How do we do this?"

    As soon as Adam arrived, Medusa immediately slithered over to him.

    "There are a total of six artificial anomalies in this supply point. ording to my past experience, there''s definitely no way that a single team would be able to beat so many anomalies!"

    "Don''t these artificial anomalies fight each other as well?"

    "They do before the director arrives, but not after. Why are there so many of them? In the past editions of the battle royale, there would''ve only been three or four anomalies in a supply point of this size." Medusa was beginning to regret her decision. "Even with our two teamsbined, it''ll be very difficult to take on so many anomalies at once."

    "Are they that strong?"

    "They''re extremely strong!"

    As soon as Medusa''s voice trailed off, the mountainous anomaly at the very rear of the pack picked up an old car from the side of the street before hurling it through the air.

    With its enormous strength, it was able tounch the car with the speed of a cannonball.

    Allws of physics in the psychic world matched those of the real world, so that car had to have weighed at least one or two tons. However, it had been thrown like a pebble by the hulking anomaly, and it struck the giant mecha, knocking it straight out of the sky.

    The four mecha brothers were already having a great deal of trouble warding off the bat anomaly''s attacks, and they werepletely caught off guard by the flying car. Topound their woes even further, after falling out of the sky, theynded right in between the six anomalies.

    "Fuck, it looks like this might be the end of the road."

    Six enhanced artificial anomalies were equivalent to six S tierbatants, and that was far too much for the four mecha brothers to deal with.

    "This is bullshit! We attracted all of the anomalies just because we''re the biggest target!"

    "This is way too unfair!"

    It was indeed unfair.

    Even after being enhanced, the anomalies still possessed no intelligence. They were like wild beasts that were governed only by their most primal killing instincts. The mecha was the one that had caused all of those explosions, and it was far bigger than everyone else, so it immediately attracted the attention of all of the anomalies. The anomalies hadn''t actively chosen to gang up on it. Instead, they were merely acting on instinct.

    "Fuck it, there''s no going back now!"

    The four mecha brothers were no cowards, and they only allowed themselves to wallow in frustration and despair for a moment before focusing their efforts on making one final stand.

    The giant mecha began firing all of its weapons as quickly as it could as the four mecha brothers retaliated like a pack of cornered beasts.

    They were fighting for their lives, so they weren''t considering their psychic power expenditure at all. All they wanted was to create an opening for themselves to escape through.

    The four mecha brothers hadn''t given up hope. They used their firepower to force back the anomalies, then sted off at full speed in the direction where the encirclement of anomalies was at its most vulnerable.

 Chapter 186: Battle Smarts

    <h4>Chapter 186: Battle Smarts</h4>

    There was only a single anomaly in the direction that the four mecha brothers had chosen, and it was only of those wiry anomalies that excelled in speed.

    They knew that these speed-type anomalies generally possessedckluster defenses, making them less formidable in direct battle than anomalies that excelled in strength, thereby making it the perfect weak link to target.

    Sure enough, the anomaly reflexively took evasive measures in the face of the giant mecha''s firepower output, and the four mecha brothers were able to rush through the first defensive line.

    However, the mecha wasn''t able to get very far before the anomaly set off in pursuit. Speed-type anomalies weren''t great in direct battle, but their ability to pursue targets was unmatched, and it was able to quickly catch up to the giant mecha before striking at one of its ankles, causing it to "bleed" trail or parts and some type of engine-oil-like liquid.

    "We need to help him."

    "What?"

    "I said, we need to help him."

    Medusa reacted very quickly to the situation. As an extremely self-centered individual, she was able to make choices that benefitted her extremely quickly.

    Back when she and Adam''s teams had held the upper hand, she had intentionally used her petrification attack to disrupt Adam, but now that her opponents were in a dire situation, she wanted to restore parity to the battlefield.

    "If they die, we''ll have a lot of trouble dealing with six anomalies on our own. The fact that there are so many anomalies here indicates that there must be high-level cards in this supply point. If you want those cards, then you have to help him. If you don''t want those cards, then getting away now would be our best option. What do you think?"

    In the face of this turn of events, Medusa was even asking for Adam''s input as a gesture of respect.

    Of course, it seemed like she was giving him a choice, but she knew that Adam wasn''t going to choose the second option. He wanted to win the battle royale, so there was no way that he would pass up high-level cards.

    "Let''s do it!"

    "That''s the spirit!"

    After receiving Adam''s answer, Medusa immediately slithered toward the anomaly that was pursuing the four mecha brothers before unleashing her petrification ability. However, the anomaly vanished on the spot to avoid the attack, putting its incredible speed on full disy.

    Even so, she had still managed to chase the anomaly away and grant the four mecha brothers some respite.

    "She''se to save us!"

    "She''s not doing this for us, she''s only helping us because the anomalies are too strong for her to deal with! Don''t expect us to thank you!"

    "I''m not asking for gratitude. We''re all in this for our objectives. Helping you benefits me right now, so why wouldn''t I help you?" Medusa replied. "How about we work together? If you try to get away on your own, you''re not going to get very far. Let''s get rid of these anomalies first!"

    "Once the anomalies are dead, you''ll immediately turn on us! Unless you can..."

    The four mecha brothers were no idiots, and they were just about to try and negotiate some terms when they were attacked by another anomaly, giving them no time for negotiation.

    In this situation, they had no choice but to fight.

    .

    They could still die even after beating all of the anomalies, but if they didn''t fight, then they were definitely going to die.

    Now that the mecha was facing one of the anomalies in a direct battle, Adam was finally able to gauge just how powerful these anomalies were.

    The mecha was currently facing a strength-type anomaly, which was only around half the mecha''s height, but itpletely dominated the mecha in the strength department. After a couple of exchanges, the anomaly swelled even further in size, and it grabbed the mecha before sending it flying like a hammer throw, putting on a formidable disy of power.

    These things are definitely way more powerful than before!

    Prior to the director''s arrival, these anomalies had only possessed power that would''ve ranked them near the bottom of the S tier. Furthermore, due to theirck of intelligence, they had no strategy or guile, so they were generally inferior to all S tierbatants in a practical battle setting.

    However, the powers of these anomalies had been elevated to the upper mid-range of the S tier, and even though they had very few abilities and still didn''t know how to work effectively with each other, theirbat prowess had been elevated by more than twofold.

    Damn, taking on six of them at once really is a pain in the ass!

    Adam rushed into battle against one of the bulkier anomalies, but after taking just a few blows from the anomaly, he felt as if his bones were about to be shattered. Meanwhile, Medusa was also struggling against the speed-type anomaly that she was up against. The anomaly was even faster than her, and she waspletely unable to keep up with its speed.

    "You should go after that big guy over there!" Adam immediately yelled upon noticing this.

    Medusa was an adapter whose fortes were her speed and abilities, and she was unable to make use of her strengths against opponents who were faster than her. However, thebination of her impressive speed and destructive abilities made her the perfect counter to tank-type opponents.

    Her petrification ability was virtually tailor-made for slow yet powerful opponents with high physical resistance.

    "Good idea!"

    Medusa was also quite an intelligent person, and she immediately understood why Adam had raised such a proposal. Thus, after disengaging herself from her battle against the speed-type anomaly, she immediately slithered toward the bulkiest of the six anomalies.

    At this moment, the anomaly was being attacked by her three teammates, but no matter what attacks they used, they were unable to break through its defenses. As soon as Medusa arrived on the scene, she immediately instructed her teammates to back away so that she could face the anomaly without fear of harming her teammates as coteral damage.

    "Look over here, big guy!"

    A sharp screech erupted out of Medusa''s mouth as her face took on a terrifying appearance. The anomaly had only just turned around to face Medusa when its body was already beginning to stiffen. As the petrifying energy waves swept over the anomaly, its mountainous body quickly began to turn to stone.

    Before long, a massive anomaly stone statue had appeared on the battlefield.

    "Way to go, Mistress!" Medusa''s teammates immediately praised, but before they had a chance to celebrate, the stone statue suddenly began to tremble before cracking open.

    Large bs of stone came crashing down onto the ground, following which the giant anomaly erupted out from within the statue before pouncing at Medusa.

    Looks like one hit isn''t enough.

    With her superior speed, Medusa was able to dodge the anomaly''s attack before opening up some distance between them.

    After emerging from the stone statue, the anomaly had shrunk down significantly, and a significant portion of theyer of sticky substance over its skin had also been stripped away. In addition to that, all of the protruding parts of its body, such as its bone spikes and the horns on its head, had all vanished as well.

    If the anomaly had weighed 10 tons prior to this, then it would''ve only weighed around seven to eight tons now. This was a significant reduction in size, and it was clear that it was very susceptible to Medusa''s petrification attack.

    It seems like I really am best suited to tackling opponents like this. It''s quite impressive that he was able to make such a good split-second decision after only just learning about my ability. Looks like he''s got some decent battle smarts!?Medusa thought to herself as she turned her attention to Adam, who was still acting as a punching bag.

    In a chaotic battle, it was extremely difficult for one to remain calm.

    Hindsight was always 20/20, and everyone could be a genius in retrospect. Medusa naturally had a better understanding of her own abilities than anyone else, but in the heat of battle, even she had failed to recognize what her best role was. She had always regarded herself as shrewd and intelligent, but with just a simple suggestion, Adam had disyed superior battle smarts and presence of mind.

    Looks like I''ll have to reevaluate him!

    Medusa turned around and unleashed her petrification attack at the giant anomaly again.

    Even though these anomalies possessed no intelligence, what they did have were battle instincts.

    Having already fallen prey to that attack once, the giant anomaly didn''t dare to withstand it again. It immediately picked up a bus that it ced in front of itself as a shield, and the bus was instantly turned to stone, but the crisis was also averted.

    As the bus crumbled away into chunks of stone, the anomaly alsomenced its retaliation.

    It stomped a massive foot forcefully onto the ground, and the power of its stomp was enhanced by its abilities, causing the entire supply point to tremble and quake violently.

    Countless cracks began to appear on the ground while shockwaves swept through the area, picking up rocks and chunks of earth that were hurled at Medusa and everyone else nearby.

 Chapter 187: Point-blank Attack

    <h4>Chapter 187: Point-nk Attack</h4>

    This was arge-scale ability, and it was very much fitting for such a massive, hulking powerhouse of an anomaly.

    If it weren''t for Medusa''s presence on the battlefield, this would''ve been an extremely difficult anomaly to deal with.

    With its tremendous physical resistance, it was a very tall order just to breach its defenses, and even if one could aplish that, they would''ve definitely had to expend a great deal of psychic power to achieve such a feat.

    Even if Adam were to fuse as one with Clown again, he would''ve had some trouble killing such a massive anomaly, and if the four mecha brothers wanted to bring it down, then they would''ve had to empty the magazines on all of their weapons into the anomaly several times over.

    This almighty stomp from the giant anomaly sent everyone flying, and Adam was panting heavily as he tumbled through the air. He was facing an anomaly with incredible offensive prowess, and after withstanding a string of consecutive blows from his opponent, his body was already riddled with indentations like a steel board that had been struck repeatedly by a sledgehammer.

    Hence, being flung up into the air was actually a blessing for him as it allowed him some respite.

    However, not everyone was so lucky. Just like everyone else, Rattlesnake had also been hurled up into the air, and before she even realized what was happening, the bat anomaly had already flown past her as a streak of red light, inflicting a gruesome gash onto her chest and abdomen that immediately began to bleed profusely.

    "Help!"

    Rattlesnake possessed no flight ability, so she was essentially a sitting duck while in mid-air. Thus, she could only cry out for help as she looked on helplessly while the bat anomaly circled around and flew toward her again.

    However, her teammates were too far away to save her.

    Right as it appeared that she was about to be sliced into two, a de suddenly shed through the air to parry away the bat anomaly''s attack. At the same time, she was picked up by a strong yet gentle gust of wind that set her back down onto the ground.

    As soon as shended, she immediately caught sight of Nie Yiyi.

    "Thank you so much! If it isn''t for you, I would be dead..."

    There was no real reason to thank anyone in the battle royale as everyone was acting solely for their own benefit, but Rattlesnake still couldn''t suppress her feelings of gratitude after such a close brush with death.

    However, before she had a chance to say anything else, she immediately erupted into a violent coughing fit, and blood began to gush out of her throat and abdomen.

    "Save your energy. I''ll protect you for now."

    Nie Yiyi stood in front of Rattlesnake as she shed her des through the air, and her ability to manipte wind was a perfect counter to the bat anomaly. Even though she wasn''t able to harm it, it was a simple matter for her to blow it away over and over again.

    At this point, Medusa finally arrived, and she tossed a card at Rattlesnake. The card seemed to be an intermediate healing card, and its effects were clearly different from that of the elementary healing card that Adam''s team had obtained. As soon as the card was activated, the horrific gash on Rattlesnake''s body quickly began to heal at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eyes, and it only took no more than two minutes before she was able to rejoin the battle.

    "I owe you one."

    Medusa patted Nie Yiyi on the shoulder before slithering away.

    The close call suffered by Rattlesnake had truly infuriated Medusa, and she didn''t hold back any longer as she slithered right up to the giant anomaly, taking a significant risk in the process.

    After dodging an attack from the anomaly with her superior speed, she slithered her way onto its body, coiling her tail around the anomaly''s neck while looking directly into its eyes.

    "Eat this!"

    After getting into position, Medusa unleashed her petrification attack from point-nk range.

    As a result of their close proximity, the anomaly began to turn to stone at a rate that was more than 10 times faster than before. In the face of the first petrification attack, it was as if the anomaly had been thrown into a freezer to gradually freeze overnight, but in contrast, it was essentially being snap frozen now.

    In the blink of an eye, the anomaly''s body waspletely turned to stone, and with a forceful swat from Medusa''s serpentine tail, the massive stone statuepletely crumbled away into giant stone bs.

    With that, the first anomaly was taken care of.

    Medusa heaved a sigh of relief as she turned to inspect the rest of the battlefield.

    She had just taken down the first anomaly, but the situation was not looking good for everyone else.

    There were still five anomalies left, and Adam and King Arthur were upying one each, but neither of them was a match for their opponents. In particr, Adam was being beaten into a pulp, and he was only surviving thanks to his robust defenses.

    After fusing as one with Mummy, Adam''s overall power was only just barely at the S tier, and he was mediocre in all departments aside from defense.

    At the moment, these enhanced artificial anomalies were all equivalent to upper mid-level S tierbatants, and not only was he no match for such an opponent in a one-on-one setting, even King Arthur and his dragon were being dominated.

    However, their lives weren''t under any real threat at the moment, but the same couldn''t be said for Nie Yiyi.

    The two other members of Medusa''s team had already gathered around Nie Yiyi, and the three of them had joined forces to protect the healing Rattlesnake. At the moment, they were facing two opponents, with an extremely fast speed-type anomaly joining the bat anomaly, and they were only just barely able to hold on.

    The only ones who were in a decent situation were the four mecha brothers, who were facing only a single anomaly in a rather even contest.

    Now that Medusa had taken care of her opponent, she naturally chose to help her teammates over everyone else.

    "How are you doing?"

    "I''m just about healed up," Rattlesnake replied.

    "Where''s the other team?"

    Initially, there were four teams: Medusa''s team, Adam''s team, the four mecha brothers, and another team.

    "They ran away." It was Nie Yiyi who replied this time. "I saw her running away earlier, and I chased after her for a while, but she was still able to get away."

    That team was iplete to begin with, having lost one of its members before they had even arrived here.

    Another one of them was killed by Medusa''s petrification attack outside the supply point, so by the time they entered this area, there were only two of them left.

    They weren''t as bulky as the four mecha brothers in theirbined form, so it wasn''t that difficult for them to escape during the chaos.

    Of course, the main reason they had chosen to flee was that they weren''t going to benefit at all from staying here. Their team was by far the weakest of the four, so even if all of the anomalies were eradicated, they weren''t going to receive any cards. Instead, the only thing that awaited them was death.

    Hence, there was aplete mismatch in risk versus reward, and it only made sense for them to run away.

    "Did both of them get away?"

    "Only one of them got away," Nie Yiyi replied. "The other one was either struck by your petrification attack or was injured by the explosion inside the theater. In any case, she wasn''t able to move very well, and she was killed by an anomaly while trying to get away."

    "I see. I suppose it doesn''t really matter." That team had been quite weak to begin with, and now that only one of them was left, they were certainly no cause for concern. "You saved my friend, so you''re also my friend from now on. I''ll admit that I''m a very opportunistic person, but I''m very good to my friends."

    "Sure."

    Nie Yiyi nodded in response. She had a very bad first impression of Medusa, so she didn''t believe anything that Medusa said.

 Chapter 188: Belcher and Anaconda

    <h4>Chapter 188: Belcher and Anaconda</h4>

    "Let''s take care of these anomalies."

    Medusa seemed to have sensed that Nie Yiyi wasn''t very fond of her, and she didn''t waste any more time with words as she re-entered the fray.

    The enhanced artificial anomalies were truly fearsome. Out of the duo of anomalies that they were facing, one could fly, while the other was extremely fast, and both of them were extremely difficult to deal with.

    Thankfully, they had a significant numbers advantage, and with her wind maniption abilities, Nie Yiyi was able to significantly hamper the bat anomaly''s effectiveness in battle.

    Furthermore, aside from the spearhead of the group in the form of Medusa, her other teammates were also quite useful.

    Rattlesnake''sbat prowess was quite mediocre, and she served a role simr to the one performed by Hook on Adam''s team.

    However, the other two members of Medusa''s team were very formidable in their own right.

    The Belcher''s sea snake was said to be one of the most venomous snakes in the world, and one of the members of Medusa''s team derived her name from that very same animal, so it was clear what the nature of her abilities was.

    While protecting Rattlesnake, Belcher was constantly releasing a type of strange mist out of her mouth into the air. Initially, no one felt anything, but after a while, Nie Yiyi could feel all of the muscles in her entire body bing extremely hard and rigid. All of the vitality and suppleness seemed to have been sapped out of her muscles, leaving them as stiff and lifeless as dead wood.

    Not only that, but her joints were also locking up like rusty metal parts, and those symptoms were only alleviated after Belcher released a cloud of yellow mist that she inhaled into her body.

    However, the anomalies that they were facing weren''t so lucky. As the battle wore on, the two anomalies inhaled far too much venomous mist. Furthermore, neither of them were defense-type anomalies, and both of them relied heavily on their mobility in battle, so this type of paralyzing neurotoxin was extremely effective against them.

    Throughout the battle, the speed-type anomaly was bing slower and slower. In the beginning, Medusa and the others were only able to see the trails of afterimages that it left behind, but at this point, they were already able to track its movement with their eyes.

    "Belcher, release yourrge-scale venom cloud."

    "Yes, Mistress," Belcher replied before immediately flying up into the air, then released a ball of translucent green liquid out of her mouth.

    The ball of liquid was enveloped within ayer of green energy, and it circled around in the air before exploding, sending venomous mist spreading through the surrounding area in a radius of two to three kilometers.

    If their opponents had been adapters, then they would''ve definitely immediately fled far away upon witnessing the spreading cloud of green mist.

    However, the artificial anomalies were far too foolish, and they only knew to avoid an attack after they had already fallen prey to it once. They hadn''t been afflicted by this green mist before, so they were still fighting on as if nothing had happened.

    The first of the two anomalies toe into contact with the venomous mist was the bat anomaly. As soon as the mist descended upon it, all of the nerves in its entire body instantly turned bright red, making it look as if there were red worms squirming all over its skin. Shortly thereafter, its blood vessels also began to pop one after another, presenting an extremely gruesome and horrific sight to behold.

    Even though these artificial adapters had already endured unimaginable pain, it seemed that this venomous mist was beyond their tolerance threshold. The bat anomaly screeched in agony as blood gushed out of its entire body, and its blood seemed to be boiling, evaporating as soon as it erupted into the air.

    Meanwhile, the terrestrial anomaly down below was in an even worse condition. It had absorbed too much of the neurotoxin, and as a result, it had slowed down to a snail''s pacepared with its former speed. All of its blood vessels and nerves seemed to have been set alight, and it had bepletely rooted to the spot.

    "It''s your turn, Anaconda."

    Medusa knew that given how fearsome these artificial anomalies were, even Belcher''s venom would only be able to debilitate them for a short time. Hence, after issuing that instruction, she immediately slithered toward the speed-type anomaly, while Nie Yiyi and Anaconda rose up to meet the bat anomaly, which was pping around in a wobbly manner as if it were severely inebriated.

    Anaconda had been protecting Rattlesnake this entire time, but now that she was also entering the fray, she immediately put on a formidable disy of her own.

    As she rose up into the air, her body swelled up like a balloon, and she transformed into an enormous anaconda that was over 30 meters in length. In its erged form, Anaconda''s scales had be thicker and heavier, and rows of sharp crocodile-like teeth had appeared in its mouth. Uponpleting its transformation, it opened its cavernous mouth before sinking its teeth into the bat anomaly in the sky.

    Nie Yiyi arrived immediately thereafter with her des, rushing up the giant anaconda''s body before plunging her weapons viciously into the bat anomaly''s neck, inflicting a grievous wound onto the already struggling anomaly.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, a woman in green was fleeing away from the supply point that Adam and the others were in. She had been invited to participate in the battle royale by a friend, and prior to signing up, she had learned about just how brutal thepetition was through watching footage of the past editions.

    However, only after actually experiencing the game for herself did shee to realize that being in the thick of the action waspletely different from seeing it on television.

    Her entire team had been eradicated, and she was the only one left.

    For her, this battle royale had been one massive nightmare thus far.

    There were anomalies, serpents, mechas, dragons...

    The only thing that was missing in this godforsaken ce was a safe haven for her. Hence, she was fleeing as quickly as she could, hoping that she would be lucky enough to find an exit card somewhere that would allow her to get out of this nightmare.

    As a safety precaution, she chose to flee toward rtively barren areas rather in order to avoid other participants as much as possible. However, as the zone continued to shrink, the participants were bing more and more concentrated, and she was quickly discovered.

    "There''s someone over there, Mistress."

    The person who had spotted her was a man wearing a technomancer hat, with his hands cupped over his eyes to feign a pair of binocrs.

    It was a ratherical sight to behold, but his fake binocrs really did allow him to see further into the distance.

    "Who is it?"

    "It''s a woman. She appears to be injured, so if I''m not mistaken, her teammates have most likely already been killed, or she must''ve gotten separated from them somehow. It looks like she just came out of a battle."

    "Which direction is sheing from?"

    "The same direction that the dove flew to"

    "Capture her for interrogation."

    "Yes, Mistress."

    The technomancer pulled out a piece of nylon cloth as he spoke, and after making some preparations, he jumped into the cloth, instantly vanishing on the spot.

    By the time he reappeared, he had already arrived directly in front of the woman.

    "Who are you?"

    The woman had only just fled out of the supply point, so she was wary of everything, particrly this unfamiliar man, who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

    "Who do you think I am? I''m a participant of the battle royale, of course."

    "Are you here to kill me?"

    "No no no, I just want to take you back with me for some questions."

    "What if I refuse?"

    "What right do you have to refuse? You''re nothing more than a wandering stray dog!"

    The technomancer pulled out three poker cards as he spoke, then hurled them directly at the woman.

    The poker cards were traveling extremely quickly, and the woman hurriedly used her de to defend herself.

    However, her weapon had only juste into contact with the poker cards when she felt a sharp pain in her back. The cards had clearly been right in front of her just a moment ago, yet all of a sudden, they had appeared behind her.

    After piercing into her body, the three poker cards released a taser-like electric current that instantly knocked her to the ground.

    She could only look on helplessly as the technomancer pulled out a nylon cloth as he sighed to himself, "I heard that there are a bunch of foolsing to participate in the battle royale every year to try and earn some quick cash, but money isn''t that easy to earn. I hope you''re not one of those fools."

    After that, he picked up the woman before jumping into the cloth.

 Chapter 189: Whos Going to Die

    <h4>Chapter 189: Who''s Going to Die</h4>

    In the next instant, the two of them reappeared before Oni no Miko.

    The masked Oni no Miko looked down at the immobilized woman as she said, "I have a few questions I want to ask you. If your answers satisfy me, I can release you to fend for yourself. If you refuse to answer, then it''ll be thest thing you ever do."

    "Why should I trust you?"

    "You have no choice. The only thing you can do now is bet on the hope that I''m a person of my word."

    "What do you want to ask?"

    "Where did you juste from?"

    "I just escaped from a small town with many anomalies inside."

    "A small town? You mean like arge supply point? Were there any other people in there aside from anomalies?"

    "There were three teams in there, one of which was led by a snake woman..."

    As an outsider, the woman didn''t know Medusa''s nickname.

    "I know who that is. I can''t believe you dared to participate in the battle royale without even familiarizing yourself with all of the S tierbatants first. I wonder if I should condemn you for your stupidity or praise you for your courage," Oni no Miko chuckled. "There are always these adapters in the civilized world that make a series of breakthroughs and think that they''re invincible. Looks like you''re one of those adapters. Who else was in there?"

    "There was a team with four mechas."

    "Anyone else?"

    "There was also a mummy and a dragon rider."

    Oni no Miko immediately burst into triumphantughter upon hearing this.

    "Fantastic! We didn''t manage to catch up to them in thest two locations that the dove led us to, but we should be able to get them this time."

    Oni no Miko was very excited, but not as excited as the burly man standing behind her.

    "Finally! Let''s find him and fuck him up!"

    That man was none other than Diamond.

    Oni no Miko had two objectives for participating in the battle royale, the first of which was to win, while the second was to kill Adam.

    In contrast, Diamond only had a single objective, and that was to kill Adam. Oni no Miko had already granted him the reward that he wanted anyway, so it didn''t matter to him whether he won the battle royale or not.

    A glimmer of hope appeared in the eyes of the woman who had been captured at the sight of Oni no Miko and Diamond''s excited reactions, and she asked, "If my information was useful to you, can you let me go now?"

    "One more question. Do you think I look like a good person or a bad person?"

    Oni no Miko suddenly asked a seeminglypletely unrted question.

    "A good person?"

    "You''re wrong."

    "A bad person then?"

    "That''s also incorrect." Oni no Miko shook her head in response. "In this world, do you think it''s good or bad people who are the ones that end up dying?"

    "I don''t know..."

    A sense of foreboding was gradually rising up in the woman''s heart.

    "Neither good nor bad people are guaranteed to die, but foolish people will always end up dead!" Oni no Miko pressed her palms downward, releasing a burst of immense pressure that instantly crushed the woman into mincemeat. She then cast her gaze toward the direction that the woman hade from. "Looks like you made the wrong bet."

    ¡­¡­

    Inside the supply point, the battle against the anomalies was finally drawing to a conclusion.

    After Medusa and Anaconda took care of those two anomalies, the tide of the battle waspletely turned.

    With those two anomalies dead, three of the six anomalies had met their demise. On top of that, Medusa and the others were freed up to join the battle against the remaining three anomalies, and it quickly became apletely one-sided affair.

    With the help of Medusa and the others, Adam, King Arthur, and the four mecha brothers were able to make short work of the three remaining anomalies.

    Following the conclusion of the battle, everyone was exhausted, but they didn''t dare to show it, particrly the four mecha brothers.

    The giant mecha that they had formed was already severely damaged, so there was no way that they could run away, and they could only put on a tough facade.

    "Do whatever you want with us, we''re not going to be able to get away. However, if you''re going to kill us, don''t me us for taking a few of you down with us. We may not have anything else left, but we still have this energy core, and if we self-detonate, this whole town will go up in a giant mushroom cloud!"

    "Oh no, not a mushroom cloud, I''m so scared!" Rattlesnake slithered over to them as she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "If you were really that powerful, then you wouldn''t have ended up in such a sorry state."

    "Rattlesnake,e back."

    Medusa stopped Rattlesnake before she could provoke the four mecha brothers any further. Medusa had always been quite cautious and prudent, and that was why she had been able to survive to this point in Shadow City.

    She was also of the opinion that the four mecha brothers were exaggerating their powers, but there was definitely some truth to their im.

    The final struggles of a powerful adapter were never to be underestimated.

    She had witnessed far too many examples of powerful adapters taking down their enemies with them in one final act of retribution. A recent example of this was when Oni no Hanzou had almost killed Adam with his Ghoul Incineration ability.

    "We were never actually intent on killing you, and I''m sure you guys don''t want to have to self-detonate, either. If you do self-detonate, we may not necessarily die, but you''ll definitely die." Medusa turned away and left the four mecha brothers to their own devices as she spoke. "Hence, you can do whatever you please, it doesn''t matter to me."

    She then slithered over to Adam as she continued, "My team was clearly the one that put in the most work in that battle, so we should be prioritized in the distribution of cards, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "That sounds very fair, but the battle royale is not a ce for fairness."

    Adam knew that in this setting, making any concessions would essentially be acts of self-sabotage.

    Medusa wasn''t bothered at all by Adam''s response. In fact, she would''ve been quite surprised if Adam had agreed to her proposal.

    "Alright, then how do you propose we split the cards? 60:40? Or do we split up here, and we all get to keep the cards that we find? Alternatively... Hold on, someone else is here!"

    All of a sudden, Medusa''s brows furrowed slightly, and she immediately cast her gaze toward a hill in the distance. Sure enough, another team had appeared there, and she was instantly able to identify them.

    "Well, well, well, things are getting spicy now!"

    Adam''s telegnosis was inferior to Medusa''s, so he could only follow her gaze, and in doing so, he spotted his two most formidable enemies in this battle royale, Oni no Miko and Diamond.

    In the battle royale, everyone could negotiate with everyone.

    Adam could negotiate with Midget, with Medusa, even with the likes of Goblin or the four mecha brothers.

    As long as there was a possibility for mutually beneficial deals to be struck, everyone would rather negotiate before turning to violence.

    However, these were two teams in this battle royale that Adam couldn''t negotiate with.

    The first of those two teams was Eyeless''s team. Eyeless was here solely for training, so unlike everyone else, he was eager to pick fights andpletely unopen to negotiation.

    The second of those two teams was Oni no Miko''s team. Both Diamond and Oni no Miko were sworn enemies of his, and only one of their two teams coulde out of this battle royale alive.

    "I''ll leave those guys to you."

    Medusa gave her teammates a look as she spoke, and they immediately departed from the scene, while the four mecha brothers also disassembled themselves and limped away.

    However, none of them left the supply point.

    Medusa was sticking around to watch the battle and to collect the cards in the supply point after the battle was over. Her team had already endured a grueling battle here, and it would''ve been a massive waste to give up all of the resources in this supply point.

    As for the four mecha brothers, they knew that if they were to attempt to run away, Oni no Miko definitely wasn''t going to let them escape. Hence, it was better for them to hide somewhere and watch as the situation unfolded.

    Thus, both teams had vacated the battlefield for Adam, who was watching as Oni no Miko rapidly approached.

 Chapter 190: Clash

    <h4>Chapter 190: sh</h4>

    Oni no Miko was moving very quickly for fear of letting Adam get away, and after contemting the situation momentarily, Adam decided not to try and flee.

    The battle royale was already extremely perilous, and as the zone shrank further and further, there was only going to be a greater concentration of powerful adapters in one ce. He had a feeling that if this confrontation were to take ce at ater stage in the battle royale, the circumstances were only going to be less favorable for him.

    All of the survivors at the concluding stages of the battle royale were going to be extremely powerful, and with so many powerful adapters gathered in one ce, Adam''s chances of securing the ultimate victory were going to be extremely slim.

    This was always going to happen sooner orter anyway, so let''s put an end to this here!

    Adam didn''t dare to hold back against Oni no Miko, and he immediately invoked Clown.

    He had witnessed Oni no Miko in action once before. Back then, he had been nowhere near as powerful as he currently was, but even so, he was still able to tell that Oni no Miko was more powerful than Oni no Hanzou.

    In the face of an opponent who was even more powerful than Oni no Hanzou, Adam couldn''t afford to keep any cards hidden up his sleeve.

    In his current form, he was already riddled with injuries, and there was a very good chance that he could be killed in an instant by Oni no Miko. As opposed to being killed by the enemy, he would much rather allow himself to fall into insanity.

    Let''s see if you can control me this time, Raven!

    Adam instantly withdrew Mummy back into his body before fusing as one with Clown.

    Boundless power instantly surged into his body, alongside a sense of barely repressible insanity.

    In the instant that hepleted his fusion with Clown, he immediately entered that inebriated state.

    After that, he leaped up onto a pile of rubble and waited patiently for Oni no Miko to arrive.

    "I mustmend your bravery for not running away." Oni no Miko slowed down slightly upon arriving at the realization that Adam seemed to have no intention of running away. "It''s time for us to settle the score."

    "Settle the score? Settle my ass! If you wanna fight, then let''s fight!"

    Clown sprang up into the air and performed a somersault as it drew its revolver and fired off a few shots at Oni no Miko.

    Oni no Miko raised a hand to conjure up an energy shield that kept the bullets at bay.

    There really wasn''t much to be said between the two teams. The only reason for any of them to speak would be to verbally condemn the other side in order to give themselves a psychological edge.

    Oni no Miko wanted to paint herself as the righteous party that was seeking vengeance for an ally, but Adam didn''t grant her this opportunity and began firing attacks at her right away.

    "You''re pretty strong, little witch! Let''s see if your shield can block this!"

    Clown holstered its revolver before equipping the rocketuncher that it was carrying on its back and firing it at Oni no Miko.

    The rocket came flying out with scorching fire trailing along behind it. In response, Oni no Miko swept a hand through the air, conjuring up an oni with a massive mouth, which devoured the rocket whole.

    The rocket exploded violently in the oni''s stomach, but that only caused it to give a loud burp.

    This first exchange was really just the two of them ying around, and neither side was disying their true power.

    After that initial sh between Adam and Oni no Miko, Diamond stepped forward as he glowered intently at Adam while cracking his knuckles audibly.

    "She''s not the only one who has a bone to pick with you! You still remember my brother, Iron Man? Ever since what you did to him, he''s be a sniveling coward! You''ve ruined him!"

    "Huh? What are you talking about?"

    "I''m talking about my brother!"

    "What brother?"

    "Iron Man!"

    "Who''s Iron Man? I don''t know him."

    "You wanna fucking y dumb with me?"

    Diamond was infuriated as he clenched his hands into tight fists andunched himself at Adam.

    Meanwhile, Adam had just loaded another rocket into hisuncher, and he immediately fired the projectile at the oing Diamond.

    A resounding explosion rang out, and after the dust settled, a man who resembled a walking diamond statue was revealed.

    In this form, not only had Diamond grown in stature, his body was also resembling an impregnable fortress that was gleaming under the light of the sun.

    "You think that''s gonna be enough to break through my defenses? Die!" Diamond chortled as heunched himself forward and threw a punch at Adam.

    However, Adam instantly vanished on the spot, and after missing its target, Diamond''s fist crashed into the building beneath Adam, smashing directly through it from top to bottom with tremendous force. Upon hisnding, a deep crater was also smashed into the ground.

    "He seems to have an extremely high body weight."

    Nie Yiyi was analyzing Diamond''s abilities as she watched from nearby.

    Even thebined weight of the four mecha brothers in their fused form hadn''t been heavy enough to smash a crater into the ground uponnding. Of course, the giant mecha had arger base, so there was more surface area for the force of the impact to be spread over, but in any case, Diamond''s had to have possessed staggering body weight to aplish such a feat.

    "His other nickname is ''100-ton Man''. I don''t know if he actually weighs 100 tons, but it''s definitely not far from the truth. In this form, his body is made from an extremely hard material that essentially makes him a human wrecking ball, so make sure to avoid a physical sh with him at all costs. His physical attributes make himpletely unmatched in physicalbat, and even those who are objectively far more powerful than him are no match for him in that department."

    Nie Yiyi was a long-time resident of Shadow City, so she was naturally aware of all of the S tierbatant''s attributes and abilities.

    "What is his weakness?"

    "His abilities are very limited, and he''s very susceptible to attacks that affect the environment. For example, there was one battle where he was up against an A tierbatant who was capable of manipting the environment. Thatbatant manipted the flow of water to transform the earth around Diamond into a swamp. Even though there was a vast disparity in power between the two, that battle ultimately ended in a tie."

    "I see." Nie Yiyi''s brows furrowed slightly as she considered what she had just been told. "I don''t think any of us possess abilities of that nature. Do you?"

    "I''m afraid not..." King Arthur was just about to say something further when he was struck by a sense of foreboding that stemmed from his telegnosis, and he hurriedly swung his sword behind himself, upon which the de struck a technomancer''s hat.

    The technomancer flew back in retreat as he chuckled, "There''s no need for you to analyze Diamond''s abilities because you''ll be facing the two of us instead."

    As the technomaner was speaking, a man with a turtle''s shell on his back appeared beside him.

    "I haven''t heard such a hrious joke in years!" King Arthur scoffed as he leaped onto his dragon steed, which immediately rose up into the air before sting a pir of mes at the two assants before them.

    The pir of fire filled the entire street, and after locking his gaze onto the figures within the mes, King Arthur leaped up from his dragon''s back, using the momentum generated by his descent to swing his giant golden sword down upon his opponents.

    However, his sword failed to strike its target, and right as he was trying to figure out what had happened, the technomancer''s voice rang out from behind him.

    "It looks like we''re being underestimated!"

    With a tap of the technomancer''s staff, the entire world around King Arthur began to undergo a change.

    Instead of the dpidated town that they had been in just a moment ago, they were transported into a beautiful setting with lush greenery and a small, flowing creek. Butterflies and dragonflies were flying around incessantly above the creek and over the flowers, and even the sounds of battle in the area had been reced with birdsongs and insect chirps.

    As a seasoned adapter, King Arthur was naturally immediately able to identify the surrounding scene as nothing more than an illusion.

    However, this was the problem with powerful illusions. Even if the subject were aware that they were in an illusion, their senses were still going to be affected nheless.

 Chapter 191: Diana

    <h4>Chapter 191: Diana</h4>

    Isn''t he only one of the 36 Tigers? How is he this powerful?

    Prior to this, King Arthur had indeed been looking down on his opponent.

    He didn''t know much about the Oni Organization, but he had heard of its Dragon, eight Onis, and 36 Tigers.

    Among them, the Dragon was the leader, and he generally didn''t go on any missions in person. Hence, the eight Onis were the most powerful regrly active members of the Oni Organization. King Arthur had witnessed the eight Onis in action before, and they were truly formidable adapters, with all of them worthy of being ranked near the top of the S tier.

    However, in his mind, the 36 Tigers had to have only been equivalent to A tierbatants at the very most. After all, there were simply too many of them, and it was unfathomable to her that a single organization could gather so many powerful adapters, but it appeared that she had been mistaken.

    Such an intricate and realistic illusion alone indicated that the technomancer had to possess powers that would ce him in the S tier.

    However, despite his surprise, King Arthur wasn''t afraid of his opponent.

    "The bane of all illusions is light, is it not?"

    King Arthur raised his holy sword high above his head, and it began to glow as radiantly as the sun at his behest. Under the illumination of the scintiting light, the surrounding illusion began to be as shaky and hazy as a mirage.

    "Looks like you really are a seasoned campaigner!"

    The technomancer pulled out a Jack poker card, then tossed it up into the sky. After rising up into the air, the card transformed into a cavalier, which raised its weapon as it galloped toward King Arthur on horseback.

    "I hear that they call you Dragon Knight, right? Let''s have a showdown between knights!"

    The knight was enormous in stature, and his steed was as massive as an elephant, presenting an astonishing sight as the pair descended from the sky.

    However, King Arthur paid no heed to his assant. In his eyes, this was merely another illusion.

    However, as the knight drew closer and closer, the thundering of its steed''s hooves was bing louder and more insistent. In addition to that, the wind generated by the galloping horse and the roar of the knight couldn''t have been any more realistic.

    It''s not an illusion!

    In the instant that the knight''s weapon was about to strike him on the head, King Arthur raised his sword in retaliation, splitting both the knight and his steed cleanly in half with a powerful swing of his sword.

    Immediately thereafter, the knight and steedbination reverted back into a torn poker card that disintegrated into nothingness.

    "Very impressive! Let''s try a Queen this time."

    Just as he proimed, the technomancer tossed out a Queen card this time, and the card transformed into a queen of snow and ice, waving her staff through the air in an attempt to stop King Arthur.

    King Arthur immediatelyshed out with his sword again, but his powerful strike merely passed through the queen''s body without any impediment. This time, it was a pure illusion.

    With hisbination of illusion and reality, the technomancer was able to trick King Arthur into expending a great deal of energy.

    Seeing as he was unable to break the surrounding illusion in a short time, King Arthur raised his sword to attack the technomancer instead.

    "Don''t tell me that you''re also an illusion!"

    Despite the apparent ferocity of his attack, this sword swing was nothing more than a decoy from King Arthur. As the sword swept through the air, he activated his telegnosis to its full capacity, and instead of focusing on his sword, he began to focus on everything around him. In that instant, he sensed something that had previously escaped his notice.

    He immediately changed the trajectory of his attack, spinning around as he raised his sword in an upward shing motion, and a trail of blood immediately sttered through the air.

    Up ahead, the illusory figure of the technomancer instantly shattered, while the true technomancer flew out of thin air. A chunk of flesh had been sliced off his arm, causing him to bleed profusely.

    "Bravo, King Arthur! Now then, let me show you who the true king is!"

    The technomancer pulled out a King card as he spoke, then tossed it onto himself, instantly transforming him into the king of this illusory realm.

    He was holding a regal staff with a crown on his head, and he seemed to be an almighty deity in this domain of his own creation.

    The king swung his staff down upon King Arthur, who raised his sword in defense, but as soon as the sword and the staff shed, King Arthur was instantly forced to his knees.

    "Kneel before my power!"

    In the face of the king''s regal might, King Arthur felt as if he were supporting an entire mountain, and his body was trembling uncontrobly, on the verge of giving out at any moment.

    "Traitorous fool! Opposing me in my own domain shall be thest thing you ever do!" As the king spoke, his staff became even heavier. "I am the ruler of this world! May the earth rise up to swallow this traitor!"

    Under the king''smand, the soil beneath King Arthur''s feet began to churn and swallow up his body.

    The surrounding insects and nts seemed to have also identified King Arthur as amon enemy, and they began to attack him viciously.

    With the soil and nts closing in around him, King Arthur was finding it more and more difficult to breathe, while the weight crushing him from above was only bing heavier and heavier.

    "When a king orders his subordinate to die, the subordinate has no choice but to oblige!"

    Right as King Arthur was at his most vulnerable point, the authoritative voice of the king rang out once again, and King Arthur''s final shred of resistance waspletely crushed, leaving him with the overwhelming urge to raise his sword and end his own life.

    "This is a psychic attack, I can''t allow myself to be fooled... This is a psychic attack, I must seize back control over myself... This is all an illusion..."

    King Arthur was constantly trying to maintain mental rity by talking to himself, but he was fighting a losing battle.

    Right as his will was about to bepletely rushed, many memories began to sh through his mind.

    In the instant that was born as a persona, the first thing that he caught sight of was that violent dragon. At the time, the dragon knew nothing but destruction, and it resented everything in this world.

    After that, he saw the outside world through the dragon''s eyes.

    He became friends with the dragon, and they constantly spoke to each other.

    Over the course of their conversations, he discovered that the dragon was bing more and more gentle, relinquishing its violent and destructive tendencies.

    The dragon told him that her name was Diana, and that she wanted to be a princess. She also gave Arthur his name so that he could join her in the kingdom of her dreams.

    The two of them were the best of friends.

    In that strange psychic world, Arthur led a very peaceful life. One day, Diana hurt someone in a physical alteration, and she told Arthur that she wasn''t suited to living in the real world, and that she wanted to relinquish control over her body to Arthur.

    Initially, Arthur refused, but as Diana fell deeper and deeper into depression, she began to do nothing all day and allow herself to starve to death, so he had no choice but to take over her body for her.

    In the real world, Arthur continued to grow and learn, and he came to realize that he was only the secondary persona, and that the so-called dragon wasn''t actually a dragon, but a mutated adapter instead.

    Diana''s original persona had already been devoured by the dragon.

    However, that didn''t matter to him. Diana was his best friend who had always been with him, and they were inseparable to this very day.

    "Diana!" Mustering his final shred of resolve and willpower, King Arthur freed himself from the restrictive earth and nts with a sh of his sword, then called out to his best friend. "st me with your fire!"

    The two of them shared a psychic connection, and even before King Arthur had fully articted his request, a sea of scorching fire had already swept through the entirety of this illusory world.

    In that instant, all of the illusions were incinerated into nothingness, but the fire wasn''t harming King Arthur at all, and he was rushing in the direction that the mes wereing from.

    Finally, he was able to reach out and feel the dragon''s head. He leaped onto the dragon''s back while swinging his holy sword down amid a sh of golden radiance, dealing the final blow upon the illusory world.

    Everything was instantly destroyed. The king, the creek, the insects... all of it was reduced to nothingness, and the only thing that remained was the technomancer, whose body was riddled with burns at this point.

    King Arthur looked around to find that they were back in that dpidated small town from before.

    "Let''s keep going!"

    Having survived that baptism by fire, King Arthur''s mental fortitude had been further strengthened, resulting in an enhancement to his powers.

 Chapter 192: 100 Demons and 100 Anomalies

    <h4>Chapter 192: 100 Demons and 100 Anomalies</h4>

    Out of all of the qualities valued by adapters, courage reigned supreme.

    Courage was the basis for all good things, and it was the mental quality most capable of elevating an adapter''s psychic power.

    Of course, courage didn''t equate to recklessness. On the contrary, reckless decisions were often made out of fear.

    At this moment, what King Arthur was feeling was true courage. He didn''t fear the challenge that had beenid out before him. As he was reunited with Diana, he felt an unprecedented sense of power.

    Diana seemed to have also been infected by his emotions, and she threw her head back as she roared to the heavens.

    What happened? Did he suddenly make a breakthrough?

    As a seasoned adapter himself, the technomancer could sense that King Arthur seemed to be in a hyper-optimal state of mind, and as a result, he immediately decided that it would be unwise to take on King Arthur in this heightened state.

    Emotions thate on so strongly are also quick to fade. Let''s see how long you can keep this up!

    With that in mind, the technomancer immediately vanished on the spot through the use of his illusory abilities,mencing a game of cat and mouse between the two.

    This battle had fallen into an impasse, and Nie Yiyi was also in a simr situation.

    In contrast with the Technomancy Tiger, the Shelled Tiger was far less formidable in battle. Overall, he was like a poor man''s version of Mummy. His strength andbat prowess were quite impressive, but he was far too mdroit andcking in offensive variety. Essentially, he was like a giant turtle who would struggle to take down an opponent, but also proved to be quite difficult to take down himself.

    A loud ng rang out as Nie Yiyi''s de struck the Shelled Tiger once again, but his limbs had shrunk back into the turtle shell, and the shell was about as hard as Mummy''s body, so Nie Yiyi''s attack was unable to do anything aside from raise a trail of sparks.

    Whenever Nie Yiyi sprang back to try and charge up an attack, the Shelled Tiger would immediately foil her ns. His offensive abilities were quite limited, but so was Nie Yiyi''s defensive prowess. Thus, they were locked in a battle of attrition with no end in sight, and neither side was able to ovee the other.

    Facing such an annoying opponent, Nie Yiyi had already given up on trying to take him down in a short time. Instead, she was focusing more on the main battlefield than her own battle.

    She knew that the oues of her battle and King Arthur''s battle couldn''t decide the ultimate fate of their team.

    In the end, the only battle that actually mattered was the one that Adam was engaged in.

    If he could beat Oni no Miko and Diamond, then they woulde out on top. Conversely, if Adam were to fall, then it would be a simple task for Oni no Miko and Diamond to mop up the rest of his team.

    Much to Nie Yiyi''s dismay, the situation on Adam''s end was looking rather grim.

    In the face of such a formidable duo, all Clown could do was run and dodge, seeminglypletely unable to retaliate.

    The battle had only been unfolding for a short time, but it had already been forced to resort to using clones.

    However, this really was no surprise.

    After losing the trump card that was Camera, Adam''s overall power was only roughly equivalent to Oni no Hanzou''s.

    Without Camera''s surprise attack, it wasn''t even a guarantee that Adam would''ve been able to defeat Oni no Hanzou. In the end, the oue of their battle had been decided by their stamina reserves.

    Oni no Miko''s overall power was already superior to Oni no Hanzou''s, so it only made sense that she was able topletely dominate Adam with Diamond on her side.

    "Where are you going? You''re not gonna beat us by running away!"

    Diamond was chasing after one of Clown''s clones, and with a single punch, he was able topletely obliterate the clone as if he had just driven a freight train into it at full speed.

    However, at the same time, another clone stuck a C4 bomb onto his back.

    The bomb packed far more destructive power than even the projectiles of the rocketuncher, and its explosion was so violent that many of the nearby buildings were toppled.

    However, after the fire and dust settled, Diamond was revealed to have beenpletely unscathed.

    Adam had never seen anyone with such incredible defensive prowess. Even Mummy at its absolute peak couldn''t have held a candle to Diamond in this department.

    "You think you can kill me with those old ass weapons? Bring out the big guns! Come on!"

    In response to Diamond''s trash talk, several Clown clones pulled out their gatling guns before firing off a barrage of bullets at Diamond, but those attacks were alsopletely ineffective.

    "Are you trying to give me a warm shower? Keep the bulletsing! Hey, don''t run away!"

    After allowing himself to be showered in bullets for a while, Diamond rmenced his pursuit of the Clown clones.

    He was an unintelligent brute who had no idea which Clown was the real one, so all he could do was kill the clones one by one.

    Even so, killing Clown''s clones could still whittle away at its psychic power, so it certainly wasn''t apletely ineffective strategy.

    If he were facing Clown in a one-on-one battle, it was most likely the case that neither side would''ve been able to defeat the other for a very long time.

    Both Adam and Diamond were aware of this, so Adam had only sent around a dozen clones to harass Diamond.

    Regardless of how much Diamond taunted him, Adam paid no heed to his trash talk, dedicating the majority of his clones to attacking Oni no Miko.

    Thus, Oni no Miko was under far more fire than Diamond was.

    Over 100 Clown clones were gathered around her, sending all types of weapons flying her way, including grenades, bombs, bullets, and daggers, transforming the entire battlefield into a sea of metal and fire.

    "That idiot''s not gonna be easy to kill, but you''re just a fragile little woman! I''m gonna st through your skin and blow up your organs! I''m gonna shove grenades straight down your throat!"

    mes of insanity were raging in the eyes of every single one of the Clown clones, much like the fiery hell before them.

    With so many clowns attacking her at once, Oni no Miko didn''t dare to take any chances, conjuring up a protective barrier before invoking her shikigami guardian.

    The giant shikigami was wearing a suit of Japanese armor while wielding an enormous saber, and it was shielding Oni no Miko from the majority of the oing attacks.

    However, the shikigami''s defensive prowess clearly couldn''tpare with Diamond''s, and in the face of the relentless barrage of attacks from Clown, cracks quickly began to appear on its armor. Despite this, Oni no Miko wasn''t rmed in the slightest as she pulled out a scroll in an unhurried manner.

    The scroll was unfurled, releasing a cloud of sinister ck energy.

    The scroll bore the iconic Japanese Hyakki Yagyou Emaki, which depicted all types of demonic creatures from Japanese folkore, including demons with cow and horse heads, one-eyed monsters, flying heads, wheels with human faces, demons with necks as long as giraffes, and three-tailed foxes.

    In the instant that the scroll was unfurled, all of these depicted demonic creatures were quickly projected into reality amid the cloud of sinister ck mist.

    The emergence of all of these eastern demons in a barren western town from a century ago presented an extremely peculiar and spectacr contrast.

    "I''ve already seen your Hyakki Yagyou Emaki once before!" the surrounding Clown clones cackled as they opened up some distance between themselves and the army of demonic creatures while continuing to fire their weapons.

    A cow-headed demon was struck by a series of bullets, but they only managed to inflict minor wounds onto its powerful body, and it roared as it raised its ax in retaliation.

    A three-tailed fox was releasing ghostly mes out of its mouth to incinerate the clowns around her...

    A human-faced wheel was crashing through the enemy ranks, crushing everything in its path...

    This was a battle between 100 demons and 100 anomalies, and it was truly a chaotic, nightmarish scene.

    Just like Adam, Oni no Miko was an invocator, and most of her power stemmed from her invoked entities.

    These creatures that she had summoned were certainly not small fry. Instead, every single one of them was extremely powerful.

    Not only had Adam witnessed this ability of hers, Nie Yiyi had seen it as well. Back when Oni no Miko used this ability against them, Nie Yiyi was quickly forced into a dire situation, while Shae and the others fared even worse, barely escaping with their lives from that ordeal.

    Hence, not only was the army of demonic creatures not overwhelmed by Clown''s clones, they were able to gain the upper hand due to thanks to the greater diversity in abilities that they possessed.

 Chapter 193: Trade Value

    <h4>Chapter 193: Trade Value</h4>

    As the battle continued to rage on in the town, the entire central area of the supply point had already been razed to the ground.

    However, Medusa''s team was still lingering on the edge of the town.

    "How is this possible? Why are there no cards?" Medusa had already searched through many of the buildings, but she wasn''t even able to find a single points card, let alone any skill cards. "There should be tons of cards in such a massive supply point!"

    "Could it be that someone''s already looted this ce before us?" Anaconda spected. "Maybe another team already scoured the area long before any of us arrived."

    "There are six anomalies here! How could anyone have possibly taken all of the cards without alerting even a single one of them?" Belcher tapped Anaconda''s head in exasperation as she spoke. "What is inside this thick skull of yours? Even if someone skilled in stealth and concealment came through here, there''s no way they could''ve been able to take every single one of the cards with six anomalies in the area!"

    "That''s true..." Anaconda stuck out her tongue as an awkward smile appeared on her face. "If no one''s looted this ce before us, then there had to have been no cards here in the first ce! The director didn''t put any cards in here, and this is all just a prank!"

    "The director wouldn''t do something like that." Medusa inspected her surroundings with tightly furrowed brows. "Someone must''ve snuck in and stolen all of the cards while we were keeping the six anomalies upied. That person has to be extremely adept at concealment, given that they were able to steal the cards under my telegnosis. Rattlesnake, see if you can track them down. If they haven''t gotten far away from here, you should still be able to find them."

    "Yes, Mistress." Rattlesnake began to shake her strange tail again as she spoke, releasing a burst of peculiar vibrations through the surrounding area, which quickly reciprocated her with some information. "There''s someone here..."

    "Where are they?"

    "They seem to be with the four mecha brothers. The vibrations are telling me that there are five people there."

    "Let''s go take a look."

    ¡­¡­

    On the other side of the supply point.

    Standing in front of the four mecha brothers was a steam robot, and it was clear from their vastly contrasting designs that they weren''t from the same team. However, none of them seemed to have any intention of elevating the encounter into a conflict. Instead, they seemed to be negotiating with one another.

    "Are you sure there''s an exit card here?"

    The four mecha brothers were extremely excited. At this point, they were already at the end of the road.

    Their psychic power reserves were severely depleted, and their bodies were heavily damaged, so they werepletely spent.

    They were no longer thinking about making a quick buck, and they certainly weren''t striving to win the battle royale. At this point, all they wanted was to survive, and an exit card was the key to their survival.

    Only an exit card could allow them to leave this game, but everyone knew that the director really liked to see ughter and bloodshed, so it was always the case that very few exit cards were ced into the map.

    "Surely it''s not unusual for there to be an exit card in such arge supply point."

    The steam robot that was negotiating with them was naturally none other than Hook. He was a coward, but he was also a very smart person.

    He knew that in this battle royale, if his teammates were to die, that would be no different from a death sentence for him.

    Hene, he had to do everything in his power to help them.

    While everyone had been busy fighting the anomalies in the supply point, he had used his concealment ability to sneak into the town and take all of the cards.

    After collecting all of the cards, he noticed that Adam was struggling in his battle.

    Oni no Miko and Diamond had clearly imed the upper hand, and Adam''s chances of beating them on his own were extremely slim.

    Hence, he needed some allies.

    Hook was next to useless in battle, so his only choice was to recruit allies from elsewhere.

    "So we''re just supposed to believe you when you tell us you have an exit card?" The four mecha brothers weren''t fools, and they wanted proof to support Hook''s ims. "If you want us to help your teammates, then you have to show us some sincerity."

    "If I show you the exit card, you''ll just rob me right away. I''ve already hidden the card somewhere that no one will be able to find, so you can keep dreaming if you think that you can take it by force!" Hook was definitely afraid, but thankfully, his robotic face betrayed no emotion, making it impossible to tell what he was feeling. "I''m not very good in battle, but I''m an expert when ites to hiding things! No one can find the things that I hide! Let''s not waste any more time here. Are you going to help or not? This is an opportunity for you."

    This was indeed an opportunity.

    Given the current state of the four mecha brothers, they had virtually no hope of surviving in the battle royale.

    It was no exaggeration to say that an exit card was their only chance at survival.

    "Don''t listen to his nonsense!"

    All of a sudden, Medusa''s voice rang out, immediately following which she and her teammates crashed through the window into the room.

    "If he really has an exit card, then why hasn''t he used it himself? It''s clear that his teammates are already done for, why hasn''t he escaped?"

    "I''m not a coward!" Hook countered in a furious voice.

    "Is that right?"

    Medusa suddenly sped up as she slithered over to Hook, then leaned in close to him as her beautiful features suddenly took on a terrifying appearance.

    Even though she didn''t actually use her petrification ability, the mere threat was enough to make Hook stumble back in horror before falling onto his backside.

    "You certainly seem like a coward." Medusa leaned back as her face returned to its normal appearance. "Do you really have the cards?"

    "Yes, and there really is an exit card. Aside from that, there are many other useful cards as well."

    "So why haven''t you escaped?"

    "I was forced into this by my teammates. If I escape on my own, they have people waiting on the outside that would get me killed," Hook replied in a truthful manner.

    Through their interactions, Hook could tell that Jiang Junior was very fond of Nie Yiyi. If Nie Yiyi were to perish, then Jiang Junior would definitelye after him with the help of the Green Gang.

    Unfortunately, he wasn''t a powerful adapter like Oni no Miko, and he was unable to fend for himself.

    Without his teammates, he wouldn''t be able to survive in Shadow City even if no one were sent to kill him.

    Medusa nodded with a satisfied expression upon hearing this response.

    "That sounds like the truth to me. But why have youe to these four instead of us? With our powers, surely we''d make much better allies than these four."

    Indeed, the overall power of Medusa''s team far exceeded that of the four mecha brothers. In fact, even Medusa alone was already slightly more powerful than the four brothersbined.

    "That''s true, but I have to be realistic with my expectations. They''ve been driven into a corner, while you and your team could choose to leave at any time. If I turn to you, there''s a very good chance that you would refuse to help me, and if I say something wrong, I could end up losing my life," Hook replied with a resigned expression. "They''ll definitely risk their lives for an exit card, but I can''t guarantee the same for you."

    "Wow, you''re definitely smarter than you look!" Medusa was rather impressed by Hook''s analysis. "You''re an interesting little guy! We''re happy to help as long as you give us your cards."

 Chapter 194: Impenetrable Defense

    <h4>Chapter 194: Imprable Defense</h4>

    Oni no Miko pulled out her bow and began to fire arrows at Clown''s clones.

    A demonic face would appear on the tip of each arrow that she fired, and she was extremely urate in her archery. Additionally, the arrows possessed immense destructive power, and with the Hyakki Yagyou restricting the movement of Clown''s clones, she was able to take out a clone with virtually every single arrow that she fired.

    Prior to this, Clown had been able to fight on roughly even footing against the Hyakki Yagyou thanks to its clones. Even though it was at a slight disadvantage, that was only because it had to use some of its clones to hold off Diamond.

    However, with Diamond constantly killing clones and Oni no Miko''s arrows picking off more clones, the Hyakki Yagyou was beginning to build up some significant momentum.

    At the moment, all Adam could do was constantly replenish his army of clones at the expense of his psychic power, but he knew that once his psychic power was exhausted, his resistance would instantly be toppled like a house of cards.

    "Why''re you suddenly so quiet? You were running your mouth quite a bit earlier!"

    Diamond was loudly taunting Clown while killing off its clones as an act of vengeance for his brother.

    Not only had Adam defeated Iron Man, he hadpletely crushed Iron Man''s confidence by beating him at his own game. As a result of the psychological trauma incurred from such a devastating defeat, Iron Man was but a mere shadow of his former self.

    Diamond couldn''t crush Adam in the same fashion that Adam had defeated Iron Man, but it was very much necessary for him to taunt Adam as the battle wore on.

    Not only was he going to defeat Adam, he was going to instill some confidence into his brother, who was watching from outside.

    "You''re not that strong! You''re just a paper tiger!" Diamond sprang up into the air before crushing another clone with his enormous body weight. "I heard that you really like to hide your true power. Do you do that so you can smurf in the lower tier matches? What else have you got up your sleeve? If you don''t show me now, you won''t get a chance anymore!"

    As Diamond was speaking, he rushed toward another one of Clown''s clones, but right as he was about to attack, a sense of peril suddenly welled up in his heart, and he raised his head just in time to see an energy cannon st hurtling directly toward his face.

    He reflexively raised his arms to defend himself, but the energy st packed a massive punch, sending him flying back several meters despite his enormous weight before exploding.

    "What the hell was that?"

    The explosion from the energy st wasn''t able to injure Diamond, but the attack had caught himpletely off guard.

    He was already aware of all of the offensive tools that Clown had at its disposal. Even though it was virtually a walking arsenal, the majority of its weapons were antiques from a century ago. They did pack some decent firepower, but they definitely couldn''tpare with modern weapons such as energy cannons.

    Hence, thatst attack definitely hadn''t been unleashed by Clown.

    While Diamond was still befuddled by the situation, the sound of mechanical assembling rang out in the distance, and an enormous mecha suddenly appeared.

    "The four mecha brothers? Aren''t you guys only A tierbatants? Trash like you should know your ce and stay out of battles that''ll get you killed!"

    "We''ll see about that!"

    The four mecha brothers weren''t backing down even a single inch. Even though the mecha had sustained a lot of damage, due to its massive stature, most of the damage that it had sustained during the battle against the anomalies had been inflicted upon its lower body.

    As a result, their mobility was severely hampered, but their capacity for firepower output was stillrgely unaffected.

    They had been backed into a corner with no other choice but to work with Adam and his team, so they were going all-out and making one final stand.

    Despite Diamond''s hot-headed nature, he didn''t immediately rush into battle against the four mecha brothers. He had a vendetta against Adam, but no bad blood existed between him and the four mecha brothers. Most importantly, it was best to make as few enemies as possible in the battle royale.

    Hence, after a brief moment of contemtion, he asked, "Are you here just to try and get your hands some resources, or are you here to help Lean Mean Killing Machine? If you''re here to help him, then I suggest you take a look at the situation that he''s in. Right now, his fate is already sealed! Even though he''s still struggling, it''s only a matter of time before he falls here. After he dies, all of his teammates and allies will also be killed! You still have a chance to turn back now. Otherwise, you''ll be sending yourselves to an early grave!"

    "Shut the hell up! What we choose to do is none of your business!" The modules on one of the giant mecha''s arms quickly reformed themselves into aser cannon. "I heard that normal attacks are unable to break through your defenses, but what about this ultra-high heatser? "

    As soon as the mecha''s voice trailed off, aser beam instantly shot out of the front of its arm before striking Diamond on the chest.

    Theser began to burn Diamond''s skin, and for the first time, it seemed that his defenses weren''tpletely imprable, after all.

    In the real world, the melting point of diamond was close to 4,000¡ãC, while aser could easily exceed 10,000¡ãC.

    However, in the psychic world, Diamond''s body was enhanced by his psychic power, so his physical resistance and heat resistance were both far superior to actual diamond.

    As for the power of the mecha''sser, that had a direct corrtion with the power of the four mecha brothers.

    Due to the enormous disparity in power between the two sides, even though the four mecha brothers had chosen the right weapon to use, they were still unable to make a significant impact.

    "Very impressive! I''m finally starting to feel a little pain now!" Diamond grinned as he gritted his teeth through the pain and looked down at the blinding light radiating from his chest. "Seeing as the four of you have a death wish, I''d be happy to grant your wish and send you on your way!"

    With that, Diamond charged directly through theser beam,unching himself at the giant mecha like a wrecking ball.

    "Crouch down!"

    The four mecha brothers were well aware of just how powerful Diamond was, and the giant mecha hurriedly crossed its arms to defend itself against the attack.

    A resounding collision rang out, and despite the significant size disparity between the two sides, it was the giant mecha that was sent flying back.

    The entire mecha tumbled back several meters, gouging a deep trench into the ground before finally managing to stabilize itself.

    As soon as the mecha regained its footing, it immediately continued to burn Diamond with theser cannon on its right arm, while forming an electric saw on its left arm to slice against Diamond''s neck.

    The de of the electric saw produced a deafening, high-pitched noise as it screeched against Diamond''s neck, and sparks were flying in all directions, but Diamond remainedpletely unmoved.

    "I hope you didn''t actually think that these pathetic little toys would be enough to kill me!"

    Diamond threw a punch into the giant mecha''s left arm as he spoke, punching straight through the mecha''s wrist to send the electric saw flying away.

    The blinding sparks produced by the electric saw faded, yet Diamond had only just recovered his vision when he was greeted by the sight of a terrifying face.

    "If those little toys aren''t going to work on you, then how about this?"

    A sharp screen rang out as waves of petrifying energy erupted through the air.

    Only in this instant did Diamond realize who he was being attacked by.

    "Medusa, you..."

    Before he had a chance to say anything, the skin on the entirety of his face began to turn to stone, making it impossible for him to speak.

    Even Diamond couldn''t remainpletely impervious to a petrifying attack from Medusa at such close range.

    1. 7,232¡ãF

    2. 18,032¡ãF

 Chapter 195: Strategy

    <h4>Chapter 195: Strategy</h4>

    All of this had been nned in advance.

    Medusa was a master strategist, and as soon as she made the decision to help Adam, she quickly chose a target before devising a n.

    Her target was Diamond.

    Oni no Miko was a powerful invocator with a whole host of abilities that Medusa was unfamiliar with. Compared with such a risky target, it was a much better choice to go after Diamond instead.

    Furthermore, her abilities were a great counter to Diamond.

    Aside from Eyeless, Medusa was the S tierbatant that Diamond least wanted to face. At times, certain ability matchups yed a more important role in adapter battles than just power alone.

    Diamond''s physical resistance and defenses were unmatched, but his abilities were extremely limited.

    As for Medusa, she was the perfect counter to tanks like Diamond.

    The giant anomaly from before had also been a defensive juggernaut, but she had managed to kill it with just two attacks.

    That anomaly possessed powers that would''ve ced it in the upper mid level of the S tier, and it would''ve taken most other S tierbatants far longer to kill it than it did for Medusa.

    The same concept applied to Diamond. No matter how hard his body was in this form, it still didn''t grant himplete immunity to all attacks. However, as a high-ranking S tierbatant, Diamond possessed exceptional telegnosis and far higher intelligence than artificial anomalies, so Medusa had to exercise a certain level of strategy and finesse in order to catch him off guard.

    Furthermore, she had tond an attack on him at point nk range. If she were to strike him with a petrifying attack from a distance, the effect would''ve beenrgely negligible.

    Hence, she had to rely on the four mecha brothers to draw Diamond''s attention. In theirbined form, the giant mecha was already quite a visual spectacle, and in addition to that, itsser and electric saw attacks could disrupt Diamond''s vision and hearing.

    Even though the electric saw was unable to harm Diamond, the deafening screech that it emitted hadpletely disrupted Diamond''s telegnosis.

    Ultimately, adapters were still humans, and there was a limit to how sharp and sensitive their telegnosis could be. In this situation, where the majority of Diamond''s attention was focused elsewhere, it was impossible for him to sense the danger lurking in the shadows.

    This entire n had been devised in order to grant Medusa an opportunity to attack Diamond from point nk range. Even if the n were to seed, as was the case here, it still wouldn''t have been enough to kill Diamond on the spot, but it was definitely going to severely weaken him.

    Diamond was a high-ranking S tierbatant with exceptional resistances, so even a point nk petrifying screech still couldn''tpletely take him out of?the?equation.

    After Diamond''s entire body had turned to stone, the four mecha brothers hurriedly pushed him away. They knew that if Diamond were to survive the attack, he would undoubtedly retaliate in a fit of fury, and the four mecha brothers certainly didn''t want to be on the receiving end of that.

    After Diamond was pushed away, cracks began to appear all over his body after he fell onto the ground.

    Theyer of stone that had formed over his body was very substantial, roughly five centimeters in thickness, and after theyer of stone was shattered, his glistening body was revealed.

    "Medusa, you sly bitch!" Diamond roared with fury as he stepped out of theyer of stone like a hardened cocoon.

    After emerging from the stony cocoon, Diamond had be significantly smaller than before, as if he had gone through an extensive weight loss phase.

    Thatyer of stone had previously been a part of his body, and there was no way to recover from the damage that the attack had dealt upon him in a short time.

    "How many carats did you lose, Diamond? Maybe I should call you Little Diamond from now on!"

    Instead of pressing her advantage, Medusa chose to hang back and taunt Diamond instead. She was here to help, not to put her life on the line.

    She couldn''t?predict?what Diamond was going to do in his incensed state, and it was always better to be safe than sorry.

    "Why are you helping that kid? Did you two strike some type of deal?"

    Diamond was about tosh out in retaliation, but in the end, his sense of reason won out over his fury. With Medusa and the four mecha brothers working together, his chances ofing out on top were very slim.

    "What do you think? Do you think I''m doing this out of the kindness of my heart?" Medusa disyed no intention of attacking any further as she exined, "Someone promised us a bunch of cards in exchange for our help. All I have to do is help out a little, I don''t have to risk my life or anything, so why wouldn''t I?ept?the deal?"

    Diamond quickly understood the nature of the situation.

    "In that case, as long as I don''t attack you, you''re not going to attack me, right?"

    "That''s right. If you keep out of this battle, I''ll do the same. That''s fair, is it not?"

    "What if I insist on killing him?"

    Diamond wasn''t willing to let Adam off the hook so easily.

    "Then you can give it a try, but let me warn you that I fully intend to follow through on my promise. There are countless people all over the world watching the battle royale right now. If I go back on my word here, no one will want to work with me in the future," Medusa replied. "Even though I don''t have to risk my life here, I still have to do what''s asked of me if I want to im the reward."

    Diamond''s fists were tightly clenched in frustration. If he were in peak condition, he would''ve been inclined to try his luck.

    However, he had been severely weakened from the get-go, and Medusa had the four mecha brothers on her side as well, so things were definitely looking rather grim for him.

    "Alright, I can sit this one out, but you and the four mecha brothers have to do the same."

    .

    Diamond could see that Oni no Miko still held the upper hand in her battle against Adam, and that instilled him with a great deal of confidence. Ultimately, it was a beneficial trade if he could keep Medusa and the four mecha brothers out of the battle at the expense of his own participation.

    "I can''t tell them what to do. They''re not my subordinates or my teammates."

    "You... You''ll pay for this!"

    Diamond was furious, but there was nothing that he could do.

    With Medusa choosing to sit out the battle, all of her teammates were instructed to refrain from getting involved as well.

    Oni no Miko was too formidable an opponent. Even if Medusa were to face her in person, there would still be a major element of risk involved, and there was no way that she would send her teammates into such a perilous situation.

    Hence, they were sent to the secondary battlefield.

    Nie Yiyi''s frustration was growing by the second as she continued to find herself stumped by the Shelled Tiger''s turtle shell, but all of a sudden, a serpentine figure entered the fray before slithering toward the Shelled Tiger at a rapid speed.

    The Shelled Tiger was greatly rmed by this, and he immediately withdrew his head into his shell. However, the fangs of the serpent had already pierced viciously into a gap in his shell, following which arge volume of venom was injected.

    The Shelled Tiger immediately began to howl in agony.

    The venom had naturallye from none other than Belcher.

    Her venom was too much to bear even for those enhanced artificial anomalies, so there was naturally no way that the Shelled Tiger could withstand its effects. It wasn''t long before his entire shell was corroded away,pletely destroying his defenses.

    Luckily for him, he still possessed sufficient physical resistance for him to ward off Nie Yiyi''s attacks for now, but his fellow Tiger was not so fortunate.

    Rattlesnake and Anaconda had both rushed over to assist King Arthur in his battle against the technomancer. Rattlesnake''s tracking abilities were the perfect counter to all illusions, so whenever the technomancer tried to conjure up a decoy to throw his opponents off his trail, his efforts would always be quickly foiled by Rattlesnake.

    Anaconda was quite a powerful adapter in her own right, and with the even more formidable King Arthur on her side, the technomancer was quickly forced into a dire situation.

    While the Shelled Tiger was still in rtively decent shape, the technomancer had already had half of his body chomped away by Anaconda, and he was on the verge of death.

    "You''re very powerful, but unfortunately for you, luck is not on your side. This is the end!"

    King Arthur raised his holy sword as he spoke, then brought it down in one swift and powerful motion.

    1. Around two inches.

 Chapter 196: Yamata no Orochi

    <h4>Chapter 196: Yamata no Orochi</h4>

    King Arthur''s offensive prowess was quite formidable, while the technomancer''s defenses were quite mediocre.

    Thus, there was on way that the technomancer could survive this attack unless they were in his illusory domain.

    However, right as King Arthur''s sword was about to descend upon the technomancer, it was suddenly slowed down by some type of psychic pressure, following which a massive figure sprang up into the air,unching itself directly at him.

    King Arthur raised his head to discover that it Oni no Miko''s giant shikigami guardian.

    "Looks like your boss doesn''t want you to die yet."

    If King Arthur were to insist on killing the technomancer, then there was a very good chance that he would fall to the shikigami''s attack. He had no intention of sacrificing himself in exchange for the technomancer''s life, so he immediately raised his sword to defend himself.

    A battle immediately ensued between King Arthur and the shikigami.

    Meanwhile, the departure of the shikigami presented Adam with an opportunity.

    His battle against Oni no Miko had already been ongoing for quite some time, but he had never been able to find the right opportunity to strike.

    Generally speaking, the psychic bodies of invocators were quite frail, so they were particrly weak in meleebat. However, Adam had tried to sneak close to Oni no Miko on several asions, only to have his ns foiled by the shikigami each time. The shikigami was like a guard dog that constantly lingered by Oni no Miko''s side, focusing its attention solely on defending her and frustrating Adam to no end.

    However, now that the guard dog had left, there was a window of opportunity.

    .

    The advantages that Clown had over the Hyakki Yagyou were its speed, agility, and its ability to?conceal?itself.

    After spotting an opportunity, three of Clown''s clones suddenly vanished on the spot, and by the time they reappeared, they were already directly next to Oni ni Miko.

    "You should look after yourself rather than focusing on others..."

    The first clown appeared behind her and plunged its dagger into the back of her neck.

    "Why are you so intent on keeping him alive?"

    The second clown appeared beside Oni no Miko and pierced its dagger into her abdomen.

    "Are you afraid that you''ll lose the battle if he dies?"

    The third clown appeared directly in front of Oni ni Miko and sliced her chest open with its dagger.

    Despite the grievous wounds that had been simultaneously inflicted upon her, not a single drop of blood flowed out of Oni no Miko''s body. Instead, arge amount of ck mist surged forth, and with a loud cry, she forced back the three clowns with an eruption of psychic pressure, then rose up into the air with ck mist still billowing out of her body.

    She looked down at everyone from her vantage point, particrly focusing her attention on Medusa.

    "I don''t have any bad blood with your Snake Ind, why are youing after me? Are you not afraid of vengeance from our organization?"

    "I don''t think it''s a good idea to?threaten?me with things outside of the battle royale. The director hates seeing that more than anything else!" Medusa said as she flicked her tail from side to side in an innocent manner. "Let''s not try and get external factors involved here. In this game, temporary alliances can be formed, but teams can''tbine together, and no threats can be made using factors from the outside world. Everything that I''m doing is within the rules of the game. They''re giving us cards, so we''re inclined to help them. Of course, that''s not the entire reason. If it isn''t for the fact that the little girl over there saved Rattle''s life, I wouldn''t have gotten involved so easily. I''m indebted to them, I''ve been promised cards by them, and all of this is happening within the battle royale, so it allplies with the rules of the game."

    Medusa?didn''t?fear the Oni Organization, but it was clear that she was extremely fearful of the director, and she was immediately proiming her innocence.

    "How many cards have they promised you? I just so happen to have some cards as well." Oni no Miko pulled out arge stack of cards as she spoke. "Seeing as you''re doing this forpensation, it stands to reason that you''ll help the side that offers you the mostpensation, right?"

    "Normally, that would be correct, but you don''t seem to have heard everything that I said." Medusa pointed at Nie Yiyi as she reiterated, "She saved one of my teammates. I''ve always remained true to my word, and I have to return the favor."

    Medusa turned to Nie Yiyi as she continued, "By the way, let me make this clear: I don''t owe you anything after this, little girl."

    Nie Yiyi nodded in response. She wasn''t counting on Medusa actually following through on her promise.

    "Thank you."

    "There''s no need to thank me. You helped me, so it''s only right that I should help you once."

    "So you insist on helping them?"

    "That''s right."

    "Fine! If you want to die, then I''ll happily grant you your wish!"

    Now that all negotiations had fallen through, Oni no Miko finally revealed the full extent of her power. In this instant, ck mist began to pour out of her body at a rate that was at least 10 times faster than before to envelop her entire body, and at the same time, she pulled out a pendant.

    There was a ferocious serpent engraved on the pendant, and what was especially remarkable about the creature was that it possessed eight heads and eight tails. The terrifying eight-headed serpent resembled an almighty deity, and it was none other than one of the most powerful deities in Japanese folklore, Yamata no Orochi.

    "You''re just a puny little snake! Let me show you what the true king of snakes looks like!"

    Oni no Miko tossed the pendant into the air, and it began to rapidly absorb the ck mist in the air, following which the giant serpentine deity engraved onto?the?surface of the pendant emerged in its full glory.

    Arthur''s dragon and Adam had tried to disrupt Oni no Miko during this process, but their attacks were kept at bay by the ghostly mist around her.

    After devouring the ghostly mist around it, Yamata no Orochi swelled all the way to around 10 meters in size, but it still wasn''t satisfied. It opened all eight of its mouths at once, releasing a burst of suction force that allowed it to devour the entirety of the Hyakki Yagyou and the shikigami as well.

    After absorbing so much ghostly energy, Yamata no Orochi''s body began to expand, and it instantly swelled to over 100 meters in stature. Its enormous body was coiled at the center of the small town, and it was threatening to crush the entire area.

    In the face of this gargantuan serpentine deity, the "giant" mecha formed by the four mecha brothers was made to resemble a children''s toy, while everyone else appeared even more diminutive inparison.

    Everyone involuntarily gulped nervously at the sight of Oni no Miko''s ultimate trump card.

    No one had anticipated that Oni no Miko would be this powerful.

    Even though Yamata no Orochi hadn''t attacked anyone yet, its appearance and the pressure it was giving off were both extremely daunting, so its power was definitely not to be doubted.

    "I thought she would only be a bit stronger than Oni no Hanzou at the very most, I didn''t think she''d?be this much more powerful! We''ve really dug ourselves into a hole this time..."

    Medusa began to back away with a wary expression as she spoke.

    Rattlesnake also flicked out her forked tongue in a sheepish manner before hiding herself behind a building.

    At this point, all battle had ceased, and everyone was watching the godlike creature that had just descended upon the battlefield.

    The poisoned Shelled Tiger and the severely wounded Technomancy Tiger also took advantage of this opportunity to return to Oni no Miko''s side.

    With the Hyakky Yagyou no longer around, the 30 or so remaining Clown clones also spread themselves around the supply point to surround Yamata no Orochi from all directions.

    However, none of them were attacking or making any sounds, and a tense atmosphere had descended upon the scene.

    This tense silence wore on for a full 10 seconds before it was finally broken by Medusa.

    "Well, I certainly wasn''t expecting something like this from you, Ms. Miko," she said with an awkward smile. "Given how powerful you are, I''m sure it''ll be a simple matter for you to eradicate any enemies in your path, so you cane back and strike them down anytime you please, wouldn''t you agree? How about this? We were essentially hired to help out in only this battle. If you let them go this time, I promise that I won''t meddle in your affairs further down the line. Does that sound eptable to you?"

 Chapter 197: Splitting the Spoils

    <h4>Chapter 197: Splitting the Spoils</h4>

    "Are you scared?"

    Oni no Miko was looking down on Medusa as she stood atop Yamata no Orochi.

    "Of course! I''m terrified!" Medusa replied with a fawning smile. "If I had known that you were this powerful, I wouldn''t have gotten involved in this mess no matter how many cards I was promised. However, I''m a person of my word, so if you insist on fighting to the end, then I''ll have to continue to oppose you regardless of how scared I am.

    ¡°If I go back on my word, no one will want to work with me in the future. On top of that, if I cower here and allow the seed of fear to be nted in my heart, then my psychic body could be permanently weakened, and that''s apletely uneptable oue to me."

    Even though Medusa was speaking in a very mellow and modest manner, she wasn''t backing down in the slightest.

    For adapters of her level, backing down in battle was not a decision to be taken lightly.

    Courage was always the most important mental trait for any adapter. As an example, even in the instant right before he met his demise, Oni no Hanzou didn''t allow himself to be ovee by fear. That was the mentality of a truly powerful adapter.

    Oni no Miko took a nce at Medusa, then looked at her two half-dead subordinates and Diamond, who was significantly downsized, and she ultimately decided to ept Medusa''s proposal.

    "Fine, I''ll let them go, but just this once!"

    After that, Yamata no Orochi lowered three of its heads and picked up Diamond and the pair of Tigers in its mouths, then rose up into the air and departed at Oni no Miko''s behest.

    Only after the giant serpentine deity hadpletely vanished into the distance did Medusa heave a long sigh of relief.

    "That was way too close! I can''t believe I signed up for this. Where''s that steam robot? Come out right now!" Medusa yelled in a furious voice.

    Shortly thereafter, steam began to permeate throughout the nearby area, and Hook emerged with a sheepish smile on his metallic face. "Thank you, Mistress Medusa. Your beauty and power are truly unmatched."

    "Stop trying to tter me! Where are the cards?"

    "They''re all here. These are the points cards, here''s the exit card, and there are also two intermediate skill cards."

    Hook pulled out all of the cards that he had gathered from the small town as he spoke.

    "That''s quite a bit." Medusa''s enraged expression finally eased slightly upon seeing this. "There are 23 points cards here, which amounts to 23 million. That''s a very impressive haul! Of course, what''s most important is the exit card. Now that I have this, I can leave the battle royale at any time!"

    "Where''s our healing card?"

    While Medusa was counting the cards, the four mecha brothers slowly crawled onto the scene. At this point, they had already sustained such severe damage to their mechanical bodies that they were barely able to walk at all.

    "You can take all the other cards, but that steam robot told us that he was going to give us an intermediate healing card."

    This was the reason why the four mecha brothers had decided to intervene.

    During the negotiation phase, they knew that there was no way that they could convince Medusa to hand over the exit card to them, so they had no choice but to settle for something else, and they were ecstatic to hear that there was an intermediate healing card avable.

    With such a card at their disposal, they would be able to recover from all of the damage they had sustained. Given their powers, once they returned to peak condition, they still had some decent chances of finding an exit card elsewhere.

    "You''re not going to change your mind, are you?" The four mecha brothers were feeling a little uneasy. "We agreed to this because you''re known for keeping your promises."

    "Of course I''m not going to change my mind, but if I run into the four of you again after we leave this ce, I''m not going to hold back."

    Medusa tossed a card to the four mecha brothers as she spoke.

    "We''ll make sure to stay out of your way!"

    The four mecha brothers epted the card, and sure enough, it was a counter-cyberhex card that bore the visage of a white-robed director, and it was able to heal all damage inflicted upon a psychic body within a certain period of time.

    This was an extremely useful card that had the same effect as an advanced healing card, except an advanced healing card could achieve the same effect in a shorter period of time. In a battle, the longer duration required for the card to take effect would''ve been a problem, but outside of battle, it was essentially no different from an advanced healing card.

    "Looks like we''re not gonna be dying here!" the four mecha brothers said in an ecstatic voice before injecting their psychic power into the card to release the power of the director that had been stored within it.

    A cool and refreshing sensation instantly surged through their bodies, and ayer of green light appeared as the twisted legs of the giant mecha began to gradually return to their original state. Its broken weapons were also slowly regenerating, and even its damaged magazines and energy core were beginning to recover.

    While the four mecha brothers were undergoing treatment, they were still watching Adam and his team with wary expressions.

    Medusa had promised to spare them for now, but Adam and the others had made no such promise.

    "Don''t worry, we wouldn''t stoop that low. We''re all enemies here in the battle royale, but you helped us just now, and it wouldn''t be right for us to turn on you now."

    Nie Yiyi plunged her des into the ground, then stripped off her clothes and began to inspect her own injuries.

    King Arthur didn''t say anything, but he was also tending to his own injuries, disying ack of animosity through his actions.

    At this point, Adam had already separated from Clown, albeit with great difficulty, and he was taking stock of his losses.

    He hadn''t sustained any injuries, but Mummy, the most powerful one of his reliable anomalies, was essentially aplete write-off.

    He invoked Mummy to find that all of its bandages had been snapped, its head had been ttened by one of the six anomalies from earlier, and its entire body was riddled with injuries. In particr, it had been indirectly struck by a petrification attack to the back before taking many more hits during the battle against the anomalies, and as a result, its entire back was alreadypletely mutted, giving it the appearance of a corrugated mass of scrap metal.

    Thankfully, as the anomaly of pain, its physical resistance was second to none. If the same injuries had been inflicted onto any other one of Adam''s anomalies, they would''ve fallen dead long ago.

    Adam heaved a forlorn sigh as he looked at the severely brutalized anomaly.

    "Keep your head up. We''ll just have to find a healing card to help it recover," Hook said in an encouraging voice.

    "Thanks, brother. You really saved us there."

    Having worked together with Hook so many times, this was Hook''s most impactful performance to date. Essentially, he had turned the tide of this entire battle on his own.

    "Don''t get all sappy on me now. You guys are always carrying me, it''s only right that I help out once in a while as well," Hook replied with a shrug. "Most importantly, if all of you die, I''m dead as well. We''re all on the same boat here, so I''m saving myself by saving all of you. Going by that logic, there''s no need for you to thank me at all."

    Adam nodded in response, but he was still in a rather grim mood. In addition to the terrible condition that Mummy was in, the power that Oni no Miko had disyed was another huge cause for concern.

    She was ridiculously powerful, far more so than anyone had anticipated.

    Even with Medusa''s help, there was no guarantee that they would be able to beat Oni no Miko, so they had virtually no chance now that they were on their own.

    At this point, it still wasn''t toote to back down. All he had to do was avoid Oni no Miko with the help of Hook''s scouting abilities, then secure an exit card to save himself.

    However, he didn''t want to do that.

    The footage was the only thing that would allow him to return to the civilized world. There were still far too many mysteries that he hadn''t unraveled and far too many vendettas he hadn''t settled. If he were to cower now, he would be no different from the maggots rotting away in the sewers.

    Adam turned to the direction in which Oni no Miko had departed with tightly furrowed brows, feeling extremely indignant but also utterly powerless.

 Chapter 198: Parting Ways

    <h4>Chapter 198: Parting Ways</h4>

    "Don''t give up hope, buddy. For adapters like us, emotions like despair must be avoided at all costs."

    While Adam was still looking into the distance, Medusa''s voice suddenly rang out beside him.

    She had slithered over to his side, and her face was pressed up right against his cheek as he whispered into his ear, "Your cause isn''t apletely hopeless one."

    "What do you mean? Are you going to help me?"

    "No no no, I''m not going to take any further part in this mess," Medusa hurriedly replied. "However, you can still beat her without me."

    "I don''t understand."

    "If you think about it, Miko may not be as powerful as she appears. You''re a very powerful adapter. In fact, I''ll even admit that you''re more powerful than I am. However, I''m older than you, and I''ve probably got more battle experience than you as well. I have some insight that I can share with you. Would you like to hear it?"

    Medusa was still whispering into Adam''s ear, and no one else could hear what they were saying, so it appeared that they were being very intimate with each other, much to Nie Yiyi''s chagrin.

    "What the hell are you two doing?" she grumbled in a displeased voice.

    "Nothing. We''re just having a nice little chat." Medusa pressed her face even closer to Adam''s as she spoke, even going as far as to lick his earlobe with her forked tongue, seemingly intentionally trying to irk Nie Yiyi. "I think someone''s jealous!"

    "Are you trying to drive a wedge between me and my teammates?" Adam opened up some distance between them as he spoke. "If you have something to say, then hurry up and say it."

    "Jeez, you''re no fun at all, are you? Why I wanted to tell you is that Miko isn''t as infallible as she seems. At the very least, it has to be extremely taxing for her to maintain that state. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have agreed to retreat. At the end of the battle, Diamond still retained most of hisbat prowess, and the two Tigers were also still alive.

    ¡°Granted, they weren''t in the best of condition, but they still could''ve put in some work. Most importantly, she hadn''t suffered any severe injuries. If that Yamata no Orochi really was as powerful as it appeared, then she could''vepletely ignored me and taken us all out at once."

    "That does make sense." Adam nodded in response. "However, maybe she''s just trying to avoid trouble or doesn''t want to sacrifice her subordinates."

    "I have to disagree there. All high-level adapters are very decisive people, and Oni no Miko is no exception to that, particrly as the powerful assassin that she is. Does she look like the type of person who would cherish the lives of her subordinates? Besides, if she really was as powerful as she looked, then she could''ve killed all of us while saving her subordinates.

    ¡°The fact that she chose to retreat was a sign of weakness. With Diamond and the two Tigers still in the battle, they would''ve at least been able to hold off myself and my team for some time. In addition to that, the four mecha brothers were basically on theirst legs, yet Miko still didn''t have the courage to face you and your teammates.

    "That can only mean one of two things: either her Yamata no Orochi isn''t as powerful as it looks, or she can only maintain it for a very short time. Out of those two possibilities, I''m more inclined toward thetter. There''s no reason to suggest that the serpent wasn''t as powerful as it looked, but perhaps it was so powerful that it was beyond what Oni no Miko could handle. I think she was afraid that she would''ve exhausted her psychic power and perished before Yamata no Orochi could kill all of us."

    "That does make sense."

    Adam thought back to when Oni no Miko invoked Yamata no Orochi and the vast quantities of ghostly energy that had poured out of her body during the process. There was no way that such an invocation process wouldn''t have taken a heavy toll on her.

    Furthermore, after Yamata no Orochi appeared, she wasn''t even able to maintain any of her other invoked entities, and she could only offer them to Yamata no Orochi to be devoured. This was a clear indication that she didn''t have any leftover psychic power to spare, and even the shikigami that she had been relying on for her protection had been devoured, thereby further vindicating Medusa''s theory.

    "Another thing I want to point out is that apparently, there''s a ranking for the eight Onis of the Oni Organization. On that ranking, Oni no Hanzou was sixth, while Oni no Miko is third. If she''s really that powerful, then she wouldn''t just be third."

    "That''s valid."

    Adam recalled back to hisst battle against Oni no Miko. At the time, Sadou had been present, so she didn''t get to disy much of her abilities at all.

    "Even so, the road ahead is still going to be an arduous one."

    Even if Oni no Miko couldn''t invoke Yamata no Orochi for a long time, it was still going to be far from easy to bring her down.

    The trio of Diamond, Oni no Miko, and the technomancer possessed far superior overall power to Adam''s team.

    In fact, if Medusa hadn''t suddenly intervened, Oni no Miko would''ve been able to wipe out Adam''s entire team even without summoning Yamata no Orochi.

    "Of course it''s not going to be easy to win the battle royale. I don''t even dare to consider such a lofty goal." Only now did Medusa raise her voice slightly so that it was audible to everyone. "This is where we part ways. If you manage to survive, don''t forget to treat me to a meal once we get out of here."

    Medusa departed as she spoke, ying with the stack of cards in her hands as she did so.

    "We''re going now." Rattlesnake slithered over to Nie Yiyi before giving her a hug. "Once again, words cannot express my gratitude. I hope we get a chance to meet again."

    It was clear that Rattlesnake was very fond of her savior.

    "Aren''t you going to leave the battle royale now that you have an exit card?"

    "Why would we do that? Now that we''ve got an exit card, we have an extrayer of security. We''ll keep searching for more cards until we encounter someone we can''t beat. Bye for now, make sure you survive!"

    With that, Rattlesnake slithered away with Anaconda and Belcher.

    Following their departure, the four mecha brothers also rose to their feet, having mostly recovered from their injuries.

    "Let''s go as well."

    "We can''t go the same way as Medusa."

    "Then we''ll go in the opposite direction."

    "The opposite direction is where Oni no Miko is!"

    "I guess we won''t go in either of those directions then..."

    "In that case, the only option would be to approach the boundary of the zone."

    "We don''t really have much choice, do we? We can''t beat anyone here, so we''ll have to take some risk. In any case, leaving the zone will only mean a slow death, so we''ll be fine as long as we find an exit card before we die. No one else will be outside the zone, so perhaps we''ll be able to find some good supply points. Risk and reward alwayse hand in hand, do they not?"

    Having made their decision, the four mecha brothers rose to their feet, then bade farewell to Adam and the others before departing.

    There was danger at every turn in the battle royale, and even the most powerful adapters with enjoying the best of luck weren''t guaranteed to be able to survive.

    "It''s about time that we left as well. We''ve already spent too much time here, and the zone''s been shrinking this entire time."

    Adam suppressed his disappointment as he took a nce at the ruins around him.

    "After all that, we ended up with nothing. Even the cards that we gathered beforeing here were taken by Medusa."

    Indeed, not only had Hook given Medusa all of the cards that this supply point had to offer, he had to hand over all of the previously collected cards as well.

    "Why did you give her all of the cards we collected earlier as well?" Nie Yiyi asked with furrowed brows. "Those skill cards are very important!"

    "I didn''t want to give her those cards! The situation was too urgent, so I didn''t have time to hide the cards in two separate ces. She only agreed to the deal after I revealed all the cards to her."

    "It''s fine. We''re already very lucky just to be alive." King Arthur made his way over to the trio with his dragon steed in tow. "Medusa is a very cunning woman. If you didn''t offer her enough cards, there''s a very chance that she wouldn''t have intervened. You really saved us there. Before this, I didn''t think you deserved a ce on this team, but it looks like I was wrong about you. It''s extremely impressive that you were able to conceal yourself from the telegnosis so many powerful adapters."

    "What can I say? I''m a coward, and my cowardly nature has given me a lot of strange abilities in the psychic world," Hook replied with a bashful smile.

    "From here onward, our main objective is to secure skill cards. Without the help of those cards, there''s no way we''ll be able to defeat Oni no Miko and her team, so we''re going to have to be more urgent in our collection of resources."

    After establishing the objective, Adam departed from the small town with his team.

    Not long after their departure, a white dove arrived at the supply point.

 Chapter 199: Airdrop

    <h4>Chapter 199: Airdrop</h4>

    The dove circled around in the air for a while following the departure of Adam''s team, then flew away from the scene.

    On the other side, the severely wounded technomancer informed Oni no Miko of what the dove had seen.

    "Mistress Miko, that team has left the supply point. Should we follow them?"

    "No. Leave them be for now." Oni no Miko''splexion was rather pale. Every time she invoked Yamata no Orochi, she would always suffer from an extended period of fatigue. "That clown anomaly hasn''t sustained much damage.

    ¡°If we go after them in our current state, even if we manage to win, it''ll be a very hard battle. If we run into any other strong teams or artificial anomalies after that, we''ll be in a lot of trouble. There''s too much risk involved in that course of action, so let''s prioritize recuperation and resource collection for now."

    Oni no Miko''s team was in an even worse situation than Adam''s team.

    Over on Adam''s side, Mummy was in terrible condition, but Clown, King Arthur, and Nie Yiyi were all rtively unscathed.

    In contrast, Diamond was in a weakened state, the Technomancer Tiger was severely wounded, the Shelled Tiger had been poisoned, and Oni no Miko had expended an enormous amount of psychic power.

    "If I have to invoke Yamata no Orochi again in a short time, I''ll drop dead on the spot." Oni no Miko cast her gaze toward the distance as she said, "Let''s collect some resources and see if we can find any psychic power recovery cards. All of you have to tend to your injuries as well."

    "Fuck!" At this point, Diamond had already returned to his human form, yet even in this form, he had still lost a lot of weight. "We had them backed into a corner before that bitch got involved! And those four mecha idiots as well! I''m going to make them regret ever standing up to us!"

    Diamond was furious at Medusa and the four mecha brothers, particrly because he had fallen prey to the trap they had set for him.

    "Don''t get agitated. They may have gotten lucky once, but there''s no way they''ll be in luck every time."

    After taking a moment to catch her breath, Oni no Miko and her team departed in a different direction from Adam''s team.

    The zone hadn''t shrunk down very significantly yet, so it was still possible for the two teams topletely avoid one another.

    ¡­¡­

    At this point, Adam''s team had already traveled several kilometers away from the supply point. Everyone was moving very quickly, and they were wasting no time.

    Adam had fused as one with Nun, so he was able to keep up with the rest of the team, albeit not very convincingly.

    Following the battle in Sithu''s psychic world, all of his other anomalies had be stronger. Even though the majority of the anomalic power yielded by Sithu''s anomalies had been devoured by Raven, some of it was still left behind for Adam''s anomalies.

    Most of the anomalies in Sithu''s psychic world had been level three anomalies, and their anomalic power didn''t have much of an effect on Mummy, but it was a great source of nourishment for all of Adam''s other anomalies.

    "Is this the best form that you can maintain right now?" King Arthur asked as he took a nce at Adam.

    He could tell that Adam was struggling to keep up.

    "Unfortunately, yes. Maintaining a fusion with Clown is too taxing, so this is the only form I can use right now."

    "I see. We''ll be fine as long as we don''t run into any particrly powerful teams. I''ll act as the spearhead of the team for now." King Arthur nodded in response, following which a thought suddenly urred to him. "By the way, what did Medusa say to you earlier?"

    Nie Yiyi immediately perked up slightly upon hearing King Arthur''s question.

    "All she told me is that Oni no Miko may not be as powerful as we imagine, and that there''s a good chance she would''ve severely overexerted herself after invoking Yamata no Orochi."

    "Doesn''t that mean this is a great opportunity for us to strike back?" While sitting in the mouth of King Arthur''s dragon steed, Hook was fiddling with apass-like device that was measuring the distance between everyone and the boundaries of the zone. "Everyone else on her team is injured or weakened. If she''s severely overexerted herself as well, perhaps this is the most vulnerable their team will ever be!"

    King Arthur patted his dragon steed on the back upon hearing this, and Diana immediately drew to an abrupt halt, leaving a trail of dust in her wake.

    "You''re right! Should we go back then?"

    "It''s too risky. What Medusa said was only a theory." Nie Yiyi also stopped in her tracks as she considered the feasibility of turning back. "If she''s wrong, then we''ll be shooting ourselves in the foot if we turn back now. Also, even if she''s right, as long as Oni no Miko is able to summon that serpent again, we''ll be no match for her, considering she has Diamond on her side. I think it''s better for us to wait until the very end and try and capitalize on the chaos to strike at them instead."

    "I agree." As a certified coward, Hook was always in approval of the courses of action that would avoid direct confrontations. "Why would we face in a one-on-one battle when we''re clearly weaker than them? We should wait until the zone shrinks to the point that everyone is forced toe together. Just like Yiyi said, it''s far better for us to try and take advantage of the chaos of the final free-for-all battle.

    ¡°With everyone gathered together, the situation will be way more favorable for us. Remember Eyeless? I''m sure he''ll be able to survive to the very end. On top of that, I heard that he''s always picking fights with the most powerful opponents he can find. Once Oni no Miko summons Yamata no Orochi again, he''ll be sure to challenge her! When that timees, all we have to do is sit on the sidelines and watch them battle it out!"

    King Arthur was swayed by Hook''s reasoning, but at the same time, he couldn''t help but feel a little exasperated.

    "Why are you always thinking about these underhanded tricks?"

    "Because I''m weak! For powerful adapters like yourself, you''re always thinking about contests of power, whereas weaklings like me are always thinking about strategy." Despite referring to himself as a weakling, Hook seemed to be a little proud as he made this deration. "For me, every battle that I''ve won since I left the academy has been an underdog story, and all of the enemies I''ve beaten have been far more powerful than myself!"

    "You know what? You''re right!"

    Hook''s first-ever battle outside of Layton Academy was against the scarecrow anomaly, which was either a peak level four anomaly or a level five anomaly that was on the slightly weaker side. At the time, Adam and his friends had been far weaker than the scarecrow anomaly, yet they had still managed toe out on top, and they had done so by relying on the environment and the assistance of Deranged Pig.

    "Compared with how much more powerful than us the scarecrow anomaly was back then, the power gap between us and Oni no Miko right now is nothing!"

    "You''re right!" Nie Yiyi also recalled that battle after being reminded by Adam. "We have way better chances now than we did back then!"

    "It sounds like you''ve endured some very hard battles together," King Arthur remarked as he patted his dragon steed, instructing it to continue on its way. "I look forward to seeing you beat the odds again."

    With that, the team progressed onward, and they soon arrived at the next supply point under Hook''s guidance.

    However, all of the cards in this supply point were already gone, and there were some signs of battle on the scene. It was clear that they had been toote.

    However, right as they were about to depart from the supply point, a fleet of supersonic nes suddenly flew across the sky, dropping a series of loot crates that fell out of the sky with parachutes attached to them.

 Chapter 200: The Adorable Trio

    <h4>Chapter 200: The Adorable Trio</h4>

    "The airdrop supplies have arrived!"

    King Arthur patted his dragon steed, and it immediately rose up into the air, flying after the nearest airdropped supply.

    Everyone else hurriedly also followed along.

    .

    The "airdrop" was a concept that was also derived from the battle royale game from a century ago.

    After the game had been in progress for a set amount of time, the director would instruct the server to spawn nes like the ones seen in the Metaverse, and these nes would then airdrop supplies onto the map.

    These loot crates werepletely randomized, so there was no telling what was going to be inside them.

    Some contained good supplies, some were duds, and there were even some that were empty.

    However, in any case, this was essentially a free lottery, so everyone was happy to participate.

    In particr, at this point in the game, many of the supply points had already been looted, so these airdropped supplies were even more valuable.

    King Arthur was able to fly, so he reached the loot crates in the air before everyone else and caught the first one.

    However, Diana was a massive target, and the airdrop had attracted the attention of everyone else in the area. As a result, as soon as King Arthur caught the first loot crate, a gunshot immediately rang out from down below, following which a sniper rifle bullet struck his dragon steed in the abdomen.

    The bullet possessed immense prating power, managing to punch through Diana''s scales and inflict an injury. However, thanks to her enormous size, such a small injury was far from life-threatening.

    "Diana, protect your heart and your head!"

    Golden light began to radiate from King Arthur''s palms, and two pieces of golden armor instantly appeared on Diana''s chest and head to protect her vitals.

    The snipe rifle possessed immense prative power, but its bullets werecking in destructive power, and therefore quite easy to defend against.

    "The bullet came from that direction."

    At this point, King Arthur had already caught the loot crate, and on the ground below, Adam and the others immediately sped toward the direction that the bullet hade from.

    However, by the time they arrived on the scene, there was already no one to be found.

    "They were probably a team that was solely focused on ambushing others."

    Even though this was only Adam''s first battle royale, he had seen some footage of previous editions of the event, and he knew that there were quite a few teams in all editions that were constantly lurking in the shadows to ambush others while avoiding direct confrontations unless they had a massive advantage.

    Generally speaking, these teams weren''t very powerful, but they all possessed very annoying abilities, such as Goblin''s team from earlier, or this sniper, who switched locations after each shot. Adam recalled that in the previous edition of the battle royale, there was a team of thieves that focused solely on stealing from others.

    These teambinations were able to exploit certain loopholes in the game, so they generally ended up doing quite well.

    An example of this was the team of four thieves from the previous edition of the battle royale. All four of them possessed pitifulbat prowess, but they were all capable of concealment, and one of them was very fast, another one had the ability to mask the telegnosis of others, the third one could temporarily control one''s mind so that theypletely let down their guard, and the final member of the team was able to punch holes through walls.

    They were like a team of rats that were constantly scurrying across the map, stealing from supply points, airdrops, and other battle royale participants.

    Unfortunately, their greed got the better of them, and they decided to try and steal from a team with a member that had a very potent alert ability much like Rattlesnakes. As a result, two members of the team were killed. If it weren''t for thatpse in decision-making, they would''ve had a perfect performance in the battle royale.

    Compared with Rattlesnake, Hook''s alert abilities were inferior, but his tracking abilities were superior. After making a mark on the spot, Hook pulled out a handful of powder before tossing it up into the wind.

    "They''ve gone in that direction. Should we go after them?"

    "No, let''s wait until after the airdrops are done."

    These teams that liked to ambush others were generally had very good self-preservation abilities. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have dared to participate in the battle royale.

    If it weren''t for the fact that the airdrops were still ongoing, Adam would''ve been inclined to hunt them down. These thieves often had some cards on them, and Adam was very eager to get his hands onto some skill cards to help his cause.

    "Should we split up and go to a few more airdrop sites?" Nie Yiyi was looking at the loot crates falling out of the sky with an eager expression. "If we wait any longer, the supplies could be taken by others."

    "Splitting up is very risky, but then again, doing anything in the battle royale carries an element of risk. Let''s split up and gather as much airdropped supplies as we can, then meet back up here once the airdrops are done."

    With that decision made, the trio immediately dispersed. Even Hook, who possessed next to nobat prowess, had concealed himself in a cloud of mist and departed to try his luck. His usefulness in battle was extremely limited, but his abilities made him quite a good thief.

    After everyone split up, Adam began to rush toward the nearest airdrop site in his direction.

    At the same time, he invoked Mummy, Hellhound, and Sludge, and the three anomalies also rushed away in different directions.

    "Go after those crates, but make sure not to get too far away from me, ande back right away if you run into any danger," Adam instructed through his psychic connection with the three anomalies.

    Invoked anomalies couldn''t stray too far away from the invocator, but thankfully, the crates that were visible to Adam weren''t too far away. The only problem was that the three anomalies were all extremely weak. Even after absorbing some of the anomalic power in Sithu''s psychic world, Hellhound and Sludge were still only level two anomalies, ranking them alongside powerful B tierbatants or bottom-dwelling A tierbatants. In a one-on-one basis, they were basically no match for any of the participants in this battle royale.

    Mummy was obviously quite a bit more formidable than the other two anomalies, but given its terrible condition, its powers were severely limited.

    This was why Adam had instructed them toe back at the first sign of danger. Essentially, Adam had only sent them to try their luck and see if they could get to any airdrop points where there weren''t any other battle royale participants in the nearby vicinity.

    Around five minutester, Adam arrived in front of the first crate, but he had only just arrived when a group of three people burrowed their way out from underground nearby.

    "We spotted this loot crate first!"

    The three of them all had different animal heads, belonging to a mole, a white rabbit, and an armadillo, respectively. All three of them were semi-psychic mutants, but in contrast with the other psychic mutants that Adam had encountered in the past, these three were quite adorable in appearance, and they didn''t appear to be very bright.

    "That''s right! We saw it first, so it''s ours!"

    "Yes, it''s ours!"

    Psychic mutants were all adapters with mental problems, and these three were clearly also mentally handicapped.

    However, Adam didn''t dare to getcent. The fact that they were able to survive to this point despite their less-than-ster intelligence indicated that they had to be quite powerful.

    "I recognize you!"

    "I remember him as well. I''ve seen his past matches. This is just a form that he uses to fool people! He seems to be very weak in this form, but he bes a lot more powerful after he turns into that clown!"

    "Are you trying to take our stuff?"

    The three of them were speaking in tandem with one another, as if they each had their own lines to deliver.

    "Who are you?" Adam asked instead of answering their question. "I don''t recall seeing the three of you in Shadow City."

    "We were recruited to participate in the battle royale by North Leg King."

    "We''re not from Shadow City."

    "We''re here to make money!"

    "In that case, we can settle this peacefully. I don''t want any points cards, so you can take all of the points cards in this crate, but in exchange, I want all of the skill cards. What do you think?"

    Havinge into contact with psychic mutants in the past, Adam was somewhat familiar with their mental state. At their most vicious, they could be more abhorrent than even the most deplorable of individuals, but on the flip side, they could also be extremely naive and childish.

    An example of this was Mice King, who had been fooled into ying a pointless game with Adam and waspletely oblivious to the fact that all of the people in the club had already escaped.

    Judging from their outward appearance and their way of speech, it was clear that these three were even more naive than Mice King. Even though they were psychic mutants, the appearances of their psychic bodies still reflected their mental state, and when dealing with naive people, trickery was clearly the best strategy.

 Chapter 201: The Loot Crate

    <h4>Chapter 201: The Loot Crate</h4>

    "He says he wants to do a trade!"

    "No, he didn''t say that, he says he only wants some of the cards!"

    "What cards does he want again?"

    "I want the skill cards," Adam reiterated in a patient manner. "You want to earn money, so the points cards are obviously most important to you."

    "Yeah, he did say that. I feel like that''s fair."

    "It does make sense, but if we kill him, then we''ll get to have everything in the crate."

    "That sounds even better!"

    The rabbit-headed adapter seemed to be very impressed, and upon receiving this praise, the mole-headed adapter immediately raised his head as he dered, "That''s why I''ve always been saying that I''m the smartest out of the three of us."

    "You three are definitely some of the smartest people I''ve ever met, but you were saying earlier that you''ve seen footage of my past matches, and you know how strong I am. If we get into a fight, even if you can win, it''ll still take a long time. By the time the battle ends, all of the other crates will have been taken by other people. That doesn''t sound like a very good deal, does it?"

    "I think he''s right!"

    The rabbit-headed adapter quickly expressed his agreement.

    "He seems to be a smart guy as well."

    The mole-headed adapter gave Adam''s intelligence his seal of approval.

    "Alright, then let''s do as he says. All we want is money, anyway," the armadillo-headed adapter decided.

    The trio approached the loot crate as they spoke, and one of them smashed it open to reveal a glowing golden card inside, bearing a message that read: "Jewel card. The one who obtains this card and manages to survive to the very end can trade it in to the director for a 25-carat Graff pink diamond."

    "What''s a Graff pink diamond?"

    "As the name suggests, it''s a type of pink diamond. As long as it has decent purity and color, a 25-carat Graff pink diamond will be worth somewhere in the tens of millions."

    As soon as Adam caught sight of the light radiating from the contents of the loot crate, he immediately knew that some good stuff was going to be uncovered. He had thought it would perhaps be an advanced skill card or an exit card, but he certainly wasn''t expecting it to be essentially a jewel redemption voucher.

    "Looks like the director''s trying to spice the game up a little with all these different types of cards." A disappointed look appeared on Adam''s face as he turned and prepared to depart. "As we agreed, you can have this card."

    "Wow, you''re a man of your word!"

    "I can''t believe you''re handing so much money over to us!"

    "He''s definitely a good person." The three psychic mutants immediately began to shower Adam with praise. "If we see you in the final zone, we''ll consider killing youst!"

    All of a sudden, a thought urred to Adam. It was clear that these three were mentally handicapped, which meant that they could potentially be used and exploited.

    "By the way, may I ask where North Leg King is? You mentioned that he was the one who recruited the three of you, right?"

    "He called us stupid, so we ate him."

    "His legs were very chewy!" the rabbit-headed adapter proimed. "But the rest of his body wasn''t that good."

    "Yeah, he tasted pretty bad."

    Adam had to fight back the urge to denounce the trio upon hearing this. No normal person would''ve killed their own teammate in the battle royale.

    "He got what he deserved! I can''t believe he would dare to insult the intelligence of such incredibly smart people as yourselves. He deserved to be eaten!"

    "He called us smart!"

    "No one''s ever called me smart aside from you two, not even my mum!"

    "Same with me! My dad almost sent me to Carlin Asylum. It''s a good thing I''m so smart and killed him before he could do that."

    The three deranged adapters began to exchange words of praise,mending one another''s intelligence.

    "I''ll be going now. I''m sure given how incredibly intelligent the three of you are, you wouldn''t forget your promise, right?"

    "What promise?"

    "Your promise to kill mest if we make it to the final zone."

    "Of course we wouldn''t forget! We never forget anything with our massive IQs!" the rabbit-headed adapter promised in a confident manner. "Don''t you worry!"

    "Alright, see you around!"

    This promise from the three psychic mutants was far more useful than any skill card, and Adam was very content as he rushed away in another direction.

    At this point, all of the airdropped loot crates had alreadynded, so he could only search for them based on his recollection of where they were going to fall.

    On the way there, he sensed through his psychic connection with his anomalies that Sludge and Mummy were under attack, and he hurriedly withdrew them.

    Looks like they must''ve run into some other participants.

    Thankfully, Sludge and Mummy were pure defense-type anomalies with immense physical resistance, so they were able to survive the attacks.

    After running for a while longer, Adam sensed Hellhound rushing back to him, and he turned to discover Hellhound rapidly approaching him from a certain direction, leaving a trail of mes in its wake. Most importantly, there was a loot crate clutched between one of its jaws.

    "Damn, you really did it!"

    The fact that Hellhound was able to capture this loot crate indicated that there had to have been no other adapters near it, and Adam eagerly met it halfway to inspect the contents of the crate.

    He pulled the huge wooden crate out of Hellhound''s mouth, then sliced it open with his sharp ws to reveal six points cards inside.

    That''s disappointing.

    After stowing the points cards away, he withdrew Hellhound and continued to advance in the direction where he recalled one of the loot crates had been airdropped to.

    After traveling for around six to seven kilometers, he spotted a small wooden shack, and the loot crate hadnded directly in front of it.

    Adam was just about to approach the loot crate when he noticed several gun-wielding figures who resembled soldiers arriving on the scene.

    That''s the team that attacked King Arthur earlier!

    Adam noticed that one of the figures had a sniper rifle on his back.

    Initially, there were only 136 battle royale participants, but arge chunk of them had to have already perished at this point. Furthermore, there weren''t many sniper-rife-wielding adapters, so Adam was almost certain that he had found the culprit.

    So you like to ambush people... Let''s give you a taste of your own medicine!

    Adam was hiding in a bush, and given Nun''s rtively small stature and dark clothing andplexion, it was ideal for carrying out sneak attacks.

    The team up ahead was quite adept at ambushing others, but it was clear that they were also quite susceptible to ambushes themselves.

    Telegnosis was the primary tool at one''s disposal when it came to protecting oneself against ambushes, and the potency of one''s telegnosis had a direct corrtion with their power. Aside from telegnosis, the only other tool that could be relied on to detect hidden opponents would be special detection abilities, such as the one disyed by Rattlesnake.

    In contrast, abilities rted to concealment, infiltration, and burrowing were primarily relied upon for ambushing others, and that had nothing to do with telegnosis. Adapters who possessed abilities of that nature generally didn''t have any detection abilities. After all, one could only have a limited set of abilities, and those limitations applied even to powerful adapters.

    Just as Adam expected, the team of gun-wielderspletely failed to detect Adam''s presence, and they immediately opened the loot crate after arriving at the airdrop site.

    However, as soon as the crate was opened, a facehugger sprang out from inside before jumping onto one of the adapters'' face, then curled up into a ball before squirming through the adapter''s nostrils and into his brain.

    Is that a parasitic artificial adapter?

    Through his research into the subject, Adam knew that just like normal anomalies, artificial anomalies were born from certain deficiencies or obsessions, thereby giving them all types of different forms.

    There were massive anomalies that were as huge as trucks, but also far smaller anomalies like facehugger.

 Chapter 202: Kill the Healer First

    <h4>Chapter 202: Kill the Healer First</h4>

    After being possessed by the parasitic anomaly, the adapter immediately began to howl in agony.

    His voice traveled very far, and it was clearly audible even to Adam, who was lurking two to three kilometers away.

    He must be in a lot of pain to be screaming that loud.

    Upon hearing the man''s screams, Adam''s initial reaction was to leave, but he quickly changed his mind. Given that everyone on this team was capable of concealing themselves and they were so adept at ambushing others, they had to be carrying quite arge number of cards.

    The bullets from that sniper rifle have very limited destructive power, making themrgely ineffective againstrge targets, but they possess remarkable prative power, so they should be very effective against smaller targets with weak defenses, such as invocators and technomancers.

    After some analysis, Adam realized that he may have underestimated this team''s powers.

    Perhaps their powers in directbat were quite mediocre, but when it came to ambushing others, they were perhaps superior even to Goblin''s team.

    Thinking back, if that bullet had been fired at Nie Yiyi instead of King Arthur, there was a good chance that she would''ve been killed on the spot.

    Everyone who dares to participate in the battle royale possesses some measure of power, but unfortunately for you, luck is also a part of power, and your luck is really not that great.

    After making up his mind, Adam pressed himself tightly against the ground and began to quickly crawl toward the small wooden shack like an insect.

    For the average person, it would''ve taken around 10 minutes of running to cover the distance of two to three kilometers, and even for those who were more athletically capable, it would''ve taken a run of seven to eight minutes.

    However, for a level two anomaly like Nun, it didn''t take anywhere near as long.

    Even though he was crawling, his maximal speed still exceeded that of a cheetah, and it took him only less than two minutes to arrive near the airdrop site.

    At this point, the enemy team was still trying to save their afflicted teammates.

    The man who had been possessed by the anomaly was screaming and struggling with all his might, but his skin had turned ck and green, and his muscles were also bulging in a grotesque manner, while spikes were emerging from his bones.

    Adam knew that if one were to be possessed by a parasitic anomaly, as long as they weren''t far more powerful than the anomaly, they generally wouldn''t be able to escape the fate of bing a puppet to the anomaly. That was what made parasitic anomalies so terrifying.

    Their bodies were very frail, and they were easy to kill, but if they could sessfully possess a host, they would often be able to take multiple lives, killing the host and those around them.

    However, it wasn''tpletely impossible to save someone during the anomalification process.

    Two of the afflicted adapter''s teammates had already ced him in joint locks to restrict his movement, while the third one was uttering cybercode while spraying some type of strange concoction onto his body.

    As soon as the concoction made contact with the man''s body, blisters instantly began to appear on his skin, and the anomalification process seemed to have been interrupted for a few seconds.

    However, the concoction''s effects were very limited, and the man pulled out a strange silver bullet, which he ced onto his teammate''s body. That bullet seemed to be also somewhat effective, and the anomalification process was slowed down even further.

    "What do we do?"

    "We''ll do our best to save him, but if we can''t, then we''ll just have to kill him. It would be bad if we wait too long and he ends up fully converting."

    After deciding on a course of action, the other two teammates were just about to pull out their guns when the sky suddenly turned dark.

    In order to present a better viewing experience, there was a real-time day-night system in the battle royale world that matched the time in the real world.

    The battle royale hadmenced at around 2 PM, after the automaton battles in the morning and the subsequent celebrity performances. At the moment, it was close to 6 PM, and at this point, the light of the sun had already dimmed slightly, but visibility was still very high, and there was no way that night could''ve fallen so quickly.

    Even if night had fallen, there was no way that it would be so dark that they couldn''t even see their own outstretched hands.

    "We''ve been ambushed!"

    The three members of the team instantly realized what was happening, and they were just about to raise their guns when they felt someone bump into them, following which their possessed teammates suddenly received a sharp surge in strength.

    "Someone''s taken the exorcism bullet!" the man who had been administering treatment this entire time eximed, and immediately thereafter, he screamed in pain as he was attacked by an unseen enemy.

    "Don''t panic! Let''s conceal oursel..."

    Before he had a chance to activate his concealment ability, he felt as if his entire body had been bound tightly, as if he had been possessed by an anomaly as well.

    The final member of the team was also crushed under an enormous weight, making it a difficult task just to draw breath.

    The Lights Out ability wasn''t one that could be maintained for very long, and after a brief moment of chaos, the sky abruptly brightened again.

    The sunlight filtered through the darkness, and after regaining their vision, the trio discovered that they were surrounded by anomalies, as if they had fallen into a den of anomalies.

    At this point, their possessed teammate had alreadypleted his anomalification process, turning him into a hulking ck mountain of muscle.

    Aside from him, the sniper was bound by a distorted anomaly that was protruding out of his shadow, while the machine gunner was being crushed under an anomaly that resembled a massive pile of sludge.

    The adapter who had been administering treatment to their anomalified teammate had the most anomalies around him, namely a two-headed dog with mes pouring out of its mouths, a nun-like anomaly with sharp and elongated ws, and a mummy that appeared to be in terrible physical condition.

    The man looked down at the ws that had pierced into his abdomen, and he immediately realized who his assant was. "You''re Lean Mean Killing Machine!"

    "That''s right."

    Adam pulled his ws out of the man''s body, and as soon as he did so, Hellhound immediately chomped down onto the man''s head and began to tearing at it like ?a ragdoll. At the same time, Mummy threw its arms around the man from behind before crushing him with all its might, quickly shattering all of the bones in his body.

    Under the immensepressive pressure, blood began to pour out of the wound that had been inflicted onto the man''s abdomen, and it didn''t take long before his internal organs came gushing out as well.

    You can never go wrong killing the healer first.

    With one final strike, Adam slit the man''s wrist to put an end to his life.

    "Retreat!"

    All of a sudden, a burst of geomaic light erupted from the machine gunner''s body to send Sludge flying, following which he opened fire on the shadow of his sniper teammate to force back Distortion.

    After being freed by his teammate, the sniper hurriedly threw out several special grenades, which exploded to produce a cloud of smoke and deafening high-pitched soundwaves, thebination of which confounded both one''s sight and hearing.

    Adam fought his way through the difort and rushed into the smoke, trying to capture the two fleeing enemies by relying on his telegnosis.

    However, as soon as he rushed into the cloud of smoke, he was immediately struck from all sides by a barrage of oing bullets. The bullets possessed immense prative power, and Adam was instantly wounded.

    As soon as he recovered some vision, he immediately instructed his anomalies to join him in his efforts to capture the enemy duo, but as soon as they got close, the pair of gun-wielders quickly adopted a different fighting style, using their guns as both firearms and close-range melee weapons, catching Adampletely off guard.

    Finally, they were able to buy themselves enough time to activate their concealment abilities before immediately fleeing the scene.

    Looks like there really are no slouches in the battle royale.

    Adam had thought that he would be able to make easy work of the duo, but as it turned out, he had underestimated them.

    The two of them had only been so intent on fleeing because they were aware of Adam''s reputation. If they had chosen to stand their ground instead, there was a very good chance that Adam would''ve been no match for them unless he recruited Clown''s help.

 Chapter 203: No Weaknesses

    <h4>Chapter 203: No Weaknesses</h4>

    With the two gun-wielders fleeing the scene, Adam was forced to face the artificial anomaly on his own.

    With his current powers, this was going to be a difficult fight, but he couldn''t get away.

    Following the enhancements granted to them by the director, all of these anomalies wereparable in power to upper mid level S tierbatants, thereby granting them immense strength and speed, and Adam''s original n was to use the artificial anomaly topletely eradicate the enemy team.

    However, the two surviving members of the team had fled far too quickly, catching himpletely off guard. As a result, he was left with the unenviable task of facing the artificial anomaly alone.

    Even though he was no match for the anomaly, the good news was that he had two meat shields in the form of Mummy and Sludge on his side, while Distortion was able to restrict the enemy''s movements, so he was more than capable of stalling for time.

    While stalling the anomaly, Adam was constantly surveying his surroundings. He had a feeling that given the underhanded nature of this team, there was a very good chance that the two surviving members hadn''t gone very far away at all.

    ¡­¡­

    As it turned out, Adam was correct.

    After the two surviving members of the team fled the scene, they quickly hid themselves behind a massive rock instead of continuing to flee into the distance.

    "That bastard snuck up on us!"

    "How many cards do you have left on you?"

    "Not many. Most of the cards were being carried by Tank. He was the most durable one out of all of us, who could''ve predicted that he would be possessed by anomaly?" The sniper was watching the battle taking ce at the airdrop site through the scope of his sniper rifle. "He doesn''t seem to be very strong in this state. Do you think I can blow up his head with one shot and get our cards back?"

    "Are you sure you can do that? All powerful adapters have very potent telegnosis, and he''s currently fused with an anomaly, so even if he takes a bullet through the head, he may not die. If you don''t manage to kill him in one shot, and he decides toe after us in his most powerful form, we''ll be in a world of trouble. We managed to get away from him once, but we may not be so lucky next time."

    "In any case, I want to give it a try."

    The sniper removed the magazine of his rifle before recing the bullets with armor-piercing rounds, then aimed his scope directly at Adam''s head.

    In the same instant, a chill suddenly ran down Adam''s spine. His telegnosis wasn''t very sharp, so he couldn''t detect which direction the threat wasing from, but he could sense that his life was under threat.

    "Protect me!"

    Adam immediately rushed toward Sludge and Mummy at the first premonition of danger, but at the same time, the armor-piercing round had already been fired.

    The bullet flew through the air at supersonic speed, and it arrived even before Adam was able to hear the gunshot.

    Thankfully, at this point, he had already positioned himself between Mummy and Sludge, and barring any unforeseen mishaps, their huge bodies were going to shield him from the bullet.

    Sure enough, the bullet was intercepted, but unfortunately, right as it was approaching Adam, the bullet circled around in the air, bypassing the two massive anomalies to strike Adam.

    Both Adam and the sniper were dismayed by the final oue.

    Adam had done the right thing by immediately seeking cover from the bullet, but even though he had already positioned himself between a pair of meat shields, he was still struck by the bullet.

    As for the sniper, he was extremely frustrated by the fact that the bullet hadn''t punched through Adam''s head.

    However, he refused to be disheartened, and he immediately prepared to fire again.

    "Sludge!"

    After being struck by the bullet, Adam could feel that it had pierced straight through his abdominal cavity. The bullet possessed immense prative power, and if he were to be struck on the head, there was a very good chance that he would be killed on the spot.

    With that in mind, Adam immediately sprang into action without any hesitation, undoing his fusion with Nun before the second bullet arrived before fusing with Sludge instead.

    Sludge was an anomaly that he very rarely fused with, not because it wasn''t powerful, but because its abilities almostpletely ovepped with Mummy''s.

    Both of them were defense-type anomalies, and as a level three anomaly, Mummy was decidedly superior to Sludge.

    However, in this situation, it was made clear to Adam that there were some differences between the two of them.

    Mummy''s defensive prowess stemmed primarily from the hardness of its body, while Sludge''s defensive prowess was derived from its regenerative abilities and the fact that it had no vital regions, therefore resulting in no weaknesses.

    During Adam''s battle against the sludge anomaly, he hadpletely ttened it into a pile of sludge, yet it had still been able to make a full recovery.

    These attributes made it particrly useful against armor-piercing weapons. Mummy would perhaps also be able to withstand armor-piercing rounds, but there was still a chance for injury, particrly in its current weakened state, while Sludge was essentially the perfect counter to attacks of this nature.

    As soon as Adam fused with Sludge, the second bullet immediately arrived, and it punched directly through his head with such tremendous force that arge chunk of his head was blown straight off.

    The chunk of sludge that was sent flying off Adam''s head quickly squirmed back to Adam afternding on the ground, while sludge from other parts of Adam''s body rose up to rece the missing chunk in his head, and it took no more than three seconds for his head to return to normal.

    "Is that all you''ve got?"

    Adam spread his arms open in a gesture of provocation aimed at the direction that the bullet hade from.

    "Cocky bastard! Let''s see if you can keepughing after I switch to my incendiary rounds and high-explosive rounds!"

    Adam''s provocation hadpletely enraged the sniper, yet right as he was about to continue firing at Adam, he was stopped by his teammate.

    "Don''t fall for his trap! He''s intentionally provoking you! Look over there."

    The sniper turned to the direction that his teammate was pointing in, upon which he noticed a few figures approaching them from afar.

    "His teammates are already on the way. If we stay here any longer, we won''t be able to get away. As the saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. We''ll have more chancester on to exact our vengeance!"

    "You''re right. With our concealment abilities and long-range shooting, we''ll definitely have more opportunities!"

    The sniper was no idiot, and he knew that his teammate was right. Thus, he immediately packed up his sniper rifle, and the two of them quickly departed.

    Prior to his departure, he took one final nce in Adam''s direction to find that he had already been reduced to a massive sludge pancake by the artificial anomaly, and that made him feel slightly better...

    ¡­¡­

    By the time Nie Yiyi and the others arrived at the airdrop site, Adam had already been ttened countless times by the artificial anomaly.

    "Why are you in such a disgusting form?" After forcing back the artificial anomaly with King Arthur''s help, Nie Yiyi turned to Adam with a hint of disgust in her eyes. "We agreed to meet back up at the original airdrop site, and you were the only one who failed to show up. Why did you get so far away? If it wasn''t for Hook, it would''ve taken us a very long time to track you down."

    "It was worth the trip! I spotted quite a few cards in the torn clothes of that artificial anomaly earlier. I''ll act as the meat shield, you guys take that thing down!"

    Adam rushed toward the artificial anomaly once again as he spoke, only for half of his body to be blown apart by a single punch from his opponent.

    "It looks like he''s using this form because he''s worried about his other invoked entities being killed by that artificial anomaly." King Arthur was quickly able to make sense of Adam''s strategy. "Let''s put an end to this!"

    With the entire team focusing their efforts on attacking the artificial anomaly, it was only able tost a few minutes before it perished to King Arthur''s sword.

    After dealing with the artificial anomaly, King Arthur picked up the cards beside it, and Nie Yiyi also found a few cards beside the body of the team healer, who Adam had killed earlier.

    "This is quite a decent haul. Most of the cards are points cards, but we managed to find a couple of nice skill cards as well."

 Chapter 204: Penultimate Zone

    <h4>Chapter 204: Penultimate Zone</h4>

    "What are the two skill cards?"

    Adam inspected the pair of skill cards to find that one of them was an elementary healing card, while the other one was an intermediate psychic recovery card.

    Having already witnessed an elementary healing card in action, Adam focused his attention on the psychic recovery card.

    So this card allows the user to recover arge amount of psychic power in a rtively short time. This thing is a godsend for me!

    Adam was ecstatic to have obtained such a useful skill card.

    For adapters like the sniper and Nie Yiyi, this card wasn''t very useful. Their psychic bodies were too frail, so in an intense battle, there was a very good chance that they would''ve already been severely wounded or killed before they had a chance to exhaust their psychic power.

    Another example of this was the healer of the enemy team, who had been killed by Adam''s sneak attack before he had a chance to use any of his abilities.

    However, Adam''s case waspletely different. In his Clown form, it was very difficult for him to be killed. In fact, killing him was a very difficult task even if he were only fused with Mummy or Sludge.

    Given his attributes, he was much more at risk of running out of psychic power than he was of being killed by a single attack.

    "With this card, I''ll be far more effective in battle!" Adam didn''t make any attempt to hide his intentions and immediately tried to im the card for himself. "I think this card should be given to me. Does everyone agree?"

    "I agree." King Arthur was the first one to respond. "This card suits you more than anyone else on our team."

    With King Arthur agreeing to the proposal, Nie Yiyi and Hook naturally raised no objections.

    "These two cards were left behind by the enemy team. Did you guys manage to find anything from the airdrop sites?"

    "I managed to find an elementary healing card." Nie Yiyi pulled out a card that was identical to the healing card from before. "There seems to be quite a few of these on the map. The only problem is that the rate of healing granted by these cards is too slow, so it''s not very useful in battle."

    "The director most likely intentionally put more elementary healing cards onto the map to make things more interesting in the final showdown," King Arthur analyzed. "It would be quite a letdown for the spectators if everyone''s already half-dead by the time the zone shrinks down to its final form. Everyone wants to see the most powerful adapters at the height of their powers. That''s probably what the director wants as well."

    "If these things are somon, then I''ll use one now." Adam pointed at Mummy as he spoke. "I''m still counting on Mummy to put in some work, but it won''t be able to do much in its current state."

    Outside of Clown, Mummy was Adam''s most powerful anomaly.

    If Mummy had been in peak condition, there was a good chance that Adam would''ve been able to take down one more of the enemy team''s members. Even if that wasn''t possible, at the very least, he wouldn''t have beenpletely dominated by that artificial anomaly.

    In his fused form with Mummy, Adam possessed powersparable to a lower mid-level S tierbatant, and with all of his other anomalies at his disposal, he would''ve been able to easily keep up with the artificial anomaly.

    "You''re right, it really is too weak in its current state. If these cards aren''t that rare, then just use one now."

    Nie Yiyi tossed the card at Adam, who immediately injected his psychic power into it to trigger its effect, and once green healing energy began to slowly seep out of the card, he pressed it against Mummy''s body.

    With the healing card in effect, the sunken sections of Mummy''s skull began to slowly recover, as did all of its broken bones and torn flesh. New bandages were also beginning to slowly emerge from its body to rece the destroyed ones.

    "Are we going to search for any airdrops that are further away? If so, I''ll withdraw Mummy into my body so it can slowly recover."

    "There''s no point. ording to my past experience, airdropped supplies will all be taken by nearby teams in a short time, so even if we go after ones that are further away, we won''t be able to find anything. All of the supplies will have already been taken at this point," King Arthur said. "What we have to do now is prepare for the next stage, which is the penultimate zone. In this stage, our main goal will be to ambush other teams.

    ¡°At this point, most of the supplies on the map have already been imed, and everyone is being herded to the center of the map by the ever-shrinking zone, so there will be less and less area avable to move around in. Hence, the vantage points on the main paths leading to the center of the map have be extremely important strategic locations as those who im those vantage points will be able to see all of the people passing through the area."

    Adam nodded in response. Having reviewed footage of past editions of the battle royale, Adam knew that this was always a very hectic stage of the game. At this point, the zone had already shrunken down significantly, so there were only several paths left leading to the final zone.

    All those who were able tost to this point had to have quite a few cards in their possession.

    Given that everyone was distributed throughout the map, it was virtually impossible for anyone to survive to this point and still bepletely empty-handed.

    At this point, most of the supply points had already been looted, so the quickest and most lucrative way to gather resources from here onward would be to rob other teams.

    Only at this stage of the game was the battle royale truly beginning to reach its climax.

    In order to gather resources, teams would be forced to go up against one another in direct battle, and the majority of those who wanted to win the battle royale or still hadn''t obtained exit cards were going to perish in this stage.

    "Do we want to attack or defend?"

    Adam was asking for everyone''s opinions.

    Defending entailed iming a vantage point first, and the benefit of such a strategy was that one could im the vantage point before anyone else and set up traps for all of the passing teams, much like Goblin''s team had done earlier in the battle royale.

    At this point in the game, there were only several routes avable to the final zone, so all teams essentially had to pass through those areas, even if they knew that there were traps waiting for them.

    However, the downside to such a strategy was that other teams would also be trying to im those vantage points, so the team that imed a vantage point first would have to face many teams in battle one after another, thereby creating greater potential for danger and psychic power expenditure.

    The alternative strategy was to attack, and the benefit to that strategy was that one could choose to wait until what they deemed to be a suitable opportunity arrived before making a move. For example, they could wait until most of the other teams had already attacked the defender, or if they could tell that the defender was already a spent force. Thus, adopting this strategy granted one more control and initiative.

    However, the downside to this was that all attackers were of the same mindset, so everyone would be waiting for the other teams to strike first. It was often the case that many of the attacking teams would wait too long, and the shrinking zone would force all of them to make a move at once, thereby creating an extremely chaotic situation.

    Ultimately, there was a very good chance that not only would an attacking team not be able to im the vantage, they would be swept up into a free-for-all battle.

    "Let''s go and take a look at the situation first. None of us have abilities that make us good at setting traps, so I feel like we should observe the situation first before deciding on a n."

    "Alright, that sounds like a good strategy."

    Adam took a nce at the ever-approaching green barrier, and he waited until around half of Mummy''s injuries had been healed before fusing as one with it.

    Following the fusion, he immediately felt a cool and refreshing sensation surge throughout his entire body. It was a very enjoyable experience to be basked in the healing green light.

    "It''s a good thing that the healing effects will still persist even after fusion. Let''s go!"

    King Arthur jumped onto Diana''s back as he prepared to depart, but this time, he didn''t dare to fly.

    They were about to enter the penultimate zone, and he would be making a massive aerial target out of himself if he were to take to the sky.

 Chapter 205: Three Vantage Points

    <h4>Chapter 205: Three Vantage Points</h4>

    The zone was shrinking faster and faster, and night was also gradually approaching. Adam and his team made their way toward the final zone, but before arriving there, they were greeted by the sight of a valley.

    "Wow, this terrain is ideal for the defending team."

    Up ahead was a long and narrow valley with elevated ground on either side of it. At its lowest point, the valley was over 50 meters deep. The elevated ground on either side of the valley was extremely t and spacious, creating a stark contrast with the long and narrow valley down below. If a team were to im the high ground, they would be able topletely dominate any team that attempted to pass through the valley.

    "How about we im the vantage point first?"

    Adam was very tempted by the prospect of iming such a favorable vantage point, but as soon as his voice trailed off, Hook stowed his telescope away as he said, "It looks like it''s already been imed."

    "By who?"

    "They''re too far away, so I can''t see them clearly, but one of them is wearing monk robes, so it should be Dead Wood''s team."

    "That''s not going to be easy to deal with."

    Dead Wood was one of the top-ranking S tierbatants, and prior to Oni no Miko''s arrival, he had always been ranked second in the S tier. Granted, he was a distant second to Eyeless, but he was still second, nheless.

    Of course, following Oni no Miko''s arrival, his status as the second-ranked S tierbatant had be rather debatable. Previously, Adam had been of the opinion that Dead Wood and Oni no Miko were roughly on equal footing with one another, but after witnessing Yamata no Orochi invoked by Oni no Miko, he was convinced that she was the more powerful adapter of the two.

    "Let''s go somewhere else."

    The penultimate zone wasn''t veryrge, so it didn''t take very long for Adam and his team to travel to the next vantage point, where Hook whipped out his telescope again to observe the area from afar.

    "Let''s go to the next ce."

    "Is there someone already up there?"

    Hook nodded in response.

    "Who is it?"

    "Eyeless."

    "Alright, let''s get out of here."

    No one wanted to mess with an ultra-powerful madman like Eyeless. It was clear that he had imed one of the vantage points so that other teams would attack him.

    After traveling for another 10 minutes, Adam''s team arrived at the third vantage point, which had already been upied by Oni no Miko''s team.

    Even though Adam and the others were observing the vantage point from quite far away, they were still discovered by the technomancer''s dove, and he reported their presence to Oni no Miko.

    .

    At this point, the technomancer had already mostly recovered from his injuries, thanks to the elementary healing cards that he had received from Oni no Miko.

    "Mistress Miko, Adam''s team has appeared outside the valley. Should we go after them?"

    "How far away are they? They''re a dozen or so kilometers away, and one of them is observing us using a telescope."

    Oni no Miko considered the idea for a moment before shaking her head.

    "They''re too far away. By the time we get to them, they''ll have already escaped. On top of that, other teams have already gathered near the area, so if we leave now, this vantage point will most likely be taken by others, and that would be a heavy loss for us."

    "That''s true." Diamond was a seasoned yer in the battle royale, and he didn''t allow his emotions to get the better of him. "We got here this early so we could hunt down as many teams as possible. At the very least, we have to capture a few healing cards. It''s going to take quite a few of them for my body to recover."

    Adam''s body had already recovered somewhat, but it still wasn''t looking quite as full and muscr as before. It was clear that given the special nature of his body, a single elementary healing card wasn''t enough for him to make a full recovery.

    "We''ll take care of that brat sooner orter. There''s no need to take any undue risks."

    "Alright, then we''ll leave them be for now."

    The technomancer naturally wasn''t going to raise any objections to the two leaders of the team.

    Meanwhile, Hook was also observing Oni no Miko''s team from outside the valley.

    "Oni no Miko''s imed this vantage point?" Nie Yiyi was rather surprised to hear this, and there was even a hint of concern in her eyes. "Has she discovered us yet?"

    "Given how they were able to track us down earlier, I''m sure they''ve already discovered us, but it doesn''t look like they intend toe after us."

    "It sounds like they want to face us in the final zone. In that case, we''ll grant them their wish. Let''s find another path into the final zone."

    With that, the team set off again, only to return to the initial vantage point, which was the valley that had been taken over by Dead Wood.

    "These three valleys form a circle!"

    Only after arriving back at the initial vantage point did Adam and the others arrive at this realization.

    The final zone was tucked behind the three valleys, so it was most likely a basin.

    All of the paths leading to the final zone required one to pass through the vantage points, which was bound to be an extremely arduous endeavor, given the extremely unfavorable terrain.

    "It looks like the map was specially designed so that attacking teams will be forced to pick their poison and engage one of the defending teams in direct battle."

    "That makes sense. The final zone is about to take shape, so it''s no surprise that the map is designed in a way to build up to a climax," Hook remarked. "I''m just wondering how they managed to get here so quickly. I thought we were already very fast in getting here."

    "Perhaps those defending teams decided to pass up on the airdrops entirely and came here in advance to im these vantage points," King Arthur spected. "They would rather take from others than waste time collecting resources from airdrops."

    "In any case, we''ll have to choose a team to attack."

    "Are we going to choose this one?"

    "It''ll have to be this one."

    There was no way that they were going to attack Eyeless, and with the threat of Yamata no Orochi up her sleeve, Oni no Miko clearly possessed superiorbat prowess to Dead Wood. Dead Wood''s team certainly wasn''t weak, by any means, but it was definitely the weakest of the three avable options.

    "Alright, then let''s... Hold on, there''s someoneing. I''m gonna hide."

    As usual, Hook concealed himself at the first sign of a potential battle.

    Adam and the others also ducked into the shadows upon hearing this, and it didn''t take long before they spotted three people approaching from the distance. The leader of the trio was someone that Adam was familiar with.

    After a moment of contemtion, he decided to take a risk and emerged from the shadows before waving at the trio from afar.

    "There''s someone waving at us, Boss," a fiery figure said as he turned to the ninja next to him.

    "It looks like Lean Mean Killing Machine. As expected, he managed to survive to this point."

    The ninja''s face was concealed behind a visor, and he directly approached Adam.

    He appeared to be walking at a very slow and leisurely pace, but somehow, he was able to cover arge distance with every single step, almost as if he were able to shrink the ground in front of him.

    With each seemingly small step, he was able to cover a distance of several meters, creating a mirage-like visual effect that was extremely ufortable to behold, almost to the point of being nauseating.

    It didn''t take long for the ninja to approach Adam, and Adam extended a casual greeting. "Good to see you, Ikkaku."

    Ikkaku nodded in response.

    "Have you found Oni no Miko? I''ve been trying to find her, but I haven''t had any luck."

    "I did. She''s over there on that mountain" Adam pointed at a distant mountain as he spoke. "But I''d advise against going to her."

 Chapter 206: Kagura

    <h4>Chapter 206: Kagura</h4>

    "Why is that?" Ikkaku was rather surprised to hear this. "In a situation like this, shouldn''t you be inviting me to go after her with you? This is the perfect opportunity for us to join forces and take her down."

    "Doesn''t that go against the rules prohibiting teams from coborating with one another."

    "There''s an exception to the rule if there are vendettas involved. The director''s willing to make exceptions to most rules as long as it means more ughter and bloodshed. You and I both have a vendetta against Oni no Miko. Diamond joined Miko''s team because you''re a shared enemy of theirs, so there''s no reason why we can''t team up against them."

    "That makes sense."

    Adam contemted the situation for a moment, and he decided that with Ikkaku''s help, this was indeed a good opportunity to face Oni no Miko.

    Thus, he decided to diverge away from his original n.

    "We''ll go and take a look first. There are more and more teams gathering around these parts. Even if we''re going to attack, we can''t be the first ones to do so."

    "I agree." Ikkaku could see that there were indeed other teams approaching the area, and he turned to his teammates as he instructed, "Follow me!"

    "You guys cane out as well. Let''s go back to where Miko is."

    Thus, Adam''s teammates also came out from their hiding spots, and the two teams departed together.

    The two teams amounted to a total of seven adapters, three of which were S tierbatants. In fact, both Adam and Ikkaku ranked in the top half of the S tier, so no one dared to mess with this newly formed super team.

    More and more people were gathering in the nearby area, but all of them chose to conceal themselves.

    "Generally speaking, only around half or just above half of the participants manage to survive to this point." Ikkaku was surveying his surroundings as he spoke. "There was a total of 136 participants to begin with. If we assume only around half of them are left, then that leaves 68 participants, nine of whom have imed the three vantage points, so there will be a total of 57 participants looking to attack the defending teams. Is there any information you''d like to share with me?"

    In contrast with Oni no Hanzou, who was an assassin/ninja hybrid, Ikkaku was more like a traditional ninja, one that was very cautious and old-fashioned.

    After some consideration, Adam decided that seeing as they were teaming up with one another, sharing information would benefit both sides.

    Thus, he revealed, "Oni no Miko is even more powerful than I imagined, and that''s why I initially tried to advise against going after her. She''s able to invoke a mythical monster simr to Yamata no Orochi. I don''t know exactly how powerful that thing is, but at the very least, it''s several times more powerful than she is in her base form?"

    When it came to the Oni Organization, Ikkaku was actually more knowledgeable than Adam was. He had already been studying the Oni Organization for many years, so he was aware that Oni no Miko ranked third among the eight Onis. Thus, she was already extremely powerful to begin with, and having to face an invoked entity that was several times more powerful than her was certainly a very daunting prospect.

    "I wasn''t aware of that. I thought I already had a very high opinion of her, but it appears I''ve underestimated her." Ikkaku exhaled deeply, as if he were trying to release some pressure. "Invoking a powerful mythical being must be extremely taxing on her. What we can do is force her to invoke Yamata no Orochi, then immediately retreat and wait for her to exhaust her psychic power!"

    Adam was very impressed with Ikkaku''s quick thinking. This was the strategy that he had devised with his team, and it was very impressive to him that Ikkaku was able to think of the same strategy right away.

    "Let me tell you a bit about my team. I''m a wind ninja, I''m sure you''re already aware of that."

    "I am. I''ve done quite a bit of research on you."

    Adam had watched past match footage of all of the S tierbatants in preparation for this battle royale.

    Just like Nie Yiyi, Ikkaku also fought using the wind, but his mastery of wind-style ninjutsu was far superior to Nie Yiyi''s wind-based abilities.

    Ikkaku was an adapter whose powers were on par with Oni no Hanzou''s. Judging from his past match footage, Adam could tell that there wasn''t much of a power gap between the two, and it really was quite difficult to predict who would''vee out on top had Ikkaku gotten a chance to battle Oni no Hanzou.

    "These two are friends that I recruited from the outside, Ice Elemental and Fire Elemental. Unfortunately, we lost a member on the way here," Ikkaku introduced. "They''re able to control the power of their respective elements to unleash extremely powerful attacks."

    Adam turned to find that both of Ikkaku''s teammates were standing at over two meters in height. One of them was entirely enveloped in scorching mes, making it impossible to make out his facial features, while the other was giving off a cial aura, leaving a trail of frost on the ground in his wake.

    "How would you rate them?"

    "I''d say they''re both on about the same level as King Arthur," Ikkaku replied as he took a nce at King Arthur.

    The two of them had shed on many previous asions, so they were very familiar with one another.

    "Oh? Is that right?" King Arthur was rather unconvinced by this assessment, and he turned to the pair of elementals with abative expression, only to find that they were looking right back at him withpletely upromising demeanors, and that seemed to have earned them his respect. "You know what? I like confident people. I have faith in their abilities."

    Fire Elemental and Ice Elemental both burst intoughter upon hearing this, and the former''sughter sounded like the crackling of a me, while thetter''sughter resembled the sound of ice being crushed.

    Theirbined team quickly arrived within 10 kilometers of Oni no Miko''s location.

    At this point, the sky had already turned dark, but light was beginning to appear on the vantage point.

    Countless demonic creatures were basked within the light, gathered at the top of the hill as they screeched and howled menacingly to those at the bottom. At the point where the light was at its brightest, the dancing figure of a woman could be seen.

    "What is she doing?"

    Adam was too far away to catch a clear glimpse of Oni no Miko.

    "She seems to be performing some type of strange dance."

    Through his telescope, Hook could see that Oni no Miko had already removed her outermost garment to reveal the witch robes inside. At the same time, she was holding a folding fan and a bell while dancing to a strange rhythm. With each beat, the bell in her hand would chime once, and a circle of light would spread through the surrounding area.

    Basked within the light, the ghostly apparitions were extremely excited, and the ck energy wafting from their bodies was bing more and more potent as they howled and screeched incessantly.

    "That''s a ceremonial dance known as kagura. Essentially, it''s a ritual performed as a way of prayer in the east." As a ninja, Ikkaku was far more familiar with Japanese customs and traditions than everyone else in the group.

    "The Hyakki Yagyou seem to be growing more powerful."

    Even from 10 kilometers away, Nie Yiyi could sense the ghostly energy surging through the air.

    "Why is she using such a powerful ability from the get-go?" Hook asked with a perplexed expression.

    "She''s doing this for intimidation. She''s showing all those who want to attack the vantage point that she''s not to be messed with. With so many people gathering in the area, I''m sure she''s also worried about being attacked by everyone at once. However, it seems like her intimidation is working." Ikkaku closed his eyes as he spread his telegnosis throughout the surrounding area, then remarked, "There are very few people here, and most of them leave after taking a brief look. It seems like they would rather try their luck against Dead Wood''s team rather than fight the Hyakki Yagyou here."

    This wasn''t exactly a surprise. For the average battle royale participant, facing a duo consisting of Oni no Miko and Diamond was already an extremely daunting prospect, and the menacing sight of the Hyakki Yagyou presented even further discouragement.

    "We''re the only ones left. Should we give it a try?"

    Adam took a deep breath as he watched the gradually approaching green barrier in the distance, and in the end, he decided to invoke Clown.

    "We''re definitely not going to leave before at least making an attempt."

    Ikkaku made a hand seal and vanished on the spot amid a gust of fierce wind.

 Chapter 207: Child of the Wind

    <h4>Chapter 207: Child of the Wind</h4>

    Following Ikkaku''s departure, Adam also disappeared in a sh after fusing with Clown.

    Both of them were extremely fast and capable of self-concealment, and by the time they reappeared, they were already near the summit of the hill.

    As soon as they drew close, the three-tailed foxes, the horse head demons, and the other apparitions among the Hyakki Yagyou with keen senses of smell immediately detected that something was amiss, and they instantly cried out to warn theirpanions.

    "Look out, Diamond! We''ve got trouble!"

    As soon as Oni no Miko''s voice trailed off, a ninja suddenly appeared directly above her. The ninja was holding a kunai knife, which he thrust directly toward the top of her head.

    With that attack, a powerful tornado came descending out of the sky.

    Oni no Miko didn''t allow the attack to interrupt her dance, merely invoking the shikigami to shield her from the attack. Immediately thereafter, the bell in her hand began to chime incessantly, and the Hyakki Yagyou around her rose up into the air before converging toward Ikkaku from all directions in a frenzy.

    "Wind Style, Air Wall!"

    Ikkaku plunged his kunai knife into the shikigami''s body, then manipted the wind to fly up into the air like an agile bird. At the same time, he spread his palms open, and the surrounding air was instantlypressed from a series of walls to stop the Hyakki Yagyou in their tracks.

    However, Ikkaku wasn''t going to get the one-on-one battle that he desired.

    The walls of air were as hard as reinforced ss, but as soon as they took shape, they were immediately mowed down by Diamond, who crashed through the walls like a wrecking ball before leaping up into the air,unching himself straight at Ikkaku.

    "I didn''t know you were so eager to die, Diamond!"

    Despite his cocky taunt, Ikkaku refrained from engaging Diamond in a direct sh. Instead, he spread his arms open and rose up with the wind to an altitude of around 100 meters. Immediately thereafter, upward-rising air currents were generated beneath his feet, allowing him to stand in mid-air while he made a string of hand seals.

    "Hundred Tornado Technique!"

    As he shed through a sequence of hand seals, the air around him became extremely turbulent, much like a petnt child that was about to throw a fit at any moment.

    In the instant that he thrust his palms downward, a ferocious storm of wind took shape at once, and dozens of tornadoes came sweeping down from the heavens, descending upon the Hyakki Yagyou down below.

    The tornadoes possessed immense tearing force, sweeping up all of the smaller demons in the blink of an eye, while therger demons were also picked up before being violently mmed into the ground, shattering their bones and snapping their tendons.

    In the face of such a violent storm, even Oni no Miko was unable to continue dancing, and she was swept straight up into the air.

    At this point, Clown finally emerged out of thin air, and as soon as it appeared, it immediately conjured up 10 clones of itself. All 10 clones were wielding old-school chainsaws, and after being turned on with a sharp tug on their recoil starter cords, the des of the chainsaws were plunged forward, aiming at all parts of Oni no Miko''s body.

    "I''ll cut your heart, I''ll cut your neck, I''ll cut your feet, I''ll cut your belly, I''ll cut your legs..."

    The ferocious storm of wind was filled with the sound of Clown''s deranged cackling.

    Both sides were quite familiar with one another''s abilities, so they were all going all-out from the get-go, making no attempt to hold back or conserve power. In a battle between adapters of their caliber, taking one''s foot off the pedal even for a moment could result in catastrophic consequences.

    The technomancer wanted to use his illusions to assist Oni no Miko, but he had only just raised his hands when he was also swept up into the air.

    Diamond''s enormous body weight ensured that he wasn''t swept up by the storm, but having just sprung up into the air to attack Ikkaku, he hadnded quite far away from Oni no Miko, so he wasn''t going to be in time to save her.

    In this crucial, juncture, it was the Shelled Tiger who sprang up into the air to save the day.

    As he rose up into the sky, his body transformed into a ball of light, which enveloped Oni no Miko''s body right before she was struck by the chainsaws. All of a sudden, Oni no Miko''s entire body was encased in a suit of green armor.

    The suit of armor was as hideous as a turtle''s shell, but it was extremely practical, and evenpared with Mummy, its defensive prowess wasn''t inferior by much. The chainsaw des being wielded by Clown''s clones raised bright trails of sparks upon striking the suit of armor, but were unable to do anything other than leave a few faint marks.

    So that''s what his role on the team is!

    At this point, everyone else from Adam and Ikkaku''s teams had already arrived, and after assessing the situation, Nie Yiyi finally understood why the Shelled Tiger had been included in Oni no Miko''s team.

    She had faced the Shelled Tiger in battle before, and she certainly didn''t have a very high opinion of his powers. Given Oni no Miko''s power and status, she could''ve easily found a more powerful teammate than the Shelled Tiger. In fact, even the Technomancy Tiger was a far more powerful adapter than his fellow Tiger.

    However, everything suddenly made sense now.

    The Shelled Tiger''s main role wasn''t to engage enemies in direct battle. Instead, his job was toplement Oni no Miko and cover her bases.

    Oni no Miko''s defenses were veryckluster, but the Shelled Tiger could address that weakness.

    "Don''t get distracted, we have to focus on what we need to do!"

    In the sky above, the storm of tornadoes gradually subsided. Maintaining an attack of such a massive scale was extremely taxing on one''s psychic power, and even a powerful adapter like Ikkaku couldn''t keep this up for very long.

    This attack had only been designed to create chaos and ward off the Hyakki Yagyou to create an opportunity for Adam to attack Oni no Miko.

    Now that this objective had already been aplished, there was no need to maintain the attack any further.

    Around 20 to 30 of the Hyakki Yagyou had perished in the storm of tornadoes, but all of the stronger ones were stillrgely unscathed, and afternding on the ground, they began to attack Clown and Ikkaku.

    Even though both of them were capable of self-concealment, there were many demons among the Hyakki Yagyou with extremely sharp senses of smell. In addition to that, Oni no Miko no longer had any weaknesses, and that,bined with the technomancer''s illusions and Diamond''s raw physical prowess, meant that they were immediately able to gain the upper hand over Adam and Ikkaku.

    Thankfully, Adam and Ikkaku still had reinforcements toe.

    .

    At this point, Fire Elemental and Ice Elemental had already climbed halfway up the hill, and they immediately entered the fray from there. The first one to attack was Fire Elemental. He took a deep breath, then exhaled violently, and a flurry of mes was instantly released, sweeping directly toward the Hyakki Yagyou.

    The mes that erupted out of his mouth werepletely different from Diana''s mes. Diana''s dragon mes were released in the form of a pir, and they were unable to change direction or actively seek out targets.

    In contrast, the mes unleashed by Fire Elemental resembled a fire spirit that was dancing through the air, and not only was it capable of actively tracking down targets, it could even seek out the oxygen in the air and all other mmable substances to make itself stronger.

    Initially, the fire released by Fire Elemental had only been roughly the size of a basketball, but by the time it reached the Hyakki Yagyou on the summit of the hill, it had already swelled to the size of an entire basketball court, and it was tearing through the Hyakki Yagyou tremendous destructive power.

    After that, it was Ice Elemental''s turn. He raised his hands before rubbing them together incessantly, and an ice spirit that was as translucent as a snowke quickly took shape. As soon as the appeared, it immediately skipped its way onto the battlefield and flew over to Oni no Miko, who was in the process of aiming an arrow at Ikkaku. However, she had only just pulled back the bowstring when her arms were frozen to the spot, thereby allowing Ikkaku to avert the crisis.

    While Oni no Miko was frozen to the spot, Ikkakushed out in retaliation, sending three shurikens spinning through the air. As the shurikens flew toward Oni no Miko, they spun faster and faster with the assistance of the wind, and the in the end, they were spinning so fast that they resembled a set of ck circles of death.

    The shurikens struck Oni no Miko right as they reached maximal rotational speed, shattering the ice around her with a dull thump and cracking the suit of green armor that she was wearing.

 Chapter 208: Greed, Hatred, and Ignorance

    <h4>Chapter 208: Greed, Hatred, and Ignorance</h4>

    After returning to her senses, Oni no Miko quickly inspected the cracks that had appeared on her armor, then turned her attention to the other members of Adam and Ikkaku''s teams, who were making their way up the hill, and she immediately waved a hand through the air, instructing the Hyakki Yagyou and the shikigami to adopt a defensive formation.

    "Diamond, stay by my side and protect me!"

    "I''m on it!"

    After hearing Oni no Miko''s request, Diamond immediately abandoned his pursuit of Ikkaku and Clown before rushing over to her side.

    Things aren''t looking good...

    In the sky above, Ikkaku took a nce at Oni no Miko and Diamond, and he couldn''t find any openings to strike at.

    He had faced Diamond in battle on many previous asions, and neither one of them had been able to get the better of the other.

    Diamond possessed no special abilities, but his body was like an impregnable fortress. Even a powerful lightning or fire style ninja with extremely high destructive capabilities would''ve struggled to break through his defense, let alone a wind style ninja like Ikkaku.

    Ikkaku could easily outrun Diamond with his wind style ninjutsu, but there was nothing that he could do to hurt Diamond.

    Not only was Oni no Miko protected by her armor and her shikigami guardian, Diamond was also now fullymitted to ensuring her safety, and that made it virtually impossible for Ikkaku and Clown to strike at her effectively.

    Furthermore, as long as she remained safe, her invoked entities and those powerful arrows of hers were all capable of severely harming Adam and Ikkaku''s teammates.

    Adam had also identified this.

    Even though his mind was in a rather foggy and inebriated state, he could see that the Hyakki Yagyou had imed the high ground under Oni no Miko''s orders before raining down attacks upon Nie Yiyi and the others.

    Some were releasing toxic mist, some were throwing up torrents of ck sludge, some were pushingrge rocks off the top of the hill...

    Their inability to effectively deal with Oni no Miko ced them in a very disadvantageous position in this battle, and what was even more daunting was the fact that Oni no Miko still had Yamata no Orochi up her sleeve.

    Adam wasn''t familiar with the serpent''s abilities, and if they were to continue to force the issue, there was a very good chance that Nie Yiyi and King Arthur would meet their demise in this battle.

    They still hadn''t made it to the final zone yet, and Adam wanted to avoid taking such significant risks before that point.

    Ikkaku''s thought process was also quite simr to Adam''s. Down below, Fire Elemental and Ice Elemental were struggling to deal with all of the attacksunched at them by the Hyakki Yagyou. The two of them possessed extremely impressive offensive prowess, but their bodies were quite heavy and clumsy, and their defenses were also rather mediocre. Once Oni no Miko began directing her arrows at them, there was a very good chance that they would be killed on the spot.

    With that in mind, Ikkaku immediately dered, "Let''s retreat!"

    It was important to be decisive in situations like this, and Ikkaku conjured up a dust storm as he spoke to obstruct Oni no Miko''s vision.

    At the same time, all of Clown''s clones began to unleash a ferocious barrage of attacks upon the Hyakki Yagyou, quickly blowing a hole in their formation.

    "Let''s see who can run the fastest! If you''re not fast enough, you''ll die!" Clown cackled as it fled the scene, and everyone immediately followed suit, rushing through the opening in the Hyakki Yagyou''s ranks.

    Thebination of the firepower output from Clown''s clones and the dust storm formed the perfect smokescreen, and by the time the dust settled, Adam and Ikkaku''s teams were nowhere to be seen, leaving only the severely ravagedndscape behind them.

    Oni no Miko naturally wasn''t going to give chase. The game still hadn''t truly entered its climax yet, so she didn''t want to take any excessive risks, either.

    Even though Ikkaku and Adam''s attack had ultimately ended in failure, they had managed to force Oni no Miko to reveal another one of her abilities. At the same time, their actions caused a chain reaction in the entire penultimate zone.

    They were the first group of people to attempt an attack on a vantage point, and given how much of amotion the battle had caused, it had drawn the attention of many teams that were lurking in the distance, such as Medusa''s team and the four mecha brothers.

    The four mecha brothers had failed to find an exit card, so they had no choice but to enter the penultimate zone. At the moment, they were the most eye-catching figures in the area. Even in their disassembled form, they were still a group of four bulky mechas. In addition to that, they had no concealment abilities, so they were unable to hide themselves from any of the teams that passed through.

    Fortunately for them, everyone was thinking about how to get into the final zone, so no one attacked them.

    "That was quite the battle!"

    "Indeed. Judging from that storm of tornadoes, it looks like Ikkaku was involved."

    "That final round of firepower output was also pretty ferocious. I think that was Lean Mean Killing Machine at work."

    "That makes sense, considering both of them have a vendetta against Oni no Miko. Why''s it suddenly gone quiet? Is the battle over?" The four mecha brothers were a little disappointed. "Let''s get out of here. It looks like we''ll have to try our luck against Dead Wood."

    ¡­¡­

    The four mecha brothers weren''t the only ones who intended to attack the vantage point that Dead Wood''s team was upying. There were still dozens of participants left in the battle royale, and everyone wanted to go after the weakest possible target.

    In the wake of Adam and Ikkaku''s failure to defeat Oni no Miko''s team, almost all of the remaining participants had gathered at the foot of the hill that Dead Wood''s team was upying.

    "What the fuck is wrong with these people?" A turret architect on Dead Wood''s team was looking into the distance through a pair of night vision binocrs with a disgruntled look on his face. "Why are there so many people here? Are they all looking down on us? What do we do?"

    The architect turned to Dead Wood as he spoke.

    "Don''t fret, everything is going exactly as we nned."

    Dead Wood was seated on the ground in apletely still manner, and with his withered appearance, he truly did resemble a dead tree with not a single hint of vitality in his body.

    "The more the merrier!"

    Beside Dead Wood was a portly monk and another monk who was extremely, but had an enormous mouth. Just like Dead Wood, both of them were also wearing monk robes, but their faces didn''t hold the calm and cid expressions one would expect to see in a monk. Instead, their expressions betrayed strong emotions and desires.

    .

    Each of them had a tattoo of an ancient character on the backs of their necks, and those who could read that ancientnguage would know that the characters represented "greed", "hatred", and "ignorance".

    These were the three poisons of Buddhism. Much like the seven cardinal sins of Catholicism, the three poisons were considered to be the root of all sins in the Buddhist religion. Greed, hatred, and ignorance relegated one to be eternally trapped in the cycle of reincarnation, unable to attain peace or freedom.

    In Buddhist beliefs, hell didn''t exist. Instead, the human world itself was hell, and only by casting aside green, hatred, and ignorance could one liberate oneself from this hell.

    Greed referred to a desire for all things considered to be good, such as wealth, beautiful women, immortality, delicious food... If those things couldn''t be obtained, then one would be tormented by their greed, but if those things were to be obtained, one''s greed would ensure that they were never satisfied and always wanting for more.

    Hatred epassed all negative emotions, such as anger, envy, and jealousy.

    Ignorance was the root of all troubles, and those who were ignorant didn''t know right from wrong, or good from bad, leading to boundless troubles and worries.

    "I invited the two of you here with the objective of winning this battle royale." Even though Dead Wood''s lips weren''t moving, sound wasing from his throat. "I''m about to leave Shadow City, and I''m going to obtain the director''s bequeathment before I leave. It''s about time that we began."

    "Indeed. Now that everyone''s here, it''s time to get the ball rolling," the portly monk agreed. "I was worried that not enough people would show up, but it seems my concerns were unwarranted."

 Chapter 209: Chanting of Sinful Intent

    <h4>Chapter 209: Chanting of Sinful Intent</h4>

    After departing from Oni no Miko''s vantage point, Adam and the others also arrived on the hill that Dead Wood''s team had upied.

    "Don''t do anything before someone else makes a move!" Adam instructed. "Let''s wait and observe for now. The zone is still closing in, so let''s see who blinks first!"

    This was a mindset that was shared by everyone, and as a result, it was eerily peaceful, much like the calm before the storm.

    However, the game had been designed by the director to ensure that these periods of inactivity would be very fleeting and short-lived. The spectators were going to have some time to freshen up and take toilet breaks, but nothing more than that.

    The sky gradually turnedpletely dark, and a sinister murmur began to ring out across the barren in. Adam turned to find that the green barrier was getting closer and closer.

    He grabbed Hook''s telescope and looked beyond the green barrier, upon which he discovered countless zombie-like creatures outside. There were also some particrly imposing figures among the hordes of zombies, and Adam was able to identify those hulking figures as artificial anomalies.

    "What the hell is this? Why are there zombies?"

    "Is this a new element introduced into the game?"

    The spectators in the real world had already noticed the zombies long ago, and they were very excited by this new game feature, eagerly awaiting a battle between the adapters and the zombies.

    Where did these zombiese from? Were they invoked by the director? Is he an invocator? hewoitqhewtqoiehtoiewtqewhoewqthwqeht

    Adam was very perplexed, and he had no intention of finding out how powerful these things were.

    At the moment, the zombies were trapped behind the green barrier, but as the zone continued to close in, the zombies were getting closer and closer. The cyberhex cast by the director meant that one would sustain constant damage if they were to end up outside the zone, and that, in addition to all those zombies and artificial anomalies outside, was abination that no one wanted to face.

    "The barrier''s almost here! Why is no one doing anything?"

    Hook was looking around in an agitated manner like a cat on a hot tin roof.

    "Hurry up! If no one makes a move, then everyone has to die!"

    ¡­¡­

    Of course, he wasn''t the only one who was feeling agitated. Everyone else was just as tense and anxious as he was, but they were all forcibly suppressing their nerves.

    As the green barrier drew closer and closer, the chewing sounds from the zombies could already be heard, and finally, someone cracked under the pressure.

    A burly figure emerged from his hiding spot as he yelled, "We have to take action now, everyone! I know there are many people here, and I know that we all want to wait for others to attack before us, but the zone is about to close in on all of us, so it''s time to take action! Who''s with me?"

    After a brief silence, someone responded to his call.

    "What do you suggest? That we all charge together?"

    "That''s right! We charge as one, and we pick off anyone who dares to hide at the back!"

    "That sounds like a n!"

    More and more voices were ringing out, and Adam and the others were also in approval of this course of action.

    "If we all storm the hill at once, there''s no way Dead Wood''s team can stop us!"

    "Exactly! There are dozens of us here, even Eyeless wouldn''t stand a chance against all of us!"

    "I agree!" Hook hurriedly said, making his opinion heard.

    More and more approving voices rang out across the wilderness, and after around 40 people had been gathered, everyone began to slowly advance toward the hill in the distance, cloaked in the darkness of the night.

    "Here theye!" On the summit of the hill, the architect was fiddling nervously with his turret as he turned to Dead Wood. "How do we do this?"

    "For now, just attack as normal. If we don''t retaliate at all, it may tip them off to the fact that they''re walking into a trap."

    "Alright, show me what you can do."

    The architect didn''t know anything about Dead Wood''s friends, and he didn''t know much about Dead Wood himself, either. He was a fugitive who had fled to Shadow City to escape retribution for his crimes, and he had only joined this team by chance.

    Dead Wood had promised to wipe his criminal record if they won the battle royale, and even if they couldn''t win, he had been promised a hefty sum aspensation.

    Dead Wood had a very keen eye, and he had chosen an ally that was perfectly suited to situations like this.

    They were the first ones to have taken over this hill, and at the moment, several dozen turrets had already been psychically manifested on the hill.

    After receiving permission from Dead Wood, the architect activated the sniper cannons andser cannon turrets first.

    These two types of cannons had the longest range, and the people climbing up the hill from down below had just entered that range.

    "Fire!"

    Under the architect''s psychic control, the turrets aimed at their targets before firing.

    Around a dozen powerfulser beams instantly shot forth into the distance, incinerating all of the nts in their path, and even melting the rocks on the ground into moltenva.

    As for the sniper turrets, their projectiles possessed devastating power that allowed them to punch through everything standing before them.

    Thankfully, all of the participants who had managed to survive to this point were quite capable in battle, and they either concealed themselves, unleashed defensive abilities to protect themselves, or took evasive measures to dodge the attacks.

    As they drew closer and closer, they began to enter the range of the other turrets, and more and more turrets were activated.

    There were sma cannons, high-explosive cannons, and even methrower cannons.

    All of the cannons were firing down from their vantage point at the top of the hill, and finally, some of the adapters down below were beginning to sustain injuries.

    However, the effect was stillrgely negligible. It was impossible for a single adapter to keep dozens of powerful adapters at bay. Even Oni no Miko couldn''t aplish such a feat.

    "This is impossible!"

    The architect was quickly bing disheartened. It was very difficult for him to strike even adapters of Nie Yiyi''s caliber, let alone the likes of Adam and Ikkaku.

    The ones he did manage to strike all possessed potent defenses, such as the four mecha brothers, sonding a hit or two on them didn''t have much of an effect at all.

    "Don''t be so quick to give up, young man."

    Dead Wood finally rose to his feet after hearing the architect''s despairing cries. He made his way over to the edge of the hill and looked down in an expressionless manner, then called out to the other two monks, "It''s about time, disciple brothers!"

    The other two monks approached Dead Wood upon hearing this, and the three of them began to chant a mantra in a strangenguage.

    The architect couldn''t understand thenguage, but he could sense boundless sinful intent in the mantra that was being chanted. The sinful intent gave rise to sinful thoughts that continued to umte incessantly in his mind until he was unable to take it anymore, and those thoughtspletely boiled over to rob him of his sense of reason.

    The sinful intent cascaded down the hill like a flood, and it had no substance, but it was imbued with extremely contaminative psychic energy.

    All of the people scaling the hill, including Adam, were struck by this sinister wave, but no one seemed to have been harmed at all.

    Right when everyone was perplexed by what had just happened, sinful thoughts suddenly began to rise up in their minds.

    Why am I always the one putting in all the hard work, while you get to enjoy the fruits of mybors?

    Adam turned to Nie Yiyi, and in that instant, she suddenly appeared utterly deplorable to him.

    Why are you so weak? Can''t you do anything useful? What right do you have to share the final reward when you''ve put in so little work?

    Adam''s greed was making him furious, his hatred was making him discontent, and his ignorance was robbing him of his sense of reason.

    In a fit of rage, he threw a punch at Nie Yiyi.

 Chapter 210: Samurai

    <h4>Chapter 210: Samurai</h4>

    Prior to Adam throwing a punch at Nie Yiyi, she had alreadyshed out at him with her des, and one of them struck Adam on the neck, while the other struck him on the waist.

    Thankfully, Adam was fused with Mummy at the moment, so the two de strikes from Nie Yiyi did nothing aside from raising some sparks and causing some minor pain.

    At the same time, a projectile from a sniper cannon just so happened to strike him on the waist, instantly blowing arge hole into his body.

    The pain allowed Adam to temporarily return to his senses, and the ignorance that was clouding his judgment faded to allow him to properly assess the situation.

    Why am I attacking her? Why is she attacking me? Am I under someone else''s control?

    Even though his mind still wasn''t very clear, Adam immediately threw his arms around Nie Yiyi before pressing her down against the ground with his enormous frame.

    All the while, Nie Yiyi was still struggling violently while yelling at the top of her lungs.

    "Get off me! I''ve worked so hard ever since I was a kid, why do you get to surpass me so easily? I work 10 times harder than you, why don''t I get the reward I deserve? This is not fair! Why do you get to have what I want without even trying?"

    Nie Yiyi continued to attack Adam with all her might, and right at this moment, another sniper cannon projectile struck Adam on the back to blow another massive hole into his body.

    If it weren''t for the fact that she was being shielded by Adam, there was no way that Nie Yiyi would''ve been able to dodge the attack in her deranged state, and she could''ve easily been killed.

    "Wake up!"

    Adam pped Nie Yiyi across the face to try and get her to return to her senses, but that only made her even more furious.

    Adam raised his head and looked around to find that the vast majority ofbatants on the battlefield had fallen into a deranged state, and they were either attacking their own teammates or randomly attacking others around them.

    The only ones who were able to retain their sense of reason were the ones who possessed abilities that could ward off the effects of mind-altering influences. An example of this was King Arthur, whose golden sword was releasing golden light to envelop himself and Diana, allowing them to just barely retain their sanity.

    Adam couldn''t help but be stunned by how powerful the mind-altering influence was.

    As the anomaly of pain, not only did Mummy possess incredible physical resistance, mind control abilities were also very limited in their effectiveness against it.

    However, even while fused with Mummy, Adam had fallen under the influence, so he knew that there was no way that Nie Yiyi would be returning to her senses anytime soon.

    With that in mind, Adam immediately wrapped up her body using his bandages, simultaneously protecting her while also restricting her movements.

    After that, he called out to King Arthur.

    "We have to retreat for now!"

    King Arthur nodded in response, and the two of them quickly made their way back down the hill.

    Before long, they had already retreated to the foot of the hill. Hook waspletely fine, so it seemed that the foot of the hill was outside of the sphere of influence of Dead Wood and his disciple brothers.

    "What happened?" Hook immediately asked. "Everyone just started fighting among themselves all of a sudden. Even Ikkaku was affected. I saw him kill Ice Elemental just now."

    Adam turned back to inspect the battlefield upon hearing this, and sure enough, Ikkaku had also fallen prey to the mind-altering influence permeating across the battlefield.

    However, even though he was in a deranged state, his battle instincts and powerful wind-based abilities still allowed him to dodge all of the turret projectiles and the attacks from those around him, and he waspletely untouchable on the battlefield.

    "I didn''t think Dead Wood would be such a pain to deal with."

    "The information I have on him doesn''t mention this ability at all, and he''s never used it before, either!" Hook was thinking back to the past match footage he had seen of Dead Wood''s, while Nie Yiyi was still yelling to vent her fury, but her voice had be a bit more muted. "I wonder when they''ll be able to return to normal."

    "I don''t think they''ll be returning to normal until the chanting ends."

    Adam turned to look behind him, and he discovered that the green barrier had already reached the foot of the hill. It was so close that the zombies and artificial anomalies beyond it were already visible to the naked eye.

    "What do we do?"

    Hook was beginning to panic.

    "If we can''t go over it, then we''ll just have to go through it," Adam replied as he cast his gaze toward the pitch-ck valley up ahead.

    Under normal circumstances, no one would try to pass through the valley due to the terrible terrain.

    Given how long and narrow the valley was, the chances of passing through it safely while enduring the defending attacks would''ve normally been next to zero, but this situation was different.

    "The effective range of their ability isn''t veryrge, and all of their attention is focused on the top of the hill, so it''s actually far safer in the valley."

    "You''re right! No one''s paying any attention to the valley right now!" King Arthur also immediately realized the feasibility of Adam''s proposed strategy. "Let''s go. We haven''t really gained anything from this, but at the very least, we have to ensure that we make it to the final zone."

    After making up their mind, the three of them didn''t dy any further. No one knew when the battle on the hill was going to end, so time was of the essence, and the four of them quickly rushed toward the valley.

    As soon as they made their move, some of the other people in the area immediately realized what they were doing, and they quickly followed suit. Adam turned to find that they were being followed by around a dozen people, and even Medusa''s team was among them.

    They''ve been waiting here this entire time! They really are a bunch of snakes! qhwiethqwiehtewoithweoithoiewqt

    Adam paid no heed to them as he continued to rush onward, but in this form, he was far slower than Medusa, who quickly caught up to him and extended a casual greeting as she slithered along next to him.

    "Hey, long time no see."

    "Why are you still here when you''ve already obtained an exit card? Are you nning to enter the final zone as well?"

    "The final zone is the most lucrative ce in the entire battle royale. Our team already has an exit card, so we can leave at any time. How could I possibly miss out on such a brilliant opportunity? Once you''re all done killing each other, I''ll swoop in to pick up the cards. If there''s any danger, then I''ll run away. I really can''t lose!"

    "You''re more slippery than any snake I''ve ever seen!"

    .

    "Hey, don''t say that! I''m just doing this for money! Besides, I helped you out earlier, didn''t I?"

    Medusa was intentionally being quite flirtatious with Adam, and that immediately sparked a hint of envy in Nie Yiyi''s heart. She still hadn''tpletely regained her sense of reason yet, and she immediately began to verbally denounce Medusa.

    Medusa was very amused by Nie Yiyi''s reaction, and she took great pleasure in goading her.

    Thus, the group made their way into the dark valley, and they made it all the way to the center of the valley without being attacked.

    Right as Adam thought that they were going to be able to progress to the final zone without a hitch, Medusa''s brows suddenly furrowed slightly as she drew to an abrupt halt.

    Even though Adam hadn''t sensed anything, he also immediately stopped cold in his tracks.

    "What''s wrong?"

    "Someone''sing."

    A grim look appeared in Medusa''s eyes as she spoke, and judging from the grave tone of her voice, it seemed that whoever wasing was even more formidable in her eyes than Oni no Miko''s Yamata no Orochi.

    Sure enough, as soon as her voice trailed off, a figure descended out of the sky. It was a man holding a samurai sword with a strip of ck fabric tied over his eyes.

    "How boring," the samurai sighed as hended on the ground. "I waited for so long on that hill, yet not a single person came to confront me! It seems everyone chose toe here instead."

    The samurai slowly made his way toward Adam''s group.

    He wasn''t a particrly imposing man, and he wasn''t walking very quickly, but each step that he took, Adam would feel his heart shudder in his ribcage, as if the man were treading directly onto his chest as opposed to the ground.

 Chapter 211: Envisioning Death

    <h4>Chapter 211: Envisioning Death</h4>

    All powerful people carried a certain level of psychic pressure.

    Even for people who weren''t adapters, those who possessed qualities like confidence, calmness, and extreme intelligence could exert immense pressure on others.

    Adam had encountered countless powerful adapters in the psychic world, but not many of them were able to truly exert psychic pressure upon him. In fact, it was a very exclusive list, consisting only of Sadou in his Great Sage form, Raven, Masao Yamamoto following his transformation, and now, Eyeless.

    All of the other people on the listmanded immense power, able to alter the environment of the psychic world around them with their sheer auras alone. However, not only was that not the case for Eyeless, he didn''t seem to have any impact on his environment at all.

    His movement wasn''t even apanied by the natural flow of air. and it was as if everything around him had fallenpletely still.

    The psychic pressure that he possessed was extremely restrained, and it was impossible to imagine just how intimidating he could be unless one had actually been directly in his presence.

    Compared with Adam, Hook was faring even worse. He felt as if he were being suffocated by the psychic pressure that Eyeless was giving off, and he instinctively tried to turn and run, only to be stopped by Anaconda.

    "Eyeless detests those who run away in the face of battle and refuse to ept the trials and tribtions of fate. If you run away, you''ll be the first one he cuts down."

    "Thank you."

    Hook was extremely grateful that Anaconda had stepped in right in the nick of time to save him.

    In the face of the psychic pressure being exerted by Eyeless, the group was slowly bing more and more anxious, and Hook wasn''t the only one considering retreat.

    This group had no cohesion to begin with, and in terms of moral character, they were almost definitely more deplorable than the group that had banded together to attack Dead Wood''s team. Everyone had agreed to make a move together, yet these people had chosen to stay behind, and they were all hoping that the others would pave the way for them at the cost of their lives.

    They were already cowering in the face of Dead Wood''s team, so it was no surprise that they didn''t dare to face an even stronger opponent in the form of Eyeless.

    Out of everyone in the group, Medusa was most reluctant to face Eyeless. They had faced off once before, and that encounter had concluded in a heavy defeat for her, so she was well aware of Eyeless''s powers.

    "Eyeless, there''s no point for you in fighting us. I suggest..."

    Medusa was just about to say something, but the approaching Eyeless didn''t give her a chance to finish. After getting closer to the group, he drew his de, and all Adam saw was a sh of white light, which nced past him before he even had a chance to react.

    Half of his face and one of his ears were instantly sliced open like tofu. In the face of Eyeless''s des, the ster defenses that he had always relied on were made to look impossibly frail.

    If that attack had been directed at him, Adam felt like he would''ve already been dead by now. However, the target of the attack was Medusa instead.

    The attack had nced past him, and in fact, only the wind that it had swept up had sliced into his cheek.

    How could there possibly be such a fast de?

    Adam turned to find that Medusa had already fled away into the distance, but one of her arms was missing, having been severed by the strike.

    Medusa was one of the fastest adapters that Adam had ever seen, but in the face of that attack, she was only just barely able to avoid sustaining a lethal blow.

    Even though her arm had been severed, she had earned herself some respite, thereby allowing her to speak.

    "You''ve faced Dead Wood in the past as well, but he''s hidden his true power this entire time. At the moment, he''s taking on dozens ofbatants on his own, so I''m sure he''ll be a difficult opponent, even for you."

    Medusa was indicating toward the battle that was taking ce on the hill in an attempt to divert Eyeless''s attention.

    He knew that for someone as obsessed with training and growing stronger as Eyeless, a stern challenge and a difficult battle were more alluring than any other reward.

    As long as one wasn''t free of desires, they would always have certain weaknesses.

    In this battle royale, Adam''s goal was to win, so he was willing to work with others as long as they could help him win. In contrast, the four mecha brothers desired wealth and an exit card, while Ikkaku''s was pursuing vengeance.

    Going by that logic, Eyeless''s weakness was his burning desire for challenges of increasing difficulty.

    Even though Eyeless couldn''t see, he still raised his head to sense what was happening around him, and it just so happened that themotion ringing out from the battle taking ce on the hill grew even louder at this moment.

    It seemed that the control was beginning to wear off, and some people were already gradually returning to their senses. In order to strengthen their influence, the trio of monks was bing louder and louder in their chanting, to the extent that the sinful intent that they were giving off was spreading even into the valley.

    "Interesting." Eyeless was rather intrigued by the sound of the sinister chanting. "I''ll let all of you go through if you can withstand one more attack from me."

    "Why should I be the one to withstand your attack? You can attack him! He''s more powerful than I am," Medusa imed as she pointed at Adam.

    "Is that so?" Eyeless turned to Adam upon hearing this. "I''ll be the judge of that!"

    In the instant that Eyeless turned his attention to Adam, his entire body instantly stiffened. He wanted to invoke and fuse with Clown, but Eyeless didn''t give him the chance to do so.

    In the next instant, Adam''s pupils contracted drastically as he saw something sh past his eyes. Immediately thereafter, the world began to spin around him, and by the time his vision stabilized, he saw his own body slowly falling to the ground.

    Why am I seeing my own body?

    That was Adam''s first thought, and his consciousness gradually began to fade immediately thereafter.

    Ah, so I''ve been decapitated...

    "He''s not as powerful as you im! You must pay the price for deceiving me!"

    After decapitating Adam, Eyeless turned and unleashed another attack at Medusa.

    This time, Medusa didn''t try to evade the attack. Instead, she directly opposed it with her signature petrification ability.

    Her petrification attack was the most powerful ability that Adam had ever seen. In fact, it could be said that this ability constituted the majority of Medusa''s power. It was a top-tier ability in all regards, and it was virtually an unstoppable force of nature that was impossible to keep at bay.

    However, for the first time in the battle royale, the inevitable nature of her ability was cast into doubt.

    In the face of Eyeless''s attack, the petrifying shockwaves released by Medusa were sliced into two before passing by on either side of Eyeless, petrifying all of the nt life around him.

    "You''ve gotten stronger, Medusa." After slicing through Medusa''s petrification attack, Eyeless stroked the de of his sword to find that tiny spots of stone had appeared on its surface. "Very good. You''ve withstood an attack from me, so you can go through now."

    After that, Eyeless quickly darted away, eager to move onto the next challenge and face Dead Wood''s team in battle.

    Meanwhile, Adam had alsopleted his own self-resurrection.

    After his headnded on the ground, he knew that death wasn''t far away, and before his consciousnesspletely faded, he enacted a n that he had envisioned precisely for situations like this.

    Given the frequency with which Adam found himself in life-and-death situations, he had envisioned his own death on more than one asion. He could be decapitated, have his body shattered, burned to death... All methods of death were possible.

    As a result of his visualization training, he arrived at a conclusion, which was that as long as he didn''t sustain damage so severe that he was instantly killed and had his consciousness erased, there was a way for him to potentially save himself.

    As an invocator capable of fusing with his own invoked entities, Adam was capable of pulling off some things that other adapters couldn''t.

    In the case of decapitation, it was very difficult for him to resurrect himself unless he had a special invoked entity at his disposal.

    Even if he were to invoke and fuse with Clown, his most powerful anomaly, he would still only end up as a decapitated Clown that would be dead before too long.

    Outside of a fusion state, he would fall to his demise even faster as his life force in his base form was very weak.

    The only chance for him to survive this attack was to fuse with Sludge. Virtually all anomalies could be killed by decapitation, but that didn''t apply to Sludge.

    Even if its body were to be blown up into countless pieces, it still wouldn''t die, so theoretically speaking, as long as Adam could fuse with Sludge before his consciousnesspletely faded, he should''ve been able to fuse his head back onto his body and return to life.

    Of course, this was only possible in theory. In practice, he had never attempted such a risky experiment, but now, the opportunity had finally presented itself. In fact, to be more urate, it had forced itself onto him.

 Chapter 212: The Directors Face

    <h4>Chapter 212: The Director''s Face</h4>

    "Go and see if he''s dead. If he''s not dead, then give him this advanced healing card."

    As soon as Eyeless departed, Anaconda and the others immediately slithered over to Medusa.

    "But your arm..."

    "It''s just a minor injury. An elementary healing card will suffice. I didn''t think that his reflexes and telegnosis would be so bad..."

    .

    Medusa was rather surprised by howckluster Adam''s telegnosis was.

    Even though she had intentionally thrown Adam to the wolves, she had always regarded Adam as an adapter on the same level as herself, so she had genuinely thought that he would''ve been able to weather the storm. Theoretically speaking, an invocator of his caliber should''ve been able to sense danger and react in advance. At the very least, he should''ve been able to invoke and fuse with Clown before the attack arrived.

    "We only have one advanced card."

    "It''s fine. Take it to them."

    By the time Anaconda made her way over to Adam with the advanced healing card, he had already been surrounded by his teammates.

    However, none of them appeared to be particrly furious or grief-stricken. Instead, they were merely looking on with dazed expressions, as if they couldn''t believe what they were seeing. Anaconda took a curious peek at what was happening, upon which she was greeted by the sight of a sludge monster picking up its own head before stuffing it into its abdominal cavity.

    After being sucked into the sludge monster''s abdomen, the head seemed to travel its way up its body before returning to its original ce.

    However, even after the head was restored, the sludge monster still remainedpletely still on the spot and wasn''t saying anything.

    "Are you alright?"

    Hook made his way over to Adam with a concerned expression, then waved an arm in front of Sludge''s face. However, that still garnered no reaction, so Hook gave it a few vigorous knocks to the back of the head.

    That seemed to have finally revitalized Adam, who abruptly took in a gasping breath.

    It was as if his soul had left his body, but had subsequently been restored.

    Only after taking a few deep breaths did Adam''s eyese into focus, and he saw the people around him. He saw his teammates, Medusa''s team, and all of the other people who were in the process of passing through the valley around him.

    "I''m not dead!"

    Adam lowered his head to look down at his own sludgy hands.

    Having endured so many perilous battles, Adam had brushed shoulders with death more than once. Even though this battle had been rather uneventful, he felt like this was most definitely his closest encounter with death.

    In the instant that he was decapitated, his consciousness had begun to fade, and he felt as if something were leaving his body before spreading into the air.

    His final thought was to enact his envisioned n as quickly as possible, separating from Mummy before invoking and fusing with Sludge.

    Halfway through this process, his consciousness had already almostpletely faded. In fact, he couldn''t even recall the second half of the procedure, and his body had only been instinctively enacting the n.

    I can''t believe that actually worked! That was way too close! If that attack had split my head open, I would''ve been dead right away!

    This "resurrection" ability wasn''t something that could be reliably used every time, and there was a major element of luck that had contributed to Adam''s survival on this asion.

    "How did it feel to be on the brink of death?"

    While Adam was still reeling from his near-death experience, Medusa had already made her way over to him, and looking at his current form, she had s rough idea of how he had managed to revive himself.

    "I heard that adapters will see more things than the average person right before death. What did you see?"

    "I saw... I saw... some things... I feel like I saw..."

    Adam didn''t finish his response as in the final instant, he saw the director''s face, the face that no one had ever seen before.

    Adam didn''t know how he was rted to the director and what it meant for him to see the director''s face in his final moments.

    If no one had ever seen the director before, then perhaps what he had seen was nothing more than an illusion.

    "How dare youe over here?" Nie Yiyi immediately erupted into a furious fit at the sight of Medusa. "You almost got him killed!"

    "So what? Is he a friend of mine? This is a game in which everyone is trying to kill everyone else, so why wouldn''t throw him under the bus if it benefits me? Don''t think that we''re friends just because we worked together once." Medusa brushed off Nie Yiyi''s usations with a casual smile. "Backstabbing is amon sight in the battle royale."

    "You''re right." Adam nodded in response, then took a nce at Nie Yiyi before turning to Medusa. "Don''t mind her, she still hasn''tpletely recovered from Dead Wood''s influence. You helped me once before this, so we''re all clear now, right?"

    "Normally, I would agree, but I don''t want you stabbing me in the back once we get into the final zone, so I''ll give you an advanced card aspensation for what happened here." Medusa gestured for Anaconda to hand over the card, then continued, "There are only a few people left in the game who can still pose a threat to me. I''ve already made enemies out of Diamond and Oni no Miko, if you turn on me as well, I''m going to have a very hard time getting anything out of the final zone, so how about we call it even now?"

    "Deal."

    This was a very good deal in Adam''s eyes. The battle royale was a free-for-all brawl anyway, and it was well within the rules to throw other participants under the bus. Hence, even though Adam was almost killed, he didn''t harbor much resentment toward Medusa.

    After epting the card, he and his team quickly continued deeper into the valley.

    Themotion ringing out from the top of the hill was growing louder and louder, and once that battle concluded, the brief period of safety that they were currently enjoying would be a thing of the past.

    Hence, time was of the essence, and everyone was trying to get to the final zone as quickly as possible.

    After passing through the valley, everyone arrived in a circr basin.

    The ground here was very t and even, giving it the resemnce of an enormous arena. There weren''t any trees or buildings in the area, and there were barely even any rocks here. It was clear that the director had specially prepared this final zone so that everyone would be forced to engage in a free-for-all battle out in the open.

    By the time Adam and the others arrived, they discovered that others had already gotten there ahead of them. In such a t and open environment, it was very difficult to avoid being seen unless one possessed concealment abilities.

    There are over 20 of them here already... That''s a bit more than expected.

    Aside from Adam''s group, who had just passed through the valley, some other battle royale participants had also managed to reach the final zone through alternative means.

    While Adam was still observing the people around him, the ground beside him suddenly split open, and a mole burrowed its way out from underground, followed by a white rabbit and an armadillo.

    "We finally made it to the final zone!"

    As soon as the trio emerged, they immediately caught sight of all of the other participants who had made it to this point. Generally speaking, the people who made it to this point were all extremely powerful and cunning individuals who weren''t going to engage in battle from the get-go. After all, there were still more people yet toe, and no one wanted to expend any psychic power before everyone had arrived.

    However, these three werepletely different. As psychic mutants, their logic was very simple.

    "Look at all these people! This is fantastic! After we kill them, all of their cards will be ours!" the white rabbit yelled in excitement before charging directly toward the crowd.

 Chapter 213: The Three Smarty Pants

    <h4>Chapter 213: The Three Smarty Pants</h4>

    "Why are you going all the way over there when there''s someone right here? You guys really need to smarten up and get on my level!"

    Mole directed his gaze toward Adam''s team as he spoke, then immediately charged at them.

    Electricity began to sh over Mole''s body as he ran, and he was moving extremely fast, disying top-end speed that wasparable to Medusa''s. In the blink of an eye, he had already reached Adam and his team, and the first target that he chose to attack was Nie Yiyi.

    At this point, Nie Yiyi had alreadypletely regained her sanity, but she had been rather quiet and subdued on the way here, still thoroughly embarrassed by how much of a fool she had made out of herself while under the influence of the monk trio.

    Thus, she was eager to redeem herself, and she immediately drew her des in preparation for battle.

    By the time her des were drawn, Mole had already arrived directly in front of her, and in the face of her attack, Mole raised his arms to create a of electricity, which intercepted Nie Yiyi''s des. Immediately thereafter, the electricity was conducted through her des to paralyze her entire body.

    "Weak trash!" Mole scoffed as an enormous wave of electricity erupted out of his body, threatening topletely inundate Nie Yiyi.

    Thankfully, King Arthur was able to stage a timely intervention, barreling into Nie Yiyi to knock her away while his entire body released golden radiance to withstand the attack.

    He was only able to withstand the wave of electricity for two seconds before being sent flying back through the air, and his body was so numb that he was unable to return to his feet.

    Diana hurriedly rushed over to protect him, opening her mouth to st a scorching pir of mes at the oing Mole.

    Instead of using his extraordinary speed to dodge the pir of fire, Mole thrust his palms forward to release a pir of lightning to directlybat the surging mes.

    The blue lightning and the red mes shed with a loud crack, but it only took several seconds for the lightning topletely dominate the mes. The pir of fire was quickly forced back by the opposing lightning, and in the end, Diana was struck by both the lightning and her own mes, resulting in a violent explosion that charred arge section of her scales ck.

    Adam was astonished by Mole''s disy of power. The fact that it was able to overwhelm King Arthur and Diana so quickly indicated that his powers had to have been roughly on par with Medusa''s.

    In fact, even Medusa would''ve struggled to achieve the same effect in such a short time. After all, most of her power stemmed from her petrification ability, while her other abilities weren''t all that powerful.

    However, due to the fact that Mole was a psychic mutant with ratherckluster intelligence, he was unable to fully maximize his powers. Under normal circumstances, after forcing an opponent onto the back foot, an adapter would choose to close in and press their advantage, but after dominating King Arthur and Diana, Mole suddenly turned his attention to Adam.

    "Take this!"

    Mole waved his arms through the air to send a st of electricity hurtling through the air, instantly destroying a section of Adam''s body.

    However, he didn''t retaliate or try to run away. Instead, he hurriedly yelled, "It''s me, genius!"

    "Hmm? Did you just call me a genius? And it sounds like you know me... Who are you?" Mole immediately stopped what he was doing upon having his intelligence praised, and he rushed over to Adam, leaving a trail of sparks and electricity in his wake, before carefully scrutinizing Adam. "I don''t know who you are."

    "It''s me, that nun from before! You promised that you were going to kill mest if we all made it to the final zone!"

    "Oh, you''re that smart nun!" Mole immediately recalled who Adam was upon hearing this. "I did indeed make that promise. A man as smart as myself certainly wouldn''t forget something like that, but why are you in a different form? Do you have some type of transformation ability?"

    "You can say that. I have an ability that allows me to adopt all types of different forms."

    Adam''s body was squirming as he spoke, and the hole that was left behind by the st of lightning quickly filled itself again.

    "You''re a bit more handsome in this form than your previous form. Just like I thought, all smart people are good-looking people," Mole said as he patted Adam''s sludgy body in a friendly manner. "I did promise to kill youst, so I''ll do just that!"

    "That''s good to hear. By the way, your friend over there seems to be in trouble. Are you not going to help him?"

    Adam pointed in another direction, where Armadillo was attacking Medusa''s team.

    He was also an extremely powerful adapter, but he was only roughly on par with Medusa, and he fought without any strategy or intelligence, so he couldn''t even beat Medusa in a one-on-one battle, let alone her entire team.

    "You''re right, I''ll go help him out. I''ll make sure to tell them to kill youst!"

    "Good luck!"

    Adam watched as Mole departed, while his teammates looked on with dazed expressions.

    "You know him?"

    "I met him earlier while going after the airdrops."

    "How have we never heard of someone this powerful?"

    "I didn''t know he was this powerful, either."

    Thinking back, there was still a hint of lingering fear in Adam''s heart. If he had handled that initial encounter with the trio of psychic mutants any less amicably than he did, there was a very good chance that he would''ve been killed.

    "All three of them are extremely powerful. I''d say they''d all rank in the top half of the S tier."

    King Arthur was watching Rabbit as he spoke. At this point, Rabbit had already swelled drastically in stature, and his entire body was giving off a strange warped forcefield. He was taking on seven or eight other participants who had made it to the final zone at once and holding his own just fine.

    Meanwhile, Armadillo had also grown to an enormous size, and yellow sand was swirling all around his entire body. With Mole also entering the fray, the two of them were able to dominate Medusa''s entire team.

    "Any one of them could match Medusa or Ikkaku in battle, so it''s no exaggeration to call this a super team, but they seem to be a little too reckless. Why does it feel like they''re trying to make as many enemies as possible?" Hook could tell that something wasn''t quite right about them. "Could it be that they''re... not very bright?"

    "All three of them are psychic mutants, so they think and act in a way simr to Mice King. They''re very vicious, but also very childish," Adam replied. "If you run into them, all you have to do is call them smart, and there''s a good chance that they''ll let you go."

    "Seriously?"

    "I''m being dead serious. It looks like Medusa hasn''t got the memo yet..."

    Sure enough, Medusa had no idea what the best way to speak to the psychic mutant trio was.

    "Are these idiots crazy or stupid? There are still more people yet toe, why are they wasting their energy now?"

    "The bitch called us stupid! Kill her!"

    "Kill her!" Armadillo echoed in a furious voice as his body swelled even further in size, and he controlled all of the sand swirling around him to sweep directly toward Medusa.

    Under his control, the grains of sand became as sharp as des, and after sweeping over Medusa, the yellow sand instantly turned red. The power imbued within the sand had managed to leech away much of Medusa''s blood, instantly leaving her supple body shriveled and withered.

    "What the hell is wrong with these two?"

    A furious look appeared on Medusa''s face as she nced down at her own withered arm before immediately retaliating with her signature petrification attack, which instantly turned Armadillo into stone.

 Chapter 214: The Self-regenerative Ability of a Madman

    <h4>Chapter 214: The Self-regenerative Ability of a Madman</h4>

    "Damn, you turned into stone, bro!" A thought suddenly urred to Mole after witnessing Armadillo''s petrification. "Oh, that reminds me, I''ve seen footage of her past matches, but I forgot that she had this ability. It looks like even geniuses have slip-ups sometimes. Are you alright, bro?"

    Mole made his way over to Armadillo to examine his condition, but he forgot to rein in his speed, and as a result, he crashed directly into Armadillo''s petrified body, causing a series of cracks to appear on its surface.

    "Ah, that was an ident! I didn''t mean to do that!"

    The cracks on Armadillo were bingrger andrger as Mole frantically tried to do something, but to no avail, and in the end, Armadillo''s entire body split into two.

    "No!!! My brother! You killed my brother! I''m going to kill you! Rabbit!"

    Mole immediately turned to Rabbit with a furious and grief-stricken roar, and upon witnessing what had happened to Armadillo, Rabbit also instantly erupted into a fit of fury. He immediately abandoned his pursuit of the two opponents that he had already beaten to the brink of death before rushing over to Mole.

    "What the hell happened?"

    "That bitch turned Armadillo into a stone statue, and now he''s like this!"

    "Kill her!"

    Rabbit immediately charged at Medusa in a murderous rage.

    "Look out for her petrification ability!" Mole hurriedly cautioned.

    "Got it!"

    As Rabbit was speaking, he enveloped himself in a strange soul domain, which was able to ward off Medusa''s petrification attack.

    "Things aren''t looking good! Rattlesnake, activate the exit card!"

    At this point in the battle, Medusa finally decided to exit the battle royale.

    She had sustained severe damage, and the mobility of her withered body was severely diminished. Even at the height of her powers, Mole''s speed was still superior to hers, and with the assistance of Rabbit, who was clearly also a powerful adapter in his own right, theirbined powers far exceeded that of her team.

    "I didn''t think we would have to exit the battle royale before we''ve even found a single points card in the final zone." Medusa was very reluctant to leave, but she knew that there was no other alternative. "Rattlesnake, have you activated the exit card?"

    "I have."

    At this point, she had already detonated the exit card with an injection of psychic power, and a small psychic portal was slowly being opened.

    This psychic world had been created by the director, so theoretically speaking, it would''ve been extremely difficult for anyone to break out of it unless they possessed superior psychic power to his. However, this exit card was able to slowly open up a passageway out of this psychic world, almost as if the director had arrived in person.

    However, the psychic portal was opening up at an extremely slow rate.

    Close to 20 seconds had already passed since the activation of the exit card, yet the portal had only reached the size of a human fist. At this rate, it was going to take at least a minute or two before it expanded to a size that was sufficient for Medusa and her teammates to fit through, and Rabbit and Mole certainly weren''t just going to stand and watch during this time.

    "These snakes are trying to escape! Kill them!"

    Mole immediately rushed over to Medusa as he spoke, then struck her in the back with a st of lightning. Medusa had only just turned around to retaliate with her petrification ability when Mole began to run circles around her with blue light radiating from his entire body, binding her with ropes of electricity.

    "How dare you kill my brother!"

    As soon as Medusa was bound by Mole, Rabbit also arrived on the scene, sping his hands together before focusing all of his soul power into his arms, then swung his fists down upon Medusa''s head with devastating power.

    If this blow were tond, then there was a very good chance that Medusa''s head was going to be shattered.

    However, right at this moment, an enormous figure rushed in from the side, and not only did they shield Medusa from the attack, they were able to send Rabbit flying with a sweep of their giant serpentine tail.

    Medusa had been saved just in the nick of time by a massive anaconda that was over 30 meters in length. However, after receiving such an almighty blow from Rabbit, Anaconda was also sent flying through the air, and a massive hole had been blown into her body.

    Medusa was furious upon seeing this, and she struggled free from Mole''s ropes of electricity before unleashing a string of petrification attacks in all directions.

    However, Mole had elerated to full speed with lightning enveloping his entire body, and he was able to evade all of Medusa''s attacks.

    Not only that, but he even had time to rush over to Belcher before attacking her with a st of lightning.

    At this point, Nie Yiyi had already returned to her senses, and she was feeling a little sympathetic toward Medusa''s team.

    "Should we help them? They did save me earlier..."

    "To be more urate, they saved all of us."

    The Mole and Rabbit duo was far too formidable, especially now that they were familiar with Medusa''s signature ability. Both of them were able to deal with Medusa''s petrification attacks in their way, and as a result, they held a significant upper hand over Medusa''s team.

    The psychic passageway still wasn''t wide enough for Medusa and the others to pass through yet, and if Adam and the others didn''t intervene, perhaps Medusa wouldn''t die, but there was a very good chance that everyone else on her team would perish.

    "But won''t we be going against those nutjobs if we try to help Medusa''s team?" King Arthur was opposed to the idea of lending Medusa their assistance. "Even if you cover all your bases, there''s still a chance that you''ll die due to unforeseen circumstances. That''s the nature of life. We already have enemies of our own, it would be unwise to make even more enemies."

    "You''re right. We shouldn''t make more enemies, but how about we make some friends?" With that in mind, Adam suddenly yelled, "Brother Mole, I think your friend can still be saved!"

    "What?" Mole immediately rushed over to Adam as a bolt of lightning upon hearing what he had to say. "What did you say just now? Did you just say that you can save Armadillo?"

    "That''s right?"

    "How is that possible? He''s already been turned into a rock, there''s no way he''s still alive!"

    "Not necessarily. If I''m not mistaken, the three of you have far better self-regenerative abilities than the average adapter, right?"

    Adam was making an educated guess here. Having faced psychic mutants in battle many times in the past, Adam had made an extensive effort to learn about this special ss of adapters, and there was one thing that he remembered very clearly, which was that psychic mutants possessed superior self-regenerative abilitiespared to normal adapters.

    This piece of information came directly from the director of Carlin Asylum and one of the 12 bishops of the Psychic Church, Li Pengfei.

    Having conducted many years of research into psychic mutants and the mentally ill, he discovered that clinically insane individuals were able to recover from psychic trauma more effectively than the average person.

    If someone were already depressed, they would most likely be upset for a very long time if they were insulted by someone.

    However, an insane individual didn''t think like the average person, and they could simply fail to register an insult or quickly forget about it.

    This was the theoretical foundation behind why psychic mutants possessed superior self-regenerative abilities.

    "That''s right, all three of us have very good regenerative abilities. How do you know that?"

    "That''s not important. What''s important is that there''s a chance that your friend can be saved. As long as there''s still even the slightest hint of life left in him, there''s a possibility that he could recover."

 Chapter 215: Awakening

    <h4>Chapter 215: Awakening</h4>

    "That''s impossible! Even if he''s notpletely dead, how could he possibly recover? He''s been turned into a rock!" Mole erupted into sobs as he pointed at the stone statue that Armadillo had been transformed into. "And he''s been split open!"

    "Here''s what could save him." Adam pulled out his only advanced card as he spoke. "This is an advanced healing card, which contains the director''s most powerful psychic blessing, also known as a counter-cyberhex. In theory, this card should be able to heal all injuries."

    "Is that true?"

    "We won''t know until we give it a try."

    "What are you doing, Mole? I can''t handle them all on my own!"

    With Mole''s departure, the tables were instantly turned, and Rabbit alone was no match for Medusa''s entire team.

    "Hold on for a bit longer! I might be able to save Armadillo!"

    Mole grabbed the card from Adam, then rushed over to the split stone statue before activating the card, releasing the powerful counter-cyberhex within.

    Due to the enormous volume of power contained within the card, even Adam was able to sense something despite hisckluster telegnosis, and he finally understood why this card was known as a counter-cyberhex rather than a blessing.

    The reason for this was because Adam couldn''t sense any positive or beneficial psychic power being released from the card. Instead, it was giving off a type of extremely malicious energy.

    Under normal circumstances, the energy imbued within the card would''ve been sufficient to pose a major threat even to a powerful adapter of Medusa''s caliber, but after this malicious energy was released, its effects were somehow reversed so that what should''ve been an extremely harmful force was instead one that facilitated healing and regeneration.

    Under the effects of the powerful counter-cyberhex, Armadillo''s petrified body slowly returned to normal, and the two halves of body also slowly fused back together again. Before long, he had already regained consciousness.

    "What happened just now? I felt like I was going to die..."

    Armadillo looked around in a dazed manner following his resurrection, and it was Mole who answered his question.

    "You were turned into stone just now, and you almost died! It''s that smart brother over there who saved you! He''s the one that we ran into at the airdrop site, the one who looked like a nun!"

    "Oh, I remember him..." Armadillo turned to Adam as he spoke. "I can sense your aura."

    "I''m d you''re alright now."

    "I owe you my life, and I''ll be sure to repay you at some point, but before that, I have to avenge myself!"

    Despite the near-death experience that he had just suffered, Armadillo didn''t seem to be suffering from any lingering fear or trauma, and his only thought was to kill those who had almost killed him. He turned to Medusa with a murderous look in his eyes, and his aura swelled even further.

    Adam also directed his gaze toward Medusa to find that the psychic passageway had just about reached a sufficient size for her and her team to pass through. Hence, all he had to do was stall Armadillo and Mole for a moment longer and Medusa''s team would be able to escape.

    "By the way, everyone says that you see some things you don''t normally see when you''re on the brink of death. What did you see, Brother Armadillo?"

    "That''s a good question!" Not only was Armadillo distracted by the question, even Mole stopped to hear his answer. "What did you see?"

    "I saw myself before I became an armadillo. I saw all of the people who mocked me for my looks..." Armadillo quickly lost himself in recollection of his past, and only after some time did he return to his senses. By then, Medusa and the others had already arrived beside the psychic passageway. "They''re trying to get away! I''ll tell you about it after we kill them!"

    "Alright!"

    Mole hurriedly followed along as a bolt of lightning.

    Meanwhile, Anaconda and Rattlesnake had already departed, leaving Belcher and Medusa behind to hold off their assants.

    "You go first!" Medusa yelled while warding off Rabbit''s attacks.

    Belcher didn''t hesitate at all as she sted a cloud of venomous mist at Rabbit, then immediately slithered into the passageway. As soon as Rabbit was forced back by the venomous mist, Medusa also tried to enter the passageway, only to be stopped in her tracks by Mole, who threw a punch into her abdomen.

    "You''re not getting away after killing my friend!"

    "We''ll see about that!"

    Medusa retaliated with her petrification attack, but Mole was able to evade the attack with his extraordinary speed. However, at the same time, Medusa activated a skill card.

    Even though Medusa hadn''t had a chance to plunder anything from the final zone, she had obtained a great deal of resources from elsewhere, and she had more than one skill card at her disposal. In this situation, she was using one of those cards to buy herself some time.

    The card contained a cyberhex ability, releasing arge number of chains that were formed by ck mist, which wound themselves around Mole''s body to greatly hamper his speed.

    Mole was extremely rmed to have suddenly lost his speed advantage, and he was forced to retreat for fear of being struck by Medusa''s petrification attack in his encumbered state. At the same time, he gathered all of the lightning around him to form a dense shield of electricity between himself and Medusa.

    Of course, Medusa didn''t continue to attack.

    It was very difficult to take down an opponent of the same caliber as herself in a short time, and Rabbit was already closing in again, so she had no choice but to leave.

    Prior to her departure, she took one final longing nce at the final zone, then directed her gaze toward Adam for a moment before slithering into the psychic passageway.

    As soon as she vanished into the passageway, Rabbit immediately crashed into it, but it refused to grant her passage, seemingly able to identify Rabbit as someone who wasn''t part of Medusa''s team. Following Medusa''s departure, the passageway began to slowly close.

    "I was so close!" Rabbit was feeling quite frustrated. "I won''t forget this! I''ll get her back sooner orter!"

    ¡­¡­

    Outside the psychic world.

    As soon as Medusa returned to her senses, she immediately removed the connector from her head before slowly sitting up.

    Her teammates also quickly awakened one after another around her, but at this point, the majority of participants of the battle royale were never going to wake up again.

    In the real world, Medusa was a beautiful middle-aged woman, and with her keen telegnosis, she could sense that close to 100 of the 136 battle royale participants were disying extremely feeble yet consistent breathing patterns, indicating that they had entered a vegetative state.

    Those people had all met their demise in the psychic world, thereby resulting in brain death.

    Even though their bodies were technically still alive, they were nothing more than empty, soulless husks.

    Perhaps some of them could be recycled and used as nk tes, but the majority of them weren''t even going to be able to serve that purpose. Upon experiencing psychic death, an adapter''s synapses would suffer different degrees of trauma. As a result, using them as nk tes carried an element of risk, much like purchasing a defective product.

    "Are you alright, Mistress?"

    Belcher made her way over to Medusa while thetter was still trying to count exactly how many battle royale participants had perished.

    "I''m fine. It''s just a pity that we made such terrible returns. The penultimate and final zones are always the most lucrative ces in the battle royale, who could''ve anticipated that we would run into two teams of nutjobs?"

    The two teams that she was referring to were the trior of psychic mutants and Dead Wood''s team.

    "Indeed. I don''t think anyone could''ve anticipated Dead Wood''s performance. He wasn''t this powerful in the past."

    "Individually, his powers are roughly on par with mine, I didn''t think his powers would be so significantly enhanced just because he had those two helpers! It looks like the three of them use the same psychic training methods, so they were most likely taught by the same master. And they weren''t even the biggest problem! Where the hell did those three idiotse from? I''ve never even heard of them before! Do they have some type of transformation ability?"

    "I feel like they''re psychic mutants," Rattlesnake remarked.

    In the real world, she was a veryposed and professional woman, looking much like a female researcher.

 Chapter 216: The Final Battle

    <h4>Chapter 216: The Final Battle</h4>

    In the psychic world, Rattlesnake''s role was to gather information and alert the team to any potential danger, while in the rain world, she seemed to be the team''s brain.

    "Their psychic bodies bore a very strong resemnce to certain animals, and that''s a verymon trait among psychic mutants. On top of that, they''ve disyed terrible decision-making skills. Admittedly, they are extremely powerful, but not so powerful that they can just turn everyone against them and get away with it. At the time of their arrival in the final zone, the likes of Eyeless, Dead Wood, and Oni no Miko still weren''t around yet.

    Everyone was waiting for the biggest yers to arrive before making a move, and the fact that they''ve done theplete opposite of that indicates that they''re definitely not very bright. It''s a pity that I haven''t run into them before this, so I don''t know what type of psychic mutant they are. Otherwise, we would''ve been able to develop effective countermeasures against them."

    "It seemed to me like Lean Mean Killing Machine was familiar with them."

    Anaconda was thest one to join the group. In the real world, she was a woman with a very well-developed physique. However, she seemed to be in the worst condition out of everyone on the team, and it was clear that she had sustained severe psychic damage after shielding Medusa from that life-threatening attack earlier.

    "In any case, we all managed to survive, and we made a decent haul." Medusa stroked Anaconda''s hair with a grateful expression. "Thank you."

    "What are friends for?"

    Anaconda took a step back to lean against a machine that was connected to one of the battle royale participants as she spoke. This was an artificial adapter with all types of machines plugged into his body to keep him alive, and it just so happened that as soon as Anaconda leaned against one of the machines, the man immediately began to spasm violently before quickly meeting his demise.

    .

    It seemed that yet another battle royale participant had bitten the dust.

    "I wonder how many people are going to survive to the end."

    "That depends on how many exit cards the director ced into the game. Aside from the champions, only those with exit cards will be able to survive. What a cruel, cruel game this is..."

    While Medusa was speaking with her teammates, a nearby door was suddenly opened, and the host emerged through it alongside several stadium employees.

    They first congratted Medusa''s team for surviving the battle royale and securing a decent haul of points cards and other valuable resources, then requested them to leave the area.

    "Please go and wait in the lobby. The battle royale is still ongoing, so let''s not interrupt the spectators'' viewing experience. I''ll bring you back out here for the award ceremony at the end."

    "Sure, no problem."

    Even though the host was only a normal person, the fact that he had been given this job meant that he was a representative of the director, so everyone had to afford him a degree of respect, including Medusa.

    "By the way, can I ask how many exit cards were ced into the map in total?"

    She was very curious about which one of Eyeless, Dead Wood, Oni ni Miko, Ikkaku, and the psychic mutant trio''s teams were going to be able to return alive.

    "My apologies, but I''m afraid that''s confidential information."

    "Really? Isn''t that readily avable knowledge to all of the spectators? Can''t they switch perspectives to watch whoever they like?"

    "That''s true, but the spectators can only see who''s obtained the exit cards, not where all of the exit cards are located. Some of the exit cards are hidden in very obscure locations and still haven''t been found, so I can''t tell you how many there are in total."

    "Alright, in that case, how many exit cards have been found thus far?"

    "Three."

    "Three, including mine?"

    "That''s right."

    Medusa turned back to nce at her teammates with a hint of lingering fear in her eyes upon hearing this.

    The fact that only three exit cards had been found thus far meant that aside from Medusa''s team and the three other members of Eyeless''s team, all of whom had already exited the game, only one other exit card had been found.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, the battle royale was still progressing.

    Following Medusa''s departure, the three psychic mutants continued their rampage, while all of the otherbatants were also putting up resistance.

    The three psychic mutants possessed powers that would¡¯ve ranked them near the top of the S tier, so they were able to take on all of the otherbatants and hold their own.

    Thankfully for Adam and his team, the promise that the three psychic mutants had made to Adam earlier ensured that they were safe for now.

    Not were they not being attacked by the three psychic mutants, they were actively helping the trio attack others.

    This is a great opportunity to gather more cards!

    Hook was concealing himself within the crowd, and with eachbatant that was killed, he would appear urately beside their body and search them for cards.

    Meanwhile, King Arthur and Diana were attacking all of thebatants who were wounded by the three psychic mutants in order to finish them off.

    Each participant that perished would whittle down thepetition that they had to deal with and also provide them with more cards.

    This was the nature of the battle royale. At this point in the game, virtually everyone was an enemy.

    King Arthur was aware of this, as were Adam and Nie Yiyi. However, right as they were about to enter the fray, the green barrier in the distance began to rapidly close in, and as the safe zone shrank down further, Adam knew that he couldn''t afford to get involved as Oni no Miko and the others were going to be arriving soon.

    As the green barrier slowly devoured everything outside of the basin, all of the battles taking ce outside were forced toe to a conclusion, and all of the survivors would have to gather in the basin soon.

    With the likes of Oni no Miko and Eyeless fast approaching, it would be extremely unwise for Adam to entangle himself in other battles.

    In preparation for the imminent final battle, Adam invoked Clown and immediately fused with it.

    Mummy had already perished, and he didn''t want any more of his anomalies to die.

    With so many formidable opponents approaching, he had to adopt his most powerful form.

    After fusing with Clown, Adam immediately entered a deranged state. Countless maddening thoughts were assaulting his mind, striking him with the overpowering urge to kill and destroy.

    However, he forcibly suppressed these urges as he concealed himself within the darkness.

    Nie Yiyi, Hook, and King Arthur were also aware of the situation that they were in.

    With the most powerful participants in this battle royale about to arrive, it was going to be a tall order just to keep themselves alive, so they immediately stopped scavenging for cards as they waited for the storm to strike.

    The green barrier continued to get closer and closer, and finally, it devoured all of the mountains around the basin.

    At this point, the sky had already turned pitch-ck, and the roars of artificial anomalies felt closer than ever.

    With the final battle about to arrive, even the trio of psychic mutants could sense the tension in the air. They were extremely childish, and there was no clear logic governing their actions, but they still had their battle instincts, and those instincts were telling them that something was wrong.

    "Why does it suddenly feel so tense around here?"

    "While I was burrowing through underground on the way here, I sensed extremely powerful psychic fluctuation above me, so there must be some very strong adapters outside."

    "Do we keep going then?"

    "Why not? Let''s keep killing until those guys get here."

    "I think some of them are already here."

    While the three psychic mutants were speaking with one another, several figures jumped down into the basin from the surrounding mountains.

    The first ones to arrive were Oni no Miko''s team. At this point, the four of them had already recovered from their injuries, and they hadn''t expended much psychic power, either, so they were in prime condition.

    Not long after they arrived in the basin, a group of people who were looking rather bedraggled and disheveled also tumbled down while fighting among themselves.

    These people were engaged in apletely chaotic melee, and the one who stood out the most among them was none other than Eyeless. After leaping off the edge of the cliff, he continued to attack the people around him even while he was still airborne. His attacks were unleashed without any rhyme or reason.

    One moment, he was attacking Dead Wood, the next instant, he was attacking Ikkaku. Right before hended on the ground, he unleashed an almighty horizontal sh that instantly sliced three or fourbatants around him in half.

    "Holy shit, that guy''s even crazier than we are!"

    The trio of psychic mutants immediately stopped what they were doing to stare intently at Eyeless.

 Chapter 217: Thousand Slash

    <h4>Chapter 217: Thousand sh</h4>

    "Who is that? He''s insane!"

    Rabbit was honing his sharp ws as he glowered intently at Eyeless.

    "We''ve seen footage of his past matches before. Have you forgotten?"

    "No, I''m just testing you."

    "Good try, but I''m still the smartest out of all of us!" Mole quickly recited the information that he had memorized about Eyeless. "He''s supposed to be the most powerful adapter in Shadow City or something like that..."

    "Isn''t the director the most powerful adapter in Shadow City?"

    "Alright, then he''s the second-most powerful."

    "What do we do?"

    "We''re already in the final zone, all we have to do is kill him! There''s only one of him and three of us!"

    Mole''s logic was far from watertight, but it immediately received the approval of the other two psychic mutants.

    "You''re right! All we have to do is kill him!"

    Having made up their minds, the three of them charged toward Eyeless at once.

    Unsurprisingly, the first one to arrive was Mole, and while Eyeless wasshing out at others, Mole took advantage of the opportunity to attack him from behind. He first sent a st of lightning crashing into Eyeless''s back, causing his entire body to stiffen from the numbing effects of the powerful electric currents. After that, he manifested a series of chains with his lightning to bind Eyeless to the spot.

    "He''s not that strong. I''d say he''s only at about the same level as that snake..."

    Before Mole had a chance to finish what he was saying, Eyeless had already freed himself from the lightning chains before shing his sword at Mole.

    His sword was extremely fast, so fast that Adam waspletely unable to react to it, so fast that Medusa had previously had an arm sliced off, even though she was already mentally prepared.

    Mole was also astonished by the attack. Never did he think that he would encounter an opponent whose attacks were far faster than even his own. In response, Mole hurriedly sprang to the side as quickly as he could while lightning erupted from his entire body, instantly reaching a speed far superior to Medusa''s top-end speed, but even so, he was still struck by Eyeless''s attack and a bleeding gash was sliced onto his belly.

    "That was so fast!"

    Before Mole even had a chance to catch his breath after dodging the first attack, the second attack had already arrived, and this time, it sliced off arge chunk of his shoulder.

    He gritted his teeth through the pain as he transformed into a bolt of lightning that burrowed its way into the ground, but right at this moment, a third attack arrived, and with just a single strike, Eyeless was able to slice a seemingly bottomless fissure into the ground that was over 10 meters in length.

    A ssh of blood immediately erupted out of the fissure, apanied, by Mole''s enraged cursing.

    With just three attacks, Eyeless had almost in one of the most powerful participants that still remained in the battle royale, and everyone else could only look on in awe and veneration.

    "He''s be even more powerful thanst year..." Medusa couldn''t help but sigh to herself as she watched the ongoing battle royale from the lobby. "His method of training truly yields an extraordinary rate of progress. Thinking back, no one has managed to force him to reveal his full power in the entirety of the past year."

    "Those three psychic mutants are really strong as well. Can''t they beat Eyeless in a three-on-one battle?"

    Anaconda had been severely wounded by just a single attack from Rabbit, so she was extremely wary of the three psychic mutants'' powers.

    She was supposed to be the tank of the team, and her enormous psychic body granted her immense physical resistance, but even so, she was only able to withstand a single attack before being putpletely out ofmission.

    "I don''t think so. Perhaps the three of them could''ve beaten himst year, but not now..."

    Sure enough, the battle was progressing in a fashion that was just as Medusa described.

    In the psychic world, Rabbit mustered up his soul power beforeshing out at Eyeless with a devastating strike, but Eyeless made no attempt to take evasive measures as he shed his sword upward to strike at the transparent souls that were gathered together.

    The de of his sword sliced through the souls like a hot knife through butter, and Rabbit''s formidable soul power was unable to pose any resistance.

    Rabbit was greatly rmed by this, and he hurriedly detonated the soul power that he controlled within his hand, trying to wound Eyeless at the expense of also injuring himself.

    However, as soon as the explosion erupted, a burst of light epassed the entire area.

    This was the Thousand sh, a powerful technique that Eyeless was said to have mastered during his travels in the east.

    ording to ancient eastern legends, it was proimed that it was possible for a warrior to attain such perfect mastery of their weapon that they could use it to unleash a perfect, watertight defense.

    In wars in the east during ancient times, the mostmonly used weapon was the spear, and the image of a single man tearing his way through an entire army with nothing but a spear in his hands was often romanticized.

    However, there was a major w to wielding a spear in arge-scale battle, and that was its defensive drawbacks, particrly against arrows. In this department, the spear was far inferior to a shield and single-handed weaponbination.

    In order to address this w, many powerful warriors had devised all types of strategies. Some wore suits of heavy armor, some rode on horseback to improve their speed and agility, but it was said that there was a technique that allowed one to ward off entire volleys of arrows with just a single spear alone.

    ording to legends, only the mightiest warriors managed to master such a technique, and it was extremely rigorous to perform.

    Essentially, it required the spear-wielding to attack with an extraordinary frequency, able to unleash spear strikes in such rapid session that even if a bucket of water were to be sshed at them, the spear would be able to keep out all the water and leave thempletely dry. Only after achieving this could one ward off all arrows that came their way.

    This legendary technique had served as a source of great inspiration for Eyeless, and even though he wielded a de rather than a spear, the nature of the psychic world presented countless possibilities that allowed one to ovee the limitations of the physical body.

    This was the first time that he had used this technique in the battle royale. As he shed his de through the air in rapid session, it was as if countless des had appeared, epassing the entire area around him. The resulting defense was soprehensive that it managed to keep all of the shockwaves generated by the explosion at bay, going far beyond just a watertight defense.

    Thus, Rabbit was the only one who was sent flying back by the explosion, while Eyeless remainedpletely unscathed as he withdrew his de.

    Armadillo was just about to attack Eyeless from behind, but he decided against it upon witnessing such an incredible disy of power.

    "I don''t think we can beat him." The psychic mutants were insane, but they weren''t idiots, and all three of them could already see the writing on the wall. "What do we do, Boss? He''s too strong for us!"

    "I don''t know." Mole''s voice rang out from the ground beneath Armadillo''s feet. "Ask Rabbit!"

    "I don''t know what to do, either!" Rabbit mbered up from the ground as he frantically patted his own body to put out the fire from the burning fur on his chest. "How about we retreat for now, then attack him again after he''s fought everyone else? Hold on, is he gonna fall for our n now that he''s heard me say it?"

    The three of them were already beginning to consider retreat, but Eyeless didn''t give them any time to think.

    These three formidable opponents had garnered great interest from him, and he wasn''t about to let them get away so easily.

    "What should we do?"

    Dead Wood''s team was also in the nearby vicinity. The architect had already been in by Eyeless, but the three monks were all still alive.

    "I''ve never seen those three before, but their powers aren''t inferior to ours. If we want to win, then we have to ensure that they remain alive." Dead Wood was quickly assessing the situation around him. "There aren''t many powerfulbatants left aside from us. If those three end up dead, then no one will be able to contain Eyeles."

    "But if we join their battle, wouldn''t that open us up to being taken advantage of by everyone else?" the portly monk asked as he gestured toward Oni no Miko''s team. "We''ve always been the ones watching from the sidelines before swooping in at thest moment, we can''t just rush in prematurely now."

    "We can strike a deal."

 Chapter 218: Taking Action

    <h4>Chapter 218: Taking Action</h4>

    While the three psychic mutants were keeping Eyeless upied, Dead Wood suddenly yelled, "Lean Mean Killing Machine, Ikkaku, Oni no Miko, Diamond, listen up!"

    Dead Wood''s voice was being enhanced by his psychic power, so it was audible across the entire basin.

    "I know you don''t see eye to eye with one another, and the only reason why you''re holding back from attacking each other is because you don''t want to be taken advantage of by others. That''s also the reason why we''re just waiting and watching for now. This final zone is only going to shrink further and further, and if we stall for too long, none of us will be able to live. With that in mind, I have a proposal for all of you to consider."

    "Go ahead!"

    Diamond''s voice rang out from Oni no Miko''s team. He wasn''t here to win the battle royale, nor was he doing this for money. Instead, he was here solely for vengeance, so he was most interested in what Dead Wood had to say.

    "For everyone that''s still left in the game, Eyeless is a major problem. I''m sure we''re all aware of how powerful he is. If he manages to survive until there aren''t enough people to oppose him, then he''ll be the winner for sure. While we still have enough people, we have to take him out of the picture first."

    No one responded to this statement from Dead Wood, but they were all in agreement.

    The three psychic mutants were insane, but the most vtile factor in this entire battle royale was actually Eyeless.

    All four of them possessed logic that was impossible for the average person to understand. Eyeless was focused solely on seeking out challenges and self-improvement, while the three psychic mutants were simply mentally handicapped.

    As a result, the psychic mutant trio would potentially make decisions that were detrimental to themselves, but Eyeless went even further beyond that, going out of his way to create hardships and make things as difficult for himself as possible, all for the purpose of training.

    As long as he remained alive, he would continue to exist as the biggest threat to everyone.

    "It doesn''t benefit anyone to keep wasting time, and no one dares to take the initiative to do anything for fear of being stabbed in the back by everyone else, so how about this? All of youmence your battle, while the three of us will help those three kill Eyeless. If you agree to my proposal, then show yourselves, and we''ll all begin when I give the signal. What do you say?"

    Dead Wood''s deration was met withplete silence. While everyone was still weighing up their options, Armadillo suddenly let loose an agonized howl, having just had one of his paws sliced off by Eyeless.

    That seemed to act as a catalyst that finally prompted everyone to make a decision, and they all came out of hiding, including Adam.

    "That''s a very fair suggestion. We''ll be at each other''s throats sooner orter, so why don''t we get started right away, wouldn''t you agree, Ikkaku?"

    Clown pulled out its revolver before aiming it directly at Oni no Miko''s head.

    Ikkaku also arrived on the scene atop a gust of wind, and in what could only be described as a minor miracle, Fire Elemental was also still alive. In order to deal with Eyeless and Dead Wood earlier, the two of them had already used some type of strange secret technique that temporarily fused them together, and as a result, Ikkaku''s entire body was currently enveloped in scorching mes.

    "We''re already in the final zone, so let''s put on a show! If you''re not going to attack, then I''ll do the honors! Wind Breath!"

    A fierce look appeared in Ikkaku''s eyes as he turned his gaze to Oni no Miko, seizing the initiative to attack without waiting for a signal from Dead Wood.

    He opened his mouth as he sprang up into the air, and boundless air was drawn into his body before being released as a ferocious typhoon. The howling wind swept up the mes around him, and in the blink of an eye, the entire area around Oni no Miko was transformed into a sea of fire.

    Seeing as the first blow had already been dealt, Dead Wood immediately sprang into action as well. His arm elongated drastically as he thrust a palm into Armadillo''s body from afar, sending him flying through the air to save him from being sliced in half by Eyeless''s de.

    Immediately thereafter, the thin monk with therge mouth began to chant a mantra that sent a wave of sinister energy sweeping toward Eyeless.

    Meanwhile, the portly monk tossed a string of ck prayer beads up into the air, and they also hurtled directly toward Eyeless.

    With all three monks attacking at once, even Eyeless was forced to address the threat. Having already witnessed the power of the sinful intent that the three monks were able to inflict upon others, Eyeless hurriedly focused his attention on remaining mentally resolute.

    Not only were Eyeless''s arduous training methods extremely effective for honing the body, the hardships that he endured were also great exercises in mental fortitude. In the face of all of the sinful intent swirling toward him, Eyeless withdrew his de but unleashed the de in his heart instead, and a burst of transparent light erupted out of his chest to instantly eradicate all of the sinful intent around him, thereby restoring his mental rity.

    Immediately thereafter, heshed out with his sword to sever the string of prayer beads in the air.

    However, his opponents weren''t just limited to the three monks. Instead, he was facing six opponents at once.

    "I''ve got you now!"

    Right as Eyeless was attacking with his sword, countless blue circles of light suddenly appeared beneath his feet. Immediately thereafter, loud thunderps rang out in the sky, and countless bolts of lightning came crashing down directly upon him.

    At the same time, Rabbit''s sneak attack also arrived. Soul power was gathered in his paws, and he unleashed the same attack that had once severely wounded Anaconda in a single blow, smashing Eyeless deep into the ground.

    ¡­¡­

    While the battle on Eyeless''s end was just beginning, Adam''s battle against Oni no Miko was already reaching a climax.

    Both sides had already faced each other on multiple asions and revealed all of their trump cards to one another, so there was no need to hide anything. Holding back would''ve only been a gesture of disrespect both to themselves and their opponents.

    In the wake of the sea of mes unleashed by Ikkaku sweeping through the area, many of the remainingbatants were injured to different extents.

    Adam took advantage of this opportunity tounch an all-out assault against the technomancer.

    He had chosen the technomancer as his target as during their previous sh, he had determined that the technomancer was the easiest of his opponents to kill. In contrast, Diamond''s defenses were near imprable, while Oni no Miko was extremely powerful and was encased in the suit of armor formed by the Shelled Tiger.

    Not only was the technomancer the easiest one to kill, he was also quite powerful in his own right.

    With his strong offensive prowess and powerful illusions, he presented a very difficult package to contend with.

    While Oni no Miko''s team were still collecting themselves in the wake of the fiery attack unleashed by Ikkaku, a dagger suddenly appeared behind the technomancer before plunging toward his heart.

    "Look out!"

    Oni no Miko immediately called out to alert the technomancer to the attack, but she was toote. Right as the dagger appeared, another anomaly emerged from the technomancer''s shadow, taking control of his body and locking him into ce.

    The dagger was plunged into his body, and blood had only just begun gushing out of the wound when the technomancer suddenly transformed into a poker card.

    "You''re not the only one who can use illusions! You may be able to fool others with this, but you can''t fool me!"

    Clown possessed some illusory abilities of its own, and it didn''t hesitate at all as it continued to plunge its knife into the poker card over and over again, drawing blood with every single stab.

    Illusions were able to affect one''s senses, but they couldn''t alter reality.

    "You have to work on your illusions! Why does it feel like I''m stabbing into flesh even though you''re supposed to have turned into a poker card?

    Clown continued to stab viciously with its knife over and over again, but all of a sudden, its body was sent flying back as if it had been run over by a truck.

    It turned to discover nothing more than a vast expanse of white nothingness, indicating that its vision was being affected by an illusion.

    However, judging from the impact that it had just felt, it knew that Diamond was the one who had crashed into it in order to save the technomancer.

 Chapter 219: Giant Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 219: Giant Dragon</h4>

    "That really hurt! It''s like being run over by a train!"

    Seeing as its vision had been affected, Clown attempted to turn to its other senses to try and get a grasp on its surroundings, only to find that it was unable to hear anything, either, as if cotton had been stuffed into its ears.

    Thankfully, the illusions conjured up by technomancer weren''t perfect, and Adam was able to retain his sense of touch, allowing him to detect the tremors that were running through the ground beneath his feet. It was as if an enormous tank were rumbling directly toward him.

    "You won''t get me that easily, Diamond!"

    Clown stomped a foot down onto the ground, instantly manifesting a series of clones.

    All of the clones briefly rummaged around in their pockets, then pulled out all types of weapons that were used a century ago.

    There were sh grenades, smoke bombs, electromaic disruption bombs... All types of explosives were hurled at the surrounding area, quickly triggering a string of violent explosions.

    "If I can''t see anything, then no one should be able to see anything!"

    Concealed within the dense smoke that had risen up from the explosions, the dozens of Clown clones each pulled out a gatling gun before firing in all directions without any discretion.

    In this form, Adam was in apletely deranged state, and he didn''t care whether his teammates were going to be caught in his barrages of wild and reckless attacks. His mind had been entirely taken over by his desire for ughter and destruction.

    The sound of the firing gatling guns was ringing out incessantly, and it was coupled with the howling of the ferocious gusts of wind conjured up by Ikkaku to produce a cacophony of chaotic sounds.

    The chaos continued for a minute or two before Adam suddenly regained his vision. The boundless expanse of white nothingness around him had faded, and he found himself back in the basin that was the final zone of the battle royale. Through the dense smoke in the air, he caught sight of the technomancer, whose body had been torn in half by Diana''s sharp fangs.

    "Good job, Diana!"

    The demise of the illusion caster was the reason why Adam had regained his vision.

    The technomancer was another example of an adapter with far superior offensive abilities to defensive capabilities. He had already fallen prey to a sneak attack from Adam at the beginning of the battle, and there was a clear n to target him, so it was no surprise that he had met his demise so quickly.

    Adam wasn''t the only one who had decided to target him. Having already faced him once in battle, King Arthur also had his eyes on the technomancer from the very beginning. Taking advantage of the chaotic smokescreen created by Clown''s explosives, King Arthur and Diana had bombarded the technomancer with their most powerful attacks, and they were finally able to remove him from the picture.

    However, this was no cause for celebration for King Arthur and Diana. Right after they vanquished the technomancer, a sense of foreboding suddenly welled up in their hearts.

    As a pair of bona fide S tierbatants, both of them possessed powerful telegnosis, and they could sense that they were in grave danger.

    It looks like we''re being targeted by the enemy as well!

    King Arthur immediately adopted a defensive stance in preparation to withstand the enemy assault, but he was caughtpletely off guard by just how ferocious the retaliation was.

    The first wave of enemies to rush out of the smoke was a group of demons from Oni no Miko''s Hyakki Yagyou. King Arthur was able to ward off these opponents without too much difficulty, but immediately after them came Diamond, who charged out of the smoke like a glistening wrecking ball. Even though King Arthur was able to dodge Diamond''s full-frontal charge, he could only raise his sword to block the punch that Diamond threw his way.

    Even though he was able to sessfully block the attack, the significant strength gap between the two resulted in an instant shoulder dislocation for King Arthur, and he had to stumble back a few steps before managing to steady himself.

    However, that still wasn''t the end. Oni no Miko''s shikigami struck him on the waist from behind with its massive de, and at the exact same moment, an arrow shot out of the smoke before striking him squarely on the chest.

    These arrows were Oni no Miko''s most destructive offensive weapon, and they were able to punch through even Mummy''s body with ease.

    In terms of pure defensive prowess, King Arthur was inferior to Mummy, and the arrow instantly blew through his chest, destroying his heart in the process.

    Diana let loose a thunderous roar of fury upon seeing this, and she immediately swooped down from above to try and save King Arthur, but it was already toote.

    Oni no Miko was capable of firing off multiple arrows in quick session, and even though her shot frequency wasn''t as fast as that of an automatic firearm, it certainly wasn''t slow, either.

    Before Diana had a chance to reach King Arthur, two more arrows had already arrived, piercing through his neck and his head.

    King Arthur didn''t possess any powerful regenerative abilities, so the wounds inflicted by these three arrows were more than enough to kill him.

    Perhaps he could still have been saved by an advanced healing card, but Diamond quickly charged in to dash even that tiny spark of hope.

    He wasn''t far away from King Arthur, and right as the third arrow pierced through his body, Diamond pped his hands together violently,pletely smashing King Arthur''s head like a watermelon.

    Blood and intracranial fluids sttered through the air as King Arthur''s headless body toppled to the ground.

    However, much to the surprise of Oni no Miko and Diamond, Diana didn''t vanish in the wake of King Arthur''s demise. Instead, she let loose a grief-stricken roar that rumbled throughout the entire basin.

    Everyone had always thought that King Arthur possessed invocator abilities, and that Diana was an invoked entity of his, but Adam knew that Diana was actually the main persona.

    .

    However, as opposed to the example of Raven, who had hatched a plot to kill off all of Sithu''s other personalities, King Arthur and Diana worked together as allies.

    In fact, it was Diana''s choice for King Arthur to control the body that they shared.

    She had always thought of herself as mentally impaired, so she trusted King Arthur more than herself.

    Diana wasn''t a dragon, she was a psychic mutant, just like Rabbit, Mole, and Armadillo.

    However, due to theforting presence of King Arthur, Diana''s mutation had been arrested.

    The reason why King Arthur had entered the battle royale was to uncover the secret behind Carlin Asylum to try andpletely cure Diana, but now, all of that had been destroyed.

    With the demise of King Arthur, all of the hope,fort, andpanionship that had kept Diana sane this entire time had been dashed.

    In the instant that King Arthur fell to the ground, Diana''s body began to undergo a terrifying process of mutation. The emotions that had been suppressed in her heart during her time spent with King Arthur erupted forth all at once, and all of the joy andfort that King Arthur had provided her instantly turned to grief and fury.

    Her heart waspletely devoured by her anomaly, and as a result, Diana was undergoing a rapid transformation.

    Her scales became thicker and heavier, while her body became significantlyrger and incredibly powerful, and her wingspan had tripled.

    Diana inhaled sharply, and King Arthur''s psychic body transformed into pure psychic power that was drawn into Diana, causing her body to expand even further.

    She had transformed into a terrifying ck dragon whose body was capable of obscuring the entire sky.

    The giant dragon let loose an enraged yet heartbroken roar as it swooped down upon Diamond with vengeful fury.

    What the hell is this? How could his invoked entity have be even more powerful after his death? Did this thing just undergo a mutation?

    Diamond was feeling a little uneasy at the sight of the enormous dragon, but he had full confidence in himself and his own defenses.

    Thus, in the face of the oing dragon, he made no attempt to take evasive measures, throwing a punch in retaliation instead.

    So what if it''s mutated? These two have always beennguishing near the bottom of the S tier, how powerful could it be?

 Chapter 220: Battle of Titans

    <h4>Chapter 220: Battle of Titans</h4>

    With absolute confidence in his own body, Diamond threw an almighty punch at the dragon in the sky.

    His fist shed with the dragon''s w, resulting in such a powerful impact that a loud explosion rang out in the air.

    The explosion was so violent that powerful shockwaves were sent weeping through the area in all directions, blowing away all of the smoke left behind by Clown''s explosives.

    In the wake of the sh, both Diamond and the giant dragon were sent flying back a roughly equal distance through the air, much to the astonishment of all of the spectators and Diamond himself.

    Diamond was ranked in the top half of the S tier, but he didn''t possess any powerful abilities. The only thing that allowed him to maintain such a lofty status in the S tier was his tank-like body, which was near indestructible, extraordinarily powerful, and extremely heavy.

    In short, his strengths were so exceptional that they were more than sufficient to make up for his shorings.

    Otherwise, there was no chance that he would''ve ever made it to the S tier.

    Aside from the hardness of his body, Diamond was also renowned for his enormous weight, so it was incredible that he had been sent flying in a direct physical sh.

    The logic that governed the psychic world was very simr to that of the real world, so even the heaviest humans were still several hundred kilograms in weight, while the likes of Sludge and Mummy weighed only a ton at the very most, a far cry from Diamond''s purported bodyweight of around 100 tons.

    100 tons was the equivalent of a super truck at full capacity, or the weight of an entire massive train carriage. Due to his tremendous weight, it was no exaggeration to call Diamond a human freight train.

    How did Diana suddenly be so strong?

    Hook was astonished as he looked on from the corner that he was hiding in.

    At this point, Diana had already risen up into the air again. After undergoingplete mutation, not only had her physical prowess reached the same level as Diamond, her draconic technomancy had also leveled up significantly.

    After taking to the sky, Diana opened her mouth, and even though the shape of her mouth wasn''t disying any change, a mysterious, ancient voice suddenly rang out in the air, following which countless balls of ck light appeared around her.

    The balls of light resembled ck holes that threatened to suck in the soul of the beholder, and all of them rained down upon Diamond at Diana''s behest.

    Diamond had only just mbered up from the ground at this point, and he immediately took evasive measures, not daring to withstand the attack head-on.

    Despite his enormous stature and immense weight, Diamond was still rtively fast and agile. He was able to evade the majority of the balls of ck light, but there were simply far too many of them, and they were falling like rain, making it impossible to avoid them all.

    Ultimately, he was struck by one of the balls of ck light, and as soon as it made contact with his body, an extremely loud and irritating noise resembling the sound of a sawde slicing into metal instantly rang out.

    At the time, sparks began to fly in all directions, and Diamond felt as if his body were about to be sucked in and pulverized by the ball of light.

    For the first time in this battle royale, an overwhelming sense of fear welled up in his heart. He had only just withstood one of the balls of ck light, and several cracks had already appeared on his body.

    Following this brief sh, Diamond knew that he was no match for Diana in her current form, and he immediately initiated a tactical retreat, fleeing toward Oni no Miko at full speed while calling for help.

    "Help me!"

    Oni no Miko had no choice but toply with his request.

    Of course, there was no significant bond or friendship between the two of them. Unfortunately for Oni no Miko, she was in a rather terrible situation herself. The Technomancy Tiger was dead, while the Shelled Tiger was virtually useless aside from acting as a suit of armor for her, so if Diamond were to perish, then there was no way that she would''ve been able to survive to the end.

    Hence, as soon as she heard Diamond''s cries for help, Oni no Miko immediately ignored the howling wind and sea of mes around her as she nocked a series of arrows before firing them at Diana''s head and heart.

    Three arrows were sent flying from her bow in rapid session, and all of them were traveling at an incredible speed, while ghostly faces were forming on the arrowheads.

    These arrows possessed extremely prative power, and they had just put an end to King Arthur''s life.

    However, Diana''s mind had already beenpletely clouded by her fury, and flew directly toward the arrows without any regard for her own safety.

    The ghostly arrows raised a flurry of sparks as the arrowheads ground against Diana''s ck scales, and much to Oni no Miko''s rm, the arrows were unable to inflict any meaningful damage upon Diana, only managing to leave some marks on her scales.

    Diana let loose a thunderous roar as she released a st of dragon''s breath in Oni no Miko''s direction.

    In her current form, her breath consisted of a pir of ck mes that enveloped some type of strange, corrosive acid.

    Furthermore, the pir of fire had be far thicker than what she had been previously able to unleash, and the mes were reacting with the corrosive acid, resulting in a string of explosions as they surged through the air.

    It didn''t take a genius to see that one definitely didn''t want to be struck by this attack.

    Oni no Miko had no intention of testing Diana''s newfound power herself, so she immediately spurred her Hyakki Yagyou into action to protect her.

    Countless demons that were capable of flight rose up to oppose the oing pir of mes, only to be quickly incinerated. Meanwhile, the remaining Hyakki Yagyou on the ground below arranged themselves into a defensive array in an attempt to ward off the attack, but right as Diana''s draconic breath reached the Hyakki Yagyou, the ck mespletely reacted with the corrosive acid to trigger a violent explosion.

    Just a single breath from Diana had eradicated around a third of the Hyakki Yagyou, and another third of them had sustained rather severe injuries from the attack.

    Ikkaku had been battling Oni no Miko this entire time, and he was naturally quick to seize this opportunity, unleashing his most powerful ability, the Hundred Tornado Technique, once again.

    Countless tornadoes swept down from the heavens, but what was different fromst time was that these tornadoes were all intermingled with bright, crimson mes that illuminated the entirety of the dark basin.

    The fiery tornadoes swept directly toward Oni no Miko and what remained of the Hyakki Yagyou, destroying everything in their path.

    The Hyakki Yagyou were frantically unleashing all types of attacks in a show of resistance, but they were all quickly incinerated into ashes, and Oni no Miko herself was also unable to withstand an attack of this caliber, as evidenced by the cracks that were appearing on the suit of armor that her body was encased in.

    At this point, Oni no Miko knew that she had no choice but to resort to her final trump card. With that in mind, she pulled out her pendant before impaling herself with one of her own arrows.

    In the instant that the arrow pierced into her body, boundless ck mist surged out of the wound. The Yamata no Orochi within the pendant absorbed the ck mist, and its body began to gradually expand, quickly reaching over 10 meters in size before shielding her from the onught of fiery tornadoes.

    Immediately thereafter, Oni no Miko pulled out a talisman, then began to perform a strange dance that was apanied by a peculiar incantation. All of the remaining Hyakki Yagyou and her shikigami guardian were instantly transformed into more ck mist at her behest before being devoured by Yamata no Orochi, causing it to swell even further in size.

    The Yamata no Orochi was a legendary deity that was said to have once destroyed the entire nation of Japan, and in its ultimate form, it filled the entire basin with its enormous body, which was over 100 meters in diameter.

    The Yamato no Orochi and the giant ck dragon in the sky faced off against one another from afar, resembling a pair of prehistoric titans that were about to go into battle against each other.

 Chapter 221: World Destroying Serpent

    <h4>Chapter 221: World Destroying Serpent</h4>

    The fiery tornadoes in the sky barged in rather unceremoniously between the pair of prehistoric titans before crashing into Yamata no Orochi.

    The Hundred Tornado Technique was Ikkaku''s most powerful attack, and its power had been drastically enhanced by Fire Elemental''s mes.

    Even so, the enormous fiery tornadoes were only able to lightly scorch a part of Yamata no Orochi''s body. Having only just been invoked, Yamata no Orochi had been rather groggy and disoriented, but it waspletely woken up by the searing pain, and it looked up at the sky with all eight of its heads in unison before opening its mouths to unleash a barrage of different attacks.

    Yamata no Orochi possessed eight heads and eight tails, all of which shared the same body, and it resembled an enormous mountain.

    Its eight heads weren''t all identical. Instead, one had a horn, one possessed a disproportionatelyrge mouth, one resembled a dragon''s head...

    Not only were the eight heads all different in physical appearance, the attacks that they were capable of unleashing were also different.

    For example, the horned head was capable of breathing fire, the dragon head specialized in wind-based attacks, and the head with the disproportionatelyrge mouth could release toxic mist.

    The eight heads were unleashing eight types of different attacks, consisting of wind, fire, thunder, lightning, earth, poison, ghost, and ice. Their attacks filled the entire sky like doomsday fireworks, striking the beholder with a sense of awe and horror.

    In the face of the all-epassing barrage of attacks, Ikkaku was almostpletely powerless to resist, only able to ward off Yamata no Orochi''s abilities for a short while with his fiery tornadoes before part of his body was sealed in ice.

    Immediately thereafter, he was beset by lightning and toxic mist, while malicious spirits swirled around him, and in the end, he was impaled by a series of stone spears. Within mere moments, abatant who ranked in the top half of the S tier had been driven to the brink of death by the almighty Yamata no Orochi.

    Upon witnessing Yamata no Orochi''s terrifying disy of power, Clown immediately concealed itself and vanished into thin air.

    When fused with Clown, Adam''s powers were only roughly on par with Ikkaku''s. In fact, Ikkaku''s offensive prowess currently exceeded Adam''s due to the fact that he was fused with Fire Elemental, and even he had sustained severe injuries from that wave of attacks, so Adam was most likely going to suffer the same fate if he were to remain out in the open.

    Yamata no Orochi''s attacks epassed an enormous area, so it didn''t matter how many clones Clown could conjure up as they would all be caught in the scope of the attacks.

    In the face of this legendary serpent, Nie Yiyi''s psychic body was beginning to waver. This was a sign that her confidence had taken a significant hit. After noticing this, she forcibly suppressed the feelings of fear and inferiority that were rising up in her heart as she rushed away for cover. She knew that there was no way that she would''ve been able to y any part in a battle of this caliber.

    All of the remainingbatants immediately fled away from Yamata no Orochi, desperately trying to open up some distance between themselves and the fearsome monster.

    Even everyone on the second battlefield in the distance had stopped what they were doing. Eyeless and his six assants had all turned to direct their attention toward Yamata no Orochi.

    How could an adapter of her level be capable of invoking such a fearsome creature?

    Eyeless was incredulous at what he was "seeing", and unlike everyone else, who was trying to avoid Yamata no Orochi at all costs, he was struck by the urge to engage it in battle.

    Yamata no Orochi was a world destroyer in Japanese folklore, and it had thoroughly astonished everyone with its incredible disy of power. Everyone was frantically fleeing and retreating, but there was one exception in the form of Diana.

    Diana had beenpletely consumed by her rage, to the point that felt no fear or intimidation in Yamata no Orochi''s presence. Her gaze was focused entirely on Oni no Miko, and there was nothing but vengeful fury burning in her eyes.

    She spread her massive wings and swooped down upon Yamata no Orochi as she released another draconic breath. Thebination of ck mes and corrosive acid raised a flurry of crackling sparks, sessfully attracting Yamata no Orochi''s attention.

    Thus, the battle between the pair of titanic monsters officiallymenced with that st of ck mes.

    Perhaps Yamata no Orochi''s enormous size made it impossible for it to evade the oing pir of mes, or it simply didn''t regard the attack as a threat. In any case, it made no attempt to take evasive measures as it fought back in direct retaliation.

    The same attacks that had been used against Ikkaku were unleashed once again as Yamata no Orochi''s eight heads disyed their formidable power in unison.

    The first attack to reach Diana was the rumbling thunder, which was a sound-based attack.

    An explosive thunderp rang out beside Diana''s ears, unleashing powerful shockwaves and soundwaves that instantly stunned the giant dragon, striking her with a moment of disorientation.

    It was also during this briefpse that she was struck by bolts of lightning and a barrage of stone spears, while malicious spirits surged around her body and her wings were frozen in ice.

    As a result, she began to fall out of the sky in an unsteady manner, but during her descent, she returned to her senses, and with a thunderous roar, she dispelled all of the ice and malicious spirits around her body.

    Even so, in the wake of this barrage of attacks from Yamata no Orochi, arge section of her ck scales had been destroyed, and the injuries that she had sustained certainly weren''t insignificant.

    However, Yamata no Orochi hadn''t survived the sh entirely unscathed, either. As the pir of ck mes struck Yamata no Orochi alongside the corrosive acid, the two reacted to result in a violent explosion.

    The corrosive acid ate through its scales, while the mes scorched its skin and flesh, revealingrge sections of its skeleton underneath. Fortunately for Yamata no Orochi, its body was sufficiently enormous for it to weather the storm.

    Even though Diana''s draconic breath had burned away around seven to eight meters of its skin and flesh, that was only roughly the equivalent of a human losing around an inch of skin. It wasn''t an insignificant injury, but it was still bearable.

    However, Diana wasn''t about to let Yamata no Orochi off the hook so easily.

    After steadying herself, Diana rose up into the air once again, ignoring all of the oing attacks as she unleashed her draconic technomancy, conjuring up countless balls of ck light in the air, all of which rained down upon Yamata no Orochi in a frenzy.

    The attacks were extremely concentrated, and Yamata no Orochi''s enormous body made it a huge target.

    Almost every single one of those ck balls of light struck Yamata no Orochi with devastating force, inflicting even more damage upon it than the pir of ck mes.

    Of course, that also drew even fiercer retaliation from Yamata no Orochi.

    As a legendary deity said to be capable of destroying the entire world, Yamata no Orochi naturally possessed some extremely powerful abilities. In fact, every single one of its heads was capable of unleashing a devastating forbidden technique.

    For example, the earth-attribute head was capable of triggering a cataclysmic earthquake powerful enough to destroy the entire Japanese ind of Honshu.

    At the moment, it was the ice-attribute head that was unleashing its forbidden technique, and as it did so, the air temperature in the entire basin was beginning to rapidly plummet, and before long, the temperature had dropped to close to -200¡ãC.

    Under these cial temperatures, the entire area was frozen solid, and all of the moisture in the air had been frozen solid, and the entire basin was made to resemble an enormous freezer unit.

 Chapter 222: After the Apocalypse

    <h4>Chapter 222: After the Apocalypse</h4>

    In the real world, a temperature of close to -200¡ãC was roughly the same temperature as liquid nitrogen.

    The vast majority of living organisms were unable to survive such extreme temperatures, and a human would only be able to survive in such an environment for an extremely short time before they were frozen solid, bing as brittle as ss.

    Not long after Yamata no Orochi unleashed this forbidden technique, the entire basin was reduced to this temperature. Concealed in an obscure corner of the basin, Hook¡¯s body began to freeze solid within a matter of mere seconds. His joints were the first parts of his body to freeze solid, followed quickly by his feet and legs. He barely had a chance to even cry out for help before his entire body waspletely frozen.

    Everyone else in the basin was also struggling immensely against the cial temperatures.

    Nie Yiyi was expending an enormous amount of psychic power, using the wind around her to ward off the cial temperatures in an attempt to save herself, but she was too weak to sustain this for very long. As her psychic power was being rapidly exhausted, her core temperature was also steadily dropping, and it wouldn''t be long before she suffered the same fate as Hook.

    With just a single forbidden technique, Yamata no Orochi had killed virtually all of the remainingbatants below the S tier in a short time, including even the rats that were hiding in the shadows.

    Among the team of gun-wielders that Adam had previously run into at the airdrop site, there was a sniper with a concealment ability. Thanks to that ability, he had been able to survive to this point, and he was lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to snipe Adam down.

    However, Adam hade here in his Sludge form, then immediately transitioned to his Clown form, so no suitable opportunity had arisen for the sniper.

    However, all snipers were well aware of the virtues of patience. No one had their guard up all the time, and as long as he had enough patience, an opening was definitely going to present itself.

    He discovered that whenever Adam switched between forms, there was a brief moment in which he would return to his base form. That was his weakness, and the sniper knew that if he could capitalize on that window of opportunity when it next arose, then he would be able to take down Adam in a single shot.

    Prior to arriving in the final zone, all of his teammates had already perished. After witnessing the fearsome power disyed by the likes of Yamata no Orochi, Diana, and the three psychic mutants, he had already given up all hope of surviving to the end.

    He had severely underestimated this game, and as an adventurer and an adapter, he was going to have to pay the ultimate price for hispse in judgment.

    He had already epted his own fate, but before he met his demise, he wanted to avenge his teammates.

    Unfortunately for him, as the freezing temperatures spread through the basin, the embrace of death wasing far too quickly.

    In one final act of desperation and defiance, the sniper fired a bullet at the spot where Clown hadst appeared, following which he was frozen into an ice statue.

    Before long, only the most powerful participants of the battle royale remained, but they were hardly thriving themselves.

    Mole was warding off the cial temperatures using the lightning that was coursing all over his body, while Rabbit and Armadillo were also doing the same with their soul power and yellow sand, respectively, but this was taking a huge toll on them.

    In order to keep themselves from being frozen, they were having to constantly expend an enormous amount of psychic power.

    "We can''t keep going like this!" Mole''s brows were tightly furrowed as he watched his own lightning flickering unsteadily around him. "I''m not going to be able to keep this up much longer!"

    "We have to kill that damn snake!"

    "But it''s too strong for us!"

    "That''s true..."

    While the three of them were discussing how to proceed, Eyeless was unable to deny himself any longer.

    He raised his de as he turned to Yamata no Orochi with a resolute expression.

    .

    "Even if this is where I''m destined to fall, I must face this challenge head-on!"

    ¡­¡­

    Everyone was struggling for survival under the effects of Yamata no Orochi''s almighty forbidden technique, and as the one being directed targeted by the attack, Diana was in an even more terrible situation than everyone else.

    She was the one who was situated closest to Yamata no Orochi, and as a result, she was the first one to be beset by the cial temperatures.

    As soon as the air temperature began to plummet, ayer of frost instantly appeared over her scales, and she felt as if her blood were about to freeze solid as her speed was drastically diminished.

    She immediately tried to retaliate with a draconic breath, but as soon as the pir of ck mes erupted out of her mouth, it was forcibly snuffed out by a burst of cial energy.

    The same burst of cial energy then swept over her to immobilize her entire body.

    All of a sudden, Diana lost all movement in her wings, causing her to plummet out of the sky like a dead weight, but before she could crash to the ground, she was caught between the jaws of two enormous serpentine mouths.

    Yamata no Orochi had opened two of its cavernous mouths to catch Diana, with one of them sinking its fangs into Diana''s neck, while the other chomped down viciously onto her abdomen. At the same time, they were tearing viciously at her body, trying to rip her in half with the assistance of the cial temperatures.

    "So what if you''vepletely mutated?" Oni no Miko''s feeble voice rang out from atop one of Yamata no Orochi''s heads. "Yamata no Orochi is a world-destroying deity! Among dragons, only the god of all dragons could hope to stand against it! You''ve challenged an opponent far more powerful than yourself, and it''s time for you to die for your insolence!"

    While Oni no Miko was speaking, two more serpentine heads sank their fangs into Diana''s body.

    With four heads tearing at Diana''s body at once, it didn''t take long before one of her wings was ripped off, and arge volume of blood came gushing out of her body onto the ground.

    Under normal circumstances, Diana possessed tremendous physical resistance, but unfortunately, her dragon scales had be very brittle due to the extreme freezing temperatures. In addition to that, Yamata no Orochi possessed limitless physical strength, so it was no surprise that Diana''s body was struggling to hold itself together.

    However, Diana wasn''t without allies.

    While she was caught between Yamata no Orochi''s jaws, Adam had already appeared behind Oni no Miko.

    "You''re sounding really frail there, Miko. Are you about to die? Let me help you along!"

    As soon as Clown appeared, it immediately fired a string of bullets at Oni no Miko''s head and shoulders, punching a series of holes into her body.

    It was clear that Oni no Miko was indeed in an extremely feeble state, as evidenced by the fact that even attacks of this caliber were able to injure her so severely.

    After being pelted with bullets, more ck mist began to surge out of Oni no Miko''s body, and she resembled a fuel tank that was supplying Yamata no Orochi with power.

    With increased nourishment from the additional influx of ck mist, Yamata no Orochi became increasingly more violent, tearing at Diana''s body with tremendous force.

    "Let me see how long it''ll take for you to bleed out!"

    Clown continued to persist, conjuring up a whole host of clones to attack Oni no Miko at once, hoping to overwhelm her with sheer numbers.

    However, at the same time, a giant serpentine head appeared in front of her to shield her from all of the oing attacks.

    At the same time, three more of Yamata no Orochi''s heads swept violently through the air from different directions, devouring or shattering all of Clown''s clones.

    Every single one of Yamata no Orochi''s heads was a formidable opponent in itself, and it was certainly not an easy task to bypass those heads and kill Oni no Miko.

    Under the freezing temperatures, Clown''s clones were extremely slow and sluggish, and they were virtually nothing more than sitting ducks that were quickly shattered into ice crystals.

    Thus, Adam''s first sneak attack ended in failure.

    However, he had sessfully managed to draw the attention of four of Yamata no Orochi''s heads, and with the other four heads continuing to tear at Diana, all of its heads had been distracted.

    Right at this moment, a fearsome de suddenly shed through the air at an rming speed.

 Chapter 223: Death

    <h4>Chapter 223: Death</h4>

    Eyeless had finally joined the battle against Yamata no Orochi.

    .

    As someone who had always trained and improved through adversity, this was a hardship that he had to endure.

    Aside from the director, Yamata no Orochi was the most formidable opponent he had ever faced, so this attack was also the most serious strike that Eyeless had unleashed thus far in this battle royale.

    His de shed through the air with a cold gleam that resembled a bright crescent moon, leaving a trail of light that was several dozen meters in length in its wake. Everything in the path of the streak of light was instantly severed, including one of Yamata no Orochi''s heads.

    The decapitated head slipped silently off Yamata no Orochi''s body.

    Prior to being severed, the head had been tearing at Diana''s body, and after being decapitated, it hung limply down from Diana''s abdomen. The headless body began to writhe and thrash violently while ck blood gushed out of the wound.

    Eyeless''s de was so fast that it took Yamata no Orochi half a second to register the pain and the fact that it was missing a head, following which all of its other heads began to screech in agony.

    The three other heads that were tearing at Diana instinctively released her before opening their cavernous mouths to retaliate against Eyeless.

    In the face of the three oing serpentine heads, Eyelessshed out thrice with his de in rapid session to force them away, but during this time, he had been surrounded by Yamata no Orochi''s other heads.

    At this point, Clown had already concealed itself once again, so Eyeless was left to bear the full brunt of Yamata no Orochi''s wrath.

    Eyeless raised his head, and even though he couldn''t see, he was using his telegnosis to assess his surroundings.

    He was but a puny human holding a sword, standing in the face of a serpentine deity, resembling a brave, legendary warrior.

    "I recall that ording to Japanese legend, Yamata no Orochi was in by Susanoo no Mikoto using the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. My sword is not as sharp as the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, but so long as I possess the conviction, I can slice through all hardships in this world."

    Not only was Eyeless not intimidated by the extreme peril that he was in, an unprecedently mighty aura erupted from his body as he rose to the challenge.

    In the next instant, he was beset by a fearsome barrage of attacks from Yamata no Orochi that epassed the entire area that he was in, making it impossible for him to evade.

    As a result, Eyeless was forced to unleash his Thousand sh technique again. This time, he was swinging his de even faster thanst time, allowing him to keep out the vast majority of the oing attacks.

    However, there was a limit to how fast he could swing his de, and it was unable to keep out the rumbling thunder, nor was it able to defend Eyeless from attacks that came from the ground beneath his feet.

    The soundwaves of the thunderps were still assaulting Eyeless''s eardrums, while stone spikes erupted out of the ground underfoot. No matter how fast Eyeless''s de was, there was no way that it could sever soundwaves.

    Ultimately, Eyeless was wounded by Yamata no Orochi, and after his defense was overwhelmed, he sprang up into the air, trying to use the stone spikes asunch pads to evade the subsequent attacks, but a burst of cial energy abruptly surged toward him at Yamata no Orochi''s behest, instantly immobilizing him on the spot.

    The cial energy was capable of freezing Diana, so it was naturally also able to do the same to Eyeless.

    Eyeless possessed tremendous speed and offensive prowess, but ultimately, his psychic body was just that of an ordinary man, so his defenses were bound to be a littlecking.

    After he was frozen solid in mid-air, a serpentine head immediately swept toward him like a battering ram, trying to shatter his frozen body.

    In this dire situation, Clown arrived on the scene just in the nick of time, carrying Eyeless away to save him from the lethal attack.

    Clown was able to swoop in so quickly because it didn''t go very far after attempting that sneak attack on Oni no Miko. Instead, it had been concealed nearby this entire time, waiting for another opportunity to strike, and it naturally wasn''t going to allow Eyeless to be killed so easily.

    Eyeless was a formidable foe, but at the moment, the enemy of an enemy was a friend, and without Eyeless''s help, there was no way that he could secure the ultimate victory in this battle royale.

    However, saving Eyeless was not a simple task. In the instant that Clown swooped in to save the day, it exposed its own location, and as a result, it was forced to face Yamata no Orochi''s wrath.

    That may not have been the best idea...

    Looking at the giant serpentine head that was swinging its way, Clown immediately tossed Eyeless aside before concealing itself again.

    However, it wasn''t going to be allowed to escape so easily this time.

    Yamata no Orochi''s remaining seven heads instantly gathered in one ce to rain down attacks upon Clown.

    In the face of the devastating barrage of attacks, Clown quickly sustained a whole host of injuries, but right at this moment, he was suddenly dragged underground by someone.

    "Armadillo?"

    "That''s right! You saved my life, and I''ve repaid the favor now."

    Armadillo was burrowing his way through the earth, and he wasn''t much slower than he was on the surface.

    Oni no Miko was naturally furious that her sworn enemy had gotten away right under her nose once again, and she pulled out an arrow before stabbing herself violently a few times, piercing several more holes into her own body.

    More ck mist surged out of those wounds before seeping into Yamata no Orochi''s body, making it even more violent and agitated.

    "Kill him!"

    The earth-attribute head let loose a thunderous roar as it unleashed its forbidden technique, the very same fabled technique that was said to be capable of destroying the entire ind of Honshu.

    After the forbidden technique was unleashed, the entire basin began to ripple like a wave before exploding violently, and it was as if doomsday had truly arrived. The entire earth was beginning to churn and tumble like clothes being tossed around in a tumble dryer, while countless bottomless rifts were opened up on the ground.

    This was a truly cataclysmic earthquake, and even the mountains outside of the final zone were affected.

    Many mountains were quickly toppled, sending countless giant rocks tumbling down from above.

    Amid the violent earthquakes, Nie Yiyi could see that many of thebatants that had previously been frozen solid were instantly shattered on the spot. She was desperate to save Hook from the same fate, but at this point, she could barely even keep herself alive, so she could only watch as Hook fell into one of the deep fissures.

    "No! Hook!"

    Before Nie Yiyi even had a chance to grieve for Hook, she failed to spot a giant rock that was flying toward her as she was distracted, and the rock smashed her straight into the ground.

    The earthquake hadpletely cleared out the entire final zone.

    Everyone had perished with the exception of only a handful of the most powerful battle royale participants.

    Even though Armadillo and Adam were both underground, they were also struggling immensely as the earth closed in around them. Despite Armadillo''s earth maniption abilities, he was throwing up mouthfuls of blood incessantly under the crushing force of thepressing earth, while Adam was barely able to breathe.

    Right as the two of them were considering returning to the surface, the earthquake suddenly stopped.

    "What happened?"

    Armadillo was looking around with a curious expression. All of the violent tremors running through the ground had abruptly ceased, as if the plug had been pulled on an earthquake simtion machine, creating a rather jarring experience.

    "Let''s go back to the surface and take a look."

    With that, Armadillo and Adam returned to the surface, and as soon as they did so, they could sense that the air temperature also seemed to be warming back up.

    They then turned their attention to Yamata no Orochi to find that it was looking nowhere near as aggressive and fearsome as before. Its seven heads were drooping down limply onto the ground, and it appeared to be in an extremely feeble state.

 Chapter 224: A Game for the Brave

    <h4>Chapter 224: A Game for the Brave</h4>

    "It was fine just a moment ago, why is it suddenly like this now?"

    Armadillo was quite perplexed at the sight of the condition that Yamata no Orochi was in, and he didn''t know how to proceed.

    Right as he was looking on with a befuddled expression, Mole arrived beside him amid a sh of lightning.

    "It looks very weak right now. Should we try and kill it? Take a look at our brother over there. He''s a pretty smart guy, and he''s rushing right in!"

    Sure enough, while Mole was speaking, Adam had already sprung into action.

    "He is pretty smart, but he''s not as smart as we are. It looks like he''s been lured in by the trap that they''ve set, but a trap like this isn''t enough to fool me," Armadillo replied in a confident manner.

    "What do you mean?"

    "That big snake was thriving just a moment, so it must be pretending to be weak all of a sudden."

    "Why would it do that?"

    At this point, Rabbit had also joined the duo.

    "Why do you think? It''s trying to lure in all of the otherbatants, then take them out all at once."

    "That kind of makes sense, but the abilities that it unleashed earlier were able to epass the entire basin, so there''s no need for it to do that."

    "In that case... In that case..." Mole scrambled momentarily for an answer beforeing up with a rather unconvincing one. "It doesn''t matter, I''m sure there''s a trap!"

    "... Alright."

    ¡­¡­

    While the three psychic mutants were discussing strategy, Adam had already arrived beside Yamata no Orochi. No one else knew why Yamata no Orochi had suddenly fallen into such a feeble state, but he did.

    With Oni no Miko''s powers, there was no way that she should''ve been able to control such a formidable invoked entity. It was only through something simr to a blood sacrifice, where she was constantly expending her own life force, was just barely able to control Yamata no Orochi.

    However, it was clear that she couldn''t keep this up for very long, particrly in this case, where Yamata no Orochi was using consecutive forbidden techniques, and the earthquake that it had unleashed had finally sucked Oni no Mikopletely dry.

    Adam knew that he had to capitalize on this brief window of opportunity before it slipped away.

    Sure enough, by the time he arrived, Oni no Miko was already on the verge of death. The ck mist that Yamata no Orochi was absorbing appeared to be her life force, and she had expended far too much of it in exchange for control over the creature.

    However, Oni no Miko wasn''t a reckless idiot, and she naturally had some tricks up her sleeve. By the time Adam arrived to put an end to her life, she had already pulled out a bunch of cards to facilitate her own recovery.

    These cards primarily had the effects of regeneration and restoration of psychic power. She had a great number of these cards, and it was unclear whether she had simply been unfortunate to have stumbled upon so many cards of this nature, or if she had intentionally traded for these cards from others.

    "Time for you to die!"

    Clown pulled out its gun and began to fire at Oni no Miko to put an end to her life, but right at this moment, a figure stepped in to shield her from the bullets.

    It was Diamond.

    Ever since he was forced into retreat by Diana, he had been hiding under Yamata no Orochi this entire time, both to avoid having to face the likes of Diana and Eyeless in battle, as well as to protect Oni no Miko if required.

    "I didn''t think you''d still be alive!"

    Clown continued to open fire at Oni no Miko while trying to get around Diamond, but Diamond immediately formed an all-epassing protective barrier around Oni no Miko with his own body, refusing to take any chances.

    As had been proven in the past, Clown didn''t possess sufficient firepower to st through Diamond''s defenses, so it seemed that this was a hopeless cause.

    "Are you content to act as herpdog now? Weren''t you going to kill me? I''m standing in front of you right now!"

    Clown could see that Oni no Miko was slowly recovering under Diamond''s protection, and it was beginning to grow quite anxious.

    As a result, it had no choice but to turn to provocation.

    "Your tricks aren''t gonna work on me! Do you really think I''m stupid enough to be goaded into attacking you?"

    "Who knows? That useless brother of yours isn''t all that bright, who''s to say you''re any smarter than him? I heard that he''s still bedridden and pissing himself every night! I''m the one who did that to him, yet as his brother, you don''t even dare to avenge him when I''m standing right in front of you!"

    Clown was approaching Diamond in apletely defenseless manner as it spoke. "Just like your brother, you have no confidence. You''re scared that you won''t be able to kill me. You''re just a pitiful dog who''s clinging onto his master for dear life. You''re scared that if she dies, your death will soon follow! I can really see the family resemnce now, you''re just as spineless as your brother!"

    Everyone had their own weakness, and the more one cared about something, the more that thing was going to present itself as a weakness to them.

    Diamond cherished his family above all else, and that was why he wanted to avenge his brother, and to secure nk tes to extend the lives of his family members.

    Perhaps he didn''t care what Adam said about him, but knew that his brother was also watching the battle royale, and he didn''t want him to suffer a second bout of trauma from Adam''s scathing words.

    He wanted to present himself in a braver light in order to inspire his brother, but at the same time, he didn''t want to be yed for a fool.

    "If you''re going to call me spineless, then how about we y a game for the brave?" Diamond suggested as he took a step toward Adam.

    "What are you suggesting? That we y Russian roulette?"

    Clown pulled out an old-school revolver before stuffing a bullet inside, then spun the chamber for a moment before firing the weapon at himself, upon which the bullet flew out and struck him on the temple.

    "Well, looks like my luck isn''t all that great."

    "If you want to waste time, then I''m happy to join you. She''s going to keep recovering, so wasting time will only benefit me."

    Indeed, under the effects of all of the restorative cards, Oni no Miko''s depleted body was beginning to slowly recover. The ck mist that had previously been sucked dry from her body was also gradually returning, and there wasn''t much time left for Adam.

    "Alright, let''s hear what you have to say."

    Adam forcibly suppressed all of the deranged thoughts that Clown was nting into his mind so that he could think clearly and rationally again.

    "Here''s the game that I propose. You and I will both simultaneously take steps toward one another, and during this time, you can use any of your abilities, whether it be concealment or your clones, but if you do that, I''ll immediately return to protect Oni no Miko."

    "I see. So the closer we get to each other, the further away you''ll be from Oni no Miko, but at the same time, I''ll also be cing myself in more and more danger."

    Without the use of its abilities, Clown was no match for Diamond, and if it were to get too close, there was a very good chance that it would be killed by a single punch from Diamond.

    In terms of pure physical prowess, the two of them were onpletely different levels.

    "Of course, you can try and cheat the game, but let me remind you that I''m one of the most powerfulbatants in the S tier. My abilities may be quite limited, but telegnosis definitely matches my power. If you try to cheat, the game will end right away, and I''ll immediately return to protect Oni no Miko and dash your hopes. What do you say? Do you dare to take me up on this game?"

    "Why not? It''s a very fair game."

    Adam began to make his way toward Diamond as he spoke, and Diamond also began to approach Adam at the same pace.

    The two of them drew closer and closer to one another as the atmosphere grew tenser and tenser.

    Adam naturally wanted to get as close to Diamond as possible. Not only would that lure Diamond further away from Oni no Miko, being in close proximity to Diamond would also make it easier for him to somehow trap Diamond and get around him.

    However, at the same time, the less distance there was between them, the more danger Adam would be in.

    Diamond''s fists were already tightly clenched, and at this point, there were no more than three meters separating them. Just a single stride would''ve been enough for Diamond to close this distance before demolishing Clown with a single punch.

 Chapter 225: Twins

    <h4>Chapter 225: Twins</h4>

    Diamond was very patient, and he refrained from striking even though Adam was already almost within reaching distance.

    The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, he didn''t have absolute confidence that he would be able tond a killing blow on Adam over this distance, and secondly, he wanted to see just how far Adam was willing to go.

    The tension in the air was virtually palpable at this point, and with one more step from both Adam and Diamond, they were standing right in front of each other with virtually no distance between them.

    It was also at this moment that Diamond and Adam sprang into action in unison.

    At such a close range, Diamond switched from a punch to a hold, aiming to use his own body to crush Adam to death. However, Adam abruptly ducked down to avoid the grab while invoking Distortion at the same time to inhibit Diamond''s movements.

    Of course, given the significant power gap between Distortion and Diamond, the former was only able to impede thetter''s movements very slightly, but that still gave Adam the time he needed to avoid Diamond''s grab before ducking down and springing forward, trying to squeeze his way through the gap between Diamond''s legs.

    However, he had underestimated Diamond''s reflexes.

    As someone who relied solely on his physical prowess to retain his spot near the top of the S tier, Diamond was superior to Adam in both strength and speed. In the instant that Adam attempted to dart between his legs, he immediately reacted, mping his legs together in a forceful manner to crush Adam like a hydraulic press.

    "Bad choice, idiot!"

    Diamond watched with vindictive glee as Adam was crushed between his legs, then picked up Adam''s mangled body before mming him down onto Yamata no Orochi''s scales, shattering all of his bones from the impact.

    However, at the same time, Clown''s cackling rang out from above him, and his heart instantly sank.

    "I forgot to tell you that I can conjure up illusions as well. Your telegnosis may beparable with your powers, but it''s never going to be quite as potent as it normally is when you''re this riled up!"

    Adam had managed to avoid Diamond''s grab by a hair''s breadth thanks to Distortion, then conjured up an illusion in the same instant that Diamond focused his undivided attention on killing his opponent. In doing so, Adam had truly yed a game for the brave.

    He had put his life on the line, and his gamble had failed, there was no way that he would''ve been able to escape from Diamond at such close proximity.

    However, if his gamble were to pay off, then he would be able to bypass Diamond and directly attack Oni no Miko.

    In the instant that Adam sessfully bypassed Diamond, he immediately began to throw the entire arsenal at Oni no Miko.

    He pulled out his gatling gun with one hand to fire a barrage of bullets, while hurling all types of explosives through the air with his other hand. At the same time, he conjured up all of the clones that he could muster up and invoked all of his anomalies, trying to instantly put an end to Oni no Miko''s life.

    Ultimately, his n seeded.

    Oni no Miko''s body was still yet to recover, and it waspletely blown into pieces by Adam''s ferocious firepower output. Prior to her demise, she took one final vicious re at Adam before her body waspletely pulverized before disintegrating into arge cloud of ck mist.

    Just like Adam, Diamond was also putting a life on the line, except he was betting with Oni no Miko''s life instead of his own.

    He had lost the game, and Oni no Miko was dead.

    In this game, anyone could be the hunter or the prey at any given moment in time.

    Nie Yiyi and Hook had fallen to their demise, and there was no reason why Oni no Miko couldn''t suffer the same fate.

    ¡­¡­

    In the instant that Oni no Miko was killed, a woman in a certain shinto shrine in Japan abruptly opened her eyes.

    She waspletely identical in appearance to Oni no Miko, and it seemed that they were twins. However, in contrast with Oni no Miko, there were several snake head tattoos on her neck, and on her exposed back was a fearsome tattoo of Yamata no Orochi.

    She seemed to have been able to sense Oni no Miko''s death, and after rising to her feet, she was silent for a long while. All of a sudden, a burst of emotion erupted out of her body, and the psychic bodies of all of the living beings in the shinto shrine instantly perished as a result.

    All of the priests, shrine maidens, and tourists, even all of the animals in the shrine, down to the tiniest ants, had met an instantaneous demise, having suffered irreversible damage to their neurons.

    The woman seemed to be unable to bear this power herself, and blood began to pour out of her nostrils, while her eyeballs threatened to bulge out of their sockets.

    Some type of suppressive device on her prosthetic arm was activated to make her feel a little better, but she paid no heed to her own condition as she made her way into the rear hall of the shinto shrine before making a video call.

    "Oni-faced Dragon, my sister is dead."

    "Indeed, she is."

    "You were the one who took her away from here! Yes, she did want to go with you, but you took her away nheless, and now she''s dead! You and everyone else in your Oni Organization have to pay with your lives, so does the bastard who killed her! Where is she right now? Tell me!"

    ¡­¡­

    Adam had no idea what type of trouble he had gotten himself into, and he had more than enough on his te as things currently stood.

    Following Oni no Miko''s demise, not only did Yamata no Orochi not suffer the same fate, it was reinvigorated after absorbing all of her life force.

    Its seven heads reared up again from the ground, and it began to search for targets to destroy while recovering by absorbing the ck mist in the surrounding air.

    "Amitabha, isn''t that thing supposed to be an invoked entity of hers?" Dead Wood was holding a string of prayer beads in the distance, and the prayer beads were giving off faint glimmers of light to allow him to see through the darkness. "What a strange battle this is turning out to be. King Arthur died, but not only did his invoked entity not die, it became even more powerful. Now, Oni no Miko is dead, but not only did that Yamata no Orochi not die, it seems to have recovered its strength."

    "It is indeed very strange," the portly monk chimed in with tightly furrowed brows. "That can only mean that the dragon and Yamata no Orochi weren''t their invoked entities to begin with."

    "What could they be then?"

    "Who knows? Perhaps alternate personas? Or perhaps they''re some type of psychic token like the ones imbued in the director''s cards."

    While Yamata no Orochi was recovering its energy, Adam had already concealed himself. He had thought that the serpent would immediately bombard him with attacks, just as it had done before, but to his surprise, the first target that it chose to attack turned out to be Diamond.

    It sted all types of attacks out of its seven mouths at Diamond, and even with his near imprable defense, the barrage of attacks was quickly taking a toll on his body.

    "Have you gone crazy? We''re on the same team!" Diamond roared in a bewildered voice, but that only seemed to have infuriated the serpent even further.

    Without Oni no Miko controlling the serpent, it seemed to have truly transformed into a world-destroying beast that instinctively attacked every single living being before it.

    After arriving at this realization, Adam slowly retreated from the scene in his concealed state. Yamata no Orochi had already lost its sense of reason, so it was no longer his enemy.

    Without Oni no Miko providing it with further sustenance, it was naturally going to disappear once it had exhausted all of its energy.

    Thus, it was no longer a cause for concern, and it was time for Adam to move on.

    However, before that, a thought suddenly urred to him.

    "Hook, Nie Yiyi, where are you?"

 Chapter 226: Succumbing to Evil

    <h4>Chapter 226: Sumbing to Evil</h4>

    Only now did Adam realize that his teammates had most likely already perished.

    He had been so slow to arrive at this conclusion because his mental state had been severely affected by Clown prior to this.

    As soon as he fused with Clown, he immediately entered a state of deep inebriation intermingled with some symptoms of schizophrenia. His mind was always filled with deranged voices, and his thoughts also becamepletely numb.

    In this state, it was already extremely difficult for him to retain any semnce of sanity and control, and he had no spare capacity to consider the situation that his teammates were in.

    However, now that he was safe and able to calm down a little, the grim realization finally dawned on him.

    In this ruthless game, death could easily befall anyone, particrly those who didn''t possess sufficient power to protect themselves. The final zone was the most perilous area in the entire battle royale, and the weak dropped like flies here.

    .

    This had always been a game that was rife with bloodshed, and this edition of the battle royale was even more perilous than previous ones due to the participation of Oni no Miko and the monk trio.

    At this point, only the most powerfulbatants remained, and unfortunately for Hook and Nie Yiyi, they didn''t fall into that category.

    Objectively speaking, it really shouldn''t havee as any surprise that they would meet their demise at this stage of the battle royale, but Adam was unable to ept this harsh reality.

    Adam had always been clinging to the optimistic hope that his entire team would survive until the very end. Perhaps he had considered the possibility that his friends would perish, but now that it had actually happened, the resulting psychological blow was more severe than any he had been dealt in the past, more so than the trauma of witnessing the human farm, or the revtion that he was a nk te.

    "Why? Why did this happen?"

    Adam''s emotional vulnerability made him lower his guard, and the number of tentacles on his body began to increase, while Raven''s deranged will began to whittle away at his sense of reason.

    "If I had known this would happen, I wouldn''t have brought you with me. We could''ve just not entered the battle royale. It''s not like we can''t survive in Shadow City... If it isn''t for me, none of you would''ve gotten involved in this mess. You were all just normal students before you met me! This is all because I''m too weak. If only I had the power to protect all of you. Especially you, Hook, I forced you into this..."

    All of these negative thoughts and emotions began to erode Adam''s mind in the wake of this crushing revtion.

    For a normal adapter, negative emotions would either make them weak, such as in the case of Iron Man, or they would make the adapter mutate, such as Diana.

    However, Adam was different. Clown harbored psychic parasites from Raven, and Adam was currently in a very strange state, given that he was fused with Clown. In addition to that, Clown was far more powerful than him, even though it was his invoked entity.

    Even a single one of these circumstances was extremely rare, and with all three of them acting upon Adam at once, he underwent aplete transformation.

    His body began to slowly mutate, growing tentacles that began to absorb his body and Clown''s power.

    From a third-person perspective, this was just a normal mutation. It was a verymon sight for top-tier adapters to mutate in the final zone.

    All powerful adapters possessed exceptional mental fortitude, so even if they were to encounter insurmountable obstacles, they wouldn''t have their confidencepletely crushed like Iron Man did.

    Instead, they would enter a state of self-torment, eventually leading to a mutation.

    However, this wasn''t what Adam was experiencing.

    He could feel himself bing connected with Clown. He had no idea what was happening himself, but it seemed that he was absorbing Clown. This strange feeling alerted him to the situation that he was in, and a hint of reason returned to his mind as a result, but it was already toote.

    He could feel his mind bing more and more chaotic, while his desire for ughter and destruction became more and more powerful. In the end, he was overwhelmed by the crushing weight of all of his negative emotions, causing him topletely fuse with Clown.

    Following the fusion, Adam began to cackle in a strange, inhuman voice, and all of the remorse, guilt, and dejection on his face was instantly wiped away. Afterpletely fusing with Clown, Adam felt as if he were seeing the world through brand new eyes.

    These experiences and interpersonal bonds were nothing more than fuel for growth, and all of a sudden, the demise of his friends became something that was worthy of celebration rather than mourning.

    "If I had known that giving in would feel so good, I would''ve done so long ago!"

    For the first time, Adam''s voice carried a sense of pure, unadulterated evil, and the corners of his lips reached all the way to his ears as his face split open in a grotesque smile. His eyes darted around as he observed the entire battlefield through his newfound perspective.

    "Now then, how do I win? That big snake will eventually run out of energy, so I don''t have to worry about it, but I can use it to kill Eyeless! I just saved his life, and he''s eager for a challenge anyway, so it''ll be easy to goad the two of them into another battle. It would be great if they both end up killing each other!

    ¡°There''s also those three monks. I definitely won''t be able to beat them on my own... Hold on, I can just use those three idiots! They said that they were going to kill mest, so I''ll just pit them against the three monks! My goodness, how was I so foolish in the past? I have all of these things working in my favor, why did I feel the need to put my own life on the line?"

    With that, Adam began to enact his n, and sure enough, it didn''t take much to lure Eyeless and Yamata no Orochi into another battle. Having already been defeated by Yamata no Orochi once, Eyeless was eager to tackle this formidable opponent once again.

    Adam then sought out Mole before informing thetter of his n.

    "Eyeless and Yamata no Orochi are fighting now, how about we take out those three monks in the meantime?"

    Mole turned to Adam with a perplexed expression.

    "Why do you seem a little different from before?"

    "Don''t worry about that. Eyeless looks to be having a hard time at the moment, but that big snake isn''t going tost very long. It''s just an invoked entity, so it''ll dissipate on its own sooner orter, but it wouldn''t be a surprise if it could take down Eyeless before it died. In the meantime, we should focus our efforts on those three monks. You promised to kill mest, and we''ve always had a good time together. What do you say?"

    "He''s right." Before Mole had a chance to say anything, Armadillo readily agreed to Adam''s proposal. Adam had previously saved his life, so he had more trust in Adam than the other two psychic mutants. "Let''s do it."

    "You guys go first, I''ll take care of everyone else."

    Adam smiled as he vanished on the spot, then quickly reappeared beside Ikkaku.

    Indeed, Ikkaku was still alive at this point.

 Chapter 227: The New Adam

    <h4>Chapter 227: The New Adam</h4>

    Ikkaku was ranked near the top of the S tier, and even though he was struck directly by a barrage of attacks from Yamata no Orochi, he had managed to survive. He had been recovering from him injuries using the cards that he had gathered while everyone else had been battling it out, but he hadn''t been able to make much progress in his recovery due to the effects of the two forbidden techniques that Yamata no Orochi had unleashed earlier.

    He had only just recovered somewhat before he sustained new injuries from the freezing temperatures and the violent earthquakes, and he had been hiding beside a fissure this entire time, waiting for an opportunity to reenter the fray.

    Afterpletely fusing with Clown, Adam''s abilities had been greatly enhanced, and that included his telegnosis. Thus, he was quickly able to sense and track down Ikkaku.

    "The situation is very chaotic right now," Ikkaku remarked, and he wasn''t wary of Adam at all.

    In his mind, they were still allies, and throughout their time together, Ikkaku had determined that Adam was an upstanding character who wouldn''t resort to extreme means.

    However, he was quickly made to regret hiscency.

    Right after Adam appeared, Ikkaku''s head was suddenly cleaved open by an ax, following which he was greeted by the sight of a demonic smile on Adam''s face.

    "Whoops! I forgot to tell you that you''re only looking at a clone of me right now. The one behind you who just split your head open is the actual me!" Clown cackled with glee as it raised its dagger before plunging it into Ikkaku''s second head, which belonged to Fire Elemental. "What a pity. You were quite a strong guy, but you''ve be really weak after sustaining those injuries. The best time to kick a man is when he''s down. Surely you understand that, right?"

    Clown continued to cackle as it stuck a stic time bomb onto Ikkaku''s body.

    "I hate to do this to you, but I gotta make sure that you''re dead!"

    Adam pped his hands over his own ears, then kicked Ikkaku into one of the fissures created by the earthquake from earlier.

    Ikkaku''s body fell deep into the rift, and a brief momentter, a loud explosion rang out. Adam nodded with a pleased expression as he looked at the dense smoke rising up from the fissure.

    "That''s two more out of the picture. I wonder how the other battles are going."

    First, Adam turned his attention to Yamata no Orochi, which was still attacking Diamond in a wild frenzy. It would''ve been next to impossible for Diamond to survive against Yamata no Orochi on his own, but Eyeless''s participation in the battle provided him with a glimmer of hope.

    Adam then turned to the other battlefield, where the psychic mutant trio was locked in a ferocious battle against the three monks. In the face of their fearsome opponents, the three monks had no choice but to unleash their sinful intent abilities once again in an attempt to turn the trio of psychic mutants against one another.

    However, perhaps it was due to their excessively low intelligence, or perhaps it was due to some other reason, but in any case, the three psychic mutants were quickly able to return to their senses before engaging the three monks in close-quartersbat.

    It appeared that this three-on-three battle wasn''t going to be ending anytime soon.

    "Looks like you''ll be my next target, Diamond!" Adam cackled as he abruptly vanished on the spot.

    ¡­¡­

    Diamond was feeling extremely frustrated.

    He couldn''t match Yamata no Orochi in physical prowess, and he was certainly no match for it in terms of abilities. All he could do was rely on his physical resistance to essentially act as a helpless punching bag for the mighty serpent. However, despite his tremendous defensive prowess, his body was constantly breaking down in the face of Yamata no Orochi''s attacks. The serpent''s destructive power was simply far too immense for Diamond to withstand.

    What was even more damning for him was that he had been standing right on Yamata no Orochi''s body right as the serpent awakened, and he was forced to endure a ferocious barrage of attacks before he was able to escape to the ground below.

    However, not long after hended on the ground, an explosion suddenly erupted underfoot. The ground was already riddled with countless rifts from the earlier earthquake, and the ground beneath Diamond''s feet instantly fell away in the wake of the explosion.

    The explosives had been positioned in a very strategic fashion so that after blowing up the ground beneath Diamond''s feet, two of the fissures in close proximity to him were connected together, thereby making it impossible for him to avoid falling deep underground.

    Diamond was struggling frantically to climb back up to the surface, but the enormous body weight that was usually such a tremendous asset to him was proving to be a massive hindrance here.

    What was even more detrimental to his cause was that someone was actively sabotaging his attempts to return to the surface.

    "Did you miss me?"

    Clown appeared above the rift that Diamond had fallen into, and it fired off a string of projectiles at Diamond with its rocketuncher. However, it wasn''t attacking Diamond directly. Instead, it was aiming its projectiles at the features on the walls of the rift that Diamond was attempting to use to climb back up to the surface.

    "Your defense really is close to imprable, but it doesn''t matter as long as I don''t directly attack you! I really have to thank that big snake. If it hadn''t made all these deep cracks in the ground with that earthquake, I wouldn''t have any effective ways to deal with you!"

    Adam tossed a grenade down at Diamond as he spoke, triggering an explosion that sent Diamond tumbling down to the bottom of the rift.

    However,pared with his brother, Diamond''s mental fortitude was far more resolute.

    "You can st me to the bottom all you want, but you still can''t kill me. All you can do is trap me in here."

    "You''re right. That''s why I prepared some other presents for you."

    Adam pulled out a bunch of artifacts from the World War II era, primarily consisting of things like res and sh grenades.

    After sending Diamond tumbling to the bottom of the rift once again, Adam immediately set off all of these pyrotechnic weapons, producing a bright and chaotic fireworks disy that instantly attracted Yamata no Orochi''s attention.

    At this point, Yamata no Orochi''s actions werepletely governed by its most primal instincts, and it was immediately struck by a sense of agitation at the sight of all of the bright lights. As a result, it immediately diverted a few of its heads away from its battle against Eyeless to bombard the rift where the shing lights wereing from with a ferocious barrage of attacks.

    By the time all of the pyrotechnics had faded, Diamond''s aura had also vanished.

    "And another one bites the dust!" Adam concealed off to the side as he watched with sadistic glee, clearly very pleased with his own handiwork. "That leaves only a few more to take care of..."

    Right as Adam was about to enact the next part of his n, the sirens rang out in the sky once again, and the zone began to continue to shrink.

    The green barrier began to rapidly approach from the toppled mountains in the distance, indicating to everyone that there wasn''t much time left.

    However, the rapidly approaching green barrier had struck Adam with a sh of inspiration. He made his way over to the edge of the green barrier, then took a nce outside.

    For the first time, he was able to see the countless zombies and artificial anomalies outside the green barrier up close. As the zone continued to shrink, the hordes of foul creatures outside were bing more and more densely packed together. Every single one of the anomalies was extremely fearsome in appearance, and he could even see the director, who was instructing all of the zombies and anomalies.

    "Hello, Mr. Director..." Not long ago, Adam''s skin would''ve been crawling at such a horrific sigh, but having fused as one with all of the negative emotions in his heart, he was currently the embodiment of fear, so he felt no apprehension even in the face of the almighty director. "Are you free for a chat?"

    "What do you want?" the director asked as he turned to Adam with his face still concealed behind a ck and white mask.

    "I want to ask you a question. If all of the other remainingbatants end up outside the zone and are killed by these zombies and anomalies, then that counts as a victory for me, right? After all, the objective is just to survive to the end, right?"

    "That''s right, the battle royale is a game of survival by any means!"

    "Great!" Adam extended a hand out of the green barrier to stroke the heads of the zombies that were snapping at him like a school of piranhas. "Wait here, my precious babies, I''ll get you some food soon!"

 Chapter 228: Bribe

    <h4>Chapter 228: Bribe</h4>

    The psychic mutant trio was truly formidable, able to hold their own against the three monks even after enduring a sequence of intense battles.

    Their battle was still ongoing, and this would''ve been quite a long and drawn-out affair, but with the zone beginning to shrink again, there wasn''t much time left, so the battle was forced to reach a premature climax.

    "The zone is about to close in on us! We don''t have any time left!"

    The three monks exchanged a nce and a nod with one another, following which they began to chant those sinister mantras once again. Immediately thereafter, countless arms suddenly began to sprout from Dead Wood''s body before entangling themselves together with the other monks, and the trio formed an evil Buddha statue with three heads and countless arms.

    As soon as the statue emerged, it swelled rapidly in stature before extending its countless arms at the psychic mutant trio in a relentless barrage of relentless palm thrusts.

    The three psychic mutants attempted to resist for a while, but the evil Buddha was extremely formidable. Not only was the psychic mutant trio struggling to withstand the evil Buddha''s palm strikes, the sinful intent imbued within the mantras that the three monks were collectively chanting was constantly causing mental disruption as well.

    They were able to resist the mantras previously being chanted by the three monks, but the effects of the mantras had be even more potent now that the three monks hadbined as one, and the psychic mutant trio was struck by crippling headaches.

    Right as they were about to sumb to their opponents, a voice suddenly rang out from underground.

    "Burrow into the ground! Hurry!"

    "That''s right! I forgot about that!"

    The three psychic mutants immediately heeded this vital piece of advice.

    All three of them were extremely adept at burrowing through the earth, and they were extremely ashamed that they had to be reminded of their abilities.

    After burrowing into the ground, they discovered that it was Adam who had saved them in the nick of time, and they were feeling both embarrassed and grateful.

    "I knew you were smart from the first time I met you!"

    "I can''t believe we didn''t think of this ourselves!"

    "What is that thing? A Buddha statue?"

    "I think so. It looks like the Buddha statues that I''ve seen online."

    "It''s alright, even the smartest people make asional oversights."

    Adam gave Mole a supportive pat on the shoulder, then pulled out arge stack of points cards before offering it to him.

    "How do you have so many of those?"

    "I scavenged these cards from the battlefield earlier. Quite a few people have perished in the final zone, and I would''ve gathered even more cards than this if it isn''t for the fact that a bunch of cards have fallen into the rifts in the ground. The three of you came here to earn money, right? How about I give you these cards, and you let me be champion in exchange?"

    Boom!

    Before Mole had a chance to reply, a violent explosion rang out from above. It seemed that Dead Wood''s trio was digging through the ground to pursue them.

    "Dig deeper!"

    Armadillo continued to burrow deeper into the ground, and Adam quickly followed along. Upon reaching a safe distance away from the three monks, he continued, "We''re all smart people, and we''ve gotten along very well, haven''t we?"

    "That''s true."

    "I''m sure the three of you don''t want to kill me, right?"

    "That''s also true."

    "Well, I don''t want to kill you, either, and I don''t want to make you surrender the win to me for nothing, which is why I''m giving you all of these points cards. You get the money that you came here to earn, while I win the battle royale. Doesn''t that sound like a win-win situation?"

    "But if we don''t win the battle royale, we''ll have to die anyway!"

    Mole immediately identified the main problem in Adam''s n, but he was instantly silenced as Adam pulled out an exit card.

    This exit card was one that he had scavenged from one of the bodies on the battlefield. The card had been stuck in a rather obscure location, and he had no idea who had brought it into the final zone. It had to have been someone who hade into the final zone with the objective of securing more cards, only to bepletely caught off guard and killed by Yamata no Orochi''s forbidden techniques before they even had a chance to use the exit card.

    That was truly a tragic way to die in this game.

    There had been many unforeseen turns of events in this battle royale.

    Midget''s team had been ambushed and killed by a team that was inferior to them in terms of overall power, Eyeless was almost killed by Yamata no Orochi, Medusa was almost killed by the psychic mutant trio, Ikkaku had been killed by Adam, and Nie Yiyi and Hook had both perished under rather unexpected circumstances as well.

    This entire battle royale was like a massive meat grinder, and everyone in it was at risk of dying at any point. Power alone wasn''t guaranteed to allow one to survive to the very end.

    At this point, Adam was extremely close to the end, and it was time for him to enact the final step of his n. He was willing to stoop as low as he had to in order to win this game, then leave this godforsaken city and avenge himself.

    .

    Following his fusion with Clown, Adam had be just as ruthless and deceptive as his anomaly.

    However, his objective still hadn''t changed, except he was now willing to do whatever it took to reach his goal.

    "I''ll give you these points cards and this exit card, and we can continue to be friends, right?"

    Adam put on a very genuine expression as he handed over everything to the psychic mutant trio with the exception of all of his skill cards.

    The three psychic mutants exchanged a few nces with one another before epting this proposal.

    "I really like this guy!"

    "Me, too!"

    "How about we invite him to join our brotherhood?"

    "That would be a great honor for me!" Adam eximed as he feigned a grateful expression.

    He was eager to recruit these three to be his allies. No one would be more useful to him than a bunch of powerful idiots that could be easily manipted.

    "Alright, then it''s settled!" Mole dered as he epted the cards.

    "Before you leave the game, you have to help me take care of those three monks."

    "Not a problem at all! Those three are a little difficult to deal with, but we''ll have no issues against them if you''re on our side."

    "I''m certain that they''re no match for us, but in order to conserve as much energy as possible, I''ve devised a little n..."

    ¡­¡­

    After fusing as one, the three monks quickly dug their way into the ground using their countless arms.

    "Those three haven''t gone very far. This is the psychic world, so the ground here definitely won''t go very deep. I can already sense their auras."

    All of a sudden, the head of the portly monk on the Buddha statue sniffed the air with a peculiar expression.

    "Hold on, it seems like they''reing back!"

    "My telegnosis is telling me the same thing..."

    "Looks like they have a death wish!"

    Dead Wood unleashed a flurry of palm strikes as he spoke, but due to the fact that they were situated underground, there wasn''t enough space for the giant Buddha statue to fully maneuver, and they were also impeded by the surrounding earth, so the effectiveness of these palm strikes was severely limitedpared to when they were on the surface.

    In contrast, the psychic mutant trio wasn''t slowed down much at all deep underground, and they were constantly attacking the Buddha statue from all directions.

    Furthermore, this time, they seemed to be operating ording to a coherent strategy, making use of their speed advantage to strike at their opponent before immediately rushing away after each strike, not giving the Buddha statue any chance to retaliate.

    As the battle continued in this fashion, it didn''t take long before Dead Wood came to a grim realization.

    "They''re trying to exhaust us to death! We have to get back up to the surface!"

    Thus, the Buddha statue quickly rose back up through the earth before leaping out of the ground, by which point they discovered that the final zone had already shrunk down to a diminutive size.

    At this point, the green barrier was less than 20 meters away, and it was still constantly closing in.

    "We have to end this!" Dead Wood yelled at the ground beneath his feet in an urgent voice. "Do you want all of us to die together, or are you going toe out for a final battle?"

    "We''re going toe out for a final battle, of course!"

    Clown''s cackling rang out from the edge of the green barrier, and right at this moment, it activated all of the skill cards that it had previously scavenged from the battlefield.

    Around a dozen of these cards were activated at once, casting a whole host of cyberhexes onto Dead Wood''s trio.

 Chapter 229: The Survivors

    <h4>Chapter 229: The Survivors</h4>

    In the blink of an eye, the trio of monks was afflicted by all types of negative status effects. The standout among all of the skill cards in Adam''s possession was an advanced card by the name of "Thousand Year", and it was an aging cyberhex that was having a particrly pronounced effect.

    After falling under the effects of the Thousand Year cyberhex, the Buddha statue really did look as if it had been forced to endure the elements for 1,000 years. All of its arms became shriveled and withered, and its skin had be so brittle with age that it looked as if it would tear apart with just the slightest movement.

    The other cyberhexes were also taking effect to furtherpound their woes.

    These cyberhexes had been imnted into these cards by the director himself, so it was impossible for the three monks to ward off the cyberhexes'' effects through their own powers. As such, they had no choice but to pull out their own counter-cyberhex cards in an attempt to counteract all of these negative status effects.

    .

    However, it was already toote.

    Mole flew out of the ground at an incredible speed, smashing straight through the Buddha statue''s card-holding arm, then bound it with a set of lightning chains.

    Immediately thereafter, Rabbit and Armadillo also joined in on the action. Armadillo conjured up a wall of yellow sand, which was propelled forward by Rabbit through the use of his soul power. The wall of sand quickly crashed into the Buddha statue, following which Mole also joined in on the effort to push the wall forward, and as a result, the Buddha statue was forced to stumble back incessantly.

    "What are they trying to do?"

    "This attack isn''t hurting us at all!"

    "Hold on, I know what they''re doing! They''re trying to push us out of the zone!"

    The three monks quickly identified the psychic mutant trio''s n, but they were powerless to resist due to the debilitating effects of all of the cyberhexes acting upon them, and they had no choice but to temporarily split back up again.

    However, even after splitting back up, the effects of the cyberhexes still remained, leaving them in an extremely feeble state. As soon as the Buddha statue reverted back into the trio of monks, dozens of Clown clones instantly rushed onto the scene.

    The horde of clones grabbed onto all parts of the three monks'' bodies, picking them up from the ground before quickly carrying them to the edge of the zone.

    "Heave-ho!"

    The Clown clones swung the three monks back and forth before hurling them dozens of meters out of the zone.

    The artificial anomalies and zombies outside had been starving this entire time, and they immediately pounced onto the offering of live flesh and blood, quickly tearing the three monks to shreds before devouring them.

    "Is it over now?"

    After witnessing the demise of the three monks, Adam began to search for Yamata no Orochi and Eyeless. At this point, the final zone had shrunk down to a tiny area that clearly wasn''trge enough to hold Yamata no Orochi.

    Having been underground with the psychic mutant trio earlier, Adam had no idea what had been happening on the surface. However, at this point, Yamata no Orochi was nowhere to be seen, and it seemed that it had finally exhausted all of its power.

    However, Eyeless was too small for Adam to spot, so he had no idea if Eyeless was still alive.

    "Everyone''s dead now, right?" Armadillo made his way over to Adam. "You should be crowned the champion once we use the exit card now, right?"

    "Is Eyeless dead?"

    Adam was still a little concerned.

    "Surely he is! The zone has already shrunk to this point, and there''s no way that he would''ve been able to beat that big snake."

    "Wait for a while longer, just in case."

    "Alright."

    Thus, the four of them waited for about two more minutes. The zone continued to shrink during this time, and at this point, it had shrunk down to only around three meters in diameter barely enough to fit all four of them at once.

    "We gotta get outta here! If we stay any longer, we''ll get eaten by those anomalies and zombies!"

    Mole was unwilling to stay any longer, and he finally activated the exit card. The psychic passageway slowly opened, and as the zone shrank down to only two meters in diameter, the passageway finally reached a sufficient size for them to pass through, which they did so without any hesitation.

    Standing in the final safe zone, Adam raised his hands high above his head, waiting to be showered with the des of victory.

    However, even as the zone shrank down to the point that the green barrier was touching his body on all sides, he still wasn''t teleported out of the battle royale, nor was there any announcement dering his victory.

    "What''s going on?" he yelled loudly at the director outside the zone. "Why is it still not over yet?"

    "That means that there are still people from other teams remaining in the game."

    "You''re saying someone else is still alive? Are they in the zone?" Adam asked.

    "I can''t tell you that."

    "Fuck! I shouldn''t have let those three leave!" Adam didn''t even have to think to know that it had to be Eyeless who was still alive. "He''s still alive, but he''s not in the safe zone, either... Could it be that he''s stuck somewhere?"

    As it turned out, Adam was correct.

    At this moment, Eyeless was stuck in a rift in the ground, using the terrain to his advantage to ward off the hordes of zombies and artificial anomalies.

    He was unable toe out on top in his final battle against Yamata no Orochi, and he was even forced into this rift by the serpent, but thankfully, he managed to survive as the serpent ran out of energy and dissipated at thest moment.

    However, that wasn''t the end of his troubles.

    Right after Yamata no Orochi vanished, the green barrier swept over his body, and he found himself outside the safe zone.

    As a result, his psychic power was constantly being whittled down by the effects of the debilitating cyberhex permeating throughout the area, making him extremely weak and feeble. He wanted to return to the safe zone, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the hordes of zombies outside, and any attempt to venture out of the rift would''ve spelled certain death.

    Inside the rift, it was impossible for the zombies and anomalies to surround him, so he was able to tenaciously hold on for now.

    It had to be said that Eyeless was truly a man of fearsome power. At this point, the safe zone had almostpletely disappeared, yet he was still able to ward off his impending doom.

    Looking at the ever-approaching green barrier, Adam knew that he had to make a decision.

    If I just stand here and do nothing, I''m going to get surrounded. Once these zombies and anomaliespletely close in on me, I''ll be dead for sure, so I have to rush out in advance!

    With that in mind, Adam pulled a bunch of explosives out of the pockets of his clown costume before hurling them all in the same direction, creating a string of explosions that sted a hole into the zombies'' ranks, then rushed out without any hesitation.

    As soon as he emerged from the zone, Adam was struck by a crippling sense of debilitation. It was as if there were a massive pump outside the zone that was constantly sucking away at his psychic power.

    I''m not gonna be able tost long out here at all!

    As soon as this thought appeared in his mind, an artificial anomaly shed a massive wound onto his back with its ws, following which half of his head was ttened by a vicious punch from another anomaly.

    "Fuck! These anomalies have be even more powerful as well!"

    Having been almost killed by a single punch, Adam came to the realization that these artificial anomalies had be even more powerful than before. That punch was almost as powerful as an all-out attack from Diamond in peak condition.

    The explosives that he had used were able to force back some zombies and some of the less defensively adept artificial anomalies, but they werepletely ineffective against the artificial anomalies with more potent defenses.

    I have to run!

    All Adam could do was run for his life, and he was instantly pursued by a vast horde of enemies.

    He turned to find a virtually all-epassing wave of zombies and anomalies sweeping toward him, and he knew that his fate would be sealed if he allowed this wave to catch up to him.

    While Adam was fleeing for his life, he was also conjuring up clones to try and divert the anomalies away.

 Chapter 230: Victory for the Wicked

    <h4>Chapter 230: Victory for the Wicked</h4>

    The anomalies were somewhat dispersed by the dozens of clones conjured up by Adam, but his situation wasn''t looking much more optimistic.

    He wasn''t able to get very far at all before he was caught up to by an extremely fast anomaly that resembled the Skinned Anomaly that Adam had seen once before. The anomaly''s speed was enhanced even further outside the zone, and Adam''s shoulder was shattered by a vicious punch before he even had a chance to react.

    "I''ve seen you in action before, you skinless bastard! I''m gonna cook you alive!"

    Adam pulled out a methrower before sting a jet of fire at the anomaly, and sure enough, itsck of skin really did seem to make it rather fearful of fire, as evidenced by the fact that it immediately sprang back in retreat, but it was quickly reced by two more anomalies that Adam had never seen before.

    At the same time, there was a pair of flying anomalies that were bombarding him with technomantic attacks.

    After being struck by these attacks, the skin all over his entire body began to rot away, and it was as if he had beenpletely submerged in acid. Even breathing caused a burning sensation in his respiratory tract.

    <i>I''m not gonna be able tost very long like this. I have to find Eyeless... </i>

    With that in mind, Adam instructed his clones to search for Eyeless in the basin.

    The basin wasn''t veryrge, and Clown was very fast, so the search should''ve beenpleted very quickly, but the problem was that almost all of the clones were killed in less than 20 seconds of being dispersed through the area.

    Adam was also struggling to keep himself alive, and he had no choice but to resort to self-concealment, but there were anomalies simr to the Thousand-eyed Anomaly among the enemy ranks, and they were able to immediately spot him, following which a burst of dazzling light swept through the area that he was in topletely expose him.

    How is Eyeless still not dead?

    Adam had no choice but to conjure up another batch of clones, but using abilities outside the zone was quite taxing on one''s psychic power, and consecutive uses of such a high-level ability immediately exhausted all of his psychic power before he was even halfway through invoking this new batch of clones.

    Adam hurriedly pulled out his only remaining psychic recovery card to replenish is psychic power.

    This was a card that he had scavenged from the body of the healer of the gun-wielding team. He had conserved it all this time, and that decision was now proving to be an extremely shrewd one.

    After activating the counter-cyberhex in the card, Adam could feel his psychic power recovering somewhat, and he hurriedlypleted the invocation of his clones so that they could distract his pursuers and also help him search for Eyeless.

    Thankfully, his efforts paid off, and right before he fell to his demise, he finally discovered something.

    It was a rift in the ground that other zombies and anomalies were gathered around, and the sounds of a battle were ringing out from within.

    There he is! Finally!

    Upon discovering this, one of Adam''s clones hurriedly rushed over to the rift before jumping in, upon which they immediately caught sight of Eyeless, who was in an even more terrible condition than Adam was.

    Both of Eyeless''s legs had been smashed into mincemeat by an anomaly, but he was still swinging his sword vigorously at his enemies with his upper body.

    Thanks to the narrow terrain of the rift, he only had to deal with enemies from one side, and the number of anomalies that could enter the rift at a time was very limited. These factors were what had allowed him to survive to this point.

    These artificial anomalies really arepletely brainless! If the rift is too narrow, then just widen the damn thing! Looks like I''ll have to give them a hand.

    With that in mind, Adam''s clones loaded and fired a few explosive projectiles with his rocketunchers in quick session, blowing the rift wide open topletely alter the terrain. At the same time, he was luring arge number of anomalies into the rift.

    After that, he ignored the fact that he was being attacked by anomalies himself as he began to help the anomalies'' cause, gleefully firing long-range attacks at Eyeless from afar.

    "I still have these clones to help me hold off the enemies, while you don''t even have any legs left! You''re always looking for a challenge, aren''t you? What do you think about this challenge?"

    Adam was being protected by three of his clones as he pulled out his gatling gun before firing a relentless barrage of bullets at Eyeless. The bullets were very limited in the amount of damage that they were able to inflict, but Adam was making sure to aim at Adam''s sword-wielding arm with his firepower output.

    "These artificial anomalies have no brains, but I do! You can only me yourself for your own demise, Eyeless. You''re always searching for hardships, and you''ve gone on one adventure too many!" Adam cackled gleefully as he instructed one of his clones to strap as many bombs to its own body as possible before charging at Eyeless in a suicide attack. "This is the end for you, my dear!"

    The bombs strapped to the clone''s body exploded violently to send Eyeless flying out of the rift beforending on the ground outside.

    His arms had been blown to smithereens by the explosion, yet he still refused to give up, even as he felt the waves of anomalies and zombies rushing toward him. In the final moments of his life, he continued to face adversity head-on, facing straight ahead as he was inundated by the hordes of oing enemies.

    Shortly thereafter, everything fell silent.

    All of a sudden, the surrounding scenery abruptly vanished, following which Adam was teleported into another psychic world.

    From the darkness of the night, he found himself in an area that was illuminated by bright white light.

    The zombies and anomalies around him had vanished, reced by neon lights and white mist. Within the mist, Adam could see a podium beneath his feet.

    "I won?" An ted grin appeared on Adam''s face. "I won! Finally!"

    While Adam was chortling with glee, the mist around him gradually faded, and he caught sight of a massive dragon that was covered in ck scales.

    "Diana? You''re still alive as well?"

    At this moment, Diana was in an absolutely horrific condition. All of her scales had been peeled back to revealrge chunks of mangled flesh all over her body. Her skull had been severely fractured, and her eyeballs had also been squeezed out of their sockets.

    "How are you not dead? Also, why are you here?"

    "Have you already forgotten that she''s your teammate? You won, so she''s naturally a winner as well. She represents the will of King Arthur."

    The director''s voice rang out to answer Adam''s question. For the first time in the game, he cast a counter-cyberhex in person to treat Diana, who looked as if she could perish at any second.

    The director''s counter-cyberhex was even more effective than an advanced healing card, and Diana''s severely ravaged body was rapidly healing as white light swirled all around her. Before long, she had already returned to full health and risen up from the ground.

    "Wow, how mighty and majestic you are!" Adam immediately put on a fawning smile as he pretended to be overjoyed by this turn of events. "I''m so d that you''re still alive!"

    Diana paid no heed to him, seemingly still basking in a series ofplex emotions.

    Meanwhile, Adam turned to the director as he asked, "I won, so I should get my reward, right?"

    "Of course. What is it that you want?"

 Chapter 231: The Reward and Two Secrets

    <h4>Chapter 231: The Reward and Two Secrets</h4>

    "I had to work so hard and endure so many hardships to win this battle royale. So many people died in this game, including my friends, so the reward really should be increased. In past editions, someone as powerful as Diana would''ve definitely been able to be champion. This edition of the battle royale was way too rigorouspared with previous editions, so it''s only fair that the reward is raised ordingly."

    "Fair?" The director looked at Adam through his ck and white mask. "Fairness is an arbitrary concept created by man. It doesn''t exist in the natural world, and it certainly doesn''t exist between humans. How could I possibly satisfy you when you''re asking for something that doesn''t exist."

    "... As expected of a philosopher, I''m no match for you when ites to these philosophical discussions. However, without those arbitrary and non-existent concepts, you wouldn''t be able to fool people into ying this cruel game of yours, isn''t that right?"

    "I suppose there''s some merit to your words. Tell me what you want first, and I''ll tell you two additional secrets on top of that."

    Adam was a little hesitant to reply.

    "Don''t worry, the spectators can''t see us right now."

    "I want the footage that was captured by my friend, Hook, the one that can clear our names. If you don''t have it, then I want you to do everything in your power to clear our names through alternative means."

    "I do have the footage," the director confirmed.

    "Did you send people to intercept the footage? That delivery mechanical bee belonged to the Oni Organization, didn''t it?" Adam asked.

    This was a question that had always been on his mind.

    "No, I had no part in this. Truth be told, I don''t know how this happened, either. The mechanical bee came straight to Shadow City, after which it was captured by our recycled Mechguard units," the director exined. "After that, I got an engineer to look into its programming, and they discovered that the mechanical bee had been tampered with. A normal delivery mechanical bee wouldn''t even have been able to leave Sandrise City, let alonee all the way here."

    "You really had nothing to do with this?"

    "I wouldn''t stoop to lying about something like this. Lies are more often told for maintaining order, rather than sowing chaos. That is the first secret that I wanted to tell you."

    "What''s the second secret?"

    "I''ll tell you the second secret when youe to Shadow Fort to collect the footage. For now, go and savor your victory!"

    The director swept a hand through the air as he spoke, ejecting Adam out of the psychic world.

    As soon as Adam awakened in the real world, he immediately heard the sound of an altercation.

    "We''re not going anywhere before our brother wakes up!"

    "That''s right!"

    "Don''t tell me about your dumb rules! What''re you gonna do? Get the director to kill us?"

    "Hey, he''s awake!"

    Adam had only just gotten up into a sitting position when a strange-looking trio consisting of two men and a woman gathered around him. One of the men had a tapered face that resembled a mole''s, while the other had an even pointier and longer face, much like the elongated mouth of an armadillo.

    In addition to that, Armadillo seemed to have some burn scars on his head, giving the skin on his head a scaly appearance. As for the woman, she was decent in terms of physical appearance, but it seemed that she hadn''t washed her hair for a very long time, and Adam was immediately assaulted by a strong stench as soon as she drew close.

    However, instead of showing any disdain to the trio, a warm smile appeared on Adam''s face, following which he threw himself into the embrace of one of the two men as he sobbed, "I''m so happy to see you! I almost died in there!"

    "I''m surprised you could recognize us, Brother! If we hadn''te out first, we wouldn''t have been able to tell which one you are. You don''t look at all like how you do in the psychic world!"

    "Yeah, you''re pretty handsome in the real world."

    "You were really ugly in there..."

    "So how did you manage to recognize us?"

    "I could tell because the three of you are radiating intelligence!" Adam exined while doing his best to keep a straight face. "I''m so d all of us survived!"

    "Not only did we all survive, we made an absolute killing! We''ll never have to do this again! We managed to earn 200 million from this battle royale in total, and that''s more than enough money to fulfill our goal. You shoulde with us!"

    "What are you nning to do?"

    "We''re nning to buy a small ind and raise a bunch of animals there. The only inhabitants of the ind will be us and the animals, and we''ll kill anyone who dares to set foot on the ind! It''ll be an animal paradise! What do you think?"

    "That sounds fantastic!" Adam replied as he put on an intrigued expression. "However, I still have some things I need to do. I''ll go find you once I''m finished with my own business."

    "What do you need to do?"

    "Truth be told, I was framed for a horrible crime, and even now, I''m still a wanted fugitive in the civilized world..."

    Adam began to tell the trio the story of his tragic past, making sure to embellish some details to garner more sympathy, and it worked like a charm.

    The psychic mutant trio was absolutely fuming after hearing Adam''s story.

    "How dare they do this to you? I''m gonna kill them!"

    "These bastards don''t deserve to live!"

    "We''ll find out who''s responsible for this, then kill them all!"

    "Wouldn''t that dy your n?" Adam asked with a feigned expression of concern. "I don''t want to keep you from realizing your dream."

    "That can wait! Now that we have the money, we can set up the animal paradise at any time! We''ll avenge you first, then buy an ind!"

    .

    "That''s right!"

    "We''ll avenge you first!"

    "Thank you so much!"

    While Adam was spinning a sob story for the psychic mutant trio, the stadium employees and the host who had been arguing with the psychic mutant trio earlier approached them before quickly ushering the trio out of the area.

    "The award ceremony is about to begin soon, so we have to begin constructing the podium You three can go and wait in the lobby in the meantime."

    While the host was speaking, a series of automatons had already begun working, and the first thing that they did was clear out all of the bodies of the brain-dead participants.

    Out of the original 136 participants, only 12 had managed to survive, amounting to a survival rate of lower than 10%.

    The other 124 participants had all either been reduced to a vegetative state, or had sufferedplete brain death.

    Even though Adam''s heart had beenpletely tainted by Raven''s sinister influence, he still couldn''t help but be ovee by a sense of sorrow as he made his way over to Nie Yiyi and Hook''s lifeless bodies.

    "What''s wrong, Brother?"

    "Why do you look so sad?"

    "You''re the champion, you should be happy!"

    "These two were my friends, and I''m very sad to see them dead."

    Adam reached out to touch Nie Yiyi''s cheek, and he discovered that it was still warm, which meant that she was in a vegetative state. In contrast, Hook''s body had already turned cold, which meant that he had suffered brain death.

    In any case, both of them were essentially dead.

    "I''m sorry..." Adam sighed as he watched their bodies being taken away by the automatons. "I''ll make sure that the people who did this to us pay for what they''ve done!"

 Chapter 232: Inside Shadow Fort

    <h4>Chapter 232: Inside Shadow Fort</h4>

    Even though Nie Yiyi and Hook had perished in the director''s game, the director was not to be med for their deaths.

    This game had only given them an opportunity to clear their names, and the rules werepletely transparent and open to everyone, so they could''ve chosen not to participate.

    The enemy wasn''t the one who had provided them with this opportunity. Instead, it was the ones who had forced them to flee to this hellhole in the first ce.

    After the bodies were taken away, the 3D projection overhead was switched off, but the celebrations were only just beginning.

    This was the Super Bowl of Shadow City, and the festivities were already in full swing.

    The psychic mutant trio had been ushered away as only the winners deserved the adtion of the spectators. All of the glory and praise belonged to Adam and King Arthur.

    "What should I call you now? Diana?"

    Adam was attempting tomunicate with the woman beside him. She had beenpletely silent ever since she had awakened, and it was clear that she was still seething with rage.

    In response to Adam''s question, Diana continued to remain silent as she focused her gaze on the ground beneath her feet.

    "Are you unsure of what to do now because all of our enemies are dead?" Adam asked.

    He had a very good understanding of psychic mutants, and he knew that these people possessed extreme emotions as they had beenpletely controlled by their emotional anomalies.

    Fury was the emotion that had taken over Diana, yet she had no outlet to vent her fury. In contrast with Adam, those that she sought vengeance against were already dead, so she waspletely lost and without direction.

    "Do you remember why King Arthur chose to participate in the battle royale in the first ce? He wanted to investigate Carlin Asylum, and I just so happen to know some things about Carlin Asylum. There are some people who are using psychic mutants like yourself.

    ¡°Of course, in a sense, I''m currently also a psychic mutant. If you want toplete King Arthur''s final wish, or you simply want to uncover the secrets behind your own past and help all of the other psychic mutants, I can show you the way."

    Diana finally raised her head upon hearing this, but she continued to remain silent.

    After that, no matter what Adam said, Diana disyed no reaction.

    Amid the frenzied excitement and wild celebrations, Adam received his award for winning the battle royale. The presenter of the award was the current most sought-after and popr celebrity from the outside world. Adam had no idea what he was famous for. He hadn''t seen any movies, nor did he listen to any music, he had only seen the celebrity on countless billboards in Sandrise City.

    "Congrattions!" After presenting Adam with his award, the celebrity tucked a business card into Adam''s pocket in secret. "I''ve heard about you before. If you can return to Sandrise City, feel free to pay me a visit."

    Adam pulled the business card out of his pocket before taking a look.

    "Aspen Ronnie... So that''s his name..." Adam mused to himself as he tossed the business card away.

    ¡­¡­

    The battle royale was the Super Bowl of Shadow City, but even the most rambunctious of celebrations had to eventuallye to an end.

    As the artificial sky of Shadow City gradually brightened, Adam knew that new day had arrived in the outside world.

    The celebrations were slowly petering out, and even though there were still people drinking, singing, brawling, and even killing each other, Adam and the director no longer needed to be present.

    Adam''s mind was entirely consumed with his desire for vengeance, and he brushed aside Hailey, who was approaching him for an emotional embrace, before immediately traveling to Shadow Fort.

    This was a ce that no one in Shadow City liked to visit.

    On one hand, everyone was trying to respect the director''s privacy, and on the other hand, it was a truly terrifying ce.

    As soon as Adam arrived, all of the fine hairs all over his entire body immediately stood up on end as he sensed an unnatural psychic pressure.

    Havingpletely fused with Clown, his telegnosis had been enhanced to unprecedented heights, allowing him to clearly sense an aura of death, chaos, and pain in the area.

    This aura could''ve been stemming from the torture victims inside, or it could also have arisen from the director himself.

    Before Adam had a chance to do anything following his arrival, the gates of the fort swung open from the inside, and an electronic butler emerged from within.

    "You must be Mr. Lean Mean Killing Machine. My master is waiting for you inside."

    Adam nodded in response before following the electronic butler into the fort.

    Beyond the entrance of the fort was a long corridor that was lined with all types of strange, abstract artworks, and only after passing through the corridor did one official enter the fort. On the first floor were some battle robots, and each ascending level from there presented a different hellscape.

    Countless victims were being tortured in the form, presenting a series of extremely horrific sights to behold.

    Adam knew that this was the process through which artificial anomalies were created, and he couldn''t help but take a few extra nces.

    In the past, he would''ve felt an instinctive sense of difort in response to what he was seeing, but now that he had already fused as one with an anomaly that was as cunning and cruel as Clown, the only thing that he felt as he witnessed these horrific scenes was a sense of excitement.

    "Where did these peoplee from?"

    "Most of them are people who have attempted to bring order to Shadow City," the electronic butler replied.

    Adam and the butler continued to scale the fort, and upon reaching the top floor, Adam discovered that it wasn''t thevish and grandiose area that he had expected. Instead, it was filled with all types ofboratories and research personnel.

    Above theboratories was an observatory, which seemed to be the tallest construction in Shadow City. From there, one could see the entire city in its full glory.

    There was a telescope on the observatory, at the foot of which was a chair, and the director was seated on that chair, awaiting Adam''s arrival.

    "Wee!"

    The director took a moment to greet Adam, then made a gesture toward the electronic butler. A short whileter, another automaton arrived on the scene, carrying a small box.

    Following its arrival, the automaton opened the box, then inserted the videotape inside into its own chest, following which a projection emerged out of its mouth.

    This was the footage that Hook had captured on that day.

    ¡­¡­

    "Prince, you motherfucker! I can''t believe you''d actually do something like this!"

    "What are you talking about?" Prince asked with an innocent expression. "What am I doing? I''m just helping everyone in battle, am I not?"

    "You''re still gonna y dumb even now? I should''ve known a southern congress bitch like you can''t be trusted! Why don''t you just kill us all? We''ve already lost most of ourrades and you''re still ying dumb? Are you afraid that the footage of what you''re doing here is going to be released to the public?"

    ¡­¡­

    "I really was an idiot back then," Adam chuckled as he watched the footage. "If I could go back to that time, I definitely wouldn''t have let things spiral out of control like that. Looks like I only have myself to me for my current situation..."

    Adam made his way over to the automaton as he spoke, then pressed the eject button so that he could examine the videotape itself.

    "Looks like this really is the original copy. I believe you owe me another secret, Mr. Director..."

 Chapter 233: Clone

    <h4>Chapter 233: Clone</h4>

    Adam was very pleased to have secured the footage.

    Not only would this allow him to clear his own name, he would also be able toplete certain other objectives thanks to this footage.

    After fusing with Clown, Adam''s desire for power had increased significantly, and he wanted to use the footage as leverage to work with the northern congress andpletely transform his own identity.

    He knew that he couldn''t rely solely on his own strength if he wanted to exact revenge and uncover the secrets of his own past.

    After enduring the battle royale, he had thought extensively about many things. Ultimately, the power of a single person was limited. No matter how powerful one was, there was still a chance that they could suffer an unfortunate fate due to unforeseen circumstances. Eyeless was clearly the most powerful battle royale participant, while Oni no Miko possessed a deity-like invoked entity, yet neither of them had been able to survive.

    If he wanted to contend with those massive organizations, then he had to borrow the power of others. He needed a new identity, one that would allow him to break thew right under Mechguard''s nose without any consequences and even break thew with Mechguard''s help.

    Thew was a set of rules, and the rules were set by the powerful entities that he sought vengeance against, so he had to break free from these rules.

    However, before that, he was very intrigued to hear the second secret that the director was going to tell him.

    "This is the second secret."

    The director removed his mask to reveal his face as he spoke.

    It was the face of a middle-aged man who appeared to be around 50 to 60 years of age, but due to certain gic modification factors, he was most likely older than he appeared.

    "I suppose you''re pretty handsome for an old man, but what does this have to do with the second secret?" Adam asked, but he quickly came to realize that something wasn''t quite right.

    "Hold on a second..." Adam approached the director to closely scrutinize his face, following which his eyes widened in shock. "You look so much like me!"

    "No. To be precise, you are the one who looks like me!"

    The director pressed a button on his cloak as he spoke, and an electronic DNA examination report was projected. The report clearly stated that the gic simrity rate between Adam and the director was close to 100%.

    "What does this mean? Am I your son?"

    Adam was astonished. He had always thought that he hade out of the human farm, but now...

    "No, this gic simrity rate is even higher than what you would find between father and son. What''s most likely the case here is that you''re a clone of me."

    This was an even more astonishing revtion to Adam.

    "I don''t believe you. I came from the human farm. Are you telling me that you have something to do with the human farm?"

    "I''m afraid I can''t answer that. You''ll have to find out the answer for yourself."

    With that, the director turned around and didn''t say anything further.

    After that, no matter what Adam said to try and provoke a response out of the director, he waspletely ignored, and a short whileter, he was evicted from the fort by the electronic butler.

    Adam wanted to find out everything that the director knew, but in Shadow Fort, he was no match for the director, either in the real world or in the psychic world.

    Thus, he could only allow himself to be escorted out of the fort by the electronic butler, even though he still had countless questions in his mind.

    He felt as if he had fallen into an even deeper conspiracy.

    Why had the delivery bee carried the footage to this ce? If the director truly wasn''t responsible for this, then who was? Was it the same person as the one who had been helping him? Had the director always been aware that Adam was a clone of him? If he hadn''t been aware of this from the very beginning, how had he found out?

    Was it simply due to the simrity in their physical appearance? Would the director have intervened if Adam had perished during the battle royale? Or was he just an expendable experimental subject in the director''s eyes?

    With all these questions in his mind, Adam conducted some inte research on hismunicator to try and find some relevant information, but in the end, he was only able to find one very damning piece of information, which was that clones had very short lifespans, the exact length of which was dependent on the remaining lifespan of the cloned subject and some other factors.

    "The director is already an old man! If my remaining lifespan is going to be even shorter than his, doesn''t that mean I don''t have many years left?" Adam smashed hismunicator viciously onto the ground as a furious look appeared on his face. "How the fuck am I supposed to do so many things in such a short time? No wonder those rich bastards resort to creating nk tes rather than cloning themselves!"

    As the thought of nk tes entered his mind, Adam realized that there was a way for him to extend his own lifespan. In the past, he definitely wouldn''t have resorted to something like that, but he was no longer the same Adam that he once was.

    After some deliberation, Adam decided to hold off on searching for a nk te for himself for now. Theoretically, he still had a few more years left to live, and sharing the director''s genes was a perk that he didn''t want to give up yet, so it was best to dy the inevitable as much as possible.

    With all these chaotic thoughts running through his mind, Adam returned to Uncle Lin''s Fire Shop.

    At this point, the artificial sky of Shadow City had alreadypletely brightened. Following his victory in the battle royale, Adam had be the biggest celebrity in Shadow City, so he definitely wasn''t going to be able to walk the streets without a disguise.

    After returning to the shop, he was weed by a set of familiar faces, namely those of Baldie Lin, Hailey, Shota Sato, and Shae.

    Unfortunately, there were a couple of missing faces that would never return.

    Even though Adam''s heart was filled with malice, he still wasn''t purely an anomaly, and the remaining shreds of humanity in his heart were grieving over his lost friends.

    "I''m so d you survived!"

    Hailey was the first one to rush over to Adam, and she hung off his body like a sloth as she sobbed in both grief and tion, congratting Adam while telling him how much she missed Nie Yiyi, and how she had fulfilled her biggest goal in life as a manager.

    Every manager wanted to see theirbatant be champion, and Hailey was no exception to this.

    However, only one team coulde on top in the battle royale each year, and all of those teams had to w their way up through mountains of bodies and rivers of blood.

    Hailey was managing twobatants, but the other was lost forever.

    "I heard that Jiang cried for a long time, and he''s still out killing people..." Hailey sighed into Adam''s ear.

    Adam set her down onto the ground before turning to the others.

    The next one to speak was Baldie Lin.

    "You have to leave right away. There are informants for the southern congress everywhere, including Shadow City. God knows how many of them there were among the spectators on the day of the battle royale. After what you did, there''s no way you can stay in this city anymore. Not only do you have to leave, I have to move as well." Baldie Lin was looking at his own equipment with a sad expression as he spoke. "Do any of you want to have any prosthetics retrofitted before you go?"

    "Did you get the footage?" Shota interjected with an urgent expression.

    "I did."

    "Thank heavens! With that footage, all of us will be able to clear our names!"

    "Not only do we have to clear our names, you should be using your status as an employee of the Psychic Church to exert pressure on the organization to punish those bastards from the southern congress!" Adam said. "Of course, I''ll also be getting into contact with the northern congress. They may have cut ties with us while we''ve been on the run, but the good thing about politicians is how shameless they are.

    ¡°Now that we''ve obtained this key piece of evidence, we''re no longer fugitives, we''re heroes instead! Those shameless dogs will definitely be scrambling to lick our boots and wee our return!"

 Chapter 234: Departure

    <h4>Chapter 234: Departure</h4>

    "Are you alright? You seem a little... off..." Shae said in a concerned voice.

    "What do you mean?"

    "I just feel like you''ve changed. I saw what happened to you in the battle royale, but that''s not you!"

    Shae knew Adam better than everyone else, and she had been very concerned about Adam''s disy during the concluding stages of the battle royale.

    Those sinister tentacles and the sadistic pleasure that Adam took in backstabbing his own allies and taunting his enemies hade as a very worrying sight for Shae.

    "I am who I am, end of story!" Adam replied with a nonchnt smile, putting an abrupt end to the conversation.

    While it was indeed true that they had to leave as soon as possible, Adam chose to dy their departure for a day.

    There were some allies that he didn''t want to leave behind, and after leaving this city, there were many things that he had to do, but far too little time.

    He definitely wasn''t going to leave the three psychic mutants behind. Prior to departing from the stadium, he had exchanged contact details with the trio, and they had agreed to leave Shadow City together.

    In addition to them, there was one more person that he was determined to bring with him, and that was King Arthur, or Diana, to be urate.

    In herpletely mutated form, her psychic body was even more powerful than those of the three psychic mutants. That almighty ck dragon had left a very deep impression on Adam. She came from Carlin Asylum, and she was very interested in uncovering the asylum''s secrets.

    Thus, her goals partially aligned with Adam''s who aimed to investigate a whole host of powerful organizations, including Carlin Asylum, the congresses, the Psychic Church, the Gaia Organization, the Compassion Company, the human farm, the Ark Learning Children''s Fund...

    He could delegate the task of investigating Carlin Asylum entirely to Diana, and he was certain that she would agree.

    When Adam found Diana that night, she was surrounded by several lifeless bodies.

    They were the bodies of Diamond''s family.

    "Jeez, you really don''t hold back, do you? Everyone in the underworld knows not to get families involved in personal vendettas, but you''ve thrown that rulepletely out the window!" Adam crouched down and dipped a finger into Iron Man''s blood before giving it a taste, then spat it out as he continued, "Having said that, I like what you did here."

    .

    "Why... are you here?"

    In contrast with the confident and eloquent King Arthur, Diana had some speaking difficulties, seemingly due to the mental problems that she had suffered as a child. As a result, she spoke in a rather unclear, stammering fashion.

    "I came here to see you. I can understand why you did this. Diamond was the one whonded the final blow on King Arthur, but there''s a very good chance that King Arthur was already dead by then. Don''t forget that the main culprit was Oni no Miko. If you want to avenge King Arthur, I can point you to some more people that you can go after."

    "Who?"

    "Oni no Miko is from the Oni Organization, and she came here under orders from the organization. If you want to avenge King Arthur, you have to weed out the Oni Organization in its entirety."

    "You''re not... lying to me... are you?"

    "I certainly wouldn''t be so foolish as to lie to you in your current state," Adam replied with a shake of his head. "If you don''t believe me, you can do some research yourself. It''ll be a very simple task. The Oni Organization is not some obscure organization with no information avable, just search for them on the dark web.

    ¡°Oni no Miko is ranked third among the eight Onis of the organization. If you want to avenge King Arthur, you''ll have to take out six people who are about as powerful as she is, and the leader of the organization, who is far superior to her in power."

    Diana nodded in response without offering a reply, but the fury in her eyes was a sufficiently clear indication of her newfound hatred for the Oni Organization.

    Adam didn''t speak any further about the matter. He knew that his work was already done, and there was no need to say anything else.

    "I mean no offense to you, but given your... handicap, how about we work together?"

    Adam had learned about Diana''s condition from King Arthur. Given her mental problems and the fact that she had grown up in Carlin Asylum, she was suffering from many problems in behavioralpetence.

    When it came to things like conducting research and tracking people, her skills were veryckluster, and she had only been able to track down Diamond''s residence because Shadow City wasn''t a veryrge ce, and Diamond was one of the most renowned people in the city.

    Diana didn''t seem to be very open to this idea, so Adam added, "The Oni Organization will be sure to send hitmen after me, so as long as you follow me, the Oni Organization wille to you."

    A hint of intrigue appeared in Diana''s eyes upon hearing this.

    Adam could tell that she was being roped in, and he continued, "You already know why I came to Shadow City. You and King Arthur have seen my memories in my psychic world, and while it''s true that I was framed by the southern congress, the Oni Organization was the one that took the evidence that would''ve cleared my name, so the organization was already a sworn enemy of mine.

    ¡°Now that I''ve killed two of their eight Onis, our vendetta has only deepened further. In contrast, you''re nothing more than a nobody to them. The Oni Organization wasn''t to exact revenge against me, just like how you want to exact revenge against them."

    The mention of vengeance immediately resonated with Diana.

    "I have a vendetta against them, so they''ll definitelye to me. Ultimately, the Oni Organization is an underground entity that won''t be easy to find, so it''ll be much better for you to follow me and have theme to us, rather than search for the organization aimlessly yourself, wouldn''t you agree?"

    Diana was finally convinced by Adam, and she nodded in agreement.

    With that, Adam had another powerful ally on his side.

    After recruiting Diana, Adam contacted the psychic mutant trio, and when he found them, they were ying with a bunch of stray cats beside a junkyard. Even though they now had a collective worth of 200 million, they didn''t have anything to spend it on.

    They detested humans and the way that humans lived, but they all loved animals, and they had bought a lot of food to feed these stray cats and dogs with.

    "Let''s go!" Adam called out to them from afar. "It''s time for us to leave this city! Once we''re done with everything, we''ll buy an ind and fill it with animals!"

    Adam couldn''t help but be a little amused at the sight of the three psychic mutants.

    If Midget were still alive and had emerged from the battle royale 200 million richer, he would''ve definitely begun splurging on the finest foods and the most beautiful women, yet these three were content just to feed a bunch of stray cats.

    "When are we going?"

    Mole was the first one to arrive in front of Adam. It was very easy for Adam to discern between the three of them.

    Mole was the shortest one in the group, Armadillo had those burn scars on his head, and Rabbit was the only woman out of the trio.

    "Right now."

    "Already?"

    "Life is short! Who knows if all of us are suddenly going to drop dead someday? That''s why if we want to do something, we have to do it as quickly as possible, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "That was really well said! You really are a smart guy! Almost as smart as me!" Mole chuckled.

    Thus, Adam gathered everyone and prepared to leave the city that night.

    Prior to their departure, they asked Baldie Lin to contact the outside world and inform the pawn shop and the northern congress of their ns.

    Once they left Shadow City, there wasn''t going to be anyone around to protect them.

    Here, they were all powerful adapters who were near untouchable, but in the outside world, they couldn''t even deal with a single Mechguard officer.

    Seeing as they were going to return to the civilized world, Adam had no intention of continuing to be on the run.

 Chapter 235: Welcome

    <h4>Chapter 235: Wee</h4>

    If they were going to make a return, then they were going to make a big show out of it and ensure that it was a triumphant return.

    Not only was Adam aware of the importance of his return, the politicians of the northern congress were naturally aware of this as well, and after receiving word of Adam''s intentions, an emergency meeting was held that very same night, organized by the resistance army''s second-inmand.

    A group of important figures were gathered at the meeting, including adapters, congressmen, and financial supporters of the northern congress.

    Part of the footage of the battle royale was being yed on the big screen.

    With such a massive viewership, it was inevitable that footage of the battle royale had spread to the outside world.

    "When did he get this powerful?"

    Everyone watching the footage was astonished by the power that Adam had put on disy, particrly Shi Feng, who had fought alongside Adam in the past.

    "Shi Feng, you''ve only just been released on bail, this is a perfect opportunity for you to clear your name," the second-inmand said with his perpetually wooden expression. "This footage is extremely important. Prior to this, the southern congress has been able to constantly dominate us with the weight of controversy.

    ¡°At this point, the proposal for the Psychic Police has already been passed, yet our proposal for a supervision department still hasn''t been addressed. We''ve been on the back foot this entire time, but now..."

    "Can we take advantage of this opportunity to try and get the Psychic Police proposal revoked?"

    "No, that wouldn''t be beneficial to our cause. Now that the proposal has already been passed, what we need to do is upy as many spots on the Psychic Police as possible. Ideally, we''llpletely keep out all of those bastards from the southern cross. How many media organizations are there that are still on good terms with us?"

    "Not many."

    "Inform them of this development and get them to publicize the matter as much as possible. We''re going to do everything in our power to make this a big deal and triumphantly wee the return of our framed heroes!"

    "Where should we wee them? Outside Shadow City?"

    "No. In the eyes of the citizens of Sandrise City, Shadow City is a putrid,wless ce, so weing them outside Shadow City would be detrimental to our image. Instead, we''ll just stage our wee on the outskirts of Sandrise City. Make sure to call up all of the journalists that we can for the asion."

    The second-inmand''s lips were moving as he spoke, but the rest of his face remainedpletely still, and he was truly living up to his nickname of Wax Figure.

    "But due to the Mirror Lake Primary School incident, we''ve fallen behind in the battle for the media. Aside from several media groups that have always been on our side, all of the other neutral media groups have defected over to the southern congress."

    "That''s not a problem. The majority of the people in the world are still ordinary people, and they form the strongest collective force. Everyone has a sense of justice and moralpass in their hearts, and that sense of justice will drive everyone to search for the truth. All we need to do is provide the truth to them, and there will naturally be many people willing to spread the truth.

    ¡°In addition to the media, the inte will also be a major tform through which ordinary people can share and receive information. We just need to give them the dagger, they''ll know who to kill." At this point, the footage just so happened to be disying the scene where Adam was killing Ikkaku, and Wax Figure remarked, "I really like this kid."

    ¡­¡­

    While the northern congress was nning its next move, the pawn shop had also received the news.

    Red Spider was sitting on May''s desk with her legs crossed as she asked, "Have you seen the message that Baldie Lin sent us?"

    "I have."

    May was the one who had awakened Adam and the first person to have ever seen Adam, so she had witnessed his entire life up to this point.

    She knew just how weak Adam had once been. This was something that even the likes of Shi Feng and Shae weren''tpletely aware of.

    In Shi Feng''s eyes, Adam had already been quite strong to begin with, and while he knew that Adam had taken a significant stride, only May knew just how unfathomable his progress had been.

    "How did he be so powerful?" May asked.

    "I''m wondering that myself." Red Spider wasn''t an adapter, but she had also witnessed the entire process of Adam''s development. "Our pawn shop has had quite a few adapters who have disyed rapid growth, but this ispletely unprecedented. Not even the adapters with certain strange psychic inheritances have been able to improve this quickly."

    "His rate of development reminds me of someone."

    "Who?"

    "The lord of Shadow City. I met him several times many years ago, and each time I met him, he waspletely different. On top of that, I recall that he''s also capable of controlling anomalic power. How strange... That man ispletely and utterly deranged. Some people want power, or wealth, or even world domination, but he''s the type of person that wants nothing but to watch the world burn. Apparently, there have been some strange incidents taking ce all over Sandrise City ofte."

    "What type of strange incidents?"

    "There are deranged peoplemitting homicides."

    "Hasn''t that always been happening? There are still some psychic mutants from Carlin Asylum that are on the run, aren''t there?"

    "It''s not them. It''s a different group of people that isn''t under the control of the southern congress. They have no political objectives, and no one knows where they came from. I suspect all of this has something to do with Shadow City, so make sure to be on your guard. Also, Adam doesn''t seem to be in a very sound frame of mind at the moment, either, so don''t let down your guard around him."

    "I know what you mean. That kid really has undergone some type of evolution during his time in Shadow City. It''s like he''s turned from a moth into a ho. Having said that, we helped him in his time of need, so no matter what he''s be now, I''m sure he wouldn''t turn on us."

    "I certainly hope so," May replied as she closed her eyes to rest.

    ¡­¡­

    After packing up their belongings, Adam and the others left Shadow City using the city''s strange railway system.

    Adam turned back to take one final look at the chaotic city as he sat in the open-air carriage, and a series of mixed emotions appeared in his eyes.

    I hope I cane back here someday. qhetoiqheoiewhtoqewhtewohtewt

    At this point, the fake tattoos on his face had already been washed off, restoring him to his original appearance. He was holding the all-important videotape as he turned to Mole before asking, "Do you sense any danger?"

    "No, we''re all clear at the moment."

    "Good. I''ve been told that we might be swarmed by a lot of people once we reach Sandrise City. Are you guys fans of cameras?"

    The three psychic mutants immediately shook their heads in response.

    "We hate cameras, and we hate people. Honestly, just sitting in this carriage with all these people makes us feel really ufortable. How about we kill everyone so we can be the only ones in this train?"

    "Let''s not do that," Adam replied with a smile. "These people aren''t worth killing. By the way, are your identities legal?"

    "They are. We''ve killed quite a lot of people, but all of that was in the psychic world, so it''s outside of Mechguard''s jurisdiction. Also, we''re not from Sandrise City, and many of the people that we killed were outside Sandrise City," Mole replied. "The three of us are all incredibly smart, so we''ve made sure to tie up all loose ends. If we don''t have legal identities, there are many things that we can''t do. They wouldn''t even let us into the pet markets!"

    "Good. How about you, Diana?"

    "It''s legal," Diana replied in a concise manner, and Adam didn''t doubt her.

    From their previous interactions, Adam could tell that King Arthur was a very measured and reliable character, so he wouldn''t have done anything excessively illegal.

    "Alright, in that case, let''s return to the civilized world!"

 Chapter 236: Inside the Police Station

    <h4>Chapter 236: Inside the Police Station</h4>

    The train was traveling quite slowly, but Shadow City wasn''t exactly a massive ce, so it didn''t take long before the train reached the city''s entrance.

    After undergoing an examination conducted by some recycled Mechguard units, everyone finally returned to the surface.

    At this point, night was only just beginning to transition into day, and Shae took a deep breath as she looked up at the first rays of sunlight shining down from the sky.

    "It''s been so long since I''ve seen true sunlight... I feel like my bone density has gotten worse from being out of the sun for so long."

    Shae stretchedzily as she spoke, and a string of cracks rang out from her joints.

    In contrast, Adam was in no mood to savor his return to the surface. As soon as he emerged from Shadow City, he immediately began to look around, and it didn''t take long for him to spot the contact from the northern congress.

    "You must be Mr. Adam, right?" There was a medium-sized bus parked nearby with a maximum capacity of close to 20 passengers. "We''ve been sent here to pick you up."

    The person who had approached Adam appeared to just be an ordinary middle-aged man, and Adam couldn''t sense any danger with his telegnosis.

    However, as a safety precaution, he still walked ap around the bus to examine it for bombs.

    At the same time, he took the liberty of invading the man''s psychic world.

    In his psychic world, Adam saw a boring and uneventful life. The man wasn''t particrly academically gifted, nor did he have a propensity for hard work. His most prominent trait seemed to be his love for sweet foods.

    It was obviously quite hical to invade one''s privacy like this, but Adam no longer had any morals or ethics.

    After examining the man''s life, a disdainful sneer appeared on Adam''s face.

    I can''t believe this idiot ate 15 donuts beforeing here! He''s definitely not been sent by the southern congress. qhweotiqwhetwietqeoihtiwheitohhtqe

    Adam exited the man''s psychic world before asking, "Shadow City has arge number of exits, how did you know we were going toe out of this one?"

    "There are drivers waiting at every exit, I just so happened to have been sent to this one. By the way, what happened just now?"

    "Nothing, don''t worry about it."

    Adam gestured for everyone to enter the bus, while the driver also got into the driver''s seat, and he began to hum a cheerful tune as the bus began moving.

    "Why are you so happy?" Shae asked. "You don''t seem like you''re from Sandrise City."

    "Why can''t I be happy?"

    "I just feel like it''s very difficult for people to be happy in Sandrise City." Shae sat down beside the driver as she thought back to her recent experiences. "Everyone''s constantly racking their brains, trying to live a bit longer, or to enjoy more resources. Don''t you get the same feeling?"

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, but it doesn''t take much to make me happy. If I can get a discount on the cakes at the dessert shop, I''ll be over the moon!"

    On the way to Sandrise City, Adam was constantly surveying the barren ins on either side of the bus for fear that they were going to be ambushed by the southern congress.

    His telegnosis was activated to its maximal extent the entire time, but he didn''t detect any danger throughout the entire duration of the trip.

    By the time he arrived on the outskirts of Sandrise City and caught sight of all of the journalists and cameras present, he knew that he was safe.

    "That''s quite a bit of fanfare." As soon as the bus entered the city, it was immediately forced to a halt, and the driver turned to Adam and the others with a curious expression as he asked, "Are you guys celebrities?"

    "We''re not celebrities, we''re fugitives."

    "Fugitives?" the driver eximed. "I have to get paid extra for transporting fugitives!"

    Adam ignored the driver as he got out of the bus, upon which he was immediately surrounded by a wave of journalists.

    "Hello, I am a reporter from the Sandrise Times. We''ve received information that suggests that the terrorist attack you were involved in wasn''t as simple and clear cut as it appeared on the surface."

    "Hi there, I''m from the Fokker Television Station. May I ask where you''ve been since the terrorist attack?"

    "Are you able to provide evidence to support your im?"

    "At the moment, you''re still a fugitive on the run. May I ask..."

    Adam provided a response to all of the journalists'' questions, then yed Hook''s footage in front of everyone, while also inviting the experts among the journalists to assess whether the footage had been artificially generated.

    One piece of information after another was quickly released, and all of the media outlets and even independent media publishers were eagerlytching onto this story.

    Even though some time had already passed since the attack, it was an extremely horrific terrorist attack that was still constantly being mentioned.

    .

    Even the trolls on the inte liked to spin stories based on the attacks, and a new revtion would immediately bring an enormous amount of attention back to the event.

    While the reporters were busy at work, several Mechguard units had appeared in the distance. As soon as Adam caught sight of them, he immediately knew what he needed to do, and he hurriedly raised his arms high up into the air, disying no intention to resist arrest.

    The Mechguard quickly forced their way through the throngs of reporters, and after verifying their identities, Adam, Shae, and Shota were detained.

    Regardless of whether they had secured concrete evidence or not, the fact of the matter was that they were still fugitives.

    Mechguard officers only knew how to do things ording to official procedure, so before a fugitive was acquitted, they would continue to be treated as a fugitive by Mechguard.

    Adam put on a pained expression as he was apprehended by the Mechguard units. He knew that the more painful and indignant a disy he put on here, the more sympathy he would garner from the general public.

    Thus, he was doing his best to put on a convincing performance in order to sway public opinion in his favor as much as possible.

    "Why does he look like that?" The three psychic mutants were sitting at the back of the bus, hiding from the cameras while making fun of Adam. "He looks like an idiot!"

    "He does! I thought he was smart, but I''m having second thoughts now."

    ¡­¡­

    After Adam''s trio was ced into electronic handcuffs by the Mechguard units, they were taken to the nearest police stations. The reporters followed them the entire way there, so Adam wasn''t worried about any shady business taking ce along the way.

    After arriving at the police station, he was locked into a cell that was guarded by Mechguard units, which were armed to the teeth.

    Aside from the suspects, there wasn''t a single living person in the entire police station, and apparently, this was for the sake of legal transparency.

    "What''re you in here for?" Adam was approached by another inmate as soon as he was locked into the cell. "Do you have any electronic drugs on you? I can''t hold out much longer."

    Adam paid no heed to him.

    A short whileter, a burly man made his way over to Adam before patting him on the shoulder. He was just about to rough Adam up a little in order to show him who the boss of the cell was when his expression suddenly stiffened at the sight of Adam''s face.

    "I''ve seen you on the news before! You''re wanted for that terrorist attack on the primary school! You''re an adapter!"

    "An adapter? Wow, this is my first time seeing one. Did you really kill all those kids?"

    Adapters were a dime a dozen in Shadow City''s arenas, but they were extremely rare in normal cities. Looking at all of the suspects who were gathered around and watching him like he was some type of exotic zoo animal, Adam felt as if he had finally returned to the normal world, a world with no artificial adapters or artificial anomalies.

    ¡­¡­

    Adam was only in detainment for three days before the story of his returnpletely blew up, and all of the media outlets were mbering to report the story.

    As a result, the footage that Adam had brought back was also shown to the public.

    Everyone was a fan of a goodeback story, especially when such a massive conspiracy was involved.

    The footage that Adam provided quickly caused the image of the southern congress to plummet drastically, and with immense public pressure from the general public calling for Adam''s release, he was quickly taken to court to be judged.

 Chapter 237: A Team

    <h4>Chapter 237: A Team</h4>

    Adam had thought that with such concrete evidence supporting his case, the judgment process was going to be very quick and simple, but he was wrong.

    Even with so much public support and assistance from the northern congress, the process was still very slow.

    At this point, thew had developed to the point that it had be extremelyplicated. Whenever a loophole was found, a new use had to be made to remedy the loophole, and over the course of several centuries, thew had already be something that waspletely unintelligible to the average person.

    This was something that people in positions of privilege were happy to see.

    Normal people were unable to use such aplex weapon, and those who were in power were more than happy to see thew bing more and more convoluted. Even if they knew that the case was bound to be ruled against their favor, they could rely on theplexity of thew and the expertise of theirwyers to drag the case for years or even decades.

    After several days of toil, Adam was bing increasingly more frustrated, but thankfully, a meaningful development was right around the corner.

    "The southern congress has agreed to assist in speeding up the process."

    It was Shi Feng who had brought this piece of news to Adam, and he also supplied the bail required for Adam to be released. At this point, Adam was already eligible for bail.

    On the way out of the police station, Adam asked Shi Feng why the southern congress had decided to cooperate.

    "This is a very negative incident, so the longer it drags on, the more damaged their reputation will be. Public opinion has already turnedpletely against their favor, and they also want to put an end to this as soon as possible. In fact, they''ve already reached some type of agreement with the second-inmand."

    "I''m assuming the agreement has something to do with the selection process for the adapter enforcers, right?"

    Adam knew that the proposal had essentially already been passed, so any deal that was struck between the two parties had to have something to do with the people chosen to fill the role of enforcer.

    At the moment, the people that were selected to be enforcers were a more important matter than whether the proposal itself was passed or not.

    Adam didn''t care what the congresses were going to do, he only cared about his own objectives.

    "I want a quota for a team."

    "What?"

    "I want a quota for a team," Adam repeated.

    "You want to be an enforcer?" Shi Feng was quite taken aback to hear this. "Also, are you want a quota for an entire team, not just yourself?"

    "That''s right."

    Adam currently had a whole team of powerful allies on his side in the form of Diana and the three psychic mutants. They were all top-tier adapters who had managed to survive the battle royale.

    If they could all officially be enforcers, then it would be far easier for Adam to investigate shady organizations like the Compassion Company and the Ark Learning Children''s Fund.

    "That''s probably going to be a little difficult."

    Shi Feng was unable to make such an important decision on his own.

    "Don''t forget that you were only able to turn the tables thanks to the information that I brought back." Adam knew that in the political sphere, benefits and intimidation were the only effective bargaining chips. "If you help me, I''ll continue to help you. If you don''t help me, I''ll have to turn to someone else. Also, during the trial period, the proposal will only be implemented in a single state, while the other states will gradually adopt the changes over time. I only want a quota for a single team that will only be active in Sandrise City. Surely that''s not too much to ask."

    Adam was looking directly at Shi Feng as he spoke. He was no longer the same Adam that he had once been.

    Shi Feng looked into Adam''s eyes, and he couldn''t help but gulp nervously at the recollection of Adam''s deranged disy in the battle royale.

    "Alright, I''ll ry your request and everything you said to my higher-ups."

    "I knew you were a good friend!"

    Adam patted Shi Feng on the shoulder with a pleased expression.

    It only took three days for Adam to receive an affirmative response.

    Wax Figure was a decisive person. He knew which people he should be keeping around and which people he should be cutting off.

    He had been extremely decisive in cutting off Adam, and now, he was just as eager to make amends.

    Not long after Adam received that response, public recruitment for the first batch of special psychic police officiallymenced.

    The first batch of recruitment contained a quota of four teams, and the number of people on each team was undecided. However, there were going to be no more than 10 adapters, while the majority of the teams consisted of civilian personnel.

    It was proimed that this was a public recruitment process, but both congresses and all of the police stations across Sandrise City had already rmended some candidates. Adam and his group were naturally among these candidates.

    Due to the fact that this was a legal procedure, the process was veryplicated. A written examination, a proficiency examination, and an interview had to be undertaken to decide who the best candidates were.

    Adam had rmended a total of six people, including himself, and five of them had failed to pass the written examination.

    Aside from Shae, who had only just barely scraped a passing mark, Adam and everyone else had failed spectacrly.

    "These results are terrible!"

    Shi Feng was the one who had brought the written examination results to Adam and the others. At this moment, they were in a veterinarian hospital, and the three psychic mutants were also present.

    The reason why they were at this hospital was very simple. The psychic mutant trio had been growing extremely agitated during their time in this city, and Adam was worried that something would push them over the edge and send them on a massive killing spree.

    Hence, he decided that it was necessary to provide them with some type of mental sce.

    The three of them loved animals, so they were naturally very happy to be in a veterinarian hospital.

    Just as Adam anticipated, the pent-up pressure that had been building up inside them the past few days instantly evaporated as soon as they caught sight of the animals in the hospital, and they were thoroughly enjoying watching the veterinarians treating the animals for various ailments.

    "You know what? Not all humans are bad people."

    "I agree! Adam and these doctors are all good people!"

    "Adam really brought us to a great ce!"

    "I felt like I was about to explode these past few days! Finally, we can be somewhere that doesn''t make me want to bang my head against a wall!" Rabbit crouched down to y with a golden retriever that was passing by her. "I like this ce."

    "Why don''t you buy this hospital so we can live here?"

    Adam had no ns to return to the academy, and this veterinarian hospital wasn''t a bad ce for everyone to live.

    "Did you hear what I said? Almost all of you failed the written examination! Those three didn''t even manage to get 20 points each! If it wasn''t for the multiple-choice questions, they would''ve probably all scored zero!" Shi Feng said in an agitated voice.

    "It''s fine. There are two other examinations left, aren''t there? All of the questions were rted tows or emotional assessment, there was no way that could''ve gotten a good score there. We should be able to get selected as long as we get full marks for the other two examinations, right?"

    Convincing the three psychic mutants to take the written examination in the first ce was already the limit of what Adam was capable of, and they had almost erupted into a fit during the examination.

    Adam never had any ns of passing the written examination.

    The interview could be cheated, and as for the proficiency examination, that was just an examination to assess an adapter''sbat capabilities in the psychic world, and Adam had absolute confidence in that department.

    Not only was he confident in himself, he also had absolute confidence in everyone else with the exception of Shae.

    "You have to make sure that you get very close to full marks for the proficiency examination. Otherwise, even if we give you full marks for the interview, your overall result will still not be that great."

    "Got it." Adam nodded in response before dialing up Kim Hee-cho''s number on hismunicator. "What''s up, Old Kim? It''s me... Ha, don''t tter me, I''m not a celebrity! Listen, I have something I need your help with. You have experience working as a real estate representative, right? I want to purchase arge veterinarian hospital..."

 Chapter 238: The Spy Couple

    <h4>Chapter 238: The Spy Couple</h4>

    On the day of the proficiency examination, many living people came to the police station, presenting an extremely rare sight.

    In the past, there were only a few civilian workers in the police station, while the rest were all Mechguard units, but on this day, several government officials and quite a few examination participants were present.

    Adam and the others were naturally among these participants.

    During the proficiency examination, all of the participants would have sparring matches against one another to avoid cheating. Of course, these sparring matches were far less brutal than the arena matches held in Shadow City.

    There was no killing or infliction of major injuries allowed, and it was a spar in the truest sense of the word.

    Through the footage that was being broadcast, Adam was able to determine that most of these participants were roughlyparable in power with level two anomalies, which Adam had deemed to be the standard for mature adapters.

    This was about the level ofbat proficiency that one would expect out of an adapter who had studied at an academy under the Psychic Church or received some practicalbat training outside of that.

    Powerful adapters were always in the minority.

    Adam''s first psychic battle was against an adapter of that caliber.

    Inside the psychic world, Adam was confronted by what appeared to be a female spy.

    She was holding a toolbox, which she opened to reveal a collection of weaponsmonly used by spies.

    After entering the psychic world, she quickly pulled out a small submachine gun, which she aimed directly at Adam.

    "Your reactions are too slow. If this were a true psychic battle, you would already be dead," the woman dered. "Surrender. You aren''t prepared for battle at all. This isn''t a sparring match that only begins when a teacher at your academy tells you that you can begin. The battle began as soon as we entered the psychic world, and you''ve already lost."

    A derisive sneer appeared on Adam''s face at the sight of the woman.

    "What are you saying? I can''t hear you."

    "Don''t make me shoot." The woman raised her gun slightly so that it was aimed at Adam''s head. "I''m a very sharp shooter."

    "As an adapter, it''s good to have confidence, but if you know nothing about the outside world, and your confidence far exceeds your ability, then that confidence is nothing more than stupidity," Adam cackled in his high-pitched clown voice. "You remind me of those idiots from the Psychic Church. I knew someone who was just as confident as you. What was her name again? I think it was Orster or something like that.

    ¡°For pampered idiots like yourselves, I''d advise against joining the special psychic police force. Even if you assemble a full team of adapters like yourself, you''ll still be nothing more than cannon fodder when you encounter a serious psychic criminal. Do you know why?"

    "Why?"

    "Because you''re too stupid for your own good!"

    As Adam was speaking, the woman felt a cold sensation against her neck. As it turned out, a clone of Adam''s had already snuck up on her and was resting the de of its dagger against her throat.

    "That''s cheating!"

    "Cheating? Do you have any idea how pathetic and naive you sound right now? Learn to ept your losses."

    Adam shrugged before departing from the psychic world.

    "These examinations are so pointless."

    As soon as he returned to the real world, he was immediately greeted by the sound of Diana''s grumbling voice.

    "What happened to her?" Adam asked as he turned to Rabbit.

    "Her opponent had a mental breakdown as soon as their match began."

    "How did that happen?"

    "It was some weak adapter who appeared to have next to no practicalbat experience. What do you think would happen when he goes up against a massive ck dragon?" Rabbit replied while pacing back and forth as a means to relieve pressure, much like the agitated zoo animals prowling their enclosures. "This ce sucks! There''s not a single strong opponent here!"

    "That doesn''t sound right. With so many adapters here, surely there must be a few decent ones."

    Adam looked around to examine the battles that were being projected, and sure enough, there really didn''t appear to be any who could put up a good fight.

    A short whileter, Adam was approached by a civilian worker. He was one of the examination supervisors.

    All of the battles that took ce here were recorded, and marks were given based on the adapters'' performances in those battles.

    "Mr. Adam, I was sent here by Shi Feng. You won your battle earlier, but your performance wasn''t very impressive. You didn''t disy muchbat prowess at all, so we can''t give you a very good score. You''ve already failed your written examination, so please give us a moreprehensive disy of your abilities here."

    "Alright, I''ll be sure to do that," Adam replied with a nod. "Can I ask why there are so few powerful adapters here?"

    The worker looked around for a moment, then lowered his voice as he replied, "The candidates sent by the southern congress are intentionally avoiding you. They''re all at other examination sites."

    "I see, that makes sense."

    Through his earlier observation, Adam had discovered that even though there were very few powerful adapters present, there were still two or three decent ones, and that was statistically reasonable, given that the southern congress had intentionally sent their most powerful candidates elsewhere.

    ¡­¡­

    While Adam was casually strolling through the examination area, a woman in a set of professional attire sought out herpanion.

    She was the adapter who had just been defeated by Adam, and she was feeling very displeased, so she wanted herpanion to avenge her.

    "Go challenge that guy over there for your next match."

    "Which one? That one over there?" A peculiar look appeared on herpanion''s face as he caught sight of Adam from afar. "What''s wrong, honey? You seem really upset."

    "He beat me using really underhanded tactics, so you have to avenge me!" the woman grumbled. "If I can''tnd this job, then I''ll be arranged to enter the Psychic Church by my family, and I don''t really want to work there."

    "Alright, I''ll teach him a lesson for you," the man promised, but at the same time, he was a little concerned. "Is he strong?"

    "His directbat prowess is very weak, and his reactions are also quite slow, but he''s really sly. Just make sure to look out for his clones."

    "I see. I should have no problem against him then."

    The man knew that this was his chance to put on a good showing in front of his lover, and he was eager to seize this opportunity.

    Thus, he made his way over to Adam before issuing a challenge.

    Adam was also searching for an opponent, so he immediately agreed. However, he was able to sense something a little strange from the man with his telegnosis.

    "You seem to be harboring some animosity toward me, but it''s not very pronounced. Are you from the southern congress?"

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. I hope you''re not making up some excuse because you''re scared!"

    The man made his way over to a testing station as he spoke, then connected the footage capture equipment before invading Adam''s consciousness in a rude disy.

    Adam allowed his psychic world to be invaded, and he led the man to a barren in outside Sandrise City.

    In the psychic world, the man was a gun-wielding spy in a suit.

    "I just faced a female spy, and now, there''s a male one! What is this? Mr. and Mrs. Smith? I understand why you seem so angry at me now. So you want to avenge her, do you? Let me see what you''ve got!"

    Adam had to disy hisbat prowess in order to secure a higher score, so instead of immediately ending the battle, he invited his opponent to attack.

    The man could see the tant and unadulterated mockery in the eyes of his deranged clown opponent.

    He knew that his girlfriend was watching him right now, so he wanted to secure a shy victory.

    He immediately pulled the trigger of his guns to fire off five bullets in an instant, and the bullets struck Adam on the forehead, chest, abdomen, knees, and throat with unerring uracy.

 Chapter 239: Weak

    <h4>Chapter 239: Weak</h4>

    All five bullets had struck Adam in vital regions, causing him to immediately double over.

    A derisive sneer appeared on the man''s face upon seeing this.

    "You really are weak. You''re trying to get into the special psychci police force with those slow reactions? Keep dreaming!"

    Adam remainedpletely still and silent in the face of the man''s mockery, and the man quickly became a little concerned.

    "Oi, you''re not dead, are you? If you''re this weak, then why did youe here? Do you have a death wish?"

    Right as the man''s voice trailed off, Clown suddenly began to chuckle in a sinister voice.

    "It''s been so long since I''ve fought such a weak opponent. I kind of miss this feeling."

    Adam stood up straight as he spoke, and the five bullets ttered down onto the ground, while his body was revealed to bepletely unscathed.

    "H, how is that possible? The man was astonished to see this. "How are youpletely uninjured by my bullets?"

    "Don''t me your bullets. You''re the one who''s weak, not your bullets."

    All attacks in the psychic world were simply manifestations of a psychic body''s offensive abilities, and their destructive power was directly dependent on the attacker''s psychic prowess.

    For example, the bullets fired by Cowboy were on apletely different level of powerpared with these bullets. The former could topple an entire tall building with a single bullet, while thetter could barely st holes into the pavement with his bullets.

    Clown wasn''t a very defensively adept anomaly. In fact, its defenses were quiteckluster, but it was still a level five anomaly, nheless.

    As for Adam''s opponent, he was a very ordinary mature adapter, and his offensive prowess wasn''t his forte, so his offensive capabilities were onlyparable to those of a low-tier level two anomaly. Adam could stand there all day and allow the spy to attack him all he wanted, and the spy still wouldn''t be able to put so much as a single scratch on his body.

    "It''s utterly pathetic how weak you are! You want to see what real bullets are?"

    Clown pulled out a gatling gun before spraying a barrage of bullets at the ground around the spy, and every single bullet was able to smash a massive crater into the ground.

    Each bullet was just as powerful as a cannon projectile, and soon, a dense cloud of dust had risen up all around the spy, making it impossible for him to see anything.

    Adam could easily put an end to the man''s life by raising his gatling gun just a little, but he refrained from doing so. This wasn''t Shadow City, so killing people for no reason was illegal, particrly in a police station. Furthermore, if he were to end this battle too quickly, then he would once again fail to receive a high mark.

    "You''ve been saved by thew!"

    Adam cackled as he stowed his gatling gun away, following which he was greeted by the sight of the spy rising up into the air with a jetpack strapped to his back.

    As a spy, his offensive prowess wasn''t particrly remarkable, but he had many tricks up his sleeve.

    As it turned out, his briefcase could double as a jetpack, and he immediately flew toward a psychic module that contained Sandrise City.

    As he did so, he was still yelling out in provocation.

    "I may not be able to match you in offensive prowess, but as a police officer, the most important trait is investigative ability. I''m far more adaptable than you are, and my abilities are far more suited to battle in the city!"

    "Is that right?"

    Adam watched the spy fly away with an amused smile.

    Their previous battlefield had been situated on the outskirts of Sandrise City, so it didn''t take the spy very long to reach the city.

    After entering the city, he quickly blended himself into the crowd, then opened his briefcase and hurriedly adopted a disguise,pletely altering his appearance.

    "You''ll regret letting me get away, you cocky bastard! Let me see what''s in your psychic world..."

    In order to avoid being caught, the spy quickly got onto a bus. The bus was quite packed, and he was feeling a lot safer with so many people around him.

    Try and catch me now!

    "Sit tight, everyone! We''re about to set off!"

    The driver''s voice rang out from the front of the bus, following which the vehicle slowly began moving.

    A short whileter, the spy realized that something wasn''t quite right.

    Hold on a second... Aside from in certain rural areas, all public transport in Sandrise City is supposed to bepletely driverless! We''ve already adopted the Inte of Things 3.0, significantly increasing the city''s operational efficiency, so how is this bus still being driven by a human driver?

    With that in mind, the spy squeezed his way to the front of the bus, upon which he caught sight of the shock of strange green hair on the driver''s head.

    The driver also turned around to face him, revealing a wide smile on his sinister clown face.

    "Hello, Mr. Spy!"

    The spy immediately dove through the window and leaped out onto the street at the sight of the clown''s chilling smile. He just so happened to have sprung out in front of arge shopping mall, and he immediately rushed inside without any hesitation.

    He quickly traversed through the crowd, making sure to remain hidden the entire time, then took the elevator to the third floor, where he casually made his way into a clothing shop so that he could get a new set of clothes.

    He entered the shop in a suit, but by the time he made it to the back of the shop, he had already changed into a set of activewear, and he didn''t even miss a single beat during the process.

    However, right as he was about to leave, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

    "You have to pay for that!"

    He turned to discover Clown in a sales assistant''s uniform.

    "Will that be cash or card?"

    The spy screamed as he ran out of the shop like a madman, and in his blind panic, he spotted a theater.

    Theaters were generally packed and very dimly lit, making them perfect settings for spies to conduct their work.

    He immediately rushed into the theater, and after taking a brief moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he heard a blood-curdling scream.

    The sudden scream gave him a massive fright, and he looked up to find that a holographic horror film was ying.

    "Phew, it''s just a movie..."

    The spy heaved a sigh of relief, yet right as he was about to leave, most of the audience members in the theater suddenly stood up in unison before turning to look at him.

    A sh of bright light just so happened to sweep through the scene in the movie, and he saw dozens of identical clowns smiling at him.

    With one final scream, the woman in the film was killed, and outside the movie, the spy had also been pushed beyond his limits.

    ¡­¡­

    After returning to the real world, Adam turned to the unconscious man beside him with a hint of mockery in his eyes.

    "I''ve never seen someone''s psychic body disintegrate from fear. How is a pathetic coward like you ever going to make anything out of yourself?"

    Adam couldn''t help but think of the likes Eyeless and Ikkaku as he looked at the unconscious man on the ground.

    In the face of hardships, challenges, and even death, the level of courage and resolution disyed by those powerful adapters was something that these pathetic weaklings could never hope to reach.

    Fundamentally speaking, the only difference between these adapters and normal people was that they were blessed with the god-given gift of well-developed neurons. When it came to qualities like willpower and mental fortitude, they weren''t superior to the average person at all.

    "How pitiful," Adam couldn''t help but remark.

 Chapter 240: Retaliation

    <h4>Chapter 240: Retaliation</h4>

    Shortly thereafter, the proficiency examination drew to a conclusion.

    Unsurprisingly, everyone in Adam''s group received close to full marks, with the exception of Shae.

    The other examination participants were far too weak, and the only decent ones made the wise decision to avoid Adam and the others.

    However, the examination didn''t gopletely without a hitch. The true challenge was getting Diana and the psychic mutant trio to rein in their emotions and avoidmitting murder.

    This wasn''t much of an issue with Diana as her fearsome draconic appearance was enough to scare everyone into immediate surrender. However, the psychic mutant trio was quite adorable in appearance, and as a result, they weren''t so lucky. In the initial phase of the examinations, they were frequently challenged, and unbeknownst to those challengers, they were extremely fortunate to have survived.

    Thankfully, Adam had specially chosen this particr day toplete the purchase of the veterinarian hospital, so the three psychic mutants were in a fantastic mood. Positive emotions could allow a psychic mutant to partially control their negative emotions, so even though there were a few close calls, they were able toplete the examination without killing anyone.

    That should be the end of that. We''ll definitely be receiving high marks for the interview, and once I''m instated as a special psychic police officer, I''ll be able to enact my n.

    To Adam, it was absolutely vital that he became a special psychic police officer.

    Firstly, such a status would grant him enforcement rights, thereby making all of his actions supported by thew.

    With thew on his side, many benefits would follow, the most prominent of which would be the assistance of Mechguard. Once he became instated as a special psychic police officer, Mechguard would be his ally, rather than an obstacle in his path.

    Only with Mechguard''s help could he begin to undermine those massive organizations, and the first organization that he had decided to target was the Compassion Company.

    Adam had been tipped off to the suspicious nature of this organization by Principal Dwight. The Ark Learning Children''s Fund took in orphans and provided them with tuition, yet this seemingly benevolent organization had been working for an extended period of time with the Compassion Company, which was not a very renowned medical institution.

    It was theoretically a good thing that they would periodically send all of their orphans to have physical examinations conducted, but it was very suspicious that the brain examinations were always the most time-consuming segment of these physical examinations.

    Principal Dwight had already developed an inkling that something wasn''t quite right, one particr incident had virtually confirmed to him beyond a reasonable doubt that there was some shady business taking ce behind the scenes.

    Nine years ago, a child by the name of Tosei Ito had been sent to the school that Dwight was working at. During a regrly scheduled physical examination, it was discovered that something was wrong with Tosei''s brain, and he was taken away.

    The reason that was provided was that there was a tumor in his brain that had to be surgically removed.

    Dwight had visited the Compassion Company on many asions thereafter to visit Tosei, but he was turned back each time, and in the end, he was informed by the hospital that Tosei had died during surgery, but there was no body, nor were there any ashes.

    This convinced Howard that something had to be wrong with this organization.

    From the information that Adam had gathered, he determined that there was most likely some type of extremely shady secret between this medical organization and the non-profit organizations that were taking in orphans. There was a very good chance that the two parties were working together to select adapters to be made into nk tes, which was why Adam had chosen the Compassion Company to be his first target.

    Adam also had other considerations for picking the Compassion Company as his first target.

    Firstly, he had to pick on the easiest possible target. The Compassion Company wasn''t exactly an easier target, but it was certainly not going to be as difficult to target as powerhouses like the Gaia Corporation and the southern congress.

    Furthermore, what it was doing waspletely illegal.

    Most of the shady matters that the southern congress and the Gaia Organization engaged in skirted a fine line between the legal and illegal, and they generally wouldn''t do things that were tantly illegal, such as abducting children.

    Even if they were going to engage in such activity, they would delegate such matters to people or organizations that they could cut off at any time.

    These massive powerhouses were very careful in their dealings, and Adam had to be patient. For example, he could begin by uncovering the Compassion Company''s illegal activities, then slowly begin attacking bigger and bigger targets over time.

    "Finally! After hiding for so long, I can finally begin my retaliation!"

    "What are you talking about, Adam? Should we go back to the hospital?"

    "Let''s go back. I wanna go see the animals after looking at all those disgusting humans!"

    "You guys can go back without me. I have something else that I need to do for now, and I''ll be backter tonight."

    Adam was in a very good mood after the proficiency examination, and he immediately traveled straight to the pawn shop.

    He already couldn''t wait to begin enacting his n.

    ¡­¡­

    Only after Adam''s departure did the spy couple find out who he was based on recent news stories.

    "I was wondering why he looked so familiar, he''s the guy from the news! I knew he had to be a really prominent figure. Otherwise, there''s no way I would''ve been defeated so easily." The man was trying to clutch at any excuse he could to justify his failure. "I''ve seen footage of the terrorist attack he was involved in on the inte. At the time, he was a mummy, and he was already really strong."

    "I see." The woman nodded in response. I heard that among the people that were framed with him, there was someone from the psychic church as well. I''ll see if I can find him and ask him for more details. He must be a decent guy, considering he chose to spare me from any injury during our battle.

    ¡­¡­

    Three hourster, in the pawn shop.

    "Should I be calling you Officer Adam or Chief Adam?"

    May was seated in her chair with her legs crossed, andrge sections of her smooth skin were revealed through the splits on her cheongsam.

    "You don''t have to refer to me using any official titles. At the end of the day, I''m still an employee of the pawn shop," Adam said with a fawning smile. "You still have my indenture, and I still owe you money. You''re the boss, while I''m the employee."

    "When did you be such a smooth talker?" May pulled out Adam''s indenture from a drawer before destroying it right in front of him. "You were such an honest and earnest guy when you first woke up."

    "Everyone eventually changes. After experiencing so much, you can''t expect me to still be the same person I once was," Adam replied. "Did you destroy my indenture because you want to cut all ties with me?"

    "What are you trying to say?" May asked.

    "The pawn shop has always been a privately owned organization, but it''s always been coborating with Mechguard. Now that I''m a part of the police force, we should be working together even more closely."

    May remainedpletely unconvinced.

    "You''ve gotten yourself involved in some very dangerous business. I don''t want any part in that."

    "Our rtionship will be a purely coborative one. Whatever it is that I get involved in, I won''t drag you down with me, you have my word on that. All I want is information from you. The pawn shop has always dealt in information exchange anyway. I don''t have any money to purchase information from you, but I can provide you with assistance in other areas thanks to my status as a special psychic police officer.

    ¡°However, in exchange, the information that you give me has to be more thorough and in-depth. Do we have ourselves a deal?"

    A contemtive look appeared on May''s face upon hearing this, and only after a long while did she finally nod in agreement.

    "What do you want to know?"

    "I want to know about the Compassion Company."

 Chapter 241: Telegnosis

    <h4>Chapter 241: Telegnosis</h4>

    As thergest non-official adapter organization in Sandrise City, the pawn shop specialized in resolving problems, so it naturally had a wealth of intelligence in its grasp.

    The pawn shop had informants all over Sandrise City, and not only did May have adapters working for her, there were also ordinary people from all walks of life constantly keeping her updated on the city''s important affairs, so it was no exaggeration to say that she was the queen of intelligence in Sandrise City.

    It didn''t take long for Adam to learn some useful information from the pawn shop.

    The Compassion Company was a privately owned hospital that was a legal business on the surface, but engaged in many shady dealings in private.

    Firstly, the organization was involved in hundreds ofwsuits, and it regrly charged excessive medical fees, pping patients with exorbitant bills that were impossible for them to pay off.

    In addition to that, they also worked with certain loanpanies and private banks to grant patients high-interest loans.

    Everyone wanted to receive the best possible treatment for their illnesses and injuries, and the Compassion Company was constantly preying on this mindset.

    As for thosewsuits, with a professional team ofwyers covering their bases, they weren''t going to be facing any legal repercussions for at least the next few decades.

    Those weren''t the Compassion Company''s only shady dealings. Essentially, they dabbled in any lucrative areas of business as long as it had to do with the medical field.

    For example, May had provided Adam with leads pertaining to the Compassion Company''s sales of illegal medicines, and he was certain that as long as he followed this lead, he would definitely be able to uncover the organization''s filthy underbelly.

    After learning all of this information, Adam began tounch an investigation while waiting for the onboarding process.

    Using the information supplied to him by May, he was able to find a contact by the name of Carl. On the surface, Carl was just a street thug, but in reality, he was actually working for the pawn shop.

    "The leader of the Flying Car Guild in there is a drug dealer. ording to sources, all of the illegal drugs that they''ve obtained are from the Compassion Company."

    Carl was pointing at an abandoned carpark as he was speaking. At the moment, there was an old-school bare knuckle fist fight taking ce inside, and the first to fall would be deemed the loser.

    There were some spectators gathered around to watch the fight, and Adam also took a brief look, but quickly lost interest. Compared with the brutality of Shadow City''s arena matches, this fight may as well have been a wrestle between toddlers.

    "Do you have any other information?"

    "That''s it. I''m not a member of the Flying Car Guild, and they''re quite wary of outsiders, so it''s very difficult to get into their inner circles," Carl replied. "That''s all the information that I have for you. I''m leaving now."

    "You''re leaving so soon?"

    "Why would I stay any longer?" Carl asked. "I was instructed by the pawn shop not to get too close to you. My sole job is to provide information, and I''ve already done that. Also, you really need to work on your disguises. Did you really think wearing a hat would be enough to make you unrecognizable?"

    After that, Carl immediately left without any hesitation, leaving Adam feeling rather deted.

    He had a good group of extremely powerful adapters working with him, but he didn''t have a single coborator that could gather information for him. In fact, he barely even had any sane people in his circle.

    Getting the psychic mutant trio or Diana to investigate cases or gather intelligence would''ve been a terrible decision that could¡¯ve easily resulted in catastrophic consequences.

    Adam had considered recruiting Red Spider''s help. She was a very smooth operator, and she was also quite a powerful fighter in the real world thanks to her prosthetics, but May didn''t want her to get involved in Adam''s mess, so she had turned down Adam''s request to have Red Spider work with him.

    Adam could only shake his head with a resigned expression as he made his way down into the underground carpark.

    The times were changing, and many people were searching for entertainment on the inte, but there was never ack of people in this world who were fans of old-school entertainment.

    Electronic drugs were extremely stimting, and the Heaven series was already up to its sixth generation, but there was still quite arge fanbase for old-school pills.

    The Metaverse was an exciting ce, but those who enjoyed watching bare-knuckle fist fights were never going topletely die out.

    Adam pretended to watch the fight with keen interest for a while, then began to try and strike up a conversation with a red-haired man next to him.

    "Who do you think is going to win?"

    "Do I know you? Get the fuck away from me!"

    "Don''t be so cold! If you ask me, I think that shorty is going to win."

    "Bullshit! His opponent''s already won three fights in a row! That runt can''t do shit!" The red-haired man rolled his eyes at Adam in a disgruntled fashion. "Do you even know what you''re talking about? And who are you? I don''t recall ever seeing you before."

    "It doesn''t matter who I am. I''m convinced that the shorty is going to win. Just trust me. If you bet on him and win, you can keep the money. If you lose, then I''ll pay for your bet."

    "Really?"

    "You can beat the crap out of me if I don''t follow through," Adam confirmed with a smile.

    "Alright, I''m holding you to that." The red-haired man immediately ced a bet. "I''m betting 1,000 on the shorty!"

    "1,000? Don''t you usually only bet 20?" The person who was taking the bets turned to him with a puzzled expression. "What''s going on with you today?"

    "That guy says he''ll pay for my bet if I lose."

    "And you''re just gonna trust him?"

    "I trust in my fists! He''s on our territory, so if he tries to weasel his way out, we can kill in 100 different ways!" The red-haired man gestured to the other Flying Car Guild members as he turned to Adam with a menacing expression. "Those are all my brothers, so you better not mess with me!"

    Adam nodded in response as he feigned a fearful expression.

    "If this idiot''s covering your bet, then why don''t you bet a bit more? Go for 5,000!"

    "Nah, he doesn''t look like he can scrounge together 5,000 even if he sells everything he owns! I''ll just bet 1,000 for now. 1,000 on the shorty!"

    "Alright, it''s your call."

    The fight soon began, and generally speaking, in these bare-knuckle fist fights where none of the fighters had anybat prosthetic limbs, therger fighter generally had the advantage.

    The shorty''s opponent was significantlyrger, and he immediately swooped in to try and end the fight in a short time.

    Given his significant size advantage, all he needed to do wasnd one good hit on his opponent or catch him in a grab, and his victory would''ve been all but assured.

    However, the shorty clearly possessed a great deal of battle experience, and he was constantly weaving left and right, dodging his opponent''s attacks while also wearing his opponent out.

    It seemed that he was extremely passive, but that was only to the untrained eye. Anyone with anybat experience knew that he was seizing the initiative in this fight with his superb evasion skills.

    "Damn, he''s actually really good! Do you know him?"

    The red-haired man was beginning to get a little excited. His bet was being covered, so he wasn''t going to lose any money, but winning money was naturally far more alluring than simply not losing money.

    "I don''t, but I can tell that he''s still full of energy and vigor, while his opponent is already quite exhausted after three consecutive fights."

    Completely fusing with Clown was a double-edged sword for Adam.

    The downside was that he couldn''t fuse with any other one of his anomalies, but the upside was that his telegnosis had been significantly elevated, to the point that it had reached the same level as Oni no Miko and Oni no Hanzou.

    At this level, his telegnosis was so potent that he could even sense danger from a kilometer away, and it was far too easy for him to assess a person''s mental state and energy levels.

    A fighter''s breathing rhythm, muscr sticity, energy levels, and even their confidence were all virtually tangible to Adam, and with this information at his disposal, he was all but certain to pick the winning fighter, barring any severe mishaps.

 Chapter 242: Enforcer

    <h4>Chapter 242: Enforcer</h4>

    Sure enough, after depleting hisrger opponent of all of his stamina, the shorty gradually began to retaliate.

    He was an extremely confident fighter, and unless one had a cognitive impairment that made them unreasonably confident, it was generally the case that confidence stemmed from strength.

    The shorty''s retaliation was very calm and measured, and he didn''t immediately storm in to try andnd a barrage of heavy blows. Instead, there was a pattern to his attacks, and he only threw each heavy punch after a sequence of jabs.

    "What is he doing? His opponent''s exhausted, this is the perfect opportunity to take him out!"

    Even if his opponent ispletely exhausted, given his size advantage, all he needs to do isnd a single good hit to win. For a seasoned fighter, impatience is a fatal weakness. As long as he remains patient, the victory is already in the bag, so why would he try to end the fight in a hurry?

    Adam couldn''t help but think back to the battle royale as he watched the fight unfolding before him.

    In the battle royale, power, luck, and strategy were all absolutely vital if one wanted to survive to the end.

    Having endured the battle royale, Adam''s mentality hadpletely evolved, and watching a rudimentary fight like this was essentially the same as watching a children''s yground fight in his eyes.

    Sure enough, the fight unfolded exactly as he predicted. The shorty remained patient and consistent, and only after umting a sufficient advantage did he knock out hisrger opponent with a well-timed punch.

    "Yes! That''s 1,000 bucks in the bank!"

    The red-haired man was ecstatic to have won the bet. 1,000 dors was not a small sum for him, and he was very grateful to Adam for helping him win the money.

    "Thanks, buddy. If it isn''t for you, there''s no way I could''ve earned this much money from one fight. I''m not gonna split the money with you, but I''ll make sure no one picks on you around these parts. Also, it looks like you don''t have a chick with you. I''ll introduce you to er!"

    "I''ll pass on the chicks for now," Adam said with a smile. "Do you have any pills that you can sell me? Our area is recently being regrly patrolled by Mechguard units, so I can''t find any good pills there anymore."

    This was Adam''s objective. He wanted to see exactly what types of drugs the Compassion Company was selling.

    "That''s easy! I have a few types of pills with me today. I''ll give you a 20% discount."

    The red-haired man began to rummage through his pockets as he spoke, yet right as he was about to pull out the pills, someone suddenly stopped him.

    "Hold on a second!"

    The man who had spoken was another member of the Flying Car Guild. He had been retrofitted with prosthetics, giving him a mandible that resembled that of a mechanical skull. He was the leader of the Flying Car Guild members around these parts, and his nickname was Iron Skull.

    "What''s up, Boss?" The red-haired man immediately put on a fawning smile at the sight of Iron Skull. "He''s new around these parts, but he''s definitely trustworthy. I can vouch for him."

    "Trustworthy my arse!" Iron Skull pped the red-haired man away, then carefully scrutinized Adam''s face as he said, "I thought you looked familiar, but I couldn''t quite put my finger on who you were until just now. Your disguise almost fooled me!"

    .

    "Who is he, Boss?" The red-haired man was horrified to hear this. "He''s not working with Mechguard, is he?"

    "No, he''s just an adapter who''s been screwed over. Have you seen the news recently?"

    "No, I don''t watch the news."

    "Fucking idiot! You don''t do anything aside from gamble, take drugs, and pick up chicks!"

    Even though Adam''s return was an extremely hot news story at the moment, not everyone knew about it. In fact, there were some people who didn''t even know who the current president was.

    "He''s an adapter who got screwed, but has recently cleared his own name. I don''t know why he''s here, but he''s definitely not here just to buy drugs!" Iron Skull leaned down as he looked straight into Adam''s eyes with a menacing expression. "If you''re not here to buy drugs, then you''re not wee, no matter what your objective is."

    In the face of Iron Skull''s tant provocation, Adam''s darker emotions were slowly creeping up on him, and his eyes began to turn bloodshot.

    "What? Are you gonna kill me? You''re an adapter, so we definitely can''t beat you, but this is Sandrise City, and there are so many people around..." Iron Skull gestured toward the surrounding crowd, many of whom had already pulled out theirmunicators to film the confrontation. "Are you going to kill all of us?"

    "Of course not!" Ultimately, Adam wasn''t aplete psychic mutant, and he was able to forcibly suppress his violent emotions. "I''m aw-abiding citizen! See you around!"

    Adam didn''t give any further exnation, nor did he need to. He knew that the next time he came back, all of these people would be groveling at his feet, and that day wasn''t going to take very long to arrive.

    The special psychic police bill had already been passed, and the recruitment process was alsoplete. With the northern congress eager to move things along, the subsequent procedures were progressing very quickly.

    Three dayster, Adam made his return.

    "Long time no see!" Adam greeted as he waved at Iron Skull. "I''ve done some research on you sincest time. What was your nickname again? Iron Skull, right?"

    "What do you want this time?"

    Iron Skull wasn''t scared of Adam. With so many people watching, he was confident that Adam wouldn''t dare to do anything.

    "You ran away with your tail between your legsst time, I didn''t think you would be back so soon. Are you here for a fight, or are you here to buy drugs? In any case, you''re in the wrong ce. I''m also aw-abiding citizen, and I don''t do any of those things."

    "Is that right?" Adam strode over to Iron Skull as he dered. "Right now, I''m the one who decides whether you''re aw-abiding citizen or not!"

    While he was speaking, Adam reached out to grab the pills in Iron Skull''s pocket, but Iron Skull immediately swatted his hand away, and all of his subordinates instantly surrounded them.

    Right at this moment, arge number of Mechguard drones converged from all directions, and all of them were equipped with guns that were aimed directly at Iron Skull and hisckeys.

    "We''rew-abiding citizens! We''re not doing anything illegal!"

    In the face of these irond enforcers, even the members of the Flying Car Guild immediately turned into tame little kittens. Everyone quickly tossed their weapons away, then raised their hands high above their heads as a gesture of surrender.

    "We''re just having a chat, aren''t we?"

    Iron Skull was frantically making faces at Adam as he spoke.

    "Hurry up and say yes!" he hissed in an urgent voice. "Those things can''t be reasoned with! If we make any false move, we''ll be instantly shot down on the spot!"

    "That''s not true!" Adam dered loudly as he pointed at the people in front of him. "They''re wilfully obstructing thew!"

    As soon as his voice trailed off, the sound of bullets being loaded immediately rang out from the Mechguard units.

    Iron Skull was horrified to hear this sound, as were all of hisckeys.

    "Have you gone insane? If you have a death wish, then die by yourself! Don''t drag us into this!"

    It had already been a very long time since anyone in Sandrise City had dared to obstruct thew.

    Under the control of the Dataist Union, Mechguard units were only able to carry out the simplest and most rigid of instructions, so anyone who dared to obstruct thew ran a very high risk of being shot down on the spot.

    "Hold on a second, we''re not obstructing thew! We''re fully willing to cooperate!" Iron Skull''s eyes suddenly lit up slightly as a thought urred to him. "All we''ve done is some brawling and drug sales, so even if we''re detained, we won''t be locked up for very long at all. Why should I be scared?"

    "You were chewing out yourckeyst time for now watching the news, but you don''t seem to keep up with current affairs much, either." Adam pointed at what appeared to be a police badge that he was wearing as he spoke. "Right now, I am the enforcer of thew!"

 Chapter 243: Fahai

    <h4>Chapter 243: Fahai</h4>

    Initially, Iron Skull was unconvinced by Adam''s police badge, thinking that it was nothing more than a bluff, but as he turned to look at the surrounding Mechguard units, he discovered that not a single one of them had their guns aimed at Adam, and he no choice but to believe Adam''s ims.

    "There haven''t been any human enforcers for a very long time!"

    "The times have changed. Nowadays, there are more and more crimes beingmitted by adapters, and it''s time to crack down on that. Also, there are certain things that adapter enforcers can do that Mechguard units can''t, such as interrogation." Adam reached into Iron Skull''s pocket once again as he spoke to pull out some pills. "What are these?"

    "Painkillers. I suffer from chronic back pain, so I regrly take painkillers. What''s wrong with that?"

    Adam searched the Flying Car Guild members one by one, and all of them were carryingrge numbers of pills, but to Adam''s dismay, these pills were all just painkillers.

    Consumingrge dosages of painkillers had virtually the exact same effect as taking drugs, butpared with actual drugs, it was far more difficult to prosecute someone for possession of painkillers.

    "There''s quite arge quantity of pills here. Are they all for you? Where did you get these from?"

    "We bought them from the drugstore."

    "These are prescription medicines. How did you manage to get so much? Which drugstore did you go to?"

    "Just normal drugstores. All we had to do was go to a bunch of drugstores and..."

    Iron Skull was still spouting nonsense, but Adam had already run out of patience. He dragged Iron Skull away to the side, then immediately invaded his psychic world.

    After searching through his psychic modules for a short while, Adam was quickly able to track down the memory that he wanted to examine. It seemed that these drug transactions were something that Iron Skull engaged in very often, so his memories of them were quite clear.

    In his Clown form, Adam followed Iron Skull and watched him meet up with a man dressed in a professional suit in an extremely dimly lit nightclub. After issuing the man a payment using cryptocurrency, the man gave him a suitcase of drugs.

    All of the drugs inside the suitcase were painkillers, and after taking a few to ensure that the drugs weren''t counterfeit, Iron Skull departed with the suitcase.

    Even though the nightclub was very dimly lit, Adam was able to get very close to the two men using his concealment ability, so he was able to get a good look at the man who had sold Iron Skull the drugs.

    After confirming the appearance of the seller, Adam visited several more psychic modules, and he was able to ascertain the transaction time, the seller''smunicator number, and the secret signal that they used with one another.

    So all I need to do is send an encrypted text that says "Is the Mapo Tofu good?", and that''ll be the signal. The transactions take ce on the 7th and the 23rd of each month... One of those days just so happens to fall on the day after tomorrow!

    After confirming the transaction dates, Adam followed the seller for a while to try and dig up more information, but the seller didn''t interact much with Iron Skull outside of their transactions, and both sides were rather wary of one another, so Adam wasn''t able to glean much useful information.

    After leaving Iron Skull''s psychic world, Adam discovered that the Mechguard units had already detained everyone outside. Some of them were selling drugs, some of them had engaged in illegal gambling, and some of them had participated in illegal fist fights, so at the very least, they were going to be locked up for a few days. Hence, none of them were going to be able to raise the rm, and no one dared to try any funny business under the scrutiny of the Mechguard units'' super cameras.

    Hence, Adam wasn''t at any risk in the immediate future.

    "I''m going toplete the next transaction in your stead." Adam dered to Iron Skull, then immediately departed, leaving him to the Mechguard units.

    In order to ensure that the operation was a sess, Adam visited a dpidated theater the next day and watched a spectacr stage y.

    The story that was being enacted was an ancient eastern story by the name of "Legend of the White Snake", which told a love story between a snake spirit and a doctor.

    The acting was superb, but there were very few audience members in attendance.

    This was because the theater wasn''t particrly renowned, and stage ys weren''t very popr in Sandrise City to begin with. Everyone much preferred exploring the wild and exciting world in the Metaverse, rather than watching an outdated art form like this. Furthermore, the story that was ying out wasn''t a traditional western story, so it failed to garner much interest.

    However, Adam was enthralled by the performance, and after the stage y concluded, he approached one of the actors.

    This actor yed the antagonist of the story, a tall and imposing monk who opposed the rtionship between the two main characters.

    "That was a brilliant performance."

    "Thank you. I visited the east as a child, so I''m a big fan of the culture there."

    The actor was quite friendly and approachable, but there was a clear hint of dejection in his eyes. Only seven or eight people had shown up to watch their stage y, and the theater was on the verge of closing down.

    "Can I help you with something? If you want a signature from Lady Bai, you can just go straight to her, there''s no need toe to me."

    In all forms of performance media, it was generally the case that the actors who yed the antagonists weren''t very popr, particrly when the antagonist of this story was a clear-cut viin with the sole purpose of drawing the distaste of the audience so they could have someone to root against.

    "No, I''m here for you. I want to offer you a job," Adam replied as he sized up the actor.

    The man was over 195 centimeters tall with a bald head and a muscr physique. It would only take a slight makeover for him to develop quite a close resemnce to Iron Skull.

    "What''s the job?"

    "You''ll be ying a convict."

    "How much money are you offering?"

    "1,000 dors. and you only need to work for a day."

    "That''s a lot of money!" A hint of disbelief appeared in the man''s eyes. "There''s no need to pay me that much. I only get 100 per day here, so even if I have to go somewhere and incur travel costs for the job, 300 will be enough."

    "I''m offering you 1,000 dors because the script is a little dangerous. You will be facing an actual convict as part of the act," Adam exined. "Are you still interested?"

    "Is the job illegal?"

    "No."

    "Alright, then I''ll take it," the man said as he extended a hand toward Adam. "I''ve always wanted to challenge myself, and this is a perfect opportunity."

    "What''s your name?"

    "You can just call me Fahai."

    ¡­¡­

    Fahai was a professional actor, and he adapted to his roles very quickly.

    On that same day, he organized a set of clothes identical to the ones worn by Red Skull, as well as a metal mask, and that makeover, coupled with his change in demeanor and attitude, made it almost impossible to discern him from Iron Skull unless he came under very close scrutiny.

    Adam also used Fahai''s disguise skills to give himself a makeover, transforming himself into aplete nobody, which was very convenient, considering his face was currently still being stered all over the news.

    After Fahai was given a rundown of the time and content of the mission by Adam, the two of them traveled to the nightclub where the deal was set to take ce.

    This was a rather strange nightclub where people danced inplete darkness.

    The entrance fee was very cheap, at only five dors a pop, and free beer was provided inside, so it was clear that the nightclub didn''t rely on entrance fees for profit.

    The biggest selling point of these lights-out nightclubs were the dancers.

    In contrast with strip clubs, all of the dancers here sat at the bar, and a patron could dance with any of the dancers for one song for 10 dors. Due to how dark the environment was, it was inevitable that there was going to be some groping taking ce.

    This type of high-volume, low-margin business model attracted a lot of customers, and upon making his way into the club, Adam discovered that most of the patrons were either elderly men or young people who had only just graduated, while middle-aged people with higher spending power were quite rare.

    At his age, Adam resembled a recent graduate, so he didn''t attract any attention in the crowd.

    1. The female lead of the story, Bai Suzhen, is often referred to as Lady Bai.

    2. Fahai is the name of the antagonistic monk in "Legend of the White Snake".

 Chapter 244: Zhou Tong

    <h4>Chapter 244: Zhou Tong</h4>

    "Would you like to dance?" Adam was approached by a dancer as soon as he entered the club. "Don''t go looking around, just keep your eyes on me."

    Adam nodded in response. Having a dancing partner would help him blend in with everyone else.

    "Let''s dance."

    Adam and the dancer made their way onto the dancefloor, which was virtuallypletely shrouded in darkness.

    "Is this your first time in a ce like this? You''re not making any advances on me at all."

    Even after stepping onto the dancefloor, Adam''s attention was focused elsewhere entirely.

    At the moment, Fahai was seated in a booth, putting on a rather serious and hostile disy, so none of the dancers approached him, and he was waiting for his target to arrive.

    "Each song herests only around 10 minutes, but you''re not evenying a hand on me. Are my tits too small for you, or is my ass not to your liking?" The dancer reached around Adam as she spoke, grabbing onto his arm before shifting his hand onto her backside. "What do you think? Not bad, right? I work out regrly, so I''m quite proud of my ass."

    "Not bad at all." Indeed, the woman''s supple and voluptuous backside made for a very enjoyable tactile experience. "I like talkative people like you. I''ll give you an extra tipter."

    "My my, aren''t you generous!"

    The woman leaned into Adam as she spoke, pressing her chest tightly against Adam''s.

    Adam danced for three songs in a row in the darkness before his target finally appeared.

    Even though the environment was extremely dimly lit, he could sense everything going on around him with his potent telegnosis.

    As a result, he was able to detect that man in a professional suit had entered the nightclub.

    In contrast with the other patrons here, after entering the club, he immediately sat down in the darkest corner of the establishment, where he cautiously surveyed his surroundings.

    The ce where he was seated was very close to the exit, so he could run away at any moment. He sat there for a while, observing the rest of the patrons, then took a few nces at the dancers before focusing his gaze on Fahai.

    After receiving the correct message from Fahai, he pulled out a one-time-usemunicator before replying with the corresponding signal.

    "The Mapo Tofu isn''t as good as the Kung Pao Chicken."

    Fahai''smunicator lit up, and after taking a nce at the message, he replied with, "Then you may as well go get some burgers."

    Only after a second confirmation did the man make his way over to Fahai with his suitcase.

    Adam gave the dancer arge tip, then turned to depart.

    "I have to go."

    "Why so sudden? The song still isn''t..."

    Before she had a chance to finish her sentence, a loudmotion suddenly rang out.

    As it turned out, a physical altercation had erupted between Fahai and the seller.

    The man was very alert, and he was fooled by Fahai''s disguise from afar due to the dim lighting in the club, but upon entering the booth that Fahai was in, the two of them were no more than a meter away from each other, and it was impossible for Fahai to keep the man fooled no matter how good his acting was.

    As soon as the man sat down, he immediately tried to get up, only for Fahai to press him back down onto his seat.

    However, despite Fahai''s superior physical stature, he was the one who had been thrown to the ground. Unfortunately for him, no matter how strong or physically imposing he was, there was no way he could contend with a body of steel.

    Fahai was just a struggling actor who was getting by from paycheck to paycheck, and he didn''t have anywhere near enough money for prosthetic retrofitting surgery. In contrast, the man that he was dealing with had a pair of powerful mechanical arms, using which he was able to easily m Fahai onto the table.

    All of the alcoholic beverages on the table and the table itself were smashed into pieces, while the drug dealer instantly fled the scene.

    Given his incredible speed, it was clear that his legs had also been reced by prosthetics, and he was far too fast for Adam to catch.

    Looks like I should get Baldie Lin to hook me up with some equipment.

    Adam only took a couple of steps before giving up in his pursuit. There was simply no chance for him to catch his target.

    After fleeing through the fire exit, the drug dealer rushed downstairs as quickly as he could, trying to get to the underground carpark so that he could make an escape in his car. At the same time, a series of questions were running through his mind.

    How did we get exposed? Did Iron Skull get caught by Mechguard? Even if he did, there''s no way those robots would''ve been able to set a trap like this. Could it be that we''re being targeted by some other gang?

    As the man continued to flee, it didn''t take long before he realized that something was wrong.

    This nightclub is on the seventh floor, so why does it feel like I''ve already gone down over 10 flights of stairs and still haven''t gotten to the underground carpark?

    Right at this moment, a voice rang out beside him to provide an exnation.

    "You''re in an illusion!"

    The man turned to discover an imposing clown looking at him with a wide grin.

    "Save your energy, you''re not getting away. How about you start by telling me where you came from?"

    The man screamed in rm as he continued to rush down the stairs, and finally, he was able to reach the underground carpark. However, as soon as he got into his car, the clown''s voice rang out once again from the passenger''s seat.

    "Do you work for the Compassion Company?"

    The man was even more horrified now, and in an act of panic and desperation, he threw a punch at the clown''s face. However, the clown remainedpletely unharmed, and as the man tried to throw another punch, he discovered that his fist had disappeared.

    "Retrofitted prosthetics are never very stable in the psychic world. Your brain is connected to those prosthetics, but your subconsciousness often rejects your prosthetic limbs, so they''re prone to suddenly vanishing in the psychic world," Adam exined.

    Sure enough, the man could see that his retrofitted arms and legs had suddenly vanished.

    "If you''re not going to tell me anything, then I''ll just have to look through your memories myself."

    Adam tossed the man into the backseat as he spoke, then got into the driver''s seat himself, following which he began to drive through the man''s psychic world.

    Adam predominantly visited the psychic modules containing the man''s workce, and as expected, the man was a sales manager working at the Compassion Company.

    His name was Zhou Tong, and he had already been working at the Compassion Company for over 10 years. After inspecting some of the man''s memories, Adam discovered that he was someone who definitely wasn''t opposed to bending the rules as long as doing so would produce a lucrative oue.

    This type of personality allowed him to fit in seamlessly with the culture of the Compassion Company, and after several interactions with his supervisors, he was able to establish a rtionship of trust between them and was given the authority to ess the storage room.

    "I don''t care how you manage to sell this stuff, and there''s no need for you to provide me with sales reports. If something happens, you have to take full responsibility, but I''ll give you the bestmission rate in the business."

    Zhou Tong''s supervisors had taken measures to mitigate risk, and this would''ve been enough to keep him safe from Mechguard, but these measures werepletely ineffective against Adam.

    Adam quicklymitted the faces of the high-ranking supervisors that Zhou Tong hade into contact with to memory.

 Chapter 245: Big Sister

    <h4>Chapter 245: Big Sister</h4>

    After obtaining the information that he wanted, Adam was just about to leave the psychic world when a thought suddenly urred to him.

    If I leave right now, I won''t be able to control this guy in the real world, given all his prosthetic limbs. Looks like I''ll have to have some prosthetics of my own retrofitted as soon as possible.

    With that in mind, Adam suddenly turned to Zhou Tong''s psychic body with a sinister grin as he pulled out a sharp dagger.

    "What are you going to do to me?"

    "I''m going to slice you into pieces. Once your psychic body is severely injured, you won''t have the energy to run away!"

    Adam closed in on Zhou Tong before slicing his body into shreds, making sure to keep him alive during the process.

    By the time Adam emerged from the psychic world, Zhou Tong had already copsed to the ground. His face was deathly pale, and his head was throbbing intensely with pain. He was doubled over like an injured shrimp,pletely unable to get away.

    Meanwhile, Adam was still in the nightclub, and none of the patrons or dancers in the club had any idea what had just happened.

    In fact, under the effects of the synapse transmission device, they weren''t even aware that they had been briefly drawn into the psychic world.

    "He''s injured!"

    The dancer was still standing beside Adam, watching the unfolding situation with a shocked expression.

    "Are you alright?"

    Adam made his way over to Fahai to inspect his condition.

    "My injuries aren''t very severe, but I was injured on the job, so you have to pay me extra."

    "That''s not an issue."

    Adam wasn''t short on money at the moment. The psychic mutant trio cherished animals and Adam much more than they cherished their wealth, and when Adam made a request to borrow some money from them, they immediately transferred him a huge sum without any hesitation.

    Adam was beginning to really develop a liking for the three of them.

    "How much do you want?"

    "My back is injured, and I''ve suffered quite a few cuts, so I should at least be getting 3,000... No, 5,000!"

    Fahai was stating what he thought to be an excessively high sum, fully expecting Adam to barter with him, but to his surprise, Adam epted his request without making any attempt at negotiation.

    "Alright, 5,000 it is. By the way, are you interested in bing my assistant?"

    "Why would you want me as your assistant? I''ve never worked as an assistant before."

    "You have very good disguise and acting skills, and you''re very calm and collected in the face of danger. Most importantly, I barely have any sane people around me, so I need to start recruiting some levelheaded people."

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, but if you have more jobs like the one today, please feel free to call me."

    Fahai had thoroughly enjoyed the job that he had undertaken. Not only had he just earned in a single day what he normally made in a month, this type of live-action performance was extremely exciting for him. The feeling of teetering on a knife''s edge and relying on his acting skills to keep himself out of danger was a very exhrating experience.

    "I''m sure I''ll have more jobs like this for you in the future."

    After parting ways with Fahai, Adam squeezed his way through the crowd of bystanders who had gathered around to see what had happened, then left the nightclub through the fire exit, where he was immediately greeted by the sight of Zhou Tong curled in a fetal position outside.

    Adam tried to lift Zhou Tong up from the ground, but with those prosthetics retrofitted onto his body, he was weighing several hundred kilometers, so Adam had no choice but to contact Mechguard.

    By the time the Mechguard units arrived on the scene for mop-up duty, Adam had already left. He was eager to make more progress on his n, and he had far too many things he had to do in an extremely limited lifespan.

    Everything''s going very smoothly. Right now, I''ve already dug up the higher-ups of the Compassion Company. With the power of Mechguard on my side, I''m unstoppable!

    ¡­¡­

    Despite how smoothly Adam''s n was progressing, he was never too far from danger.

    On the same day, a Japanese woman made her way out of the Sandrise City airport.

    If Adam had been present to see her, he would''ve been astonished, thinking that Oni no Miko had been resurrected. However, upon closer inspection, this woman was somewhat different from Oni no Miko, and the main differencesid in their dispositions and the looks in their eyes.

    This woman''s eyes looked as if they belonged to a venomous viper, and even the infants in the nearby vicinity didn''t dare to make a sound. None of the people around her knew exactly why they found her so intimidating, but all of them were subconsciously avoiding looking at her.

    As a result, a strange phenomenon took ce, where all of the people in her path naturally parted for her like waves.

    As soon as the woman exited her ne, she immediately sent a message on hermunicator.

    "Where are you, Dragon? I''ve arrived."

    Within five minutes of Dragon receiving this message, certain members of the southern congress who were working closely with the Oni Organization also received the news, following which an emergency meeting was immediately held.

    "That crazy woman hase to Sandrise City."

    The confidential electronic meeting was being attended by congressmen, tycoons, and even judges.

    This strange organization arose from a certain brotherhood from a century ago, and all of its members were quite powerful and influential in their own fields, but they very rarely gathered together.

    Considering the important positions that they held in their own respective fields, a massive controversy would''ve arisen if it were discovered that they were all closely connected with one another, so this type of meeting was a very rare urrence that was only reserved for true emergencies, and at this moment, one such meeting was being held in response to the arrival of that mysterious woman.

    The woman wasn''t a well-known figure among the general public, but all those who were privy to insider information pertaining to modern warfare were aware of what she had done in the most renowned wars that had taken ce the past few years.

    She had featured prominently in several wars across different regions, including the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

    "Why is she here?" someone in the meeting eximed in a furious voice. "She''spletely insane, a ticking time bomb! This is the equivalent of inviting an unstable nuclear bomb into Sandrise City! She''s the most unstable out of all psychic mutants!"

    "Didn''t she say that she was going to work on self-cultivation to make herself more stable?"

    "This is a really sticky situation. Should we deploy Mechguard units to kill her? All we need to do is upload the information pertaining to her status as an international fugitive to the Mechguard database, and we''ll definitely be able to hunt her down. She really is an international fugitive anyway, so it''s not like we''re making anything up."

    "No, we can''t do that." There were some adapters attending the meeting as well, and one of them immediately raised an objection. "With her telegnosis, she''ll be able to detect any Mechguard units well before they can get to her. There''s even a possibility that she''s already getting a premonition of danger just from the discussion that we''re having right now.

    ¡°The only way to kill her with Mechguard units would be to force her into a certain area before bombarding that entire area with indiscriminate attacks. However, there''s a very good chance that she would be able to sense what we''re doing in advance and adopt countermeasures ordingly. It''s simply not realistic for us to hunt her down using Mechguard units in Sandrise City."

    "Then what can we do?"

    "Does anyone know why she came here?"

    "She''s here to avenge her sister. Adam, that kid nominated by the northern congress, was the one who killed her sister."

    "Then wouldn''t it be in our best interest to just watch the situation unfold?"

    "We can''t do that. At the moment, Adam is a well-known public figure in the entire city. Public opinion has alreadypletely turned against our southern congress. If he ends up dying during this sensitive period, our southern congress will definitely be med, and that could result in an irreparable blow to our image, which could severely impact election results and all of our other operations.

    ¡°We don''t want the general public to develop the impression that we''re abusing our power, so we absolutely cannot allow Adam to die at such a crucial juncture."

    "Then what can we do?"

    "Spread the news for now, and leave the rest to me."

 Chapter 246: Hebi no Miko

    <h4>Chapter 246: Hebi no Miko</h4>

    Recently, Adam''s n had been progressing very smoothly, but for some reason, he couldn''t shake this lingering feeling of unease.

    A normal person would''ve simply brushed off those unsubstantiated feelings and carried on with their life, but as a top-tier adapter with extremely potent telegnosis, Adam would''ve been very much remiss to ignore these subtle warning signs.

    It had been proposed by the Psychic Church that all exchanges of information in the world were fundamentally electromaic interactions, so if one''s synapses were sufficiently sensitive, they would be able to detect certain signals that the average person couldn''t.

    Back when Adam had learned this at the academy, he had still been aplete rookie, so he didn''t think much of the statement and merelymitted it to memory.

    However, as he was now, he was able to develop a deeper understanding of this concept.

    This is definitely not just me being overly sensitive... Is someone trying to target me? Is it the southern congress or the Oni Organization?

    Adam had made quite a few enemies, and he had also be an extremely renowned figure ofte, but these two powers were the only ones that he could think of that had the power to actually make a move on him.

    He didn''t fear the majority of the Oni Organization''s members. Two of the eight Onis were already dead, and on average, the other six were only around the same level as Oni no Miko and Oni no Hanzou. Individually, it would be very difficult for them to take him down, and if they were to gang up on him, he had allies of his own to back him up.

    The only cause for real concern was Oni-faced Dragon. He was significantly more powerful than the eight Onis, but Adam had no idea exactly how powerful he was. However, he had already ced Oni-faced Dragon into the same tier as Masao Yamamoto.

    As for the southern congress, Adam was convinced that they had to have quite arge number of powerful adapters at their disposal as well. After all, they were the more powerful of the two congresses, and even the northern congress had been able to recruit Sadou''s assistance, so the southern congress would''ve definitely also had some extremely powerful adapters at their beck and call.

    However, there was no way that a national organization like the southern congress would spend so much time and effort focusing on affairs in Sandrise City, so after some careful consideration, Adam decided that it was far more likely that he was being targeted by the Oni Organization.

    As it turned out, he was incorrect.

    Upon returning to the veterinarian hospital, Adam was greeted by the sight of a familiar face.

    "What are you doing here, Cowboy?"

    Cowboy was ying with a dog as Adam returned to the hospital.

    He was still in his usual careless and disheveled get-up, wearing a pair of jeans in a style that was popr a century ago. There was a cowboy hat sitting on his head, and an unkempt moustache on his face.

    "I''m here to bring you a piece of information from the southern congress."

    "They''re giving you information?" Adam was rather perplexed to hear this. "Aren''t you supposed to be enemies?"

    "We work together asionally, such as in this instance. There are some things that they can''tmunicate to you directly, and even if they did, you may not have believed them anyway. What they asked me to tell you is that someone''s trying to kill you, so be on your guard."

    "Who? The Oni Organization?"

    "No, they can barely keep themselves safe. I''ve heard that they''ve all gone into hiding." Cowboy suddenly burst intoughter as he spoke. "I never thought I''d see a day where a bunch of high-level professional hitmen would go into hiding. You''ve really made a powerful enemy for yourself this time."

    "Who is it?"

    "It''s Hebi no Miko, Oni no Miko''s elder sister."

    "Oni no Miko has a sister?"

    Adam was oblivious to many of the secrets of the world. Even though he had matured significantly since his awakening, he only had a very small catalog of memories up to this point.

    "That''s right, and she''s way more terrifying than Oni no Miko. As a child, she worked as a Japanese spy, butter on, it became impossible for the spy organization to contain her. I don''t know what happened to her after that, but wherever she goes, she''s considered to be a ticking time bomb," Cowboy said as he continued to y with the dog. "She''s a psychic mutant. I''m sure you know what it''s like to be a psychic mutant better than I do, right?"

    Cowboy turned to Adam as he raised this question.

    It was clear that he had seen footage of the battle royale and determined that Adam''s deranged disy at the end was a result of psychic mutation.

    "Let''s not get off topic."

    Adam wasn''t aplete psychic mutant, but he did indeed know how it felt to undergo psychic mutation.

    "She''s a psychic mutant among psychic mutants. Ever since she was a childhood, she had always been insane, and her personality became even more twisted as she grew up. Granted, there are plenty of nutjobs in the world, and the reason why she''s attracted so much attention is because she''s extremely powerful. I watched the battle royale that you took part in. It''s quite a pity what happened to Eyeless, he was quite a talent.

    ¡°He chose the most arduous path possible, so I suppose it''s only fitting that he fell on that path, but he really is an unfortunate case of wasted potential. Having said that, he was still nowhere near as powerful as Yamata no Orochi, right?"

    "That''s correct," Adam replied.

    Eyeless was the most powerfulbatant in the battle royale, but he had been severely outmatched by Yamata no Orochi.

    Furthermore, by the time their final battle took ce, Yamata no Orochi had already lost the support of Oni no Miko. In addition to that, Adam had a feeling that Yamata no Orochi had never gotten a chance to show off its full power as it had never received sufficient energy.

    "Didn''t you get the feeling that Oni no Miko shouldn''t have been able to invoke such a powerful entity? That she didn''t possess sufficient psychic power to do so?"

    "What are you trying to say?"

    "She invoked Yamata no Orochi from that pendant, and the creature was most likely ced into the pendant by her sister through some type of psychic deposit."

    Adam couldn''t help but think of Madam Tree upon hearing this.

    "So what I''m saying is that the serpent actually came from her sister. I don''t know exactly how powerful Hebi no Miko is, all I''ve heard is that she used to be extremely powerful. After watching the footage of the battle royale, it seems that I''ve underestimated her. If you don''t want to die, then there are only two options that you can choose from, the first of which is to relinquish your status as a special psychic police officer and go into hiding so you can fade out of the public eye."

    "I''ve already had enough of hiding," Adam dered with a shake of his head. "Tell me the second option."

    "The second option would be to use your current identity as a special psychic police officer. Your current status allows you to protect yourself through the use of Mechguard units."

    "Isn''t she an adapter?"

    "It''s true that adapters don''t really fear Mechguard, but all Mechguard units are programmed to make judgments on whether someone is being attacked by an adapter if they suddenly fallpletely still for an extended period of time. As an enforcer, Mechguard units will be sure toe to your aid as long as you can survive against her for some time. Of course, for that to happen, you have to ensure that you canst the required duration of time."

    "Alright, I know what I need to do now, but why is the southern congress helping me?"

    "You''re a smart man, I''m sure you can figure that out for yourself," Cowboy replied with a smile. "What you should be asking is how long they''ll be willing to help you for."

    "You''re right. How long will they help me for?"

    "After the recent controversy has blown over a little, they''ll try tounch a smear campaign against you. This is amonly employed strategy among politicians, and there are quite a few things that they can target about you, so smearing you won''t be the most difficult thing in the world. As long as they can ruin your reputation, your death won''t incur much bacsh from the general public. That''s all I can tell you, what you do next is up to you."

    "Can you provide me with some help?"

    "Of course I can, but only after you survive this ordeal." Cowboy made his way over to Adam before patting him on the shoulder. "We''re on friendly terms with one another, but we''re definitely not so close that I would be willing to die for you. Even Wax Figure definitely wouldn''t want to face Hebi no Miko, so you''re on your own here."

    After that, Cowboy promptly departed without any hesitation.

 Chapter 247: Prosthetics Retrofitting

    <h4>Chapter 247: Prosthetics Retrofitting</h4>

    Following Cowboy''s departure, Adam pondered his own situation in silence for a long while.

    Essentially, there was a deranged adapter who hadpletely mastered Yamata no Orochi''s powers out to kill him.

    Adam didn''t know many powerful adapters of this caliber, and he could only think of three adapters on the same level that he could potentially recruit to help him, namely May, Sadou, and the director.

    They were the most powerful adapters that he knew who had a neutral or positive affiliation with him. Out of those three, the director was the only one that Adam was certain would be able to defeat Hebi no Miko, but the director wasn''t on his side. Furthermore, Adam had no idea what the director''s objectives and desires were, so there was virtually no chance that he could get the director to help him.

    As for Sadou, even though they shared a master and disciple rtionship, they weren''t familiar with one another at all, and Sadou had only taken him in on the basis of a request from Cowboy, so it was also very unlikely that Adam would be able to recruit his help.

    The final candidate for consideration was May. Out of the three aforementioned people, she was the one that Adam was most familiar with, and it was exactly because of this that she was also aware of just how cautious she was.

    She had refused to help him when he was caught up in the conflict between the two congresses, and now that he was in even more severe peril, there was no reason for him to expect assistance from her.

    Just as Cowboy wasn''t willing to die for him, those three definitely had no incentive to risk their lives for him, either.

    With that in mind, the average person would''ve most likelypletely given up on recruiting assistance from others, but the current Adam was extremely shameless.

    Afterpletely fusing with Clown, Adam had lost all concept of humility, and he decided to contact those three on the off chance that one of them would be willing to help him.

    The first one that he contacted was Sadou.

    "Hello, Teacher, long time no talk!... Yes, it''s me, Adam... Ah, so you''ve been watching the news. Yes, I have be a special psychic police officer... Thank you, I couldn''t have done it without you... I have something that I need your help with, Teacher... You''ll definitely be willing to help? That''s great! So recently, I''ve made a powerful enemy... Her name is Hebi no Miko, and... Hello? Fuck, he just hung up!"

    Adam stared at his silentmunicator for a while before dialing May''s number, but she refused to pick up.

    She must be pretending to be unavable.

    As the leader of thergest privately owned intelligence organization in Sandrise City, there was no way that May wasn''t aware of the situation with Hebi no Miko, and the fact that she was refusing to answer Adam''s call was already a clear indication of her attitude.

    In the end, Adam had no choice but to send Hailey a message through a special avenue.

    ¡­¡­

    In Shadow City, Hailey was currently being surrounded by a bunch of renowned psychicbatants.

    Right now, she was the manager of a champion,monly known as a "champion manager".

    This was an extremely sought-after title among managers. In the entirety of Shadow City, there weren''t many managers for S tierbatants, and there were even fewer champion managers. Only a single champion manager arose each year, and everyone knew just how difficult it was to secure the final victory in the battle royale.

    On top of that, the recently concluded edition of the battle royale was the most brutal and spectacr edition in the past 10 years, and the ferocity of thepetition and the extremely high death rate meant that the champion title for this edition held more weight than that of previous editions.

    Hence, Hailey was currently a very hotmodity. Countless psychicbatants were trying to sign her up as their manager, and she had finally fulfilled her dream.

    .

    Looking at the bunch of psychicbatants gathered around her, Hailey was practically glowing, and she was just about to say something when she suddenly received a message on hermunicator.

    The message had been sent through the dark web. There were certain obstacles between Shadow City''swork and that of the outside world, so messages had to be sent through special avenues, one of which was the dark web.

    Initially, Hailey didn''t pay much attention to the message, but after briefly scanning through its contents, she immediately took it far more seriously.

    "I have some matters to attend to today, so I''ll have to ask all of you to leave for now. I''ll be sure to go through all of your files and pick out the ones among you with the most potential."

    After dismissing all of the psychicbatants, Haileyid down onto the sofa and began to read the message more thoroughly.

    "He''s being hunted by Oni no Miko''s sister, and he''s asking me to request assistance from the director? What''s up with that?" Hailey''s brows were tightly furrowed, and despite her youthful appearance, she was wearing a very adult-like expression. "Is he close with the director? Why would the director help him? Also, who''s Oni no Miko''s sister? Is she strong?"

    Hailey sent Adam a message containing all of these questions, but the response that she received was quite an infuriating one.

    "Little kids shouldn''t ask so many questions? Get fucked!" Hailey mmed her fist down onto the sofa in indignation. "Does he not know that I''m the most sought-after manager in Shadow City right now? I''ll help you just this once for old time''s sake, but if the director doesn''t let me into Shadow Fort, then there''s nothing I can do!"

    Hailey sent Adam an emoji to express her anger as she spoke.

    ¡­¡­

    Adam couldn''t help but chuckle in amusement at the sight of the angry kitty emoji that Hailey had sent him.

    He then made his way into the veterinarian hospital while calling out Diana''s name.

    "Diana, are you there? You''ve been dying to get some revenge, haven''t you? Now''s your chance! Oni no Miko''s sister has just touched down in Sandrise City!"

    Due to the immediate peril that he was in, Adam temporarily put his investigation into the Compassion Company on pause so that he could briefly go into hiding and do two things, the first of which was to have prosthetics retrofitted, just as he had always been meaning to do.

    For that, he went to Baldie Lin. It had to be said that Baldie Lin''s skills far exceeded those of the average retrofitting technician, and he was able to install an exoskeleton, a set of spider legs, and a small rocket booster onto Adam''s body, all while ensuring that his neurons remained unaffected.

    The exoskeleton was essentially a suit of armor that connected with the bones and muscles of his entire body, and upon activation, it granted him immense physical strength that significantly boosted his speed and power.

    The spider legs were installed onto his back, and they were going to be extremely helpful both inbat and for climbing up ces that he would''ve previously been unable to.

    As for the rocket booster, that was retrofitted beneath the spider legs, and it was designed to help Adam escape from or pursue enemies depending on the situation.

    "What a pity..." Baldie Lin was both proud and a little forlorn as he inspected his own handiwork. "In all these years that I''ve spent in Shadow City, these are my best creations. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of powerful weapons that I can''t install onto your body. If I can install a methrower, a miniature tracking missileuncher, a miniature battle UAV, and aser gun, in addition to your existing prosthetics, you''d be the perfect bionic warrior!"

    "You can totally retrofit a miniature UAV onto me. Firearm prosthetics are prohibited in the civilized world, but you can just make the battle UAV a reconnaissance UAV instead," Adam suggested.

    "You''re right! Why didn''t I think of that?"

    An enlightened look appeared on Baldie Lin''s face as he immediately returned to work, using an electric drill to remove one of the spider legs before beginning the process of installing a reconnaissance mechanical bee.

 Chapter 248: Shivanis Justice

    <h4>Chapter 248: Shivani''s Justice</h4>

    "I heard that you have a powerful enemying after you. What are you nning to do?" Baldie Lin asked as he continued to operate on Adam. "By the way, these materials are all from the pawn shop, so you have to pay for them."

    "I know, I know, just put it on my tab for now," Adam yawned. "What can I do? I''ll get a bunch of Mechguard units to apany me everywhere I go, then think of ways to make myself more renowned as a figure of justice."

    "How will that help you?"

    "It''ll be extremely helpful. If I can pull this off well, even the southern congress would be forced to help me, but if I screw up, everyone will want to kill me, including the northern congress."

    Adam had no trust in the ethics and morality of politicians, but the good thing about politicians was that they didn''t let emotions and personal ties get in the way of their decision-making, and they would keep someone around as long as that person was still of value to them.

    Hence, in a way, it made them more predictable and lessplicated to deal with.

    After having all of the prosthetics retrofitted, Adam called up Diana and the three psychic mutants, and the four of them traveled to Shivani''s home under the protection of a group of Mechguard units.

    Shivani was the real-world equivalent of the camera anomaly, which was the manifestation of Samit''s fear.

    Samit was previously an official who worked at the National Medical Products Administration, but he found himself caught in Shivani''s crosshairs due to his crimes of corruption and embezzlement.

    Samit was actually a very weak-willed man, and a significant factor behind the political crimes that he hadmitted was due to the pressure exerted upon him by those above him. After being targeted by Shivani, he lived in constant fear of being arrested, to the extent that his quality of life had been reduced to shambles.

    Ever since the police force had been reced by Mechguards, there had been a huge surge in poprity in investigative journalism. In a way, investigative journalists partially performed the role that police officers once did. As long as they had concrete evidence that they could submit to Mechguard, those who infringed on thew would be punished for their crimes.

    Shivani was an investigative journalist, but she was not in a very good ce at the moment.

    Ultimately, this world was governed by a series of powerful entities, and after exposing the dark underbelly of the National Medical Products Administration, she had made herself an enemy of two powerful organizations, one of which was the National Medical Products Administration itself, while the other was Sweet Energy Foodstuffpany.

    This was one of thergest foodpanies in Sandrise City, and it worked closely with smart apartments. Thepany''s main selling point was that it could provide convenient and healthy food items to all residents of smart apartmentplexes within three minutes at the press of a button.

    Thepany was a massive powerhouse, and after Shivani exposed their shady dealings, the website that she worked for immediately came under immense pressure, forcing them to fire her.

    After that, she found it extremely difficult to find further employment, forcing her to turn to independent media, trying to continue in her past line of work using her previously umted fanbase and her active journalist license.

    Unfortunately, things hadn''t been very easy for her.

    The paltry ie that she received from her independent media endeavors meant that she struggled just to make ends meet, and most importantly, without the backing of apany, she had lost her information sources.

    For the average journalist, knowing where issues arose and what those issues were was more important than investigative ability. Without information sources, an investigative journalist would be like a headless fly with no sense of direction.

    As for purchasing information, that waspletely out of the question for her.

    Allrge intelligence organizations like the pawn shop sold their information at astronomical prices that werepletely unaffordable for a struggling independent journalist like her.

    On this day, Shivani was sitting in her small apartment, looking at the falling rain outside in a dejected manner. All of a sudden, she received a call on hermunicator from an unknown number.

    The average person was very unlikely to take calls from unknown numbers, but an investigative journalist would definitely answer such calls because they could be tips that contained her next big scoop.

    "Hello, you''ve reached the preacher of truth, Shivani. How can I help you?"

    "Hello, my name is Adam. You may have heard of me from the recent news."

    As a journalist, Shivani naturally kept up very closely with current affairs, and a thought immediately urred to her upon hearing this.

    "Are you one of the recently instated special psychic police officers?"

    "That''s me."

    Shivani was rather skeptical about this im, but she didn''t say anything. She was just a struggling independent journalist, while Adam had be one of the most renowned public figures ofte. ording to her knowledge, Adam also had ties with several powerhouse organizations, such as the northern congress and the pawn shop.

    Thus, it was very perplexing to her that someone of his status would contact a virtuallypletely unknown journalist like herself.

    "There''s no need to be surprised, I''ve heard about some of your past exploits." Prior to contacting Shivani, Adam had already requested the pawn shop to gather information on her for him. "I really liked your report on the food safety case, and I''m a big fan of your desire to pursue justice."

    Indeed, Adam was quite fond of Shivani. If she hadn''t traumatized Samit so severely, Adam wouldn''t have been able to obtain Camera, and he would''ve most likely already perished in his match against Oni no Hanzou.

    Hence, even though the two of them had never met before, it could be said that Shivani had indirectly saved his life.

    "Can I help you?"

    Shivani was slightly more convinced after hearing Adam mention the food safety case.

    "Let''s talk face to face. I''m at the foot of your apartment building right now."

    Shivani immediately turned to look out her window upon hearing this, and sure enough, she discovered five people and several Mechguard units outside, and one of those people was waving at her.

    At this point, Shivani waspletely convinced, and after a brief nce in the mirror to ensure that she was presentable, she immediately rushed downstairs to meet Adam.

    "You look a little different from how you do on the news."

    She was referring to his recently retrofitted exoskeleton and spider legs.

    While his face remained unchanged, he had be far more physically imposing with all these prosthetics installed.

    "It''s a dangerous world out there, I had to get some prosthetics retrofitted to protect myself."

    "I see."

    Shivani turned her attention to the four people beside Adam, only to find what appeared to be a mentally impaired trio and a middle-aged woman with a furious look on her face, none of whom appeared very normal.

    However, the presence of the Mechguard units confirmed Adam''s identity to her. Aside from special psychic police officers, no one couldmand these Mechguard units.

    "Why have youe to see me?"

    A sense of excitement was beginning to well up in Shivani''s heart after confirming Adam''s identity. She had a feeling that an opportunity for her to make aeback was about to be presented to her.

    .

    Sure enough, what Adam said next had her heart practically soaring out of her chest.

    "I really like your journalistic style. Are you interested in coborating with me? I''ll give you firsthand information on all of the cases that I investigate, and you can report the stories to the public."

    "Are you being serious right now?"

    Shivani''s heart was pounding so hard that she could barely hear what Adam was saying. This was the opportunity that she had always dreamed of!

    As one of the currently most renowned public figures, Adam carried enormous clout. In addition to that, the upation of special psychic police officer had only just arisen, and it was apletely unexplored territory.

    Journalists were always looking for new developments in the world as these new developments generated vast interest in themselves.

    Furthermore, if she could receive regr tips from Adam, then all of her shorings would bepensated for. She was confident that if she were to agree to this coboration, all of her problems would be resolved, and she would instantly receive an enormous amount of attention, perhaps even catapulting her to be one of the top journalists in the entire nation.

    "I''ll be honest, I''m extremely excited right now, and I really, really want to ept your offer, but I have to make one thing clear: I''m not going to report any false stories." Shivani was determined to uphold her values. "I only do the right things."

    "Perfect! That''s why I came to see you. I like people who are determined to do the right thing, and I anticipate a very happy and fruitful coboration between us."

 Chapter 249: Virtual Arena

    <h4>Chapter 249: Virtual Arena</h4>

    Everyone supported those who pursued justice, and that was why Adam had approached Shivani.

    Not long after getting into contact with Shivani, Adam provided her with her first scoop.

    "You see that man over there?"

    The next day, Adam took Shivani to a high-end residentialplex. Not only were the houses in the area veryvish, the residentialplex had exceptional privacy and a whole host of nearby facilities. Most importantly, the area was constantly being patrolled by Mechguard units, and if an outsider wanted to get in, they would have to pass through multiple checkpoints.

    Of course, none of this was an issue for Adam.

    One of the privileges of serving as a special psychic police officer was that he could enter any area in Sandrise City.

    On this day, Adam took his team to this wealthy residential area to track down one of the people in Zhou Tong''s memories. Out of all of Zhou Tong''s supervisors, he was the one who had the closest ties with Zhou Tong and knew the most secrets.

    This man was one of the people in charge of the Compassion Company, and he specifically oversaw product distribution.

    "I see him. Is he our target for today?"

    "That''s right. Do you know how to use the device I gave you?"

    "The psychic world projection recorder? Of course I do. Don''t underestimate the professional skill set of an experienced investigative journalist."

    "Alright, then make sure to record the entire process ofw enforcement. I won''t have any input on how you write the story, I have faith in your sense of justice and professionalism."

    Adam emerged from the corner as he spoke, then leaped up into the air before propelling him several dozen meters using his newly retrofitted rocket booster, allowing him to arrive directly in front of his target.

    "Hello, Adebayor."

    "Who are you? What do you want? Don''t get any closer to me. Otherwise, I''m calling Mechguard!"

    Adebayor pressed a button in his pocket as he spoke. One of the privileges of living in this high-end residential area was that the nearby patrolling Mechguard units could be summoned at the press of a button.

    Normally, the flying Mechguard units would arrive on the scene in less than 20 seconds, and even the terrestrial Mechguard units would arrive within a minute, yet on this day, no matter how many times he pressed his button, no Mechguard units came to his aid.

    Adam was about to gloat at his target, but he quickly realized that he had to put on a professional facade, and he immediately adopted a serious expression as he dered, "I am the captain of the fourth team of the Sandrise City Special Psychic Police Force. My name is Adam, and here''s my badge."

    Adam pointed at the badge on his own chest as he spoke.

    "You''re suspected of illegally sellingrge quantities of drugs, so I''m here to conduct a psychic examination on you."

    "I want mywyer." This was the typical first reaction that all wealthy individuals disyed in response to situations like this. "Before mywyer gets here, I''m not going to say anything."

    "ording to the newly passed psychic bill, in cases where evidence has already been obtained, I have the right to examine the parts of your psychic world relevant to the case."

    Adam pulled out some pills and a recording of Zhou Tong''s confession as he spoke.

    Adebayor immediately grew a little flustered at the sight of the recording.

    It had been several days since he hadst seen Zhou Tong, but this was quite amon urrence. After all, Zhou Tong was a salesperson, and it was often the case that he spent several days at a time selling the products assigned to him.

    What he hadpletely failed to anticipate was that the reason why Zhou Tong hadn''t shown up to thepany in the past few days was because he had been detained.

    "Why are you targeting me?" Adebayor took a quick nce at the surrounding Mechguard units, and upon discovering that they were quite far away, he approached Adam, then said in a voice audible only to the two of them, "If it''s money that you want, I can..."

    "Bribing an officer is a crime in itself," Adam dered with a serious expression,pletely putting away Clown''s signature sinister grin. "I''m now going to conduct an examination of your psychic world."

    Adam switched on the psychic projection recorder as he spoke, then immediately invaded Adebayor''s psychic world.

    This time, Adam made sure to present himself as professionally and ethically as possible, exploring only the necessary psychic modules rted to the Compassion Company and Adebayor''s work while taking care to avoid everything else.

    Soon, he had already seen a huge catalog of shady dealings.

    The Compassion Company produced massive quantities of addictive painkillers through so-called official channels, then spread these painkillers into the market through all types of legally ambiguous sales avenues.

    From production, to storage, to sale, the entire process was a textbook procedure for illegal drug dealing.

    Even though Adebayor had made sure to cover his tracks extremely well in the real world, his memories couldn''t lie, nor could his suspiciously high levels of wealth and the hidden warehouses full of painkillers.

    Afterpleting his investigation, Adam departed from Adebayor''s psychic world, then informed Mechguard to seal up the hidden warehouses that he had seen in Adebayor''s memories.

    All of the Mechguard units across the entire city were interconnected with one another, and it only took a few minutes for the operation to be carried out.

    "All of your illegal warehouses have been sealed up. I saw from your memories that a lot of your drugs were sold to minors. Now that we have both human testimony and material evidence, you won''t be getting away with this," Adam said as he feigned a sympathetic expression toward the underage victims that the drugs had been sold to, then promptly departed.

    ¡­¡­

    Soon, a story was published on Shivani''s Metaverse homepage.

    "A Firsthand Look Into the Law Enforcement Process of the Special Psychic Police"

    The story became a viral hit on the inte overnight.

    Adapters were very far removed from the general public to begin with, and they were always operating in their own factions, so there was a great deal of curiosity when it came to adapters in the hearts of the average person.

    On top of that, special psychic police officers had only been recently instated.

    In addition to that, there was always an innate fear thatw enforcers were going to abuse their power, so everyone was eager to see how these special psychic police officers carried out thew.

    Given these factors, it was difficult for this story not to explode in poprity, and it didn''t take long for Adam, Shivani, and the story to be hotly discussed topics on the inte.

    In a certain chatroom in the Tor browser, a group of people was discussing this subject.

    "Damn, I didn''t know adapters could see people''s memories!"

    "That''spletely unfair for normal people like us!"

    "I hate to break it to ya, but this world isn''t really fair."

    "That Adam guy looks to be doing a good job though. He''s been framed in the past and cleared his own name since then, so I''m sure he''s a good guy."

    "I wouldn''t be so sure of that. I''ve heard that he has an allegiance to the northern congress, and if you ask me, neither of the congresses can be trusted."

    "Keep typing on your little keyboard! You wouldn''t do anywhere near as good a job in his ce!"

    "Piss off!"

    A conflict quickly broke out in the chat room, and as a result, it was decided that they would settle this in the arena.

    The main selling point of this chatroom was that all disputes were settled with physical fights. 100 years ago, people often wanted to escte inte disputes to fights in real life, but geographic distance regrly proved to be a challenge. However, that issue was resolved with the invention of virtual arenas.

    The arenas had special pain-sensing programs, allowing virtual fights to feel just like in-person fights.

 Chapter 250: News

    <h4>Chapter 250: News</h4>

    Shivani was extremely happy with how her story was performing. In just a single day, she had received countless messages, and even the mediapanies that had previously turned her down were all scrambling to call her and offer her jobs.

    However, she had no intention of working for any major mediapanies for now.

    She had already witnessed the darkness present in these organizations. Large media organizations were always being used by politicians and majorpanies, and as a result, the journalists working for those media organizations were limited in what they could and couldn''t say.

    Right now, she had a reliable information source, she had clout, and she didn''t have to go against her own moralpass. This was a dreame true for her, and she couldn''t but feel extremely grateful to Adam for allowing her dream to be a reality.

    However, these feelings had only just begun to develop before they were immediately stamped out by Shivani.

    As a journalist, she had to remain as objectively and emotionally neutral as possible at all times. She couldn''t allow any subjective emotions to impact her stories, and she definitely couldn''t allow her emotions to be conveyed to those reading her stories. She had to respect the truth at all times and ensure that it was the stories that told her readers what to think, not herself.

    All of a sudden, she noticed a notification pop up on her phone, informing her that another news story about Adam had been released, but this one was a negative story.

    A certain media outlet had leaked some of the footage from the battle royale that Adam had taken part in.

    The sheer brutality and superheroesque elements of the battle royale made it an extremely exciting spectacle that inevitably drew one''s attention. In addition to that, certain inte personalities were actively promoting the story, and it quickly gained just as much traction as Shivani''s story.

    Thus, both of the two hottest pieces of news on the polls were about Adam, except one was positive, while the other was negative.

    Certain clips had been cherry-picked from the battle royale to paint Adam in a particrly bad light, particrly highlighting Adam''s backstabbing of his allies, and the viewers were naturally left with a bitter taste in their mouths.

    After witnessing the brutality of the battles and all of the sinister measures that Clown had been willing to resort to, even Shivani couldn''t help but wonder if Adam was actually a good person or not.

    In the end, she was unable to suppress her curiosity and gave Adam a call.

    The call was quickly picked up on Adam''s end.

    "Have you seen the news?"

    "I have," Adam replied. "I knew they would try to smear me by releasing footage of the battle royale, I just didn''t think this day woulde so quickly. I''m guessing the story that you released has really sent them into a panic. If they allow me to establish a positive image, a smear campaign against me wouldn''t be anywhere near as effective."

    "Is the footage real?"

    "Of course."

    Adam had no intention of lying to Shivani. He was well aware of her personality and her devotion to finding out the truth. Samit had been stalked from his home to his workce, and in the end, he had been driven to near insanity and fled to Shadow City. Granted, a part of this was due to his own weak-willed personality, but an even more important factor was Shivani''s tenacious and intrusive style of investigative journalism.

    Furthermore, Adam was of the opinion that preserving Shivani''s innate sense of justice would be extremely beneficial to his reputation. The truth couldn''t be buried forever, and falsehoods would eventually be debunked. At times, the general public could be quite slow to react, but they weren''t stupid.

    Over time, whether a person was truly a figure of justice or just pretending would inevitably be made clear.

    "The footage is real, but I would like to give you some relevant context, and you can do your own research to verify my ims. Let''s begin by talking about how I was framed first. On the day of the terrorist attack, I was sent to Mirror Lake Primary School as an employee of the pawn shop to stop those psychic mutants..."

    Thus, Adamunched into a story about how he had been framed, how the footage that proved his innocence was taken by the Oni Organization, and how that footage mysteriously ended up in Shadow City. He revealed all of his recent experiences to her with the exception of a few closely guarded secrets.

    "The battle royale was an extremely brutal event, and there were some choices that I was simply forced to make. If I couldn''t win the battle royale, then I would never be able to clear my own name.

    ¡°As for my actions at the tail end of the battle royale, that can be partially attributed to my desperate desire to win, and partially attributed to the psychological impact that I was suffering from in the wake of the death of my friends. That''s all I have to say for myself, you''re free to decide what you want to think."

    Shivani was silent for a long time after hearing Adam''s story.

    She had heard many rumors about Shadow City, and as a journalist, she knew more about the city than the average person did, but this was the first time she had ever heard such a thrilling and hair-raising story.

    Considering just how desperate a situation that Adam had been forced into, she was of the opinion that most people would''ve fared just as badly in his position.

    Hence, it was impossible to say whether he was a good person or not.

    In that situation, he simply had no choice in whether he wanted to be good or evil.

    "I can understand why you did what you did, but that doesn''t change the fact that your actions will have an extremely negative impact. Not only will this affect your reputation, it could even result in the revocation of your role as a special psychic police officer."

    "That''s why I need to do something to alter the narrative being presented against me by the media. Do you have any good suggestions?"

    At the moment, Adam was feeling extremely concerned. He was relying heavily on his status as a special psychic police officer both for his own protection and for the enactment of his n, so it was vital that he didn''t lose this job.

    "It''ll be rather difficult topletely flip the narrative at once. You can tell the story of your experiences to the people through certain channels in order to garner some sympathy, but that''s only going to have a very limited impact. The most important thing for you right now is to do some good deeds that will win you win over the general public."

    "Can you give me some examples?"

    "What people like to see the most is cases of evil being brought to justice. As a journalist, I know of a few categories of people who are always heavily resented and seen as irredeemable by the general public, such as pedophiles, child killers, and rapists. There is zero tolerance toward these people, and it''s not just because what they''re doing is highly illegal. More importantly, these people are hated by everyone from the bottom of their hearts."

    "That''s true."

    Thoughts of the human farm immediately surfaced in Adam''s mind. Back then, he had almost thrown up the first time he had witnessed that hellish sight.

    "What I suggest is that you set aside all of the cases that you''re working on for now and focus on this direction. If you can crack a few cases of this nature, your image will improve significantly in the eyes of the general public, and you''ll actually be doing good deeds as well, so it really is a win-win situation."

    "Thank you. If you hadn''t given me this advice, I wouldn''t have known what to do." Adam eagerly agreed to this strategy proposed to him by Shivani. "Let''s begin right away. I''ll go to the pawn shop to try and find some leads. In the meantime,e to the Four Brothers Veterinarian Hospital in Area 47, and we''ll meet up there."

    "Alright."

    "Also..."

    "Is there something else you have to say?"

    "Make sure to be safe."

 Chapter 251: Gathering Place for Artists

    <h4>Chapter 251: Gathering ce for Artists</h4>

    Inside a dark alley stood a strange group of people.

    "When is... Oni no Miko''s sister...ing?"

    It had rained not long ago, so there was some rainwater umted in the alley, and a middle-aged woman in the group was stomping at the puddles like a little kid.

    However, in contrast with children, who sshed around in puddles for fun, she seemed to be doing this as a means to vent the fury in her heart.

    "Don''t get so worked up, she''ll definitelye for me soon."

    Adam was making it sound like he was eager for the showdown to arrive, but in reality, he didn''t want to face Hebi no Miko at all. During these past few days, his telegnosis had been bing more and more uneasy, and he could only specte that the main reason why Hebi no Miko still hadn''t made a move on him yet was because he was constantly apanied by Mechguard units.

    If she were to rush in recklessly, only to find herself unable to kill Adam in a short time, then she ran the risk of being tracked down and killed by the Mechguard units in the real world.

    Furthermore, Adam had a feeling that the southern congress had most likely sent people to impede Hebi no Miko, so Adam was safe for now, but that sense of safety was quickly wearing off.

    "I can sense that she''s growing more and more impatient. I''m sure she''ll make her move soon." While Adam was speaking with Diana, a figure wearing an octopus mask emerged from the darkness. "Someone''sing. All of you stay quiet for now."

    An octopus mask was a standard disguise worn by those working for a certain intelligence organization on the dark web.

    Adam had gone to the pawn shop to try and gather leads for potential heinous criminals on the loose in Sandrise City, but the pawn shop had only provided him with some data that indicated a sharp spike in the number of missing children cases in Area 45, along with some rted content on the dark web.

    Some people had abducted those children, then filmed videos of those children being brutally tortured and killed to be sold for profit on the dark web.

    However, that was the extent of the information that the pawn shop was willing to provide. May was trying to keep the pawn shop on the straight and narrow as much as possible, so she didn''t want to deal in intelligence from the dark web, nor was she interested in getting the pawn shop involved in these shady matters.

    .

    However, Red Spider had provided Adam with a contact, and Adam had to pay arge deposit to facilitate that meeting.

    On the dark web, there were people making money frommitting heinous crimes, but there were also people making money from betraying those heinous criminals. In a world that was outside of the jurisdiction of thew, money was the only driving force.

    "Here''s the information that you asked for. I''ve included the address and photo of the suspect as you requested, but this information pertains only to the uploader of the videos. As for whether he was the one who actuallymitted the crimes, that''s a question that I can''t answer."

    "Are you sure he was the original uploader? He''s not just reuploading the footage?"

    "I''m certain. Even if he didn''t produce the footage, he definitely has something to do with the creator."

    "Good."

    After the final payment was issued, the informant in the octopus mask departed.

    "You''ve been spending quite a bit of our money, Adam." Mole couldn''t help but express his displeasure as he watched the transaction take ce. "I know that we''re really rich, and that it''s not good to always talk about money, but we won''t be able to support you much longer if you keep this up."

    "Exactly!" Rabbit chimed in in agreement. "We paid for the prosthetics that you recently had retrofitted, and you''ve also been purchasing a ton of information and equipment. At this rate, we won''t have any money left to buy an ind!"

    "You two need to shut up!" Among the three psychic mutants, Armadillo was always the one who stood up for Adam as Adam had previously saved his life. "If worsees to worst, we''ll just have to go back to Shadow City to earn some more money! Constantly fixating on money is not a sign of intelligence!"

    Adam offered no response as the three of them began arguing with one another.

    He had already grown ustomed to this. Thebination of the three hare-brained psychic mutants and the perpetually angry Diana meant that arguments regrly broke out, and Adam was already used to the noise.

    Fortunately, even though they were often very rowdy, the three psychic mutants were quite obedient, and not only had they not caused any trouble for him, they had proven to be a great help to him.

    Thus, the five of them made their way to Area 45 ording to the provided address, and they were protected by Mechguard units from afar during the entire duration of the trip.

    This was a rather unique area of Sandrise City, and it was known as the Artists'' Area.

    Due to certain historical factors, arge number of creators had gathered here, including artists, novelists, directors, songwriters, sculptors, etc.

    The area had a very open and liberal atmosphere, and the shops that lined the streets all had rather unique and oundish decor. On top of that, most of them were shops that sold art supplies, musical instruments, or old DVDs.

    With all these artists gathered in one ce, not only could they share certain resources, they could also provide inspiration for one another.

    However, there were always two sides to everything. Due to the fact that freedom of self-expression was heavily encouraged in the area, there were many individuals that were rather deranged or expressed entric behavior here.

    As a result, thew and order in this ce weren''t much better than in the old industrial areas where all types of gangs and criminal organizations were gathered. Despite this, many renowned art academies had been founded here, ranging all the way from primary school to the college level.

    "Fuck, I hate artists! These people are all insane!" Mole had a disdainful look on his face as he watched a drunkard throwing up on the side of the road. "I have no idea what these people are thinking! It''s like their heads are filled with dog shit!"

    "Exactly! All of them have something wrong with their heads!" Armadillo agreed.

    Not only was there no sense of camaraderie or sympathy between fellow deranged individuals, the three psychic mutants disyed nothing but unadulterated distaste toward those around them.

    The group made their way along a colorful street before stopping in front of an old apartment building, and after taking a moment to verify the number on the door, Adam knew that they had arrived at their destination.

    In order to avoid raising the rm, Adam released the mechanical bee on his back, which flew into the apartment building through the gas pipes. The mechanical bee then flew into the first basement floor, which was where the video uploader''s room was situated.

    After flying into the room, the image was received by Adam''s mechanical arm, then transmitted directly to his brain through his nerves.

    Inside the apartment was a person seated in front of aputer, andid out all around him were a bunch of strange books and some albums containing gorey and violent pornographic images.

    Those who dared to engage in transactions on the dark web were generally quite good withputers, thinking that they could keep themselves safe from being traced with theirputer skills, but needless to say, it was an inherently dangerous endeavor akin to ying with fire, and many people ultimately found themselves burned.

    That''s him!

    After receiving the image, Adam temporarily instructed the nearby Mechguard units to go somewhere further away as he was about to engage in some illegal activity.

    Looks like these old apartment buildings don''t have any electronic alert systems.

    After examining the gate, Adam severed the lock with one of his spider legs, then casually made his way inside.

    The apartment had dozens of floors, and most of the people living here were just normal residents. Adam and his group took care not to make too much sound, so no one was alerted to their intrusion.

    Adam even warmly greeted one of the residents that he met along the way, and before long, he was on the first basement floor.

    The room that the target was living in was very dark and damp, and it was normally only used for item storage, so the rent was quite cheap. Upon his arrival, Adam broke into the room before taking a deep breath, upon which he was greeted by the rank odor of mold and decay.

    This is a great ce for nurturing anomalies! Speaking of anomalies, it''s been a very long time since I''vest seen one. I wonder if there are any here for me!

 Chapter 252: Adhesion

    <h4>Chapter 252: Adhesion</h4>

    Adam hadn''t seen any anomalies since he left Shadow City, and he was actually quite eager to find an anomaly to fight, not for battle training, but to see if his other anomalies could still absorb anomalic power now that he was fused with Clown.

    Most importantly, he wanted to see if he could still absorb anomalic power himself.

    If possible, he naturally wanted to prioritize making himself stronger.

    Hence, not only was he going after these heinous criminals to improve his own reputation, he also wanted to run some experiments.

    "I hope you won''t disappoint me! Then again, I''d be very surprised if you didn''t have any anomalies in you considering the disgusting content you''ve posted onto the dark web," Adam murmured to himself as he strode into the room, much to the horror and rm of the young man inside.

    "Who are you? What are you doing in here?"

    He immediately began to retreat in fear, and he wanted to call the police, but he didn''t dare to do so as he was far from an innocent man himself.

    "Shut the fuck up!" Mole was already in a foul mood from being in Area 45, and he kicked the man over before picking up some leftover chips on the table and stuffing them into his own mouth, only to immediately spit them back out. "This shit''s already grown mold!"

    This only made Mole even more furious, and he gave the man another kick to the face, kicking out three or four of his front teeth.

    "You''re not going to look very good on the news now that you''re disfigured," Adam mused with a contemtive expression. "But if I pluck out all of the rest of your teeth, it''ll end up looking a lot more natural."

    With that in mind, Adam immediately sprang into action, quickly plucking out all of the man''s teeth with the help of his newly retrofitted exoskeleton.

    The man was initially howling in agony, but he soon fell unconscious from the pain, and peace and quiet were restored.

    "Stand on lookout for me. If you see a woman who looks like Oni no Mikoe in here, wake me up right away. If you can tell that something''s not quite right with me, get into my psychic world immediately. Also..." Adam looked around at the four unreliable faces around him, then ultimately decided to hand Armadillo the psychic world projection recorder. "Help me record."

    "I''ve never done this before, but with my intelligence, I''m sure I''ll be a natural!" Armadillo dered with immense unjustified confidence.

    Adam had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes in exasperation. He wanted to bring Shae along with him on these missions, but Shae was too weak right now, and he didn''t want her to suffer the same fate as Nie Yiyi and Hook.

    Thus, he could only give Armadillo a pat on the shoulder and choose to ce his trust in him.

    With that, he invaded the man''s psychic world.

    As soon as he entered the psychic world, he immediately found himself in a dark and cold environment, one that he was extremely familiar with. In the past, this type of setting would''ve struck him with a sense of difort, but right now, it was only making him extremely excited.

    This is exactly the feeling I''m looking for! There has to be an anomaly in here!

    As soon as Adam entered the psychic world, he immediately began exploring the psychic module that he found himself in.

    This was a vige, but now like the town of Ash on the outskirts of Sandrise City. Instead, it was a more rural vige.

    The surrounding environment also wasn''t the desert environment around Sandrise City. Instead, the entire area was filled with lush greenery.

    Adam quickly concealed himself before springing high up into the air. From that vantage point, he saw several dpidated houses that were spaced very far apart from one another.

    This doesn''t look like any foreign country. Instead, it looks like a rather underdeveloped area.

    Viges like these that resembled historical relics from several decades ago still hadn''t beenpletely phased out by the advancement of technology.

    It was as if they had been forgotten and frozen in time, existing in a different era from the rest of the world.

    Let''s find the host first.

    After briefly examining the vige, Adam began to conduct a search.

    This ce was clearly extremely far away from where the host was currently living, but his memory of it was still very clear, so it had to have left a very deep impression on him.

    In order to save time, Adam invoked Nun to conduct a search. As soon as Nun appeared, it immediately found a resident of the vige before possessing his body.

    After that, it began to search for the host while disguised as the viger. In the meantime, Adam was also conducting his own search, and he quickly found a child in the school of the vige. The child bore a strong resemnce to the host, so it was very likely to be the host during childhood.

    It''s another kid. It seems like most of these people with anomalies have suffered some type of childhood trauma.

    The school was a very old-fashioned catholic school with only around a dozen children in each ssroom, and Adam observed the host for a while without noticing anything amiss.

    Shortly thereafter, the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, and the host was quickly approached by another child.

    "Let''s go y. I''ve got some new prey for us today."

    Prey? Could it be that the anomaly is a manifestation of this child?

    Adam could clearly see a hint of malice in the child''s eyes.

    He followed the two children out of the school, and it didn''t take long for the two of them to leave the vige. The vige was surrounded by a wild mountainous area, but the two children were clearly very familiar with the environment and ran no risk of getting lost. They quickly tracked down a pair of mountain bikes that were hidden behind a tree, then rode the bikes to ake that was very far away.

    There weren''t any footsteps around theke, so this was clearly their secret base.

    As soon as they arrived, Adam immediately heard a series of muffled cries for help. He followed the two children around arge rock, then saw the host''s ssmate drag a girl out from behind the rock.

    The girl''s hands and feet were bound by vines, and her mouth was stuffed with a rag.

    Adam wasn''t very surprised by this development at all.

    He watched as the host''s ssmate pulled a sharpened stone spike out of his pocket before handing it to the host.

    "We agreed on thisst time, it''s your turn."

    The host was rather hesitant.

    "We agreed on this! Aren''t we friends?"

    "But..."

    The host was still quite scared.

    "You told me you would do what I say!"

    The ssmate''s voice became more forceful, and with that, the host''s trembling suddenly ceased. Adam saw an anomaly emerge out of thin air behind the host before fusing as one with him, controlling his arm to pick up the stone spike.

    What kind of anomaly is this? A control-type anomaly?

    Seeing as the anomaly had already shown itself, Adam didn''t feel the need to hide any longer, and he immediately also came out of concealment before reaching out to grab the head of the sticky, ck anomaly.

    The anomaly wasn''t very strong, and Adam could sense that it was only a level two anomaly. However, it seemed to possess some type of unique characteristics. Adam was trying to pry the anomaly away from the host''s body, but it was extremely slippery, and it quickly slithered back into the host like an eel.

    What the hell is that?

    Adam reflexively raised a hand to kill the host, wanting to see if the anomaly would die with the host, but he managed to catch himself just in the nick of time.

    I have to be more patient.

    He was here to gather evidence to build a case against the host, and hunting for anomalies was only his secondary objective.

    With that in mind, he lowered his hand, and while he was still thinking about how to proceed, the host brought the stone spike down viciously, plunging it straight into the girl''s eye.

 Chapter 253: The Stockholm Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 253: The Stockholm Anomaly</h4>

    I''ll have to edit that part out.

    Adam didn''t feel much after witnessing the girl''s death.

    No wonder this is such a deeply rooted memory in his mind. This is most likely the first time that he killed someone, and the specialbination of anxiety, fear, and sadistic euphoria must''ve made this a very memorable experience for him.

    It seemed that in order to find the root cause behind a heinous criminal''s descent into depravity, it was always a good idea to search for deeply rooted memories from their childhoods.

    The vast majority of people only had very indistinct memories from their childhoods, and the only childhood memories that were very clear were generally ones that were extremely impactful, thereby making them very good starting points for investigations of this nature.

    However, Adam didn''t really know what to do next.

    If he were purely hunting for anomalies, then all he had to do was kill this child. However, the anomaly had already fused as one with the child, and most importantly, Adam had to gather sufficient evidence to build a concrete case. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to achieve his objective.

    With that in mind, Adam decided to remain patient for now and promptly departed from this psychic module.

    As a level five anomaly, Clown was extremely fast, and after withdrawing Nun back into his body, it didn''t take long for Adam to rush out of this psychic module. After exploring several more psychic modules, he discovered that the two killers had grown up together their entire lives.

    The host was quite introverted, and he had a rather thin and frail body, coupled with a timid personality. There weren''t many children in the vige, so he didn''t have any friends until he met that ssmate of his.

    At the time of their first meeting, they were only around 11 or 12 years of age, and they had met under rather unique circumstances.

    Initially, the host had been captured by his ssmate to be killed, so he was a victim to begin with, but heter went on to be an aplice instead.

    I see what this is, he''s a sufferer of Stockholm Syndrome!

    Adam immediately thought of the anomaly that he had just seen.

    Adam had seen anomalies capable of possessing their hosts before, but this was the first time that he had seen an anomaly capable ofpletely fusing as one with its host and being fully epted.

    Everything makes sense now. Sufferers of Stockholm Syndrome not only sympathize with their tormentors, they develop a sense of fondness for and reliance on them as well. In severe cases, they would even be aplices to their tormentors to enable their crimes. That''s why this type of emotional anomaly is one that''spletely epted by its host.

    After understanding how the host''s anomaly had arisen, Adam didn''t immediately leave the psychic world. Everything that was taking ce here was still being recorded, and he wanted to record aplete case with a narrative that could be followed, detailing all of the host''s crimes and the reasons for his descent into depravity.

    Hence, he was patiently watching the first meeting between the host and his ssmate.

    Their first meeting was a rather quiet affair, and the host appeared to be quite fearful.

    At the time, they still weren''t very familiar with one another, and this clearly wasn''t the first time that the other childhood had killed someone. He tied up the host in a very expertly, well-rehearsed fashion, and his demeanor was betraying no fear or anxiety, only a sense of excitement.

    At this point, Adam had learned that the host''s name was n, while his tormentor''s name was Shaun.

    Adam was watching the unfolding scene intently, and he was feeling a sense of difort from the psychic power expenditure required to conceal himself for long periods of time.

    Hurry up! Show the people how you fell under his control!

    Initially, Shaun''s n was just to kill n, but after raising the rock high above his head, Shaun discovered that n didn''t struggle or yellow like his previous victims had, and that made him rather curious.

    "Why are you not yelling?"

    "What?"

    "Why aren''t you yelling for help?" Shaun asked with a curious expression. "Once I smash your head with this rock, your face will be ttened. You won''t immediately die, but you''ll be in a lot of pain, and you''ll il around like a fish out of water for a while before finally dying."

    n was so terrified to hear this that he wet himself, but he still didn''t yell for help, and the only sound that came out of his mouth were these strangled, unintelligible sybles.

    Upon hearing this sound, Adam realized why he wasn''t yelling: he was so terrified that he didn''t even dare to yell.

    However, Shaun was too young to understand this, and that was why he was so intrigued.

    He cycled through several different torture methods, but still didn''t get the reaction that he wanted out of n, and in the end, he untied him.

    "Run!"

    Shaunmanded n to run, but n''s knees were so weak that he couldn''t even stand up.

    "How long have we been here? I''m starving!" Shaunined, and in response, n pulled out a piece of chocte from his pocket before offering it to Shaun with trembling hands.

    This was the first time that n had extended a gesture of goodwill toward Shaun, and in the beginning, it was purely out of fear, but it quickly became something else entirely.

    After that, Adam made a summary of the history that the two of them shared. From this point onward, n became more and more reliant on Shaun, to the point that it only took a few years before their rtionship reached a point where n did everything that Shaun told him to.

    Over the span of over a decade, Shaun had ordered n to participate in seven or eight murders with him, and all of their victims were minors. Adam didn''t know why this was the case, he would have to find out after he tracked down Shaun.

    After reaching adulthood, the two of them left the vige and lived in many ces, finally settling in Sandrise City. They were extremely impoverished, but they seemed to be addicted to their criminal ways and wouldpulsivelymit periodic murders, almost as if to stave off withdrawal symptoms.

    Recently, Shaun''s criminal activity had be more and more frequent, but n hadn''t participated in most of his recent crimes. Now that n had be rather adept with theputer, he was ordered by Shaun to take photos and footage of their victims before publishing the content onto the dark web.

    This content attracted some sick fetishists who were willing to payrge sums of money to purchase the full videos, and there were even some who paid extra to make special requests for custom videos. After realizing how lucrative this was, Shaun''s killings became even more frequent, and finally, his criminal activity attracted some attention from certain parties, including Adam.

    How disgusting!

    After witnessing all of n''s life experiences, Adam tracked down his main persona in his psychic world before capturing it.

    He tried all types of different methods to force out n''s anomaly, but all to no avail.

    All of a sudden, an idea urred to Adam.

    "Nun, possess this bastard."

    Adam invoked Nun once again, nning to use it to force out that ck anomaly.

    He had thought that as a level three anomaly, Nun would be able to force out the level two Stockholm anomaly, but even though Nun was able to possess n and take control of his body, it was still unable to force out the Stockholm anomaly.

    .

    "If it''s still noting out, then control him to kill Shaun! Let me see if the anomaly is still going to refuse toe out then!"

 Chapter 254: Super Saiyan

    <h4>Chapter 254: Super Saiyan</h4>

    Adam was determined to get what he wanted by whatever means necessary. Shivani wasn''t with him, so as long as he didn''t kill n''s psychic body, he could do whatever he wanted. All he had to do was cut out these pieces of self-incriminating footage from the recording, and he would still be able to present a watertight case while maintaining his own image.

    Under Nun''s control, n began to close in on Shaun with a dagger raised in his hand. At this point in his life, n had alreadypletely fallen under Shaun''s control, and he was extremely resistant to the idea of killing his only friend.

    Shaun was also yelling loudly for mercy.

    "You can''t kill me! We''re best friends! Have you forgotten?"

    Everything in the psychic world was a reflection of the real world through the eyes of the host, and in n''s psychic world, Sean was begging for his life.

    It seems like he''s also quite the coward in n''s eyes.

    Adam had thought that those who liked to murder and control others would all be extremely vicious and brutal people like the killers portrayed in movies, but judging from what was being disyed in n''s psychic world, Shaun seemed to be no less of a coward than he was.

    He was begging incessantly for his life, and his words seemed to be getting through to n.

    "We grew up together! No one would y with you except for me! I shared all my food with you, and we did everything together! We killed people together, we went to parties together, we went camping together... I was the only one willing to do all of those things with you! You can''t kill me!"

    n let loose a conflicted and agonized roar as he struggled to regain control of his own body, and finally, his powerful emotions forced out the Stockholm anomaly. The ck anomaly reappeared behind him, then tried to take over his body again, but Adam wasn''t going to give it that opportunity.

    As soon as the anomaly was forced out, Adam instantly revealed himself before pulling out a methrower and sting a jet of mes at the viscous ck anoamly.

    The mes instantly enveloped the anomaly''s entire body, and it began to melt like molten tar, dripping onto the ground inrge ck drops.

    There was no way that a level two anomaly like itself could withstand the attacks of a level five anomaly, and during this process, Adam even had to limit the firepower output of his methrower so that he didn''t identally burn n''s psychic body to death.

    Finally, Adam was able to incinerate the anomaly while keeping n''s psychic body alive.

    Just as Adam anticipated, the Stockholm anomaly released a cloud of anomalic power following its demise, and as a level two anomaly, it didn''t release much anomalic power, but Adam was still feeling quite excited.

    Let me see if I can devour this anomalic power.

    Adam hurriedly withdrew Nun into his body before it could pounce on the anomalic power, then made his way over to the cloud of ck mist himself before attempting to devour it.

    However, no matter how much he tried, the cloud of anomalic power refused to budge.

    Adam continued to persist, but to no avail.

    This doesn''t make sense! Why can''t I do it?

    After toiling away for a long while, the anomalic power was on the verge of dissipating, but he still hadn''t managed to devour even the smallest shred of it.

    In the end, he had no choice but to invoke Nun again and allow it to devour the anomalic power in his stead.

    Nun immediately pounced onto the cloud of ck mist without even requiring an instruction from Adam, and under the nourishment from this influx of anomalic power, its eyes became darker and more terrifying, while the veins on its neck became even more pronounced, and it had clearly be more powerful, having been brought to the verge of further evolution.

    After that, Adam departed from n''s psychic world, upon which he saw Dianaying on the sofa, while the three psychic mutants were nowhere to be seen.

    "Where are those three?"

    "They went out... to y..." Diana replied.

    "Isn''t Armadillo supposed to be recording footage?"

    "The device... is recording... on its own..."

    It was not an easy task to get Diana to speak, and after providing those two responses, she refused to answer any more of Adam''s questions.

    What a bunch of nutjobs!?Adam cursed internally as he turned to the recorder.

    Even though the device was unmanned, it had been operating on its own this entire time without fail.

    I have to bring Shae along next time. I can''t rely on these four at all!

    After securing the footage, Adam called for the nearby Mechguard units to clean up the scene.

    He then tracked down the three psychic mutants, who were eating sds in a shop on the street outside.

    "It''s time to go!" Adam called out, but the three of them didn''t hear him.

    He was just about to approach them and call out to them again when a bone-chilling sensation ran through his entire body, as if a bucket of cold water had just been poured over his head.

    An overwhelming sense of peril had descended upon him, causing his entire body to stiffen, while cold sweat poured down his back.

    Shit!

    Before he had a chance to do anything, he was forcibly dragged into the psychic world.

    The first time Oni no Hanzou had made an assassination attempt on him, he hadn''t even been aware that his psychic world had been invaded. However, this time, he could clearly sense that he had been dragged into the psychic world in an extremely forceful fashion.

    He felt as if his soul had been sucked away by a pump, and he had beenpletely powerless to resist during the process.

    Just how strong is this bitch?

    Never had Adam felt anything like this before, and as soon as he arrived in the psychic world, he immediately caught sight of a figure approaching him from afar.

    Even though Adam had arrived in the psychic world, he was still standing on the same street that he was situated on in the real world, which meant that his attacker was also nearby as they shared simr memories of the surrounding environment.

    His assant was none other than the elder sister of Oni no Miko and the true user of Yamata no Orochi, Hebi no Miko.

    Even from afar, Adam could see that Hebi no Miko was virtually identical in appearance to Oni no Miko.

    However, she gave off apletely different aurapared with her deceased sister. Oni no Miko gave off a sense of mystery, and she was capable of invoking the Hyakki Yagyou and the shikigami, as well as using destructive arrows tounch long-range attacks against her targets. Overall, she was like an evil witch.

    In contrast, from the very first moment Adamid eyes on Hebi no Miko, he could tell that she was the very embodiment of destruction.

    Seeing her was like witnessing a nuclear explosion, and it seemed that wherever she went, destruction and carnage were sure to follow.

    In the face of such a fearsome opponent, Adam knew that he had no chance whatsoever, and he immediately concealed himself and attempted to flee.

    In his Clown form, Adam was extremely fast, and after concealing himself, it didn''t take him long to rush out of this street. However, right as he was preparing to run for his life, a gust of fierce wind suddenly blew past him, following which a blur shed before his eyes, and he was sent flying back through the air.

    Only after that did he hear the sound of a sonic boom.

    What the hell is she? A super saiyan?

    Following the sound of the sonic boom was the sound of all of Adam''s bones shattering at once, and he immediately threw up a mouthful of blood that was intermingled with fragments of his internal organs.

 Chapter 255: Head Nail

    <h4>Chapter 255: Head Nail</h4>

    Adam had almost been killed by a single kick.

    As a matter of fact, he didn''t even know whether he had just been punched or kicked. In any case, that one blow alone had almost been enough to kill him on the spot.

    While on the brink of death, Adam immediately began to conjure up clones.

    Clown was quite adept in the conjuration of both clones and illusions, and he was hoping that these abilities would be able to buy him some time.

    After conjuring up a bunch of clones, he began to flee while all of his clones also scattered in all directions.

    "What a pathetic little trick!" Hebi no Miko scoffed with disdain, then stomped a foot down onto the ground, instantly propelling herself up into the air.

    Immediately thereafter, she made a strange hand seal, and ayer of dark clouds instantly appeared over the entire sky.

    "Let there be thunder!" Hebi no Miko roared, and deafening thunderps instantly rang out across the entire area.

    The thunderps erupted like explosions in Adam''s ears, and just the powerful soundwaves alone were enough to topple half of the buildings on the entire street, as well as all of the panels of ss.

    All of the cars and public transport vehicles had also been destroyed, and even the ground was trembling violently as if an earthquake were taking ce.

    In the face of these devastating soundwaves, Adam felt as if his head were about to split open. Blood began to gush out of all of his orifices, and his already severely wounded body was reduced to an even more terrible condition.

    Adam''s clones weren''t faring much better, and all of them were instantly immobilized and knocked down by the rumbling thunderps.

    All of a sudden, Hebi no Miko switched to a different hand seal, then unleashed her invocation ability once again.

    "Let there be lightning!"

    After the thunder came the lightning, and incredibly thick bolts of electricity came raining down from the heavens, striking all of Adam''s clones to destroy them at once, while Adam himself was also zapped to within an inch of his life.

    Having already died once, Adam was very familiar with the sensation of his psychic body fading away, and he was reliving that experience now.

    On this asion, he didn''t see the director''s face. Instead, all he could see was his own frustration and indignation.

    There are so many things that I still haven''t uncovered! Even now, I still don''t know who made me a nk te...

    Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do.

    No one in this world was invincible.

    Even someone as powerful as Eyeless had perished on the path that he had chosen for himself.

    Those who chose paths that were lined with thorns always ran the risk of being torn to shreds by those very same thorns.

    Adam had always felt like Eyeless was too foolish and upromising for his own good, yet only now, on the brink of death, did he suddenly realize that fundamentally, he and Eyeless were the same type of people.

    Both of them had chosen paths that pitted them against all odds, so it was no surprise that both of them were met with the same fate of premature demise.

    "You think I''d let you die so easily? You must suffer more for what you''ve done!"

    Right as Adam''s consciousness was about to fade into nothingness, his body began to miraculously discover, and as he opened his eyes, he saw a face that waspletely identical to Oni no Miko''s, and it was twisted in vengeful fury.

    His throat was caught in a death grip by his assant, and he wanted to struggle, but was unable to muster up any strength.

    Hebi no Miko had only used her abilities to slightly heal Adam, and her intention was never to allow him to make a full recovery.

    "What do you want?" Adam spat through gritted teeth. "If you want to kill me, then do it!"

    "I''m not going to let you die so easily!"

    Poison began to flow out of Hebi no Miko''s hand as she spoke, and it slowly condensed to form a head nail.

    A head nail was an extremely sinister instrument used by only the most malicious eastern practitioners of the dark arts in ancient times.

    Upon impaling a head nail into one''s head, not only would that person be physically killed, their soul would be eternally imprisoned, unable to ever pass on.

    Of course, a head nail may not have the same effect in the psychic world, but it was clearly going to be an extremely painful torture instrument nheless.

    Hebi no Miko plunged the nail viciously into Adam''s head, and the nail pierced through his brain before reaching into his spine, then began to release poison into his body.

    Adam was someone who had endured countless hardships in the past, and he knew that there was a limit to how much pain one''s physical body could withstand.

    Upon having one''s pain threshold breached, one would fall unconscious, or if they couldn''t do that, then the pain would turn into pleasure.

    However, the pain threshold of a psychic body was virtually limitless, and Adam was forced to endure the worst of pain of his life without any relief in sight.

    First, he turned into a little girl. A strange anomaly was holding onto her hand, taking her into a human farm, and as she saw the countless infants in the human farm being pulverized like male chicks, she suffered aplete mental breakdown...

    After that, he turned into a middle-aged man whose entire life consisted of working or staying behind for overtime. He was sucked dry by this never-ending, torturous routine, and he gave all of his money to his wife, only to return home one day to see his wife in bed with another man.

    That man was a childhood friend of his, and he had always beenzy and relied on the goodwill of others. In that instant, the man felt as if everything that he had worked for was for nothing, and his world came crashing down all around him...

    Adam then turned into a little boy with an extremely strict and controlling mother. Every time he made even the slightest mistake, or when his mother was simply in a bad mood, he would be locked in a dark istion room. As time passed, a terrifying nun appeared in the istion room, telling him that he was a burden to this world...

    ¡­¡­

    All of the psychological hardships that Adam had witnessed in his past patientspletely inundated him, and right as he was at the height of his despair, he found himself in a space that was filled with nothingness. There was no sky, no earth, no sound, absolutely nothing, and he remained in that space for what seemed like an eternity.

    As he reopened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of Armadillo''s face.

    "Adam! Are you still alive?"

    Adam was stillpletely immersed in endless pain and nothingness, and he had no idea where he was. In fact, he could barely even remember who he was.

    "Did you turn stupid?" Mole also rushed onto the scene. "How are you going to be in our brotherhood if you''ve turned stupid? Hurry up and help us! The ck dragon''s about to die!"

    Only now did Adam return to his senses slightly, and he recalled that something seemed to have been driven into his head. A series of memories then came flooding back into his mind, and he watched in a slightly dazed manner as Armadillo tossed the head nail aside before rushing back into the fray.

    A brief momentter, Adam finally fully returned to his senses, and he realized what had to have happened.

    He had only been separated from the three psychic mutants by a ss shopfront window, so it wouldn''t have taken them long to spot him and realize that something was wrong.

    Diana was the most powerful one out of their group, so she had most likely immediately detected that something was wrong with her superior telegnosis.

    It was thanks to the four of them that he had been saved.

    After making sense of the situation, Adam looked up to find that the three psychic mutants had also been beaten to the brink of death, and he immediately tried to get up to help them, but as soon as he attempted to move, he instantly copsed back onto the ground amid the sound of cracking bones.

    In his haste to re-enter the battle, he had forgotten that his body was still in horrendous condition.

 Chapter 256: The Authentic Yamata no Orochi

    <h4>Chapter 256: The Authentic Yamata no Orochi</h4>

    Sprawled out on the ground, Adam could only just barely prop himself up slightly with his arms to get a clear view of the battle.

    Diana was sting pirs of ck draconic mes incessantly at a figure in the sky, and her breaths were incredibly powerful. Even the residual shockwaves from her attacks could destroy entire streets.

    However, Hebi no Miko was able to withstand Diana''s attacks head-on, and standing behind an enormous wall of ice that she had conjured up, the fury in Hebi no Miko''s eyes was no less ferocious than Diana''s.

    "I''m d both of you are gathered in one ce! In the beginning, I thought there was only one person responsible for my sister''s death, but after watching the footage, I discovered that you were the one who yed the biggest role in her death!"

    The wall of ice shattered as Hebi no Miko was speaking, and Diana came crashing directly toward her.

    Hebi no Miko made no attempt to take evasive measures as she drew the lightning in the sky down upon herself, then threw a punch into Diana''s head.

    A resounding boom rang out from the sh, and Diana was sent flying back several hundred meters, while Hebi no Miko was also forced back several dozen meters.

    The disparity in power between the two was very clear. After knocking Diana away, Hebi no Miko raised her hands up to the heavens in preparation to bring down more lightning, but a streak of electricity suddenly appeared around her, and it was somehow able to absorb all of the lightning that she was drawing down onto her hands.

    However, she wasn''t rmed by this in the slightest, and she threw another punch at the streak of blue lightning, immediately following which Mole came tumbling out of the sky with blood gushing out of his mouth.

    Before Mole crashed down onto the ground, he was caught by a wave of yellow sand, which carried him over to Armadillo''s side. Mole was just about to open his mouth to speak, only to throw up another mouthful of blood alongside a bunch of broken teeth.

    Mole was disying superior physical resistancepared to Adam, but not by a very significant margin.

    Thankfully, as aplete psychic mutant, his regenerative abilities were far superior to Adam''s, and he was able to quickly snap his own broken bones back into ce, but his face had beenpletely disfigured, and it wasn''t going to be recovering anytime soon.

    "Don''t get close to her! She''s too strong!"

    After taking a moment to catch his breath, Mole used his lightning abilities to harass Hebi no Miko from afar, but the other two psychic mutants weren''t exercising the same level of caution.

    Psychic mutants possessed superb regenerative abilities, but that came at the expense of intelligence, and theypletely disregarded Mole''s warning, springing up into the sky to directly confront Hebi no Miko.

    Unsurprisingly, both of them were quickly also sent tumbling out of the sky.

    "She''s so strong!"

    "I told you not to get close to her!"

    "What do we do then? How about we take Adam and run, and leave that woman here!"

    "That''s a good idea!"

    In the sky above, Diana was facing Hebi no Miko on her own. She was significantly more powerful than the three psychic mutants, but even she was severely outmatched by her opponent, both in terms of abilities and physical prowess.

    Thankfully, Diana''s defenses and physical resistance gave her a very high tolerance for punishment, and she wasn''t going to perish anytime soon.

    While Diana was keeping Hebi no Miko upied, the three psychic mutants quickly rushed over to Adam.

    "Let''s get out of here!"

    Armadillo immediately sprang into action as he spoke, chipping away at the boundaries of this psychic world, but the psychic boundaries imposed by Hebi no Miko were as thick as mountains, and it was impossible to break through them in a short time.

    Adam was feeling quite exasperated as he watched the three psychic mutants toil away in futility.

    "Go and help her!"

    "We can''t! We''re no match for that woman!"

    "We don''t know her that well anyway."

    The three psychic mutants felt no attachment to anyone else aside from Adam, who they considered to be a member of their brotherhood.

    "We have no choice but to help her! These psychic boundaries are clearly too sturdy for us to break through! I already called up all of the nearby Mechguard units prior to being dragged into the psychic world, and now that I''ve been standing still on that street for so long, they''ll definitely have already realized that something''s wrong. At the moment, they should be searching for Hebi no Miko, and it won''t take them long to track her down with their infrared scanners. All we need to do is survive for a few more minutes, and we''ll be saved!"

    "That makes sense," Mole said with an enlightened expression. "I must say, you''re almost as smart as me, but if all we need to do is wait for a few more minutes, then why should we risk out lives to help Diana?"

    Right as Mole''s voice trailed off, an agonized draconic roar rang out from the sky, and Diana came tumbling down from above, unable to remain aloft any longer due to her severe injuries.

    "Hurry up and go help her! If she dies now, we''ll all be screwed!"

    Adam felt as if he were about to have an aneurysm, and under his insistent urging, the three psychic mutants finally re-entered the battle.

    Adam was unable to participate in the battle himself, but he invoked Nun to provide his four allies with some assistance.

    Nun''s pitifulbat prowess naturally wasn''t going to be able to make any impact on the battle, but its abilities, particrly Lights Out, could have some disruptive effects.

    While Nun approached the battlefield, Adam was carefully controlling it from afar for fear that it would be swept up and killed by the shockwaves from the battle.

    Far too many of Adam''s anomalies had already perished. Vampire was gone forever, while Mummy and Camera were still in their infantile, ragdoll forms.

    Once a mature anomaly perished, it would lose all of its anomalic power and return to its infantile form, and if an infantile anomaly were to perish, then it would be gone forever.

    At the moment, Adam was already running dangerously low on the number of anomalies that he could employ in battle, and his situation would only be exacerbated if he were to lose Nun as well.

    The battle was bing more and more intense, and even though the three psychic mutants were able to alleviate some of the pressure on Diana, the four of them were still beingprehensively crushed.

    However, time was on their side.

    As the battle continued, Hebi no Miko''s brows began to furrow slightly. She could already sense danger with her telegnosis.

    She had thought that this battle would be over very quickly, but all of a sudden, she realized that she hadn''t even killed a single one of her targets yet.

    Mole was extremely fast and cautious, constantly darting around in the distance like a slippery eel.

    After experiencing Hebi no Miko''s devastating power firsthand, Rabbit and Armadillo were also making sure to keep their distance, and they immediately burrowed into the ground at the first sign of danger.

    As for Diana, she was more powerful than Hebi no Miko had anticipated, and not only was she still alive, she even had the power to retaliate, albeit rather ineffectively.

    Looks like I underestimated all of you. It''s no surprise that my sister perished at your hands.

    Upon sensing the imminent danger, Hebi no Miko didn''t dy any longer, mming a palm into her own body, upon which she abruptly exploded.

    A cloud of ck mist that was countless times denser than the one Oni no Miko had been able to release instantly erupted forth, plunging what seemed like the entire world intoplete darkness.

    Several serpentine heads gradually emerged within the ck cloud, and they were frantically devouring the ck mist around them. As the ck mist slowly thinned out, it was revealed that there were a total of eight serpentine heads, all of which were connected to the same body.

    Yamata no Orochi had finally been invoked.

    Adam had already seen Yamata no Orochi once, but he still couldn''t help but be stunned at the sight of the almighty beast.

    How is it this massive?

    The Yamata no Orochi invoked by Hebi no Miko was several timesrger than the one that Oni no Miko had managed to invoke. Every single one of its scales was like an impregnable stone wall, and there was a crown of scales situated on top of each of its serpentine heads, heralding its eminence as an al-powerful world destroyer.

 Chapter 257: All-encompassing Furnace

    <h4>Chapter 257: All-epassing Furnace</h4>

    After invoking Yamata no Orochi, Hebi no Miko didn''t waste any time as she immediately unleashed a forbidden technique.

    She wanted to eradicate all of her enemies with a single devastating attack.

    The serpentine head that represented fire opened its mouth, and the air temperature instantly began to rise rapidly. Diana knew that this was extremely bad news, and she immediately began to attack Yamata no Orochi with her draconic mes and technomancy.

    However, the attacks that had been able to inflict significant damage onto Oni no Miko''s Yamata no Orochi were next topletely ineffective against this Yamata no Orochi. Not only did the attacks fail to stop the mighty serpent from unleashing its forbidden technique, it drew retaliation from one of Yamata no Orochi''s other heads, which released a torrent of venom onto Diana''s body. The intensely corrosive venom melted through part of Diana''s dragon scales, disying incredible destructive properties.

    While Diana was frantically shaking off the corrosive venom from her body, Yamata no Orochi hadpleted its forbidden technique, unleashing an all-epassing furnace.

    First, a ring of fire emerged around Yamata no Orochi before rapidly proliferating outward, and slicing cleanly through all of the buildings in its path. The cross-sections of the severed buildings were all burning with scorching mes, reducing all of the ss, metal, and concrete to moltenva.

    At the same time, the dark clouds up above were vaporized by the unbearable heat, and the entire sky turned bright red, while the air temperature continued to rise at an rming rate.

    The entire city had been transformed into an enormous furnace. All of the buildings began to melt like ice cream, and the ground beneath Adam was also bing very sticky and viscous. Before long, even the ground had turned into moltenval.

    Adam dragged his broken body to a small area that still hadn''t yet melted, and he was looking around at the unfolding scene with a stunned expression.

    The entire city was melting, presenting an astonishing spectacle to behold.

    The melting point of ss was somewhere between 600¡ãC and 800¡ãC, while the melting point of steel was 1,500¡ãC, and the melting point of the rocks on the ground ranged anywhere between 800¡ãC to 2,000¡ãC. The fact that the entire city was melting indicated that the air temperature had already climbed to in excess of 1,500¡ãC.

    Adam was stunned by what he was seeing, but in the next instant, he wasn''t able to see anything anymore as his eyes had already begun melting.

    Every time he inhaled, he felt as if he were sucking in mes that were about to burn his lungs to a crisp.

    He immediately began holding his breath, then hurriedly withdrew Nun back into his body. With itsckluster physical resistance, it was going to be burned into charcoal in just a few more seconds.

    Immediately thereafter, he invoked Sludge before instructing it to spread itself all over his entire body.

    Initially, Sludge was able to provide a cool and soothing sensation, but it didn''t take long before its body began to boil, and a short whileter, it waspletely baked into hardened y, following which the y also began to melt.

    It was as if doomsday had arrived, and Adam and his allies were like ants in a flood, desperately doing everything that they could to survive even a second longer.

    The only one who was still in decent condition was Diana.

    Even though she was alsoying in the moltenva, and her body was riddled with injuries, she was still able to hold on thanks to her incredible physical resistance.

    Even in the face of death, there was no fear in her eyes at all, only vengeful fury that was just as scorching as the air around her. She let loose a defiant roar as she unleashed her draconic technomancy once again, conjuring up arge number of balls of ck light that rained down upon Yamata no Orochi in a torrential downpour.

    She knew that her efforts were going to bepletely futile, but she was still attacking with all her might.

    Emboldened and empowered by her fury, Diana was feeling no fear or hesitation. Her gaze was focused solely on her enemy, and her mind was filled with the image of King Arthur''s face.

    The balls of ck light crashed into Yamata no Orochi''s body, and they were able to shatter some of its scales, but those scales were quickly healed thanks to the continued influx of ck mist.

    However, Diana didn''t give up, and she continued to attack with all her might, despite the enormous psychic power expenditure required and the fact that she was being roasted alive.

    The balls of ck light were the only token symbols of resistance in the scorching red world.

    Finally, the entire city was transformed into a sea of mes, but all of a sudden, one of the ck balls of light smashed a massive hole with a diameter of several dozen meters straight through Yamata no Orochi''s body.

    Yamata no Orochi let loose a thunderous howl of agony, and the surrounding air temperature plummeted drastically.

    What happened?

    Diana was furious, but she wasn''t stupid. She knew the power of her own draconic technomancy better than anyone else, and she certainly wasn''t naive enough to believe that she could inflict such a severe wound onto Yamata no Orochi so easily.

    After sustaining that gruesome wound, Yamata no Orochi immediately left the psychic world without retaliating. It took Hebi no Miko less than a second to flee from the psychic world after sustaining that injury, and it seemed that the situation was extremely urgent.

    After emerging from the psychic world, Diana was immediately struck by a splitting headache, but she was still able to remain conscious. She could see that Adam and the three psychic mutants were sprawled out on the ground, and she didn''t know whether they were still alive. Gathered around them were several Mechguard units, and thanks to their presence, the surrounding bystanders were all kept at bay.

    Diana was clutching at her own throbbing head as she made her way over to one of the Mechguard units. The automated police officer was just about to stop her when she shed her badge and allowed the unit to scan her face and retinas, following which she was immediately granted free passage.

    After being allowed through, Diana began to inspect the condition of her threepanions, and she discovered that they were all on the verge of psychic death, but miraculously, all four of them had managed to survive.

    The fact that they were still alive meant that they could still recover, and due to the fact that all four of them were psychic mutants to different extents, the recovery process wasn''t going to take very long for them.

    After ascertaining the conditions of her fourpanions, Diana turned to a Mechguard before asking, "What... happened?"

    Instead of providing a verbal response, the Mechguard unit yed a piece of footage for Diana to disy to her the events that had just taken ce.

    After receiving that instruction from Adam, the Mechguard units arrived on the scene to detain n. However, on the way to n''s apartment, they discovered Adam standingpletely still on the street. Once it was determined that there was an extremely high likelihood that he was under a psychic attack, they immediately began searching the nearby area.

    Initially, they were unable to find any suspects, but using their infrared sensors, they were quickly able to spot a person who was seated in an unnaturally still manner in a nearby restaurant.

    After scanning her facial data, they discovered that she was an international fugitive, and one of the Mechguard units immediately opened fire, striking her with a bullet.

    However, her body had clearly undergone military retrofitting, and her prosthetics automatically kicked in to shield her from most of the damage. Even so, her abdomen was still wounded by the shrapnel from the bullet, and after returning to the real world, Hebi no Miko immediately fled the scene, able to outrun the Mechguard units thanks to her prosthetics.

    Upon witnessing this footage, Diana finally understood how Yamata no Orochi had suddenly sustained that severe wound at the end of the battle. As it turned out, the wound was a reflection of the injury that she had sustained in the real world, rather than a result of Diana''s attacks.

 Chapter 258: Feeding Dogs

    <h4>Chapter 258: Feeding Dogs</h4>

    Having endured another near-death experience, Adam was unconscious for a very long time. By the time he slowly woke up and reopened his eyes, he discovered that he was stillying on the ground, surrounded by some Mechguard units and the three psychic mutants.

    "How long was I out for?"

    "About three hours." As usual, Armadillo was the one who was most concerned about Adam. "How are you feeling?"

    "My head hurts, but aside from that, I''m fine. When did you wake up?"

    "I woke up after only about half an hour. I recover quite a bit quicker than normal adapters, and even my headache is feeling a lot better now. That was a really close call though! I''ve never seen anyone as strong as that nasty hag. How about we run away? I was just discussing this with Mole and Rabbit just now."

    Armadillo was clearly feeling quite rattled. Even a deranged person wasn''t incapable of feeling fear, but the fear that he was experiencing wasn''t so severe that it would result in a weakening of his psychic body.

    "I''m not going anywhere," Adam replied with a firm shake of his head. "Even if I have to die here, I''m not going to run away anymore. What happened to Hebi no Miko in the end?"

    "She got away! She went into the sewers to escape from the Mechguard units. She has a ton of super illegal prosthetics retrofitted onto her body, and they all seem to have cutting-edge Japanese technology. In any case, she was really fast in getting away, but she was still injured before she could make her escape."

    "That''s a pity. If only the Mechguard units were able to kill her."

    Adam knew that Hebi no Miko was going to be an extremely formidable foe, but never did he think that she would this powerful, to the extent that Adam and hispanions werepletely no match for her, and it was an extremely difficult task just to survive long enough for the Mechguard units to arrive.

    I have a feeling we won''t be able to survive the next attack so easily.

    Having suffered this setback, Hebi no Miko definitely wasn''t going to be so careless next time. She was going to choose a safer location to attack from, and she wasn''t going to waste time torturing Adam as she had done on this asion.

    With that in mind, Adam struggled to his feet, then pulled out hismunicator before sending a message to Hailey.

    "Have you heard back from the director yet?"

    "He says that if you die, then you deserve to die."

    Hailey''s response quickly came through, and it was clear that she had already met with the director, but she had refrained from contacting Adam due to the less-than-satisfactory response that she had received.

    Adam heaved a forlorn sigh upon seeing this, and he knew that he could only rely on himself from here onward.

    Using his jurisdictive power as a special psychic police officer, he released an arrest warrant for Hebi no Miko to Mechguard.

    With Mechguard now on her case, Hebi no Miko was most likely going to be out of action for a while, particrly considering she had her own injuries to attend to as well. Adam had to take advantage of this period of respite to make some changes.

    "What do we do from here?" Armadillo asked. "Should we go back for now? My dog has only been fed once today, I need to feed it again."

    "You can go back for now."

    Mole and the others were already extremely worked up, and Adam didn''t want to ce them under any further stress. After all, they were quite mentally unstable, and if they were to suffer mental breakdowns, that would not be good news for him.

    "What about you?"

    "I have to track down and arrest Shaun first. Given how close he is with n, he''ll definitely quickly realize that something is wrong now that n has been detained. I can''t let him get away."

    Adam had to make full use of the time that was avable to him, and even though he was currently in terrible psychic condition, dealing with a normal person was still going to be an easy task.

    "Alright, we''re going then. I have to feed my dog."

    Even though they had just endured an extremely close brush with death, Armadillo was still thinking solely about his dog.

    He approached Mole and Rabbit before saying something to them, following which the three of them waved at Adam before departing.

    Adam stood up and dusted himself off, then made his way over to Diana.

    She had been staring into the distance ever since Adam awakened, and as Adam approached her, he discovered that she was trembling.

    He thought that she was trembling from fear, but after getting a little closer, he realized that she was trembling from fury rather than fear.

    .

    "What''s wrong?"

    "I''m... so useless..."

    Only after a long while did Diana spit out a response through gritted teeth.

    She was furious about how weak she was. She had finally gotten a long-awaited opportunity for vengeance, yet now that it was time to take action, she waspletely overwhelmed, and that was utterly infuriating to her.

    Due to the fact that she hadpleted her psychic mutation due to emotions of extreme rage, she had no concept of fear.

    Adam was about to offer her some words of constion, but a thought suddenly urred to him.

    As a psychic mutant, the power of Diana''s psychic body stemmed from her anger, so theoretically speaking, the angrier she was, the more powerful she would be.

    With that in mind, his words of constion immediately turned to mockery.

    "You''re right, you really are useless. If you weren''t so useless, King Arthur wouldn''t have died. You''ve be more powerful now, but you''re still just as useless as you were back then. King Arthur may have been killed by Oni no Miko, but she was only able to kill him thanks to Yamata no Orochi, so it''s not a stretch to say that Hebi no Miko was actually the one who killed King Arthur. You had a perfect chance for vengeance served up to you on a silver tter, yet all you could do was squander it!"

    Not only was Adam mocking Diana, he made sure to mention King Arthur''s name repeatedly in order to spite her, and sure enough, it worked. Diana immediately reached out in a fit of fury before closing her hand around Adam''s throat, trying to strangle him to death.

    "Let go! There are Mechguard units here. Even if you''re a special psychic police officer, you''re still going to be detained!"

    Adam was able to force Diana''s hand away with ease. He was no match for her in the psychic world, but his strength was enhanced by his exoskeleton in the real world, so he was far stronger than she was.

    "Why are you getting angry at me? I''m not your enemy!" All of a sudden, a thought urred to Adam as he spoke. "Hold on, I have a good idea."

    "What?"

    "Hebi no Miko will definitelye back, but you''re nowhere near powerful enough to face her. Hence, your priority should be to get stronger!"

    "How?"

    "I know someone really strong, perhaps even on the same level as Hebi no Miko. I trained under him for a while, and he''s a true master. He''ll teach you how to maximize your powers."

    Adam was naturally referring to Sadou here. He was renowned as the most powerful invocator-ss adapter, so he had to be quite formidable. As for whether he could actually stand toe-to-toe with Hebi no Miko, Adam had no idea as he had never witnessed Sadou''s true power. He had only seen Sadoupletely dominate Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko with ease, but that clearly wasn''t the full extent of his power.

    Sadou was unwilling to oppose Hebi no Miko, but given his ties with the northern congress, there was a decent chance that he would be willing to ept Diana as a student.

 Chapter 259: Big Shot

    <h4>Chapter 259: Big Shot</h4>

    Right now, Adam had to take full advantage of all resources avable to him if he wanted to have any chance at surviving this ordeal.

    Just because Sadou was unwilling to directly help him didn''t mean that he was also unwilling to provide indirect assistance.

    "I want... to train... and get stronger..."

    Diana''s fighting spirit was instantly ignited by Adam''s words.

    "Alright, hold on a second, I''m gonna make a call." Adam dialed Cowboy''s number as he spoke, and Cowboy was woken up by the call, so he was feeling quite grumpy as he answered.

    "Why the hell are you calling me sote at night? If you don''t have anything important to say, then I''m gonna hang up!"

    "Of course I have something important to say! I was attacked by Hebi no Miko just now."

    .

    "Holy shit, and you didn''t die?"

    Cowboy immediately sprang out of bed upon hearing this.

    "Did you think I was screwed for sure?"

    "No shit! I''m not the only one who thinks that, everyone in both congresses thought you werepletely screwed!"

    Cowboy was making no effort to hide his shock.

    This came as no surprise to Adam.

    He didn''t know much about Hebi no Miko at all, but those sly old foxes from the northern and southern congresses were definitely aware of just how powerful Hebi no Miko was.

    This also exined many things, including why the northern congress had only provided him with such limited assistance despite how useful he could be to them, and why the southern congress was in such a hurry to smear his reputation, even though this clearly wasn''t the best time to beunching a smear campaign against him.

    It was all because Hebi no Miko was far too powerful, and everyone was of the opinion that he didn''t have much longer to live.

    Having just cleared his own name, any attempt made to smear Adam''s reputation right now would seem like a conspiracy in the eyes of the general public, but the southern congress had no choice but tounch a premature smear campaign.

    In their eyes, Adam was already dead.

    "How did you manage to survive? Hebi no Miko has never failed to kill a target! I''m gonna be honest with you here. As a fellow adapter, I thought your chances of survival were basically zero."

    "I can satisfy your curiosity, but I need you to do me a favor."

    "What do you want?"

    "I want Taoist Bean Army''s help."

    "There''s no way he''ll fight Hebi no Miko for you."

    "Not that, I want him to train someone for me."

    "That should be doable," Cowboy replied. "Now that you''ve survived an attack from Hebi no Miko, both of the congresses will begin to take you far more seriously. If you can survive to the end, you''ll be a true big shot."

    "I don''t care if I be a big shot or not. This world doesn''t need that many big shots, all I want is to be able to survive. When can you contact Taoist Bean Army for me?"

    "I should be able to get in touch with him tomorrow."

    "Good." Adam ended the call before turning to Diana. "Go to this address tomorrow morning."

    After memorizing the address, Diana immediately turned to depart.

    "Where are you going?"

    "To the address... you gave me..."

    She didn''t want to wait even a second longer, and Adam didn''t stop her.

    Following Diana''s departure, Adam packed up the psychic world projection recorder, then got into a driverless taxi before entering an address.

    Shaun was also living in Area 45, but he was about half an hour''s drive away from where n was living. They were ensuring that they didn''t live too far or too close to one another so that they could continue to collude with each other, but avoid arousing suspicion.

    Half an hourter, Adam emerged from the taxi and discovered that he had arrived in front of a school. There were many art academies in Area 45, and many parents in the area were eager to immerse their children in the arts from a young age.

    Is he living so close to this school so that he has easy ess to more victims?

    Adam had already learned Shaun''s exact address from n''s memories, and he made his way around the school, where several convenience stores were located. Thanks to his exoskeleton, Adam was able to easily force open the locked door of one of those shops, then made his way inside.

    It was veryte at night at the moment, and Shaun was sound asleep, so soundly asleep, in fact, that he failed to wake up even after Adam had already made his way over to his bedside.

    Adam took a nce at him, then tore up a bedsheet before tying him up.

    Only during this process did Shaun finally wake up, and an rmed look immediately appeared on his face.

    "Who are you?"

    Shaun was a short and stubby man who appeared to bepletely harmless, almost a little cowardly, if one were to judge by his physical appearance alone.

    However, having encountered so many heinous criminals and mentally disturbed individuals, Adam could see the darkness that was lurking deep within Shuan''s eyes.

    After waking up, Shaun immediately began to struggle, but he was no match for Adam''s prosthetic, and he was pressed down before being tightly bound.

    "I''m the one who''s going to deliver you the retribution that you deserve."

    After tying up Shaun, Adam began to set up the psychic world projection recorder, while Shaun begged for his life.

    "Please let me go! I''m just a convenience store owner! All my money is in that cab over there, and I also have some cryptocurrency in my ount. I can transfer it all to you if you let me go!"

    "You''re just a convenience store owner? Have you forgotten about all of the people that you''ve killed?" Adam mocked while continuing to set up the recorder. "I must say, you look like apletely different person when you''re carrying out your murders."

    "Who are you?" Shaun asked once again, and this time, he was well and truly spooked.

    "I already told you, I''m the one who''s going to give you the retribution that you deserve."

    After setting up the recorder, Adam began to adjust some settings.

    "Are you from the dark web? I earned a total of 70,000 from those videos, all in cryptocurrency. I can give it all to you! I also have some unreleased custom videos, and you can get a lot more money if you deliver those videos to the people who requested them!"

    "I''m not interested in your money. What I do want to know is why you killed all those children."

    "I... I..."

    Shaun was so scared that he was about to wet himself, and he was blubbering in apletely incoherent manner.

    Adam pped him across the face with a disdainful expression.

    "Shut your trap! I''ll take a look for myself!"

    After pping Shaun unconscious, Adam invaded his psychic world, and the first thing that he felt upon entering the psychic world was immense pain.

    Shit! I still haven''t fully recovered.

    Adam''s scorched eyeballs and skin had already healed, but his shattered organs still hadn''t recovered yet, and his broken bones were also only half healed.

    It then urred to him to examine Sludge and Nun''s conditions.

    I hope they''re not dead,?Adam thought to himself as he attempted to invoke the pair of anomalies.

 Chapter 260: Experience

    <h4>Chapter 260: Experience</h4>

    Both Sludge and Nun appeared at once, much to Adam''s surprise and tion.

    "You''re not dead! This is great!"

    Adam wasn''t surprised that Nun was still alive, but Sludge''s entire body had literally been baked into hardened y before melting away, so it was extremely surprising to Adam that it hadn''t died. He made his way over to Sludge and stroked its bloated, shapeless body as he praised, "You''re even more useful than Mummy! I''m going to rely on you from now on."

    Ever since Adam resurrected himself using Sludge during the battle royale, he had realized just how much untapped potential it held.

    Not only did it possess extraordinary physical resistance, its special properties made it extremely useful, especially for Adam in his current form as he was unable to fuse with any anomalies other than Clown.

    With that in mind, Adam was nning to prioritize its development.

    I can use this thing as a free-flowing suit of armor!

    Adam was struck by a spark of inspiration stemming from the exoskeleton that he had recently acquired in the real world, and he realized that Sludge could perform a simr function for him in the psychic world.

    With that in mind, Adam gave Sludge a final affectionate pat on the shoulder before withdrawing it.

    He then turned to Nun and discovered that thanks to those mysterious flowerpots, Nun had recovered even faster than he did, and it appeared to bergely unscathed now.

    I''ll be counting on you for this one!

    After confirming that both of his anomalies were still alive, Adam began to inspect his surroundings. The environment was extremely dark and forbidding, and there was both a smell of blood and a sickly sweet scent wafting through the air. At the same time, the ground beneath his feet was bright red, and it seemed that there was a powerful anomaly lurking in this psychic world.

    The environment here is only slightly better than the environment in Sithu''s psychic world. However, that guy''s a schizophrenic, so he''s a rare case. Assuming there''s only one anomaly in this psychic world, it should be one that''s roughly on the same level as Scarecrow.

    Adam was beginning to grow quite excited.

    Scarecrow was the first true opponent that he had faced, and it was quite formidable, possessing the power of a level four or level five anomaly.

    Due to the fact that Clown had evolved directly into a level five anomaly, Adam had never witnessed the power of a level four anomaly, so he only had a rough idea of what such a concept entailed.

    By Adam''s own estimates, he was currently roughly on par with Scarecrow, so he was either a very strong level four anomaly, or a weaker level five anomaly. Thus, it was extremely exciting to him that there was potentially a target of roughly equivalent strength here.

    This is perfect! An anomaly of this caliber will yield a ton of anomalic power, but it''s not so powerful that I won''t be able to defeat it.

    Adam was eagerly rubbing his hands together. Even though he was still injured, he had a wealth of battle experience and many other anomalies under his belt, so he wasn''t afraid, and he immediatelymenced his search.

    The first ce that he appeared in was Sandrise City, which meant that in this psychic module, Shaun was already an adult.

    This is not a good ce to start.

    Shaun''s memories in Sandrise City were likely to be extremely diverse. Perhaps there would be some memories of the murders that hemitted, but it was very likely that most of the memories would be quite mundane. In addition to that, Sandrise City had a massive poption, which made it quite difficult to track down someone. With that in mind, Adam quickly made a decision to leave this psychic module.

    After some exploration, Adam arrived in another psychic module, this one containing a vige in a barren desert.

    This is not a good ce, either. I want to see his childhood.

    Not only did Adam want to defeat Shaun''s anomaly, he wanted to stitch together a narrative to tell a story to both the media and the general public.

    With that in mind, he began to rush out of this psychic module as well, but he only managed to take a few steps before his entire body was racked with excruciating pain. His injuries were still bothering him, so he had no choice but to invoke Hellhound and use it as a steed.

    Even though Hellhound was only a level two anomaly, the fact that it had four legs was very conducive to running, and it wasn''t too slow.

    After crossing over several psychic modules, Adam finally arrived in a picturesque vige, which directly neighbored an expanse of barren wilderness.

    This is the ce! In n''s psychic world, the vige that the two of them grew up in was right next to a stretch of barrennd. Now then, let me see what kind of home this twisted bastard grew up in!

    The vast majority of psychotic criminals became that way due, at least in part, to their upbringing. After invoking Nun and instructing it to possess a viger, Adam was quickly able to learn Shaun''s address.

    Adam withdrew Hellhound before making his way to Shaun''s home, and before he even entered through the door, he could already hear the sound of angry yelling and tes being smashed on the ground.

    "Can''t you do anything right? You really are a useless piece of shit! You wanna smash tes? Keep all of these tes on your head, and for each one that falls off, you have to keep standing like this for another hour! If all of them fall off, then you''re not getting any sleep tonight!"

    Immediately thereafter came the sound of a vicious p.

    Adam passed through the courtyard before arriving in the house, where he was greeted by the sight of what appeared to be an 11 or 12-year-old Shaun. He had a few tes stacked on top of his head, and he was standing in a martial arts horse stance. His face was bright red, indicating that he had just been pped.

    Surprise, surprise, it''s another unfortunate childhood.

    Adam waspletely concealed as he made his way into the room before casually inspecting the scene inside.

    The table wasden with bottles and cigarette butts, and there were some certificates and photographs hanging on the wall.

    Adam made his way over to the wall to find a family photo, featuring a younger Shaun and a middle-aged couple who appeared to be Shaun''s parents.

    However, there was no sign of any female presence in the house at the moment, so either his mother had passed away, or his parents had divorced.

    The certificates on the wall told Adam that Shaun''s father was a sheriff, which was an archaic upation that hadpletely died out almost two decades ago. With the rise of Mechguard, many people who had worked inw and order had lost their jobs.

    Considering Shaun''s current age, his father had most likely lost his job at around this point in time.

    Adam then made his way over to Shaun, who was clearly extremely fearful of his father.

    In rural viges like this one, the power of thew was quiteckluster, and there were no special departments that addressed domestic violence, so Shaun was forced to suffer in silence.

    Could it be that his father is the anomaly?

    Given his past experience with Li Qi''s case, Adam felt like this was a very likely possibility, and he immediately rushed through the corridor before barging his way into the master bedroom.

    The door was kicked open, and Adam saw a grotesque creature inside.

    Perfect! Things couldn''t have gone any smoother!

    Adam gleefully pulled out his gatling gun before firing a barrage of bullets at Shaun''s father.

 Chapter 261: Two-faced Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 261: Two-faced Anomaly</h4>

    Adam was going all-out from the get-go, not giving his opponent any chance to react.

    In his mind, he was dealing with an anomaly on the same level as himself, and his extensive battle experience told him that the best way to approach a powerful opponentparable in power to oneself was to go all out from the very beginning.

    If he could seize the initiative and injure his opponent, that would definitely be great news for him, and it would level the ying field, seeing as he was already injured.

    However, in the face of Adam''s brutal assault, the creature before him wasn''t able to pose any resistance before it was torn to shreds.

    That wasn''t an anomaly, it was just an aberration on its way to bing an anomaly!

    Adam was a little disappointed as he looked at the faint traces of anomalic power in the room, but he certainly wasn''t going to waste it, and he immediately invoked Sludge to absorb the anomalic power.

    I thought things were going really smoothly, but it looks like I really can''t catch a break!

    Themotion ringing out inside the room naturally attracted Shaun''s attention, and the sound of shattering tes rang out, following which Shaun rushed into the room to see what was happening, then immediately turned to run with a terrified scream.

    Right as Adam was about to set off in pursuit, he suddenly felt a gust of wind sweep toward him from behind, and before he could react, a noose had wound itself around his neck.

    All of a sudden, the hunter had be the prey.

    Adam struggled vigorously to free himself from the noose. His assant was just as strong as he was, and if he weren''t injured, perhaps he would''ve been able to free himself, but in his current state, that was proving to be an impossible task.

    Thankfully, Sludge was there to save the day. It barreled into Adam''s assant with all its might, and even though its strength was far inferior to its opponent''s, it was able to knock Adam''s assant off bnce with its massive body. Adam immediately pounced on this opportunity to unleash Clown''s clone ability.

    A pair of clones appeared on either side of his assant, then plunged their daggers viciously into its body.

    The pair of clones stabbed their opponent over and over again, and the first stab feltpletely normal, but all of their subsequent attacks felt as if they had struck nothing but empty air. Immediately thereafter, Adam''s assant retaliated to send both of the clones flying back through the air.

    However, Adam was able to take advantage of this opportunity to grab onto the noose around his neck, then used it to throw the anomaly behind him over his shoulder.

    As a result, he was greeted by the sight of a two-faced anomaly with two sets of facial features, one on the back of its head, and one on the front. Having just been thrown onto the ground, it was currentlyying on its side, so Adam was able to see a side profile of both of its faces.

    One of the faces appeared to be extremely vicious and brutal, while the other one resembled the face of a coward that was begging for their life. The juxtaposition of these twopletely contrasting faces on the same anomaly presented a very bizarre sight to behold.

    I''ve seen anomalies with two heads before, but it''s the first time I''ve seen an anomaly with two faces on one head!

    After throwing the two-faced anomaly to the ground, Adam picked up his gatling gun before firing another ferocious barrage of bullets at it.

    Initially, the bullets were effective. They weren''t able to tear the anomaly''s body apart as they had done with Shaun''s father, but they were able to punch some holes into the anomaly. However, as soon as it turned to face Adam with its cowardly face, it immediately became immune to all damage from the bullets.

    In that instant, the anomaly''s entire body had be as insubstantial as a cloud of mist, and all of the bullets passed harmlessly through its body before sting their way into the ground.

    What the hell is this?

    Adam drove a foot through the anomaly''s face, but even that passed through its body, and his foot stomped down onto the severely ravaged floorboards, shattering them in an instant.

    Even its face has no substance?

    Adam was just about to withdraw his leg when the anomaly turned around 180 degrees to reveal its cruel and malicious face.

    As a result, its body instantly took on a substantial form, and it threw its arms around Adam''s leg before twisting its body in one forceful motion, instantly snapping Adam''s ankle.

    .

    Cunning bastard!

    Having sustained more than his fair share of injuries, this was well within Adam''s tolerance threshold. While the anomaly was in its substantial form, Adam opened fire with his gatling gun again, and sure enough, the bullets were having an effect again. However, in the next instant, the anomaly turned around once again, and all of the subsequent bullets passed through its body.

    After this initial sequence, Adam had already made sense of the properties of this two-faced anomaly.

    Its cruel side possessed a substantial form and was quite adept in both offense and defense, able to withstand attacks from Clown and sustain only minor injuries, while its cowardly side made its bodypletely insubstantial, thereby granting it immunity from all physical damage.

    As it switched back and forth between its faces, not only was it able to avoid most of the attacks thrown its way, it was also able tounch unexpected counterattacks, such as this retaliative grab that had just snapped Adam''s ankle.

    This was a rather troublesome opponent, and as soon as it returned to its insubstantial form, Adam immediately withdrew his leg before hobbling away in retreat.

    He decided that it was time to truly go all-out and bring down this anomaly once and for all. Having made up his mind, he expended a great deal of psychic power to conjure up his full quota of clones, and several dozen Clowns instantly appeared,pletely toppling the house around them. Immediately thereafter, all of the clones pulled out powerful firearms and aimed them directly at the two-faced anomaly, waiting for it to adopt a substantial form again.

    However, the anomaly was no idiot. All high-level anomalies seemed to possess a certain level of intelligence, and the two-faced anomaly was no exception. It could see that Adam was going all-out, and it chose not to fight fire with fire, immediately fleeing the scene in its insubstantial form instead.

    Adam was rather taken aback to see this. The anomaly was approximately on the same level of power as him, and it had gained the upper hand in their battle, but it had chosen to flee the scene without any hesitation, and this was the first time that Adam had encountered such a situation.

    In the past, anomalies had only run away from him when they realized that they were no match for him, yet this one had gonepletely against the norm.

    Adam wanted to set off in pursuit, but having just sustained a new injury to further exacerbate his already terrible physical state, he was in no condition to be giving chase.

    Thus, he had no choice but to watch as the anomaly fled into the distance.

    However, through this battle, he was able to ascertain some things, most importantly of which was that the anomaly was a manifestation of Shaun himself. This was something that Adam should¡¯ve anticipated.

    Shaun and Li Qi were fundamentally different in that thetter was kind at heart, and even though his psychic world was gued with an anomaly, it had done nothing but try and coax him intomitting suicide so that he would no longer be a burden to others.

    In contrast, Shaun was a far more sinister individual in real life. He took joy in killing others, and theoretically speaking, he was the same type of person as Sithu, where their anomalies were simply manifestations of their own consciousness.

    This was a very important piece of information.

    After conducting a search for Shaun to no avail, Adam thought back to the memories that he had seen in n''s psychic world, specifically theke where n had killed that little girl.

    That was perhaps not the ce where Shaun hadmitted his first murder, but it was the ce where he had recruited n, and it was also the site where he frequently disposed of bodies.

    Hence, it had to be a ce that was deeply rooted in his memory.

    Even if he couldn''t find Shaun in this psychic module, Shaun had to be present in other simr psychic modules.

 Chapter 262: Two Sides

    <h4>Chapter 262: Two Sides</h4>

    Sure enough, Adam only had to search through two more psychic modules that contained this vige before he discovered Shaun by thatke. In that memory, he was in the process of tying rocks to a little boy''s corpse so that he could push the body into theke and have it sink to the bottom.

    There seemed to be certain species of carnivorous fish in theke, and as soon as the child''s body was pushed into the water, schools of fish were immediately attracted to it by the scent of blood.

    "Hey!" Adam yelled out at the unsuspecting Shaun.

    Shaun was greatly startled by Adam''s sudden arrival, and he immediately tried to run, but he was far too slow to outrun Adam in his Clown form, and he was quickly captured.

    "You like killing people, do you? Let''s see how you like being killed yourself!"

    Adam raised his dagger as if he were going to plunge it straight into Shaun''s heart, and sure enough, the two-faced anomaly that had been lurking deep in theke immediately sprang out to stop him.

    In most cases, an anomaly would torment its host and try to drive them to suicide, but for someone as twisted and abhorrent as Shaun, he waspletely under his anomaly''s control and was essentially a puppet to his anomaly.

    They were constantly influenced by their anomalies to do their bidding, such as killing or torturing others, and Shaun clearly fell into this category of mentally disturbed individuals.

    Hence, his anomaly was inclined to protect his psychic body.

    Adam had no intention of killing Shaun, but as soon as the anomaly appeared, he immediately began to plunge his dagger toward Shaun''s heart even faster than before while also conjuring up arge number of clones to attack the two-faced anomaly.

    Clown''s signature sinister grin appeared on Adam''s face as he was doing this.

    "We''re both anomalies. You screwed me over once, allow me to return the favor now!"

    The two-faced anomaly had to make a decision. If it chose to save Shaun, then it wouldn''t be able to adopt its insubstantial form and avoid sustaining damage.

    However, if it chose to let Shaun die, then it would also be destroyed.

    It was a difficult choice, but Adam knew what decision the anomaly was going to make.

    "Fire!"

    As soon as the two-faced anomaly drew close, Adam immediately issued the order for his clones to open fire. Sure enough, with Shaun''s life under threat, it was unable to adopt its insubstantial form, and it was forced to charge through the barrage of attacks flying its way. Countless bullet holes were quickly punched into its body, inflicting a significant amount of damage.

    The only unfortunate thing was that due to Adam''s close proximity, his clones couldn''t use its most powerful weapons, such as its explosives and rocketunchers. Hence, the firepower output wasn''t as powerful as it otherwise could''ve been.

    The two-faced anomaly disyed remarkable physical resistance, forcing its way through the barrage of attacks before engaging Adam in close-quartersbat. Clown''sbat prowess wasn''t its forte, and the injuries that Adam had previously sustained certainly weren''t helping his cause. As a result, he was quickly forced onto the back foot.

    With Adam situated so close to the two-faced anomaly, it became too risky for his clones to continue firing at the anomaly, so they had no choice but to pull out their daggers and enter the brawl as well.

    Thus, a chaotic melee ensued.

    Amid the chaos, Adam invoked Nun in secret so that it could use its Lights Out ability to plunge the entire surrounding area into darkness, then immediately possess Shaun.

    As it turned out, this was the right decision.

    Shaun''s psychic body and his anomaly were already one entity, and the two-faced anomaly immediately attempted to fuse with Shaun to save him from Adam.

    However, as it pounced onto Shaun, it was kept out by Nun, following which Shaun opened his mouth and released its Fountain of Contamination straight into the anomaly''s face.

    After being weakened by the Fountain of Contamination, the two-faced anomaly was struggling to withstand Adam''s attacks, and it was finally resorting to adopting its insubstantial form.

    After that, it immediately began to flee the scene, but Adam had already thought of a way to deal with this particr scenario.

    .

    This was the benefit of ruing battle experience. After developing a better understanding of his opponent, Adam was immediately able to develop countermeasures tailored to this opponent, rather than rushing in blind and trying to win through brute force.

    Right as the two-faced anomaly turned to face Adam with its cowardly side, a clone that was lurking nearby immediately sprang out to confront the anomaly''s cruel side.

    Sure enough, from that angle, the anomaly''s body possessed a substantial form.

    "I''ve got you now, you bastard!"

    The clone gleefully pulled out arge bundle of explosives, then rushed directly at the two-faced anomaly before setting off the explosives in a suicide attack.

    A violent explosion rang out, and the clone''s body waspletely destroyed. Even with the two-faced anomaly''s ster defensive prowess, it was unable to withstand such a powerful attack, and it was sent flying through the air, while the skin and flesh on its chest had beenpletely peeled back to present a gruesome sight.

    However, that wasn''t the end of the assault. While the two-faced anomaly was still reeling from the explosion, more clones rushed around to its cruel side before blowing themselves up as well. At the same time, in order to prevent the anomaly from protecting itself by turning to its cowardly side, Adam ensured that his clones were surrounding it from all directions so it wouldn''t be able to avoid the clones no matter which way it turned.

    "I''ll admit that you''ll be very difficult to kill in a one-on-one battle, but my clones are a perfect countermeasure to your abilities!"

    Adam was standing in the distance as he pulled out an old-school sniper rifle and casually opened fire at the anomaly over and over again with a gleeful expression. At this rate, it was only going to be a matter of time before the anomaly was forced to use its trump cards.

    Sure enough, a level four anomaly wasn''t going to be killed so easily. It had been forced into a dire situation by all of the self-detonating Clown clones, and all of a sudden, it tore off its cowardly face. Immediately thereafter, its body began to expand in stature, quickly bing stronger and more imposing, and with a thunderous roar of fury, it was able to knock back all of the clones around it.

    Despite this, Adam disyed no intention of backing down. He knew that the anomaly had been forced into a corner, and he couldn''t afford to relent now.

    In what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye, the two-faced anomaly had swelled from two meters in height to around five meters in stature. At the same time, its entire body had turned bright red, and a suit of bone armor and a series of bone spikes had appeared all over its body, transforming it into aplete juggernaut.

    It kind of looks like Oni no Hanzou''a Aka Oni in this form,?Adam remarked internally as he hurriedly fled to somewhere further away, then continued to watch as the anomaly was swarmed by his clones.

    In this new form, the two-faced anomaly''sbat prowess was alsoparable to Aka Oni''s, and every single attack from its ws and bone spikes was able to kill one of Adam''s clones.

    However, Adam quickly adjusted his strategy ordingly. Seeing as it was no longer a viable option to engage the two-faced anomaly in close-quartersbat, he instructed his clones to attack from afar instead, using all types of explosives and firearms to target the anomaly''s most vulnerable regions.

    It seemed that Adam''s clones were dominating the two-faced anomaly for now, but with such a vast wealth of battle experience under his belt, Adam knew that anomalies of this caliber generally had some type of signature ability or trump card.

    Even as a level three anomaly, Nun had been quite difficult to deal with, and there was no way that this was the extent of the two-faced anomaly''s powers.

    With that in mind, Adam invoked Sludge as a precautionary measure.

    "Make sure to protect me!"

 Chapter 263: Decision

    <h4>Chapter 263: Decision</h4>

    As it turned out, this was a very good decision.

    After sustaining a whole host of injuries from all of the long-range attacksing its way, the two-faced anomaly had finally had enough. It let loose a furious roar, and at the same time, many vengeful souls surged out of its body.

    These souls were quite murky and indistinct, but it was possible to make out their faces.

    All of these souls belonged to children, the oldest of which appeared to be around 13 to 14 years of age, while the youngest weren''t even 10 years old. There were some boys among these vengeful souls, but the majority of them were girls.

    As soon as those vengeful souls appeared, they immediately flew toward Adam and his clones. Adam tried to take evasive measures, but even before the vengeful souls had reached him, he could feel himself bing more and more feeble. In addition to that, his broken ankle further restricted his mobility, and thus, one of the vengeful souls managed to wrap itself around him.

    Adam turned to discover the soul of a little girl clinging to his back. Judging from the fearful look on her face, it was clear that she was under the two-faced anomaly''s control and had nomand over her own body.

    After the little girl''s soul attached itself to Adam, his body became even more feeble. In that instant, it was if he had been reduced to a helpless child who waspletely at the anomaly''s mercy.

    What kind of ability is this? It''s turned me into a child!

    Adam wanted to resist, but a series of vines suddenly emerged from the vengeful soul''s body topletely bind and immobilize him.

    This was the two-faced anomalys most powerful ability, Death Recreation.

    The method through which the little girl was killed was going to be replicated on Adam, so at the moment, he really was just a vulnerable child waiting to be killed.

    Damn, this is a really strong ability!

    After debilitating around half of the Clown clones around it, the two-faced anomaly charged directly at Adam.

    It was intelligent enough to have identified Adam''s true body, and prior to this, it was unable to attack Adam directly as it was being restricted by all of the Clown clones around it. However, now that arge number of the clones had been put out of action, it finally had the opportunity to pounce at Adam.

    Its hulking body sprang up into the air, and it leaped all the way from the bank of theke to the edge of the forest, thenshed out at Adam''s throat with its sharp ws.

    Thankfully, Sludge was able to step in right in the nick of time, shielding Adam from the killing blow with its enormous body.

    However, ultimately, Sludge was only a level two anomaly, and it wasn''t able to keep the two-faced anomaly at bay for very long.

    The w attack pierced a huge hole into its body, following which the two-faced anomaly reached its hands into the hole before violently tearing Sludge apart and hurling the two halves of its body into the distance.

    This wasn''t enough to kill Sludge, but it was going to take some time for its body to fuse back together, so there was no way that it could save Adam.

    Of course, Adam wasn''t just going to allow himself to be struck down. Having endured so many perilous situations, Adam was able to remain perfectly calm even in the face of life-threatening danger.

    He continued to struggle violently against the vengeful soul, knowing that there was no way that such a powerful ability could be maintained for a long time. His struggles were going to elerate the expenditure of the vengeful soul''s psychic power, and once its psychic powerpletely ran dry, he would be free.

    At the same time, he invoked Distortion right as Sludge was torn apart. Having absorbed anomalic power on multiple asions, Distortion was already close to evolving. On top of that, it was already at the pinnacle of all level two anomalies to begin with, and even though it wasn''t able topletely immobilize the two-faced anomaly, it was certainly able to restrict its movements.

    "You can have a taste of being bound by a vengeful spirit as well!"

    Through Distortion, Adam was able to give the two-faced anomaly a taste of its own medicine.

    However, Adam knew that this still wasn''t going to be enough, which was why he had established a psychic connection with Nun and instructed it to return to his side.

    Nun rushed back to Adam while still in control of Shaun''s body, and right as the two-faced anomaly was about to struggle free from Distortion, Nun unleashed its Lights Out ability, plunging the area intoplete darkness before dragging Adam away.

    By the time the Lights Out ability wore off, Adam had finally struggled free from the vengeful soul clinging to his body. He watched as the little girl''s soul gradually faded into nothingness, and he vowed, "I''ll avenge you soon."

    As soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, the two-faced anomaly was already upon him. Along the way, it had snapped a tree that was four to five meters tall, and it swung the tree at Adam like a massive club.

    Adam hurriedly took evasive measures while concealing himself, but in this form, the two-faced anomaly''s eyes were bright red, and it seemed to be able to see through Adam''s concealment ability. After dodging several consecutive swings, Adam was finally backed into a corner before being struck by an almighty blow.

    The makeshift club had struck him right in the chest, where there was already an existing injury from his battle against Hebi no Miko, and thepounded injuries caused him to throw up a mouthful of blood as he flew through the air like a cannonball.

    However, this was also the end for the two-faced anomaly.

    Right as it raised its club and began charging after Adam again, it was struck by a rocket to the back of the head, following which its back was pelted with a barrage of attacks, and the collective firepower output was so immense that it was forced to its knees.

    The fact that Adam had struggled free from the vengeful soul meant that all of his clones were also simultaneously freed, and they had already rushed onto the scene.

    "That was a close one."

    Adam heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of his clones converging around the two-faced anomaly, and at the same time, he withdrew Distortion back into his body.

    The two-faced anomaly was unable to unleash its trump card ability consecutively in a short time, so it no longer had any power to resist, and there was no way that it could take on dozens of Clown clones at once.

    Sure enough, despite its impressive defensive prowess, its massive body quickly became riddled with injuries. Its eyes had been blinded by Clown''s daggers, and its body was gradually being torn apart. FInally, a clone jammed a grenade into a wound on the two-faced anomaly''s abdomen, then jumped aside while pping its hand over its own ears.

    "Heree the fireworks!"

    A violent explosion rang out, and the two-faced anomaly was finallypletely blown apart. It copsed to the ground, crushing a bunch of trees beneath its enormous body, and anomalic power began to surge forth.

    Judging from the quality and density of the anomalic power that was released, Adam was able to confirm that this was definitely a level four anomaly, and he was feeling a little hesitant, unsure of which anomaly should be granted such an enormous feast.

    He wanted to choose Nun because her abilities were extremely useful and versatile under arge set of circumstances.

    He wanted to choose Hellhound because it had the best synergy with Shae, and he really needed a sane helper right now. There were simply many tasks that he couldn''t entrust to Diana and the three psychic mutants.

    He wanted to choose Sludge as a level four Sludge was his best chance at survival against Hebi no Miko.

    He wanted to choose Distortion as it was his most powerful anomaly. Even though it couldn''t discriminate between friend or foe, it was already disying incredible power as a level two anomaly, and it was sure to be a force to be reckoned with if it could evolve to be a level four anomaly.

    There was also Camera. Even though it was currently in its infantile stage, its abilities and astounding offensive prowess made it an extremely tempting option for Adam to nurture.

    Which one should I choose?

 Chapter 264: Stone Giant

    <h4>Chapter 264: Stone Giant</h4>

    After withdrawing Nun, Adam deliberated for a very long time before finally choosing Sludge.

    If it weren''t for the threat being posed by Hebi no Miko, there was no way that he would''ve chosen Sludge, but right now, he had no choice but to prioritize his own survival above all else.

    He had only managed to survive Hebi no Miko''sst attack thanks to some massive strokes of luck, but he wasn''t going to be so fortunate next time. At the very least, Hebi no Miko wasn''t going to make the same mistake of wasting time torturing him.

    The next time she attacked, she was definitely going to choose a better hiding spot that would make it more difficult for Mechguard units to find her, which meant that he would need to survive for even longer to be saved.

    Thus, it seemed that Sludge was the only option.

    I''m counting on you! Don''t let me down!

    With that in mind, Sludge was promptly invoked, and it didn''t even require an instruction from Adam before instinctively pouncing onto the feastid out before it.

    Adam watched as Sludge devoured the anomalic power, and he was feeling a little concerned about whether it would be able to digest so much power.

    He recalled that back when Mummy and Hellhound were devouring Scarecrow''s anomalic power, they were only able to absorb a small portion and evolve once before reaching their limits.

    However, that was perhaps due to the massive level disparity between them. After all, it made sense that a level one anomaly would struggle to devour the power of a level four or level five anomaly.

    On this asion, there was a gap of two levels, and Adam had no idea if this was going to work.

    If you can''t eat it all, then I''ll have to split some of it with other anomalies. However, splitting the anomalic power wouldn''t be ideal, so I''m counting on you!

    With such a massive influx of anomalic power entering its body, Sludge quickly began to swell up like a balloon.

    Thankfully, its body was extremely pliable, so it didn''t burst even though it was looking severely overfilled.

    Finally, it was able to devour thest shred of anomalic power without exploding, much to Adam''s tion.

    You did it!

    Adam was ecstatic to see this, and he continued watching as the anomalic power was digested.

    Unlike its previous evolutions, this time, Sludge was making extremely slow progress, evolving while digesting. During the next half hour, its body was warped into all types of different forms before finally, itpleted its evolution amid a sh of ck light and a fierce eruption of force.

    Adam was barely able to keep his eyes open in the face of the immense wind pressure, but he was still eager to see the oue.

    As the dust settled, he was greeted by the sight of a stone giant.

    In terms of physical appearance, it bore a slight resemnce to Diamond, except instead of a transparent, crystalline bodily structure, the surface of the stone giant''s body resembled a meteorite, looking extremely hard and sturdy.

    "Stand still! I''m going to test out your defenses!"

    Adam pulled out his gatling gun before firing a barrage of bullets at the stone giant. All of the bullets ricocheted off its body, leaving only trails of sparks behind.

    Adam was very encouraged by this, and he pulled out a rocketuncher before sting a projectile straight into the stone giant''s chest. The resulting explosion was finally able to inflict some damage onto its body, and some stone shards fell away, leaving an indentation roughly the size of a washbasin on its chest.

    "Can you still protect me if you''re this hard now?"

    As if to answer Adam''s question, the stone giant''s body instantly softened, and the indentation on its chest was also quickly filled.

    After that, it made its way over to Adam before enveloping his body with its own.

    Just like before, its body was still as pliable as ever, except this time, it was able to harden into a stone fortress around Adam.

    In its current form, not only was Sludge able to transition between a solid and liquid form, its regenerative abilities had been enhanced even further, and its defenses were even sturdier than Mummy''s at the height of its powers. In addition to that, with its five-meter-tall frame, it was essentially a moving fortress.

    It looks like I made the right choice!

    Adam stepped out of Sludge''s body, and the more he looked at it, the more fond of it he became. Through their psychic connection, he was able to determine that Sludge had no special abilities aside from its ability to change forms and states at will, but Adam wasn''t disappointed in the slightest.

    Firstly, he had aplished his objective. If Hebi no Miko were to attack him again, he would be able tost a few minutes with no issues even against Yamata no Orochi under Sludge''s protection.

    Furthermore, not only was Sludge going to keep him safe from Hebi no Miko, it was also going to be extremely useful for him when carrying out other missions.

    Clown had a whole host of incredible abilities, but its offensive prowess was ratherckluster, and it struggled to kill opponents quickly, especially when they were bulkier in stature and possessed high levels of defensive prowess.

    A perfect example was the two-faced anomaly. It was clearly weaker than Clown, but it had still posed quite a few problems.

    However, with this stone giant at his disposal, Adam''s offensive prowess was undoubtedly going to be significantly elevated.

    "Show me your destructive capabilities!"

    Sludge was a level two anomaly to begin with, and now that it had absorbed all of the two-faced anomaly''s power, it should''ve theoretically been more powerful than the two-faced anomaly.

    The stone giant began to crash through the forest at Adam''s behest, and even the thickest and sturdiest trees in its past were felled with ease.

    Sludge hadn''t attained any of the two-faced anomaly''s abilities. Instead, it had a very simple yet effectivebination of characteristics, which were its immense strength, defensive prowess, and regenerative ability.

    It really was beginning to resemble Diamond in the traits that it possessed.

    If Diamond were still alive, Adam had a feeling that Sludge in its current form alone would''ve been able to put up a very good fight against him.

    "Alright, that''s enough. Dawn is about to break soon."

    Adam withdrew Sludge, then made his way over to Shaun. He had made sure to keep Shaun''s psychic body alive this entire time. As a police officer, he had a reputation to look after, so he couldn''t just carry out executions. On top of that, he had to stitch together a cohesive story to present to the general public.

    After withdrawing Sludge, Adam invoked Hellhound and began to explore more of Shaun''s psychic modules in order to collect his memories, trying to put together aplete story of how he had reached this point in his life.

    Only then would he be able to blow up this story as much as possible to draw attention away from the smear campaign beingunched against him.

    First, Adam collected many memories of Shaun''s murders. In Sandrise City, Shaun had used his status as a convenience store owner and the close proximity of his shop to a school to his advantage, approaching many students before selecting targets among them.

    He was very careful in his target selection, always making sure to pick out students who were living on their own away from their parents.

    These students didn''t have much of a connection with society, thereby making them easy targets, and most importantly, killing them satisfied certain twisted fetishes of his.

    After searching through Shaun''s memories, Adam finally stumbled upon the memory of his first kill, which exined why he always targeted children.

    To Adam''s surprise, it wasn''t to satisfy his sexual fetishes. Instead, as a coward, he reveled in the sense ofplete control and power that he had over vulnerable children.

 Chapter 265: Process of Anomalification

    <h4>Chapter 265: Process of Anomalification</h4>

    Shaun''s mother had already passed away by the time he was seven.

    His father had always treated him quite badly, and following his mother''s death, his father had be an alcoholic, regrly abusing him both verbally and physically. Even the slightest mistake that he made would often result in a severe beating, and sometimes, he was abused for no reason at all.

    This traumatic upbringing resulted in an extremely timid personality, and as a child, he would tense up at any sign of danger.

    At this point, he was already near his breaking point, but following the conclusion of his father''s career, the abuse became even more severe, and Shaun was finally pushed over the edge.

    Not long after his father wasid off, a pivotal event took ce in Shaun''s life, an event that showed him that he was capable of attaining the control and power that he desired.

    That day, he was strolling through the forest all on his own. It was already quitete, but he didn''t want to go home and face his abusive father. Right as he was wandering aimlessly through the forest, he heard some feeble cries for help.

    Spurred on by his curiosity, Shaun followed the sound to discover a little girl who was roughly the same age as him leaning against the foot of a tree, calling for help in a frantic voice.

    Adam made sure to record the entirety of this event as it disyed the process of Shaun''s anomalification.

    "What are you doing here, Mona?"

    In the memory, Shaun had clearly already noticed that the girl was injured, but he pretended to be oblivious as he approached her in the darkness.

    "My bike was tripped up by a tree root, and I twisted my ankle, so I can''t stand up now."

    Shaun had grown up in a very small vige where most of the kids knew one another, and Shaun and Mona were no exceptions.

    "Where''s yourmunicator?" Shaun asked in a cautious manner as he nced at Mona''s swollen ankle.

    "My parents never bought me one. Can you help me contact them?"

    Shaun took a nce at the bike, then up at the darkening sky, and he knew that no one was going to pass through here at this time.

    Seeing the vulnerable look in Mona''s eyes, a certain urge suddenly rose up in Shaun''s heart.

    "I''ll find someone to help you if you beg me."

    Mona was rather taken aback by this request, but she still obliged.

    "Fine, I''m begging you, please find someone to help me."

    Mona was only saying this to cate him, but Shaun felt an unprecedented sensation surge through his entire body.

    Never had anyone begged him for anything in his entire life. He had either been ignored or abused, and he had never enjoyed the feeling of having control over anyone.

    Shaun was quickly bing addicted to this feeling, and he wasn''t going to let Mona off the hook anytime soon. Hence, he immediately made another demand.

    "That''s not going to be enough. Call me a hero, and I''ll find help."

    "What..."

    "It''s a hero''s job to save people, so surely I should be called a hero for helping you," Shaun insisted, and his mind was quickly bing more and more twisted.

    "Alright, please help me, hero."

    Shaun couldn''t help but burst intoughter upon hearing this, and he looked down at the vulnerable girl with a gloating expression.

    "If I''m going to help you, then you should submit to me, right?"

    Mona gritted her teeth in indignation, and she wanted to resist, but as soon as she tried to stand up, a burst of sharp pain immediately shot through her swollen ankle, leaving her with no choice but to oblige.

    However, Shaun still disyed no intention of sparing her.

    He slowly ramped up his demands, making them more and more excessive. He seemed to have rediscovered some form of twisted confidence in the face of this vulnerable girl.

    He ordered her to bark, to crawl, and he even beat her untilte into the night.

    He was immersed in this twisted sense of joy and confidence and lost all track of time.

    In the end, it was the calls of Mona''s parents that snapped him back to his senses.

    Mona''s parents hade out to search for their daughter, and upon hearing their voices, the gleeful look on Shaun''s face instantly turned into one of horror. The arrogant and cruel look in his eyes immediately reverted back to the look of fearful timidity that he constantly wore, and he was terrified that Mona''s parents would get back at him for what he had done to their daughter.

    He was even more terrified of what his father would do to him once he found out.

    In a state of sheer panic, Shaun smothered Mona''s mouth with his hand, and after a brief hesitation, he picked up a nearby rock.

    After three blows, the girl fellpletely limp, and Shaun hurriedly fled the scene.

    In theing days, he lived a perpetual state of fear, constantly keeping an eye on Mona''s parents. However, things seemed to be developing in his favor.

    The doctor in the vige was an idiot, and his final diagnosis was that Mona had passed away due to an ident. His final report stated that she had been riding too fast on her bike, then fell headfirst onto a rock and died from the head trauma.

    Thus, the ipetence of the vige doctor let Shaun off the hook.

    Only around half a yearter did the cloud of fear that Shaun was living in finallypletely fade, and he began to look back on that memory with fondness.

    He waspletely intoxicated by the feeling of holding someone else''s fate in his hands and having them do whatever he wanted.

    Shaun even went on to make several drawings of the scene from that day before destroying the drawings, using that memory to get him through particrly hard times.

    One day, he was finally unable to resist the urge to kill again.

    He stole some tools from the shed to make some booby traps in the forest and in some ces where kids regrly yed. He then installed some cameras nearby, and it didn''t take long before he got his first victim.

    After some torture, he sank the child into the bottom of theke, and that was his second murder.

    Around a yearter was when he captured his third victim, which was n.

    After that, Shaunmitted a murder once every one, two, or three years in the vige with n''s help. The vige had an extremely small poption, somitting murders any more frequently than that would''ve aroused a great deal of suspicion.

    In order to avoid this type of pressure and escape from their less-than-ideal home lives, Shaun and n left the vige. They went to many ces,mitting more murders in the process, before finally settling down in Sandrise City.

    The city had an enormous poption, and Mechguard units were quite easy to bypass due to their rigid style ofw enforcement, so Shaun thought that he would be able to continue on his merry way without any repercussions.

    Unfortunately for him, karma worked in rather strange ways. Never would he have been able to anticipate that his downfall would be a result of someone trying to improve their reputation, nor would he have ever imagined that his capture would have something to do with the conflict between the northern and southern congresses.

    Finally! That took way too long!

    By the time Adam emerged from the psychic world, the sky outside was already beginning to brighten. He had captured a bombshell of a story with his recorder, and all he had to do was edit out some sensitive parts of the recording before sending it to Shivani, and the entire inte would be stirred up into aplete frenzy!

    Before that, Adam pped Shaun awake, then contacted Mechguard while Shaun desperately begged for mercy.

 Chapter 266: Blood Ties with Shae

    <h4>Chapter 266: Blood Ties with Shae</h4>

    "How Murderous Psychopaths Truly Come to Be"

    "Shocking News! The Serial Child Killer Lurking in Area 45!"

    "Coward or Vicious Killer?"

    "Entire Law Enforcement Process Breakdown From a Special Psychic Police Officer"

    "The Purpose of Special Psychic Police Officers"

    ¡­¡­

    Not long after Adam sent Shivani the edited footage, she uploaded it onto the inte.

    Unsurprisingly, the footage immediately created a massive stir on the inte.

    After the footage was uploaded by Shivani, many major media outlets quickly contacted her and made requests for partial broadcast rights. Shortly thereafter, snippets of the footage began to be reuploaded on the inte with all types of different headlines attached to them.

    There were even some gamepanies who had contacted her to try and purchase the rights to the footage so that they could adapt it into a game. A vige serial murderer case cracked by an adapter police officer was going to be a very good subject matter for a game, and given the well-known the case currently was, a game adaptation would undoubtedly sell like hotcakes.

    The clout generated from this story quickly outstripped that of the story regarding the first case that Adam had investigated as a special psychic police officer, and it wasn''t even close.

    Compared with a case involving a supervisor in a medicalpany selling illegal drugs, the general public was naturally far more drawn to a case involving a serial killer, particrly when all of the victims were minors.

    In the Metaverse, on the inte, in a whole host of chatrooms, and even in real life, everyone was discussing the case of the serial child killer from Area 45.

    On this day, the Tor chatrooms were extremely peaceful.

    There were no conflicts in opinion as no one dared to side with the killer, so no altercations arose.

    Furthermore, the chatrooms had been a little too violent recently. There were people picking fights every day, and the pain from those fights was still fresh in the memories of those involved. Hence, even the most prolific rabble-rousers had settled down a little to avoid further punishment.

    Everyone was still primarily discussing Adam, as well as Shaun.

    "Why has the suspect only chosen minors as his targets?"

    "Did you not see the video? He''s always been killing minors. As a child, he didn''t have the strength to subdue an adult, and after bing an adult, he continued to kill minors out of habit."

    "No, I don''t think we can exin this purely as a case of habit."

    "I agree. I''ve studied some psychology in the past, and it''s clear that the suspect is an extremely cowardly person. He enjoys tormenting those who are weaker than him, and he regards adults as a threat. Only vulnerable people like minors and that retard, n, can fully satisfy his control freak tendencies."

    "That makes sense. Now that I look at it, that police officer doesn''t seem like a bad person. I was convinced that he was a terrible person after seeing what he did before."

    "Are you talking about the Shadow City battle royale? Have you seen the full version of the footage? In a situation as perilous as the one he was in, he wouldn''t have been able to survive if he didn''t resort to some extreme measures. Setting aside the fact that he was in Shadow City, even in the civilized world, everyone has the right to self-defense under dangerous circumstances."

    "I don''t really care what he did in Shadow City. I don''t really even care whether Adam is a bad person or not. All I know is that I''m a fan of what he''s doing. This is what the world is like, bad people need to be brought down by other bad people. We need people like Adam to deal with bastards like Shaun. Otherwise, what else are we gonna do? Get a saint to pass judgment over him? Or get the Psychic Church involved?"

    "I agree. I like the fact that he''s so willing to take action. As long as he doesn''t stir up any trouble in Sandrise City, he has my support."

    "There are far too many criminals lurking in the shadows in Sandrise City. Mechguard can police crimes on the surface extremely well, but they can''t carry out any in-depth investigations. That''s where special psychic police officers like Adame in."

    "In my opinion, he was too gentle. He should''ve done to Shaun what he did to those people in the battle royale!"

    ¡­¡­

    Countless people were discussing the case in chatrooms all over the inte, and Adam''s reputation was slowly recovering. It was no surprise that he would win favor from the general public, considering he had just arrested a heinous criminal like Shaun.

    "Public opinion about you on the inte has been very favorabletely. There are still asionally some critics, but they quickly get drowned out by your supporters," Shae remarked as she scrolled through a bunch ofments on aputer in the Four Brother Veterinarian Hospital. "Looks like you''ve achieved your objective."

    "I''m only safe for now. People love cing others on a pedestal before watching them fall."

    Adam was resting on a chair with his eyes closed, and there was a huge cat sitting on his chest.

    This cat was Rabbit''s pet, and its name was Gray Tiger.

    Gray Tiger used to be a stray cat, but in contrast with normal stray cats, it wasn''t struggling to get by at all. It was the king of all cats in the area, and Rabbit had adopted it for the sake of the other animals in the area as they were regrly being bullied by Gray Tiger.

    Thankfully, it was quite friendly toward humans, and it was very obedient as long as it was well-fed.

    "What are you going to do from here? Continue to y the hero and solve more cases?"

    "That''s definitely on the agenda, but it''s not that urgent. I''ll continue solving these cases while conducting my investigation into the Compassion Company, but before that, I want to pay a maximum security prison a visit."

    Adam was doing some research on hismunicator as he spoke, scrolling through a list of the most severe criminals that were locked up in Sandrise City, the majority of whom were extremely mentally disturbed individuals.

    Having evolved Sludge into a level four anomaly from hunting down Shaun''s anomaly, Adam was eager to find more targets.

    Back in Shadow City, he had tried to enhance his own powers by searching for mentally ill targets, but that hadn''t amounted to much.

    Shadow City only had a poption of several million, so there weren''t that many people to choose from, and his choices were whittled down even further by the fact that the director periodicallybed through the poption for the mentally ill.

    However, things were different in Sandrise City, which had a poption of several hundred million, and there were all types of sinister individuals lurking in the shadows.

    As a special psychic police officer, he was privy to a lot of information that wasn''t avable to the average person, and he also had many special rights and privileges.

    All he had to do now was visit the prison under the guise of investigating a case, and he would have ess to all of the mentally disturbed prisoners that he could ask for.

    These people had been selected for him by thew, making them essentially a feast offered up on a silver tter, and it really would''ve been a terrible waste not to make use of this resource.

    "Now that we''re safe for now, we should focus on getting more powerful. Haven''t you always wanted to get stronger as well? Next time, I''ll prioritize Hellhound''s development so you''ll be able toe on missions with me as well. At the moment, you''re too weak for me to take you anywhere."

    "That''s true," Shae replied in a slightly dejected manner.

    During thepetency examination, it was revealed that not only was there an enormous power gap between her and the rest of the team, she was only roughly on par with the average examination participant.

    Even though she had also endured her fair share of battles and grown to a certain extent, she was still only roughlyparable in power to a level two anomaly.

    If it weren''t for her high marks in the written examination and the fact that the interview results could be manipted, she wouldn''t even have been able to qualify for the job of a special psychic police officer.

    For the average adapter, making progress was extremely difficult.

    "If only you could give me Hellhound. You should learn some psychic deposit methods."

    "That''s very difficult. I''ll need to be a lot more advanced in my adapter abilities to aplish that," Adam replied as he stroked Gray Tiger. "Having said that, your psychic body is decently strong, and it gets enhanced even further after you fuse with Hellhound."

    "Why is it that you have the ability to absorb anomalic power, but I don''t?"

    Shae had already been made aware of the fact that Adam was a clone, and the two of them had undergone DNA analysis to find that there was a very high simrity rate, but still not that close to 100%, which meant that the two of them were rted by blood, but Shae wasn''t a clone of the director.

    "I don''t know. I don''t even know how we''re rted. Are you the director''s daughter? That doesn''t make sense. If you were his daughter, how did you end up in a human farm and being sold to the Kim Family?"

    Adam wanted to ask the director these questions, but he knew that it would be impossible to be granted an audience with the director, so he would have to uncover these mysteries on his own.

 Chapter 267: The Gates of Hell

    <h4>Chapter 267: The Gates of Hell</h4>

    On this day, Darvaza Prison was visited by a pair of guests.

    They were naturally none other than Adam and Shae.

    Darvaza Prison was a maximum security prison reserved only for the most heinous criminals of Sandrise City, and there was a long list of crimesmitted by the inmates, including homicides, terrorism, arson...

    Generally speaking, any criminals with lesser crimes would be spared the fate of being locked up in Darvaza Prison, and the average prison sentence for the inmates here was over 300 years.

    That wasn''t a typo.

    If it weren''t for the fact that the death sentence was all but abolished, the crimesmitted by the inmates here would''ve warranted multiple death sentences stacked on top of one another.

    The name "Darvaza" referred to the Darvaza gas crater, which was renowned as the Gates of Hell of the natural world, and all of the inmates here were demonic individuals who were never going to see the light of day again.

    This was a ce that no one in their right mind would visit, but Adam was eager to meet all of the anomalies here.

    "You must be Mr. Adam, right?"

    Adam was greeted by a young warden upon his arrival. The warden appeared to only be in his twenties, and it seemed that he viewed Adam as an idol.

    "I''m a huge fan of yours, Mr. Adam! What you do is so awesome! I''m so honored to be meeting you right now!"

    "I''m only doing my job."

    Adam was already ustomed to this type of reaction. At the moment, he was a true celebrity of Sandrise City, and he was being hounded by more paparazzi than even A-list celebrities.

    "You''re far too modest, Mr. Adam. There are so many adapters in this city, but not many are willing and able to do what you can. Thanks to my upation, I know more about adapters than the average person, and I''m certain that you''re definitely the most powerful adapter I''ve ever met! ording to my knowledge, there aren''t many adapters who would dare to venture into the psychic world of a demented serial killer."

    "Wow, you''re pretty knowledgeable," Adam remarked with a surprised expression. "What''s your name?"

    "Ryan, Ryan Carter."

    The young man opened the heavy metal gates of the prison and invited Adam inside as he spoke.

    Beyond the gate was a series of prison cells, and through the metal bars, Adam could see the inmates inside. All of them were extremely menacing in demeanor, and they immediately turned their attention to Adam upon his arrival like a bask of starving crocodiles.

    However, there were Mechguard units stationed in the prison, and all of the inmates had their prosthetics removed before being locked up, so there was no way that they could actually do anything.

    "Pardon me for asking, but why are there still prison wardens when there are already Mechguard units here? I know this question might be a little rude, I''m just curious."

    "It''s fine, I understand. Many people also have the same question. The answer is very simple: Mechguard units are only programmed to carry out very basic tasks, but sometimes, inmates have special requests that require human discretion.

    ¡°For example, some of the inmates suffer from certain conditions that they require medication for, and it''s up to us to decide what type of medication they need, whether they actually suffer from the condition that they im to have or if they''re just pretending, what to do in cases of medical emergencies, and how to proceed if a physical altercation breaks out between inmates. Many of these jobs can''t bepleted by Mechguard units on their own.

    ¡°Truth be told, wardens like myself are basically just glorified caretakers at this point." Ryan took a spiteful nce at the inmates in the cells as he spoke. "We''re just providing services to these filthy animals."

    "I see."

    .

    Adam nodded in response, then followed Ryan into a room that appeared to be a database. Prior to his arrival, Adam had specifically requested Ryan to prepare the files of three particr inmates, and he also wanted to meet them.

    These three were mentally disturbed murderers that Adam had hand-picked, and he had chosen to only meet three of them at once as meeting too many at a time could arouse suspicion from the southern congress, which was constantly keeping tabs on him.

    "These are the files of the three inmates that you requested."

    Ryan turned on the databaseputer and projected three sets of files before introducing them one by one.

    "This first one is Dwight. He''s over two meters tall and weighs 150 kilograms. His nickname is Big Boy, and he used to be a renowned rugby yer that was known for his fiery temper. He suffers from bipr disorder, and when he flies into a rage, he''spletely unable to rein in his temper. His father left home when he was a child, and his mother abandoned him because he was too fat and didn''t perform well at school.

    ¡°His rough upbringing definitely contributed to his personality. He is the perpetrator of the notorious pub shooting. At the time, he was at a nightclub, and he shot 12 people dead in a fit of rage while injuring over 30 more people."

    Afterpleting Dwight''s description, Ryan moved on to the second person, and the image transitioned into that of a burly man with a small mustache.

    "This is Sima Kai, a zoologist, and the perpetrator of the human head collection case 22 years ago. A lot of young people are no longer aware of this case, but it had created a massive stir back when he was detained.

    ¡°One of his hobbies was taxidermy, and when he was detained, it was discovered that he had arge collection of animal and insect specimens, as well as 45 human head specimens, some of which he had dug up from graves, some of which he had purchased from crematorium employees, but seven of them belonged to his murder victims."

    The image transitioned once again, and Ryan began to introduce the third inmate.

    "This is Noah, a former retirement home caretaker. During his stint as a caretaker, he had killed more people than the previous two inmatesbined. In total, 285 elderly individuals had been killed either directly or indirectly by him.

    ¡°His career spanned over a period of close to two decades, and as a caretaker, he was able to slip different substances into the medication of the elderly residents of the retirement home, or hide their medication, or employ other simr methods to carry out his murders. Due to his upation and the fact that all of his victims were elderly individuals suffering from chronic illnesses, it had always been deemed that his victims had died from natural causes.

    ¡°He ims to have taken the lives of 285 victims during his career, but it''s impossible to verify the exact numbers. This man is aplete and utter psychopath, disying no remorse at his sentencing. In fact, he viewed himself as an angel who was putting these elderly people out of their misery."

    "It seems like the first one is the most normal one out of the three," Adam remarked. "All three of them have something to do with cases that I''m investigating, so I can interrogate them independently, right?"

    "That''s not a problem. All special psychic police officers have interrogation rights to begin with. Mechguard units are unable to carry out interrogations, so that duty has always fallen upon humans. There are even some private organizations that have been recruited to carry out interrogations, so it''s certainly well within your rights.

    ¡°Given the extensive security measures in this prison, there''s no way that any of the inmates would be able to escape, so interrogate away." Ryan led Adam out of the database as he spoke. "You can just wait in the interrogation room, my colleague will bring the inmate to you."

    Ryan led Adam into the interrogation room, then asked, "Who would you like to interrogate first?"

    "Let''s begin with Dwight."

    There was a very good chance that the psychic worlds of the other two inmates contained extremely powerful anomalies, and given how weak Shae currently was, it was best not to take excessive risks. Until she became stronger, there was no guarantee that Adam would be able to keep her safe.

    "Alright, I''ll have him brought to you."

    Ryan pulled out an inte before issuing a request for a colleague by the name of Li Xiang to bring Dwight to the interrogation room, and he was quickly met with an affirmative response.

    A short whileter, a warden who was around 170 centimeters tall opened the door of the interrogation room, and he was followed by a burly man who was over two meters tall and more than twice his weight.

    The man seemed to be in the midst of a bout of psychosis, and he immediately began to roar like a wild animal at the sight of Adam, but his electronic handcuffs immediately detected his irregr heart rate, and it released a jolt of electricity that brought the man tumbling down onto the interrogation table.

 Chapter 268: Visualization Subject

    <h4>Chapter 268: Visualization Subject</h4>

    "What''s going on here?"

    Adam tried to approach Dwight to inspect his condition, but he was immediately stopped by Ryan.

    "Don''t touch him now! There could still be some residual electricity in his body."

    "Why is the current so strong?"

    "We have no choice. There''s just no way to subdue him otherwise. He''s too big and strong, I''ve heard that he''s even beaten a gangster cyborg before without using any weapons."

    "Is that right?" Having recently had prosthetic retrofitted, Adam knew just how impressive a feat it was for a normal human to beat a cyborg inbat, and he couldn''t help but be impressed. "Maybe he went up against someone who wasn''t retrofitted with prosthetics that would help them in battle, but even so, that''s still extremely impressive. I''ll begin conducting my work now, some privacy would be much appreciated."

    "Of course."

    Ryan took a nce at his colleague, and both of the wardens left the interrogation room together.

    Following their departure, Adam set up the recording equipment, and after conducting an examination of the room to ensure that there were no surveince devices, he used his spider legs to jam the door shut, then instructed Shae to turn on the recorder.

    "Why do you need to record this?" Shae asked with a perplexed expression. "Aren''t we just going after anomalies here?"

    "Yes, but I''m sure there are many people who would like to see his story."

    Adam had already witnessed the impact that true stories like these had on the general public, and Kim Hee-cho had identified the potential opportunities for profit from these stories.

    In his eyes, every single one of these "true stories" was a massively lucrative piece of intellectual property that could be made into games or stunning immersive films that would undoubtedly be extremely popr. This waspletely unchartered territory, so it had the potential to present a brand new experience to everyone.

    "Say what you want about him, but Kim Hee-cho really does have an eye for business opportunities. As soon as the story about Shaun went viral, he immediately realized that this was an opportunity. I heard that he''s already convinced the three psychic mutants to grant him an initial investment."

    "I didn''t think those three would be interested in something like this."

    "He told them that when adapting these stories into games, he would make sure that many elements rted to animals would be included in the final product, and he guaranteed them that this was going to make a lot of money."

    "He''s a brave man! Given the personalities of the three psychic mutants, if he ends up making a loss, he''ll be killed for sure! Having said that, there really is a lot of potential in that idea."

    While Adam and his group were hiding in Shadow City, Golden Teeth Incorporated had already cut all ties with Shae, so there was no longer any chance for her to get any money out of the organization.

    At the moment, everything that Adam was doing required a great deal of mary support, so he was very much in support of Kim Hee-cho''s idea.

    "All we have to do is give him a part of the content that we record, then work with him to create intellectual properties out of the footage, and I''ll be receiving around 40% of all generated profits. It''s a win-win situation."

    "I''ll sue you for vition of portrait rights!" Dwight had already woken up at some point, and he immediately flew into a violent rage upon hearing what Adam and Shae were discussing. "I won''t allow you to profit from my image as you please!"

    Adam turned to the former rugby star with a rather surprised expression.

    "As expected of a former public figure, you''re pretty well-versed with your rights. How about this? I had no intention of using your portrait rights without anypensation. I''ll split you a cut of the profits in exchange for your story. What do you say?"

    Dwight calmed down slightly upon hearing this, but he still didn''t say anything.

    "Isn''t this jail supposed to be known as the Gates of Hell? You won''t be able to sue me in here. Even if you could, why would you do that? You don''t have any need for money in here. However, I''m sure you have friends, family, or debtors that you would want topensate.

    ¡°Once you get a cut of the profits, you can give that money to them. As a former professional athlete, I''m sure you''ve had your fair share of endorsements and brand deals. Surely there''s no reason to turn down easy money like this."

    "Alright, then I require an official business contract. Only then will I..."

    "That''ll be something that we discuss in the future. For now, I''m here to interrogate you as a police officer, so you don''t get a say in what happens in this room."

    Adam gave Shae a signal as he spoke, and the two of them invaded Dwight''s consciousness together.

    ¡­¡­

    While Adam was at Darvaza Prison, two powerful adapters were shing elsewhere in a mansion that was as massive as a sports stadium.

    .

    Diana had already been staying with Sadou for some time, but she was like a never-ending bundle of pleasant surprises to Sadou.

    On this day, the two of them were sparring once again.

    Sadou had already transformed into the Great Sage, Sun Wukong.

    In eastern mythology, Sun Wukong was a deity of a simr status to Tartarus of Greek Mythology, and both of them were deities that were extremely formidable in battle.

    Sun Wukong was said to have wielded a metal staff that he could alter the size and length of at will, and at this moment, Sadou was wielding a metal staff that was radiating bright golden light.

    In the face of the oing giant dragon, he swept his staff through the air, and initially, the staff was only less than two meters in length, but it elongated rapidly as it swept through the air, quickly extending to several meters long. The other end of the staff had also swelled to be as thick as a tall building, and the staff struck Diana squarely in the face, smashing her out of the sky and mming her down onto the ground.

    Diana''s enormous body came tumbling out of the heavens, crushing several buildings in the process. Her shattered facial bones rendered her temporarily immobilized, but the fury in her eyes didn''t abate in the slightest.

    "That''s it! That''s what I''m looking for from you!" Sadou provoked as he closed in on Diana while standing atop a rainbow-colored cloud. "If you go to another adapter and ask them how you can be stronger, they''ll most likely tell you that the first thing you have to do is to control your anger, but that''s not what I''m teaching you here!

    ¡°Instead, I want you to build up as much anger as possible! Your power stems from your anger, but it''s clear that you don''t have sufficient anger to fuel you. Are you not enraged by what you''ve experienced?"

    Sadou''s provocation immediately made Diana recall King Arthur''s death, and her eyes instantly turned bright red. She opened her mouth before sting out a pir of ck draconic mes, which were far hotter and more destructive than her usual mes.

    "You can''t just give into your rage and abandon all technique! You must learn to utilize both if you want to defeat your enemies!"

    The pir of draconic mes struck Sadou with unerring uracy, but that was only a clone of his, and it quickly reverted back to a strand of Sadou''s fur within the scorching fire.

    "That was an all-out attack from you, but you''ve only managed to singe a single strand of my fur. I have countless strands of fur on my body, but how many times can you unleash an attack of that same caliber? You need to umte and unleash your anger, but don''t allow it to ovee you and rid you of your sense of reason! Come to think of it, this may be an issue rted to your visualization method. Who is your visualization subject?"

    "Visualization subject?" Diana asked as she forcibly suppressed her rage. "What''s that?"

    "You''re already this powerful even without a visualization subject?"

    Diana''s response came as aplete shock to Sadou. Diana was undoubtedly one of the most powerful students that he had ever taught, countless times more powerful than the past Adam. In fact, she was even more powerful than many established advanced adapters like Cowboy.

    During their sparring matches, even Sadou could feel her destructive power. She was truly a diamond in the rough, and it wouldn''t take much polishing for her to reach extremely lofty heights.

    It was utterly astonishing to him that such a powerful adapter could''ve reached this level without a visualization subject.

    "So you''re saying you''ve already reached this level with just your own power alone?"

 Chapter 269: Bound Beast

    <h4>Chapter 269: Bound Beast</h4>

    "What''s visualization?" Diana asked instead of answering Sadou''s question.

    "Visualization is... Come with me..."

    Sadou exited the psychic world as he spoke, and Diana immediately followed suit.

    In the real world, the two of them were situated in an underground chamber.

    "Come with me."

    Sadou led Diana deeper into the underground chamber before arriving at a door.

    The room that the door was attached to was clearly no ordinary room. Both the door and the walls were constructed from metal, and Sadou''s fingerprints and pupils both had to be scanned before entry was granted.

    "This is my visualization chamber. Visualization requires an extremely high level of concentration, so you need to take measures not to be disrupted during the process."

    After the metal doors opened, Sadou made his way into the room while wearing a set of strange Tom and Jerry pajamas.

    Inside was an enormous portrait of a mage wearing a Taoist robe.

    Around the portrait were some old photographs, videotapes, and a collection of strange spell-casting instruments.

    "What are... these things for? And who''s that... in the portrait?"

    In the real world, Diana''s stutter had be even worse. The psychological trauma sustained by psychic mutants always reflected itself in the real world.

    "He is the number one eastern mage of the contemporary era, Lin Ying."

    "Is he... a real... person?"

    Sadou could see that Diana was struggling with her speech impediment, so he took over the conversation and provided her with a thorough exnation of everything that they were about to discuss.

    "He isn''t a real person. He''s a fictitious character, and he''s my visualization subject. In reality, the vast majority of visualization subjects employed by adapters are fictitious entities. In fact, most visualization subjects are deities. The concept of visualization was invented by the founder of the Psychic Church. At the time, he was the most powerful adapter in the world, wielding extraordinary psychic power. He... Forget it, let''s not stray off-topic.

    ¡°After visualization was invented, it was discovered that it could be used as a method of advancement once an adapter reached a certain level of power. As I''m sure you''re aware, adapters can only grow more powerful by enhancing their psychic power. Confidence, courage, mental endurance, intelligence... All of these mental qualities contribute to the power of one''s psychic body.

    "I can tell that you''re a psychic mutant, so for you, all types of negative emotions like anger and lust can also enhance the power of your psychic body. However, regardless of whether you derive your power from rage or confidence, after reaching a certain threshold, it bes quite difficult to continue to enhance your powers through those means.

    ¡°After all, one''s confidence is limited, and there''s also a limit to how furious a person can be. Once that threshold is reached, visualization is often used as a means for someone to further refine their psychic body."

    Sadou turned to point at the portrait in the room, then continued, "Visualization sounds like a very profound and mysterious concept, but essentially, it''s just a process of self-hypnotism. You imagine yourself as a certain powerful entity with simr properties to yourself, and through visualization, you hypnotize yourself into obtaining some of the abilities possessed by your visualization subject.

    ¡°This is not just a very effective mental training method for enhancing one''s psychic body, but also for enhancing the confidence of a wide variety of athletes. If they can use visualization effectively, they often perform better at their sport. However, the rewards that ordinary people reap from visualization naturally won''t be as significant as what adapters can stand to gain. I..."

    "Can... Yamata no Orochi... be visualized?" Diana interjected.

    "Yes, Yamata no Orochi is also an entity that can be visualized. I hear that you''ve participated in the Shadow City battle royale before. Do you know why the psychic bodies of many powerful adapters are rted to mythical beings, such as Medusa and Yamata no Orochi? Also, why does it seem like certain psychic bodies stem from the same origins, like those three monks, or Medusa''s team?"

    Diana was just about to reply, but she was cut off by Sadou.

    "It''s because all of them use the same training system and the same visualization subject. The method of visualization is a secret among adapters, but among high-end adapters, it can only really be considered to be an open secret, at best. Aside from rare cases like yourself, the majority of powerful adapters have their own psychic inheritances."

    "Then what... should I do now?"

    "Your top priority right now is to select a visualization subject. Theoretically speaking, the more powerful your visualization subject, the higher your ceiling will be. In visualization, the idea is that you can be whoever you want to be, as long as certain requirements are met, so it''s natural to try and visualize the most powerful subject possible. However, you have to ensure that you have a high level ofpatibility with your visualization subject."

    "What does... that mean?"

    "How do I exin this? I''ll use you as an example. Right now, you''vepletely mutated, and your heart is full of rage. If you choose an entity like the kind and all-forgiving bodhisattva as your visualization subject, you most likely won''t be able to make any progress even if you visualize conscientiously every day for the rest of your life. In fact, due to how conflicted such a visualization subject is with your current mental state, it could even make you weaker.

    ¡°Hence, it''s very important for you to choose the right visualization subject, one that is ideally highlypatible with both your mental state and your psychic body. I chose Mage Lin Ying, you have to choose your own subject. That is always the best way to go.

    ¡°However, I do have a suggestion. There should be some very powerful dragons in western mythology that are renowned for their fury, so I think that''s a direction that''s worth exploring for you. Take your time and have a good think, I''m going to go have some sweets."

    Sadou promptly departed from the visualization chamber in his pajamas as he spoke.

    ¡­¡­

    While Diana was selecting a visualization subject, Adam and Shae had already tracked down Dwight''s anomaly.

    Never had this process been this smooth!

    They had managed to find the anomaly in a very short time, and Dwight''s personality was a major factor in why the process had gone so smoothly.

    It''s so good to finally have an anomaly that just charges out like a brainless wild beast instead of hiding and running all the time!

    Not long after they entered the psychic world, they found the psychic module in which Dwight hadmitted the bar shooting, and the beastly anomaly had been right behind him.

    In contrast with some of the cunning anomalies that Adam had dealt with in the past, this anomaly was an embodiment of all of the violent tendencies stemming from Dwight''s bipr disorder. It was forcibly controlled by being bound behind Dwight by countless psychic threads, but whenever Dwight flew into a rage, those threads wouldpletely vanish, unleashing the beastly anomaly that they bound.

    "What an unfortunate story. His condition could''ve been easily cured if he had gone to an adapter psychotherapist earlier," Adam remarked. "This anomaly doesn''t look very strong. I think you can handle it on your own, Shae. It''ll be a good training exercise."

 Chapter 270: Genius

    <h4>Chapter 270: Genius</h4>

    Adam was apanied by Shae in her werewolf form, and she immediately nodded in response before pouncing at the ferocious anomaly with a loud roar.

    The two of them were immediately locked in a fierce battle, and it was a very primitive, physical sh, with neither side employing the use of any special abilities.

    It had already been a very long time since Shae had fought in a battle like this.

    Back in Shadow City, she had been too weak to be of any help to Adam, and even now, she was still too weak for Adam to take her on missions.

    However, as a nk te who had lived a lie for most of her life up to this point, she was just as resentful and vengeful as Adam, if not more so.

    She craved power, and she had always been training conscientiously, but for a normal adapter like her, the process of getting stronger was incredibly slowpared with Adam''s astonishing rate of progress.

    Powerful adapters like Eyeless and Hebi no Miko were the absolute cream of the crop, and not everyone could be as formidable as them.

    Shae wasn''t a genius. Even though she was slowly developing from her training, she was still only roughly on par with the ordinary mature adapters in society.

    She desperately wanted to acquire more power through battle, and Adam had identified this desire, which was why he was refraining from participating in this battle.

    Shae and the anomaly fought all the way from the bar to the corner, then bulldozed their way through the wall while tearing ferociously at one another, killing some pub patrons and destroying some tables and chairs in the process. Meanwhile, Adam was serving the role of protector to Dwight''s psychic body, shielding him from all of the objects that were being haphazardly flung in his direction throughout the course of Shae''s battle.

    He caught a bar fridge before setting it down onto the ground, much to Dwight''s gratitude and amazement.

    "Thanks, brother. You look really strange, but you''re a pretty strong guy."

    In the psychic world, Dwight was a cheerful young man, and having escaped the control of his anomaly, he appeared to be far more optimistic and outgoing than he did in the real world.

    "If you didn''t have bipr disorder, you would be super popr with thedies," Adam said as he yfully poked Dwight''s bulging bicep. "Take a look at these pythons!"

    Dwight chuckled in amusement upon hearing this.

    "I was always really strong, even as a child, and I''ve been training from a young age. By the way, what''s your name? I feel like I''ve seen you somewhere before."

    "You''ve met me in another world."

    This version of Dwight was clearly younger than the one in the real world, which meant that at this point in his life, he still hadn''t been locked up in prison yet.

    "How unfortunate..."

    "What''s unfortunate?"

    "Nothing. Don''t mind me, I''m just thinking out loud. Stay here and don''t go anywhere, I''ll go check out how the fight is going."

    Adam passed through the hole that had been smashed into the wall by Shae as he spoke, arriving outside the pub, where there was a hotdog stand and a small carpark.

    Shae and the anomaly were still locked in a fierce battle, and the anomaly was clearly stronger than her, having forced her down onto the ground beneath its imposing body. However, one of Shae''s heads had sunk its fangs into the anomaly''s shoulder, while the other head was sting a jet of mes straight into the anomaly''s face.

    A loud explosion rang out as the anomaly was sent flying back through the air, while Shae''s other head was also charredpletely ck, and the acrid scent of burnt fur was wafting through the air.

    "Man, this smells exactly like that time my golden retriever slept next to the firece for too long."

    While Adam was watching the battle, all of the pub patrons and pedestrians on the street had already fled for their lives, but Dwight didn''t seem to be scared at all. He followed Adam out into the open and was watching the fight with a nostalgic expression.

    "This smell really brings back some fond memories for me. By the way, I don''t think your pet is holding up too well."

    "That''s not my pet. It''s my, uh... friend."

    Adam didn''t really know how to refer to Shae. In the past, he had always thought that she was his younger sister, but he really didn''t know how they were rted now.

    "It looks like your friend is about to lose."

    "I wouldn''t be so sure of that."

    After mbering to her feet, Shae immediately activated Hellhound''s Hyperspeed ability, which had saved Adam''s life on more than one asion back when he was a far weaker adapter than he currently was.

    In this particr scenario, Shae was using Hyperspeed to elerate her attack, rather than to run away.

    As soon as she rose to her feet, she immediately charged rapidly at the anomaly. The anomaly charged directly at her as well, yet right as they were about to sh, Shae dodged to the side to avoid the oing anomaly, then scratched a small wound onto its abdomen using her Pyrows ability.

    At the same time, she predicted where the anomaly was going tond before sting an Explosive Fireball at that exact spot out of one of her mouths.

    The Explosive Fireball detonated a car, sending the anomaly flying through the air.

    It was a very sessful sequence of attacks, but only minor injuries had been inflicted onto the anomaly, and after itnded on the ground, it began to snarl ferociously at Shae like a tiger.

    Through this sequence of shes, Adam was able to identify that this anomaly was close to a level three anomaly, and it was more powerful than even the most formidable level two anomalies.

    At the moment, Shae was also roughly on the same level. Perhaps she was a little weaker than the anomaly, but definitely not by much.

    Hellhound had previously already been a level two anomaly, and it had managed to devour some anomalic power in Sithu''s psychic world.

    As for Shae, she had developed slowly and steadily through her training, to the point that her powers were now on par with those of a standard mature adapter.

    Thebination of the two resulted in a product that was also roughly at the pinnacle of level two anomalies.

    Thus, there wasn''t much of a power gap between the two, which made the anomaly an ideal opponent.

    If Shae could secure the victory, then both her confidence and battle experience would benefit immensely, and even if she were to lose, Adam would always be able to bail her out.

    However, he didn''t want to step in, and he also knew that Shae didn''t want him to intervene.

    Hence, Adam continued to watch from the sidelines as the two beastly creatures continued to tear at one another, disying no intention of helping Shae at all. The battle wore on for close to an hour, and due to how closely matched the pair ofbatants were, it was an extremely brutal fight, with both sides sustaining severe injuries.

    Ultimately, Shae was able toe out on top.

    She emerged from the carpark, holding one of the stone pirs for support, and her other arm had already disappeared, while the rest of her body was also riddled with injuries.

    However, the pain from her injuries was far outweighed by the joy and sense of achievement from securing such a hard-fought victory, so she was able to smile through the pain.

    "Thanks for not helping me."

    "You should be thanking yourself. I would''ve stepped in if you couldn''t win." Adam beckoned to Shae as he spoke. "Come here and split up from Hellhound. What''s about to happen next is what you should really be thanking me for."

    A faint smile appeared on Adam''s face at the sight of the anomalic power left behind by Dwight''s anomaly.

 Chapter 271: Nhggr

    <h4>Chapter 271: Nhggr</h4>

    The anomaly had left behind almost the same amount of anomalic power that would be yielded by a level three anomaly, and that was quite a precious resource to Adam.

    The anomalic power wasn''t going to be very effective on his higher-level anomalies, but he was very eager to evolve Distortion, which was still only a level two anomaly at this point.

    Distortion had disyed formidablebat prowess on many asions, and Adam had always wanted to evolve it, but unfortunately, the correct circumstances to do so had never arisen.

    At the moment, his priority was to have a sane helper by his side when he went on his missions, so he had no choice but to evolve Hellhound at the expense of Distortion''s development.

    Hellhound was the anomaly that was mostpatible with Shae, and it was the only one that she was able to fuse smoothly with.

    "You''re a lucky little rascal. Go on then," Adam instructed as he pointed at the cloud of anomalic power.

    After splitting up from Shae, Hellhound immediately hobbled over to the body of anomalic power as quickly as it could before digging in like a starving dog.

    "You better evolve! Don''t let me down!"

    This wasn''t the anomalic power of a level three anomaly, so Adam still wasn''t fully confident that it would be able to trigger an evolution.

    He watched intently as Hellhound devoured all of the anomalic power, and it was able topletely recover from its injuries, but that was the extent of its transformation.

    "Was that all for nothing?" Adam made his way over to Hellhound before firmly patting its heads. "Why are you not evolving? Hurry up and grow a third head! If you don''t, I don''t think I''ll be able to bring you into the next two psychic worlds!"

    Dwight appeared to be extremely violent, and his imposing physical appearance certainly contributed to that image, but Adam knew that he wasn''t a truly deranged criminal.

    Given his experience as a psychotherapist, Adam could tell that Dwight was only mentally ill and was unable to control his own emotions at times. He suffered from severe mood swings as a result of his bipr disorder, but that was the extent of his mental ailments.

    As a result, his anomaly wasn''t actually all that powerful, and he was far less mentally disturbed than someone like Shaun.

    However, the same didn''t apply to the other two inmates, "Head Collector" Sima Kai and "Angel of Death" Noah.

    It was clear just from the crimes that they hadmitted that they were no less deranged than the likes of Sithu and Shaun.

    If Hellhound couldn''t evolve here, then Adam was rather reluctant to bring Shae into the other two psychic worlds.

    "Hurry up! Evolve!"

    Adam continued to pat Hellhound''s heads repeatedly, and as he did so, Hellhound seemed to have finally finished digesting all of the anomalic power that it had devoured. It let loose a loud burp, following which dense ck mist began to rise up from its body, and it began to undergo a transformation. Its body became more muscr and well-defined, and mes were also spouting out of its fangs.

    "Keep it up!"

    The third head that Adam was eagerly awaiting didn''t appear, but as the transformation continued, one of Hellhound''s heads underwent a clear change.

    The fiery patterns on that head began to disappear, while the head itself expanded in size, and its fangs became sharper than those of the other head. In particr, the mandibles on that head had clearly be more well-developed than those of the other head.

    "What happened here? Why are your two heads not the same size now?" Adam raised an eyebrow at the sight of the new Hellhound. "It doesn''t look good now that it''s all asymmetrical."

    "I think it''s very good. One head will be used for close-quartersbat, while the other one attacks over long distances."

    Shae dragged her injured body over to Hellhound before fusing with it again.

    Afterpleting the fusion process, her werewolf form had be even taller than before, but the two heads of different sizes looked very strange, sitting on her shoulders.

    However, Shae didn''t care about how she looked. As long as she could be more powerful, her appearance wasn''t a concern for her.

    "Test out your new powers," Adam prompted, and Shae immediately obliged, opening her mouth to unleash a burst of mes.

    As opposed to a fireball, she was now able to release a thick pir of fire that hurtled through the entire carpark before instantly setting a truck alight. It took only several seconds for the truck to be burned down to its metal frame, and the effect was even more powerful than Hellhound''s previous Explosive Fireball.

    After that, Shae made her way over to one of the stone pirs in the carpark, then sank the fangs of herrger head into the pir. A loud cracking sound rang out, and arge chunk of the reinforced concrete pir was snapped off as if it were a piece of chocte in a terrifying disy of bite force.

    "Not bad at all!" Adam nodded with a pleased expression. "You don''t have a whole host of abilities like Nun does, but you''d definitely beat her in a direct battle in this form."

    "Finally, I won''t be aplete dead weight now," Shae said as she heaved a sigh of relief. "Should we get out of here now?"

    "Not yet. I''m not a psychotherapist right now. Instead, I''m a police officer and a chronicler. I need to record aplete story of Dwight''s life in order to produce apelling narrative. A rags-to-riches underdog story of a slum child who went on to be a professional athlete will surely be a hit. We''ll start off with his childhood first.

    ¡°Then we''ll move on to his rise, detailing how he left the slums and made a name for himself. After thates the fall from grace, wherein his mental illness led to his criminal activity and incarceration..."

    ¡­¡­

    While Adam was chronicling Dwight''s life, Diana had found a dragon that she deemed to be a suitable visualization subject.

    It was the dragon N¨ªeh?ggr of Norse mythology.

    The dragon embodied destruction and despair, and it was feared even by the gods.

    It dwelled at the bottom of the world tree, constantly gnawing at its roots to destroy it from its foundation. If the world tree were to perish, then the world would be destroyed, and Ragnar?k would arrive.

    As the very embodiment of disaster and annihtion, N¨ªeh?ggr possessed a destructive, obsessivepulsion that devoured its entire being.

    This type of mental state was very simr to Diana''s, and it also shared many simrities with Diana''s psychic body, the most prominent of which was the fact that they were both dragons. Hence, it was the ideal visualization subject for her.

    Most importantly, its powers weren''t inferior to Yamata no Orochi''s in the slightest.

    One of them was a dragon deity of Norse mythology prophesied to destroy the world, while the other was a world-destroying serpentine deity from Japanese mythology. If those two were to sh, then it would truly be an epic battle.

    "But how... do I... visualize?"

    Looking at the image of N¨ªeh?ggr that she had searched up on hermunicator, she began her first session of visualization. She imagined herself as N¨ªeh?ggr, but it didn''t take long for her to be agitated, and she didn''t make any progress at all.

    Unable to bear the agitation and frustration any longer, she emerged from the visualization chamber before arriving in the courtyard outside.

    Meanwhile, Sadou was indulging in some sweets while enjoying a massage from a beautiful female masseuse, looking as if he were having the time of his life.

    With his telegnosis, he was able to detect Diana long before she arrived, but he paid no heed to her and continued to savor the moment.

    "Have you chosen a subject?"

    Diana nodded in response.

    "What did you choose?"

    "N¨ªeh?ggr..."

    "I had a feeling you would go down this route. I have to warn you that your visualization subject will affect your mental state. You''re still so young, why obsess yourself with things like killing and revenge? God endowed you with such brilliant aptitude, it''s a massive waste that you''re not using your talents to enjoy your life!

    ¡°If you be affected by such a destructive and violent visualization subject, there''s a very good chance that you''ll suffer a very unfortunate fate. Are you sure you want to make this choice?"

    "I''m certain..." Diana replied without any hesitation.

    King Arthur was her only friend in this world, and she didn''t know what she was going to do with her life aside from dedicating it to avenging her only friend.

 Chapter 272: Elite VS Master

    <h4>Chapter 272: Elite VS Master</h4>

    "There''s something that I''ve been wondering ever since we werest attacked: how did Hebi no Miko be so powerful? It''s almost unfathomable that an adapter could reach such staggering heights."

    Adam was recording a rugby match in Dwight''s memories while chatting with Shae, who had already reverted back to her human form.

    "I don''t know, I wasn''t there."

    "Thank heavens you weren''t! If you were there, you would''ve died for sure. Even now, I still get chills when I think back to that battle. Do you remember the forbidden techniques unleashed by Yamata no Orochi after it was invoked by Oni no Miko?"

    "Of course, how could I forget?"

    Shae had witnessed everything taking ce in the battle royale through the 3D projection, and she had been utterly astonished by Yamata no Orochi''s disy of devastating power.

    "Let me put it this way for you: Hebi no Miko''s forbidden techniques are 10 times as powerful as that! One of them controls the true Yamata no Orochi, while the other was only using apletely inferior counterfeit. We were truly extremely fortunate to have survived that attack."

    Thinking back to the battle that had taken ce on that day, Yamata no Orochi''s forbidden technique had reduced several streets to moltenva in a matter of seconds. Adam had a feeling that he would''ve suffered psychic death had the Mechguard units arrived on the scene even a secondter than they had.

    "What are you trying to say?"

    Shae was already aware that Hebi no Miko was extremely powerful, and she knew that Adam wasn''t the type of person who would repeatedly talk about something for no reason.

    "What I''m trying to say is that there seems to be too much of a jump between Hebi no Miko and adapters of Oni no Miko''s level."

    Adam was referring to a level that he felt that he was also currently on.

    He had encountered many powerful adapters of this caliber in the past, including Diamond, Cowboy, Oni no Hanzou, Ikkaku, the three psychic mutants... In fact, it wasn''t inurate to say that the majority of the S tierbatants in Shadow City were around this level.

    However, it seemed like there was a massive, empty gulf between Hebi no Miko and all of the aforementioned adapters. There didn''t seem to be anyone who fell somewhere between Oni no Miko and Hebi no Miko. Instead, the next level up from adapters of Oni no Miko''s caliber contained only drastically more powerful adapters, such as Sadou, Hebi no Miko, and Masao Yamamoto.

    Another observation that he had made was that all of the adapters who stood at the very pinnacle of the pyramid possessed psychic bodies that were rted to mythology in one way or another.

    The only ones that Adam could think of that were more grounded in reality were Diana and Eyeless. Their psychic bodies were also steeped in mythological elements, but not as much as the others.

    "There must be some type of reason behind this, a reason that I''m currently unaware of," Adam analyzed. "Among all of the enemies that we''ve faced in the past, there have been clear power gaps, but none that have been quite this jarring. If we say Oni no Miko was a level five adapter, it feels to me like everyone above her had suddenly jumped up to level eight or level 10, rather than level 6. Do you get the same feeling?"

    "Now that you mention it, it does seem that way."

    Shae had also seen Sadou and Masao Yamamoto in action in the past, so she knew exactly what Adam was referring to.

    "I''m certain these top-tier adapters must have their own secrets. Once I''m done with everything here, I''m going to do some research on the matter. I''m sure Cowboy knows something about this. Oh, the match is over..."

    Adam wasn''t an avid rugby fan, but even he could tell that Dwight had put on an exceptional performance. His team''s defeat had all but been sealed, but it was his splendid performance that had dragged them back from the brink of defeat to a stunningeback victory.

    Dwight had yed several hundred matches throughout his career, but this was the only one that remained so clear in his memory, so it was clearly a match that meant a lot to him.

    Adam had decided to record this match so that the rugby fans in the outside world could emotionally resonate with Dwight''s story, thereby giving additional value to this piece of intellectual property.

    After that, Adam and Shae recorded all of Dwight''s important memories before preparing to depart.

    During the process, they discovered another anomaly, one that was extremely weak and represented depression.

    I suppose that makes sense. If Dwight only disyed violent tendencies without also suffering from depression, then it wouldn''t exactly be bipr disorder. However, it seems like Dwight''s violent tendencies far outweighed his depressive tendencies.

    The anomaly only yielded a paltry amount of anomalic power, which Adam fed to Camera, allowing it to develop from its ragdoll from into a level two anomaly.

    Even though a level two anomaly wasn''t going to be of much help to Adam at the moment, Camera''s powerful abilities and attributes still encouraged him to make this decision.

    Finally, it was time for Adam and Shae to leave Dwight''s psychic world.

    Dwight woke up almost at the exact same moment as Adam and Shae, which was quite a rare sight in a normal person, and a testament to his superior attributes as a former professional athlete.

    After chronicling Dwight''s life experiences, Adam had developed a sense of fondness for him.

    "What a pity. If you had gone to an adapter psychotherapist for treatment earlier, perhaps all of this could''ve been avoided."

    Dwight also heaved a long sigh upon hearing this.

    Having been rid of his anomalies, the violent emotions in his eyes hadpletely faded. In contrast with the violent bear of a man who had walked into this room, the current Dwight appeared to be just a calm middle-aged man with a particrly imposing physical presence.

    "I didn''t think it would actually be effective," Dwight sighed once again as he reveled in his newfound inner peace. "If I had known this would work, I would''ve gone to more psychotherapists. If only I had met you sooner."

    "It wouldn''t have mattered even if you had met me sooner, I wouldn''t have been able to help you back then," Adam replied with a smile.

    Several years ago, he had most likely still been confined in a hibernation chamber or locked up in someboratory. Back then, he would''ve been nothing more than a nk te who was incapable of helping anyone.

    "By the way, why didn''t you seek treatment for your condition?"

    The average person avoided adapter psychotherapeutic services as they werepelled to do so due to budgetary constraints.

    Treatment from an adapter psychotherapist could easily set one back hundreds of thousands of dors, making it an extremely unaffordable service. However, as a former rugby star, Dwight would''ve definitely been able to afford this treatment.

    "I did on two asions, but it didn''t work either time."

    "Why?"

    "I don''t know, but neither of them were able to cure my condition, so I thought the entire industry was a scam," Dwight replied. "As athletes who rely purely on our bodies without any retrofitting, we''re indoctrinated with certain ideologies by our coaches from a young age, making us very averse to modern things like prosthetics and psychotherapy.

    ¡°Hence, I was skeptical to begin with, and I was quick to condemn the entire idea before giving it a real chance."

    "I see." Adam nodded in response. "But I still can''t figure out why those two treatments would''ve failed."

    "Why else could it have failed?" Shae couldn''t help but interject here. "It''s because ordinary adapters can''t defeat anomalies of this level!"

    An enlightened look instantly appeared on Adam''s face upon hearing this.

    Indeed, in his eyes, level three anomalies were nothing but small fry, but they were insurmountable obstacles to many ordinary adapters. Looking at the adapters that had perished in Li Qi''s psychic world and the ones who had turned up for the special psychic police officerpetency examination, it was clear to see just how weak the average adapter was.

    An elite adapter was required to take care of a level three anomaly, but even elite adapters may not necessarily be willing to risk their life for such a task. Hence, a team of elite adapters or an adapter of an even higher caliber would''ve had to have been hired to treat Dwight''s condition.

    "Looks like I''ve be a little out of touch," Adam mused as he turned to Shae with a sheepish smile. "Let''s continue. The next two subjects aren''t going to be so easy to cure."

 Chapter 273: Energy Foodstuffs

    <h4>Chapter 273: Energy Foodstuffs</h4>

    After Dwight was taken away, it was already past noon, and Ryan brought Adam and Shae some lunch.

    "We only have some basic food here that''s provided by the warden''s cafeteria. It''s nothing special, but it''s quite convenient. What vor would you like?"

    Ryan offered a few food cubes to Adam as he spoke, and Adam was rather taken aback by what he saw.

    "What''s wrong?"

    "Nothing. It just feels... like thesergepanies are omnipresent sometimes."

    The food cubes being offered to Adam bore the brand "Sweet Energy" on them, and this was apany that Adam had recently gotten involved with.

    It was through thispany that Adam had first learned about Shivani. She had investigated thispany extensively in the past, even forcing Samit to flee to Shadow City during the course of her investigation.

    "I''m surprised thispany still exists."

    It seemed that Shivani was unable to topple this powerhouse in the end.

    "Why''s that? Thispany has always been quite sessful. In terms of food options on the market, it''s the most convenient and delicious option. I''ve also heard that thepany is working with an artificial meatpany, and they im that they no longer use animal meat in their products. Overall, their products are very environmentally friendly and have been approved by the animal protectionmittee."

    "Is that right? Sounds like they''re doing quite well."

    Adam was no longer invested in the shady dealings behind thispany. This world was full of filth, and there was no way that he could clean up everything.

    "What vor would you like? We have nuts, beef, and strawberry."

    "I''ll take the beef."

    For someone like him, who was already living on borrowed time, the potentially carcinogenic additives in these products weren''t of any concern.

    After opening the packaging, a ckpressed block that resembled a piece of chocte was revealed. Adam took a bite to find that it tasted just like beef jerky, and both the texture and taste were more than passable.

    After taking a few bites and chasing them down with a gulp of water, he immediately felt a sense of satiation.

    "This really is a very convenient product. It canpress a half-hour mealtime into just a minute. No wonder thepany is so sessful."

    While Adam was making this remark, Shae also picked up the strawberry-vored cube before taking a bite.

    Adam''s first reaction was to stop her, but it then urred to him that given their dangerous lifestyles, carcinogens were really thest of their concern.

    He didn''t stop Shae, but he did feel the need to issue Ryan a gentle warning.

    "Try to eat as little of this stuff as possible. It''s not good to use it as a meal substitute all the time."

    "Why''s that? I''m already used to eating this all the time."

    "You''ve helped me out a lot today, so let me tell you something. Back when I was in Shadow City, I entered the psychic world of an official from the National Medical Products Administration, and I discovered that the products of thispany don''tply with food health and safety standards."

    Ryan had been very helpful, and this wasn''t much of a secret, so Adam felt no need to hide it.

    "Is that true? Then why haven''t they..." Ryan was just about to ask further questions, but quickly caught himself upon realizing that it was inappropriate to pry into such matters. "I see. I''ll make sure not to eat theirpany''s products from now on, but there''s no guarantee that other simr food products on the market don''t also have problems."

    "That''s true. I''ve been trying to investigate these matters, but I''m afraid there''s only one of me, and I can''t look into everything at once."

    Adam was trying to paint himself in the best possible image. Even though his heart was filled with sinister thoughts and emotions, he cared about his image more than he ever had.

    His image was what was going to keep him safe, and it was also the biggest asset that he had to rely on if he wanted to be an important figure in the world.

    "I have a lot on my te right now. Compared with cases like these, which should be under the National Medical Products Administration''s jurisdiction, it would be a far better use of my time to bring more heinous criminals like child killers to justice, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "I fully agree." Ryan held a great deal of reverence toward Adam, and he was willing to share some intimate details about his past with his idol. "Everything that you''re doing is correct. To be honest, I''ve been keeping such close tabs on you not just because of my upation.

    ¡°Most importantly, I''ve been abused by sick individuals as a child, and the work that you''re doing really struck a chord with me. Thankfully, I was quite fortunate and managed to escape. Otherwise, I shudder to imagine what would''ve happened to me."

    "Don''t worry. Now that we have special psychic police officers, many criminals that have previously slipped through the cracks will be brought to justice," Adam dered as he patted Ryan on the shoulder. "Bring Sima Kai to me. There are certain elements of his case that can help me in my current investigation."

    "Sure thing. Please wait here for me."

    As Ryan left to fetch Sima Kai, Adam decided to take this opportunity to give Cowboy a call and ask him why there was such a huge gulf in power between the average elite adapter and those who stood at the very top of the adapter pyramid.

    However, before he had a chance to dial Cowboy''s number, he received a call from Cowboy.

    What a coincidence!

    Adam epted the call, and a 3D image of Cowboy was projected.

    Before he had a chance to say anything, Cowboy asked, "I heard you''re nning to make games, is that right?"

    "That''s right. Is that the reason why you called me?"

    "Is that not a sufficient reason?" Cowboy was clearly a little worked up. "Do you know how massive a market this is? It could potentially increase a billion-dorpany''s valuation by tenfold or even more than that! How could you leave me out of something so lucrative?"

    "Really? I didn''t know this industry was that lucrative!"

    Adam had no sense of business whatsoever. The most money that he had ever seen in one ce was the prize money that the three psychic mutants had earned from the Shadow City battle royale.

    He had virtually no experience in the field of business, and he had no idea what was required for billion-dorpanies to increase their valuation so significantly.

    "Let me put it this way for you: due to the emergence of the Metaverse, the scale of the game market has be significantly more massive than before. Even back a century ago, it''s not a rare sight for a major gamingpany to reach valuations in the tens of billions.

    ¡°You are an extremely sought-after public figure right now, and everything that you do garners an enormous amount of public interest, so the things that you''re going to produce hold far more value than you can imagine."

    "So..."

    "So, I called you to discuss a coboration. You have the fame and the content, but that''s not enough to create top-tier games. The production of AAA games requires the support of a mature gamingpany and arge andpetent production team. I heard that your coborative partner in this endeavor is someone who doesn''t even work in the gaming industry.

    ¡°The most hardcore gamers aren''t going to ept a product that''s rough around the edges. If you don''t do something about this, you''re going to be allowing a huge chunk of the money that you could potentially be making to go to waste. Here''s my proposal: let''s work together..."

    "Hold on," Adam interjected. "Aren''t you already extremely wealthy?"

    "It''s not enough. For me, money is not something to be spent. Instead, it''s a type of driving force."

    "Couldn''t you do this yourself?"

    "No. There are certain issues with my identity, and I''m nowhere near as famous as you right now."

    "What about other people?"

    "Setting aside the fact that there are very few people as renowned as you right now, even if there were, it would still be very difficult to find a suitable partner among them. This venture doesn''t appear to have a very high barrier to entry, but looks can be very deceiving.

    ¡°You''re a special psychic police officer, so you''re very renowned and can legally obtain these true stories. In addition to that, you''re only able to venture into the psychic worlds of these disturbed individuals because you''re a powerful adapter.

    ¡°All of the most heinous criminals harbor extremely fearsome anomalies, and there are very few adapters who can deal with anomalies of that level. Even if there were, none of them are willing to take the massive risks that you do."

 Chapter 274: The Beauty of Human Heads

    <h4>Chapter 274: The Beauty of Human Heads</h4>

    "Alright, final question: why is it that beyond a certain point, there seems to be a massive power gap between top-level adapters?"

    This was the question that Adam was most interested in getting an answer to.

    Compared with money and influence, power was what Adam desired the most. Only with sufficient power could he keep himself safe while doing many of the things that he wanted to do.

    "It''s just a matter of visualization. I get pissed off every time I think about this! There aren''t any suitable deities for me to visualize based on my fighting style, so I''m stuck here making no progress!"

    "What''s visualization?"

    "You don''t know what visualization is? How do you not know this after staying in Shadow City for so long?" Cowboy was very much taken aback by this question. "Didn''t you meet the director?"

    "Er..." Adam thought back to his meeting with the director, where they hadn''t discussed anything outside of their blood ties and the lost footage. "Why is this something that I should know about just because I met the director?"

    "He''s widely renowned as the most adept visualizer among all powerful adapters. How do you not know this?"

    "I don''t have very good information sources."

    Adam had been alone ever since he first awakened, and out of all of the people that he hade into contact with, most of them had tried to use him rather than help him.

    It had always been like this, from the pawn shop to the northern congress.

    Out of the few friends that he had been able to make, most of them were dead.

    "Anyway, can you exin what visualization is to me?"

    "Sure..."

    Thus, Cowboy gave Adam a brief summary of the concept of visualization, showing him the path to the top.

    "The more powerful an adapter is, the more unchartered territory they find themselves in. They''ve already gone far beyond the beaten path, and every top-tier adapter is constantly searching for new paths forward. Some have tried to use technology to alter their brains, some employ other methods of enhancement... You''ll find out more once you get to that level."

    "Is visualization why Hebi no Miko is so powerful?"

    "Hebi no Miko is a special case. Her neurons are naturally more developed than the average adapter, and her brain was altered in an illegal testing experimentation facility back when she was a child. I heard that all of the subjects participating in that experiment died, with her being the only exception, so she''s a bit different from normal adapters."

    "Who''s the most powerful out of her, the director, Sadou, and Boss May from the pawn shop?"

    "I don''t know. None of those people have ever fought each other in a serious battle before," Cowboy replied, clearly not wanting to dwell on this subject any longer. "Let''s get back on topic: I''ll be your new coborative partner for your gaming endeavor. Agreed?"

    "Sure."

    Adam was aplete novice when it came to business, and his power was limited, so it was definitely good news to have someone to work with.

    At the very least, if he could fully capitalize on this opportunity, then he would never have to worry about money again.

    After ending the call with Cowboy, Adam discussed the concept of visualization with Shae. At the same time, he searched up some different branches of mythology, but was unable to find any deity that was both extremely powerful and had a high level ofpatibility with himself.

    Now that he had fused as one with Clown, his most prominent traits were his abilities and his cunning personality. Based on that set of criteria, the mostpatible deity that he found was the Norse God of Mischief, Loki.

    "This guy doesn''t seem very strong..."

    One''s visualization subject had a direct bearing on how powerful the visualizer could be, and the more advanced a visualizer was, the more their psychic body woulde to resemble their visualization subject.

    Unfortunately for Adam, Loki was a rather mediocre visualization subject when it came to power.

    "Can''t you make up a god of your own?"

    "Cowboy told me that it''s very difficult to visualize using apletely fictitious subject that doesn''t have any cultural basis or foundation. It''s very difficult to convince oneself to believe in such a subject, so the visualization will be virtually useless."

    Even in this endeavor of self-hypnotism, there had to be some type of foundation. It was very difficult for one tomit themselves mentally to something that they had made up on their own.

    "I''ll think about this some other time. I have other ways to enhance my powers for now, anyway."

    Compared with visualization, absorbing the anomalic power of others was clearly a faster route for improvement in Adam''s eyes.

    Ultimately, visualization could only be a supplementary training tool.

    Shortly thereafter, the second inmate was brought into the interrogation room by Ryan.

    In stark contrast with Dwight''s imposing frame and violent demeanor upon arrival, Sima Kai waspletely unremarkable in appearance and appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary, calm elderly man.

    He was around 170 centimeters tall and was of Asian descent. He was wearing a pair of small old-school sses, and his hair was immactelybed.

    He was the type of person that one would immediately forget after passing by on the street, but as soon as he entered the room, Adam was immediately struck by a sense of clear difort.

    "What are you looking at?"

    From the instant that the man entered the room, he immediately began inspecting Adam''s head.

    Unlike a normal person, who looked at the faces of others, his attention was focused on the head.

    Furthermore, he was inspecting Adam''s head as if he were examining a piece of artwork.

    This behavior,bined with the knowledge that Sima Kai had a fetish for collecting human heads, was enough to make even Adam a little ufortable.

    "Are you looking to see if my head is worth collecting?" Adam asked.

    "That''s right. Your skull is the best-looking one I''ve seen in a while!" Sima Kai readily admitted while continuing to stare at Adam''s head. "The bones have beautiful lines and curves, and you also have the best skin out of anyone I''ve seen for quite some time. If I could preserve your skin along with your skull, that would be a brilliant addition to my collection."

    Ryan was unable to suppress his disgust for Sima Kai upon hearing this, and he immediately zapped him so that he wouldn''t be able to continue talking.

    As the electric currents ran through Sima Kai''s thin and frail body, he involuntarily curled up like a shrimp, but there was no pain etched on his face whatsoever, and not only was he still staring at Adam, he had developed an erection.

    "What a fucking freak!"

    Looking at the abhorrent man before him, Adam felt as if there were countless ants crawling all over his body at once. His rage was building by the second, and the brutal Clown facet of his personality made him want to stomp the man''s head open like a watermelon.

    "Keep your cool! Don''t let him get to you!"

    Shae could sense that Adam had entered an emotionally unstable state, and she hurriedly tugged on his clothes to snap him back to his senses.

    "Let''s get started! I don''t want to spend any more time with this man than necessary!"

    After Sima Kai was tied to his chair, Adam instructed Ryan to leave the room, then switched on the recorder before entering his psychic world with Shae.

    Upon entering Sima Kai''s psychic world, the two of them were immediately taken out of the interrogation room and arrived on a sports field.

    This appears to be some university...

    Adam was able to gauge the setting by inspecting the surrounding buildings.

    As soon as Shae arrived, she immediately erupted into a violent coughing fit. There was a sharp scent of formaldehyde in the air, and it was making her extremely ufortable.

    "The environment in here is terrible!"

    "That means our opponent is going to be very strong."

    The more hostile the environment in a psychic world, the more powerful the anomaly that it harbored.

    Just the overwhelming smell of formaldehyde in the air here was enough to force out low-level adapters, and the environment in this psychic world was no less hostile than Sithu''s.

    However, Sithu was a schizophrenic, and he previously harbored arge number of anomalies, but none of them were particrly strong, with the exception of Raven.

    In contrast, Sima Kai had never disyed any signs of schizophrenia, so it was most likely the case that there was only a single anomaly in his psychic world, one that was extremely formidable.

 Chapter 275: Human Head

    <h4>Chapter 275: Human Head</h4>

    After taking a moment to inspect his surroundings, Adam immediately invoked Nun and Hellhound, the former of which was to be used for scouting purposes.

    Following its transformation, Hellhound appeared to be stronger than before, and its mismatching heads further contributed to its menacing appearance.

    As soon as it was invoked, Shae pressed a hand against its chest and began to slowly fuse with it.

    Having fought alongside one another on many asions, the two of them were bing more and morepatible.

    Initially, it had required around 10 minutes for them to fuse together, but at this point, that duration had been whittled down to only a minute or two. She still couldn''t instantly fuse with Hellhound like Adam could with his anomalies, but that was still certainly a marked improvement.

    After adopting her werewolf form, the difort that Shae felt from her environment was significantly alleviated, and she was able to take a deep breath and regain her bearings.

    "Where do we start?"

    "Let''s start with this ce."

    Without Hook by his side, exploring someone''s psychic world had be somewhat of a guessing game, and it was very inefficient.

    Shae''s mind seemed to have wandered down the same path, and she sighed, "If only Hook was here."

    The human side of Adam''s personality still harbored a sense of guilt and remorse over Hook''s death.

    "If it wasn''t for me, he would still be alive right now."

    "Indeed. We are the ones at the center of this mess, he and Nie Yiyi were just innocent bystanders," Shae sighed with a forlorn expression. "Somehow, we ended up surviving, but those around us have lost their lives."

    "I''ll make sure the people who did this to us pay for everything."

    Adam began to make his way into the school as he spoke.

    As he did so, he was wondering whether it would be a good idea to conceal himself. Even though people in the psychic world weren''t anywhere near as logical as those in the real world, they would be fearful at the sight of "monsters".

    However, he quickly discovered that his concerns were unnecessary.

    This was because all of the people here were extremely bizarre in appearance, looking like grotesque humanoid abominations. Seeing as everyone was so strange in appearance, Adam fit right in with the crowd.

    "Are these all aberrations?"

    Shae made her way over to one of the bystanders before swiping at them with her ws, only to find that they were pitifully weak and were disemboweled from just a single attack.

    Given how weak these creatures were, it seemed that they were nothing more than ordinary bystanders in this psychic world, rather than aberrations.

    "What''s going on here? If these things aren''t aberrations, then they should look like normal humans!"

    "Perhaps this is what people look like in the eyes of Sima Kai." For someone as twisted as him, it made sense that he saw the world differently from everyone else. "It seems like these people have been split up into different categories.

    ¡°he dolls withrge heads are the ones with good-looking heads, the slightly mutated ones have ordinary heads, and those hideous abominations are most likely the ones with heads that he deems to be ugly. In any case, let''s find the host first. I recall from his file that he''s a zoologist, right?"

    "That''s what the warden told us."

    "If he''s a zoologist, and we''re in a university right now, could it be that he''s working here as a teacher?" Adam spected as he followed the signs in the schoolyard to the Department of Biology.

    Upon arriving there, Adam could immediately sense that the environment had be even more hostile.

    "Looks like we''re in the right ce."

    Adam made his way into the school building, and the lights in the surrounding area were switched on, but it was so dark that visibility was next to zero. Furthermore, the wallpaper was disying significant signs of cracking and peeling, as if it had been corroded by formaldehyde.

    "Make sure to be on your guard, and don''t rush into battle," Adam said as he continued to slowly make his way forward.

    Even though the entire ce was extremely dpidated, the signs on the doors were still firmly attached, and after some searching, he quickly found an office door that bore Sima Kai''s name.

    "This is it! Get back!"

    Adam kicked the door open to reveal a huge office.

    .

    It was like a massive storage room with all types of human models and animal samples.

    "He doesn''t seem to be in here..."

    Adam had only just begun speaking when he detected a sense of danger through his telegnosis, and he immediately took evasive measures without any hesitation, sessfully dodging a surprise attack from the side.

    He had been attacked by a human model, and even though it was only a stic model, it was disying remarkable speed and explosiveness. After failing to strike Adam with its initial attack, it immediately turned and charged at him again, only to be promptly shot down.

    "What on earth is this? It doesn''t seem to be an anomaly or an aberration," Adam mused as he made his way toward the human model, only for it to abruptly explode.

    The sound of the explosion seemed to have alerted something, and a strange voice quickly rang out in the distance.

    "Who''s trespassing on my territory?"

    The voice was quickly getting closer, and Adam spotted a spider-like anomaly crawling through the corridor.

    The anomaly''s face was quite simr to Sima Kai''s, and Adam knew that he had found the host.

    Well, that was fast.

    Adam had nothing to say to an anomaly like this, so he immediately pulled out his gatling gun and pelted the creature with a barrage of bullets.

    The spider anomaly was extremely fast, and its speed would''ve allowed it to dodge all of the bullets, but unfortunately, the corridor was too narrow and enclosed, making it unable to evade all of the oing attacks.

    As a result, a series of holes were instantly punched into its body, much to Adam''s surprise.

    Why is it so weak?

    Adam had thought that Sima Kai''s psychic world would''ve been harboring something like a level six anomaly with overall power that was close to Eyeless''s level.

    This was the first truly mentally disturbed individual that he had encountered since Sithu, and he was already even prepared to put his life on the line in this battle.

    In the face of such a formidable anomaly, he had expected his bullets to be next topletely ineffective, but it seemed that this was not the case.

    Is it trying to lure me into a false sense of security?

    Adam knew that some anomalies were extremely cunning, and he didn''t dare to let his guard down. Instead, he threw down his gatling gun and switched to an even more powerful weapon, sting a projectile out of his rocketuncher to trigger a massive explosion.

    Amid the smoke and mes, the anomaly''s body was instantly riddled with wounds.

    Two of its "spider legs", which were formed by human arms, had been snapped, and it was reduced to a pitiful state.

    What the hell''s going on?

    Adam became even warier upon seeing this, and right as he loaded another projectile into his rocketuncher, the anomaly suddenly crashed through the wall before rushing into the office area.

    As Adam rushed out in pursuit, he saw the anomaly searching through the office area for a while before finding a ss jar that was filled with formaldehyde, immersed within which was a perfectly preserved human head.

    As soon as the anomaly found the ss jar, it immediately smashed the container before grabbing the head inside.

    All of a sudden, the eyes of the head abruptly sprang open, even though its owner was clearly long dead, and it let loose a sharp screech at Adam.

 Chapter 276: The Second Head

    <h4>Chapter 276: The Second Head</h4>

    The screech released a burst of soundwaves that were imbued with some type of strange, malicious energy, which sent Adam flying back through the air, only able to steady himself after he had crashed through a wall.

    It seems to have be stronger.

    As Adam mbered up from the ground, he saw the anomaly pick up the resurrected head before installing it onto its own body.

    After the head was installed, ayer of ck substance began to appear over its body, making it appear as if it had donned a suit of armor.

    At this point, Shae had already been waiting on the sidelines for quite some time, and she sprang forward as mes erupted out of her sharp ws, which she shed across the anomaly''s body.

    Sparks flew in all directions, and finally, the anomaly was beginning to live up to Adam''s expectations, disying remarkable defensive prowess that allowed it to remainpletely unharmed in the face of Shae''s attack.

    It really has be stronger.

    Clown''s forte wasn''t its offensive prowess. If it weren''t using its clones, its offensive prowess wasn''t superior by muchpared with Shae in her current form. Hence, the fact that the spider anomaly was able to withstand Shae''s attack without sustaining any damage indicated that Adam''s attacks most likely weren''t going to have much of an effect, either.

    Even so, Adam still pulled out his gatling gun before opening fire.

    The barrage of bullets formed a metallic wave that swept toward the spider anomaly, but the damage inflicted was virtually negligible.

    It was as if the bullets had struck a block of steel, and the majority of them were repelled, while a small proportion of the bullets were able to embed themselves into the anomaly''s body, but only to very limited effect.

    Having absorbed that head, the anomaly''s defensive prowess had received a significant boost. Adam''s offensive prowess wasn''t particrly remarkable, but that was only whenpared with adapters of the same caliber. Ultimately, his powers were still on par with a level five anomaly''s, and he hadn''t encountered many opponents that were able to remain virtuallypletely unscathed in the face of an all-out barrage from his gatling gun.

    Even the likes of Eyeless and Medusa didn''t dare to withstand such a ferocious storm of attacks head-on, and the only one that Adam could think of that couldpletely ignore a wave of attacks like this was Diamond.

    It''s finally starting to be as strong as I expected.

    Even though Adam''s attacks weren''t having much of an effect, he remainedpletely unfazed and immediately invoked his super bodyguard, Sludge.

    Sludge was able topensate for Clown''sckluster offensive prowess.

    As soon as it appeared in its stone giant form, its enormous stature resulted in its head crashing directly through the roof. Its massive body filled close to half of the room, and upon receiving an instruction to attack, it immediately began swinging its huge fists at the spider anomaly.

    Sludge possessed no abilities to enhance its offensive prowess, but its physical strength was incredible. With each punch that it threw, a ferocious gust of wind would be swept up in the room, and the spider anomaly''s body was creaking audibly under Sludge''s powerful fists.

    It didn''t take long before the anomaly was forced to the ground, unable to withstand the fearsome assault, and a crater that was half a meter deep was smashed into the ground beneath its body.

    Soon, one of the spider anomaly''s legs was broken, but before Sludge was able to capitalize on that, the anomaly scurried away with its remarkable speed.

    Its body wasn''t particrly massive, and due to its spider-like form, it was extremely agile and maneuverable in confined spaces, allowing it to scurry through a crack in the wall in a sh.

    Sludge immediately tried to give chase, but it was hindered by its enormous body, struggling to force its way through the room that it was stuck in.

    Of course, with its tremendous strength, it wasn''t a difficult task for Sludge to barrel its way straight through the walls, but its speed would obviously be negatively impacted, and there was no way that it would be able to catch such a fast-moving anomaly.

    Thankfully, aside from Sludge, Adam and Shae were also present on the scene, and they immediately sprang into action to intercept the fleeing anomaly.

    The anomaly forced its way through their attacks and crashed through the wall of the school building, bursting out into the open before continuing to flee through a corridor outside.

    Adam also charged out of the building in hot pursuit.

    The spider anomaly was extremely fast, but Adam was also no slouch when it came to speed. As the chase continued, the two of them quickly arrived at ake on the university premises, and the anomaly rushed over to a tree beside theke before digging up another ss jar.

    This jar contained another human head, and this one belonged to a woman.

    After the jar was shattered, the head was instantly resurrected, and it screamed as it was installed onto the spider anomaly''s body.

    By the time the second head was attached, Adam had only just arrived, and he could see the wounds on the spider anomaly''s body healing at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.

    Prior to installing the first head, the spider anomaly had already sustained some injuries from Adam''s attacks, and even though its defensive prowess had been enhanced following the instation of the first head, it didn''t recover from its injuries.

    However, that was no longer the case following the instation of the second head, which seemed to have significantly enhanced its regenerative abilities.

    In what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye, it hadpletely recovered from all of its injuries, and its broken legs also reattached themselves together. Before long, it was as if it had never been injured in the first ce.

    It looks like it gains a new ability with each head that it fits onto its body.

    A grim look appeared in Adam''s eyes as he made this observation.

    ording to his file, Sima Kai had collected a total of seven heads, yet only two of them had been installed thus far, and itsbat prowess was already not inferior to Diamond''s.

    Diamond''s fighting style relied almost solely on his near-imprable defenses and his enormous body weight, but he was quite mediocre when it came to his other abilities.

    In its current form, this anomaly''s defensive capabilities were slightly inferior to Diamond''s, but its regenerative abilities had far outstripped Diamond''s, thereby granting it superior overall physical resistance.

    Its destructive capabilities were also inferior to Diamond''s, but it made up for that with its speed and agility, so it really was difficult to say which one of the two possessed superior overall power.

    Adam didn''t even dare to imagine just how formidable this anomaly was going to be if it were allowed to collect all seven heads.

    I have to kill it before it gets any stronger!

    With that in mind, Adam immediately conjured up an army of clones, all of which pulled out their most powerful weapons before bombarding the spider anomaly with a ferocious barrage of attacks.

    Some of the clones were firing at the anomaly with their gatling guns, some concealed themselves before sneaking behind it and adhering stic explosives to its back. Some were firing their rocketunchers directly at its heads, and some were hurling all types of grenades and explosives through the air.

    All of a sudden, it was as if the schoolyard had transformed into a battlefield on which two opposing armies were waging war against each other, and dirt and shrapnel were flying in all directions, while the water in theke was also stirred up violently.

    However, despite the ferocity of Adam''s attacks, the anomaly remainedrgely unscathed.

    Adam''s attacks were only able to inflict some minor injuries onto the anomaly''s body, all of which it was able to quickly recover from.

 Chapter 277: Pausing Memories

    <h4>Chapter 277: Pausing Memories</h4>

    Adam''sckluster offensive prowess was being exposed again.

    Thankfully, he was well aware of his own limitations, and he never nned to kill the anomaly on his own. It didn''t take long before the ground beneath his feet began to tremble and rumble, and he knew that Sludge, the true star of the show, had arrived.

    As soon as it arrived on the scene, it immediately charged into the barrage of attacks being unleashed by Adam''s clones before stomping a massive foot down onto the spider anomaly.

    The anomaly tried to dodge the attack, but Adam didn''t allow it to do so.

    His explosives were very limited in their effectiveness against the anomaly, but he was able to disrupt the anomaly''s movements with the shockwaves from the explosions.

    Thus, the anomaly was cornered by Adam''s attacks, and Sludge was able to stomp its foot forcefully down onto its body.

    Sludge''s bodyweight of over 10 tons came crashing down, enhanced by its enormous strength, causing the spider anomaly''s body to creak and groan as if it were about to fall apart at the seams, and that wasn''t the end of Sludge''s assault.

    After stomping the anomaly into the ground, Sludge bent over and began to tear at the anomaly violently with its powerful arms.

    Sludge was a very simple anomaly.

    Even though it was a high-level anomaly, it barely possessed any abilities, and in a gaming sense, it could be said that it had invested all of its stat points into attack and defense.

    Its strength and destructive capabilities had already reached Diamond''s level, and as it tugged on its opponent''s body, the anomaly''s skin and bones were struggling to hold themselves together.

    Adam certainly wasn''t going to pass up this opportunity. He immediately instructed his clones to swarm the anomaly before stabbing it repeatedly with their daggers.

    Originally, the daggers wouldn''t have been able to pierce through its skin, but the resilient protectiveyer over its body had already been torn apart in many ces by Sludge, thereby allowing the daggers to plunge into its body.

    At the same time, Shae was also eager to enter the fray. The cavernous mouth of herrger wolf head sprang open before sinking its fangs viciously into the anomaly''s body.

    The sharp fangs coupled with the incredible bite force produced abination that culminated in superior individual destructive power than Adam''s, and arge chunk of flesh was instantly torn out of the anomaly''s abdomen.

    Adam was ecstatic to see this, and he hurriedly stuffed a bunch of grenades into the wound before it could heal.

    "Get back!"

    The grenades were detonated after Shae had retreated to a safe distance away, and the resulting explosion blew close to half of the anomaly''s body wide open.

    As a result, the anomaly was finally unable to resist Sludge any longer, and its body was torn into two.

    Sludge mmed the two halves of the anomaly''s body onto the ground before continuing the pummel it ferociously, but without the hindrance posed by Adam''s long-range firepower output, the severely wounded spider anomaly was temporarily able to free itself before jumping straight into theke.

    "Don''t let it get away!"

    Adam and Sluge jumped into theke in unison.

    Theke wasn''t very deep, with water that was only around four to five meters in depth, and it wasn''t even enough topletely submerge Sludge.

    Adam ducked his head beneath the surface and began to search for the anomaly.

    The water in theke wasn''t very clear, and visibility was further negatively impacted by the algae growing on thekebed, but fortunately, Adam had a whole host of clones to assist him in his search, and it didn''t take long for one of the clones to spot a trail of blood, which it followed to the anomaly.

    However, at this point, the two halves of its body had already fused back together, and it had found a third jar in a gap between some rocks on thekebed.

    By the time Adam spotted it, it had already smashed the jar and installed the head inside onto its body.

    As soon as the third head was installed, a small vortex began to appear around it, and its body also became longer and sleeker. At the same time, strange ck spots began to appear over its skin.

    The anomaly then rushed directly at the nearest of Adam''s clones, and all the clone saw was a blur sh before its eyes. Before it had a chance to react, the anomaly had already arrived directly in front of it, then grabbed onto it with its eight legs before tearing its body to shreds.

    With the clone out of the way, the anomaly immediately swam up to the surface of theke.

    Adam could see everything that his clones saw, and after that clone was destroyed, he quickly rose to the surface before ordering Sludge to go after the spider anomaly.

    However, this time, Sludge was left well and truly in the dust.

    After absorbing its third head, the anomaly had be extraordinarily fast, so fast that it was able to run on water, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake.

    At this point, the anomaly had already be far too fast for either Adam or Shae to chase down.

    "What do we do?"

    "We''ve alerted the anomaly to our presence, so we''ve already made things quite difficult for ourselves. None of us are capable of chasing down such a fast anomaly."

    Not only was the anomaly far faster than Adam and his anomalies, it had already been spooked by this initial attack, so it was going to be next to impossible to catch.

    "What''s even more a problem is that now that it knows it''s in danger, it''ll definitely go and search for its other heads. If it manages to collect all seven of its heads, we won''t have any chance against it."

    "So what do we do now?"

    Adam considered the question momentarily, thinking back to his experience dealing with Sithu, then replied, "Let''s get out of here and put an end to this timeline."

    "What do you mean?"

    Shae was rather perplexed by this answer. How were they supposed to put an end to a timeline in the psychic world?

    "Let''s get out of here first."

    Adam departed from Sima Kai''s psychic world as he spoke, and Shae quickly followed suit.

    As soon as Adam opened his eyes in the real world, he immediately made his way over to Sima Kai''s side.

    He was nowhere near as healthy as Dwight, so he was still unconscious, and before he returned to his senses, Adam struck him with a few blows on the neck and on the head.

    "What are you doing?"

    "I''m knocking him out," Adam replied. "I haven''t received any training, so I don''t know where to strike to knock someone out, which is why I gave him a few hits just to make sure he''s knocked out."

    "Why would you... Oh, I get it!" An enlightened look appeared on Shae''s face. "This is what you meant by putting an end to the timeline!"

    In a sense, Sima Kai''s psychic world was also the world of his memories.

    In contrast with the average mentally ill individual, he was like Sithu and Shaun in that their psychic bodies had already fused as one with their anomalies, so they were essentially one and the same.

    In contrast, someone like Dwight was only affected by his anomaly during periods in which he was afflicted by his condition, but the majority of the time, he was no different from the average person.

    However, the same didn''t apply to Sima Kai. Even when he appeared to be "normal", he was still constantly appraising other people''s heads, which meant that he was constantly in an abnormal state, which made him aplete and utter psycho, rather than someone who only asionally suffered from their mental condition.

    In Sithu''s case, Adam had no prior experience in dealing with psychos like him, so he had carelessly allowed Sithu to hear some of his ns in the real world. As a result, as soon as he entered Sithu''s psychic world, he was immediately ambushed by a bunch of anomalies.

    This time, not only was he not going to make the same mistake, he was going to use the experience that he had gained from dealing with Sithu against Sima Kai.

 Chapter 278: Five Heads

    <h4>Chapter 278: Five Heads</h4>

    "What do we do now?"

    "We''re too slow to keep up with that anomaly, so we need to call up some allies that are fast enough to chase down the anomaly."

    Thankfully for Adam, Mole was perfectly suited to the task.

    With that in mind, he immediately dialed Mole''s number.

    "What is it now, Adam?"

    Mole''s slightly disgruntled voice quickly rang out from the other end of the line.

    "I need your help."

    "What is it this time? Why are you always causing trouble for us? First, you made us be police officers, then you made us fight that crazy woman, then you talk about how you want to make games and films, and that''s not even to mention all the money you borrowed..."

    "Alright, then let me ask you this: did you not have fun doing all of that?"

    "Er... Now that I think about it, it was pretty fun..." Mole replied after considering the question for a moment.

    The thought process of a psychic mutant waspletely different from that of a normal person, so Adam knew that he couldn''t just go along with Mole''sints.

    "I''m dealing with a really strong anomaly right now. It''s extremely fast, way too fast for me to catch. I don''t think there''s anyone else that can catch it aside from you."

    "Well, if we''re talking about speed, then you''ve definitelye to the right person. Where are you? I''ll see you in a bit."

    "Make sure to bring the others."

    "Alright!"

    Mole quickly ended the call, leaving Adam with no choice but to call him again.

    "What is it now?"

    "I''m still not finished."

    "What else is there to say?"

    "I still haven''t told you the address! I''m at Darvaza Prison."

    "Got it."

    With that, Mole promptly hung up again.

    Over an hourter, the three psychic mutants arrived, and Adam and Ryan led them into the interrogation room.

    "Is he dead?" Mole began to poke at Sima Kai''s face as he spoke. "Looks like he''s still alive. He''s still warm, and I can hear his heartbeat."

    "Don''t wake him up. Thanks, Ryan, we''ll take it from here."

    After Ryan left the interrogation room, Adam gave the three psychic mutants a rundown of Sima Kai''s history.

    "... so basically, this guy is a psycho who has a fetish for collecting human heads. He collected seven human heads in the real world, and with each head that he finds in the psychic world, his power would receive a significant boost."

    "Hold on."

    The three psychic mutants each raised a hand in unison, and they didn''t seem to care about Sima Kai''s human head fetish at all.

    "What else did you say that he collected aside from human heads? Did you say animal samples?"

    "That''s right."

    "Did he make them out of dead or living animals?" Armadillo asked.

    "I don''t know the answer to that, but given how much of a psycho he is, I don''t think he would''ve cared whether his subjects were dead or alive before he taxidermied them."

    "What a piece of shit!" Armadillo spat through gritted teeth.

    "This man needs to die!"

    "I''m gonna make sure he doesn''t leave this room alive!"

    "No, don''t do that! This is Sandrise City, and we''re in a prison right now! On top of that, we''re all police officers, so we can''t just go around killing people!" Adam hurriedly said. "Let''s kill that anomaly first. If you want to punish him, then you have to kill him from the inside."

    "Kill him from the inside?"

    "That''s right! There''s no point in harming him physically, we have to make him suffer internally."

    "You''re right!"

    After convincing the three psychic mutants, Adam gave Shae a subtle signal, and the five of them quickly gathered around Sima Kai, then eachid a hand onto his body before entering his psychic world together.

    Sure enough, just as Adam expected, they returned to the schoolyard that they had previously been in thanks to the measures that Adam had taken to put an end to the previous timeline.

    However, at this point, the spider anomaly was already far away, and none of them had any scouting abilities, so they had no idea where to search for him.

    "Where is he right now?"

    "He''s probably at home."

    Adam had done some homework during the time that it had taken for the three psychic mutants to arrive at the prison, and aside from asionally giving Sima Kai additional knocks to the head to ensure that he remained unconscious, most of the time was spent reading through Sima Kai''s file.

    He had heard from Ryan that following Sima Kai''s arrest, a total of seven human heads were found in his possession, two of which were at the university, three at his home, and the other two buried around a holiday home of his.

    Sima Kai was a professor at the Sandrise Institute of Technology, and his home was less than 10 minutes away from the university by car, so it made sense that it would be the first ce that the anomaly would flee to.

    With that in mind, Adam began to rush in a certain direction based on the map that he had consulted prior to entering the psychic world.

    Sima Kai wasn''t exactly of the most sound mental state, but he wasn''t so deranged that he hadpletely lost his sense of direction, so Adam was confident that his home was where it should be.

    Thus, aical group consisting of a clown, a two-headed werewolf, a rabbit, an armadillo, and a mole were seen rushing through the schoolyard.

    They made their way out onto the street, following which Adam led them down a couple of blocks before arriving in front of an old apartmentplex.

    It seemed that all of these deranged individuals preferred to live in old-school apartments rather than smart apartments. Perhaps they were concerned that their secret could be exposed given all of the cameras in smart apartmentplexes.

    After arriving there, Adam leaped onto the third floor, followed closely by everyone else.

    With their superhuman abilities, scaling the side of the apartment building was a simple task, and it only took them a few seconds to climb onto the eighth floor.

    "Sima Kai owns two rooms on the eighth floor and the ninth floor. The one on the eighth floor was used to store his collection, while the one on the ninth floor was his residence."

    Adam crashed through a window into an apartment as he spoke.

    Inside the apartment, a couple were in the midst of getting intimate with one another, and they immediately screamed at the sight of Adam''s group.

    "Shut the hell up!" Mole immediately zapped the couple into a crisp to silence them, then burst intoughter. "The fact that they''re doing it even in the psychic world means that the sounds that they make must be a very clear memory in his mind!"

    "In that case, ?must be living right next door to them!"

    Adam barreled through the wall as he spoke, and sure enough, the other side was a storage room that resembled a museum of life.

    A series of strange animal samples were hanging on the walls and situated on shelves, and right in front of the messy storage room was the spider anomaly, this time with five heads.

    "Looks like we were toote, after all."

    At this point, the spider anomaly had installed all five heads onto its body, and all of them wore painted and grieving expressions. It seemed that the anomaly was able to draw upon those painful emotions to undergo further evolution.

    Sharp nails had sprouted out of the ends of its legs, and they were giving off a faint blue glow, looking extremely dangerous and destructive. Additionally, some sharp spikes had grown out of its back, and those spikes were also glowing slightly, but it was unclear what their purpose was.

    "Make sure to be careful. Now that it has five heads, it..."

    Before Adam even had a chance to finish, the three psychic mutants were already charging directly at the anomaly, unable to suppress their fury any longer at the sight of the animal samples in the storage room.

 Chapter 279: Closing In

    <h4>Chapter 279: Closing In</h4>

    The first one to reach the anomaly was naturally none other than Mole, not because he was more furious than the other two psychic mutants, but simply because he was the fastest of the three.

    A bolt of blue lightning shed through the air, and Mole was already directly beside the anomaly.

    "These things with multiple heads really piss me off! That old witch had eight heads, and you have five! Both of you deserve to die!"

    Mole sted a powerful burst of electricity at the anomaly as he spoke, but the anomaly was able to evade the attack.

    Mole immediately gave chase, and the two of them sped through the apartment at an extraordinary speed.

    All Adam could see was a bolt of lightning pursuing a blurry figure, and it seemed that the two were evenly matched when it came to speed.

    However, those who could match Mole''s speed were generally able to defeat him in battle.

    Speed was Mole''s forte, but it was only a facet of the anomaly''s powers.

    Sure enough, after just a brief chase, the anomaly suddenly turned around and went on the offensive, forcibly plowing directly through a lightning attack before sending Mole flying with a strike to the abdomen.

    By the time Mole mbered to his feet, there was already a clear wound on his abdomen, and the flesh around the wound was already beginning to fester.

    "Fuck! That thing''s ws are poisonous, and they''re super sharp!"

    As for the anomaly, a patch of its skin was charred ck by the lightning strike, but it was able to quickly recover from that minor injury, disying far superior physical resistance to Mole.

    Thankfully for Mole, this was not a one-on-one battle, and in the same instant that he was sent flying, Rabbit and Armadillo arrived on the scene. The former was wielding her peculiar soul power, while thetter was controlling a storm of yellow sand, and both of them attacked the anomaly in unison.

    Both of them possessed immense offensive prowess, and the anomaly was also sent flying after directly withstanding their attacks, crashing through around a dozen walls in session before it was finally able to steady itself.

    During the process, the anomaly suffered some broken bones, but once again, it was able to make a full recovery before long.

    Both Rabbit and Armadillo were quite taken aback by this.

    In contrast with Mole and Adam, both of them possessed tremendous offensive capabilities, as evidenced by how they were able to make such short work of a defensive tank like Anaconda during the battle royale.

    Even when pitted against opponents of the same caliber as themselves, they had the ability to severely injure such an opponent with a single strike, given the right circumstances.

    However, their opponent on this asion had managed to recover from the effects of theirbined attack in just a few seconds, and that was a rather rming sight.

    "It''s stronger than I expected."

    "It only has five heads right now."

    "I want to see how powerful it''ll be with all seven heads."

    "Speaking of that, is this thing an idiot? Why doesn''t it just always carry its seven heads with it? Why does it have to wait until it''s being attacked before it collects its heads one by one?"

    "It''s a psychic anomaly, who knows what it''s thinking? Besides, maybe using other people''s heads makes it susceptible to emotional bacsh. I don''t think its victims would appreciate it using their heads!"

    As expected of the psychic mutant trio, they were always keen for a chat, even in the face of danger.

    However, the anomaly wasn''t going to grant them much time for a casual conversation, and while they were still chatting with one another, the anomaly''s retaliation had already arrived.

    This was an extremely cunning anomaly that knew to run away from opponents more powerful than itself, but was also willing to go on the attack if it were to determine that it could match up to its opponents.

    Through that sequence of exchanges, the spider anomaly was able to gauge the power levels of its assants, and it had chosen to retaliate without any hesitation.

    In the blink of an eye, it arrived in front of everyone as a blurry shadow, and the first target that it chose to attack was Rabbit, who had inflicted the most damage upon it. Its glowing blue nails sprang forth, and it thrust them directly at Rabbit''s abdomen.

    Rabbit wanted to evade the attack, but was unable to do so due to the speed advantage that the anomaly held over her, so she could only choose to withstand the attack.

    The problem was that she had only two arms to defend herself with, while her opponent had eight legs. While she was able to defend herself from the first attack, she was unable to deal with the subsequent attacks, and a long gash was immediately sliced into her abdomen.

    .

    The anomaly immediately pressed its advantage, swinging its eight legs through the air at an extraordinary speed. In the blink of an eye, it had unleashed a sequence of over 10 attacks, and Rabbit''s body was quickly riddled with wounds.

    If this had been a one-on-one battle, then it would''ve drawn to a very fast conclusion.

    The anomaly''s speed, defenses, and offensive prowess were all superior to Rabbit''s, and at this rate, it wasn''t going to take very long at all before her body was torn to shreds.

    Thankfully, Rabbit had allies on this battlefield, and even though they were unable to immediately reinforce her as they were unable to keep up with the spider anomaly''s speed, she was able to hold off her opponent long enough for help to arrive.

    Even though Armadillo wasn''t very intelligent, he was quite a seasoned psychicbatant, and from experience, he knew that the best way to deal with opponents that excelled in speed was to restrict their movements.

    Thus, while the anomaly was attacking Rabbit, he sent a wave of yellow sand surging toward the anomaly before clinging onto it from behind.

    At the same time, Shae also arrived on the scene before sinking her fangs into one of the anomaly''s heads, trying to tear the head off its body.

    In her current form, Shae was over three meters tall, and therger one of her two heads wasparable in size to a hippopotamus head. It was as if a hippopotamus had chomped down onto a watermelon, and as she bit down forcefully, a gruesome crunch quickly rang out, following which intracranial fluids began to gush out of her mouth.

    The spider anomaly immediately retaliated in pain and rm, using its ws to scratch at Shae, while the glowing spikes on its back began to release strange cyberhex energy. After the spikes sliced through Armadillo''s skin, a disoriented look quickly appeared in his eyes, and he suddenly turned on Shae, punching her in the head to force her mouth open before sending her flying with another punch.

    "What the hell was that for?" Shae yelled as she massaged the side of her head.

    "I..." Armadillo slowly returned to his senses, and he eximed, "I fell under some type of cyberhex just now! Everyone, make sure you don''t get impaled by the spikes on its back, and avoiding into contact with that energy!"

    Everyone quickly gathered back together, and after familiarizing themselves with the anomaly''s abilities and attack patterns, the five of them were gradually able to gain the upper hand.

    The three psychic mutants would''ve all ranked in the top half of the S tier back in Shadow City, and Adam and Shae were no slouches, either, so they were able to slowly dominate the anomaly.

    Given his prior experience, Adam knew that it was about time for the anomaly to try and run away.

    "Make sure it doesn''t get away! If we let it escape and collect more heads, we''ll be screwed!" Adam yelled as he began to conjure up his army of clones, but instead of participating in the battle, all of the clones distributed themselves throughout this confined space to cut off all escape paths for the anomaly.

    Adam refrained from invoking Sludge as this apartment level was nowhere near five meters in height, and the levels were only separated by simple floorboards, so there was no way that the building could contain its enormous body.

    While Adam was conjuring up his clones, Mole was darting around the anomaly in circles, binding it with a chain of lightning.

 Chapter 280: Hit Its Heads

    <h4>Chapter 280: Hit Its Heads</h4>

    "Hit its heads! Hit its heads!" Mole yelled loudly after binding the anomaly.

    Even without his strategic input, everyone had already realized that the best way forward was to target the anomaly''s heads, and they were all preparing their own attacks.

    Rabbit was gathering an enormous amount of soul power on her paws, while Armadillo had conjured up a spear of sand. Shae pounced directly at one of the heads as she spread her jaws open, while Adam also instructed three of his clones to whip out their electric drills.

    In the next instant, everyone sprang into action at once. Armadillo''s spear plunged through one of the anomaly''s heads, while another head was detonated by an eruption of soul power. Shae had sunk her fangs into a third head, while Adam''s three clones had drilled a trio of holes into the anomaly''s fourth head.

    The spider anomaly was unable to withstand such a fierce assault, and it was bing extremely agitated.

    Rabbit''s attack had the most prominent effect, destroying one of its heads outright and causing its body to devolve and revert back to a weaker form.

    The only saving grace for it was that thanks to its incredible regenerative abilities, the destroyed head was slowly growing back.

    "Don''t let it recover! Smash all of its heads!"

    Adam invoked Sludge as he spoke, and sure enough, as soon as it appeared, it immediately caused half the building to copse. It was just about to jump into the battle and put an end to the spider anomaly when a burst of bright radiance suddenly erupted from the sharp spikes on its back.

    The burst of blinding light was like a precursor to a nuclear explosion, and immediately following the sh of light, a nuclear explosion really did arrive.

    Boom!

    A violent explosion of unprecedented destructive power erupted out of nowhere, blowing the entire apartment apart alongside three or four of the neighboring buildings.

    Adam and hispanions were almost entirely wiped out by the explosion.

    There was no way that Adam and Shae would''ve been able to survive such a violent explosion from such close quarters, and Mole most likely had very little chance of surviving as well. Out of the entire team, only Rabbit and Armadillo would''ve had decent chances of surviving the ordeal.

    However, fortunately for them, Adam had invoked Sludge with the intention of dealing the final blow on the anomaly, but even though it had failed to aplish that goal, it had managed to save everyone''s lives.

    Right before the explosion, Sludge threw itself onto the anomaly to smother the explosion as much as possible, and that was why everyone had managed to survive.

    Adam spat out a mouthful of dust as he mbered to his feet on the street outside. Several of his bones had been broken, but those injuries didn''t affect his movement.

    Everyone else also got up from not too far away from him.

    The explosion had destroyed the entire apartment building, and even though most of the destructive power had been smothered by Sludge, everyone was still sent flying by the shockwaves.

    "Is the anomaly dead?"

    Shae had the least battle experience out of everyone in the group, and she was clearly quite shaken by what had just happened. It took her quite some time to return to her senses before making her way over to Adam''s side.

    "Probably not," A replied while inspecting Sludge''s condition through their psychic connection.

    Having just smothered the explosion, its body had been blown up into countless pieces, but all of those pieces had turned into sludge and were squirming over to Adam''s side before slowly fusing back together.

    Even though Sludge had transformed into a stone giant, it was still capable of reverting back to its sludge form, thereby granting it top-tier regenerative abilities in addition to its incredible offensive and defensive prowess.

    "Sludge isn''t dead, so that anomaly most likely isn''t dead, either."

    Adam couldn''t say with full certainty whether the spider anomaly had perished. After all, he had no idea what had happened after the explosion.

    "It''s definitely not dead," Mole interjected. "The surrounding environment hasn''t changed at all, so there''s no way that the anomaly is dead. I can''t believe you don''t even know something as basic as this. You''re not as smart as I first thought."

    "Oh, you''re right!" An enlightened look appeared on Adam''s face. "I can''t even begin topare with your unmatched intelligence!"

    Mole was clearly very pleased to have his intelligence praised, and he immediately burst into triumphantughter.

    "What do we do next?"

    "Let''s discuss the situation and devise a n. Now that we''ve let the anomaly escape again, it''s most likely going to be very difficult to defeat it."

    Now that it had been established that the anomaly was still alive, it was most likely the case that it had managed to escape, and the logical next step for it to take would be to find its final two heads.

    Everyone had already been struggling to deal with the anomaly with only five heads, and now that they were all carrying injuries, it was going to be very difficult to ovee the anomaly in its ultimate form.

    Sure enough, while Adam was speaking with everyone else, the body of the spider anomaly, which had beenpletely blown apart during the explosion, was slowly reforming at the epicenter of the explosion. It fled the scene as it recovered, quickly leaping onto a tall building before scurrying away.

    As long as it wasn''t surrounded, it was more than capable of escaping. No one in Adam''s team could match its speed with the exception of Mole, but Mole was no match for it in a one-on-one battle.

    Hence, Adam had failed once again.

    "I think it might be best to retreat for now."

    Everyone else gathered around while Adam was speaking with Mole, and all of them were carrying injuries that weren''t insignificant.

    "Sima Kai may be a psycho, but it''s not like he''s a sworn enemy of ours, so there''s no need to fight his anomaly to the death here."

    In the past, Adam had been thrust into many battles where his back had been against the wall, and he had no choice but to fight for his life.

    However, this was apletely different case. He was only doing this to acquire anomalic power for self-enhancement purposes. If Sima Kai proved to be too hard a case to crack, then he could just move onto someone else instead of taking excessive risk.

    However, this proposal was met with vehement resistance from the three psychic mutants.

    "We can''t let him get away!"

    "Didn''t you see those animal samples he made? He has to die!"

    "Don''t try to talk us out of this, we''re not going anywhere!"

    "But everyone''s injured," Adam countered. "How about we get out of the psychic world and recuperate for a while first?"

    "Screw that! We all have superb regenerative abilities! Just give us half an hour and we''ll be fine!"

    The three psychic mutants were all extremely confident in their own innate regenerative powers.

    "What do you say?"

    Having essentially led Hook and Nie Yiyi to their deaths, Adam no longer wanted to make risky decisions for others.

    "I also want to stay and fight," Shae said with a determined expression. "At this point, we''re constantly racing against time. We''ll be dead anyway if we can''t get stronger. Surely you don''t think I''ll just be able to live happily ever after if Hebi no Miko manages to kill you. Even if she doesn''te after me, my family or Masao Yamamoto will make sure that I''m dead. If we''re going to hunt down a target, then why not make it a big one?"

    With all seven of its heads assembled, the spider anomaly was at least going to be a level seven anomaly by Adam''s estimates. He couldn''t even imagine how powerful he was going to be if he could devour the anomalic power of such a powerful entity.

    "Alright, then let''s do it! No matter how powerful it is, it''s still a far cry from Hebi no Miko!"

 Chapter 281: Waiting Game

    <h4>Chapter 281: Waiting Game</h4>

    There was a nice holiday resort around 300 kilometers away from Sandrise City.

    It was a small town, but in contrast with the farming towns around Sandrise City, this was a town that was supported solely by tourism, and its name was Oasis Town.

    Just as its name suggested, Oasis Town was a very scenic location,pletely different from the barren desert environment around Sandrise City.

    This was a very rare sight, particrly after the war, during whichrge sections ofnd had been reduced to scorched earth.

    Oasis Town only had a resident poption of fewer than 2,000 people, and most of them worked in the tourism industry, running hotels, holiday resorts, fishing ponds, boat rental services...

    This was where the final two heads of the spider anomaly were hidden.

    In the real world, the town was over 300 kilometers away from Sandrise City, but it wasn''t that far in the psychic world, and everyone arrived in the town after passing through just a few psychic modules.

    Inside one of the holiday resorts, the group was seated in front of a bartender, sipping on some beverages that they had just ordered.

    "There were clearly some careful considerations behind Sima Kai''s decision to make this ce one of his hunting grounds. As a university professor, he''s definitely a very intelligent man.

    ¡°Unlike Sandrise City, this ce isn''t full of Mechguard security cameras, and due to the fact that this is a tourist location, there are many tourists here with no local connections, so it''s very difficult to search for them if they go missing, and it''ll also be quite easy to dispose of their bodies."

    "Why are you telling us all of this?" Mole had no interest in hearing Adam''s analysis. "Shouldn''t we be going after the anomaly? Surely you know where the heads are hidden in this town!"

    "Alright, then tell me this: what''s going to happen if we go after the anomaly now?"

    "We''ll fight it to the death! It doesn''t matter if we win or lose. If we die, then so be it!"

    Mole mmed down his ss violently as he spoke, sshing his beverage all over the counter.

    "I understand your hatred for this man, but wouldn''t it be better if we could increase our chances of victory before confronting the anomaly? In a battle where both sides are roughly evenly matched, what is going to have the most significant bearing on the oue of the battle?"

    "The environment?"

    "Bingo! As expected, you''re by far the smartest person that I know!" This was a problem that Adam had been mulling over the entire way here. "That anomaly is extremely fast, and none of us can keep up with it except for you. If we want to limit its speed, then we have to fight it in a confined environment."

    "You''re right! You''re pretty smart yourself, Adam," Mole said with a pleased expression. "I''m sure you already have a n, right?"

    "It''s not a perfect n, but it is a n. ording to my past experience, all high-level anomalies like this one possess a certain level of intelligence."

    Adam thought back to how he had been ambushed in Sithu''s psychic world, and he was certain that Raven had orchestrated that trap.

    Through his past experience in dealing with Sithu, Adam hade to realize that for true psychos, their personalities had already fused as one with their anomalies, so their anomalies were able to think just as normal humans did.

    "Alright, so what?"

    "We''re talking about an intelligent being here, and we''ve invaded its world and almost killed it on two separate asions. If you were in its ce, what would you do?"

    "I''d kill the intruders, of course!" Mole replied, following which an enlightened look appeared on his face. "I get it now! What you''re saying is that we don''t have to go after it. Instead, we just have to wait for it toe after us after it''s found the final two heads!"

    "That''s exactly right! After collecting those final two heads, it''ll undoubtedly be even more powerful. We were already almost no match for it with just five heads, I''m sure its confidence will be significantly boosted after it collects the final two heads. With that in mind, it''ll definitelye after us, so all we have to do right now are two things: find a suitable battlefield, then lure it in."

    "How do we do that?"

    "We just have to raise amotion and alert the people here to our presence. This is its psychic world, so it''ll definitely be able to find us."

    "That sounds great!"

    After deciding on a n, everyone sprang into action.

    Due to the fact that this was a tourist town, there were many strange ces that they could choose from.

    After asking around for a while, Adam and the others decided to make a cavern their final battleground.

    They had chosen such a location as it was a very enclosed and confined space, and the stctites in the cavern would serve to further impede the anomaly''s speed.

    Additionally, this was a perfect environment for Armadillo to take advantage of his powers. His ability to traverse through the earth meant that he could use the terrain to his advantage against the anomaly.

    "This is a good ce." After arriving in a spacious area in the cavern, Shae was estimating the height of the cavern as she looked up at the stctites. "I''d say it''s about 10 meters tall here, which is perfect, and Sludge can fit in here as well. The only problem is that if the anomaly self-detonates again, all of us could end up being buried in here."

    "It''ll be even better if we get buried in there!" Armadillo said. "If it self-detonates again, its body will be blown into pieces, and once the mountain copses, the entire cavern will be my territory, so I can ensure that it never recovers again. Just make sure you don''t die in the explosion."

    "Now that we know what to expect, that''s much less of a threat. As soon as I see its body light up, I''ll immediately get Sludge to pounce onto it."

    While everyone was finalizing their strategy, Adam''s clones were wandering around in a haphazard fashion outside the cavern.

    Their purpose was to lure in the anomaly, and on the way here, everyone had intentionally behaved in a very over-the-top manner. Their group was already very conspicuous to begin with, and even in the psychic world, everyone followed basic behavioral logic, so their attention would naturally be drawn to such a peculiar group.

    As such, Adam was confident that the anomaly was already aware of where they were.

    What''s taking it so long?

    One of Adam''s clones was pacing back and forth outside the cavern when it suddenly spotted something out of the corner of its eye, following which it was abruptly decapitated before it even had a chance to react.

    Adam was able to see through the eyes of his clones, but he had no idea what type of attack the anomaly had just employed.

    "It''s here! Get ready!"

    In the face of such a formidable enemy, Adam didn''t dare to take any chances, and he immediately invoked Sludge.

    At the same time, Armadillo burrowed his way into the ground, while Rabbit''s body expanded drastically in size as she adopted her ultimate form.

    In this form, herbat prowess was greatly enhanced, but it came at the cost of significantly heightened psychic power expenditure.

    After everyone had gotten ready to confront the enemy, the spider anomaly slowly crawled into the cavern.

    As expected, it had already collected all seven heads at this point, and as a result, not only had it be stronger and more imposing, the image of a hexagram had appeared on its body.

    Each time the anomaly evolved from obtaining a new head, the enhancement that it received was clearly reflected in the transformation it underwent, and judging from its more physically imposing stature and the hexagram on its body, Adam was able to roughly gauge what enhancements it had received from the final two heads.

    "It looks like one of the heads enhanced its strength, while the other one granted it certain technomantic powers."

 Chapter 282: Cavern Battle

    <h4>Chapter 282: Cavern Battle</h4>

    As it turned out, Adam''s analysis was correct.

    In the instant that the anomaly appeared in the spacious area within the cavern where Adam and the others were situated, it was immediately ambushed by Sludge, which sped its fists together, then swung them down violently like a powerful mace.

    The anomaly wanted to evade the attack, but it was unable to do so as Rabbit was also attacking it from the other side, and it had no choice but to raise a few of its legs to defend itself from both of its assants.

    Two of its legs were raised to ward off Sludge''s attack, another two were raised to oppose Rabbit''s attack, and the remaining four were pressed firmly against the ground to stabilize its body.

    In the face of both Rabbit and Sludge''s attacks, a huge crater was instantly smashed into the ground beneath the anomaly''s feet upon impact, and the anomaly''s body also sank down by half a meter, but it was able to withstand both attacks.

    Rabbit was sent flying by the reactive force, and she stumbled back several meters before she was able to steady herself.

    "It''s be a lot stronger than before!"

    "Indeed, it has. Prior to this, it wasn''t able to oppose Sludge''s strength!"

    Unlike Rabbit, Sludge was able to remain rooted to the spot thanks to its enormous weight, and it continued to batter the anomaly with more attacks.

    The anomaly wanted to jump out of the crater and retaliate, but a burst of suction force suddenly erupted beneath it, following which Armadillo''s paws extended out of the ground to grab onto it from below, locking it into ce.

    "Let''s all attack it together!"

    Adam immediately seized the opportunity, instructing all of his clones to jump into battle.

    Due to the risk of a cave-in, Adam''s clones didn''t use any firearms or explosives. Instead, they pulled out their electric drills and chainsaws to attack the anomaly''s limbs and heads.

    At the same time, everyone else also entered the fray. Rabbit mustered up her soul power before attacking the anomaly''s heads again, while Shae and Mole also unleashed their most powerful attacks.

    However, in the next instant, the hexagram on the anomaly''s body suddenly began to glow brightly, basking the entire cavern in purple radiance.

    In the instant that the purple light surged through the cavern, everyone was immediately struck by a sense of feebleness, and the power of their attacks was instantly halved.

    At the same time, a series of moving human heads began to sprout out of the walls of the cavern, and they were wearing all types of expressions, expressing emotions like joy, appreciation, pain, despair...

    As soon as the heads appeared, they began to speak in apletely unintelligiblenguage. Adam felt as if there were countless people chanting right into his ear, creating such a frustrating cacophony that he felt as if his head were about to explode.

    What the hell is this?

    An irrepressible urge to chop off his own head and offer it to the anomaly was rising up in his mind, and he knew that this had to be some type of psychic maniption cyberhex.

    Due to the fact that he had fused with Clown, Adam had a very high level of resistance against cyberhexes of this nature, thereby allowing him to retain his sense of reason, but the same didn''t apply to everyone else.

    Shae and Sludge were also anomalies, so they were also able to resist the effects of the cyberhex just fine, but the three psychic mutants were insane to begin with, and they were bing even more deranged, darting around like a bunch of cats on a hot tin roof as they yelled a bunch of gibberish at the top of their lungs.

    "Only a head in formaldehyde can exist for all of eternity!"

    "Everyone dies eventually!"

    "The most beautiful things can only be preserved in jars!"

    "Otherwise, rot and decay will be their only fate!"

    "Snap out of it!"

    Adam was suppressing his own mental difort while trying to yell some sense into hispanions. At the same time, he was also instructing his clones to attack the heads on the cavern walls.

    Clown''s offensive prowess was ratherckluster against powerful enemies, but its clone ability allowed it to excel when taking care of arge number of weaker enemies, as was required in this situation. The dozens of clones equipped a series of different weapons before firing at the surrounding heads, destroying all of them within a span of no more than 10 seconds.

    Finally, peace and quiet returned to the cavern.

    "What happened just now?"

    "I think we were controlled."

    "Holy shit, I''m injured!" Only after returning to her senses did Rabbit notice a wound on her abdomen that had almost sliced her body into two. "What a sly bastard!"

    It had taken close to 10 seconds for Adam to eradicate all of the heads on the cavern wall, and the spider anomaly certainly wasn''t going to just sit around and do nothing during that time. First, it struggled free from the crater that it was trapped in, then knocked over Sludge, but given how intelligent it was, it naturally wasn''t going to engage Sludge in battle.

    Simrly, it wasn''t going to go after Adam as it didn''t know which Adam was the real one.

    Instead, it had chosen to attack Rabbit, who posed the biggest threat to it.

    Indeed, Rabbit possessed the most potent offensive prowess out of the three psychic mutants. She had once shattered one of the spider anomaly''s heads with just a single blow, so the anomaly was extremely wary of her.

    "Look out!"

    Rabbit was still inspecting the wound on her abdomen when a figure suddenly came pouncing down on her from the roof of the cavern.

    "Come at me, you little bastard!"

    Rabbit''s bullish personality led her to immediately retaliate against the anomaly, mustering up her soul power before unleashing a powerful strike.

    It only took a single sh for the anomaly to dispel the soul power around her fist, following which the spider anomaly unleashed a rapid barrage of strikes with its eight legs, attacking at an incredible rate of dozens of blows per second. The soul power around Rabbit''s body almost immediately disintegrated in the face of these rapid-fire strikes, and dozens of wounds quickly appeared all over her body.

    Thankfully, Sludge was able to swoop in to save the day, picking her up before turning around to shield her from the anomaly''s attacks with its back.

    Countless trails of sparks were flying up from Sludge''s back as the anomaly continued its assault. Thanks to its greatly enhanced strength, its destructive power had also taken a significant leap, and it was able to slice countless gashes into Sludge''s body. As a result, countless rock shards were tumbling rapidly off its back, and it didn''t take long for it to lose several tons of weight.

    However, at this point, Mole and Shae had also arrived, distracting the anomaly with their attacks to alleviate the pressure on Sludge.

    The anomaly scurried away into the distance, where it clung to the walls of the cavern like a gecko to observe everyone.

    Adam and the others were also observing the anomaly, and both sides refrained from attacking.

    After that sequence of shes, Adam had developed a good understanding of how powerful the anomaly was in its ultimate form. After collecting all seven heads, the anomaly had received seven enhancements, which were improved defenses, enhanced regeneration, immense strength, incredible speed, venomous ws, energy supplementation, and technomantic powers.

    Any single one of those abilities would''ve already been enough to give rise to a decently powerful anomaly, and with all seven present in a single anomaly, this was definitely the most troublesome anomaly that Adam had faced to date.

    The anomaly was incredibly well-rounded, and in particr, its tremendous defenses and regenerative abilities made it virtually unkible. Overall, it was most likely even more powerful than Eyeless at the height of his powers.

 Chapter 283: Prerequisites

    <h4>Chapter 283: Prerequisites</h4>

    As Adam observed the spider anomaly, a battle simtion was unfolding in his mind.

    He knew that when fighting an opponent of this caliber, the best and only feasible strategy was to aim for a one-shot kill. It didn''t matter what happened prior to that final attack, what was vital was that the final attack had to deal the killing blow, so it was essentially a make-or-break strike.

    There was most likely only going to be a single opportunity. If they couldn''t strike down the anomaly with that ultimate attack, then they wouldn''t have any further chances once the anomaly recovered.

    Hence, in order to ensure that his n was followed correctly, he began to verbally issue his instructions.

    "Attack! We can''t let it rest. We have the numbers advantage, so let''s wear down its psychic power!"

    Sludge was the first one to charge at the anomaly at Adam''s behest, and it was followed closely by the three psychic mutants and Shae.

    Meanwhile, Adam was using his long-range weapons to wear down the anomaly from afar.

    Even though their opponent was extremely formidable, they had the numbers advantage, and Adam''s n was to wear down the opponent until it became desperate and impatient, and that would present the opening required for them tond the killing blow.

    Thus, the battle resumed, and the cavern was transformed into a violent battleground, with countless stctites being snapped by the second, and dust and chunks of rocks flying in all directions.

    Even though Adam''s team had the numbers advantage, they weren''t able to gain the upper hand at all over the anomaly. During the battle, everyone was constantly sustaining injuries, and if it weren''t for the remarkable regenerative abilities of the psychic mutants, one or more of them would''ve already perished at this point.

    Five minutester...

    "I can''t keep this up! I''m about to die!"

    Having been sent flying once again, Rabbitid sprawled out next to Adam in an exhausted manner. At this point, her body was already riddled with over 100 wounds, and all of these gashes were filled with venom, which was simultaneously disrupting her regeneration while also eating away at her flesh.

    As a result, her regeneration waspletely disabled, leaving her with festering flesh all over her entire body, and due to the fact that she had remained in her ultimate form for so long, her psychic power was also significantly depleted.

    "Don''t give up!"

    "I can''t do it! I''m done!"

    "Should we retreat then?" Adam asked. "We can leave the psychic world at any time. As long as you''re willing to give up on avenging all of the animals that this man has killed, I''m ready to leave right now."

    Rabbit gritted her teeth in fury as Adam reminded her of the animals, and she mmed her fist down onto the ground before dragging her severely ravaged body back into battle.

    As soon as she re-entered the fray, the spider anomaly immediately focused the entirety of its attention on her.

    It had always wanted to eliminate this potent threat, and in its eyes, it was already on the cusp of victory. All it had to do was to kill the severely wounded Rabbit, and no one else would be able to pose a threat to it.

    With that in mind, the spider anomaly immediately sprang into action, letting loose a terrifying shriek. At the same time, the hexagram on its body glowed brightly to force back all of its opponents, following which it rushed directly at Rabbit, moving so quickly that it resembled a blurry shadow.

    This time, the anomaly was determined topletely dismember Rabbit.

    Looks like this is it for me.

    Rabbit knew that there was no chance that she could survive this attack, and she immediately prepared to detonate all of the soul power in her body.

    However, right in the same instant, the space within the cavern suddenly turned pitch-ck. The environment was already quite dim to begin within, but what little light there was in the cavern had beenpletely devoured, and even the radiance glowing from the hexagram on the anomaly''s back had beenpletely smothered.

    At the same time, Rabbit felt as if time had fallenpletely still around her. Thankfully, this effect wasn''t very potent, and she was able to struggle free from it with very little effort.

    Immediately thereafter, a string of dull thumps rang out within the darkness.

    By the time the darkness faded and she was able to see again, she was greeted by a very peculiar sight. Sludge had fused together with the spider anomaly!

    "What just happened?"

    At this point, Sludge hadpletely enveloped the anomaly with its enormous body. The parts where their two bodies were connected had the consistency of silt and sludge, but the rest of Sludge''s body was still as hard as ever.

    "Don''t just stand there! We have to strike now before it frees itself!"

    Adam''s clones were already converging toward Sludge as he was speaking.

    While Sludge had enveloped the anomaly''s entire body, it had intentionally left the anomaly''s seven heads exposed.

    Everyone immediately returned to their senses upon hearing this and sprang into action.

    The sequence of Lights Out, Time Stop, and envelopment from Sludge was the strategy that Adam had devised on the way here.

    Seeing as Sludge was able to envelop his body to shield him from attacks, it should''ve also been able to envelop the bodies of enemies to restrict them.

    Of course, given the massive speed disparity between the two, it was virtually impossible for Sludge to catch the anomaly. The spider anomaly''s speed wasparable to Mole''s, so several prerequisites had to be satisfied for this n to work.

    Firstly, the battle couldn''t take ce in an open area.

    Secondly, arge chunk of the anomaly''s psychic power had to have already been worn down.

    Thirdly, the anomaly had to have its attention focused entirely on a single target.

    Only with all of those prerequisites satisfied would thebination of Time Stop and Lights Out be able to disrupt it sufficiently for Sludge to make its move.

    As was the case for adapters, the telegnosis of an anomaly would be significantly impacted if they were stripped of their sense of sight.

    Thankfully, the n was sessfully executed, and Adam finally managed to catch the spider anomaly.

    "Knock off all its heads! Hurry!"

    Rabbit immediately injected the soul power that she was preparing to use for self-detonation into her arms before smashing one of the spider anomaly''s heads.

    At the same time, Mole rushed onto the scene before sting the anomaly''s heads repeatedly with bursts of lightning.

    Adam''s clones were vigorously slicing at the anomaly''s heads with chainsaws, and Shae and the recently invoked Nun and Camera were also participating in the collective effort.

    Finally, under everyone''s tireless efforts, the anomaly''s heads were shattered one after another, and it was finally forced to turn to self-detonation again.

    Thanks to their prior experience, Adam knew what to look for this time, and as soon as the anomaly''s body began to glow, Adam immediately withdrew Nun and Camera, then concealed himself among his clones.

    Almost immediately thereafter, an earth-shattering explosion ensued.

    Due to the fact that the spider anomaly''s entire body was enveloped by Sludge, the majority of the force of the explosion was smothered once again.

    Sludge''s enormous body was blown up into countless rock fragments, but even so, the residual shockwaves from the explosion were still sufficiently powerful to make the entire cavern copse. Massive rocks came crashing down from above, and everyone was scrambling to protect themselves from the fallout.

    Finally, after about 20 seconds had passed, the entire cavern waspletely filled.

    Stuck between a pair of massive rocks, Adam yelled, "Armadillo, find all of its heads and the fragments of its body, and make sure it doesn''t recover!"

    Just as Adam anticipated, the fragments of the anomaly''s body were slowly squirming through the rocks like worms. Even though its body had beenpletely blown apart, it was still very much alive.

    These chunks of flesh slowly fused together before sprouting tentacles as they began to slowly crawl through the cavern, and finally, they were able to track down its first head.

 Chapter 284: Evolution

    <h4>Chapter 284: Evolution</h4>

    As soon as the mass of flesh found the head, it immediately tried to attach the head to itself, only to be abruptly pinned down by one of Armadillo''s paws.

    The entire area hadpletely caved in, but for Armadillo, this was the perfect environment for him to disy his powers. After the mass of flesh was pinned down, yellow sand began to surge around it and the head, and it didn''t take long before all of the life force in them was sucked away. The yellow sand had turned bright red, while the head and the mass of flesh had beenpletely mummified.

    With just a gentle pinch from Armadillo''s ws, the mummified head and flesh were reduced to dust.

    After that, Armadillo continued to traverse through the copsed cavern without pause, tracking down the heads and the pieces of the anomaly''s body before destroying them one by one.

    In its fully formed state, the anomaly possessed incredible physical resistance, but now that its body had been reduced to pieces, it was in an extremely vulnerable state, and it didn''t take long for Armadillo to put an end to its life.

    Even from afar, Adam could already sense the aura of anomalic power, and at the same time Armadillo yelled out to everyone.

    "All done! Are you all dead?"

    "What kind of question is that, you idiot? You should be asking if everyone''s still alive!" Mole''s voice immediately rang out in protest. "Rabbit, Adam, how''re you two doing?"

    "I''m fine..."

    "I''m about to die if I stay here any longer, so I''m leaving now."

    Rabbit''s voice was so feeble that it was barely audible, and she exited the psychic world immediately thereafter.

    "Are you alright, Shae?"

    "I''m alright..."

    Shae''s voice was also quite feeble, but it sounded like she was in better condition than Rabbit.

    After ensuring that everyone was alive, Adam was eager to pounce on the spoils of war.

    "Dig me out, Armadillo! The anomalic power is going to disappear soon!"

    All of a sudden, Armadillo''s head poked out of a rock directly in front of Adam, and he asked, "What do you need me to do?"

    "Dig a tunnel for me so I can reach the spot where the anomaly died."

    .

    "Alright, I''m on it."

    Armadillo used his sharp ws to dig through the rocks, creating a tunnel for Adam to crawl through.

    Adam ducked down and squeezed his way into the tunnel, then carefully made his way to the center of the cavern, where the mass of anomalic power was located.

    This was the anomalic power of what Adam estimated to be a level seven anomaly, and in the face of such a massive offering, Adam didn''t know where to start.

    I have to n things out first.

    The anomalic power from a level seven anomalic was enough to allow him to undergo aplete transformation, and in Adam''s eyes, it was most likely the case that no single anomaly of his would be able topletely digest such an enormous amount of power.

    He had encountered a situation like this once before, following the battle against the scarecrow anomaly. Back then, his two anomalies had beenpletely unable to digest the anomalic power left behind by Scarecrow.

    Even now, Adam still sorely regretted that wasted opportunity.

    However, he wasn''t going to let this anomalic power go to waste on this asion. Not only was he not going to let it go to waste, it most likely wasn''t going to be enough.

    There were too many anomalies that he needed to evolve, with the first of them being Sludge, which was his number one answer against Hebi no Miko.

    He also wanted to evolve Distortion, which he had always regarded as the one with the most potential out of all of the anomalies in his possession.

    He wanted to evolve Camera to make up for his shorings in offensive prowess.

    Of course, Hellhound also had to be evolved as it had the bestpatibility with Shae, and he desperately needed a sane helper like her.

    Just these anomalies alone were most likely going to use up all of the anomalic power here, so all of the others, including Nun, Mummy, and Two-face, would all have to take a backseat.

    It''s a pity that I can''t absorb this myself.

    If he could absorb the anomalic power himself, then there would naturally be no need to think about distribution. After some careful consideration, Adam decided to allow Sludge to have the first go.

    "Armadillo, help me clear out this area."

    Armadillo did as he was instructed, reducing the surrounding rocks to sand to open up a small area. In the meantime, Adam was instructing the rock fragments that formed Sludge''s body to reform and fuse back together.

    Around two minutester, Sludge appeared in the area that Armadillo had opened up, slightly huddled over due to the space constraints.

    "Eat as much as you can."

    Due to the threat of Hebi no Miko, Sludge''s development was always Adam''s top priority, both for the sake of his own safety and the protection of hispanions.

    Anomalies desired anomalic power just as much as any drug addict desired their drug of choice, and Sludge immediately pounced onto the mass of anomalic power without even requiring an instruction from Adam.

    "Take it easy, you idiot! You''re gonna cause the cavern to copse again!" Armadilloined as he continued to hollow out the area.

    Unfortunately, a second cave-in was unavoidable due to Sludge''s evolution.

    Its body expanded even further, and it forced its way through the fragile rock structure up above to cause another cave-in.

    Thankfully, Sludge''s strength had also been enhanced as a result of its evolution, so it was able to single-handedly support the entire roof and prevent it from copsing onto everyone.

    Afterpleting its evolution, Sludge''s height had swelled all the way to eight meters, and its entire body had also be significantly thicker and sturdier. It stood as tall as a three-story building, and at this point, it was well and truly a giant.

    Aside from an increase in size, Sludge didn''t disy any other significant changes in its physical appearance. The only other chance was that the coloration of its body had turned from ck to a faint shade of purple.

    "You''re only going to evolve once? Keep going!"

    The majority of the spider anomaly''s anomalic power still remained, and Adam was urging Sludge to continue dining on the feast, but it seemed to bepletely full. Just a moment ago, it had been gulping down the anomalic power like a starving wolf, but now, it couldn''t even be bothered to take a second nce at the enormous feastid out before it.

    There was no way for Adam to force-feed Sludge, so he could only move onto the next anomaly, and after some thought, he decided to go with Hellhound.

    After all, it was very important for him to have a capable helper on his side.

    "Armadillo, I need..."

    "You want Shae, right? I''ve already opened up a tunnel to her. I''ll bring her over to you."

    Adam watched as Armadillo departed with a peculiar look in his eyes.

    In his eyes, Armadillo was the most intelligent of the three psychic mutants. Of course, he still didn''t think like a normal person did, but that was only in terms of his logic. For example, the average person wouldn''t be so passionate about protecting animals that they were willing to kill others to avenge animals.

    Furthermore, he shared the closest bond with Adam out of the three psychic mutants. He was always willing to lend Adam money and speak up for him whenever Rabbit and Mole voiced theirints about him. Through Armadillo, Adam was reminded of Hook and Nie Yiyi.

 Chapter 285: Dissolution

    <h4>Chapter 285: Dissolution</h4>

    While Adam was still caught up in his own thoughts, Armadillo quickly brought Shae to him.

    He was holding Shae between his jaws as Shae''s arms and legs were broken, thereby rendering her unable to move. Furthermore, due to the fact that she wasn''t a psychic mutant, she didn''t possess any exceptional regenerative abilities, and it was very difficult for her to make any meaningful progress in her recovery before she left the psychic world.

    Adam instructed Hellhound to undo its fusion with Shae, and it duly obliged. At the end of the day, it was his anomaly, so even though Shae was using it on loan, it was still more obedient to him.

    As soon as Shae separated from Hellhound, she immediately began to cough violently, and given the severity of her injuries, it seemed that she wasn''t going to be able tost much longer.

    "Get out of here. We''ve already won, it would be terrible if you died now."

    Adam could tell that after splitting up from Hellhound, Shae was only just barely clinging onto life.

    "I''ll be fine... I want to see... how powerful it bes..." Shae said in a feeble voice.

    Ever since their return from Shadow City, Shae had been just as intent on growing stronger as Adam.

    She wanted to stay and see how many times Hellhound could evolve and how powerful it could be.

    She wasn''t a genius, so in order to be stronger, she had to rely primarily on Hellhound.

    "Alright, but if you feel like you''re about to die, get out of here right away."

    Adam didn''t waste any more time as he turned to Hellhound, which had already pounced onto the anomalic power.

    It was devouring the anomalic power voraciously with its two heads, and it didn''t take long before a transformationmenced.

    First, its body began to expand while also growing stronger. After that, a third head finally sprouted in between its two existing heads, transforming it into a Cerberus-like creature.

    I wonder if it was always supposed to grow an additional head upon evolution, or if it was affected by the spider anomaly.

    Devouring anomalic power from different anomalies resulted in the development of different attributes during evolution. This was something that Adam had already verified.

    The spider anomaly was a creature with multiple heads, as was the case for Hellhound.

    After growing a third head, Hellhound''s aura had clearly be significantly more powerful, but that was the extent of its transformation.

    "That''s it? You didn''t even eat as much as Sludge!"

    Sludge had devoured roughly a third of the total mass of anomalic power, but Hellhound had only devoured about a sixth at most, leaving around half of the anomalic power remaining.

    "Alright, next up, it''s your turn, Distortion."

    This was an anomaly that Adam had always wanted to evolve, but for one reason or another, he had always been forced to prioritize other anomalies over it. Now, there was finally sufficient anomalic power to spare for it.

    "Everyone, get back! Don''t get so close, Armadillo!"

    After instructing everyone to get back, Adam invoked Distortion. As soon as it appeared, it immediately detected the massive feast of anomalic power next to it, and a feeding frenzy quickly ensued.

    Distortion resembled a living shadow, and the more anomalic power it absorbed, therger the shadow became until finally, it evolved amid a sh of warped light.

    In Adam''s past experience, his anomalies could generally only evolve once per intake of anomalic power, unless they had perished once before and were reduced back to their ragdoll form.

    This had always been the case, and the two most recent examples to support this pattern were Sludge and Hellhound, which had disyed no further interest in the anomalic power after evolving only once each. Adam didn''t know how long it was going to take before they would be ready to take in more anomalic power.

    However, Distortion proved to be an exception to this rule. Following its first evolution, it continued to devour anomalic power, and the shadow expanded even further before gradually fading until it waspletely invisible.

    After evolving twice, not only had Distortion''s powers been enhanced, it had also be more stealthy and mysterious.

    Adam was very pleased to see this transformation.

    Even though Distortion couldn''t discern between friend and foe, it was extremely powerful and couldpletely crush other anomalies of the same level. In fact, even as a level two anomaly, it had been capable of restricting the movements of level three and even level four anomalies.

    Most importantly, due to its insubstantial form, it didn''t possess any weaknesses, and it was very difficult to kill. Due to its unique attributes, onlyrge-scale technomantic attacks could harm it.

    It''s definitely one of my most powerful anomalies, but it sure does eat a lot!

    During its two consecutive evolutions, it had devoured virtually all of the remaining anomalic power.

    Hellhound had only devoured around a sixth of the total quantity of anomalic power to evolve from level three to level four, while Sludge had devoured around a third to evolve from level four to level five.

    Thus, around half of the total quantity of anomalic power still remained, yet almost all of it was devoured by Distortion during its evolution from level two to level four.

    Let me see what new abilities you''ve attained.

    Using the method taught to him by Sadou, Adam ced a hand onto the invisible anomaly, using his telegnosis to sense its abilities.

    Within a distance of roughly 100 meters, it can now directly appear from a target''s shadow to attack them. I''ll call this ability "Shadow Strike". It''s also retained its original ability of twisting and locking the joints of its target, but that ability has be stronger with its evolution. I''ll call that ability "Physical Shackles".

    On top of that, it seems to now be able to twist the target''s mind in addition to their body. I''ll call that new ability "Spiritual Shackles". These three abilities and its innate concealment ability are all extremely useful, especially for controlling opponents or assisting other allies.

    Adam was very pleased by the transformation that Distortion had undergone, and he was confident that if used correctly, Distortion was going to be an extremely powerful ally in battle.

    After withdrawing Distortion, Adam invoked Camera to devour the remaining anomalic power. There wasn''t much left, but he wasn''t about to let any of it go to waste.

    As he was doing this, Shae suddenly said in a feeble voice, "I want... to try..."

    "Ah, of course!"

    Shae was risking her life to stay here solely because she wanted to see how much more powerful Hellhound had be.

    Adam instructed Hellhound to go to Shae, and they were just about to fuse when he noticed that the rocks up above were disintegrating.

    They weren''t crumbling away or copsing. Instead, they were slowly dissolving into nothingness, and that was a clear indication that this psychic world was falling apart.

    "What''s going on?" Adam was rather bewildered to see this, but a thought then suddenly urred to him. "Could it be that Sima Kai''s psychic body had alreadypletely fused with his anomaly?"

    "What does that mean?"

    "It means that by killing Sima Kai''s anomaly, we''ve killed his psychic body as well. Following his psychic death, the memories stored in his brain will slowly fade, and that''s why his psychic world is falling apart. We''re only able to stay here for now as there''s still some chemical buildup remaining in his hippocampus, but it looks like he''s already dead. This is thest thing I need right now!"

    Adam was feeling rather frustrated. He had to maintain a squeaky clean reputation, and killing a prison inmate certainly wasn''t going to help his cause.

 Chapter 286: A Favor

    <h4>Chapter 286: A Favor</h4>

    "What do we do?"

    At this point, there was no longer any time left for Shae to examine Hellhound''s newfound powers.

    She was aware of just how problematic this could turn out to be. If someone else were in their ce, perhaps they would''ve been able to get away with this, but at the moment, the southern congress was constantly trying to dig up dirt on them.

    Adam, Shae, and the three psychic mutants were all police officers right now. If they were caught by the southern congress and criminally charged, then all of their prior efforts could go to waste.

    "It''s my fault, I should''ve anticipated something like this."

    Adam had fought many anomalies in the past, but in most of the hosts that he hade into contact, their psychic bodies were separate from their anomalies.

    Even someone as twisted as Shaun hadn''tpletely fused with his anomaly, and they were still independent entities.

    Even Sithu, the most demented host that Adam had ever encountered, hadn''t perished alongside his anomalies, so this situation had caught Adampletely off guard.

    "It''s my fault. Even if I''ve never encountered a situation like this, I should''ve known what to expect."

    All of a sudden, Armadillo burst intoughter as he listened to their conversation.

    "What are youughing at?"

    "I''m justughing at how upset you are over something that''s supposed to be good news!" Armadillo chuckled. "You make it sound like you wouldn''t have killed this anomaly if you had known that this was going to happen. I don''t know how you did it, but you''ve clearly be way more powerful, and that''s good news, isn''t it?"

    Adam fell silent upon hearing this.

    Indeed, even if he had known that Sima Kai was going to be killed, he would''ve still hunted down this anomaly for his own sake.

    This was the biggest enhancement that he had ever received from killing a single anomaly, and there was no way that he could resist this temptation. It certainly wasn''t every day that such a brilliant opportunity presented itself.

    If it weren''t for the threat of Hebi no Miko, perhaps he would''ve taken things more slowly, but he couldn''t afford to do that in his current situation. At the moment, he was constantly at risk of being killed. Even now, as soon as he set foot outside of the prison, he could immediately run into Hebi no Miko.

    Hence, he had to prioritize his own development over everything else, even if it meant that some risk had to be incurred

    "It''s not the end of the world. Let''s get out of here first."

    Adam departed from the psychic world before it couldpletely copse, and he was followed closely by everyone else.

    Upon opening their eyes in the real world, Adam and the others were naturally greeted by the sight of Sima Kai seated motionlessly in his chair. He was still breathing, so it appeared that he hadn''t suffered brain death from the demise of his psychic body, but given the brain trauma that he had suffered, he was no different from a vegetable in his current state.

    "What should we do?" Shae asked.

    "It''s alright, I''ll make some calls."

    After considering his situation for a moment, Adam determined that only the northern congress could help him.

    They hadn''t helped him when in the past, but things were different now. Adam was far more useful to them now than he was back then, so as politicians, they were definitely going to be inclined to help him.

    With that in mind, Adam dialed Cowboy''s number.

    "What''s going on? This is the second time you''ve called me today!"

    Adam switched on video mode immediately after the call was connected, and before he even had a chance to exin anything, Cowboy had already caught sight of Sima Kai slumped in his chair.

    A grim look immediately appeared on his face.

    "Is he dead?"

    Adam nodded in response.

    "How could you be so careless? You''re in Darvaza Prison right now! There are Mechguard units in there!" Cowboy grumbled before quickly devising a n. "Are there cameras in the interrogation room?"

    "No, only my own recording equipment."

    "Normally, in situations like this, we arrange for someone in the prison to take the fall. All criminals in Darvaza Prison are in there for life anyway, so as long as you give them some benefits, many of the inmates would be willing to kill someone for you. The only problem..."

    "What is it?"

    "It''s easy to arrange to have someone killed in the prison, but he''s in the interrogation room right now. He was fine when he went in, yet he''s suddenly dead now. No matter how we clean up the situation, it''s still going to be messy."

    "Doesn''t the northern congress have any insiders nted in the prison?"

    "We do, but the same applies to the southern congress as well, and if things get out of control, both sides will be aware of the situation."

    "So what should we do?"

    "The best way to proceed would be for you to find someone to sneak the inmate back to his cell without anyone noticing. After that, I can take care of everything else for you. If you can''t even do that, then I''m afraid I can''t help you."

    After that, Cowboy discussed some more details with Adam before ending the call.

    Hence, Adam was still left with a big problem.

    "How do we get him back to his cell?"

    "How many Mechguard units are there outside?" Shae asked as she sat on the floor and rested her back against the wall with her eyes closed.

    "I don''t know. I saw some on the way in here, and because they''re part of the prison system, I don''t have the authority to use them. If we want to transport him, we''ll have to rely on one of the human employees in here."

    "What about Ryan? He seems to be quite a big fan of you."

    "Do you really think he''d be willing to risk losing his job or even going to jail just because he idolizes me?"

    "We won''t know if we don''t try!" Mole interjected in an agitated manner. "It''s not like we have any n."

    "That''s true."

    After some careful consideration, Adam decided to contact Ryan using hismunicator.

    It didn''t take long before Ryan entered the interrogation room, and as soon as he did so, Mole closed the door behind him, while Armadillo also subtly positioned himself between Ryan and the door.

    For the three psychic mutants, there was always a backup n.

    If Ryan didn''t agree to cooperate, then they were going to kill him and run away.

    Everyone still had legal identities at the moment, so it was still possible to sneak out of the city before they became wanted for their crimes. As long as they could make it out of Sandrise City, their telegnosis would ensure their safety, and they would be able to live just fine outside the jurisdiction of thew.

    This was how the three psychic mutants had lived most of their lives thus far, so they weren''t opposed to the idea. Just like the hitmen of the Oni Organization, they had always skirted the fine line between the legal and the illegal.

    If it weren''t for Adam''s sake, there was no way that they would''ve be police officers.

    However, Adam wasn''t in the same boat as them. If he had to go back into hiding, then all of his prior efforts would go to waste, and there would be no hope for him to uncover the secrets of his past.

    Hence, he needed Ryan''s cooperation.

    "Can I ask you for a favor?"

 Chapter 287: Conscience and Temptation

    <h4>Chapter 287: Conscience and Temptation</h4>

    "What is it?"

    Ryan was initially rather taken aback by Adam''s serious tone, following which he noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with Sima Kai. He was seated in his chair in apletely limp fashion, and it was clear that he had lost consciousness.

    "What happened to him?"

    "We had a little... ident while we were investigating his psychic world, and he''s already lost all consciousness."

    "What does that mean?"

    The average person didn''t know much about adapters, so they had no idea what implications could arise from psychic mishaps.

    "To put it in simpler terms, he''s suffered psychic death."

    "Psychic death?" Ryan had heard this term in the past, and his brows immediately furrowed tightly in response. "This is a major incident then!"

    Everyone was selfish to a certain extent, and the first thing that Ryan thought of was what this incident entailed for him.

    "I''m partially responsible for this, so I''m definitely going to lose my job!"

    "Not necessarily," Adam said. "If you can get him back to his cell, I can take care of the rest, and no one has to know what happened."

    "I''m not sure..."

    Ryan was only a young and unseasoned warden, but he was still a warden nheless, and he was well aware of the things that happened in prison.

    There was no shortage of inmates who passed away in Darvaza Prison each year. Some of them died during scuffles with other inmates, but most of them were killed under request from those on the outside in order to silence certain criminals before they could give up any sensitive information.

    This wasn''t a rare urrence, but he had never gotten involved in something like this. He was just a warden, and he feared both legal repercussions and losing his job, so he had stayed far away from such dealings up to this point.

    Hence, his initial reaction to Adam''s proposal was one of fear, and that led to an automatic rejection.

    "No, I can''t do this! If I get exposed, it''s over for me!"

    Ryan was shaking his head frantically with a fearful look in his eyes.

    "How could anyone possibly find out? He''s an old man, and he doesn''t appear to be in the best health. It''s no surprise that he would suffer some type of heart condition from being tazed. It''s just an ident!"

    Adam was trying to think from Ryan''s perspective, and he could see that Ryan''s primary fear was potential legal repercussions, while his secondary fear was losing his job.

    Hence, the key was to find a way for Ryan to be made exempt from all culpability.

    "You''re just a normal person, not an adapter. If you see someoneying slumped over in a chair, your first reaction should be that they''ve fallen unconscious, not that they''ve suffered psychic death, right?"

    "Yes, but the judge won''t believe that."

    "This incident most likely won''t go to court. As long as you can get him back to his cell, we''ll have someone take care of the rest. Even if something goes wrong, you can just avoid all culpability by iming that you had no idea what was happening."

    "Then you shouldn''t have told me so much in the first ce."

    "I''m afraid I had to. If you actually had no idea what was happening, there could be even more trouble. Perhaps you''ll get one of your colleagues to help you, or you''ll call for some doctor, and more people would get involved. In any case, the incident has already happened. If you want to keep your job, then you have to be in the know."

    "Was this really just an ident?" Ryan asked.

    Adam faltered slightly upon hearing this.

    Ryan was clearly asking this out of a sense of conscience and responsibility, and Adam wasn''t ustomed to dealing with someone with a conscience.

    With that in mind, Adam decided to appeal to Ryan''s sense of conscience and justice. He led Ryan over to the psychic projection recorder, then showed him some parts of the process in which the anomaly was killed, exining the sequence of events without exposing any of his own secrets.

    "We didn''t think that killing the anomaly would result in the death of the host as well. It turns out that Sima Kai and his anomaly were already one and the same," Adam sighed. "This is the first time I''ve encountered a situation like this."

    "So he was just an anomaly in human skin." Ryan said as a hint of contempt appeared in his eyes. "I get it now."

    It was an ident, and Sima Kai was a terrible human being anyway, so Ryan didn''t feel so terrible about assisting in the coverup.

    However, Adam still didn''t think that this was enough.

    Regardless of whether someone was a good person or a bad person, everyone was short on money in this world. Even though Ryan had a stable job, he could definitely do with more money in such a materialistic world, particrly one in which even one''s lifespan could be extended with money.

    In Adam''s eyes, he needed more incentive.

    "Ryan, I''m sure you''re aware of what I''ve been doing recently. In this line of work, idents are unavoidable. If there aren''t people like me, those deranged criminals hiding in society will only be even more rampant. Given Mechguard''s rigid method ofw enforcement,w and order can only be maintained on the surface.

    ¡°There are so many putrid individuals like Shaun out there that we have no idea about. Perhaps it''s not correct to say this, but in my eyes, people like Shaun and Sima Kai deserve to die! If this incident gets exposed, my team and I will definitely be at least suspended, if not fired outright. Seeing as it was just an ident, why not just let it slide?"

    Ryan had no counterargument to this. It was exactly because of his sense of justice that he held Adam in such high esteem.

    "I understand that you''re taking a massive risk, and it doesn''t make sense for you to go so far without just reward. As I''m sure you''re aware, I managed to earn some money back in Shadow City. If you can help me with this, I''ll give you somepensation in the form of cryptocurrency, what do you think?"

    "But..."

    "I''ll give you 5,000,000 dors, and I''ll help youunder the money if required. I know manypany owners, and we just so happen to be getting into a new video game venture. Exchanges are regrly taking ce between money and virtual currencies in games, so it''s very easy tounder money."

    That was the final piece that was required to convince Ryan.

    "Alright, I''ll help you."

    After convincing Ryan to help him with the coverup, Adam made a call to Cowboy to confirm some things and inform Cowboy of Ryan''s cooperation in the matter.

    After that, Ryan picked up Sima Kai on his back and prepared to leave.

    However, he had only just opened the door when he ran into Li Xiang, and cold sweat instantly began to bead up on his forehead.

    "What''s up?"

    "I just so happened to be nearby, and you''ve been in there for a while, so I decided toe and check up on you. What happened to him?"

    "Don''t worry about it. He was touching himself again while looking at other people''s heads, so I tazed him, and he fell unconscious."

    "What a piece of work. Let me give you a hand."

    "It''s fine. This guy''s not Dwight, I can carry him on my own. You can show our guests the way out in the meantime."

    Li Xiang seemed to be even younger than Ryan, and he didn''t think much about the situation before escorting Adam and his group out of the interrogation room.

    Adam and the others pretended as if nothing had happened, packing up their recording equipment before departing while making small talk with Li Xiang.

 Chapter 288: Botox

    <h4>Chapter 288: Botox</h4>

    After leaving Darvaza Prison, Adam and the others arrived in Area 45 to await further news.

    They had chosen to wait here for the sake of flexibility. If they were somehow exposed, they could choose whether to run or await judgment.

    Area 45 was a very chaotic ce with terriblew and order, much like an old industrial area like Area 9, and most importantly, it was an artists'' paradise.

    Artists didn''t like to be restricted, and they were different from the thugs in Area 9 in that they had more rights and influence in society. Hence, they were able to campaign against the government to sessfully have the number of surveince cameras and Mechguard units in their area reduced.

    As a result, many businesses that skirted the boundaries of thew had taken root here, and there were evenpanies that could smuggle people out of the city.

    At this moment, Adam and the others were attending a strange underground concert.

    Loud, unintelligible music was ring all around them, and they were huddled together, watching a performance with very low attendance.

    It was so loud here that they could barely hear one another, even though they were right next to each other.

    "Has there been any news?" Shae yelled right into Adam''s ear.

    "No."

    While Adam was giving his reply, a physical altercation broke out between Rabbit and someone else.

    It seemed that someone had groped her from behind, and a short-tempered psychic mutant like her certainly wasn''t going to hold back, immediately giving the man the beating of his life.

    Mole also joined in on the brawl just to vent some frustration, stomping the man viciously in the face.

    Adam merely turned a blind eye to all of this. The environment here was extremely loud and dimly lit, and he couldn''t be bothered to babysit them as long as they didn''t kill someone.

    Right as Adam was watching the unfolding brawl, hismunicator suddenly lit up, and an encrypted message from Cowboy appeared on the screen.

    "Everything has already been sorted out. Make sure you dispose of that warden."

    It was clear that Cowboy was referring to Ryan here.

    Aside from Ryan, everything else had been taken care of, so the logical next step was to kill Ryan so that no one else would know about what had happened in Darvaza Prison.

    At the moment, Adam was under intense scrutiny from the southern congress, and it wasn''t going to take long before news of Sima Kai''s death reached them.

    If Adam hadn''t visited Darvaza Prison, then no one would''ve paid any attention to the death of a criminal like Sima Kai. In fact, even the news wouldn''t have reported the incident. After all, inmates were dying virtually every day in Darvaza Prison, and it really wasn''t newsworthy at this point.

    However, the fact that Sima Kai had died so shortly after meeting Adam was undoubtedly going to attract the southern congress''s attention.

    If they were to send an adapter to investigate the situation, then they would definitely be able to uncover the truth from inspecting Ryan''s memories.

    Hence, the best choice was to have Ryan killed.

    With that in mind, the cruel and ruthless side of Adam''s personality that belonged to Clown gradually surfaced. It was both a blessing and a curse, whittling away at his humanity, but also allowing him to make difficult decisions with a clear conscience.

    ¡­¡­

    "What''s up? Has everything been sorted out?"

    "Yes. Go and buy a throwawaymunicator, then call Ryan toe and meet us. Tell him that everything has been sorted out, and he cane to collect his money."

    A hint of skepticism appeared in Shae''s eyes upon hearing this, but she didn''t say anything and did as she was told.

    There were always many illegal transactions taking ce in the dark underbelly of society, and as long as one had enough money, they could buy anything in Area 45.

    Around three hourster, Adam and the others arrived in an illegal motel. There were no surveince cameras here at all, and it was inhabited almost solely by drug-addicted artists.

    Ryan arrived around an hour after Adam''s group.

    He had experienced far too much on this day. In fact, he had endured more emotional turmoil than he had the entire past year.

    In the morning, he met his idol, currently the biggest inte celebrity going around, but in the afternoon, he saw his idol kill someone, and he had somehow be an aplice.

    No more than an hour after he had carried Sima Kai back to his cell, he received news that a physical altercation had taken ce between two of the factions in the prison. In the ensuing melee, around a dozen people were injured, while two inmates were killed.

    ording to his colleagues, they had no idea who had instigated the brawl. Both factions had received insider information that the other faction was preparing to make a move against them, and both sides had decided to take the initiative.

    In the past, Ryan wouldn''t have given this incident a second thought.

    However, on this day, chills had run down his spine as soon as he heard the news as one of the two inmates that had been killed "just so happened" to be Sima Kai.

    Ryan knew that in his physical condition, there was no way that Sima Kai could''ve gotten involved in a brawl, which meant that all of this had been set up to cover up Sima Kai''s death.

    The entire incident had cast a huge shadow over Ryan''s heart, and he felt like he had been swept up in a vortex that he was unable to escape from.

    By the time he received the message from Adam, it was already 3 AM, and after extensive consideration, he decided to go and meet Adam as he was instructed.

    Deep down, he still believed that Adam wouldn''t hurt him.

    This is a really shady ce...

    Upon arriving at the entrance of the motel, Ryan immediately spotted two peopleying motionlessly next to some trashcans.

    It seemed that they were dead.

    In a ce like this, it wasn''t a rare sight to see dead people on the street.

    Area 45 was an extremely chaotic ce, and many people were dying on its streets every single day.

    Why did he ask me to meet him in a ce like this?

    Ryan was feeling rather uneasy as he knocked on the door of Room 405 in the motel.

    The door quickly swung open to reveal Adam with a friendly look on his face.

    "Come in!"

    After Ryan was dragged into the room by Adam, he saw a bunch of familiar faces, namely Mole, Shae, Armadillo, and Rabbit.

    However, there was also someone that he didn''t recognize, a strange man who resembled a wax figure seated on the filthy bed.

    "May I ask who this is?"

    "I''m sure you were taught in school about the war between the north and the south that took ce several decades ago, right? At the time, a bunch of domestic robots went on a riot, sowing a great deal of mistrust between humans and machines.

    Simultaneously, a global economic crisis swept over the entire world, culminating in the perfect storm for a war to erupt. We call it the North-South War on an informal basis, but it''s technically known as World War III. This man was the second-inmand of the resistance army in that war."

    "That war happened 30 year ago, so he should at least be 50 by now. Why does he still look so young?"

    "Can''t you see how stiff and waxy his face is? I''m guessing he injected too much Botox!"

    Adam didn''t know why Wax Figure looked like this, either, and he was making up a story on the spot.

    "You seem to think that you''re very funny."

    Wax Figure stood up from the bed as he adjusted his immactelybed hair.

 Chapter 289: Legendary Figure

    <h4>Chapter 289: Legendary Figure</h4>

    All powerful adapters carried a certain aura, which stemmed from their exceptional mental qualities.

    Adapters who possessed immense courage, confidence, and conviction could invoke a sense of awe and veneration in the average person, while deranged and ruthless psychic mutants could also invoke some special emotions.

    The average person would only be able to get a vague sense of this, but for adapters with potent telegnosis, the feeling was far more pronounced.

    "You have quite a strong aura, even more powerful than Eyeless''s aura. How do you stack up against Hebi no Miko?" Even though Adam could sense immense psychic pressure from Wax Figure, he wasn''t backing down in the slightest. "If you''re this strong, why don''t you challenge Hebi no Miko to a one-on-one battle?

    ¡°If you can defeat an opponent of her caliber, that would for sure be a massive confidence boost, and you''ll definitely grow even stronger as a result."

    "You talk a lot, and I get the feeling that you''re trying to provoke me."

    "You''re not wrong there."

    Adam''s objective was very simple. Even though Wax Figure was quite a powerful and intimidating character, he was still ultimately a politician.

    As a politician, there was no way that Wax Figure would turn on Adam for minor transgressions as Adam was still quite useful to him.

    As for why Adam was provoking Wax Figure, that was not without purpose.

    "Do you want to spar with me?"

    "That''s right. I don''t have much experience in battling opponents of Hebi no Miko''s caliber, so you''d be the perfect training partner."

    "Hold on a second," Ryan interjected right as Adam was staring down Wax Figure. "What is going on here?"

    The northern congress''s suggestion to Adam was to get rid of Ryan, but in the end, Adam''s humanity had won out over Clown''s cruelty. Hence, he didn''t want to have to kill Ryan unless there was no other option.

    Thankfully, when he raised the matter to Cowboy, he was informed that it was possible to have Ryan''s memories altered.

    However, memory alteration was an extremely meticulous and advanced procedure that only certain adapters were capable of performing, and Wax Figure was one of them.

    As the second-inmand of the nothern congress, Wax Figure had control over all of the adapters in the northern congress, making him an extremely powerful figure, and Cowboy wasn''t convinced that Adam would be able to recruit his help.

    .

    However, to Cowboy''s surprise, Wax Figure had immediately replied to his request and expressed that he was willing to help.

    "I came here primarily to see you. You''ve been developing a little too fast."

    Despite Ryan''s interjection, Wax Figure continued to ignore him. He merely took a nce at Ryan, and the young warden waspletely rooted to the spot, as if he had been hypnotized.

    "There''s no need to exin the situation to him, I''ll be altering the memory that he has of this meeting anyway. Seeing as he''s going to forget everything anyway, what''s the point in exining? I''ve seen footage of your past battles, and I know your entire story since your awakening.

    ¡°I''ve never seen anyone develop at the rate that you have, and I want to see how far you''vee up to this point. If I deem you to be at a satisfactory level, then I''ll provide you with additional assistance. If not, then you''ll have to fend for yourself."

    "That sounds good to me! Does the additional assistance that you''re referring to include helping me deal with Hebi no Miko?"

    "It does, and it also includes this memory alteration procedure. There''s almost no one more skilled in this procedure than me on this entire continent."

    "What about Madam Tree?"

    "Oh?" Wax Figure''s face finally disyed a hint of emotion at the mention of this name. "You know about her?"

    "I do, a little."

    "I''d advise you not to ask too many questions about her."

    Wax Figure clearly didn''t feel the need to prolong the conversation any longer, and he immediately invaded Adam''s consciousness.

    In the blink of an eye, the entire surrounding environment had changed, and Adam felt like he had suddenly grown taller. He looked down to find that he had already transformed into Clown.

    "I must admit, the speed and subtlety of your psychic invasion are incredible. Also, I notice that you''ve invaded my psychic world rather than dragged me into your psychic world. It seems that you''re extremely confident."

    "I don''t think there''s anything in your memories that can help you defeat me."

    Wax Figure extended a palm directly toward Adam''s chest as he spoke.

    He didn''t seem to be using much strength, but Adam''s body was sent flying back, crashing through the wall before falling out of the motel.

    He had only justnded on the ground from the fourth floor, only to find that Wax Figure was already standing right in front of him.

    "Are you a ghost?"

    "You''re too slow! Given your current speed, if you don''t conjure up your clones from the very beginning of the battle, there''s a very good chance that you''ll be killed right away if you encounter Hebi no Miko again."

    "That''s a good suggestion!"

    Adam had challenged Wax Figure precisely to gain morebat experience against a high-level opponent.

    An adapter of this caliber possessed far superior speed, power, and physical attributes to his, so he couldn''tpete against them in those three areas.

    Thus, Adam immediately heeded Wax Figure''s advice, conjuring up his clones to assist him in battle, but the clones had only just appeared when the surrounding environment underwent a massive transformation. All of a sudden, the ground beneath Adam''s feet had be as sticky as molten wax.

    Immediately thereafter, he noticed that ayer of waxy substance had appeared over the bodies of all of his clones, following which they burst into mes in unison before being incinerated into nothingness in an instant.

    Wax Figure''s voice rang out once again.

    "In the face ofrge-scale destructive attacks, your clones will only be able tost several seconds at most. If you go up against Hebi no Miko again, I suggest you pull out all of your trump cards from the very beginning of the battle."

    "Got it!"

    Adam invoked Sludge and Distortion as he spoke. These were the two most powerful anomalies at his disposal.

    Wax Figure''s eyes lit up slightly at the sight of Sludge, and he attempted to use the same attack, encasing Sluge in ayer of wax before setting it alight, but to virtually no effect. Sludge was able topletely disregard the attack as he raised a massive foot before stomping down upon Wax Figure.

    Wax Figure immediately attempted to evade the attack, but another anomaly suddenly emerged from his shadow before exerting immense distortive force upon his body to snap all of his limbs.

    In the next instant, Wax Figure waspletely ttened under Sludge''s enormous foot.

    Of course, Adam wasn''t naive enough to think that this was the end of the battle.

    Wax Figure was a legendary adapter who had yed a pivotal role in World War III, and he was also one of the top adapters in the world. There was no way that Adam at his current level would''ve been able to defeat an adapter of this caliber.

    Sure enough, after closely inspecting Wax Figure''s ttened body, he discovered that it was only a ttened pile of wax, rather than a body of flesh and bones.

    Several secondster, another Wax Figure emerged from the wax on the ground,pletely unscathed.

    A thought urred to Adam as he looked at the wax-coveredndscape around him, and he asked, "Are you essentially unkible in this wax domain?"

 Chapter 290: Hades

    <h4>Chapter 290: Hades</h4>

    "In that case, how do I kill you?"

    It seemed to Adam that all adapters of this caliber were extremely annoying to deal with.

    In Hebi no Miko''s case, Yamata no Orochi''s enormous body was like an impregnable fortress that was virtually impossible to break through.

    As for Wax Figure, his body was one with the entire surrounding environment, so in order to kill him for good, an attack of a massive scale would be required to destroy this entire wax domain.

    "What kind of question is that? Do you think I''m just going to tell you how to kill me?"

    Wax Figure rushed directly at Adam once again as he spoke.

    "Protect me!"

    Sludge immediately positioned itself in front of Adam at his behest, but it was too slow, and Adam was sent flying before it could reach him.

    It was unclear whether Wax Figure''s strength was inferior to Hebi no Miko''s, or if he had intentionally held back, but Adam wasn''tpletely crippled by the attack.

    "That was kinda weak..." Even though Adam was coughing up blood, he was still goading Wax Figure. "In my battle against Hebi no Miko, she almost shattered all of my bones and internal organs with just a single attack."

    "She does indeed possess more destructive power than I do," Wax Figure conceded. "Hence, the next time you run into her, make sure that stone giant doesn''t leave your side even for an instant."

    "I''ll keep that in mind."

    While Wax Figure was speaking to Adam, thetter instructed Sludge toe to his side, following which he jumped into Sludge''s body.

    In the instant that Adam made contact with Sludge, its hard body instantly became as soft as wet mud, only to revert back to its normal hardness as soon as Adam was inside.

    After making his way into Sludge''s body, Adam climbed up to its chest, leaving only his eyes exposed.

    Essentially, he was piloting a giant mecha, and Sludge''s chest was his cabin.

    "I won''t die so easily now!" Adam said, but his voice was muffled by Sludge''s body.

    After Adam adopted this new form, Wax Figure went on the offensive once again, but this time, the majority of his attacks were kept out.

    Wax Figure was extremely fast, even faster than Mole and the spider anomaly. In full flight, he was so fast that Adam struggled to track him with his eyes. In one instant, he was on Adam''s left, but in the next instant, Sludge had already received a punch to the left side of its abdomen.

    That punch would''ve easily shattered Adam''s ribs, but its effectiveness was extremely limited against Sludge, only able to smash open some cracks onto its body that were quickly sealed again.

    "Your invoked entity has some very impressive defenses."

    After a few attacks, Wax Figure gave up on trying to smash through Sludge with his fists.

    A slit opened up on Sludge''s body at Adam''s behest to reveal his mouth, and he goaded, "You''re not gonna get me like this! Hurry up and show me some of your other abilities!"

    "While it''s true that this thing has incredible defenses, its weaknesses are also very apparent."

    As soon as Wax Figure''s voice trailed off, Adam instantly felt the ground beneath his feet soften before melting away.

    The waxy ground had be extremely soft and viscous, making it even more dangerous than a swamp.

    Adam hurriedly tried to escape, but the entire surrounding area was entirely epassed within Wax Figure''s wax domain. To furtherpound his woes, Sludge was extremely heavy, and it was sinking deeper and deeper with each step that it took. Before long, its entire was already close to being submerged.

    At this point, Adam knew that he had already lost, while his opponent still hadn''t revealed anywhere near the full extent of his power.

    "You''ve trapped me now, but you have to show me some more of your power. If this is all you''re capable of, how am I supposed to believe that you can be a match for Hebi no Miko? Up to this point, you''ve barely shown me any of your abilities. By the way, what''s your visualization subject?"

    "My visualization subject is the Greek God of the Underworld, Hades."

    Wax Figure began to undergo a transformation as he spoke, and his body slowly expanded in size as he absorbed the wax beneath his feet. From less than two meters in height, he slowly grew all the way to around seven to eight meters tall.

    At the same time, his appearance had also changed drastically from a man in a suit to a ck-robed deity holding a bident.

    As he underwent this transformation, his domain was also transforming, and countless deceased spirits rose up from the waxy ground to form an army around him. At the same time, there was a vast expanse of green light swirling behind him, and he really did have the appearance of a deity.

    "Not bad, but you''re still not as powerful as Hebi no Miko. Aren''t you supposed to be a legendary figure from the previous generation? Why does it seem like you''re not even as strong as her?"

    Adam was continuing to goad Wax Figure in order to try and lure him into disclosing some useful information, and at this point, the majority of Sludge''s body had already been submerged.

    "Hebo no Miko is a prodigy. Of course, I am also considered to be a prodigy, but even among prodigies, there are massive disparities in power. Additionally, there weren''t any particrly suitable visualization subjects for me, and I''m bogged down by too many duties, so I can''t focus wholeheartedly on bing a more powerful adapter."

    This was a very candid admission, and Adam believed what he was saying.

    No one could tap into their full potential in something if they couldn''t focus wholeheartedly on it. Hebi no Miko was a deranged killer, while Wax Figure was a politician. One could do whatever they wanted, while the other was bound by a whole host of duties.

    Hence, even if they possessed the same level of aptitude, it was most likely the case that Wax Figure wouldn''t have been a match for Hebi no Miko.

    "How are you going to help me if you can''t beat her?"

    "I said I was going to help you, but I never said when. I''ll only help you once I''m certain that we can kill Hebi no Miko. Otherwise, all of the most powerful adapters of the northern congress will be killed by her one by one, and that''s far too heavy a price for us to pay just to save you."

    In his current form, there was an authoritative echo ringing out as Wax Figure spoke, much like the dramatic audio effects one would see in a movie.

    "What are you nning to do?"

    "I want you to continue doing what you''re doing and get her to attack you a couple more times so I can gauge her habits. After that, I''ll gather some acquaintances, and we''ll kill her together. Hebi no Miko is a public menace that''s sorely resented by everyone, so even the southern congress wouldn''t save her."

    "So I''m essentially acting as bait right now?"

    "That''s right."

    A cloud of green mist surged out of Wax Figure''s mouth, and the ground split open, following which a demonic giant emerged. The creature was several dozen meters tall, and it grabbed onto Sludge before hoisting it out of the ground.

    Immediately thereafter, it also released a cloud of green mist from its mouth, and Sludge''s body instantly began to fall away in lifeless stone chunks.

    "This invoked entity of yours has decent technomantic resistance, but not as good as its physical resistance."

    With that parting statement, Wax Figure departed from Adam''s psychic world.

 Chapter 291: False Memories

    <h4>Chapter 291: False Memories</h4>

    Upon returning to the real world, the first thing that Adam saw was Mole crouched behind Wax Figure, studying his hairstyle while discussing the subject with the other two psychic mutants.

    "Do you think he just uses a ton of hair products, or do you think this is a wig? Why is it so hard?"

    "I wouldn''t do that if I were you," Wax Figure said as he opened his eyes.

    "I''m not doing anything, we were just curious," Mole said as he took a step back.

    He was clinically insane, but not stupid.

    As powerful adapters themselves, the telegnosis of the three psychic mutants told them that this man was not to be messed with.

    "Yeah, we were just having a look."

    Armadillo and Rabbit also hurriedly backed away.

    Wax Figure paid no heed to them as he grabbed onto Ryan''s arm before invading his psychic world.

    After a moment of contemtion, Adam also entered Ryan''s psychic world. He wanted to see how Wax Figure altered the memories of others.

    Thus, the two of them met again in the psychic world, but this time, it was Ryan''s psychic world rather than Adam''s.

    "Why are you here?"

    "I just want to see how it''s done," Adam replied.

    Wax Figure offered no response and began to search for the relevant memories in Ryan''s psychic world.

    .

    Sima Kai''s death was a very recent event, and it had left a very deep impression on Ryan, so it didn''t take Wax Figure long to track down that particr memory.

    "This is the root cause of everything, I''ll begin here."

    Wax Figure had arrived in the interrogation room that Adam had been in earlier the previous day, and at this point in time, Ryan had only just arrived. Immediately thereafter, he noticed that something seemed to be wrong with Sima Kai, who was slumped over in his chair, and Adam was just about to say something, seemingly wanting to try and exin the situation.

    However, before he had a chance to say anything, Wax Figure swept a hand through the air, and the entire interrogation room was instantly sealed in wax along with everyone in the room.

    "It''s a rather strange feeling seeing myself in someone else''s memories," Adam mused. "Will this version of myself have the same abilities as me?"

    "Very unlikely. Generally speaking, only those who provide a strong sense of security to the host will have powerful abilities in their psychic world. This is very basic knowledge, did you not learn this at the academy?"

    Wax Figuremenced his work as he spoke, altering the scene bit by bit by manipting his own wax.

    The wax was as malleable as ydough in his hands, and it was squeezed into all types of different forms to alter the course of this memory.

    As he manipted the memory frame by frame, everything in this psychic modulepletely changed.

    "This old bastard just never learns, does he?"

    As soon as Ryan entered the room, he saw Sima Kai sporting an erection while looking at Adam''s head, and in this alternative memory, he was being even more brazen, going as far as to stroke himself in arousal.

    Ryan tried to stop him by reprimanding him verbally, but to no effect, so he could only whip out his tazer.

    However, Sima Kai was quite an old and frail man, and upon being tazed, his eyes instantly rolled into the back of his head, and he fell unconscious. A panicked look appeared on Ryan''s face upon seeing this, and he hurriedly tried to send Sima Kai to the infirmary.

    "What do you think of this expression? It took me quite a while to mold it," Wax Figure asked as he pointed at the panicked look on Ryan''s face.

    "Exceptional," Adam replied as he nodded in approval.

    It was a very simple alteration, but everything made logical sense.

    Even if an adapter really were to invade Ryan''s psychic world to investigate, they would only end up being stumped by this false memory.

    Of course, altering just a single memory alone wasn''t going to be enough. Wax Figure followed the timeline from the incident to Ryan''s meeting with Adam, altering all of the several hour''s worth of memories along the way.

    After that, he instructed someone to take Ryan to the entrance of a certain pub.

    At this point, the sky was already beginning to brighten. ording to Ryan''s doctored memories, he was suddenly struck by the urge to drink after finishing his shift at the prison. Thus, he wandered over to Area 45 and began drinking until he was ck-out drunk, only waking up at the crack of dawn.

    In order to support this false memory, Wax Figure had forced some alcoholic beverages down Ryan''s throat before getting him escorted away.

    "We should be in the clear now, right?"

    Adam heaved a long sigh of relief following Ryan''s departure.

    If he were to be made culpable for Sima Kai''s death, then all of his prior efforts would be flushed down the drain. At this point, he hadn''t even managed to take down the Compassion Company yet, and he really needed to retain his status as a special psychic police officer.

    "There are no perfect lies in the world. It just depends on how much scrutiny the southern congress is going to focus on you."

    ¡­¡­

    After morning arrived, Ryan found a ce to do some washing up, he looked at the time and prepared to go to work.

    Why did I drink so much yesterday? I normally don''t drink so heavily. Could it be because I was too excited from meeting my idol?

    Ryan was massaging his own temples as he took the void rail to Area 91, where Darava Prison was located. After that, he changed into his uniform tomence his shift.

    As a warden, he had quite a leisurely job. There really wasn''t much for him to do at all unless some type of incident broke out in the prison.

    Due to the fact that he was feeling quite hungover, Ryan''s n was toy low and rest during his shift.

    However, not long after his shift began, he was informed by a colleague that the prison director was looking for him.

    "The director? Why would he be looking for me?"

    Ryan was rather puzzled.

    The prison director came from a political family, and many of the members of his family were high-ranking officials in Sandrise City. However, he was a veryckadaisical person, and he almost never oversaw the operation of the prison, leaving all of the duties to his subordinates.

    With so many Mechguard units in the prison, no major incidents were going to take ce anyway. As for minor brawls, there was simply no way to stamp them all out.

    This was a very chilled-out job, one that was assigned to only the most ipetent members of political families.

    Ryan made his way to the office area before knocking on the door of the director''s office, wondering what was going on the entire time.

    "Come in."

    A greasy voice rang out from inside, and it was clear that it belonged to an overweight man.

    After entering the office, Ryan was greeted by the sight of two groups of people, the first of which was the director and his subordinates.

    At a visual estimate, the director appeared to be around 150 to 200 kilograms. In this day and age, where the weight loss industry was so well-developed, it was very rare to see someone of his size. Apparently, the director had undergone liposuction twice during his term as prison director alone, but somehow, he was always able to regain all his adipose tissue very quickly. If he were an animal, his gics would''ve been ideal for the meat industry.

    Not far away from the portly director was a group of police officers.

    The badges that were being worn by the police officers couldn''t have been more familiar to Ryan. In fact, he had seen the very same badges yesterday as they were assigned to all special psychic police officers.

    "You wanted to see me, Director?"

    "What was your name again?"

    "Ryan, Ryan Carter."

    "Ah, yes, Carter, that''s right. Why did you need to see him again?"

    The director turned to the police officers with a rather disgruntled expression as he spoke. This was supposed to be breakfast time for him, and he should''ve been dining on steaks and lobster instead of being stuck here in his office.

    If it weren''t for the fact that his family had told him that he had to cooperate with these officers, he wouldn''t even have agreed to meet them.

    "We''re here to investigate some matters."

    The police officers were led by a man deep, sunken eyes and a long and thin nose, giving him a rather stern and sinister appearance.

    He took a nce at the director, and he could immediately tell what he was thinking.

    "Thank you for calling in Ryan, we''ll take care of the rest from here."

    "Alright, I''ll leave you to it then. Just make sure you don''t vite any regtions."

    The director got up from his chair with great difficulty as he spoke, then waddled into the neighboring room, from which the sound of loud chewing rang out shortly thereafter.

    Meanwhile, the stern-looking police officer began to approach Ryan, and for some reason, Ryan was feeling rather unsettled.

    "I..."

    "Don''t say anything, just let me take a good look at you."

 Chapter 292: Thilan

    <h4>Chapter 292: Thn</h4>

    The police officer''s deep-set eyes resembled a pair of vortexes, and Ryan was immediately struck by a rush of dizziness as he looked into them.

    After that, he fell unconscious, and the group of special psychic police officers entered his psychic world.

    These police officers were all from the southern congress, and they were clearly more powerful than the other special psychic police officers recruited from society.

    .

    As the side that had emerged victorious from World War III, the southern congress was the more powerful of the two congresses. Even though the weight of public opinion had been against them recently, they were still more than capable ofunching investigations into matters like this.

    The public pressure against them was a hindrance, but it certainly wasn''t going to result in their downfall.

    After entering Ryan''s psychic world, the group of police officers quickly found what they were looking for.

    "This should be the psychic module that contains his memories from the day before. Should we hide?"

    "No, don''t disrupt the natural progression of events in the psychic world. We''re here to gather information, not to disrupt his psychic body."

    It seemed that the man with the deep-set eyes was the one calling the shots, and he was a man of Indian descent by the name of Thn.

    In contrast with the prison director, who was a useless slob from an established political family, Thn came from an ordinary family, but was an extremely capable individual, and he had previously worked as a private investigator prior to bing a special psychic police officer.

    During his time as a private investigator, he just so happened to have taken on a job from an important figure in the southern congress. The employer recognized his ability and potential from that job and absorbed him into the organization.

    His investigative skills were outstanding, and he quickly rose up the ranks, even earning himself the nickname of "Little Holmes" in the southern congress.

    At this moment, he was lurking in the distance while observing the interrogation room like a hawk.

    His psychic body possessed very potent scouting abilities.

    Not only were his eyes capable of seeing things clearly from dozens of kilometers away, they were able to see through walls, so buildings proved to be no hindrance to him.

    Even though he was situated outside the prison, he could see everything that was unfolding in the interrogation room.

    "What happened? Was the guy killed by Adam?"

    "Not ording to Ryan''s memories," Thn replied with a shake of his head, providing a rather ambiguous response.

    It wasn''t a clear-cut yes or no answer. Instead, it seemed that there were some implications behind his words.

    The other police officers had already been working with Thn for some time, so they were well aware of how capable an investigator he was, and they knew better than to doubt his judgment.

    "Are you saying there''s something wrong with his memories?"

    "I can''t see anything amiss. Everything seems to be normal, but it''s a little too normal, and my instincts tell me that there''s some fishy business going on. It just seems too suspicious that someone who had managed to survive in prison for so many years would suddenly drop dead right after meeting someone from the northern congress."

    "What do we do then? Ryan''s the only one in the prison who came into contact with Adam yesterday."

    "No, there''s someone else. Call Li Xiang over to see me."

    Soon, Li Xiang was also brought into the room at Thn''s behest.

    Li Xiang was the warden who had been on the same shift as Ryan, and he was the only other warden to have seen Adam the day before.

    However, he had no idea what had happened in that interrogation room, and after examining his memories, none of the special psychic police officers were able to find anything amiss.

    A tall woman standing beside Thn shook her head as she said, "The memoriespletely match up. We won''t be able to find anything at this rate."

    "No, we''ve already found something!" Thn dered as a sharp gleam appeared in his hawk-like eyes.

    Not only was he able to see things with extremely high levels of rity and details, his eyes also allowed him to rey scenes that he had witnessed before.

    Thn was a natural observer, and he was 10 times more perceptive and sensitive than Hook. Finding out the truth and unearthing secrets was his biggest passion, and it was also his lifelong pursuit.

    The image that was being projected out of his eyes depicted the moment when Ryan had left the interrogation for the final time, where he had immediately run into Li Xiang upon exiting the room.

    "There! In Li Xiang''s memories, a horrified look had appeared on Ryan''s face as they ran into each other outside the interrogation room. This scene in Ryan''s memories is rather blurry, and he doesn''t recall his own expression at the time."

    "So what? This isn''t exactly a groundbreaking discovery."

    The other police officers were rather perplexed.

    "Generally speaking, there would be nothing wrong with this. After all, everyone''s memories are fuzzy to a certain extent. You may not even be able to clearly recall what you had for dinner the day before. However, this memory is very clear in Li Xiang''s mind, which means that this expression on Ryan''s face had left a deep impression on him."

    Sure enough, Ryan''s face was very clear in Li Xiang''s memory.

    "This tells me that at the time, he clearly realized that something wasn''t right, but he decided not to pry into the matter, perhaps because he wanted to avoid trouble, perhaps because he didn''t want to get his colleague into trouble."

    "Even so, we still don''t know anything!"

    "At the very least, we can confirm two things from this observation, the first of which is that Adam definitely had something to do with Sima Kai''s death, and the second thing is that there''s a very good chance that a memory alteration expert from the northern congress has gotten involved in this.

    ¡°ording to my knowledge, there are extremely few adapters capable of altering the memories of others, and the only one in the northern congress that I can think of that could do such a seamless job is Wax Figure. Simrly, we can use this knowledge to extrapte more information.

    ¡°It seems that Adam is more important to the northern congress than we imagined. If he''s just a popr public figure, then there''s no way that Wax Figure would get involved so easily.

    "Another thing is that prior toing here, I''ve seen some footage of Adam''s past battles, and through them, I''ve noticed that his rate of development is a little too fast. Of course, there are exceptional prodigies in this world with extremely developed neurons, and those people are able to make rapid progress under the right circumstances, such as Hebi no Miko and the director, or some of the top adapters working for the two congresses.

    ¡°However, their rate of development has always been consistent, albeit rapid, yet Adam''s rate of development is anything but smooth and consistent."

    "How have you managed to identify that?" the tall woman asked. "If I recall correctly, he didn''t disy much of his powers in the footage we''ve been provided."

    "Prior toing here, I sent someone to Shadow City to purchase some illicit resources, and those resources contain many pieces of footage of his past battles. In Shadow City, he participated in many arena battles, and the spectators had always thought that he had been hiding his power, but during a few of his battles, he hade very close to death, so I don''t think he was hiding his power.

    ¡°In any case, I''m sure that he''s harboring a huge secret. It''s much more fun to think about how to unearth this secret, rather than to investigate this case."

    Thn fell into deep thought as he spoke.

 Chapter 293: Medical Industry Area

    <h4>Chapter 293: Medical Industry Area</h4>

    Meanwhile, Adam''s investigation into the Compassion Company was still ongoing.

    He had received news from Wax Figure that the southern congress had already sent out their most elite investigators after him, but the northern congress was also working to cover his tracks, so Adam was no longer concerned about the incident. In any case, it was all in the hands of the northern congress now, and there was nothing that he could contribute.

    What he had to do now was to continue to improve his influence and reputation in order to achieve his objectives.

    Adebayo had already been arrested, and he was a member of the top brass in the Compassion Company. Through inspecting his memories, Adam had managed to uncover some of the true secrets of the Compassion Company.

    However, Adebayo didn''t know anything about the Compassion Company''s endeavors in harvesting child adapters from non-profit organizations, which was the information that Adam was most interested in. Perhaps this was because Adebayo simply wasn''t sufficiently highly ranked in thepany to be privy to this information, or it was because he was mainly responsible for overseeing the production of medical products.

    Right now, there are two people that I need to investigate, one of which is the CEO of the Compassion Company, Chen Jiangbin, while the other one is the director of thepany''s Department of External Affairs, Chen Xiaobin.

    Adam wasying on a sofa in the veterinarian hospital, surrounded by some animals that were undergoing treatment.

    The perpetually rowdy psychic mutant trio would always be very quiet and peaceful here, and even the looks in their eyes would be more gentle and cid. The three of them diligently attended to the animals in silence, and it seemed that this was the only activity that could soothe the violent emotions in their hearts.

    Adam couldn''t bear to interrupt this precious moment for them, and he sent a message to Shae before leaving the hospital with her.

    The two of them took the void rail to Area 28, which was colloquially known as the medical industry area.

    Many hospitals and drug developmentpanies liked to set up their headquarters here as the best medical universities in the entirety of Sandrise City, arguably even the entire continent of North America, were situated here.

    By establishing their headquarters here, not only would these organizations be able to get their hands on the best medical university graduates before other organizations, they would also be able to establish coborative partnerships with these universities for mutually beneficial projects like resource exchanges.

    Even though the Compassion Company had many hospitals all over Sandrise City, its headquarters was also here.

    After emerging from the railway station, Adam and Shae took a taxi to the Compassion Company headquarters.

    "Is it really a good idea to just go straight to the headquarters? Are you sure Chen Jiangbin is going to be here? You''ve already arrested a high-ranking figure in the organization, surely Chen Jiangbin would know what you''re up to and try to avoid you."

    "I''ve confirmed with the pawn shop that he''s definitely here. On top of that, as special psychic police officers, we have ess to all of Mechguard''s surveince cameras, so unless he leaves Sandrise City altogether, there''s no way he can get away from us."

    As a special psychic police officer, Adam had ess to a range of privileges.

    At the moment, the restrictions on the special psychic police force still hadn''t been established, so at this point in time, special psychic police officers enjoyed a bunch of privileges that significantly aided Adam in his investigations.

    Adam made his way directly toward the Compassion Company headquarters as he spoke, but he was stopped by some security guards before he had even arrived at the entrance.

    "No one can enter the headquarters unless they have an employee card or an invitation."

    "How about this?" Adam asked as he pointed at his police badge.

    The two security guards faltered slightly upon seeing this, and they quickly recognized Adam.

    "I''ve seen this guy on the inte."

    "Me, too. He seems to be targeting ourpany."

    "What do we do?"

    Mechguard had taken overw enforcement for so long that the average person didn''t even know how to deal with human police officers anymore.

    Ever since the end of World War III, human police officers had gradually been reced by Mechguard units, and that was particrly the case in major cities.

    These two security guards were only in their twenties, so ever since they could remember, they had never dealt with human police officers before.

    However, the fear of Mechguard and of thew was still deeply ingrained in their minds.

    Anyone who broke thew would be detained by Mechguard. Those cold and emotionless machines disyed no reaction to anything, only carrying out thew in the most rigid way imaginable, and anyone who dared to resist would be killed with no exceptions.

    The first thing that Adam had seen after his awakening were Mechguard units, so he was all too familiar with this concept.

    "Are you going to refuse us entry?" Adam asked as he raised an eyebrow. "In that case, you leave me with no choice but to call for backup from Mechguard. Obstructing the enforcement of thew is a severe crime."

    "We''re not obstructingw enforcement!" The two security guards immediately stepped back upon hearing this. "We''re just verifying your identity."

    With that, the two security guards hurriedly granted Adam entry, and Adam didn''t pursue the matter any further, making his way straight into the building before arriving outside the CEO''s office using the internalyout map provided by the pawn shop.

    However, even before opening the office door, Adam could sense that something was amiss.

    At this point, his telegnosis was so potent that he could sense far more than the average person.

    "Do you smell that?"

    "I do, a little," Shae replied as her brows furrowed slightly. "Are you sensing any danger?"

    "No." The main function of telegnosis was to sense danger. "Unless we''re dealing with an adapter of Hebi no Miko''s caliber, and they''ve intentionally concealed their aura, I don''t think we''re in any danger."

    Adam carefully pushed the door open as he spoke, and his nostrils were immediately assaulted by a strong bloody odor.

    There was a dead man in a suit sprawled out on the desk. His skull had been shattered by something, and his brains had beenpletely destroyed.

    Adam had seen more than his fair share of dead bodies, so he didn''t even flinch at the sight of this one. He calmly made his way over to the body, attempting to identify the man based on his facial features and attire.

    "If I''m not mistaken, this should be Chen Jiangbin. It seems like someone got to him before us."

    Adam wasn''t overly disheartened by this. Even without Chen Jiangbin, he still had other targets to go after. In fact, it didn''t even matter to him if Chen Xiaobin was also dead.

    There was no way that the two of them alone could''ve facilitated the trafficking of so many children throughout the year. There had to be manypany employees participating in the process, and all he needed was to find one of them to tear this case wide open.

    "Let''s go..."

    Right as Adam was about to leave, Chen Jiangbin''smunicator suddenly began to ring, and after some hesitation, Adam pried themunicator out of Chen Jiangbin''s cold and lifeless hand before epting the call.

    "Hello, Adam." The voice of a young man who sounded like he was only in his twenties rang out on the other end of the line, but the tone of his voice belonged to someone far beyond his years. "Why can''t you just let us go? Is it money that you want? If so, I can give it to you."

    "How much can you give me?"

    "A lot, far more than you can imagine."

    "Alright, then let''s meet up for a chat."

    "Do you think I''m an idiot?"

    "If you''re not an idiot, then I''m sure you''ve done a background check on me. Do you think I''m in dire need of money? I''m a nk te, surely you know what I want."

 Chapter 294: The Three Major Metropolises

    <h4>Chapter 294: The Three Major Metropolises</h4>

    The man on the other end of the line fell silent for a long while upon hearing this.

    Adam also waited patiently in silence. He wanted to hear what this mastermind behind the Compassion Company was going to say next.

    "I don''t know exactly what you want, but I think I have a decent guess." I don''t know exactly what you want, but I think I have a decent guess. "I''m assuming you want to uncover the truth behind nk tes, but I''m telling you now that your efforts are futile. It''s very unwise to go after powerful figures, and it''s particrly unwise to go after so many powerful figures at once."

    "So many?" Adam chuckled. "Do you represent more than just yourself?"

    "Perhaps I haven''t made myself very clear, so let me reiterate. If you expose the secrets behind nk tes, you will be encroaching upon the rights of everyone in positions of power, and you''ll be making yourself the public enemy of all of those powerful figures.

    ¡°Wealthy businessmen, politicians, high-ranking military officials, the southern congress, even the northern congress or the leaders of any of the most powerful private organizations. No one, and I mean no one, will turn down the prospect of attaining immortality. I am just an errand boy for them.

    ¡°All I do is send children that can potentially be made into nk tes to them. Even if I didn''t do this, someone else would, and if you try to disrupt this process, everyone will want you dead, even those in the northern congress."

    "You know what? That is actually something that I have to keep in mind," Adam replied with a nod.

    Adam had considered this problem before. When faced with the temptation of immortality and being able to return to a youthful body, there were indeed very few people who would have the willpower to refuse, and those who were in positions of power were even less likely to turn down such an alluring prospect. Those people had a far greater desire for power and resources than the average person.

    "That''s why I''ve decided that I''m not going to keep a rtively low profile for now. I''ll proceed with my n step by step, and I''ll take care of you first. Given my current reputation and public image, no one will be targeting me anytime soon."

    Adam was certain that this mastermind behind the Compassion Company wasn''t situated very high up on the pecking order. Otherwise, they wouldn''t be calling him to try and negotiate apromise.

    "Mark my words: you will die before I do. The best course of action for you would be to give up everything here and run away. Otherwise, I will find you. If you''re going to run, it''s not going to be enough to just leave Sandrise City, you''ll have to flee the entire North American Continent."

    There were a total of three metropolises on the continent of North America, and they contained a total poption of a billion, which was over 80% of the entire continent''s poption.

    Following Word War III,rge sections ofnd had been contaminated by nuclear radiation, and most of the remaining "clean"nd was upied by farming towns and viges. The people living in these ces are extremely xenophobic, and they made sure to constantly scrutinize outsiders, conducting even moreprehensive surveince than Mechguard did.

    Hence, aside fromwless ces like Shadow City, there really weren''t many ces that fugitives could escape to.

    "Given the current state of the world, it''s most likely not very peaceful outside of North America, either. You''re like a fatmb that''s loaded with money, so there''s a very good chance that you''ll be ughtered even after you start a new life elsewhere."

    It was clear that Adam''s goading was finally beginning to get to the person on the other side of the line.

    As thergest shareholder in the Compassion Company, he appeared to be at the top of the world, butpared with the powerful figures behind him, he really was nothing more than an errand boy.

    If he were to die, then the Compassion Company would be purchased or abandoned, and there would be more than enough people to rece him and continue with what he was doing.

    Child trafficking was an extremely shady business, and from the very first day he decided to take on this role, he knew that there was a chance that he would be cut off.

    No one would be willing to go against such a popr public figure like Adam for his sake, so if he wanted to live, then he would have to save himself.

    "It seems like you''re determined to follow this path to the bitter end. In that case, we''ll just have to see which one of us dies first!"

    The voice on the other end of the line seemed far too mature and bitter to belong to a young man in his twenties. Even though the man possessed the body of a 25-year-old, he had actually already lived for over a century.

    Back when he was first born, phones had still been running on 4Gworks.

    In the past century, he had endured several financial crises, crises of confidence, wars, and worldwide revolutions, and he was confident that this wasn''t going to be his downfall.

    "What are you going to do? Are you going to find someone to kill me?" Adam chuckled.

    In the past, he would''ve been afraid, but he was no longer his past self.

    After absorbing the anomalic power of the seven-headed anomaly, he had well and truly be an elite adapter.

    By his definition, adapters of Oni no Hanzou''s level could be referred to as elite adapters, but they only just barely made the cut.

    In contrast, the likes of Hebi no Miko and the director stood at the pinnacle of elite adapters. At the moment, Adam was situated somewhere between them.

    Given his current level of power, even the top hitmen on the ck market wouldn''t take on a job to assassinate him. Even if Oni-faced Dragon were toe after him, he would have nothing to fear.

    Perhaps he couldn''t defeat Oni-faced Dragon right now, but given the privileges that he enjoyed as a special psychic police officer, he didn''t fear Oni-faced Dragon. No matter how powerful he was, there was no way that he was as powerful as Hebi no Miko, and Adam was confident that he would be able to survive long enough against him for Mechguard to intervene.

    "If you want to kill me, then you can give it a try."

    "I will."

    The call was abruptly ended there.

    After a few seconds of contemtion, Adam turned to Shae before asking, "Did you record all of that."

    "I did," Shae replied with a nod. "That conversation was quite the bombshell. This is the true head of the Compassion Company, and he''s already admitted to trafficking children. Should we expose him to the media?"

    "Not right now," Adam replied with a shake of his head. "While it''s true that we''re enemies, he did say something that was very correct, which is that what we''re doing pits us against far too many powerful figures. At the moment, we''re still being hunted by Hebi no Miko. We should focus on weathering this storm first before we try to take any significant strides.

    ¡°The n has to be carried out one step at a time, and a recorded phone call alone won''t be enough to bring him down. We''ll keep this as evidence, then continue to umte more evidence over time. Someday, once we''ve pieced together the entire truth, we''ll reveal everything to the public all at once."

    Having experienced so much, Adam waspletely different from back when he first woke up.

    Back then, he was easily swindled by a hobo, but now, he had alreadypletely matured.

    "What we''re trying to aplish is very difficult, and the worst thing that we can do now is to be overly hasty. We have to dig up the entire ugly truth behind the Compassion Company first. I''m going to contact the pawn shop and get them to help me find some people.

    ¡°Adapters are extremely rare, so in order to find adapters among orphans, they would have to conduct physical examinations on a massive scale. That requires the involvement of a huge number of people, and there will definitely be some who are aware of what''s actually happening. They will be our next targets."

 Chapter 295: The Return of Raven

    <h4>Chapter 295: The Return of Raven</h4>

    Sandrise City was a metropolis with a poption of over 300 million, and every day, an enormous amount of waste products had to be processed in the city.

    Hence, the city was split up into two levels, one on the surface, and one underground.

    The sewage system responsible for processing the waste matter produced by over 300 million people was like a massive, convoluted ant kingdom, and there was nock of strange urrences taking ce in there.

    .

    On this day, two people arrived in this sewage system.

    "It''s just up ahead, Boss."

    A man who appeared to be around 40 years of age was wading through the putrid sewage, but he wasn''t disying much difort.

    Trailing along behind him was a young man who appeared to only be in his twenties, and he was far less ustomed to this environment. It was clear that he was used to living the good life, and the putrid stench in the sewage system was unbearable to him.

    However, he had no choice but to endure this. At the moment, he was in grave danger, and if he couldn''t take Adam out of the picture, then everything that he had built up would instantlye crumbling down around him.

    This young man was named Chen Yiran.

    In the eastern world, this was a name was rather negative connotations rted to ying with fire.

    However, he was a superstitious person, he had gone to an eastern fortune-teller, who had told him that he was missing fire in his five elements, so if fire could be injected into his life somehow, then he would live a long life that was filled with wealth and prosperity.

    "Is this ce safe?" Chen Yiran asked as he cautiously inspected his surroundings. "There aren''t any Mechguard units here, are there?"

    "The sewage system is one of the areas under Mechguard''s surveince, and there are spider-like Mechguard units constantly patrolling the system, but this ce is far too convoluted, so there''s no way that Mechguard can cover everything. Rest assured, this area is definitely safe, and some parts have already been sealed using concrete," the middle-aged man replied with a fawning expression.

    He knew that if he could get this job done, then he would earn a huge sum of money, enough for him to live out a veryfortable life, even afortable afterlife in the Metaverse.

    There were many ces that he had always wanted to visit, like the Sex, but had never been able to do so as they were too expensive, but everything would change if he couldplete this job.

    "Is this a reliable organization that you''ve found?" Chen Yiran asked.

    Even though he dabbled in illegal human trafficking, he was far from well-versed with the dark underbelly of society, so there were many things that he didn''t know.

    "Definitely. You heard about what happened with Carlin Asylum a while ago, right? Many of the escaped psychic mutants were captured, but there are still some dwelling underground right now."

    "Will they be able to get the job done?" Chen Yiran asked with a skeptical expression as he thought back to the files that he had read.

    It was clear that Adam was currently more powerful than the average psychic mutant.

    "They''re definitely well equipped for the job. They''re way more powerful than the average adapter, and if one can''t get the job done, then they''ll attack in a mob. I''m sure they''ll be able to make it happen. Also, I heard that they have a new leader, and that new leader should be very powerful."

    "Will we be able to employ their services with money?"

    Money was sought after by everyone in the civilized world, but it wasn''t guaranteed to be alluring to psychic mutants.

    In any case, Chen Yiran was prepared to give this a try.

    As the two of them were speaking with one another, they arrived at a bend in the sewage system. The pipe here led downward, and it was like a ?bottomless abyss down there. Even the torch couldn''t illuminate the bottom.

    "Be careful, Boss. We''re not far away now."

    The middle-aged man slowly crawled down the sewage pipe using his prosthetic limbs, and Chen Yiran''s prosthetics were even more advanced, allowing him to crawl down like an insect.

    The two of them made their way downward for over 100 meters before they finally reached t ground.

    This deep under the ground, the darkness was so absolute that it seemed to be capable of devouring all light, and their torches could illuminate a distance of a few meters in front of them.

    Upon arriving here, the middle-aged man was also feeling rather apprehensive, and he didn''t say anything further as he continued to lead the way.

    After walking for another seven to eight kilometers, some light finally appeared in the distance up ahead.

    "We''re almost there, Boss!"

    The middle-aged man began to run as he spoke, and Chen Yiran immediately followed suit.

    Soon, the light in the distance began to expand further and further, until they emerged into a well-lit area at the end of the pipe.

    After taking a moment to adjust his eyes to the bright setting, Chen Yiran discovered that he had arrived in a za of sorts.

    Countless pipes converged in this one ce, making it resemble a central traffic hub that could lead anywhere in the underground sewage system.

    Down below as a huge vacant area, and there were already some people gathered there.

    Thump!

    Before Chen Yiran even had a chance to catch a clear glimpse of those figures, a small chunk of the pipe beside him was suddenly sent flying through the air.

    "Don''t shoot! I''m not your enemy!" the middle-aged man hurriedly yelled. "Boss Raven, we''ve met before."

    Thump!

    Yet another shot was fired, but this one was also off the mark.

    Chen Yiran saw one of the figures down below make his way over to the shooter beforeying a hand on his arm.

    "Your aim is terrible, Lizard. You need to practice more."

    It was a young man in his twenties, while the shooter appeared to be in his forties.

    The young man then called out to Chen Yiran''s duo.

    "Come on down."

    "That''s their new leader, Boss. Apparently, he only recently came to Sandrise City, and he appears to be more normal than the other psychic mutants."

    How did he manage to tame so many psychic mutants if he only recently arrived in the city? Does that mean he''s even more powerful than Director Li Pengfei of Carlin Asylum?

    Despite his qualms and concerns, Chen Yiran still scaled his way down the pipe wall with his prosthetic limbs to meet the group of people gathered down below.

    Only then was he able to catch a clear glimpse of the people gathered on the za, and they were clearly deranged psychic mutants.

    One of them wasying on the ground with drool pouring out of his body, while another was keeping a bunch of maggots, allowing them to crawl all over his body as they pleased. There was also someone who appeared to be a mathematician, scribbling a bunch of unintelligible symbols down onto the ground.

    The shooter from earlier clearly wasn''t normal, either. His eyes seemed to be unable to focus, and one of them was turned to the left, while the other was turned to the right, making him truly resemble a humanoid lizard.

    There were around 17 or 18 people gathered here, and not all of them appeared to be abnormal. At the very least, their so-called new leader seemed to be a normal person.

    "Greetings, Mr. Raven."

    Chen Yiran was disying an unprecedented level of respect toward the young man. His survival depended on Raven, so he was naturally being extremely earnest and respectful.

    "Hello, can I help you with something?" Raven was very polite and respectful, but his words were rather unforgiving. "Let''s not waste any time here. I''ll give you one minute. Tell me what you want, and I''ll decide whether it''s worth my time."

    "One minute?"

    "57 seconds now," Raven said as he nced down at his watch.

    1. The name Yiran (ÒíÈ¼) in this case is a homonym to the Chinese term for ''mmable" (Ò×È¼), hence the negative connotations rted to fire.

    2. In Chinese superstition, everyone has a set of "five elements" determined by the time and date of their birth, and it''s considered favorable to have all five elements in one''s life, so those that held this belief and were missing certain elements would go out of their way to add those elements through various means.

 Chapter 296: Peace

    <h4>Chapter 296: Peace</h4>

    "I want you to take care of a man by the name of Adam for me."

    Given the time constraints, Chen Yiran was speaking a lot faster than he previously did.

    The mention of Adam''s name seemed to have attracted the attention of a young woman in the corner of the za, one who appeared to be rtively normalpared with the rest.

    "Is the Adam that you''re referring to the one who''s frequently been featuring on the news ofte?" Raven asked, and the tone of his voice had softened quite a bit.

    "That''s right."

    "Good. You''ve sessfully drawn my interest," Raven said. "What would you like me to do to him?"

    "I want you to kill him."

    "Are you not afraid of the consequences? He''s a special psychic police officer right now, and the most renowned public figure in all of Sandrise City."

    "If I don''t kill him, then he''ll kill me. Besides, we''re not the only ones after his life right now. I hear that there''s a Japanese woman by the name of Hebi no Miko going after him as well. She used to be a military spy, but sheter suffered from some mental problems, and I heard that she''s extremely powerful. If it isn''t for the fact that Adam is being protected by Mechguard, he would already be dead by now. Hence, we can just kill him and pin the me on that woman."

    "It sounds like you know a lot about him." Raven approached Chen Yiran with an intrigued expression, then leaned in so close that their faces were almost touching before asking, "Can you tell me about the history between the two of you?"

    Peering into the insanity burning deep within Raven''s eyes, Chen Yiran suddenly realized that he had made an error in judgment.

    Raven definitely wasn''t the most normal person in this group. Instead, he was the most deranged one!

    Thebination of evil, calmness, and insanity in his eyes made one feel as if they were looking into the eyes of a demon.

    Chen Yiran gulped nervously. At this point, he had no choice but to do this, even if it meant having to work with a demon.

    "Alright, let me start by telling you who I am. I am thergest shareholder in the Compassion Company, a very lucrative medicalpany. Of course, our biggest source of ie isn''t the medical services that we provide, and that''s why we''re being targeted."

    ¡­¡­

    Things had been very rxing for Adam over the past few days.

    Of course, time was constantly of the essence for him, so he could never afford to truly rx, but overall, it had been a very peaceful time.

    Aside from working on his investigations, he even had the spare time to pay Twerking Karen a visit in the Metaverse to let off some steam.

    Adam transferred some money to Karen''s ount before preparing to depart.

    "Leaving so soon?"

    "Yeah, it''s not safe to stay with me. At the moment, danger follows me everywhere I go."

    Adam put on his clothes as he nced at the picture on the bedside table.

    It was a photograph of Karen and Chloe.

    "How is she?"

    "She''spletely fine now. Nowadays, she''s very cheerful, and she no longer resents me. Considering how much you''ve helped me and Chloe, I really shouldn''t be charging you any money."

    "Those are two different matters. I shouldn''t even be here as just being with me puts you in danger, but if we stick to the straight and narrow all the time, life will be pretty nd. By the way, I like your ass."

    "Thanks."

    "I''m going now."

    "Will you be back?"

    "I don''t know."

    "You''ll be able to survive whatever it is you''re dealing with, right?"

    "Again, I don''t know."

    With that, Adam departed from the apartment using the elevator outside.

    At this point, he had sufficient confidence to act on his own. Ever since Sludge''s most recent evolution, he had determined that even if Hebi no Miko were toe after him again, it would take a certain amount of time for her to kill him, so he would be safe as long as he was in sufficiently close proximity to Mechguard units.

    This was most likely one of the reasons why Hebi no Miko had remained in hiding for so long. Her first failure and the injuries that she had sustained at that time had forced her to keep a low profile.

    Recently, Adam had done a great deal of research into Hebi no Miko on the dark web. Her psychic body was Yamata no Orochi, which was an extremely destructive entity, and she was a psychic mutant, so there was no way that she would possess much patience and self-restraint.

    With that in mind, Adam determined that it was about time for Hebi no Miko''s next attack to arrive.

    At the moment, he was being scrutinized by the southern congress, Hebi no Miko, and the Compassion Company, cing him in a very perilous position.

    I really don''t have much time left,?Adam thought to himself as he dialed Diana''s number.

    "..."

    The call was connected, but Diana was never the first one to speak. In fact, she was only carrying amunicator as Adam had insisted on giving her one. Both of them had amon enemy, so it was a good idea to be able to contact one another at all times.

    "How is your training with Sadou going?"

    "Fine..."

    "Have you grown stronger?"

    "Yes..."

    "I''m going to investigate a medical organization, and I have a feeling that Hebi no Miko will attack again soon. Do you want to face her again or continue in your training for now?"

    "I''ll fight..."

    "Alright, then go to the veterinarian hospital."

    After that, Adam ended the call. Speaking with Diana was a real pain, and he didn''t want to extend the call for any longer than necessary.

    That night, Adam arrived in Area 8 to meet Red Spider at the specified time and location.

    Just like Area 9, Area 8 was also an old-school industrial area. Back when the city was first being constructed, many industrial areas had popped up at the center of the city in order to facilitate the production of certain construction materials.

    However, in the instant that construction on the city waspleted, these industrial areas began to fall into decline.

    Back then, these areas had been viewed as integral cogs to the city''s operation, yet now, they were shunned and despised.

    Hence, almost all of these old areas were synonymous with chaos and darkness.

    In contrast with the chaos of the artistic areas, these industrial areas were home to illegal gangs and underground organizations. The surveince cameras here were constantly being destroyed, and any ce that wasn''t patrolled by Mechguard was always filled with all types ofwless factions, including old Mexican gangs, ethnic Chinese gangs, prosthetic retrofitter gangs...

    These people would form all types of factions based on certain shared traits, such as their ethnicities or nationalities, and the person that Adam was going to meet on this day was someone from the Hong Kong faction.

    The pawn shop and Red Spider generally refrained from getting involved in matters with illegal implications. All they did was provide the necessary information and help set up meetings with contacts.

    However, that was already enough for Adam.

    After arriving in a dark alley at the agreed time, Adam saw a group of people approaching from afar. The leader of the group was a very short man, but he walked with an extremely exaggerated and arrogant swagger.

    The man was a perfect match with the description provided by the pawn shop, and Adam immediately approached him with a smile.

    "Big D Bro?"

 Chapter 297: Electricity Networks

    <h4>Chapter 297: Electricity Networks</h4>

    "That''s me. What was your name again? Adam, right? What a boring name!"

    The man swaggered over to Adam while sizing him up, and Adam was also looking back at him.

    The man was bald with some old-school tattoos on his arms. He was no more than 165 centimeters tall, but he had a very thick and stocky build. There were any signs of retrofitting on his body, and overall, it seemed like he was a very old-fashioned guy.

    "That''s not very polite of you, Big D Bro. Are you not scared of me?"

    "Why should I be scared of you? Just because you''re a police officer? Imma be honest, I''ve never been scared of the police. I''m scared of Mechguard, but I''m not scared of human police officers like you."

    Even though Big D Bro''s words were quite scathing and abrasive, his loud and boisterous voice made it so that he wasn''t unpleasant to deal with.

    "I may only be in my thirties right now, and I haven''t seen the world before Word War III, but I''ve seen a ton of movies, and back then, it wasn''t like this between the police and the gangs. Nowadays, Mechguard are the cats, while we''re the mice, and we''re having to y a game of cat and mouse every day.

    ¡°Back in the day, police officers were people, and all people have different needs. That''s what sets us apart from those Mechguard units. Today, we''vee together to satisfy each other''s needs. Isn''t that what this world should be like?"

    "The vast majority of people still prefer to interact with machines. If possible, I would much rather have all of the politicians in government be robots as well." Adam didn''t agree with Big D Bro''s opinion, but that hardly mattered in this situation. "I''m sure you''ve already been told what I want, right? Have you got the information?"

    "I do. Chen Yiran''s old man was an old-school Chinese Mysian, and he''s taken after his father. They always like to turn to family whenever they need anything done, so I began my investigation by looking into people with the same Chen surname.

    ¡°Not only do they like to rely on family members, even when they''re on the run, they like to hide in ces withrge Chinese poptions. We just so happen to have some Chinese factions here, and a group of people of Chinese descent recently came into hiding here. If I''m not mistaken, one of them should be the person that you''re looking for."

    The Compassion Company was a medical organization with many departments, and it was possible that every single one of those departments was dabbling in some form of illegal activity.

    For example, their sales department was selling illegal drugs, but for crimes of this nature, they could simply rely on theirwyers to keep them out of trouble.

    The illegal activity that theirwyers couldn''t take care of naturally had to be kept strictly confidential, so there was no way that Chen Yiran would just entrust those jobs to anyone. Given the way that he liked to do things, his family members would''ve definitely been his primary choice.

    These jobs included selecting children, conducting physical examinations, delivering those children...

    There had to be dozens, if not hundreds of people involved in such an borate process, and Adam couldn''t capture all of them, but it was also unrealistic to expect him to be unable to capture even a single one of them.

    As it turned out, one of those people was hiding here.

    "Where is he?"

    "Give me the money first. The deposit is 150,000, and once it''s confirmed that we have the right person, you give us another 150,000."

    "What if it''s not the right person?"

    "We''ll return your deposit to you. Rest assured, Officer Adam, we wouldn''t try to swindle you. Gangs like ours would never make enemies out of the police unless we have a death wish, especially in this day and age. If we scam you, you''ll just send Mechguard units here to wipe us all out, isn''t that right?"

    "That''s true."

    Adam nodded in response before promptly issuing the payment.

    After that, he followed Big D Bro into a dark alley, and after walking for a full 20 minutes through what felt like a maze of twists and turns, they finally arrived at their destination.

    "Be careful. Right up ahead is their territory. Make sure you don''t touch the electric cables on the ground, the metal barrels, or anything conductive. All of that stuff has electricity running through them!"

    "Got it."

    In these areas that were filled with illegal gangs, many objects on the ground often had electricity running through them in order to keep out Mechguard units.

    Destroying surveince cameras and establishing electricityworks were the keys to the survival of these gangs.

    Mechguard units were fearsomew enforcers, but ultimately, they were still automatons, and electricity was the bane of their existence. These electricityworks couldn''tpletely destroy a Mechguard unit, but they could slow down those units and grant everyone sufficient time to escape.

    While walking through the dark alley, Adam noticed all types of metal screens overhead, and even flying Mechguard units would have to strip off all of their equipment if they wanted to enter.

    By then, everyone would''ve already been long gone.

    This does look like a good hiding ce.

    At the end of the alley was a factory, which was so dpidated at this point that it was impossible to tell what it had originally been used for.

    However, the interior was rtively well maintained, and it resembled a makeshift motel, but in contrast with normal motels, there were tattooed guards who were armed to the teeth outside, as well as cyborgs with illegal prosthetics retrofitted onto their bodies.

    "This motel is one of their gang''s properties, and there are many fugitives and debt evaders living here."

    "Is this a safe ce?"

    "Not really, but if you''re a fugitive on the run, what choice do you have?"

    Big D Bro was clearly a familiar face around these parts, and the guards stationed in front of the motel granted him entry without any fuss.

    The group made their way into the living area at the back of the factory before arriving in front of a certain room.

    "He''s in there. Our people have been keeping an eye on him to make sure that he hasn''t gone anywhere."

    "Alright, thanks."

    After opening the door of the room, Adam was greeted by the sight of a very cramped space.

    There was only a bed, a toilet, and a tea table inside the room.

    A pair of burly men were seated beside the tea table, eating peanuts washed down with beer, while a thin and frail man wearing a dress shirt was seated on the bed.

    Adam only took a brief nce at his surroundings before making his way directly over to the man on the bed.

    His shirt was filthy and drenched in sweat, but it was clearly a high-end product, and there was a mixture of fear and dread in his eyes.

    "What''s your name?"

    "Chen Yanyan," the man replied in a slightly hoarse voice.

    Adam could tell that in all likelihood, this was one of the people that he was searching for, and he issued the final payment to Big D Bro as he said, "I want to speak to him alone."

    "I understand. Adapters usually don''t like to do things with other people around."

    After the transaction was settled, Big D Bro gestured toward hisckeys and prepared to leave the room, but right as he was about to close the door, Adam suddenly called out to him again.

    "What is it now?"

    "Pick up someone from Area 9 for me."

    "Who?"

    "You''ll know once you get there. Rest assured, I''ll make sure topensate you well."

    "How much are you giving me?"

    "Don''t worry about it, I guarantee that you won''t regret this," Adam replied with a meaningful expression.

    Big D Bro faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded in response before departing from the room.

    Adam didn''t waste any time with Chen Yanyan and immediately knocked him unconscious.

    "Let me see what secrets you''re hiding!"

 Chapter 298: Two Objectives

    <h4>Chapter 298: Two Objectives</h4>

    With that, Adam invaded Chen Yanyan''s psychic world, immediately following which he began to search through Chen Yanyan''s memories.

    There weren''t many memories in Chen Yanyan''s mind. The average person umted an enormous number of memories over the course of their lifetime, but looking back, there weren''t many moments that were particrly clear in one''s mind.

    The other memories were either fuzzy or overly repetitive and mundane. Hence, searching through one''s memories in one''s psychic world wasn''t as tedious a task as one might think.

    After exploring a few psychic modules, Adam had developed a rough idea of Chen Yanyan''s history.

    He was born in the Chen Family, which was quite arge family in the Chinesemunity, boasting several hundred members, all of whom could be traced back to the same ancestors.

    Even as a child, Chen Yanyan had already heard of Chen Yiran, a big shot in their family.

    He had seen Chen Yiran during certain family gatherings, and back, he was an old man, but by the time Chen Yanyan grew up into adulthood, the old man had passed away.

    It was said that his grandson who shared the same name had taken over as the head of the family.

    At the time, Chen Yanyan had thought this to be rather strange. Generally speaking, only the surname was passed down from generation to generation, and it was extremely rare to have full names inherited. It was considered to be disrespectful to one''s seniors to share the same name as them.

    As a result, this had left a deep impression on him, thereby imprinting itself into his mind as a very clear memory.

    It was only yearster that he came to find out the reason for this.

    Chen Yanyan wasn''t a direct rtive of Chen Yiran''s, but he quickly caught the attention of the prominent members of the Chen Family thanks to his intelligence and quiet nature.

    In some Chinese circles, it was considered to be a virtue to be quiet and withdrawn.

    After undergoing a series of examinations, Chen Yanyan was arranged to work at the Compassion Company, a family business.

    During his first three or four years there, he didn''te into contact with any of thepany''s secrets. However, as he continued to climb up the ranks, he developed a sense of belonging to thepany, while also enjoying higher sries and status.

    After one promotion, he was even invited to a dinner party at Chen Yiran''s home.

    That was a big day in Chen Yanyan''s life, and it was a very clear memory in his mind. He had put on his best suit and ensured that his hair was absolutely immacte before he walked out the door. On the way there, he had checked his reflection no fewer than 20 times.

    Finally, he arrived at the mansion on top of the hill.

    In a metropolis like Sandrise City, where everyone was living in pigeonhole-like smart apartments,nd where natural scenery was preserved was truly worth its weight in gold, and owning a mansion in such a prime location was a reflection of enormous wealth.

    This was the first time that Chen Yanyan had been granted the honor of visiting this ce, and his palms were sweating profusely.

    Thankfully, everyone inside was very friendly to him. Not only was the butler very polite, even Chen Yiran was very warm and inviting to him.

    This provided him with a massive ego boost, and he was also given the opportunity of a lifetime by Chen Yiran on that day, an opportunity to be the head of a certain department.

    It was an offer that he found impossible to turn down. Not only would his new job significantly elevate his quality of life, he would be able to enjoy limitless wealth and resources in the Metaverse even after he passed away.

    However, nothing came for free in this world.

    He was sufficiently intelligent to know that he would have to sacrifice something in exchange for this opportunity. However, when he was told by Chen Yiran what was expected of him, he was very relieved.

    As it turned out, he didn''t have to give up his life, nor did he have to even dedicate too much time and energy to his new role. The only thing that he had to sacrifice was his morality, but in his eyes, that waspletely worthless anyway.

    Hence, Chen Yanyan had epted the job without any hesitation.

    His new job was very simple. All he had to do was contact all of the non-profit organizations in and around Sandrise City to provide free physical examinations to children.

    Of course, in reality, the service was far from free.

    There was a huge number of orphans in Sandrise City, and he had to find the adapters among them, then take these children away under the guise that they were suffering from some type of serious condition.

    He would then provide these children to the people above him, and as for where these children went, he didn''t know, he didn''t care, and he didn''t want to know.

    For an errand boy like him, the less he knew, the better.

    However, even though he didn''t want to know what was happening behind the scenes, he still inevitably learned what was happening over time.

    In the next few years, he learned about the existence of nk tes, and he learned the secret to immortality for the wealthy and powerful.

    He also came to realize that the current Chen Yiran was most likely the same Chen Yiran as before, and that the so-called passing down of the torch from grandfather to grandson had only been a lie to cate the outside world.

    In reality, Chen Yiran had most likely injected his consciousness into a nk te to be reborn.

    This had been a massive bombshell for Chen Yanyan, and even though he had never been one to value morality and ethics, he still couldn''t help but be fearful of what he had gotten himself into, and he lived in fear every single day.

    He knew that this was an extremely risky line of work, and that exposure would almost be sure to spell death for him. Regardless of whether it was the legal system or thework of powerful figures above him, either one of those could''ve easily crushed him like an ant on a whim.

    He had considered running away after saving up enough money, and he had also considered the possibility that he would be caught someday, but never did he think that the entire organization would bepletely uprooted.

    Upon receiving the news, he immediately ran away.

    He knew that those above him wouldn''t protect him. Instead, they would kill him in order to silence him before the special psychic police officers arrived.

    Through some contacts, he managed to escape to this ce.

    So this gang deals in human trafficking as well. No wonder he came here.

    Adam was lurking in the darkness while watching Chen Yanyan''s interaction with his gang contact.

    He had already hatched a n to flee overseas quite some time ago, which was why he had these gang contacts.

    However, what he failed to anticipate was that the gangs here would immediately go back on their word as soon as he arrived.

    He had only just gotten to Area 8 when he was captured by someone for several hundred thousand dors.

    This was quite a huge sum of money, and even for a gang leader like Big D Bro, it was quite a risk to be making such arge investment.

    Of course, Adam didn''t care about any of this. He only had two objectives foring here, the first of which was to find out the exact details of the child adapter trafficking chain in the Compassion Company.

    Chen Yanyan didn''t know much about this, but Adam had made mental notes of all of the names and faces of the people that Chen Yanyan had dealt with as part of his job.

    He was confident that he would be able to unearth even more secrets if he were to continue his investigation using his leads.

    As for his second objective, that was going to involve some risk.

 Chapter 299: Bait and Trap

    <h4>Chapter 299: Bait and Trap</h4>

    Why are they still not here yet?

    Adam hadpleted his exploration of Chen Yanyan''s psychic world, but the people that he was waiting for still hadn''t arrived.

    He hade to Area 8 with two objectives, the first of which was to hunt down a target, while the second of which was to be hunted himself.

    Hebi no Miko had alreadyid low for quite some time, and he had a feeling that she was about to resurface.

    As opposed to having this threat constantly hanging over his head, he much preferred to seize the initiative and actively lure her out.

    With all of these electricityworks present, Mechguard units were going to be significantly impeded here, so this was the best opportunity for Hebi no Miko to strike.

    Furthermore, Adam had a legitimate reason foring here, so there was no reason for Hebi no Miko to suspect that he was intentionally doing this to lure her into some trap.

    Prior toing here, he had made extensive preparations, and all that was left was for Hebi no Miko to take the bait.

    With that in mind, Adam continued to wander aimlessly throughout Chen Yanyan''s psychic world.

    Having alreadypleted his investigation, this had be purely a waiting game.

    He had almost been killed by a single punch from Hebi no Mikost time, and having learned his lesson, he invoked Sludge before jumping onto its shoulder.

    Of course, the sudden emergence of a stone giant immediately caused all of the residents of Chen Yanyan''s psychic world to fly into a blind panic.

    At this moment, Sludge was making its way down the streets of Sandrise City, while all of the surrounding pedestrians were fleeing for their lives. However, due to the fact that the logic in psychic worlds was rather tenuous, the mass panic didn''t incur any attention from the news, nor did it trigger any chain reactions.

    However, this type of panic did attract something else that was rather unexpected, namely an anomaly.

    The anomaly was a nightmarish ck shadow that was still yet toplete its evolution.

    I suppose it''s no surprise that he would be suffering from some mental problems, given that he''s living in fear every day, but this anomaly is so weak that it''s barely worth killing.

    As soon as the nightmarish anomaly appeared, a transparent shadow suddenly emerged behind it, instantly rooting it to the spot.

    Immediately thereafter, its entire body became twisted and warped, and it was almost instantly killed by Distortion.

    At this stage, Distortion was virtually invincible even among level four anomalies, let alone this level two anomaly.

    After the nightmarish anomaly was killed, its anomalic power was devoured by Distortion, and it was also right at this moment that Adam detected something.

    Someone''s invaded this psychic world!

    He had been on high alert this entire time, so his telegnosis was immediately able to pick up the slight disturbance.

    It was only a very subtle feeling, so he couldn''t be certain whether someone had actually invaded this psychic world, but he still immediately withdrew Distortion while instructing Sludge to prepare for battle.

    Sludge''s shoulder slowly melted away at his behest, allowing Adam to enter its body.

    Right after hepleted those preparations, he immediately spotted a woman on top of a building in the distance.

    The woman was like a superhero, flying over from another psychic module beforending atop the tallest building in the area. Her eyes then began to release scintiting radiance like a pair of searchlights as she scoured through the entire area, and the top of the building that she was standing on exploded as soon as she caught sight of Adam.

    Just the force with which she had propelled herself off the building alone was enough to cause it to explode as if it had been struck by a missile, and she flew directly at Adam like a cannonball.

    Finally, the person that Adam had waiting for had arrived. It was naturally none other than Hebi no Miko!

    She''s finally here!

    Adam was feeling both ted and apprehensive at the sight of Hebi no Miko. She was too fast for his eyes to follow anyway, so he closed his eyes and withstood the attack head-on with Sludge''s body.

    Several seconds after Adam closed his eyes, an earth-shattering boom rang out, and both he and Sludge were sent flying back through the air.

    Sludge''s enormous body was airborne for a brief moment before it began to skid along the ground. Deep trenches were scratched into the reinforced concrete ground by its body, while all pedestrians and cars unfortunate enough to get in its way were instantly destroyed.

    Even though Adam was situated inside Sludge''s body, the devastating impact from Hebi no Miko''s attack still caused him to throw up a mouthful of blood.

    Only after sliding back dozens of meters did Sludge finallye to rest as it crashed into a wall. Adam looked down to find that a huge section of Sludge''s chest had already been shattered, but thankfully for Adam, Sludge was a level 5 anomaly that specialized in defense, so it possessed superior defensive prowess evenpared with anomalies of higher levels.

    The cracks on its chest were slowly beginning to heal, and it had sessfully endured the attack.

    "You''ve grown stronger sincest time, but I''m not going to make the same mistake as I did back then."

    Hebi no Miko''s voice rang out from up above once again while Sludge was regenerating itself.

    Adam looked up to find Hebi no Miko descending out of the sky like a shooting star, following which a torrential barrage of punches rained down upon Sludge''s body.

    Every single one of Hebi no Miko''s punches was imbued with incredible power, and her attack frequency was also extraordinarily fast. Within the span of just a few seconds, Adam had already been struck by over 100 punches.

    Even Sludge was unable to hold itself together in the face of such a violent and rapid barrage of attacks.

    Its regeneration was unable to keep up with Hebi no Miko''s rate of destruction, and countless chunks of stone had already fallen from its body onto the ground it.

    However, Hebi no Miko still wasn''t satisfied with the rate at which Adam was sustaining damage.

    Having already learned her lesson fromst time, she knew that she had to kill him before Mechguard reinforcements arrived.

    "Lightning!"

    "Thunder!"

    It was taking too long for Hebi no Miko to tear through Sludge''s defenses by hand, so she was turning to technomancy to enhance her punches with the power of thunder and lightning.

    With each punch that came crashing down, arge section of Sludge''s body would be charred ck, and electricity would fly in all directions along with shards of stone.

    The power of the lightning and the shockwaves from the thunderps were able to pierce through theyers of rock and directly impact Adam''s body.

    Even though Sludge''s body was withstanding the majority of the impact for him, this was still far too much for Adam to bear, and his bones and organs were on the verge of shattering.

    "Help me! I''m gonna fucking die soon!" Adam roared.

    As if in direct response to his desperate cry for help, the sky abruptly dimmed right at this moment as a ck dragon descended out of the heavens.

 Chapter 300: Three Top-tier Adapters

    <h4>Chapter 300: Three Top-tier Adapters</h4>

    Diana had undergone a clear transformation.

    Her body wasrger than before, and her physical appearance had also changed slightly.

    There was clearly something "divine" about Diana''s current form, and her entire body was giving off faint radiance as she pounced at Hebi no Miko with unbridled fury.

    "You came at just the right time! I''ll kill both of you right here!"

    Hebi no Miko continued to pummel Adam even as Diana came swooping down from above, and at the same time, she uttered a string of cybercode, conjuring up technomantic attacks of the wind, fire, and poison attributes before Diana could descend onto the scene.

    Ayer of dark clouds appeared in the sky, and ferocious gusts of wind swept through the entire street, carrying a toxic mist.

    The bodies of all of the living beings in the path of the toxic wind instantly began to rot away, and those who breathed in the toxic mist were instantly killed on the spot.

    At the moment, everyone was situated on a street in Chen Yanyan''s memory. It was a street in Sandrise City, and it was one of the secret locations where Chen Yanyan met up with representatives from the non-profit organizations that he dealt with.

    Each area in Sandrise City had a poption numbering in the millions, and this area was no exception. Hence, the poption density in the city was very high, and thousands of people were instantly killed by these gusts of fierce wind.

    At the same time, a storm of fire also began to rain down from the heavens, incinerating all of the people who were attempting to seek shelter in the surrounding buildings.

    Diana was caught right at the center of the storm of fire and toxic mist, bearing the brunt of the technomantic attacks, but she remainedrgely unscathed as theyer of faint radiance continued to surge over her body.

    All of a sudden, she sucked in a huge mouthful of fire and toxic mist, then sted it directly at Hebi no Miko.

    "You''ve also be a bit stronger, but did you think that was going to be enough?"

    Hebi no Miko swept a hand through the air to conjure up a wall of wind, which resembled an enormous shield that kept out Diana''s attack.

    She could tell from Diana''s physical appearance and her faintly shimmering scales that she had be significantly more powerful. In particr, her technomantic resistance had been significantly enhanced.

    "Is your visualization partner N¨ªeh?ggr? As expected of the legendary ck dragon capable of withstanding even Odin''s divine powers. You''ve developed some decent technomantic resistance, but you''re still too weak!"

    Hebi no Miko sprang up into the air as she spoke, then threw a punch into Diana''s head before grabbing onto one of her ws and spinning her around like a windmill, mming her viciously into the ground.

    It was a very strange sight to see a normal-sized human twirling a massive dragon around like a ragdoll. It was almost like seeing an ant swinging a human around at will, and it simply defied thews of physics.

    However, this was how things were like in the psychic world. Hebi no Miko was capable of flying, and she was able to stabilize herself in mid-air thanks to her flight abilities. As long as she possessed sufficient strength, she could pull off this physics-defying feat.

    "Surely you didn''t think that the two of you would be able to oppose me on your own!"

    Hebi no Miko extended an arm forward as she spoke, and the entire arm rapidly swelled in size, elongating to over 100 meters in length in the blink of an eye.

    At the same time, scales began to rapidly emerge over her arm, which was also bing thicker and undergoing a drastic transformation.

    In what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye, the arm had already transformed into a giant serpent that was pouncing at Diana with devastating force.

    Just the head of the serpent alone was roughlyparable in size with Diana''s entire body, and the serpent''s body was several hundred meters in length. It was as if the serpent were a part of Yamata no Orochi''s body, and as it hurtled toward Diana, it opened its cavernous mouth to reveal a pair of pir-like venomous fangs.

    Seeing as her technomantic attacks were very limited in their effectiveness against Diana, Hebi no Miko had returned to relying on her physical prowess.

    Even though Diana had already begun visualization training, she had only been doing so for a very short time. No matter howpatible she was with N¨ªeh?ggr, she was still only aplete novice in visualization, and there was no way that she would''ve been able to make sufficiently significant strides in such a short time to be able to oppose Hebi no Miko.

    Even the most talented of prodigies required time to develop, and Diana was no exception to this.

    In the face of the oing giant serpent, Diana attempted to retaliate and to take evasive measures, but neither course of action proved to be very effective. There was such an enormous power disparity between the two that she was simply powerless to do anything.

    Right as the giant serpent''s cavernous mouth was about to mp down on her, some type of sticky substance that resembled melted wax suddenly began to appear in the serpent''s oral cavity.

    The sticky liquid was gushing out of the ground like a flood, quickly enveloping the entire head of the giant serpent to seal it in wax.

    Immediately thereafter, the wax on the serpent''s head stirred slightly, following which an impably groomed man appeared.

    "What took you so long?" Adamined as he instructed Sludge to struggle to its feet. "You''re the one who set up this ambush, why did it take you so long to get here?"

    "If I arrived too early, Hebi no Miko could''ve been startled into running away. The psychic boundaries in Chen Yanyan''s psychic world are far too brittle. If Hebi no Miko wanted to leave, she could''ve done so at any moment, but now, I''ve already reinforced those psychic boundaries."

    A thin membrane of wax appeared over the sky and the earth as he spoke, transforming this entire area into his domain.

    "I''ve heard of you, Wax Figure. You may be my senior as an adapter, but you''ve always been held back in your development by yourckluster visualization. Are you going to try and oppose me as well?"

    Hebi no Miko was making no effort to hide the disdain and malice in her eyes.

    Wax Figure had yed a pivotal role in World War III, and he possessed immense power to back up his resounding reputation, but his progress had been very slow in recent years.

    Hebi no Miko had been born not long before World War III, and even though the two of them didn''t belong to the same generation, both of them had heard of one another.

    Having previously worked in Japan''s Department of Intelligence, Hebi no Miko had seen footage of Wax Figure in action, and she was confident that she was a level above him.

    "I''m definitely no match for you, but all I have to do is keep you upied until Mechguard gets here."

    "This is Area 8. All of you will die before Mechguard gets here!"

    Hebi no Miko was beginning to run out of patience, and her deranged nature was showing through.

    As a psychic mutant, patience was not her strong suit, and the fact that she was willing to speak with Wax Figure at all was already a sign that she was wary of his powers.

    However, now that she could see that Wax Figure wasn''t disying any intention of backing down, she didn''t want to waste any more time with words.

    In contrast, Wax Figure was far more rxed and patient, and he said in a calm voice, "That is indeed a possibility. It''s going to take Mechguard a very long time to get here considering the area that we''re in, and that''s why I''m not the only one who came here this time."

    Divine light shed in the sky once again as Wax Figure was speaking, and a winged woman holding a bow in her hand rose up into the air from the edge of Wax Figure''s domain.

    The woman''s body was glowing with divine light, and she bore a strong resemnce to the Greek Goddess of Hunting, Artemis. Adam had never seen her psychic body before, but he was very familiar with the woman''s aura.

    So this is what May''s psychic body looks like...

 Chapter 301: Battle Between Deities

    <h4>Chapter 301: Battle Between Deities</h4>

    May and Wax Figure''s involvement was Adam''s main source of confidence.

    Only Adam knew how much he had to sacrifice to persuade the two of them to help him in this operation.

    Wax Figure was rtively easy to convince. After seeing Adam''s potential, his attitude toward Adam had taken a drastic turn. The northern congress required an injection of new blood, so he was obligated to help and nurture Adam.

    However, May was apletely different case.

    She was a very cautious person, and she was very reluctant to be overly involved in politics, particrly political conflicts.

    Thankfully, Wax Figure met up with her in person to recruit her help, and the pawn shop and the northern congress had worked together on many past asions, thereby establishing a precedent for coboration. Otherwise, the pawn shop wouldn''t have sided with the northern congress during the Carlin Asylum incident.

    Even so, it had taken further convincing for her to finally agree to participate in this operation.

    Firstly, Hebi no Miko wasn''t allied with the southern congress. She was a massive problem, but she had no backers, so there would be no repercussions from eliminating her.

    If they had been targeting an important figure in the southern congress, then she definitely wouldn''t have agreed to participate as she didn''t want to have to deal with the resulting repercussions.

    Secondly, with Mechguard reinforcements on the way, all she and Wax Figure had to do was keep Hebi no Miko upied for enough time. Hence, they didn''t have to defeat her, thereby significantly raising their chances of sess.

    Thirdly, Adam had agreed to help out the pawn shop free of charge for the rest of his life. Given his potential and status, this was a very good deal for May.

    Adam had also tried to recruit Sadou for this operation, seeing as Sadou also had very close ties with the nothern congress, but he was even more cautious than May.

    Furthermore, Sadou didn''t have any ambitions for wealth or power, so no matter what Adam said to try and recruit him, he refused to take the risk.

    However, Adam was confident that he had already assembled a sufficiently powerful team if all they had to do was stall for time.

    Not only was he convinced of this, even Hebi no Miko was beginning to look concerned for the very first time.

    Given the urgency of the situation, and Hebi no Miko didn''t waste any more time with words. As a top-tier adapter who was also a psychic mutant, she possessed confidence and insanity in equal measure, and she backed herself to take on any opponent ande out on top.

    A resounding thump rang out in the air as dense mist began to surge out of her body, and a gargantuan serpent that was several hundred meters in length slowly emerged.

    This was the legendary world destroyer in Japanese mythology, and even though Adam had already seen Yamata no Orochi in its ultimate form once before, he still couldn''t help but be stunned by this awe-inspiring sight.

    At the same time, he immediately rushed back in retreat.

    There was no way that he could y a part in a battle of this caliber, and he had only been able to weather the initial storm thanks to the multiple evolutions that Sludge had recently undergone.

    Thankfully, after transforming into Yamata no Orochi, Hebi no Miko didn''t prioritize Adam as her target.

    She was deranged, but not stupid, and she knew that if she were to get distracted while facing two other top-tier adapters, then she really would be ying with fire.

    Afterpleting her transformation, Hebi no Miko shook her body vigorously to get rid of the wax that was covering her scales. Immediately thereafter, she began to st all types of technomantic attacks at Artemis out of her eight heads.

    In the face of the barrage of oing attacks, Artemis pped her wings and transformed into a streak of greenish-golden light that danced through the air at an astonishing speed.

    She was so fast that Adam waspletely unable to track her with his telegnosis. All he could see of her was a thin greenish-golden line in the sky.

    Her speed was so incredible that not only was she able to evade all of the oing attacks, she was able to do so with such ease that she even had the time to retaliate.

    She drew her bow and took aim at one of Yamata no Orochi''s heads, then fired a green arrow through the air.

    The arrow transformed into a streak of light and pierced directly into Yamata no Orochi''s fortress-like scales, disying tremendous prative power.

    Adam had witnessed Yamata no Orochi''s defensive prowess, and he knew that it was able to directly withstand Diana''s attacks without any trouble, but Artemis''s arrows were able to break through those defenses seemingly with ease.

    After the arrow pierced into Yamata no Orochi''s body, it suddenly began to sprout branches. Initially, it was only a small seedling, but in just the blink of an eye, it had already grown into an all-epassing vine.

    The vine was leeching Yamata no Orochi''s blood and power while growing rapidly, and it didn''t take long before the vine had wound itself around Yamata no Orochi''s entire body.

    Of course, Yamata no Orochi wasn''t just going to allow itself to be bound, and it struggled and thrashed violently to free itself, but whenever it managed to snap the vine, more vines would simply sprout out of those snapped sections, thereby furtherpounding its woes.

    Furthermore, Artemis had more than just one type of arrow.

    While Yamata no Orochi was bound by the vines, she fired a second arrow.

    This was a golden arrow, and she had fired it into the sky. The arrow split up into two mid-flight, following which the two arrows split up into four, and it didn''t take long before a vast storm of golden arrows had appeared.

    Immediately thereafter, the golden arrows rained down upon Yamata no Orochi in a torrential barrage, with the vast majority of them striking their target, while the asional loose arrow was able to pierce all the way through tall buildings several hundreds of meters in height.

    The prative power of her arrows is insane! Cowboy has a simr attack, but the difference in destructive power is night and day!

    Adam was looking on from afar in astonishment at the epic battle unfolding before his eyes.

    The battle between Diana and Oni no Miko''s version of Yamata no Orochi during the battle royale had seemed like a battle between deities in his eyes, but these two almighty beings were making that battle seem like nothing more than a battle between a pair of pseudo-deities.

    The storm of golden arrows shot countless holes into Yamata no Orochi''s body, while the vines continued to restrict and bind it.

    After that, Artemis pulled out her third arrow, a transparent arrow that resembled diamond or crystal.

    This arrow wasrger than the previous two, and it was clear that Artemis was pulling back her bowstring with greater force prior to firing the arrow.

    A huge amount of divine power was injected into the transparent arrow, making it glow with scintiting radiance.

    Adam knew that attacks that had to be charged up like this one were generally extremely powerful attacks. When given sufficient time to umte power, Nie Yiyi had been capable of unleashing attacks far more powerful than her base attacks, and May was countless times more powerful than Nie Yiyi, so one could only imagine just how fearsome this arrow was going to be.

    In order to ensure that Artemis could prepare her attack in peace, Wax Figure finally entered the fray. He rushed toward Yamata no Orochi at an incredible speed, and as he did so, enormous volumes of wax gushed out of his body like a wave.

    As soon as he reached Yamata no Orochi, the wave of wax also enveloped its entire body.

    It was already being restricted by Artemis''s vines, and the wave of wax certainly wasn''t helping its cause.

 Chapter 302: Retaliation

    <h4>Chapter 302: Retaliation</h4>

    Under the immobilizing effects of the wax and the vines, Yamata no Orochi waspletely rooted to the spot, unable to put up any resistance.

    Meanwhile, Artemis''s arrow was only bing brighter and brighter.

    Adam stared at the arrow through narrowed eyes, and only after it had be as bright as the midday sun did Artemis finally release the bowstring.

    A ball of scintiting white light descended out of the heavens toward Yamata no Orochi, and it was as if the sun had fallen from the sky.

    The arrow was still far away from Yamata no Orochi when its radiant heat began to melt away wax and scorch Yamata no Orochi''s scales. As the arrow continued to draw closer and closer, Yamata no Orochi''s fortress-like scales began to split open, following which the transparent arrow plunged into its body without any effort.

    Only after Yamata no Orochi''s body had beenpletely devoured by the radiance released by the arrow did Adam open his eyes up wide again, waiting to see the oue of the attack.

    However, even after several seconds had passed, there was still no reaction.

    Adam was rather perplexed. While it was true that the arrow had managed to pierce into Yamata no Orochi''s body, given the serpent''s enormous stature, such a wound was absolutely tiny and insignificant, and it seemed like Artemis had spent all that time charging up her power for nothing.

    However, in the next instant, the arrow finally made its full power known.

    First, a resounding boom rang out within Yamata no Orochi''s belly.

    The sound was extremely loud, so much so that it sent violent tremors running through the ground. It was as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated within Yamata no Orochi''s body, following which scorching white light erupted out of all parts of its body.

    Cylindrical pirs of light erupted out of the countless holes that had been punched into Yamata no Orochi''s body by the storm of golden arrows, and it didn''t take long before scintiting light was radiating out of its mouth, nostrils, and even its eyes.

    In the end, all of the dazzling radiance gathered together to create an even more violent second explosion.

    Boom!

    All of the buildings in the area quickly copsed as if a level eight earthquake had struck, and massive fissures began to appear on the ground.

    This was only the effect caused by the shockwaves from the explosion.

    Having bore the majority of the brunt of the explosion, Yamata no Orochi''s entire body was riddled with wounds.

    Countless massive scales had been sent flying through the air, smashing through the ruins of the surrounding buildings.

    Beneath those scales, Yamata no Orochi''s body had been reduced to an enormous, gruesome mass of flesh and blood, presenting a harrowing sight to behold.

    "That was amazing, Aunt May!" Adam eximed in shock and awe. "If I had known you were this powerful, I would''ve been happy to serve you for free if you didn''te on this mission! Hold on a second, something doesn''t seem quite right..."

    Adam was initially ecstatic to see May and Wax Figure dominate Yamata no Orochi so easily, but he could tell from the grim look on Artemis''s face and the fact that she was flying rapidly higher up into the sky that things weren''t going as well as they seemed.

    Indeed, if it were so easy to kill Yamata no Orochi, then May wouldn''t have been so wary of it in the first ce.

    Despite the incredible power that she had put on disy, even May was only confident in her ability to keep Yamata no Orochi upied until Mechguard reinforcements arrived, and that was only with the assistance of Wax Figure.

    Adam initially thought that May was being excessively cautious and was overestimating Yamata no Orochi''s powers, but as it turned out, that was a false assessment.

    After being severely wounded, Yamata no Orochi finally flew into a thunderous rage, unleashing several forbidden techniques in rapid session.

    The first one was the All-epassing Furnace that Adam was familiar with.

    As the forbidden technique was unleashed, the entire area was transformed into a fiery hell, and the air temperature was rising at an rming rate.

    In the span of just a few seconds, all of the nearby trees and cars had burst into mes.

    A few more second passed, and all of the buildings began to melt away. The wreckage of the buildings left behind by the violent tremors from earlier began to flow down in molten form like strands of melted cheese.

    Under the intense heat, all of the wax and vines on Yamata no Orochi''s body quickly disintegrated.

    Wax Figure''s body dissolved into wax as he burrowed his way beneath the ground, while Artemis flew even higher up into the sky to avoid the subsequent attacks.

    She knew that this still wasn''t Yamata no Orochi''s full power, so there was definitely more toe.

    Sure enough, Yamata no Orochi unleashed another forbidden technique on top of All-epassing Furnace, this one by the name of World''s End Lightning.

    Bolts of lightning as thick as water tanks appeared over the entire sky, connecting heaven and earth like pirs of violent energy.

    Thebination of the bright red sky, the molten earth, and the forest of lightning created a truly doomsday-like image.

    At this point, all of the pedestrians in the area were already long dead, and even Adam could only just barely cling onto life as he hid within Sludge''s body.

    Not far away from him, Diana was also only just getting by.

    Ever since she began visualization training, she had obtained some of N¨ªeh?ggr''s powers, granting her unprecedented technomantic resistance.

    In the face of the intense heat and storm of lightning, theyer of faint light shimmering over her scales withstood the majority of the damage for her.

    In terms of pure technomantic resistance, Diana was superior even to Artemis and Wax Figure.

    In the sky above, Artemis''s body had transformed into a streak of light once again as she dodged the bolts of lightning raining down from above, but this time, she wasn''t so fortunate. The feathers on her wings had been set alight by the scorching heat, and even though she was able to put out those mes, her speed was significantly hampered.

    Furthermore, the World''s End Lightning was not as easy to evade as Yamata no Orochi''s previous technomantic attacks.

    The bolts of lightning were so dense that a sea of lightning had taken shape, and there was simply nowhere for Artemis to run or hide.

    Finally, she was engulfed by the sea of lightning, and her armor, skin, feathers, and hair were all being charred ck by the immense heat and lightning sts.

    Compared with her incredible speed and offensive prowess, it was clear that her defenses were sorelycking.

    "We have to help her!"

    Even Adam could tell that Artemis was in a world of trouble.

    It was clear that she was beginning to sustain severe damage from Yamata no Orochi''s forbidden techniques.

    Thanks to her divine power, Artemis was still able to persevere for now, but Yamata no Orochi was already beginning to prepare a third wave of attacks, and that was undoubtedly going to be terrible news for Artemis.

    After unleashing those two forbidden techniques, Yamata no Orochi raised all eight of its heads and aimed them in Artemis''s direction, while all types of energy began to gather in its eight mouths.

    "She''s preparing more attacks! We have to stop her!"

    With all eight of Yamata no Orochi''s heads umting power at once, if those attacks were tond, then May would be instantly killed on the spot for sure.

    With that in mind, Adam knew that he had to intervene, and he immediately instructed Sludge to charge at Yamata no Orochi.

 Chapter 303: Battle

    <h4>Chapter 303: Battle</h4>

    In the sky above, a battle between a deity and a world destroyer was taking ce, while on the ground below, a stone giant was rushing toward a mountainous eight-headed serpent.

    Adam was still situated inside Sludge''s body, watching the battle through narrowed eyes.

    Having almost had his eyeballs melted by All-epassing Furnacest time, he had learned his lesson and was making sure to keep himself far back within Sludge''s body, only looking out at the battlefield through a tiny eyehole. As a result, he was able to use Sludge to keep out the sweltering heat as much as possible.

    Even so, he could only look through one eye at a time, and as soon as he felt a burning sensation, he would immediately switch to his other eye. Only then was he just barely able to keep an eye on the unfolding situation.

    Sludge rushed all the way to the foot of Yamata no Orochi''s enormous body at Adam''s behest, and even though Sludge was standing at an impressive stature of eight meters in height, which was roughly equivalent to a three-story building, it appeared to be nothing more than a cockroach next to Yamata no Orochi.

    However, that didn''t discourage Adam, and he instructed Sludge to climb up Yamata no Orochi''s body directly toward one of its heads. After climbing for several hundred meters, Sludge leaped up into the air before mming heavily down onto one of Yamata no Orochi''s serpentine heads.

    In its current form, Sludge weighed dozens of tons, but it was only able to knock the head slightly to the side, unable to disrupt its umtion of power at all.

    Thus, Adam had no choice but to instruct Sludge to climb further up the head before punching it in the eye.

    That attack seemed to have finally hurt the serpent, and the head whipped Adam away violently before sting the energy that it had been umting in its mouth onto his body.

    This head was Yamata no Orochi''s ice-attribute head, and it unleashed a st of cial power at a temperature close to absolute zero, which crashed into Sludge''s body with tremendous force.

    This cial breath was definitely capable of freezing metal into powder, and Sludge''s body became extremely brittle after being struck by the attack.

    Large chunks of its stone body were reduced to powder, and after plummeting out of the sky, it crashed onto the ground before shattering like an ice cube.

    As a result, Adam was also thrown out into the open.

    Even though he had contracted frostbite on a section of his chest, the majority of the damage was withstood by Sludge, so he was still alive.

    Furthermore, the st of cial energy was able to somewhat negate the sweltering heat, resulting in a significant drop in the air temperature around him. As a result, he didn''t immediately melt away even though he was exposed to the All-epassing Furnace.

    That''s all I can do to help you...

    Sludge''s shattered body was slowly reforming, and at this point, Adam had lost the ability to take any further part in this battle.

    In a battle of this caliber, his other anomalies wouldn''t be able to y any role. Even Distortion wouldn''t be able tost very long at all in such a hostile environment.

    Thankfully for Artemis, Adam wasn''t the only one who had set out to rescue her.

    As soon as Adam began rushing at Yamata no Orochi, Diana also sprang up into the air, and she had arrived even earlier than Adam. Upon her arrival, she immediately began using her ws and her draconic technomancy to attack Yamata no Orochi''s heads.

    Diana''s destructive capabilities were superior to Adam''s, and she was able to foil the attempts of two of Yamata no Orochi''s heads at umting power. However, in the process, she was also severely wounded, having been struck by a breath from Yamata no Orochi before one of its heads sank its fangs into her body, then hurled her away like a ragdoll, and it was unclear whether she had survived the assault.

    Despite Adam and Diana''s best efforts, five of the Yamata no Orochi''s eight heads were still umting power, and finally, Wax Figure re-entered the fray.

    Bursts ofher energy began to rise up from the ground, slightly neutralizing the sweltering heat, following which an enormous army of undead warriors emerged from underground.

    The bodies of these undead warriors were entirely molded out of wax, but they were allpletely enveloped inyers of green light, and as soon as they appeared, they immediately began climbing up Yamata no Orochi''s body like a colony of ants.

    The bodies of these undead warriors were disying signs of melting under the intense heat, but they were able to maintain their form thanks to the protection of the coldher energy swirling around them.

    Bolts of lightning were constantly crashing down to destroy the warriors, but there was no end to them in sight, and it didn''t take long before they hadpletely swarmed over Yamata no Orochi''s entire body.

    These undead warriors then plunged theirher weapons into the giant serpent''s body to sap its energy.

    As a result, Yamata no Orochi was unable to umte any further energy and was forced to prematurely unleash its remaining five breaths.

    Due to the iplete umtion of energy, the power of these five breaths was significantly diminished.

    Five pirs of light erupted into the heavens, hurtling directly toward Artemis. She attempted to evade the attacks with all her might, but was still ultimately struck by two of the five breaths.

    Unable to keep herself aloft any longer, Artemis tumbled out of the sky.

    Right as Yamata no Orochi drew upon the storm of lightning in preparation to deal the final blow, a ck figure rose up into the sky from afar, and not only did it catch Artemis, it also shielded her from the barrage of technomantic attacks directed her way.

    After taking a moment to catch her breath, Artemis pulled out a green arrow before sticking it into her own body, and her injuries began to slowly heal.

    "Thank you. We''ve never officially met before, but I know your name. Thank you Diana." May offered her gratitude to Diana, then turned to nce at Adam in the distance as she sighed, "I really shouldn''t have gotten involved in this mess. Hebi no Miko is even more powerful than I imagined."

    After making a partial recovery, Artemis spread her wings and flew high up into the sky once again to resume attacking Yamata no Orochi from afar.

    As for Diana, she was too severely injured to take any further part in the battle and could only slowly descend onto the ground.

    Even though she now possessed immense technomantic resistance, there was simply too massive a power disparity between her and Yamata no Orochi, so it was already verymendable that she was able to do this much.

    Afternding on the ground, Diana cast her gaze toward the battlefield with a frustrated expression. Having unleashed so many powerful attacks in quick session, Hebi no Miko had clearly expended a great deal of psychic power, and her attacks were no longer as fearsome as before.

    Despite this, Wax Figure and May were still unwilling to face her in direct battle, and they were constantly employing gueri warfare tactics, harassing her with attacks before immediately rushing away, then rinsing and repeating the process.

    Thus, the battle had arrived at an impasse, and it didn''t take long before Hebi no Miko ran out of patience.

    If things were to continue like this, then she was definitely going to win, but it was going to take an extremely long time.

    A very long time had already passed since she entered the psychic world, and Mechguard units had definitely already arrived on the scene, but simply hadn''t found her hiding ce yet.

    Given that this was clearly a premeditated trap, there was definitely going to be a huge number of Mechguard units converging on the scene. Perhaps the entire area had already been surrounded at this point. If she were to be discovered again, then it was going to be very difficult for her to escape.

    With that in mind, Hebi no Miko''s mind began to turn to escape rather than defeating her opponents.

 Chapter 304: Cornered Beast

    <h4>Chapter 304: Cornered Beast</h4>

    She began to slither toward the edge of Wax Figure''s domain, and it didn''t seem as if she were moving very quickly, but due to her enormous stature, each body length that she moved was the equivalent of several hundred meters.

    She still couldn''tpare with Artemis in terms of absolute speed, but that certainly didn''t mean that she was slow.

    "Stop her! She''s trying to get away! We can''t let her get out of this sealed area! If she managed to break out of my domain, she''ll be able to instantly shatter Chen Yanyan''s psychic boundaries and return to the real world!"

    Wax Figure''s voice had rung out in all directions, and countless giant bident-wielding Hades wax figures had suddenly appeared in the sky.

    The wax figures aimed their bidents at Yamata no Orochi before releasing pirs of green infernal light to obstruct her.

    At the same time, Artemis was also attacking from afar in the form of her fourth arrow, which was a red arrow.

    As soon as the arrow was fired, it immediately disyed far superior speedpared with her other three types of arrows. It sped through the air as a red line, striking Yamata on Orochi in the eye before it even had a chance to react.

    Even though the arrow was able to pierce through Yamata no Orochi''s eyeball, it was soparatively tiny that it wasn''t able to inflict any meaningful damage.

    However, immediately thereafter, Artemis began to whistle, and the red line flew chaotically back and forth throughout Yamata no Orochi''s enormous eye.

    As a result, the interior of the eyeball instantly sustained severe damage, and the eye was blinded as the head that it belonged to let loose an agonized howl.

    However, the red arrow had no ns to spare Yamata no Orochi, and it sped toward another one of its eyes while the serpent was being impeded by Hades.

    It didn''t take long before four of Yamata no Orochi''s eyes were destroyed, leaving two of its headspletely blinded.

    To Adam''s surprise, he discovered that Yamata no Orochi''s eight heads didn''t seem to share a field of view. This was evidenced by the fact that the two blind heads were swinging around like headless chickens, havingpletely lost all sense of direction.

    "If I have to die here, then I''ll take you down with me!"

    In this dire situation, Hebi no Miko finally began to retaliate again.

    Dense mist poured out of her enormous body as she tapped deep into her psychic power reserves, and the forbidden techniques that had already ceased instantly became even more fearsome than before.

    The air temperature began to rise sharply once again, and the sparse bolts of lightning in the sky became as dense as a sea of electricity.

    At the same time, as this dense mist was pouring out of Yamata no Orochi''s body, it began to shrink in size.

    Its enormous body was bing thinner and frailer by the second, and it was burning through its life force to unleash a third forbidden technique, Undead Destruction.

    ording to the mythology surrounding Yamata no Orochi, it was a creature that had brought countless disasters upon the world.

    Prior to its arrival, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, frost... These natural disasters were constantly ravaging the world, leaving humanity on the brink of destruction.

    Undead Destruction was its final forbidden technique.

    By the time it descended upon the world, the human race was already close to extinction, so there were countless deceased souls in the world, and they were not allowed to rest. Instead, they were destined to be destroyed as well.

    Not only was Yamata no Orochi capable of destroying entire continents and taking the lives of physical beings, it could even destroy souls.

    As the world-destroyer, it was a true serpent of annihtion.

    As soon as Undead Destruction was unleashed, countless shadows appeared all over the battlefield, and these shadows dragged Hades''s undead army into destruction, causing the undead warriors to disintegrate into nothingness.

    Hades was the ruler of the underworld, but here, even the undead weren''t allowed to exist. Yamata no Orochi was the pure embodiment of destruction, and nothing existed in its presence.

    After the undead army was destroyed, Hade''s abilities were also impacted.

    The destructive power wreaked havoc upon his body, making him unable to maintain his current form.

    At the same time, Artemis was also struggling. She was being targeted to begin with, and she was already having great trouble protecting herself from the sea of lightning around her. With this third forbidden technique thrown into the mix, she was in a very perilous situation.

    Just a little longer...

    By Adam''s estimates, the Mechguard units should''ve already arrived long ago.

    Even though there were many obstacles in Area 8 that would impede Mechguard units, they had to be close to tracking down Hebi no Miko.

    Even if she had used a synapse transmission device to invade Chen Yanyan''s psychic world from afar, the effective distance of such devices was very limited, generally no more than a few kilometers.

    Given such a small search area, it stood to reason that she had to be close to being busted.

    Hades and Artemis were trapped within the three forbidden techniques, and Adam was also having to deal with the destructive power from Undead Destruction.

    Thankfully, Sludge had already fully recovered, and he wasn''t Hebi no Miko''s primary target, so not only was he able to ward off the effects of the forbidden techniques, he was even considering retaliation.

    At this point, the ground had already melted into moltenva, but it wasn''t a very deepyer ofva, and Sludge was able to wade through the molten substance at Adam''s behest before rushing all the way up Yamata no Orochi''s body and vigorously battering its heads.

    Yamata no Orochi was so weak and frail from unleashing three forbidden techniques at once that it was unable to shake off Adam, and could only attack him with some lightning strikes and destructive power.

    Thankfully, Sludge''s defenses were sufficiently ster for it to withstand the first round of attacks.

    "If you have a death wish, then I''ll kill you first!"

    Countless bolts of lightning were converging in the sky, abandoning Artemis as they hurtled toward Adam instead.

    Time was of the essence, and at this point, Hebi no Miko had a feeling that she wouldn''t be getting out of this alive.

    Wax Figure''sbat prowess was quite mediocrepared with hers, but his abilities made him extremely annoying to deal with.

    As for Artemis, her speed and self-regenerative abilities made her quite difficult to kill.

    "Even if I have to die here, I''ll take you down with me!"

    Hebi no Miko mustered up all of her lightning as she spoke, then sent it crashing down directly upon Adam.

    Even with Sludge''s tremendous defenses, there was definitely no way that it would''ve been able to withstand such an attack.

    In this dire situation, Diana swooped in to try and save the day, sinking her fangs into Yamata no Orochi''s body to try and disrupt her attack, while Wax Figure also conjured upyers of waxy membranes to serve as obstacles.

    However, their efforts proved to bepletely futile, and the collective bolts of lightning crashed through all of the obstacles with unstoppable force, hurtling directly toward Adam.

    An earth-shattering boom rang out as the lightning destroyed Sludge''s upper body, and Adam''s body was almost also instantly destroyed by the impact.

    Following the lightning strike, his severely ravaged body waspletely exposed to the sweltering heat, and he was going to be dead in a matter of seconds.

    Thankfully, he was saved by a green arrow from Artemis.

    However, that was the extent of what Artemis could do for him, yet right as Hebi no Miko was preparing to kill Adam at all costs, there was a twist in the tale.

    Just likest time, Yamata no Orochi''s body suddenly sustained severe, inexplicable damage. As a result, her psychic power seeped out of her body in the form of a huge volume of dense ck mist, which permeated throughout the entire area.

    Adam was ecstatic to see this, and at the same time, he lodged his own body deep into one of Sludge''s legs.

    "The Mechguard units have arrived! You''re done for!"

 Chapter 305: Strengths and Weaknesses

    <h4>Chapter 305: Strengths and Weaknesses</h4>

    From the very beginning, this battle had never been about killing Hebi no Miko.

    Prior toing here, Wax Figure had already established the premise that Hebi no Miko was one of the most powerful adapters in the world, so killing her in the psychic world was virtually impossible.

    If it weren''t for the fact that she was aplete psychic mutant, it would''ve been even more difficult to kill her.

    After all, a normal person wouldn''t have fallen into such a simple trap, and if she were of sound mind and hadn''t made enemies out of everyone, there was no way that someone as powerful as her wouldn''t have had any allies.

    Apparently, following World War III, Japan had escaped from North America''s control, and Hebi no Miko had served as an official in their reformed Department of Intelligence for a while.

    However, she fled that role not long thereafter.

    During her time in the Department of Intelligence, she had killed too many people, including her allies, who had been killed by her brainless ns and violent personality.

    Officially, she was said to have fled her role, but in reality, she simply left, and no one dared to go after her.

    Her physical body was no match for squadrons of Mechguard units, but her tremendous telegnosis always ensured that she would be able to sense danger ahead of time. The average person didn''t have the power to bring her down, but those that did have the power to oppose her were either afraid of being killed or worried that a failed attempt on her life would lead to retaliation.

    However, those who regrly yed with fire always ran the risk of being burned, and that was exactly what had happened to Hebi no Miko here.

    The damage sustained by her physical body was directly reflected upon her psychic body, and in this wounded state, Hebi no Miko became feeble yet even more deranged.

    She attacked everything around her as if she had gone mad, but she was also trying to frantically escape. However, Wax Figure wasn''t going to allow her to get away, and he finally revealed his full might, disying power that was not inferior to Artemis at her peak as he invoked countless undead wax warriors to attack Yamata no Orochi from all directions.

    With so many undead warriors surrounding her and sucking away her life energy, Hebi no Miko would''ve struggled immensely even if she had been at the height of her powers, let alone in this feeble and wounded state.

    She wanted to leave the psychic world, but Wax Figure''s domain prevented her from doing so.

    She sted scorching mes up at the heavens, trying to melt through the domain, but her efforts proved to bepletely futile.

    The more she struggled, the weaker she became, and she was slowly bing delirious.

    Looking at the struggling Yamata no Orochi, Adam was suddenly reminded of Eyeless.

    During his first encounter with Eyeless, thetter had disyed astonishing power, almost killing Adam with a single attack.

    At the time, Adam naively believed that powerful adapters of his caliber wouldn''t die so easily.

    However, that simply wasn''t how the world worked. No matter how powerful one was, they could still die in a mere instant.

    Just like the weak, who often perished due to their weaknesses, the strong often met their demise as a result of their strengths.

    Eyeless had been able to be so powerful as his method of training had always centered around evolving through hardships. His de had be sharper and sharper the more adversity that he endured, but his unwillingness to back down in the face of hardships ultimately resulted in his demise in the face of an insurmountable hurdle.

    Hebi no Miko''s story was a simr one.

    Her arrogance and conceitedness had inted her confidence to the extreme, thereby granting her enormous psychic power, but it had also led to her falling for such a simple trap.

    This was by no means a well-constructed trap from Adam. All he had done was pretend to let down his guard by visiting a ce that was not easily essible to Mechguard units.

    Given Hebi no Miko''s tremendous telegnosis, there was no way that she wouldn''t have sensed that something was amiss.

    However, she was overly confident in her own abilities. She thought that killing Adam would be easy as stomping an ant.

    She had only failedst time as she wanted to torture Adam, but after learning her lesson, she was confident that she would be able to kill Adam in a matter of seconds.

    Never could she have imagined that Adam would be so much more powerful in such a short time. This unexpected development had thrown a wrench in her ns, but she still persisted due to her hubris.

    Even the most powerful individuals can die by their own sword.

    Adam heaved a long sigh of relief as he watched Hebi no Miko''s dying moments.

    With the threat of Hebi no Miko constantly hanging over his head, there were many ns that he was unable to initiate.

    Aside from the southern congress, Hebi no Miko was the biggest obstacle to his operations.

    There were many ces that he couldn''t go, and many things that he couldn''t do. He had be careful everywhere he went in case he met an untimely demise.

    Only after eliminating this obstacle would he be able to truly put his ns into full swing.

    However, right as Adam was reveling in his victory, he was suddenly struck by a sense of foreboding, following which the surrounding sky abruptly disintegrated.

    It was incorrect to say that it was the sky that was disintegrating. Instead, it was the entire psychic world that was falling away, and all of the psychic modules in the distance were being reduced to countless fine particles before vanishing into nothingness.

    There were only two possible scenarios that could''ve led to something like this, the first of which was that the host of the psychic world had suffered physical death.

    The brain could only store memories for less than two minutes following one''s death, and after that, the brain itself would turn into mush.

    The second possibility was that the host had suffered psychic death, and neither of these scenarios should''ve been possible.

    Due to how important this operation was, Adam had made extensive preparations beforeing here, which included informing Shae of the address in advance so that she coulde here and protect him and Chen Yanyan''s physical body.

    Furthermore, Chen Yanyan''s psychic body was hidden away following Adam''s invasion of his psychic world.

    After entering Chen Yanyan''s psychic world, Adam had plenty of time to inspect Chen Yanyan''s past and hide his psychic body. In fact, he had so much time on his hands that there was a point where he thought that Hebi no Miko wasn''ting.

    It doesn''t matter. As long as Hebi no Miko''s physical body dies, or she gets detained by Mechguard, the oue will be all the same. On top of that, it''ll take some time for this psychic world to fully disintegrate, and that''s enough time for us to put an end to this!

    Right as Adam was reassuring himself, a huge hole was suddenly burned into Wax Figure''s domain by a burst of ck energy.

    Wax Figure''s attention was entirely focused on dealing with Yamata no Orochi, and he was unable to simultaneously focus on keeping his domain intact from outside attacks.

    Furthermore, the ck energy was quite powerful, and it tore through the domain before Wax Figure had a chance to react, following which a huge ck raven descended from the sky.

    As soon as the raven appeared, Adam immediately felt the tentacles that had beenying dormant in his body beginning to stir and awaken again, and that reaction allowed him to immediately identify the intruder.

    Raven? Isn''t he a normal person? How did he be an adapter?

    Raven was one of Sithu''s personalities, and it was the only personality that remained in Sithu''s mind after all of his other anomalies had been killed.

    Raven was extremely powerful in the psychic world, but in the real world, he was just a thin and weak man who probably couldn''t even beat the average grown man in a fight.

    Why is he here?

    Unbeknownst to Adam, Raven had obtained a new body in the form of a nk te, but it still didn''t answer the question of why he hade here.

 Chapter 306: Ravens Past

    <h4>Chapter 306: Raven''s Past</h4>

    In order to answer the question of why Raven was here, one would have to go back in time.

    On that day, he was taken away by that strange man while scavenging in the junkyard. He was brought to a certain secret location, where he endured a series of horrific surgeries, one of which was a nk te consciousness instation procedure, which was normally reserved only for the extremely rich and powerful.

    One of those procedures ensured that the strange man had control over his psychic body.

    In a rather ironic twist, Raven, who excelled in controlling others, was now at someone else''s mercy. Furthermore, the person in control of him was extremely powerful, having nted the most vicious cyberhex in his psychic body, one that was impossible for him to escape from.

    At the same time, chips had been nted into his brain and his body with self-detonation functions, so the one in control of him could instantly kill him both physically and psychically on a whim.

    However, all of this had been agreed to by Raven in advance.

    He wasn''t forced into this. Instead, it was an open and transparent transaction. All Raven had to was perform certain tasks for his controller, and as long as those tasks were performed, he was free to do whatever else he wanted.

    The tasks were extremely simple to Raven, all he had to do was kill people.

    Furthermore, there were no set targets stipting who he had to kill. He could kill anyone, including normal people, powerful figures, or even children.

    However, the greater the influence of his victim, the more freedom he would gain from killing them.

    For example, Raven would only receive one day of freedom for killing five normal people, but he would receive half a month of freedom for killing a renowned actor. If he could kill an area mayor of the city, he would receive several months of freedom.

    As aforementioned, the more influential his victim, the more freedom he would receive. If he could kill a congressman or even the president, then he would be a free man.

    This was a deal that had been negotiated prior to Raven''s surgery, and Raven harbored nothing but gratitude toward his controller.

    If it weren''t for him, Raven didn''t know how long it would''ve taken for him to get out of Shadow City. Perhaps he would''ve been able to earn some money through his skill, but it was virtually impossible for him to climb from the very bottom to the top, where he would be able to ess nk tes.

    He knew this world far too well, and he was aware that one wasn''t guaranteed to be able to climb to the top just because they were intelligent and talented.

    Having lived in Sandrise City for so long, he knew the rules here.

    Anyone who tried to climb up the ranks from scratch would be met with countless obstacles, and upon reaching a certain point, it was simply beyond the capabilities of the average person to climb any higher.

    If he wanted to climb beyond that point, then far too much luck would be required.

    Raven didn''t believe in luck and fortune, he only believed in tangible things.

    .

    In Raven''s eyes, this was a fantastic deal for him. He possessed immense psychic power, so in the instant that he became an adapter, he would immediately be vaulted up the ranks to the top of the pyramid.

    Using his abilities, he was able to find some organizations on the dark web and gather a good portion of the Carlin Asylum psychic mutant escapees that hadn''t been caught yet. Thus, he was able to establish his own forces, and he had used them to kill many people.

    However, this wasn''t the extent of his ambitions.

    There were more things that he needed to do and more power that he had to acquire. A few days ago, a certain person had caught his attention. It was Adam.

    He and Adam were old acquaintances who were somewhere in between friends and enemies.

    In fact, he still had some parasites lingering in Adam''s psychic body.

    At the moment, Adam was an extremely renowned and influential public figure, and he needed Adam''s influence, but he also required an opportunity.

    Just as he was struggling to manufacture such an opportunity, Chen Yiran arrived on his doorstep.

    He told Raven some things that he wasn''t previously aware of, thereby allowing Raven to develop a deeper understanding of Adam''s objectives. On the same day that he was approached by Chen Yiran, Raven had determined Adam''s location through some connections that he had in the dark web and the ck market.

    After that, he had run into something unexpected, yet even more intriguing.

    It seems like Hebi no Miko is an even more valuable individual than Adam!

    Not only did Raven break through Wax Figure''s domain, he was able to open up an exit that would allow Yamata no Orochi to leave the psychic world.

    The fact that he was able to aplish all of this wasn''t an indication of how powerful he was.

    In terms of absolute power, Raven didn''t think that he was superior to Wax Figure. He was only able to break through Wax Figure''s domain so easily as Wax Figure''s attention was entirely focused on Yamata no Orochi.

    The domain''s primary function was to prevent Yamata no Orochi from getting away, so there wasn''t as much emphasis ced on preventing others from getting in.

    On top of that, the copse of this psychic world had presented him with a window of opportunity.

    There was no doubting the fact that Hebi no Miko was deranged, but she wasn''t stupid, and she immediately pounced on the opening provided for her by Raven without any hesitation.

    She didn''t stop to wonder who it was that hade to save her. Instead, she struggled free from her bindings with all her might, then reverted back into her human form before diving headfirst into the psychic passageway.

    Wax Figure and Artemis wanted to stop her, but the psychic world was already on the verge of copse, and Raven had staged his rescue act with perfect timing.

    In addition to that, he was too powerful for Wax Figure and Artemis to take down in a short time, so they could only watch as he and Hebi no Miko left the psychic world.

    "There''s going to be no end to our troubles now that she''s escaped!" Wax Figure remarked in a grim voice before hurriedly leaving this copsing psychic world.

    Adam was also furious and extremely frustrated, but he also had no choice but to leave.

    Upon reopening his eyes, he discovered that he was still in the makeshift motel. Chen Yanyan had already suffered psychic death, but his body was stillpletely unscathed, which meant that Raven had to have killed him through a psychic attack.

    Does that mean he was already here since a long time ago?

    If Raven had only arrived following Hebi no Miko''s invasion of Chen Yanyan''s psychic world, then there was no way that he would know where Chen Yanyan''s psychic body had been hidden, and if he had invaded Chen Yanyan''s psychic world midway through the battle, then there was no way that May and Wax Figure would''ve failed to detect him.

    So why is it that I didn''t detect his intrusion at all? Does it have something to do with those parasitic tentacles, or are his self-concealment abilities that advanced?

    Adam wasn''t going to be getting an answer to those questions anytime soon, and after returning to his senses, he suddenly realized that his attention should''ve been focused elsewhere.

    What he should''ve been focusing on was where Hebi no Miko''s physical body was and whether she had already been detained by Mechguard.

    Just because her psychic body managed to escape doesn''t mean that she was also able to escape in the real world. She had already been tracked down by Mechguard units, and there''s no way they''d let her get away so easily.

    With that in mind, Adam hurriedly rushed out of the room before pressing a button on his shoulder.

    A drone-like Mechguard unit instantly flew in from outside, and he instructed, "Show me the footage of when Hebi no Miko was first discovered."

    The Mechguard unit did as it was told, projecting the requested footage, but was only able to disy an image of a shattered lens.

    The Mechguard unit that had initially discovered Hebi no Miko had already been damaged.

 Chapter 307: Li

    <h4>Chapter 307: Li</h4>

    On the second floor of an abandoned factory around a kilometer away, several people had appeared in front of Hebi no Miko.

    They were led by a rtively normal-looking young man, but it was clear from the physical appearances of the rest of the group that they were all suffering from some type of mental condition.

    Hebi no Miko''s gaze roamed over the group, and even though she was also a psychic mutant herself, she had no intention of lumping herself in with these nutjobs.

    "Who are you?"

    "Now''s not the time for questions, all you have to know is that we''re the ones who saved you." The young man was speaking very quickly as he pointed out the window. "There are currently more than 100 Mechguard units searching for you out there right now, and most importantly, your location has already been exposed. Arge number of Mechguard units will arrive to surround this ce soon, so we have to get out of here first."

    The young man rushed toward the staircase leading to the first floor as he spoke.

    Hebi no Miko had no choice but to follow along.

    Everyone else also followed suit, and a middle-aged man with a pair of unfocused eyes was bringing up the rear.

    He was controlling several strange automatons that had been assembled from scrap parts, and if Chen Yiran were here, he would be able to identify the middle-aged man as the mathematician that he had seen scribbling random symbols on the ground.

    It was his automatons that had destroyed the Mechguard unit that had first discovered Hebi no Miko, and at the moment, he was instructing his automatons to disassemble the destroyed Mechguard unit, which was why he was thest to leave.

    "We gotta go, Big Genius! You''re gonna die if you stay here any longer!"

    Hispanion was calling out urgently to him from the stairwell, but he didn''t care, and only after he had secured all of the parts that he was interested in did he depart.

    As soon as he left, the windows of the second floor were shattered, and a group of flying Mechguard units stormed in.

    The drone-like Mechguard units scanned the area with their infrared cameras, and they were able to quickly lock onto the escapees before giving chase.

    Up ahead, Hebi no Miko and the young man had already rushed out of the factory, and they rushed over to a manhole, following which the young man removed the manhole lid before jumping in.

    Everyone else immediately followed suit, jumping in one after another.

    Hebi no Miko had a hand sped over her abdomen, which had been injured by a shot from the Mechguard unit, and she also jumped in after them.

    At this point, the aerial Mechguard units had already arrived, and they were opening fire on the group.

    "Metal Lump, Raise the shields!" Big Geniusmanded, and some carbon fiber structures suddenly sprang out of a round automaton, exploding intoyers of umbre-like shields that were able to keep the bullets of the Mechguard units at bay, giving Big Genius enough time to enter the sewers as well.

    Immediately thereafter, the round automaton also pulled into the sewage system, followed by the other automatons.

    A spider-like automaton was bringing up the rear, and as it scurried into the sewers, it left a trail of "spider silk" behind it. Each thread was connected to a high-voltage electric generator in its body, making all of the threads high-voltage electric cables that were extremely dangerous.

    After smashing through the carbon fiber shields, the aerial Mechguard units swooped down to enter the sewers, but as soon as they did so, they were instantly destroyed by the high-voltage electric threads.

    At the same time, all of the weapons and ammunition on those Mechguard units exploded from the influx of high-voltage electricity, causing the entire area to copse.

    Inside the sewage system, everyone heaved a sigh of relief as they heard the explosion and the sound of tumbling rocks ringing out behind them.

    "This area is sealed, but the Mechguard units will enter the sewers from other areas, so we can''t let our guard down. We''ll only be safe once we''re below the barriers."

    The young man switched on the lighting equipment that he was wearing while leading the way forward.

    Now that they were temporarily safe, Hebi no Miko finally had a chance to ask some questions.

    "Why are you? Why did you save me?"

    "To be honest, I don''t know why we saved you," the young man replied. "Personally, I didn''t want to save you. In fact, I would much rather see you die."

    Not only was Hebi no Miko not enraged by the young man''s excessive honesty, she felt more inclined to trust him.

    "You still haven''t answered my question."

    "Raven told us to save you. He looked up your file prior toing here, and we''ve heard that you''re a very violent and unstable person, but you always repay those who disy kindness to you. He told us that if we save your life, we''ll be able to use your power to earn back our freedom," the young man replied. "That''s the only reason why we saved you."

    "Earn back your freedom? Are you being controlled by something?" Hebi no Miko asked while continuing to forge ahead.

    "That''s none of your business. I signed up for this voluntarily, but killing people every day goes against my moral code. Hence, I want to kill a few important figures so I can be free again."

    "I see, you must belong to a hitman organization."

    Hebi no Miko was very familiar with Oni-faced Dragon, so she was naturally aware of how hitmen organizations worked.

    The situation that the young man was in was a ssic case of someone being bound to a hitman organization. Some hitman organizations had certain methods to control their members, but these organizations didn''t want to push their members too far for fear of revolt. Hence, it was generally the case that freedom would be granted to a hitman after they hadpleted certain missions.

    "You really did save my life back there. If it isn''t for you, I would definitely be dead right now, so I owe you one. I''m willing to lend you my assistance at any time with whatever it is that you''re trying to do."

    The young man didn''t seem to be very fond of Hebi no Miko, and he merely nodded in response without saying anything.

    Thus, the group continued to advance through the sewage system, taking a series of twists and turns before finally arriving in a screened area.

    This was an area in which pieces of solid sewage were filtered out, and there were all types of machines and screens set up here, making it very difficult for Mechguard units to pass through.

    However, some openings had already been cut into the screens, and Big Genius''s automatons had been specially crafted to be able to fit through these openings. After carefully making their way through this area for a while, the group finally arrived in a safe zone.

    There were all types of crude residential areas set up here, and even some mechanical parts assembly rooms.

    There were also some other people living here, and all of them appeared to be rather abnormal.

    "We''ll be safe here."

    The young man didn''t seem to want to spend any more time with Hebi no Miko than necessary, and he immediately turned to depart.

    "Hold on, what''s your name?" Hebi no Miko asked.

    "You can call me Li."

 Chapter 308: Three Reasons

    <h4>Chapter 308: Three Reasons</h4>

    Adam was furious.

    The biggest threat to his life was just about to be eliminated, yet his n had been foiled at the veryst moment. It felt like winning the lottery, only to find out that the winning ticket couldn''t be redeemed.

    I have to catch Raven!

    Through the footage transmitted back to him by the Mechguard units, he had already witnessed Hebi no Miko and the others fleeing into the sewers.

    The area of the sewage system that they had fled into had already caved in from the explosion, so it was going to be quite difficult to capture them.

    However, Hebi no Miko hadn''t escaped on her own. Raven was able to invade Chen Yanyan''s psychic world, so he had to be nearby as well.

    All of a sudden, an image was transmitted to him by some Mechguard units, informing him that a young man had been detained nearby. An identity verification procedure had been conducted, and it was discovered that the man had no identification documents.

    In this day and age, even illegal gangsters had to carry identification documents. Otherwise, it was very difficult for them to get anything done.

    Many residents of Shadow City had tried to start new lives in Sandrise City, only to be driven out again as it was simply too difficult to live in Sandrise City without legitimate identities.

    Not only did this man not have any identification documents, the fact that he just so happened to be in the area at a time like this was very suspicious.

    After being notified of this, Adam quickly arrived on the scene.

    "You''re a brave man, aren''t you, Raven?"

    Adam strode over to the young man before grabbing onto his cor. The young man''s physical appearance was very mundane and unremarkable, with his head of red hair serving as his only eye-catching feature.

    However, what grabbed Adam''s attention the most were his eyes, which were extremely bleak yet filled with intelligence.

    "Raven? What are you talking about?"

    Adam leaned in close to the young man before taking a sniff.

    "If you''re not Raven, then why were you in the sewers? Are you telling me that you hanging out in the sewers in a hobby of yours?"

    "Why don''t you tell that to the judge?" Raven wasn''t disying any fear from being captured by Adam. "I''m not breaking anyws, I just so happen to be passing through here. Even in the worst-case scenario, I''ll only be deported for ack of identification documents."

    Raven leaned in closer to Adam, then lowered his voice as he continued, "I know what you''re angry about. You''re angry because I saved Hebi no Miko, right? Don''t worry, I''ll make sure that she doesn''t cause any more trouble for you."

    "She''s just gonna listen to you? Who do you think you are?"

    "She won''t listen to me, but I can put her in a predicament where she''ll be too busy dealing with other things toe after you," Raven said with a sly grin.

    Adam didn''t say anything to this. He knew that Raven was indeed capable of doing this.

    He was once just a recessive personality of Sithu''s, yet he was able to hatch a plot to have all of the other personalities eradicated so that he could take over Sithu''s body. If he could do this, then he was definitely more than capable of dealing with a psychic mutant.

    Hebi no Miko was extraordinarily powerful, but her personality was too violent, and she was nowhere near as intelligent as Raven.

    "You can arrest me now, but that won''t benefit you in any way. At the very worst, I''ll only be deported. Sure, you can say that I saved Hebi no Miko from the psychic world, but do you think you can build a legal case based on that? You were trying to kill Hebi no Miko, so you didn''t record the process. Without a recording, you have no evidence to present to the courts.

    ¡°Even if you did have evidence, what crime have Imitted? All I did was save someone, how is that a crime? Hebi no Miko may be insane, but insane people have human rights too, don''t they? Why can''t I save her out of a sense of justice? You can im that I was disrupting the enforcement of thew, but again, you have no evidence!"

    "You may be right, but that still doesn''t mean I''m going to let you go!"

    While it was true that Adam couldn''t pin any major crimes on Raven, he certainly also couldn''t just let Raven go without any consequences.

    Aside from arresting him, there were other things that he could do to Raven.

    "I can instruct these Mechguard units to go away, then shoot you down on the basis of resisting arrest. Perhaps I won''t be able to handle you on my own, but once the other two arrive, you''ll be powerless to resist."

    Adam was naturally referring to May and Wax Figure here.

    Both of them were nearby, but they had refrained from showing themselves as both were extremely important figures, and they didn''t want to be captured in this ce on the cameras of Mechguard units.

    "Arresting or killing me won''t do you any good."

    "Yes, but it can vent my frustration."

    "That may be true, but here''s what I have to say to that: you can stand to benefit immensely from not killing me," Raven said with aposed smile. "Firstly, as I mentioned before, I can help you get Hebi no Miko off your back. I don''t want you to die. Secondly, I can help you get rid of the parasites in your psychic body.

    ¡°Those things are mine to begin with, so this is a simple task for me. Thirdly, we can work together. If you want to kill someone, but your identity as a special psychic police officer is getting in the way, then you can get me to do the job."

    "You''re going to help me kill people?"

    "I''ll be helping you and also helping myself. I need to kill people for my own ends, and it doesn''t matter who I kill."

    This was a rather strange response that left Adam feeling a little confused, but it had to be said that Raven was presenting a verypelling argument.

    Even though Adam was still furious, he couldn''t help but feel as if working with him was the correct choice.

    After some careful consideration, Adam asked in a low voice, "How can I trust you?"

    "We''ve already worked together once, so you should know that I''m someone who sticks by my word. Also, in my opinion, credibility and trustworthiness are integral if one wants to go far in life. Regardless of whether you''re a good person or a bad person, no one will want to work with you if you''re not trustworthy. If Hebi no Miko weren''t a trustworthy person, then I wouldn''t have saved her today. I didn''t save her in order to make an enemy out of you."

    Adam fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

    "We don''t have much time, you''ll have to make a decision soon."

    "Fine, you have yourself a deal."

    Even though Adam was still fuming on the inside, he was a mature adult, and he knew what choice had to be made.

    In the instant that Adam made up his mind, he instructed the surrounding Mechguard units to leave so that they could continue to hunt down Hebi no Miko, then dragged Raven away into an obscure corner.

    Raven wasted no time and immediately invaded Adam''s psychic world.

    In the psychic world, they were still in Area 8, and Adam looked up at the giant raven in the sky as he urged, "Hurry up."

    Raven descended in front of Adam, and his six red eyes began to glow faintly, immediately following which all of the parasitic tentacles that were originally lurking deep within Adam''s psychic body came to the fore.

    Raven leaned down before plucking out all of the tentacles with his beak and devouring them.

    Once all of the tentacles were gone, Adam felt a noticeable change, and for the first time in a long time, he was able to separate himself from Clown.

    Adam was quite ted to finally be able to separate himself from Clown. At the very least, he hadn''te here for nothing.

    Due to their previously permanent fusion, Clown was unable to evolve, nor was he able to absorb any anomalic power. As a result, his psychic body was unable to keep up with the development of his anomalies.

    Furthermore, Clown''s offensive and defensive capabilities were both quiteckluster, so it was quite limited in its usefulness, and it was certainly good news that Adam was now able to separate himself from it.

 Chapter 309: Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 309: Trouble</h4>

    In a sense, just the ability to separate from Clown was a type of enhancement to his powers.

    "Now that the tentacles are gone, you''ll bepletely free from my influence. I hope this will mark the beginning of a long and fruitful coborative rtionship between us," Raven said.

    "Likewise. I hope you''ll follow through on your other two promises as well."

    "I will. I''ll help you keep Hebi no Miko upied, and I''ll also help you kill people in cases where it''s not so convenient for you to do so. Here are my contact details on the dark web, contact me if you need my help."

    Raven gave Adam an ount number as he spoke, then departed from Adam''s psychic world.

    At this point, there was nothing else left to be said.

    Upon leaving the psychic world, he saw Raven jump down the nearest manhole and disappear into the sewage system.

    With that, the n to hunt down Hebi no Miko had officially ended in failure.

    However, it wasn''t aplete failure for Adam. At the very least, he had gained something from this trip. If Raven really were trustworthy, then he would be safe from Hebi no Miko, at least for the immediate future.

    With that in mind, Adam sent Wax Figure and May a message each.

    "Hebi no Miko has already escaped, we do not know who saved her, or what organization those people belong to. Right now, Mechguard units are still doing their best to hunt them down."

    Inside a nearby building, both Wax Figure and May were very much disheartened by this message, particrly May.

    "I knew I shouldn''t havee here today," May grumbled in a frustrated voice.

    Wax Figure was still in a decent situation as there were many powerful adapters in the northern congress. Setting aside the mysterious leader of the resistance army, there were also many shadow congressmen on the same level as Cowboy.

    In contrast, the pawn shop was far more limited in its number of powerful adapters.

    Even though the pawn shop was one of the most prominent private organizations in Sandrise City, the fact that it was privately owned meant that its ceiling was very limited.

    Compared with the northern congress, which was one of the most powerful official organizations on the entire continent, there was far less power that she was capable of mustering up.

    If Hebi no Miko were determined to seek vengeance, the majority of the adapters working for her would undoubtedly run for their lives, and even her own safety would be under severe threat.

    With that in mind, May became even more frustrated, and she immediately replied to Adam''s message.

    "Come and see me tomorrow!"

    An amused grin appeared on Adam''s face upon seeing May''s reply.

    Even in the worst of moods, one would always feel slightly better from the schadenfreude of seeing someone else more unfortunate than them, even if that less fortunate person were a friend.

    It wasn''t a quality to be proud of, but it was simply human nature.

    At least this wasn''t aplete loss for me, but this is nothing short of a catastrophe for May.

    Adam put away hismunicator before departing.

    There was a lot of cleanup work that had to be done. Firstly, it was still unclear whether the suspects had escaped, so the manhunt had to continue.

    Of course, aside from that, there was also another troublesome job that had to be carried out: it had to be seen whether any innocent bystanders on the scene had been affected by the battle that had just taken ce.

    This was generally not a concern for Mechguard. Mechguard units were extremely lethal, but their actions were governed by very advanced pieces of code, and only in very rare cases did they identally harm innocent bystanders. Even if that did happen, the affected bystanders wouldn''t be killed.

    However, the same couldn''t be said for battles in the psychic world. Hebi no Miko had invaded Chen Yanyan''s psychic world from afar, which meant that she had to have used a long-distance synapse transmission device, which had an effective area.

    It would''ve been fine if she had chosen a small area, but if she had chosen arge area, then there were sure to be innocent bystanders who had been affected.

    Adam returned to the room that he had previously been in, and sure enough, he found a few unfortunate victims there. Most of them were gang members, and there were also two suspected fugitives on the run who had been swept up in the battle as well. In total, six bystanders had been involuntarily dragged into the psychic world by Hebi no Miko before perishing to her forbidden techniques.

    There might be some troubleing...

    ¡­¡­

    Sure enough, trouble was just around the corner. Adam stayed up the entire night, apanying Shae and Diana back to the veterinarian hospital, and dawn was only just beginning to break when 12 people arrived at the hospital to see him.

    Adam hadn''t met any of these 12 people before, and all of them were wearing strange chequered shirts.

    At first nce, these chequered shirts appeared to be some type of uniform, but upon closer inspection, Adam noticed that these shirts were all slightly different, so it was clear that they were private attire.

    Adam was initially rather perplexed and didn''t know who these people were, but these shirts tipped off their identity to him.

    "Hello, are you from the Dataist Union?" Adam asked in a very polite voice.

    The Dataist Union was an extremely powerful organization. This was the organization that supervised all of the legitimate armed forces in the world.

    Following World War III, the Dataist Union had be an organization that was solely responsible for supervising Mechguard. They didn''t answer to anyone aside from the public, and due to how enormous and decentralized the organization was, it held no centralized power, but one would be sorely mistaken if they didn''t regard it as a powerful entity.

    As a nk te, Adam was naturally drawn to organizations like this.

    If there were unions like the Psychic Body Union and the Political Regtor Union in addition to the Dataist Union, then the world would be a far better ce.

    However, this was sadly impossible.

    Data could be made transparent and be subjected to a system of mutual supervision, but human hearts couldn''t be exposed and made transparent. Hence, all fields where human nature yed a significant role were always the darkest and filthiest facets of the world.

    Of course, there was also a third reason why Adam was being so polite to them.

    In the past, Adam had received assistance from a mysterious figure on multiple asions, and he had always wondered who it was that was helping him. After extensive consideration, he decided that the Dataist Union seemed to be the only entity capable of this.

    However, he had no ties with the Dataist Union, and they had no reason to help him.

    "As expected of a special psychic police officer, you have some impressive information sources. You already know who we are even before we came here."

    "Ah, I think there''s been a misunderstanding. I didn''t receive any information to tip me off in advance, I simply identified you based on your shirts," Adam exined with a smile. "What can I help you with today?"

    "We''re here because you''re suspected of viting Mechguard deployment regtions," the leader of the Dataist Union representatives said, cutting straight to the chase. "As I''m sure you''re aware, Mechguard is under the supervision of the Dataist Union.

    ¡°All of the footage that''s captured by Mechguard cameras is immediately uploaded to the cloud, and as automatons, they can only act within the constraints of thew and follow the rules without deviation."

    "What does that have to do with your visit today?"

    "We''ve noticed that all of the cases that you''ve handled recently have resulted in deaths."

    "Is that illegal?"

    "It''s not, but we''re not responsible for enforcing thew, we only answer to the public. You are viting the regtions in your deployment of Mechguard units. As an example, in thest case that you were involved in, the suspect managed to get away in a location that was outside of the surveince of Mechguard cameras.

    ¡°No one saw what you did, so there''s no evidence that you let the suspect get away. However, if we were to release this footage to the general public, they would think that you''re engaging in some shady business, and that''s what we are responsible for."

 Chapter 310: Random Killings

    <h4>Chapter 310: Random Killings</h4>

    "I see."

    Looking at the group of people before him, Adam had a feeling that he wasn''t going to be able to get out of this so easily.

    Politicians were solely focused on self-interest, so their decisions could be altered as long as sufficient benefits were granted to them.

    As for thew, it was extremely rigid, and one couldn''t be punished by thew as long as there wasn''t sufficient evidence.

    However, the Dataist Union fell somewhere in between and focused on serving the people while enforcing a policy ofmon sense.

    They didn''t care about things that the general public didn''t care about, but they were determined to expose all things that the general public had a problem with, and that made them extremely difficult to deal with.

    "What do you intend to do about this?"

    "Your prior actions aren''t illegal, but they''re very suspicious, and we''vee here today to issue you with a warning. You will only get one verbal warning, and if you continue to vite the regtions, we''ll release the footage onto the inte. We have the right to regte and release all footage captured by Mechguard."

    "Wait, so all of you came here just to issue me with a warning? Surely one of you would''ve been enough, why are there 12 of you here at once? Is this supposed to be some kind of jury?"

    "If only one persones, it''s very easy for corruption and shady dealings to take ce. With 12plete strangersing at once, we''ll be supervising one another, so none of us will be able to do anything out of line. We supervise people far more strictly than we supervise code. In a sense, the essence of supervising data is also human supervision."

    The 12 people were wearing identical clothes, but none of them were familiar with one another, and there was only one speaker. This was a very strangebination, but it made sense to Adam.

    This was indeed the best way to ensure that no underhanded deals took ce.

    "So is that all for today?"

    Adam respected these people, but he really didn''t want to have to deal with them for any longer than necessary.

    In the context of society as a whole, Adam respected these people far more than he did politicians, but on a personal level, he much preferred to deal with politicians like Wax Figure than these strange and upromising individuals.

    "That''s all for today. The warning has been delivered. If you continue to vite the regtions, then we''ll be releasing the footage to the public next time."

    The 12 people didn''t even tell Adam their names, and they left just as abruptly as they had arrived.

    However, Adam knew that he really was in big trouble this time. Mechguard was the most powerful resource that he had at his disposal, but from now on, he was going to have to be extremely careful in the way that he used this resource.

    Right as he was about to return to the veterinarian hospital, he suddenly felt as if he were being watched, but after looking around, he didn''t discover anyone.

    On the corner of the street, a figure slowly walked past outside of Adam''s field of view.

    Now that the Dataist Union is onto you, you won''t be able to abuse your power anymore. Let me see what you''re going to do now,?Thn thought to himself as a faint smile appeared on his face.

    The more he investigated Adam, the more interested in Adam he became.

    For someone like him, who was naturally extremely inquisitive, there was nothing more fun than getting to the bottom of a good mystery.

    For Thn, nothing couldpare with the thrill of uncovering the secrets of others, and he couldn''t derive the same joy from good food, sex, games, or anything else. Adam''s origins, his objectives, and his inexplicable rate of development were all extremely intriguing to Thn, constantly making him want to dig deeper.

    Now that you won''t be able to use Mechguard as freely as before, I''m assuming you''re going to switch to a different identity to continue your investigation...

    ¡­¡­

    As it turned out, Thn was correct.

    Upon returning to the veterinarian hospital, Adam immediately began to work on a disguise. He pulled together a random assortment of clothes from the three psychic mutants, then made some strange modifications to his prosthetics using spray paint canisters, posing as an artist as he prepared to go out.

    "Where are you going?"

    "I saw the names and appearances of some of the non-profit organization representatives from Chen Yanyan''s memories yesterday, and I''m going to meet them now."

    "Why aren''t you asking me to tag along?" Shae asked.

    "Because I have to go and apologize to May at the pawn shop first, and it wouldn''t be appropriate to have you with me."

    "Would you be embarrassed if I was there to watch?"

    "No, I..."

    "If the answer is no, then let''s go together."

    Shae also began to adopt a disguise as she spoke, and before long, what appeared to be an artistic couple made their way out of the veterinarian hospital.

    Their first stop was naturally the pawn shop, not just because Adam had to apologize to May, but also because he required intelligence from the pawn shop.

    They arrived on the familiarmercial street, then made their way into the pawn shop before taking the elevator to the fourth floor. As the elevator door opened, Adam discovered that Red Spider and May were already waiting for them.

    "You better watch out! It''s been a long time since I''ve seen May this angry!"

    Despite the cautionary nature of Red Spider''s words, her expression suggested that she was very much looking forward to seeing how this meeting was going to y out, and she stood off to the side to watch the show.

    Adam was dreading this meeting, but he had no choice but to confront it.

    "I''m here to apologize. Yesterday was an ident, I''m sure neither of us wanted to see that oue."

    This was the first time that Adam had ever seen May angry, and she didn''t appear to be much different from normal. She wasn''t in a violent rage, nor did she appear to be particrly worked up, but the look in her eyes was extremely cold, as if she were a vengeful hunter glowering at her prey. Even for someone with immense psychic power like Adam, he couldn''t help but feel rather intimidated by her cold re.

    "Was it really an ident?" May asked as she looked straight into Adam''s eyes. "Do you really not know that man?"

    "I don''t..."

    "I''d advise you not to try and deceive me. The pawn shop specializes in resolving problems, but most of our ie actuallyes from dealing in intelligence. Let me ask you this again, and you better give me a proper answer this time: do you really not know the man who rescued Hebi no Miko?"

    "Fine, I do know him, but what happened yesterday really was an ident."

    Adam had let Raven go the day before, and the fact that the Dataist Union had been able to secure this piece of information meant that the pawn shop was definitely privy to it as well. Given the decentralized nature and enormous scale of the Dataist Union, it was very difficult to bribe them, but it was a much simpler task to nt someone in the union.

    May nodded in response, waiting silently for further boration, and Adam hurriedly exined.

    "It really was an ident! Neither of us are happy to see Hebi no Miko get away. She''s constantly after my life, so it doesn''t benefit me at all to let her escape."

    "Judging from what you did, it seems like you struck some type of deal with her rescuer."

    "He promised me that he would get Hebi no Miko off my back, and that''s why I let him go."

    Adam didn''t tell May about how Raven had removed those parasitic tentacles from his psychic body, nor did he reveal Raven''s promise to kill people for him.

    However, even though he didn''t mention anything about killing, May brought up the subject.

    "I suggest you keep your distance from those people. You are a special psychic police officer, while they''re some of the worst criminals currently going around. Recently, there have been random murders taking ce in Sandrise City and several other metropolises."

    This was something that Adam had already heard about on several past asions. He had initially thought that these crimes had been carried out by certain mentally disturbed individuals, and he intended to look into the matter and collect footage so that Shivani could churn out more hard-hitting stories, but it seemed that things weren''t as simple as he imagined them to be.

 Chapter 311: Handler

    <h4>Chapter 311: Handler</h4>

    "You''re saying they''re the ones behind those random murders? Surely there has to be a mistake."

    Even though Raven had discussed the subject of killing people with Adam, it was difficult for Adam to imagine that the cunning and calcting Raven would go around carrying out random killings.

    In past instances of such crime sprees, the perpetrators had generally all been deranged nutjobs.

    Of course, Raven wasn''t exactly the most mentally stable individual, but there was a fundamental difference between someone like him and indiscriminate serial killers.

    Raven was more like a sinister demon that was slowly hatching ns in the shadows, obtaining what he wanted in a controlled and calcting fashion, whereas random murders were generally carried out bypletely deranged individuals with no intelligence or foresight.

    .

    This seemed to be something that would only have a detrimental effect in the long run, and it was rather difficult for Adam to believe that Raven would do something so unreasonable and foolish.

    "I can''t say for sure whether he''s one of the perpetrators, but he looks a lot like one of the people that''s been on my radartely." Compared with this subject, May was clearly much more concerned about Hebi no Miko, and she quickly changed the subject. "Did he tell you how he was going to be preventing Hebi no Miko froming after you?"

    At the moment, not only was May concerned that Hebi no Miko could seek vengeance against her, it would be extremely detrimental to the pawn shop''s business if news were to spread that she had made an enemy out of Hebi no Miko.

    "He told me that he was going to put Hebi no Miko in a predicament where she would be too busy dealing with other matters toe after me, but he didn''t tell me any specific details. My guess is that he hasn''te up with a concrete n yet himself."

    "I see. Make sure you don''t reveal what happened yesterday to anyone. I didn''t show myself throughout the entire incident, so as far as everyone''s concerned, I wasn''t involved."

    "Got it."

    "Also, about your lifetime servitude promise..."

    "That still counts."

    "Good. At least I got something out of that."

    After chatting with May for a while longer, Adam changed the subject, enquiring about some information pertaining to a few people before departing from the pawn shop.

    Having secured the information of the handlers involved in the orphan trafficking case, Adam assigned all of them an internal ranking in terms of importance, then arrived at an orphan shelter under the Ark Learning Children''s Fund.

    The Ark Learning Children''s Fund was a massive non-profit organization, and there were all types of establishments under its umbre, including schools, orphan shelters, food provision factories, and employment centers.

    The orphan shelter that Adam was visiting was one of the establishments under the Ark Learning Children''s Fund where one could most directlye into contact with orphans.

    After taking in orphans, the Ark Learning Children''s Fund would send them to orphan shelters for a few days for some simple checkups in order to determine their age and physical condition, then send them to schools and welfare homes.

    Of course, this wasn''t the only orphan shelter under the Ark Learning Children''s Fund. All in all, the children''s fund had a total of 17 orphan shelters all over Sandrise City, and this was only one of them.

    As soon as Adam stepped through the doors of this shelter, he was immediately stopped by a staff member.

    It was a portly middle-aged woman who had a very benevolent and approachable appearance.

    "How can I help you today?"

    "We''re here to see Quinn Reed. We''ve met him before, and we''re here to discuss some details regarding adoption with him."

    Aside from making basic registrations and logs on the orphans that were taken in, the orphan shelters were also responsible for various other procedures, such as the initial phase of the adoption process.

    The woman took a nce at Adam and Shae to find that they were of a simr age and were quite fashionably dressed. As a result, she came under the false impression that they were a couple, and that convinced her to let down her guard.

    "Quinn took a day off today. He appears to be feeling unwell and has some private matters to attend to. If you want to explore adoption options, I can rmend someone else for you to see."

    "I see. Would you be able to tell me his address?"

    "I''m afraid I can''t..."

    Before the woman had a chance to finish, Adam gave Shae a subtle nce, then immediately invaded her consciousness.

    There were other people in the orphan shelter, and it was very suspicious that Adam and the woman had suddenly fallenpletely still, while Adam was resting a hand on her shoulder. Hence, Shae hurriedly positioned herself so that Adam and the woman would be obscured from everyone else as much as possible, then began to have a conversation with herself.

    "Yes, that''s exactly right, we''re here to look into adoption... I have some idea of what the process entails. I''ll tell you what my thoughts are, and you can correct me if I''m wrong. I know that the current legal process for adoptions isn''t veryplicated. Not many parents are willing to go through natural births, so many children are born through IVF..."

    Shae was constantly talking in order to keep up a facade of normalcy and ensure that no attention was drawn to Adam and the woman.

    Thankfully, a chatty young woman was quite amon sight, and much to her relief, no one was paying any attention to them.

    Meanwhile, Adam had entered the woman''s psychic world and had already begun searching for the information that he wanted.

    The first piece of information that he wanted to find was naturally Quinn''s address.

    Thankfully, the woman did remember his address, and after searching through some work-rted memories of hers, he saw the address in a memo on hermunicator.

    The second order of business for Adam was to see whether the Ark Learning Children''s Fund was apletely rotten, illegal organization all the way through like the Compassion Company, or if it had only been partially corrupted.

    Adam was leaning toward thetter option as he recalled that the people at the orphan''s school under the Ark Learning Children''s Fund in the town of Ash had been very good people.

    In particr, Principal Howard had the kindest and most pristine psychic world that Adam had seen out of anyone.

    The portly woman was clearly also a very kind person, and she sometimes liked to yell at the orphans in the shelter, but she really did look after them as if they were her own children. Most importantly, she had no idea about the orphan trafficking that was going on.

    After securing this information, Adam promptly departed from the woman''s psychic world. Both of them quickly returned to their senses in the real world, and she had no idea what had just happened.

    It was very rare for the average person toe into contact with adapters, so very few people knew what it was like to have their psychic world invaded.

    From the woman''s perspective, it seemed that she had suddenly spaced out for a second, and she hurriedly apologized, "Sorry, what were we talking about just now?"

    "You were just telling us that Quinn isn''t here today. It''s alright, we''lle back tomorrow."

    After putting an end to the conversation, Adam departed from the orphan shelter with Shae.

    "Can you give me some warning before you invade someone''s psychic world next time?" Shae began toin as soon as they left the establishment. "You''re always doing whatever you want, and you never think about the feelings of those around you."

    "Aren''t you talking about yourself there? When we first met, your temper was way worse than mine. We share the same genes, so perhaps neither of us are very good people," Adam retorted while hailing a taxi.

    Quinn lived quite close to the orphanage, so it wouldn''t take very long to get to his address.

    "Besides, these things always happen on the spur of the moment. How am I supposed to give you any forewarning?"

    "I suppose you''re right..."

    ¡­¡­

    Inside his home, Quinn was feeling very anxious.

    Ever since he heard about the Compassion Company incident, he had been feeling extremely uneasy, and his fears were only exacerbated when he lost all contact with Chen Yanyan, his former handler at the Compassion Company.

    He had considered running away, and as a handler, he did have some illegal ie, but he wasn''t as wealthy as Chen Yanyan.

    It would''ve taken a huge sum of money to find a gang that would smuggle him out of the country, and not only was there a chance that he could encounter danger along the way, even if he could leave the country, he would have to lead an impoverished life. Furthermore, he had heard that foreign nations weren''t very safe to live in.

    There were dictatorships where themon folk could only live under the oppressive rule of the kings and their automatons, forced to toil and work without rest. These automatons had be the best enforcers for rulers, and they were far more effective and easier to manage than human soldiers and police officers.

    Hence, he didn''t dare to run away, and he was still hoping against hope that all of this would simply blow over.

    What if this has nothing to do with me? Even if it does, there''s no guarantee that they''lle after me! It''s the Compassion Company that was exposed, how does that have anything to do with me?

    Quinn was desperately trying to reassure himself, but in the next instant, three crisp and distinct knocks rang out on the door of his apartment, and he was so frightened that his heart skipped a beat with each knock.

 Chapter 312: Hierarchical Isolation

    <h4>Chapter 312: Hierarchical Istion</h4>

    Quinn immediately flew into a blind panic at the sound of the door-knocking, and he hurriedly rushed toward the transporter on his balcony.

    However, the door-knocker clearly didn''t have much patience, and it didn''t take long before they forced their way into the apartment, just in time to see Quinn rushing out onto the balcony.

    Quinn''s speed and strength were no match for Adam''s prosthetics, and he was overpowered and pinned down onto the floor before he had a chance to get into the transporter on the balcony.

    "Hello."

    "Don''t kill me! Please, don''t kill me!"

    Quinn''s immediate thought was that Adam was a hitman.

    In his eyes, in the event that the orphan trafficking scheme was exposed, he would be far more likely to be paid a visit by a hitman than Mechguard or special psychic police officers.

    After all, it was going to take a very long time for Mechguard to dig him up in their investigation, whereas the people at the Compassion Company knew exactly what he had done. He had already learned from the news that all of the higher-ups at the Compassion Company, including the CEO, had already been killed, so it would''ve only made sense that he would be killed as well.

    Adam was rather taken aback by Quinn''s assumption that he was a hitman, and he was just about to say something when Quinn continued, "I have cameras installed in my apartment, and they''ll transmit footage of everything that happens here to the Mechguard database in real-time, so if you kill me, you''ll be in huge trouble as well!"

    "You''re a smart cookie, aren''t you?"

    Adam turned to nce at the apartment, and even though he couldn''t see any cameras, he believed what Quinn was saying.

    These people were willing to do anything to save their own lives, and it certainly wasn''t a stretch to think that he would install hidden cameras for this purpose.

    Even though he was already in disguise, he was still feeling a little apprehensive, having just received a verbal warning from the Dataist Union earlier in the day. After considering the situation for a few seconds, Adam lifted Quinn up by his cor, then barged into the bathroom with him before asking in a low voice, "There aren''t any cameras in here, right?"

    "Y, you''ve already..."

    "Answer my question, or I''ll kill you!"

    "No," Quinn hurriedly replied as he shuddered in fear.

    He was an orphan trafficker, but he wasn''t like those gangsters in Area 8 and Area 9, and he immediately crumbled in the face of a threat to his life.

    After ensuring that there were no cameras in the bathroom, Adam wasted no time and immediately invaded Quinn''s consciousness.

    Quinn was an avid inte gamer.

    He was among the first batch of test tube infants after World War III, and he had grown up in a non-profit organization. He had never lived in poverty, but his upbringing was far from privileged.

    Ever since he first came into contact with inte games as a child, he had be infatuated with ying all types of games in the Metaverse, which still wasn''t very refined at the time.

    Unfortunately, the majority of games were pay-to-win, and he dedicated all of the little spending money that he had into his games. Even after reaching adulthood, this habit continued, and as a result, he was always on the verge of being broke, until he met a certain person one day...

    ¡­¡­

    Adam wasn''t very interested in Quinn''s life. His primary goal for invading Quinn''s psychic world was to find some more leads pertaining to the orphan trafficking operation.

    Quinn''s memories rted to the operation were very simple. All of the orphans that were brought into their shelter would undergo simple physical examinations, and he just so happened to be the one responsible for collecting and logging the data from those examinations.

    His job was to pick out the children with abnormal brain CT scan statistics and send the list of names of those children to Chen Yanyan over at the Compassion Company.

    Those children would generally be taken away by the Compassion Company for further examinations, citing reasons such as brain calcification, brain tumors, or problems with the blood vessels in their brains, and the majority of those children were then subsequently sent back.

    Over the past few years, around 30,000 to 40,000 orphans had been sent to his shelter, and several hundred of them had been reported by him to the Compassion Company. Out of those hundreds of children, two of them ultimately weren''t sent back.

    Over the course of several years, only two out of tens of thousands of children had failed to return, and when it was dered that those two children had sumbed to their brain conditions, there was no reason for anyone to suspect any foul y.

    Even in the welfare homes themselves, there were orphans dying every year, and the child mortality rate in society as a whole was higher than this.

    No one had any reason to suspect anything, and no one looked into the matter.

    If it weren''t for Adam, Quinn would''ve been able to continue this line of work indefinitely.

    There''s no valuable information in there!

    Adam was feeling rather frustrated following his exploration of Quinn''s psychic world.

    It had to be said that these people had executed immacte hierarchical istion. The people on each level of the hierarchy were only responsible for their direct duties, and they had no exposure to the things that took ce on the hierarchical levels above them.

    Perhaps Adam would be able to gather some useful information if he could capture someone like Chen Yiran, but the information that he could dig out of the likes of Chen Yanyan and Quinn was extremely limited, and there was no way that this information would be enough to further his investigation in any meaningful way.

    Not long after Adam returned to the real world, Quinn''s eyes also began to refocus, but he had no idea what had just happened.

    "What..."

    "Be quiet, I need to think."

    Seeing as Quinn knew so little useful information, it was most likely the case that the other people on Adam''s list were just as oblivious as Quinn was. Hence, if he wanted to further this investigation, then he needed more time.

    "Alright, here''s the deal Quinn. I''m sure you''re aware that you''ve at least already developed an inkling of what your job entails. No matter how slow you may be, after working at the shelter for so long, you must be aware that you''re assisting in child trafficking.

    ¡°This is a very serious crime in this country, and if you get locked up in prison, none of the inmates will take kindly to what you did. In fact, I suspect that once the other inmates learn the nature of your crimes, you won''t be able to survive very long in there at all."

    "Y, yes, I understand..."

    As a homebody with a gaming addiction, Quinn wasn''t a tough nut to crack at all, and he was so frightened by this grim future that Adam had mapped out for him that he was stuttering over his words.

    "I can tell you right now that I''m not a hitman. Instead, I''m a special psychic police officer."

    Adam pulled aside his disguise as he spoke so that he could show Quinn his face.

    Quinn was immediately able to recognize him.

    "You''re the one from the inte!"

    "That''s right. Now that you know who I am, there are three options for you to choose from. The first option is that I simply leave you here, and an actual hitman will eventually be sent here to silence you. The second option is that I arrest you and send you to court. You''ve been doing this for quite a few years now, so I''m sure you''ve left some leads behind. If I hand you over to the authorities, you can expect to die in prison soon."

    "What''s the third option?"

    Both of the first two options lead to inevitable death, so Quinn had no other choice.

    "The third option is that you delete the footage on the surveince camera outside, and don''t forget to also delete the footage that''s already been uploaded to Mechguard. I know that requires identity verification from you, so I can''t do that myself. After that, I want you to help me gather evidence.

    ¡°I want a list of names of all of the children that have been trafficked under you, the relevant evidence, and a list of all of the people involved. On top of that, if you can help me track down the person above you that was responsible for sending those children to the Compassion Company, then I''ll let you off the hook. On top of that, I''ll give you a sum of money and arrange for you to be sent to Europe."

    "I choose the third option!"

    This was a multiple-choice question, but there really was only one correct answer.

    "Very good. You''re a smart man, Quinn. I''m sure someone as smart as you wouldn''t do something like try to run away in secret, right? I have a very powerful intelligencework behind me.

    ¡°They''ve already forced the Compassion Company to kill off their boss, so they can certainly force you to your demise. Don''t forget that I also have Mechguard on my side. All it''ll take is one instruction from me, and you won''t be able to go anywhere in this city, do you understand me?"

    "Yes! I''ll definitely cooperate!" Quinn hurriedly replied.

 Chapter 313: Hebi no Miko and Raven

    <h4>Chapter 313: Hebi no Miko and Raven</h4>

    After taking care of Quinn, Adam rinsed and repeated the same process with all of the other people of interest on his list.

    Of course, not everyone responded in the same way as Quinn, so Adam arrested one of them and sent him to a Mechguard branch.

    Once the evidence of his crimes arrived, it was going to be very easy to convict him.

    However, upon receiving the evidence, Adam was rather hesitant about how to proceed.

    He turned to Shae with an uncertain expression as he asked, "What should we do?"

    "You''ve always known what to do, haven''t you? You''re always acting on your own, why are you suddenly asking for my input?"

    Despite what Shae was saying, she was also carefully pondering this problem.

    They had sufficient evidence to prove that the Ark Learning Children''s Fund and the Compassion Company had been colluding together in a child trafficking operation.

    Of course, they were solely targeting adapter children.

    They carried out several rounds of selection, not just from artificial test tube infants that they produced, but also the children that were sent to the schools under the organization, such as Li Qi.

    In the end, they would pick out all of the adapters among the children under the organization''s care before sending them to an unspecified ce.

    If this sinister operation were to be unveiled, it would undoubtedly create a massive stir.

    Not only would the Compassion Company be eradicated in its entirety, even the Ark Learning Children''s Fund would have to undergo a massive revolution.

    "I don''t think there''s too much to think about," Shae said. "The boss of the Compassion Company has already run away, and it''s not like this is an ultra-powerful organization. In the wake of the recent news that''se out, it''s already on the brink of copse.

    ¡°As for the higher-ups of the Ark Learning Children''s Fund, they would be itching to have everything exposed so they can cut off their subordinates and have them take the fall, pinning all of the me on people like Quinn. Once that happens, we won''t be able to catch any of the big fish."

    "That''s right, so if we want some meaningful leads, we have to keep waiting."

    Adam was waiting, but no further news arrived.

    This was because all of the informants that he had recruited, including Quinn,pletely disappeared the next day, and he was unable to get into contact with them.

    Through the footage captured by Mechguard''s surveince cameras, Adam could see that all of them had disappeared after visiting the welfare home the next day. No one knew how they had disappeared, and there were naturally no public surveince cameras installed in a welfare home.

    Adam also paid the establishment a visit to conduct his own investigation, but he wasn''t able to uncover anything even after inspecting the memories of the employees there.

    They certainly did a really thorough job! Even adapters like myself won''t be able to find any useful information here.

    Adam was feeling very frustrated at the fact that the lead had run cold.

    If only I could capture Chen Yiran. He definitely knows something. Where could he be?

    ¡­¡­

    In the sewage system of Sandrise City, a fire that had only just been lit was immediately stamped out.

    "We''ve already been through this before, Rotten Meat. There are mmable biogases in the sewage system, so you can''t light fires here. If you need to light a fire, go to Big Genius''sboratory. His area is clear from all of the biogases here."

    Raven had already lost count of how many times this conversation had taken ce, but he was still disying remarkable patience and kindness, far more so than all therapists and psychiatrists.

    This was why even though Rotten Meat was a psychic mutant with a very short temper, he was still very obedient to Raven.

    "Oh, right, I almost blew everyone up! Boom!" Rotten Meat chuckled as he hobbled toward theboratory, immediately following which Big Genius''s disgruntled yelling rang out from inside.

    "Who the fuck let youe in? Don''t fucking touch my shit! I only just assembled it, the screws haven''t even been installed yet!"

    Raven paid no heed to Big Genius''s enraged yelling as he made his way over to Hebi no Miko, then asked in a respectful voice, "Are you feeling a bit better?"

    "I''m fine. I only took one bullet from that Mechguard unit, and it didn''t strike any of my vital regions. On top of that, I have nano-healing robots in my body, and they''ve already removed the bullet and sewn up the wound."

    Hebi no Miko was a very violent and reclusive person, and she had never made a single friend.

    Everyone was scared of her, including even her sister, Oni no Miko, and most of the people who weren''t scared of her had perished at her hands.

    However, Raven was an exception to this. There was a strange quality to him that was very soothing, even to the most violent of individuals.

    In Raven''s presence, even Hebi no Miko''s perpetual urge to destroy everything mellowed out a little.

    This was a veryforting feeling for Hebi no Miko. It had been a very long time since she had found peace like this.

    "What do you want me to do for you?" In her peaceful state, Hebi no Miko was able to think with more rity than in the past. "Don''t tell me that you don''t want anything from me. There''s no way that you would''ve risked being shot down by Mechguard to save me for nothing."

    "Of course I want something from you. I''m not so pretentious that I would im to have saved you out of the kindness of my heart."

    Raven drew closer to Hebi no Miko and crouched down slightly so that their eyes were level.

    Hebi no Miko was very beautiful. She had the intricate features and delicate skin of an Asian beauty, but she was also giving off an extremely wild and destructive aura.

    The juxtaposition of herpletely mismatching appearance and disposition made her resemble an extreme cocktail, presenting a very jarring package.

    "I''ve seen your information on the inte. Of course, not all of the information is reliable and urate, but I still believe a part of it."

    "Which part?"

    "The part that says that you''re someone who always repays kindness, but also doesn''t hesitate to take revenge against those who have wronged you."

    "That''s fair."

    "That''s why I saved you. I''ll be honest, I didn''t even know exactly what I wanted you to do for me when I saved you. I just have a feeling that you''ll definitely be useful to me given how powerful you are." Raven was expressing his thoughts to Hebi no Miko with a gentle smile, and his voice was so soft and tender that it was as if he were speaking to his lover. "Come to think of it, it was quite a coincidence that I ran into you on that day. I was there to see Adam, and I didn''t know that you were going to attack him."

    "Why do you want to see him?"

    "There''s an old man who wants me to kill him."

    "Sounds like he''s certainly short on enemies. Do you know him?"

    "I do. We''re not exactly friends, but I''d say we''re coborative partners."

    Raven was being very honest and candid with everything that he said.

    As one of a handful of the most powerful adapters in the world, Hebi no Miko possessed near unmatched telegnosis. Countless people in the past had tried to lie to her, thinking that a psychic mutant like her would be too stupid to see through their lies, and none of those people lived to tell the tale.

    After that, there were fewer and fewer people who tried to deceive her, but more and more people revealed only iplete truths to her. It was extremely rare for her to see someone like Raven, who was so open and willing to share.

    "Come to think of it, you and I are also technically coborative partners right now. I promised him that I was going to get you off his temporarily."

    "How do you n to do that?"

    "Come with me."

    Raven stood up straight again as he slowly helped Hebi no Miko to her feet, following which the two of them entered a spherical automaton. This was a sewage system transportation device developed by Big Genius, and they rode the device to a nearby area.

    There, a person was locked up in a metal cage.

    It was none other than Chen Yiran.

 Chapter 314: Intrigue

    <h4>Chapter 314: Intrigue</h4>

    "Release me right now, Raven! You treacherous piece of scum!"

    Chen Yiran immediately erupted into a fit of fury at the sight of Raven.

    Raven wasn''t bothered by his insults at all, and he crouched down to look at the man in the cage.

    "You''re over 100 years old, and you deal in human trafficking, why are you speaking like a naive little child? I never promised you anything. All I said was that I was interested in your experience with Adam." Raven turned to Hebi no Miko, then asked, "Have you heard about the nk te business?"

    "I have."

    As a former high-ranking spy in the Japanese Department of Intelligence, Hebi no Miko had naturally heard of this illegal business, which drew in patronage from all of the most powerful and wealthiest people all over the world.

    "I''ve heard of it, but I''ve nevere into contact with it before."

    She was one of the most powerful adapters in the world, but her influence, wealth, and social status had never very lofty heights.

    nk tes were exceedingly rare, and every single one of them was extremely meticulously selected.

    An unfathomable amount of power and influence was required to create a top-tier nk te.

    "This man is one of the cogs in the nk te production machine. He''s not one of the top figures in the production line, but he''s definitely a mid-level figure on the hierarchy, so I''m sure knows many things. Are you interested in taking a look in his psychic world with me?"

    "Is this how you n to keep me from going after Adam?"

    "Is this not intriguing enough to capture your interest? If we can seize control of this supply chain, all of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world will be at our mercy!"

    "What happens after that?"

    "We''ll think about the future when we get to it. Now that I''ve saved you, I''ve obtained more power, and with more power, I can do more interesting things. Even though I hadn''t decided on what I was going to do at the time, I can always make a decisionter down the line." Raven extended a hand toward Hebi no Miko as he spoke. "Would you like to join me?"

    Hebi no Miko thought about this for a moment, then shook Raven''s outstretched hand.

    The two of them didn''t waste any time with words as they invaded Chen Yiran''s psychic world in unison, ignoring his loud protests.

    Before the two of them even had a chance to find their footing after arriving in Chen Yiran''s psychic world, they were immediately discovered by his psychic body.

    Having had his consciousness imnted into the brain of a nk te, Chen Yiran was currently a bona fide adapter himself. Furthermore, he had been alive for over 100 years and faced countless opponents and hardships in the business world, so his psychic body was far from weak.

    As soon as Ravennded on the ground, an elderly technomancer immediately came rushing at him from afar.

    Even after doing so many heinous things, he still hasn''t undergone any degree of psychic mutation. It''s clear that what he''s doing doesn''t weigh on his conscience at all.

    The elderly technomancer was Chen Yiran''s psychic body.

    His elderly appearance indicated that even though he possessed a young body, deep down in his heart, he still regarded himself as an old man, and the fact that he was a technomancer indicated that he didn''t like to directly confront his opponents, preferring to manipte them from afar instead.

    Everyone''s psychic body was a manifestation of their personality.

    As soon as Chen Yiran appeared, he immediately went on the attack.

    Raven and Hebi no Miko had arrived in a certain hospital under the Compassion Company, and a cloud of ck mist surged up into the air above the hospital at Chen Yiran''s behest, following which every single person in the hospital began to charge at Raven and Hebi no Miko as if they were zombies under Chen Yiran''s control.

    Chen Yiran''s psychic body was quite powerful, and the "zombies" under his control disyed significantly superior physical attributes to the average person. In addition to that, this ability epassed a huge area, and even if he didn''t have any other abilities up his sleeve, his powers were still quite impressive already.

    On Adam''s power scale, Chen Yiran was at least equivalent in power to a level three anomaly.

    In the outside world, he could be considered to be quite a formidable adapter. At the very least, he was superior to the majority of the special psychic police officers, and even in Shadow City, he would''ve been able to climb up the ranks to be an A rankbatant.

    Unfortunately for him, his opponents on this asion were simply far too formidable.

    It would''ve been an exceedingly difficult task to find an adapter of Hebi no Miko''s caliber, and Raven was also a force to be reckoned with in his own right.

    "Surely you don''t need me to do anything here," Hebi no Miko said as she took a nce at Raven. "I didn''t get to see much of your powersst time. How about you give me a demonstration here?"

    "I''m afraid you won''t be able to see much. He''s too weak for me to give a good demonstration."

    Raven exhaled through his beak, and the dark clouds above above were instantly swept away. As a result, all of the zombies fell to the ground like puppets that had had their strings severed.

    After that, a bunch of tentacles emerged from beneath Chen Yiran''s feet to immobilize him.

    There was simply too vast a disparity in power, to the point that Raven was able to subdue Chen Yiran in a matter of seconds.

    After doing all of that, Raven began to try and manifest a humanoid form, clearly a very difficult task for a psychic mutant.

    Hebi no Miko watched as Raven strained and struggled, and only after a few minutes was he able to just barely transform into an inky-ck humanoid creature without any facial features. In a rare disy of amusement, Hebi no Miko burst intoughter upon seeing this.

    "It''s not easy for a psychic mutant to revert back to a human form. Would you like me to teach you?"

    "That would be fantastic."

    The two of them arrived in front of Chen Yiran as they conversed with one another.

    At this point, the tentacles had already burrowed their way into Chen Yiran''s body, so Raven wasn''t concerned about him getting away.

    "You''re a smart man, I''m sure you know what you need to do next, right?"

    Chen Yiran nodded in response. At this point, he knew that he had no choice but to ept his fate.

    "Will I be spared if I cooperate with you?"

    "Of course. You still have so much wealth and influence, we definitely can''t just let you die here." Even though Raven had no face, there was a smile being conveyed in the tone of his voice. "You''re a businessman, and so am I. There''s no way I would let you die for no reason. Now, I want you to show me and Hebi no Miko the secrets of your production line."

    Chen Yiran nodded in response.

    He had truly been backed into a corner.

    Mechguard was searching for him, and judging from his understanding of the organization above him, he knew that his higher-ups had most likely already abandoned him.

    Thus, he had no choice but to cooperate with these two if he wanted to have any chance at survival.

    With that in mind, Chen Yiran immediately began to try and suck up to the two psychic mutants.

    Adaptability was the key to his long life and lofty status.

    "I know a lot of things that I''m sure you''ll find interesting, so you''re definitely asking the right person," Chen Yiran said as he led the two of them into the internal area of the hospital.

    It naturally had to have been quite an important memory to have been able to create a psychic module in such a secretive location.

    "This area in this hospital is an important ce in which we select our nk tes." After arriving in the internal area of the hospital, Chen Yiran led Hebi no Miko and Raven to a heavily restricted brain treatment area. "This ce is usually constantly guarded by carefully hand-selected individuals, and the machines inside the are most cutting-edge in the world, able to urately select all of the individuals with abnormally advanced neurons..."

    "How many nk tes could a hospital possibly produce? Adapters are extremely rare, it would require way too much work for far too little reward."

    "You''ve hit the nail right on the head, Mr. Raven. All of the children who are sent here have already undergone a prior screening process. We have a coborative partnership with the Ark Learning Children''s Fund, and during their physical examinations, they''ll pick out the children who are most likely to possess the potential to be nk tes, so not all of the children are sent here for examination. Typically, we get roughly one adapter per 100 children."

    "What happens after that? Who do you hand those children over to?"

 Chapter 315: Win-win-win Situation

    <h4>Chapter 315: Win-win-win Situation</h4>

    The question that Raven had asked was one that Adam really wanted to know the answer to.

    "Come with me."

    Chen Yiran performed a piece of technomancy to enhance his own speed, then led Raven and Hebi no Miko on a tour of the psychic module that they were in.

    Very few people would''ve been willing to do this.

    Essentially, he was willinglyying his own secrets bare to others, and this type of humiliation from having one''s psychic world and memories stripped bare was even more severe than being physically stripped naked.

    After all, everyone had some secrets that they didn''t want others to know about, particrly secrets that were buried deep in their memory.

    However, Chen Yiran didn''t care about any of that. At this point, his only objective was to survive.

    The three of them traversed through around a dozen psychic modules, yet they still hadn''t reached their destination. Along the way, Raven had flown up into the sky, and he was looking down at the passing scenery with intrigue and interest.

    In particr, he was fascinated by the sights and scenes from much earlier in the century.

    "What year did all of this happen in?"

    "It was sometime between 2020 and 2030. At the time, I was still a young man trying to make a name for myself. At the time, it was quite difficult for someone of Asian descent to establish himself in North America, so I went through a lot of hardships back then. Having said that, some of my most deep-rooted memories alsoe from those days," Chen Yiran replied with a reminiscent look in his eyes as he watched the passing scenery. "People always say that the older you get, the clearer the memories from your younger days be."

    "I''m afraid I don''t have much insight there."

    Raven and Hebi no Miko were in their early twenties and early thirties, respectively, so they didn''t know what it felt like to have lived for as long as Chen Yiran had. They were simply very interested in seeing things from as far back as 70 years ago.

    "Now that I think about it, you''ve got some exceptional memory. Your psychic modules are farrger than those of the average person."

    .

    No matter how enormous a memory was, there was always a point where it came to an end.

    Even for someone who had lived a very eventful life, ultimately, they were only going to remember several times more things than the average person did. The rest of their memories would inevitably fade away with time.

    After passing through several more psychic modules, the trio finally arrived at their destination, which was a rather peculiar gambling venue in Area 9.

    Raven inspected his surroundings to find that this appeared to be a subsidiary organization to a certain gambling live-streaming tform on the dark web, and there was an enormous amount of strange gambling content there.

    For example, he could see three people tied up directly up ahead with an employee standing in front of them. The employee brandished a revolver in front of the lens of the camera, making sure that those watching the live stream could get a clear look at the weapon, then ced a bullet into the chamber.

    After that, he spun the chamber of the revolver, allowing it to spin freely so that he would lose track of the slot that the bullet was in. Finally, he began taking bets from the live stream viewers on which of the three people were going to be killed.

    After all of the bets had been ced, he aimed the revolver at the three people one by one before pulling the trigger to determine the oue.

    The barrel was aimed directly at their forehead, so there was no chance that the unfortunate individual shot by the bullet would survive.

    In the end, a young woman had her head blown apart.

    "This is where the deals take ce?"

    "That''s right."

    "You oversee these deals in person?"

    "That''s right."

    "Why is that?"

    "Because my higher-ups are very careful, and they only allow adapters to apany the children as adapters are able to better ensure that nothing goes wrong. After all, adapters possess superior telegnosis to the average person, and they''ll be able to sense any psychic invasions. Initially, I had a couple of subordinates who delivered the children in my stead, but the standards set by my higher-ups were too strict, and one of the two was killed due to a slight mishap while on the job."

    "What happened to the other one?"

    "The other one was sent to work in a different organization."

    "You didn''t hire anyone else after that?"

    "No. Well, to be more urate, I was unable to hire anyone. It''s not very difficult for adapters to earn money, and not only is this job highly illegal, it also ces a great strain on one''s conscience, so very few people are willing to take on the job. On top of that, there''s a great deal of risk involved, and as I mentioned, even a slight mishap could get you killed. Hence, I had to oversee the deals myself."

    "Your higher-ups do indeed sound very cautious."

    "They are, and that also applies to the venue that they''ve chosen here. Area 9 is rife with gangs, so there are many targets that are constantly diverting away Mechguard''s attention. In addition to that, the electronicworks and public surveince cameras in this ce are all severelypromised, making it perfect for criminal activity."

    "Does this dark web live stream location belong to them?"

    "I''m not sure. Perhaps it belongs to a subsidiary organization of theirs, or it could just be a ce that they use to carry out the deals. In any case, if anything goes wrong, we can just get the people here to take the fall for the human trafficking charges."

    "So what is this important information that you''re privy to?" Raven asked. "This information is nowhere near enough for us to make any significant inroads. On top of that, given how cautious your higher-ups are, after your disappearance, they''ll definitely stop using this ce for their future deals. If this is all the information that you have, then you might not live much longer..."

    "No, I definitely do have some vital information for you. Over there in the corner is my handler."

    Raven turned in the direction that Chen Yiran was pointing in, and sure enough, there was someone standing there.

    The man was wearing a ck mask, but his face was very clear.

    Chen Yiran had met him countless times, so the man''s image was extremely clear in his memory.

    Raven made his way over to the handler, and the man reacted very quickly, throwing a punch into Raven''s face in retaliation, causing Raven to stumble back quite a few steps.

    "He''s very strong! That means he must be very strong in your memories, right?"

    However, the handler''s resistance ultimately proved to be futile. Raven was able to quickly subdue the man with his tentacles, following which Hebi no Miko strode over and snapped both of the man''s legs with a single kick.

    After subduing the man, Raven walked ap around him,mitting his height, build, and all of his distinguishing traits to memory.

    "Do you know his name or any other information about him?"

    "I don''t know his name, but I do know where he stays. He rented out a vi using fake identification documents, and I only found that out after investigating him in secret for a very long time," Chen Yiran replied. "They don''t trust, and I don''t trust them, either. We all have dirt on one another in case something goes wrong."

    "I understand. Do you have information on any other important people?"

    "There''s one more person that I can take you to see."

    Having already made a mental profile of the handler in his mind, Raven casually put an end to the man''s life.

    The trio departed once again, and as they did so, Raven asked, "What made you begin doing something like this?"

    "In the beginning, I did it just to survive. I was an old man who was nearing the end of my life, after all. After that, it was for money. This is an extremely lucrative business. The Compassion Company appears to be a medium-sized medical organization, but on our annual financial reports, we only recorded a profit of less than 12 millionst year.

    ¡°Even if we factor in all of the illicit ie from drug dealing, it still only amounts to around 30 million. However, each child adapter that I send to my higher-upss me around 50 million, which is more than my entire business''s annual ie. This has be my primary source of ie, and on top of that, once you dip your toes into this industry, it''s not so easy to get out again."

    "That makes sense," Raven replied with a nod, not making any remarks on the morality of Chen Yiran''s character.

    He didn''t care about morality or ethics, all he cared about was whether Chen Yiran''s exnations made logical sense.

    "Let''s go to the next stop," Raven said as he gave Chen Yiran''s shoulder a firm pat. "Up to this point, you''ve already earned yourself the right to survive. Trust me, you''re not going to regret this decision."

    "With Hebi no Miko, Adam, and I looking into this matter, the three of us together will be able to achieve some things that you consider to be unimaginable. We''ll show you that those monolithic entities in your eyes aren''t as untouchable as you think."

    "What does this have to do with Adam?" Hebi no Miko asked, and Chen Yiran was also perplexed. "Are you going to share this information with him?"

    "Why not? Wouldn''t it feel really good to have your enemy serve your cause? We''re dealing with some extremely powerful people right now, so it''s definitely a good thing if someone else can take the heat for us. You two will be able to get your revenge, we''ll all benefit, and I''ll also be able to fulfill my promise to him. It''s a win-win-win situation, so why wouldn''t I do it?"

 Chapter 316: The Luxury of Peace and Quiet

    <h4>Chapter 316: The Luxury of Peace and Quiet</h4>

    On this day, Adam had only just woken up when he noticed that there was a new message on hismunicator, and the contents of the message resolved the biggest problem that he had been facing recently.

    Attached to the message was a detailedputer-generated "photograph" of a person. The depicted person was wearing a mask, but his exposed features were presented with great rity and detail.

    In particr, his eyes and brow ridge were so clear that he would''ve been easily recognizable even in a mask.

    His height and build were also annotated on the side.

    Adam carefully scrutinized the image for a while, and only after he was certain that he would be able to recognize this man if he ever saw him did he turn his attention to the rest of the message, which contained an address, followed by a passage of text.

    "Dear Adam, I''m sure you''ve hit a bit of a dead-end right about now. The people that you''re looking for are extremely good at hiding, and all of the leads that you need are held in the hands of your enemies. If you don''t know what direction to take in your investigation, I suggest you look into this person. ording to a very reliable source, this is the person that you''re looking for."

    There was no name at the bottom of the message, but the small raven insignia immediately tipped off the identity of the sender to Adam.

    The person that I''m looking for...

    The person that Adam was currently looking for was naturally the high-ranking members in the child adapter trafficking ring. After some extensive consideration, he felt like there was no reason for Raven to lie to him.

    It doesn''t really seem to benefit him in any way just to swindle me once. However, there''s still a possibility that he could ambush me with Hebi no Miko, so I should gather some allies first.

    With that in mind, Adam decided to call up the three most powerful ally adapters that he knew.

    The first person that he called was May, and the response was...

    "Have you not screwed me over enoughst time? How could you ask me to do something like this again? Have you no shame? Besides, I already told you that I''m not going to get involved in these political matters. In particr, getting involved in what you''re doing is no different from ying with fire! Also, don''t bother calling Wax Figure. He''s a politician, do you think he''ll be willing to make enemies out of all of the world''s most powerful adapters just for your sake?"

    The first call ended in failure, and the second call was made to Sadou, who t-out refused to even answer.

    Sadou was someone who tried to stay out of trouble at all costs, and in his mind, Adam was synonymous with trouble, so he had alreadypletely blocked Adam''s number.

    Even though those three were all unwilling to help, Adam ultimately still decided to take a risk and go on his own.

    If he were a normal person, perhaps he would''ve been content with waiting, but as a clone, time was of the essence for him. He didn''t know when his body was suddenly going to give out on him, so waiting would''ve been a far bigger risk for him to take.

    Furthermore, Adam had decided to leave the psychic mutants behind this time as well.

    Given that none of the three aforementioned adapters were willing to apany him, if this were indeed a trap set by Raven and Hebi no Miko, then there was no point in bringing them along.

    Alternatively, if this weren''t a trap, then Adam felt like he possessed sufficient power to handle everything on his own.

    Adam certainly wasn''t conceited enough to think that he could stand toe to toe against the likes of Hebi no Miko, but he felt like he was roughly on par with someone like Eyeless at this point, which made him an extremely formidable figure as long as he didn''t have to face any of the world''s top adapters.

    No matter how he thought about it, going on his own seemed to be the best and most reasonable option. Hence, he snuck out of the veterinarian hospital while Shae was distracted by something else.

    After leaving the hospital, he took the void rail to Area 69.

    As soon as Adam arrived at his destination and got out of the railway capsule pod, he was immediately able to sense that this ce was different from any other ce he had been to.

    Before he had even left the railway station, he was forced to undergo an extensive identity verification examination conducted by Mechguard officers, and this was something that he had never seen in any other area.

    Every single one of the 100 areas in Sandrise City was a miniature city of its own, but due to the existence of void railway transportation, the massive metropolis was actually a very tightly knit ce, and transport was very convenient regardless of whether one was traveling to the central areas or the outermost areas of the metropolis.

    Following the identity verification examination, Adam made his way out into Area 69.

    The first thing that Adam felt was just how quiet and peaceful this ce was.

    In a massive metropolis with a poption numbering in the hundreds of millions, peace and quiet was quite the rare luxury.

    Adam had gone to many of the areas in Sandrise City, including the crime hotspots, Areas 8 and 9, the artists'' haven, Area 45, the infant-raising central hub, Area 66, and the shopping district, Area 36, and all of them had been very noisy and morous.

    Those areas were all heavily popted, with a high prevalence of smart apartmentplexes.

    ces with high poptions inevitably appeared to be noisy, and all of those chaotic sounds, coupled with the neon advertisements and colorful 3D projections overhead, made it impossible for one to have a moment of peace.

    However, this ce was very peaceful.

    After exiting the railway station, there weren''t many people around.

    There were also very few smart apartmentplexes. Instead, individual houses were very prevalent here, and all of the houses were separated by around a dozen, even dozens of meters. They were like buildings from 100 years ago, where space constraints hadn''t been a concern at all.

    Most importantly, the inescapable bright neon lights and advertisements in other areas werepletely absent here.

    In this area, the sky was clear.

    Adam had visited the homes of many wealthy individuals, such as Deranged Pig, or the high-ranking officials of the Compassion Company, but nothing quitepared to what he was seeing here.

    This ce was more peaceful than almost anywhere else Adam had ever been.

    He made his way along the street, and aside from the asional groups of people out strolling with their children, the only other things that he could see roaming the streets were the patrolling Mechguard units.

    There were very few surveince cameras here, and even the Mechguard units refrained from barging into any of the residential areas. Everything was so peaceful and orderly.

    Intrigued, Adam inspected his surroundings to find that even the cheapest houses here were worth tens of millions, while the mountaintop mansions were worth at least nine-figure sums, making this one of the most expensive areas to live in in the entirety of Sandrise City.

    "Wow, trafficking adapters really is a lucrative job," Adam murmured to himself as he made his way up a hill, heading toward the address enclosed in the message he had received earlier in the morning.

    At the moment, he was in a rather hilly area. The terrain here wasn''t very t, and the higher up the houses were situated, the more expensive they were.

    Adam continued to make his way up the hill while checking the address, and finally, he was greeted by the sight of a mansion on the hill.

    It was a very private and secretive mansion.

    From the outside, it resembled a massive castle, or an ancient European fort.

    It seemed that not only had this house been designed to be lived in, it also served as a fortress.

    The handler could already be considered to be a very high-ranking member in the nk te production ring, so Adam had reason to believe that there were armed forces guarding the mansion.

    Looks like I''ll have to recruit Mechguard''s assistance again.

    This time, Adam followed the correct procedure, making his way onto the street before disying his identification documents to the Mechguard units there. After having his identity verified, he uploaded all of the evidence that he had collected prior to this.

    After that, he received a search warrant from the inte, following which he gathered all of the 32 Mechguard units in the nearby area.

    Among the 32 Mechguard units were 12 flying units and 20 heavily armednd-based units. He was confident that this would be a sufficient force to get the job done.

 Chapter 317: Time (1)

    <h4>Chapter 317: Time (1)</h4>

    Mechguard units were very stiff and inflexible, but they certainly weren''t to be underestimated. In particr, thend-based units were constructed entirely from alloys, and they were extremely formidable in both attack and defense.

    Even if this mansion were a bona fide fortress, 32 Mechguard units would''ve certainly been enough to bring it down.

    Adam led the Mechguard units to the mansion on the hill, and he was following the rules this time, so he naturally couldn''t just instruct the Mechguard units to bombard the ce. Instead, he pressed on the doorbell.

    ording to the regtions, if he rang the doorbell three times with no response, then he could instruct the flying Mechguard units to activate their infrared scanners to check if there were people inside. If there was no one inside, he would be able to apply for a level two search warrant. If there were people inside, but they refused to open the door, then he would be entitled to force his way into the building after three verbal warnings.

    This was something that Adam had only learned in the past couple of days.

    After being warned by the Dataist Union, he didn''t dare to act recklessly anymore.

    Inside the mansion...

    Through the surveince footage, the dozen or so security guards inside had already grasped the situation outside and passed on this information to the "Lamp Keeper".

    "We''ve beenpletely surrounded, Boss. What do we do?"

    The man who was being referred to as "Boss" was the man depicted in the image attached to the message that Adam had received, and his brows were furrowed tightly as he watched the surveince footage as he weighed up his option, which was either to try and escape or face the Mechguard unit''s head-on.

    In the end, he arrived at a decision.

    "Open the door..."

    "But..."

    "If we fight them, even if we win, it''ll be very difficult for us to escape from the other Mechguard units in the area. Hence, it''s better to meet him and see what he wants. I''ve heard of this Adam guy, he was the one who brought down the Compassion Company. I''ve been notified by the higher-ups not to touch him for now because he''s very popr in the news, but seeing as he''se to me, there''s certainly no reason for me to cower and hide."

    "What are you nning to do?"

    "I''m going to kill him."

    "In front of all of those Mechguard units?"

    "The programming of those Mechguard units doesn''t have many configurations rted to the psychic world. As long as we''re notpletely still and idle for a long period of time while under their scrutiny, they won''t be able to determine anything. Even if that Adam dies, it''ll be very difficult for the judge to make a clear ruling. As long as I can take this to court, everything will be fine."

    Every single "Lamp Keeper" was an extremely important figure in the Guild of Immortality, and not only were they all extremely powerful, they also had close and inseverable ties to their higher-ups, so generally speaking, they wouldn''t be abandoned or cut off.

    As long as he could take this case to court, he would be able to slip safely off the hook.

    Thus, the only problem was the situation that he was currently facing.

    "There are safer ways to deal with this situation, Boss." The butler beside him clearly didn''t think that a direct confrontation was the best option here. "We can report this to the higher-ups, and after that, all we have to do is wait. That Adam was able to get away from Hebi no Miko, so he''s definitely not weak. We..."

    "He''s not that strong. I''ve seen footage of his fights, I can take care of him within 10 seconds."

    Right as the Lamp Keeper opened the door of the room, Adam was already delivering verbal warnings.

    "This is your second warning! Come out andply with the authorities. Otherwise, we have the right to break in by force!"

    "This is your third warning..."

    Before Adam had a chance to finish his third warning, the metal gate of the mansion slowly opened, and a stocky middle-aged man emerged from within, apanied by a group of security guards.

    The middle-aged man made his way down the slope from the mansion to the gate, and as he approached Adam, he put on a surprised expression as he said, "My goodness, I didn''t expect to be surrounded by Mechguard units out of the blue like this. May I ask whatw I''ve broken, officer? By the way, you''re Adam, that police officer that''s frequently been on television recently, right? It''s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Herman Glenn."

    Herman extended a hand forward as he spoke, looking as if he were offering Adam a handshake.

    The gesture appeared to be quite a friendly one, but Adam could sense a hint of provocation through his telegnosis.

    "What are you doing?" Adam asked, even though he already knew the answer.

    He was certain that this man was an adapter.

    However, the mansion waspletely surrounded by Mechguard units, and even if Herman were to invade his psychic world, Adam was confident that he would at least be able tost several minutes in a psychic battle.

    After that, the Mechguard would be certain that a psychic invasion had taken ce, and Herman would be shot down on the spot.

    "You must be extremely confident if you think you can take me down within a few minutes!"

    Adam couldn''t help but burst intoughter. At his current level of power, even if he were facing Hebi no Miko, he was confident that he would be able tost the three to five minutes required for the nearby Mechguard units to react to the situation.

    Adam didn''t know how many adapters of Hebi no Miko''s caliber there were in this world, but he was certain that Herman wasn''t one such adapter.

    Adam was just as confident as Herman was, so he willingly epted the handshake being offered to him.

    After that, Adam invaded Herman''s psychic world, and thetter put up no resistance, allowing Adam to do what he wanted.

    Let me see what secrets you''re hiding...

    The correct procedure was to arrest Herman, then escort him to the nearest Mechguard branch for him to be prosecuted in the legal system. However, this process was tooplicated and involved too many people. Herman definitely had extremely powerful backers, so the best choice was to glean Herman''s secrets now before making the arrest.

    Adam was confident in his own abilities, but he wasn''t arrogant. As soon as he entered Herman''s psychic world, he immediately invoked Sludge with the intention of fusing with it.

    However, as soon as this intention rose up in his mind, and a ray of light split off from his body beforending on the ground, the entire surrounding area suddenly became extremely viscous.

    Normally, invoking one of his anomalies was something that he could do in the blink of an eye, but here, everything was moving in slow motion, as if he were wading through treacle.

    He wanted to struggle and resist, but it was as if his entire body had fallen into quicksand, and it was taking several times more effort than what was normally required for him to move.

    He inspected his surroundings with a surprised expression to find that he had appeared in the exact same setting as the one in the real world. At the moment, he was standing on a hill, surrounded by Mechguard units and Herman''s underlings.

    However, these people and machines seemed to have also fallen into the same predicament that he was in, leading to extremely slow movements.

    In this world, it seemed like the only thing that could function at a normal speed were one''s thoughts, which werepletely uninhibited.

    Even though this location was identical to the one in the real world, Herman was nowhere to be seen.

    Adam wanted to search for Herman, but even turning his head had turned into an extremely difficult task. While he was still searching for his opponent, a cold sensation suddenly struck the back of his neck, and a sharp de had already pierced through his skin.

    The transmission of pain wasn''t slowed down in his body, so he was able to immediately feel it. At the same time, he could also feel the de piercing toward his cervical spine at a rate of around one centimeter per second.

    If he didn''t do anything, then he was going to be decapitated in less than 20 seconds.

    In this dire situation, Adam had no choice but to lean forward in an attempt to avoid the de. At the same time, he called out to Distortion, who was constantly lurking in his shadow, asking it for help.

    Several transparent tendrils slowly rose up from Adam''s shadow on the ground beforetching onto the ankles of Adam''s assant.

    However, Distortion''s movements were also being significantly slowed down, and by the time ittched onto the assant''s ankles, the de had already pierced three centimeters into the back of Adam''s neck. He could even hear the sound of his own cervical spine being fractured.

 Chapter 318: Time (2)

    <h4>Chapter 318: Time (2)</h4>

    In this setting, everyone was moving in super slow motion, including Herman himself, even though he was the one responsible for this.

    However, he was slowed down to a far lesser degreepared with everyone else.

    If everyone had been slowed down by 100 times, then he would''ve only been slowed down by 30 times, thereby creating a very clear disparity in speed.

    Adam was no stranger to facing faster opponents than himself.

    An example of this was when he faced Eyeless for the first time. Eyeless''s de was extremely fast, and his attack had reached Adam in the blink of an eye. The same applied to Hebi no Miko, who possessed superhuman speed.

    In this situation, Herman was several times faster than he was. Essentially, he could only move several millimeters per second, while Herman could move an entire centimeter in the same span of time. This feeling was even more frustrating than facing a significantly faster opponent under normal circumstances as here, every single moment was magnified and elongated.

    Adam could feel his assant''s de slowly passing through his cervical spine, and he could also feel it as the tip of the de passed through his cervical spine before slowly puncturing the back of his esophagus.

    This experience of having one''s death stretched out and elongated was an extremely torturous one.

    The tip of the de slowly crept forward before emerging out of the front of Adam''s throat, and what followed was an overwhelming sensation of asphyxiation and feebleness.

    Thankfully, death was also descending upon Adam far slower than it normally would''ve. After piercing through Adam''s throat, the de began to move horizontally to decapitate him, but it was also right at this moment that the de came to an abrupt halt.

    Adam knew that Distortion''s ability had finally taken effect.

    Following its previous evolution, Distortion now possessed a total of four abilities.

    Its innate ability was its transparent body, which made it far stealthier than before, thereby significantly increasing its chances of sessfully carrying out sneak attacks.

    Shadow Strike was an ability that allowed it to directly appear in an opponent''s shadow within a certain range.

    Not much had to be said about Physical Shackles as that was Distortion''s signature ability prior to itstest evolution. This ability allowed it to bind one''s body, as well as twist and bend its target''s joints. If its target possessed insufficient strength or a frail physical constitution, then Distortion would be able to twist them into a pretzel in an instant.

    However, the ability that had saved Adam on this asion was the fourth one, Spiritual Shackles.

    This ability allowed Distortion to directly suppress one''s consciousness. During his spare time in the past few days, Adam had tested out this ability on the psychic mutant trio, and he discovered that after being afflicted by this ability, the target would briefly lose consciousness, as if they had cked out.

    While his assant was rooted to the spot from the effects of the Spiritual Shackles, Adam began to attempt to fuse as one with Sludge.

    At this point, Sludge had already slowly taken shape, and upon sensing Adam''s call, its body began to disintegrate into specks of light that flowed toward Adam.

    In the past, the fusion process had always taken ce in the blink of an eye amid a sh of light, so Adam had never had a chance to see exactly what the process was like.

    However, as time slowed down to a crawl, he was finally able to catch a clear glimpse of the entire process.

    All invoked entities were a part of their invocator''s psychic body to begin with. Adam watched as the specks of slight slowly surged onto his body, and at the same time, Sludge began to disintegrate.

    Meanwhile, his own body began to expand after he absorbed these specks of light. His skin was bing rougher before turning into stone, and his height also slowly grew from around 180 centimeters to two meters, then to three.

    Right as Adam''s body had reached around 350 centimeters in height, Herman finally snapped out of Distortion''s Spiritual Shackles, and he pulled out the de that he had plunged into Adam''s body before jumping up to attack him again.

    However, Adam was no longer vulnerable to such attacks, and the metal de was unable to do anything aside from raise trails of sparks as they sliced over his body.

    Thus, Adam was able toplete his fusion with Sludge before slowly turning around to face his assant.

    In the psychic world, Herman was presented in the form of a strange assassin holding a peculiar dagger in his left hand and an hourss in his right.

    Herman''s psychic body presented quite the contrast with his form in the real world. In the real world, he appeared to be quite an arrogant and conceited person, yet here in the psychic world, he was a hooded assassin who appeared to be extremely careful and cautious.

    By the time Adam turned around, Herman had already sprung back in retreat, and it was clear that direct battle wasn''t his forte.

    "Don''t... run..."

    Adam immediately set off in pursuit, reflexively attempting to yell the words "don''t run" as a form of provocation, but as soon as he tried to speak, he realized that he was unable to utter any coherent phrases with time slowed down to a crawl in this world.

    However, that didn''t stop him from chasing the assassin.

    Even though he was moving very slowly, his opponent was still being restricted by Distortion, so he wasn''t much faster.

    After jumping back in retreat, Herman plunged his dagger into the ground in an attempt to free himself from Distortion''s bindings.

    However, Distortion was not going to be so easily disposed of. Following itstest evolution, it was even able to keep up with a level anomaly like Sludge in battle, so it was certainly no slouch.

    While Herman was trying to think of a way to free himself from Distortion, Adam was drawing closer and closer.

    At this point, Adam had alreadypleted his fusion with sludge, and he reached an enormous hand toward Herman. Given Sludge''s enormous strength, if Adam could close his hand around the assassin, then he was confident that he would be able to crush the assassin into mincemeat.

    However, right as Adam''s fingers began to close around Herman, thetter abruptly vanished.

    Was that a teleportation ability? No, it''s something else!

    Upon Herma''s re-emergence, Adam noticed that some of the sand in his hourss was missing.

    His opponent was an assassin whose forteid in controlling time, so it was much more usible that he had stopped time for an instant just now, rather than specte that he also possessed some type of teleportation ability.

    Upon freeing himself from Distortion, Herman immediately hurled his dagger at Adam.

    Adam''s enormous body, coupled with the slowing of time in this world, meant that he waspletely unable to dodge the oing projectile. Fortunately for him, given his immense physical resistance, he had no intention of taking evasive measures anyway.

    The peculiar dagger slowly approached Adam''s chest, raising a flurry of sparks as it made contact with Adam''s body. It seemed very strange that it was able to raise sparks against Adam''s body even though it was traveling so slowly, but in reality, what was slowed down in this world was time itself, not the speed at which the dagger had been thrown.

    However, the dagger was still unable to pierce through Adam''s defenses, and even if it had managed to pierce into his body, it wouldn''t have been an issue anyway.

    A 3.5-meter-tall stone giant with a small dagger plunged into its chest would''ve been no different from the average person receiving a mosquito bite.

    .

    However, in the next instant, the jewel embedded into the dagger suddenly began to glow, and the radiance that it was giving off was connecting to the hourss in Herman''s hand.

    Immediately thereafter, the dagger pierced through Adam''s defenses and plunged itself into his chest.

    Adam didn''t feel much pain from the wound, and he was just about to continue advancing when Herman suddenly flipped his hourss upside down. As the grains of sand began to trickle through the flipped hourss, Adam suddenly found himself slowly retreating, going back in the exact same way as he had rushed forward.

    In addition to that, specks of light were seeping out of his body, which was slowly shrinking.

 Chapter 319: Time Reversal

    <h4>Chapter 319: Time Reversal</h4>

    What the hell''s happening?

    Adam was greatly rmed to see this. It was clear that he wasn''t being forced back by the dagger. Instead, time was going back in reverse for his body.

    It wasn''t much of a problem for him to be forced back, but if time were to continue to go back in reverse, then he would eventually be split apart from Sludge, and that lethal wound to the neck would also return.

    What an annoying opponent!

    Adam had encountered more than his fair share of powerful adversaries in the past, but none of them had been quite so annoying to deal with.

    He definitely couldn''t allow himself to be split apart from Sludge.

    .

    Thankfully, even as his body was being afflicted by the effects of Herman''s time reversal ability, his thoughts were still functioning as normal.

    As he continued to shrink, Sludge was slowly taking shape beside him once again. Right at this moment, Adam instructed Distortion to attack the enemy.

    Given the disparity in speed, Distortion was naturally unable to physically catch up to Herman, but its Shadow Strike ability allowed it to disregard space and appear directly behind him.

    Thus, a transparent shadow suddenly appeared behind Herman before attempting to control him.

    Distortion was unable to use its Spiritual Shackles ability consecutively in a short time, but it was able to use its Physical Shackles ability without any restrictions.

    While Herman was manipting the flow of time, the transparent shadow had already crept onto his ankles, and it was constantly climbing upward. Distortion possessed tremendous power, and as it continued to creep upward, Herman''s body was being subjected to tremendous strain, making him feel as if he had been thrown into a mincer.

    First, the bones in his foot were broken, following which his ankles were twisted like a pair of towels to inflictminuted fractures. After that came his tibias, followed by his kneecaps.

    As an assassin who specialized in time maniption, Herman''s physical defenses were quiteckluster, and it waspletely powerless to resist Distortion''s Physical Shackles.

    However, he didn''t care. He was only going to lose his legs, but Adam was in a far worse situation than he was.

    At this point, Adam had shrunk back down to less than three meters in height, and his stone skin was also slowly fading away. It wouldn''t be long before he waspletely separated from Sludge, thereby exposing him to that grievous injury again.

    As someone who excelled in time-based calctions, he knew that time was on his side here.

    ording to his calctions, Distortion would only be able to destroy his legs before Adam fell to his demise.

    Adam had clearly also arrived at the same realization, and he had begun invoking his other anomalies while he was reverting back to his original form.

    Four streaks of light flew out of his body at once, forming the outlines of a three-headed dog, a clown, a praying-mantis-like creature with a camera for a head, and a nun.

    Adam had invoked virtually all of his anomalies that were still fit for battle.

    Due to the differences in the characteristics of his anomalies, there was a disparity in the amount of time it took to invoke them, and this was something that Adam was only just discovering now.

    In the past, he had felt like all of his anomaly invocations had taken ce instantly, with each anomaly taking shape amid a sh of light.

    However, with time slowed down so significantly here, he was able to see that the smaller the anomaly was, the quicker it was to take shape.

    Out of the four anomalies that he had just invoked, Camera was the most diminutive in stature, and it was clearly the first one to have taken shape, emerging in the psychic world right as Adampletely split up from Sludge and blood began to pour out of the wound on his neck.

    Adam immediately instructed Camera to give Herman a taste of his own medicine by using its Time Stop ability on him.

    It was downright absurd to think that a time-based ability would work on a master of time maniption, but as the saying went, the ones who drowned were always the strong swimmers. Never had Herman even considered that he would fall prey to a time-based ability someday.

    Due to the reappearance of the wound on his neck, Adam was beginning to experience an intensifying sense of asphyxiation, and his consciousness was fading at an rming rate. Thankfully, he remained conscious long enough to issue an instruction to Camera, and the anomaly quickly pressed down the shutter on its head.

    As a result, the time around Herman drew to a standstill. Even though it was only for an instant, the connection between the hourss and the dagger was severed during that instant of time, and the specks of light that had seeped out of Adam''s body returned to him, healing the wound on his neck and allowing him to grow a thinyer of stone skin.

    By the time Herman returned to his senses, it was already toote.

    This brief moment of respite allowed Adam to gain the upper hand, and ording to Herman''s calctions, the tables had been turned. At this rate, Distortion was going to be able to destroy his heart and abdominal cavity before Adam met his demise.

    Thus, Herman had no choice but to use his time stop ability once again. As a result, the amount of sand in the hourss was whittled down even further. As time stood still, the connection between the hourss and the dagger was also severed, but at the same time, he was able to extricate himself from Distortion''s control.

    At this point, Herman was already beginning to regret his decision.

    ording to the information that he had received, Adam wasn''t supposed to be anywhere near as powerful as he was at the moment.

    In particr, that annoying anomaly behind him wasn''t supposed to have this many abilities, nor was it supposed to be this powerful. In the face of the anomaly''s immense distortive powers, he felt as if his own body were like a fragile piece of chinaware that could be shattered at any moment, and his n had been thrown intoplete disarray.

    As a result, he was stuck between a rock and a hard ce.

    The amount of sand in his hourss was continuing to decrease, and Herman only dared to open up a small distance between himself and Distortion before allowing time to flow once again.

    Of course, time was still crawling along at a snail''s pace in this world, and due to the fact that he was forced to abandon his time reversal ability, the connection between his dagger and his hourss had beenpletely severed, and Adam''s body began to slowly regenerate.

    In the face of the moving fortress that was Sludge, Herman was struck by a sense of despair.

    If the battle were to continue, he didn''t know what the final oue was going to be, but he hadpletely lost all confidence in his ability to end the battle within three minutes, even if time were flowing at a far slower rate than it was in the outside world.

    Hence, his top priority now was to leave the psychic world as quickly as possible. Otherwise, once three minutes passed, the nearby Mechguard units were going to strike him down.

    With that in mind, Herman immediately sprang into action without any hesitation.

    What he was going to do next was going to incur a massive cost for him, but it had to be done.

    All of a sudden, a sh of light erupted from Adam''s body, and he found himself already fused as one with Sludge. He raised his arm in surprise to find that the flow to time had returned to its normal speed.

    "What''s going on? Have you given up?" Adam asked.

    This was a very formidable opponent, so he didn''t dare to getcent.

    Right as he was hesitating about how to proceed, Herman began to move.

    He pulled out a strange, green seed-like object out of a pocket, then pressed it forcefully against his own forehead.

    Adam was struck by a sense of familiarity at the sight of the seed, as if he had seen it somewhere before, and in the next instant, he realized what it was.

    "That''s a seed from Madam Tree!"

 Chapter 320: Airport

    <h4>Chapter 320: Airport</h4>

    Madam Tree was someone that Adam had seen in Liu Shouyi''s memories back in Shadow City.

    She was a high-ranking figure in the Gaia Corporation, which was the founder of the Metaverse.

    All of the Gaia Corporation''s subsidiarypanies worked on different parts of the Metaverse, such as constructing the basic framework of the Metaverse, or exploring ways to better preserve the data of the psychic bodies of the deceased.

    At the moment, the Gaia Organization was the organization with the highest market value in the entire world. Virtually all of the people in the vast majority of the world used the Metaverse as a form of entertainment during their living days, and as a way to extend their lives after death.

    In particr, the service offered by the Metaverse to grant one immortality in cyberspace was one that was endlessly lucrative. Every single living person was saving up money for a chance at immortality, and after they died, their life savings would fall into the hands of the Gaia Organization.

    In a sense, the Gaia Organization owned the exclusive rights to immortality, and as a result, it controlled the fate of the entire human race. Everyone was essentially working for the Gaia Organization, offering up their life savings to them upon death.

    Liu Shouyi was once an employee at the Gaia Organization, and he had been working in their "immortality" department.

    However, his work was far from morous. He had been responsible for datapression, a job that was essentially no different from murder in his eyes.

    With each datapression that was performed, thousands of people were "killed".

    Essentially, the concept of psychic immortality was nothing more than a scam proposed by the Metaverse. What the Gaia Organization promoted was that everyone could upload their memories and personalities onto the Metaverse following the demise of their physical bodies. After that, they would be able to begin a new life in cyberspace.

    The Metaverse''s slogan had always been: "Death Equals Rebirth."

    However, due to the internal storage crisis, this so-called "rebirth" was nothing more than a sham.

    ording to Liu Shouyi''s memories, a person''s full personality and memories would generate an enormous amount of data, thereby taking up a huge amount of internal storage.

    Every single person had countless memories, and those memories weren''t always in the foreground, but they still existed and could be brought to the fore by certain trigger conditions. For example, visiting a certain ce could evoke memories from previous instances where that person had visited the same ce.

    All of these memories took up far too much internal storage for it to be feasible for the Metaverse to record everyone''splete personas.

    Hence,pression was required.

    The clearest parts of one''s memory data were extracted, while all of the other parts werepressed. In fact, sometimes, even the clearest parts werepressed, and they were only extracted again when required. This type of "optimization" strategy allowed the Gaia Corporation to save an astronomical amount of storage space.

    However, was apressed person still a person? Definitely not.

    Regardless of whether one looked at this from a scientific perspective or a moral standpoint, they were no longer people.

    However, thepressed individuals themselves had no idea this was happening. After all, they were just strings of data. Their family and friends were also unable to detect anything amiss as all of the most important memories of those individuals still existed.

    This was how the Gaia Organization had managed to fool the entire human race.

    Furthermore, no one was allowed to touch the organization''s internal database. Even their internal employees had had their memories altered, and the one carrying out these memory alterations was none other than Madam Tree.

    Adam had only seen Madam Tree in Liu Shouyi''s memories, but he had already ced her on the same tier as the director due to the incredible abilities that she had disyed.

    Not only was she able to alter memories, she was also capable of nting parasites on one''s psychic body.

    As soon as Herman pulled out the seed and pressed it against his own forehead, his entire psychic body began to undergo a drastic change. Vines began to sprout out of his destroyed legs, and his body also swelled in size, bing stronger and more physically imposing.

    It was clear that this seed was capable of enhancing the psychic body of the host that it attached itself to.

    As for how much the host''s psychic body would be enhanced, Adam had no interest in finding out.

    Herman had already been a force to be reckoned with prior to this, and now that he had received an enhancement, Adam was clearly not going to have a good time.

    However, that didn''t matter to him. His primary objective foring here was to gather information.

    I''m not just going to stand around and wait for you toplete your transformation!

    Adam instructed his anomalies to attack Herman, who was in the midst of his transformation, and at the same time, he split up from Sludge before fusing with Hellhound, then rushed out of this area.

    After fusing with Hellhound, Adam transformed into a three-headed werewolf, and he was able to disy incredible speed thanks to Hellhound''s Hyperspeed ability.

    Adam had chosen to fuse with Hellhound as it was the fastest of all of his anomalies, and also because Sludge was too enormous and cumbersome, making it very difficult for him to gather information while fused with it.

    After rushing out of this psychic module, Adam quickly sped toward the other psychic modules. Having engaged in so much illegal activity, even if Herman had no conscience whatsoever, he would still be sure to remember the majority of the details of his crimes in order to avoid legal prosecution.

    Sure enough, Adam had only passed through two psychic modules before he arrived in an important area.

    This was an old-school airport, and even though most of the nes there were for public use, there were also some privately owned nes interspersed among them. The privately owned nes didn''t have any logos on them, and in order to board a ne here, all one had to do was disy their identification document. Aside from that, there were no other security checks in ce.

    In this memory of Herman''s, a group of people in ck clothing were loading a series of huge suitcases onto a ne.

    Adam swatted the security guards aside before opening the suitcases, and sure enough, they were filled with unconscious children. After verifying this information, Adam quicklymitted theyout of the airport to memory, as well as memorizing the faces of the child traffickers.

    After that, he crashed through the wall and forced his way into the airport in order to gather more information.

    However, right at this moment, the ground split open, and a seed rapidly grew into a wall of vines that stood in his way. Simultaneously, the flow of time began to slow, and Herman appeared behind Adam.

 Chapter 321: Tree Man Herman

    <h4>Chapter 321: Tree Man Herman</h4>

    "Crap!"

    Adam sighed as he slowly turned around.

    Up to this point, Herman was the biggest gold mine of information on the adapter child trafficking case that Adam had encountered. Just this airport alone contained extremely important leads, and Adam was certain that there were countless more useful leads to be discovered in Herman''s memories.

    However, his investigation was being obstructed due to how powerful Herman was, and that was naturally very frustrating to him.

    Upon turning around, Adam discovered that Herman had already transformed into a half-human, half-tree hybrid creature.

    His skin resembled the bark of an old tree, and countless vines were growing all over his body. His face had been rtively handsome prior to this, but it had been warped to resemble the face of a psychic mutant.

    However, it was clear that he had also be significantly more powerful in this form.

    Right as Herman arrived, Distortion also appeared on the scene, using its Shadow Strike ability to appear directly behind Herman before attempting to ensnare his body once again.

    Even though Herman''s time-based abilities were extremely formidable, his psychic body was so fragile that it may as well have been constructed from cardboard.

    However, things were different now. After absorbing the seed, Herman''s physical defenses had been significantly enhanced, to the point that even in the face of Distortion''s Physical Shackles ability, his body was able to maintain its structural integrity and remainrgely unaffected.

    Thus, in addition to his formidable time-based abilities, he had also attained a tank-like body, and Adam immediately arrived at a realization.

    There''s no way I can win this battle anymore.

    Prior to this, there was a chance for Adam to catch Herman off guard and kill him with a single strike, but now...

    Even if I can''t win, I should be able to stall until time''s up.

    All Mechguard units had a three-minute-verdict system in their programming.

    Even though time had been slowed down by 100 times earlier, the battle that had just taken ce had to have wasted some time. Most importantly, it had to have taken Herman at least two minutes to shake off Adam''s anomalies and arrive at the airport.

    <i>That should mean that there''s very little time remaining, </i>Adam thought to himself. <i>If there are still 30 seconds left, then that equates to 3,000 seconds if time is slowed down by a hundredfold, so that would be 50 minutes.</i>

    This was a very long time, but if there were only 10 seconds left, then that would equate to less than 20 minutes, and he was confident that he would be able tost that duration of time.

    With that in mind, Adam turned to face Herman, who was already charging directly at him.

    Herman raised his dagger, slowly advancing while plunging his dagger directly toward Adam''s heart.

    Adam wanted to dodge, but he was far slower than Herman in this, so he was only able to avoid having the dagger pierce through his heart, but it was still able to plunge into his chest.

    As a result of how slowly time was flowing, the sensation of pain was also elongated, but Adam paid no heed to this as he immediately began to retaliate, chomping down at Herman''s head with the head that possessed the greatest bite force of his three heads.

    However, such a slow attack naturally posed no threat to Herman. In Herman''s domain, the slowing of time affected Adam three times as much as it did Herman, so not only was Herman able to dodge Adam''s attack, he even had the time to sh his dagger through the air in a second attack, slicing straight through Adam''s abdomen.

    Having absorbed the power of the seed, Herman''s strength had been enhanced just as much as his physical defenses.

    However, Adam wasn''tpletely unable to retaliate. While Herman was in his follow-through motion after shing his dagger across Adam''s abdomen, Distortion reared its ugly head once again.

    While in his follow-through motion, Herman was in a rather vulnerable and awkward position. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Adam retaliated with perfect timing, instructing Distortion to make its move.

    At this point, Distortion had already climbed its way onto Herman''s body, and even though it was unable to fold Herman like a pretzel as it had been able to prior to this, it was still able to restrict Herman''s mobility with its tremendous strength, temporarily slowing Herman down so that his speed was only roughly on par with Adam''s.

    Thus, Adam was able to sink his fangs into Herman''s throat.

    Thergest of Adam''s canine heads possessed the strongest bite force of the three, capable of biting through iron and steel.

    However, in the face of Herman''s neck, which was currently riddled with vines, Adam''s fangs weren''t able to sink in very deep at all.

    Fresh tree sap mixed with green blood began to flow down his jaws through the gaps between his fangs, and he was vigorously shaking his head from side to side, trying to tear off the chunk of flesh that was caught between his fangs.

    However, everything suddenly took an abrupt turn.

    The golden hourss was shaken once again, and time was stopped for an instant, while a reduction in the amount of sand in the hourss was observed.

    By the time Adam returned to his senses, one of his heads had already been decapitated, and Herman was in the process of shing his dagger at another one of his two remaining heads.

    He used that time stop ability again!

    Adam was feeling very frustrated as he took evasive measures, following which he noticed a row of bullets flying through the air from afar at a speedparable to a school of swimming tadpoles.

    In the real world, the speed at which a tadpole was capable of swimming was naturally not very impressive, but in this time domain, it was extremely fast.

    While Adam was dodging Herman''s attack, the row of "tadpoles" struck Herman in quick session, knocking him slightly off bnce so that he was unable to string together a sequence of attacks.

    Finally, Adam''s reinforcements had arrived.

    The first one to arrive was Clown, followed closely by Sludge.

    Both of them were high-level anomalies, and they weren''t as fast as Herman, but the speed disparity between them certainly wasn''t that significant, either.

    Following Clown''s arrival, it immediately began firing all types of weapons at Herman.

    Trailing along behind the row of bullets was a cluster of rockets that were "motoring" along at a turtle''s pace.

    Meanwhile, Sludge was rushing directly at Adam at his behest to serve as his meat shield.

    As long as Adam could hold out until Sludge arrived, the battle would be as good as over.

    Once Sludge enveloped Adam''s body with its own, Adam would be virtually unkible.

    WIth Sludge acting as a suit of armor for him, he would be able to survive even a string of attacks from Hebi no Miko, let alone Herman.

    Adam was aware of this, as was Herman. He had already witnessed Sludge''s immense defensive capabilities, so he naturally wasn''t going to allow Adam to do as he pleased.

    Before Sludge managed to arrive on the scene, Herman unleashed his time stop ability once again. This time, he used up all of the sand in the hourss at once to stop time for as long a duration as possible.

    During the span of time in which the time stop ability was in effect, Herman chopped off all of Adam''s heads, then plunged his dagger into Adam''s heart to seal the deal. Right as he was about to continue hacking at Adam''s body to chop him up into pieces, the final grain of sand vanished from within his hourss.

    The flow of time resumed, and Adam was on the brink of death.

    Sludge finally arrived on the scene, but it seemed like it was already toote.

    In order to prevent Adam from fusing with Sludge, Herman intercepted Sludge after the flow of time was resumed, and at the same time, he was scrutinizing Adam intently.

    Is he dead?

 Chapter 322: Rider of Decay

    <h4>Chapter 322: Rider of Decay</h4>

    Ultimately, the fundamental reason why Adam was struggling immensely against Herman was because he was too weak.

    However, on the other side, things were progressing far more smoothly.

    Raven had secured two leads from Chen Yiran, one of which he had given to Adam, while he had set off to investigate the other one himself.

    Of course, as safety precautions, he had brought along Chen Yiran to be his guide, as well as Hebi no Miko, his most powerful ally.

    Due to the fact that all three of them were wanted fugitives at the moment, they had all adopted disguises.

    Each of them was wearing a colorful exoskeleton, giving them the appearance of a trio of hippies.

    Of course, these strange disguises had been provided by none other than Big Genius.

    At this moment, the three of them had arrived at the residence of another Lamp Keeper, a man by the name of Phil. In contrast with Herman, this Lamp Keeper was following the mantra of hiding in in sight, living in a rather chaotic civilian area.

    Of course, that didn''t mean that he was going to growcent or let down his guard.

    As a top-tier adapter, he was constantly alert to everything around him, so he immediately felt a sense of peril as soon as the trio began to approach him.

    However, he was only able to sense half of the peril that wasing toward him.

    Who''s there?

    A disheveled-looking middle-aged man turned around on the street to discover Raven''s trio, and a panicked look appeared on his face.

    The reason for his panic was that even though he was an adapter with extremely sharp telegnosis, he was only able to sense one and a half people, even though he was being approached by three.

    He was able to detect Chen Yiran as normal, but as for the other two people, he could only sense a hint of the man''s aura, while the woman waspletely undetectable to him, and that led him to focus all of his attention on the woman.

    The woman had colorful paint all over her face, and her body had also undergone some very strange retrofitting procedures, so the Lamp Keeper was unable to identify her.

    However, he didn''t manage to identify Chen Yiran.

    The two of them had met on several past asions, so he recalled Chen Yiran''s appearance very clearly.

    "What are you doing here? Are you not afraid of being caught by the special psychic police?" Phil asked as he feigned aposed expression.

    He could already tell that the trio hade to him with less-than-friendly intentions, but he was pretending to be oblivious.

    If he were to expose them and force their hand, then a direct confrontation would ensue right away, and that was an oue that he had to avoid as he required some time.

    While Phil was speaking to Chen Yiran, he pressed a button that was concealed within his clothes. It was a supersonic device that could send out a signal on a sound frequency that was inaudible to human ears.

    "Don''t bother. We''ve already taken care of your subordinates prior toing here," Raven said as he strode forward and extended his right hand in a friendly manner. "I can tell you now that from this distance, you''re not going to be able to get away. Rather than fight in futility, why don''t you join us?"

    "Who are you?"

    "Who are we?" This was a simple question, but Raven was at a slight loss for how to answer it. "Good question. Who exactly are we? Trouble-makers?"

    Phil was subtly looking around as Raven was speaking, and all of a sudden, he activated the jetpack on his back in an attempt to get away, but sure enough, his efforts did indeed prove to be futile.

    Just as Raven had said, from this distance, no one could get away from an adapter of his caliber.

    In the instant that Phil began to activate his jetpack, Raven immediately invaded Phil''s psychic world using his mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmitter.

    Upon entering the psychic world, Raven adopted his faceless humanoid form with some difficulty, then looked around to find that he had appeared on a massive plot of farnd. All around him was a type of strange nt that he had never seen before.

    Judging from the primitive appearance of this plot of farnd, it didn''t appear to be situated anywhere on the North American continent.

    While Raven was inspecting those strange nts, the sky suddenly turned dark, and a Rider of Decay with apletely rotten body descended alongside the darkness.

    The rider was straddled atop a tall horse, which also had a decaying body, and as it descended from the heavens, all of the surrounding nts began to rot away and sprout maggots.

    The Rider of Decay was wielding a derelict sword, and as it swooped down from above, it shed its sword toward Raven''s head, in response to which Raven raised an arm and manifested a shield to defend himself.

    The sword struck the shield, but there was no metallic ng as one would expect. Instead, the sh produced a dull and muffled thump, much like the sound of a piece of rotten wood striking a pile of cotton.

    Immediately thereafter, the shield that was manifested by Raven began to decay and fall away, much like a piece of wood that was being gnawed at by a colony of termites.

    "Very impressive!" Raven praised, following which a pair of massive raven wings appeared on his back, using which he swatted the rider away. "I hear that you refer to yourselves as Lamp Keepers. What does that mean? Is it your purpose to shine light on the path ahead? Also, is your Guild of Immortality a reiteration of the Illuminati of the past? How many people are there in your organization? I have so many questions for you..."

    After the wings appeared on Raven''s back, countless tentacles also sprang out of his body, attempting totch onto the Rider of Decay. However, not only was the rider''s sword imbued with the power of decay, the same applied to his entire body as well.

    Thus, those tentacles had only just made contact with him before falling away as piles of rotten flesh.

    "I thought you were going to a formidable adversary, but you''re really nothing special!" Phil scoffed as he shed his sword through the air once again, cleaving Raven''s body into two.

    ck mist rose up from the two halves of Raven''s body before rising up into the sky to reveal his true form, which was a massive Raven that stood at dozens of meters in stature.

    "You''re a psychic mutant?"

    The Rider of Decay tugged on his reins as he looked up at the sky, then mped his legs forcefully on either side of his steed, instructing it to gallop up into the air as he pointed his sword directly at Raven.

    As he did so, a domain of decay gradually spread through the air, and everything within the domain quickly began to rot away.

    The earth, the soil, and even the air was filled with the odor of rot and decay.

    Under the enhancement of this domain of decay, the sword that the rider was wielding was able to umte an enormous amount of power of decay, and even with Raven''s enormous body, being struck by the sword in its current form would''ve resulted in a grievous injury.

    However, as a psychic mutant who had absorbed countless anomalic personas, Raven was certainly no slouch.

    A loud cry escaped from Raven''s beak, and an enormous hexagram emerged within the domain of decay. Countless chains then extended out of the hexagram to ensnare the Rider of Decay in mid-air.

    The rider''s power of decay was able to quickly degrade the chains, but at the same time, those chains were also constantly being mended thanks to the energy provided by the hexagram.

    The Rider of Decay severed the chains with his sword, but more chains rose up to take their ce.

    While the battle was taking ce, a female voice rang out from down below.

    "I can''t believe you still haven''t managed to take care of him after all this time. You''re weaker than I imagined, Raven."

    "Direct battle had never been my forte."

    Raven descended from the sky as he spoke, and at the same time, the Rider of Decay was able to sever all of the chains around him with an almighty sweep of his sword.

    Looking down from above, he was able to see the other two people who had invaded his psychic world.

    One of them was an elderly technomancer, which was Chen Yiran''s psychic body.

    The technomancer clearly wasn''t very powerful, standing outside the boundaries of his domain of decay, not daring to set foot in it.

    However, the other person had appeared directly within the domain, yet not only was shepletely unscathed, she was looking so rxed that she was practically bored.

    As soon as Phil caught sight of the woman''s psychic body, a sense of shock and horror instantly welled up in his heart.

    Hebi no Miko? Why is she here?!

 Chapter 323: A Screw Loose

    <h4>Chapter 323: A Screw Loose</h4>

    In the instant that he caught sight of Hebi no Miko, Phil finally realized that things had alreadypletely spiraled out of his control.

    ording to the information that the Guild of Immortality had on Hebi no Miko, she was an extremely dangerous individual.

    However, she did have one weakness, which was that it was extremely difficult for her to form a coborative rtionship with anyone else. Even her twin sister was unable to tolerate her personality, resulting in the two of them ultimately going their separate ways.

    How could someone like her be working with someone else?

    "Hebi no Miko, aren''t you going after that special psychic police officer, Adam? Why are you here?"

    "I go wherever I want."

    "If you leave now, I can pretend as if none of this ever happened," Phil said.

    "Like I said, I go wherever I want."

    Phil could see that negotiation wasn''t going to work, so he decided to begin issuing threats instead.

    "I know you''re extremely powerful, but if you make an enemy out of the Guild of Immortality, your ultimate fate is going to be no different from everyone else who has ever opposed the Guild of Immortality. If you''re a smart woman, you''ll know that I''m telling the truth."

    The Guild of Immortality was extremely powerful, and indeed, it was true that even Hebi no Miko couldn''t oppose such an almighty powerhouse.

    If this same threat had been directed at an adapter with a normal functioning brain, such as May or Sadou, it would''ve been very effective.

    They would''ve undoubtedly backed down, aware that they were pursuing a futile endeavor that would only lead to an early demise for them.

    However, Hebi no Miko waspletely deranged, and deep down, Raven was the same.

    Hence, both of them immediately burst intoughter, chuckling directly in the face of the threat.

    "Go and gather information, Raven. Leave everything here to me."

    "That''s exactly what I wanted to hear."

    With that, Raven spread his wings and flew away. Phil wanted to stop him, but a blur suddenly shed past his eyes, and before he even had a chance to react, a fist had already smashed into his head with unmatched destructive power.

    A resounding boom rang out as the Rider of Decay plummeted out of the sky, and by the time he rose to his feet, his entire face had already been caved in.

    "You''re just as powerful as the rumors proim," the Rider of Decay mused as he adjusted the position of his own lopsided head.

    If Adam were present, he would''ve definitely been smirking in schadenfreude.

    The first time he had taken a punch directly from Hebi no Miko, he had almost been killed on the spot. Her speed, explosiveness, and destructive power presented such a ridiculous package that even a level four anomaly wouldn''t have been able to survive a single punch from her.

    The Rider of Decay was clearly more powerful than a level four anomaly, perhaps even more powerful than a level five anomaly, but that wasn''t enough, and just a single punch alone was still enough to almost smash his head into pieces.

    Phil was already aware that he was no match for Hebi no Miko, but there was no way that he would simply admit defeat. The Guild of Immortality''s forces were spread throughout the entirety of the government''s top brass, and they also had people nted in the Dataist Union.

    It would only take one of them to notice that something wasn''t quite right here, and reinforcements would quickly be sent his way. Thus, all he had to do was hold out and weather the storm.

    However, that was going to be far easier said than done.

    While Phil was still catching his breath, a fierce gust of wind swept through the sky, and Hebi no Miko swooped down from above to continue her assault.

    Phil raised his sword to act as a shield, and this time, he was smashed straight into the ground along with the steed beneath him.

    A massive crater with a diameter in excess of 10 meters had been smashed into the ground, and Rider of Decay wasying at the very center of the crater with his entire body riddled with wounds.

    However, Hebi no Miko wasn''t about to let him off the hook there. She sprang up into the air once again, and her arms rapidly transformed into a pair of giant serpents that were each over 100 meters in length. Right as she was about to send those arms crashing down upon Phil like a pair of oversized, serpentine battering rams, she was stopped by Chen Yiran.

    "With all due respect, Hebi no Miko. Raven is still gathering information. If you kill him now, his psychic world will copse, and Raven won''t be able to gather much information at all."

    Having lived for over 100 years, Chen Yiran was well aware of the importance of knowing his ce.

    Even though Hebi no Miko was over 70 years his junior, he was more than willing to concede inferiority to her and treat her with the utmost respect.

    "I almost forgot about that."

    Hebi no Miko''s arms reverted back to their normal state as she stood still in mid-air, waiting for Raven''s return.

    While she was waiting, the Rider of Decay crushed something within his own body in secret.

    Immediately thereafter, vines began to emerge from his rotten body, and all of his injuries began to slowly heal, while his steed was also able to mber up from the ground to stand again.

    It didn''t take long before the Rider of Decay was standing once again, this time with vines all over his body.

    Meanwhile, Hebi no Miko simply watched in silence, disying no reaction whatsoever. She was so powerful that this transformation that the Rider of Decay was undergoing waspletely inconsequential in her eyes.

    The Rider of Decay was quite a formidable adapter, but overall, his powers were only roughly on par with those of the likes of Herman and Adam.

    After activating the seed in his body, his aura had be significantly more powerful, but it was still far from being able topare with Hebi no Miko. In fact, in Hebi no Miko''s eyes, even in this new form, Phil was still inferior to May and Wax Figure.

    "Is that your trump card?"

    Hebi no Miko waited until the Rider of Decay hadpleted his transformation, then plummeted out of the sky, aiming a punch at his face.

    After being struck by the punch, the Rider of Decay was sliding along the ground, creating a deep trench that was dozens of meters in length.

    However, his face hadn''t sustained much damage at all, and what little damage had been inflicted was quickly being repaired by the mass of writhing vines.

    "Oh?"

    Hebi no Miko was rather surprised to see this, and she closed in once again to continue her assault, unleashing a barrage of multiple consecutive blows on this asion. Due to the vast disparity in speed between the twobatants, the Rider of Decay waspletely powerless to resist and could only serve as a human punching bag.

    In a very brief span of time, he was struck by over 100 punches, but as soon as Hebi no Miko ceased her assault, all of the injuries that she had inflicted instantly began to rapidly heal.

    "Your newfound regenerative powers remind me of someone really annoying."

    Hebi no Miko was referring to Adam here.

    The mere thought of Adam evoked a sense of fury in Hebi no Miko''s heart, and she didn''t hold back any longer. She extended an arm, which transformed into a giant serpent once again, and the serpent swooped at the Rider of Decay before swallowing him up in its cavernous mouth. Immediately thereafter, mes began to surge throughout the serpent''s oral cavity, plunging the Rider of Decay into a scorching furnace.

    Trapped within the scorching mes,rge sections of the Rider of Decay''s body began to cken and char.

    Curiously enough, fire should''ve been the natural bane of the vines that had sprouted out of his body, but Madam Tree''s seed was somehow able to somewhat ward off the effects of the mes.

    The main enhancement provided by these seeds was in the area of defensive prowess.

    After being enhanced by the seed, even someone with a psychic body as frail as Herman''s was able to withstand Distortion''s power. In contrast, the Rider of the Decay had been withstand an attack from Hebi no Miko even in his base form, so it naturally stood to reason that he was even more defensively adept given the enhancements provided by the seed.

    Unfortunately for him, his opponent was simply far too powerful.

    After a while, the vines all over his body began to be withered and fragile from the scorching mes, and after he was spat out by the serpent, Hebi no Miko transformed her other arm into a giant serpent as well, with this one releasing a cial breath out of its mouth.

    The drastic change in temperature from extreme heat to extreme cold caused the Rider of Decay''s skin to split apart, and even the vines were unable to withstand such a dramatic temperature change, bing even more brittle and fragile as a result.

    It''s about time. Raven should''ve gathered all of the information that we need.

    With that in mind, Hebi no Miko invoked a lightning storm, preparing to put an end to Phil''s life with a lightning strike, but right at this moment, Raven returned.

 Chapter 324: Vendetta Clause

    <h4>Chapter 324: Vendetta use</h4>

    "Don''t kill him!" Raven yelled from afar, and Hebi no Miko immediately stopped what she was doing.

    She then turned to the rapidly approaching Raven as she asked, "Why?"

    At this point, letting Phil go wasn''t going to do them any good.

    Not only would killing Phil prevent him from exacting vengeance against them in the future, it would also hide what they had done here. A dead man couldn''t talk, so no one would be able to find out who had killed him.

    "I''ll tell you the reasonter. We''ve already stayed here for too long, and his reinforcements are about to arrive."

    "Alright, I''ll trust you on this one."

    There was no bad blood between Phil and Hebi no Miko, so it didn''t matter to her whether he was killed or not. Thus, the trio promptly departed from Phil''s psychic world.

    Upon returning to the real world, the three of them immediately mingled themselves into the crowd.

    Due to the excessive psychic damage that he had sustained, Phil almost fell unconscious as soon as he returned to the real world. Hence, he waspletely powerless to stop the trio from getting away. All he could do was wait until he recovered somewhat, then report what had happened to him to his higher-ups.

    "Why did you stop me from killing him?"

    Among the crowd, three hippies were strolling along next to one another. To be more urate, two of them were walking alongside one another, while the third one was trailing along behind those two as he didn''t feel worthy of walking beside them.

    "Firstly, I found many interesting things in his memories. Secondly, if we kill him, I have a feeling that we won''t be able to live much longer."

    "Really?"

    Hebi no Miko was rather unconvinced.

    "There''s a very good chance that we''ll die," Raven replied with a nod. "The Guild of Immortality is an even moreplex and powerful organization than we imagined. Their forces are spread out across the entire world, and they have a vendetta use in ce, which means that anyone who kills a member of the Guild of Immortality will be hunted by the entire guild in retaliation."

    "But we''ve already made an enemy out of him, isn''t that the same thing?"

    In Hebi no Miko''s mind, anyone who dared to cross her had to be killed. She possessed a very extreme personality, and there was often nopromise or middle ground in the way that she did things.

    "Just making an enemy out of him is fine. Through his memories, I was able to gather some information, and given that the Guild of Immortality is a worldwide organization, it''s sure to be quitex and decentralized. The more massive an organization is, the more convoluted the rtionships between its members will be, that''s simply an inevitable reality.

    ¡°Let me put it this way: say we''re both in the guild, and I''m in North America, while you''re in Asia. I run a business in the electronics industry, while you''re dealing in energy resources. Even if we want to help each other, is there a need to make things so meticulous and borate? All of the members of the guild are extremely important figures, and they''re all dealing with their own problems.

    ¡°Even if we''re allies from the same guild, am I expected to resolve every single one of your problems for you? If you can sort out any of your problems on your own, you wouldn''t have had the right to join the guild in the first ce."

    "I guess that makes some sense," Hebi no Miko replied with a thoughtful nod. "So what is this vendetta use?"

    "The vendetta use is something that''s implemented as a deterrent against anyone considering opposing the Guild of Immortality. It''s a rule that states that anyone who kills an official member of the Guild of Immortality will be met with retaliation from the entire guild, which will only cease when the target is dead."

    "Then what about those people we killed?"

    "Phil''sckeys don''t count. They''re just his employees, and even the old fox behind us isn''t an official member of the guild."

    Chen Yiran''s footsteps faltered slightly upon hearing this.

    Indeed, even though he possessed enormous wealth and influence that he had built up over the course of a century, he was still nothing but small frypared with the official guild members, to the extent that just being targeted by a special psychic police officer was enough to force him into hiding.

    "However, Phil is different. Lamp Keepers are considered to be administrators of sorts in the Guild of Immortality. They don''t possess much power or influence themselves, but all of them are extremely capable at their job and formidable adapters to boot.

    ¡°Most importantly, they''re all official guild members, so we''ll be in massive trouble if we kill Phil. We can let Adam do things like this, but let''s not take such massive risks ourselves," Raven said as an expectant smile appeared on his face.

    "Adam? What is he going to be able to do? He''s not even as powerful as Phil. How could he possibly shake the foundation of the Guild of Immortality if he can''t even beat one of the guild''s fringe administrators? Compared with hoping that someone else kills him, I much prefer the feeling of exacting vengeance with my own two hands."

    "There''s more to Adam than meets the eye. He''s harboring some type of secret..."

    ¡­¡­

    Raven and Hebi no Miko had very contrasting opinions of Adam, and at the moment, it seemed that Hebi no Miko''s appraisal of Adam was more urate because he was currently on the verge of death.

    In fact, it was only thanks to a massive stroke of luck that he wasn''t dead.

    Following Hellhound''s most recent evolution, it had attained a rather strange howling ability, which was partially inherited from that seven-headed spider anomaly. The ability was called "Infernal Howl", and it was an extremely practical ability.

    Once unleashed, Infernal Howl granted Hellhound borderline miraculous self-regenerative powers, while also simultaneously enhancing thebat prowess of its allies, thereby making it a multi-purpose ability.

    At this moment, a symbol suddenly appeared on Adam''s decapitated third head, and even though the head wasn''t attached to any lungs, it was still able to open its mouth and let loose a strange howl.

    Immediately thereafter, Adam''s body began to rapidly regenerate, with his heads reconnecting with his body as if they were separate sentient entities.

    Under the effects of Infernal Howl, it was as if all of Adam''s other anomalies had been injected with stimnts that significantly enhanced their speed, to the point that Sludge was almost able to grab onto Herman.

    While Herman was dodging Sludge''s attack, Adampleted his regeneration.

    Following his resurrection, his body had be significantly more depletedpared with before, and it was clear that this ability was extremely taxing to use.

    I''m alive again...

    There was a hint of lingering fear in Adam''s heart following his miraculous revival.

    He didn''t fear death, but he was terrified of the prospect of dying when there were still so many things that he still hadn''t done.

    He was a clone, so his days were numbered to begin with. If he couldn''t even uncover the truth about his own past before he died, then that would be a true tragedy in his eyes.

    Meanwhile, Herman was calcting the amount of time that had psed, and he knew that the three minutes were going to be up soon.

    Furthermore, he had already exhausted all of the sand in his hourss, so it was no longer possible for him to kill Adam.

    With that in mind, he arrived before Adam using his speed advantage, then opened up a psychic passageway before tossing Adam out of his psychic world.

    Following the departure of Adam''s psychic body, all of his anomalies also vanished from Herman''s psychic world.

    "You''re very strong, but you''re not going to be so lucky next time," Herman remarked upon returning to the real world.

    "Indeed," Adam replied as he turned his gaze toward Herman.

    At the same time, he had already begun a process of self-reflection.

    Ever since he first arrived in Shadow City, and even before then, he had always benefited from great luck. Not only had he been able to survive near-death situations on many asions, there had always been people helping him for one reason or another in his hour of need.

    However, luck was one of the flimsiest things that one could rely on, and Adam knew that his luck would inevitably run out someday.

    After winning the Shadow City battle royale and surviving those two encounters with Hebi no Miko, Adam had thought that he had already joined the ranks of the world''s top adapters.

    However, reality had issued him another brutal wake-up call.

    If I don''t be more powerful, the road ahead is only going to be more and more arduous.

 Chapter 325: Pressure and Notoriety

    <h4>Chapter 325: Pressure and Notoriety</h4>

    Following his battle against Herman, Adam had developed a clearer understanding of his own powers.

    In his self-coined power hierarchy, there was a significant gap.

    Following his awakening, he hade into contact with the most low-level adapters, namely the students of Layton Academy.

    The average power level of those students was roughly on par with Shae''s from back then, and theirbat prowess was roughlyparable to that of a level one anomaly.

    Following his graduation, he was able to determine that the majority of mature adapters were at around the same level of power as level two anomalies.

    Above them were the elite adapters, who wereparable in power to level three anomalies and would be able to climb to the A tier in the Shadow City arenas.

    Adapters who wereparable in power to level four anomalies were truly approaching the realm of top-tier adapters. In Shadow City, they would be S tierbatants, and outside of Shadow City, they would be elite hitmen.

    Adam had encountered many adapters of this level in the past, including Medusa, Diamond, Oni no Hanzou, Oni no Miko, and Dead Wood, just to name a few. Even though there were disparities in power between them, overall, they were on a simr level.

    The first four levels of Adam''s self-coined power system were quite clear-cut, but beyond this, things started to get a little murky.

    This was primarily because he always felt like there was an abrupt cut-off here. Beyond this level, everyone that he came into contact with seemed to have be unfathomably more powerful, with Eyeless being the only one acting as a bridge between them.

    Aside from Eyeless, there seemed to be a massive, empty gulf.

    After making that observation, Adam had dedicated the majority of his attention to uncovering the truth about his own past.

    This was because he felt like it would take a very long time for him to get to Hebi no Miko''s level, and he was still yet to find a suitable visualization subject. As a clone who was living on borrowed time, he had no choice but to be very prudent with his priorities.

    Of course, there were also other factors that led to this shift in focus, such as his status as a special psychic police officer and the support that he was receiving from Shivani. As a result of these factors, everything had been progressing very smoothly for him from the outset, and not only was he able to bring down the Compassion Company without much trouble, he had also found many leads pertaining to the missing children.

    However, ultimately, he had to face the brutal reality that he simply wasn''t powerful enough to continue the investigation in a meaningful way.

    He had once naively believed that the power gap in his self-coined power system existed primarily due to issues rted to visualization, and that all adapters would experience a drastic increase in power after advancing beyond the caliber of level four anomalies.

    However, it seemed that this wasn''t actually the case.

    Prior to activating the seed, Herman''s powers were roughlyparable with those of a level six anomaly. In a one-on-one battle, he would''ve definitely been able to take down an anomaly of Sludge''s caliber using his time-based abilities.

    After activating the seed, his powers had elevated to around the same caliber as level seven anomalies.

    He was still far from reaching the very top of the adapter pyramid, but he showed Adam that there wasn''t just a vast gulf of emptiness beyond between the likes of Oni no Miko and the truly top-tier adapters of this world.

    This indicated that this gulf didn''t actually exist. Instead, it was just that adapters of this caliber were quite rare.

    As it turned out, adapters who were above the caliber of level five anomalies, yet still weren''t top-tier adapters, were extremely umon.

    The cream of the crop in the adapter world were generally all extremely renowned.

    Wax Figure was already a renowned figure as far back as 30 years ago, Hebi no Miko was on all national government wanted lists, May was the leader of thergest privately owned organization in Sandrise City, and the director was the ruler of a city.

    The only top-tier adapter that Adam knew who wasn''t all that renowned was Sadou, who was in semi-retirement. However, that only applied to the general public. In reality, he had a resounding reputation in all political circles, as well as hitmen organizations.

    At that level, it was difficult not to be a renowned figure, unless one kept an extremely low profile.

    As for those who were above the caliber of level five anomalies, yet still hadn''t reached the top, it was impossible for them to be widely renowned, and many of them were still in the development stage, while even more of them were already working under certain massive organizations.

    Examples of adapters at this level included the Lamp Keepers of the Guild of Immortality and the bishops of the Psychic Church.

    When equipped with prosthetic limbs, adapters of this caliber were able toplete virtually any task assigned to them to a high level of proficiency, whether that be carrying out killings, collecting intelligence, or serving as bodyguards.

    As for the adapters below this level, they were a lot less capable. In fact, even when entering the psychic worlds of ordinary people, adapters who fell into this category had to be wary of whether there were powerful anomalies or psychic guardians present in those psychic worlds.

    .

    Adapters of this caliber were very likely to be absorbed into certain major organizations and corporations, and upon entering those organizations, the information on those adapters would be very murky, or simply concealed altogether.

    Hence, prior to this, it had felt to Adam like there was a dearth of adapters of this level.

    Looks like it''s time to focus on getting stronger. Otherwise, I won''t be able to make any meaningful progress.

    If he wanted to truly uproot the major organizations that he was aiming for, he needed more power and more allies.

    "We''ll meet again someday."

    While Adam was absorbed in his own thoughts, Herman had already been taken away by Mechguard units. This was because some Mechguard units had already discovered illegal weapons on his property during the few minutes in which the psychic battle had taken ce.

    Buried beneath the turf of his courtyard were all types of automatic heavy weaponry, transforming his entire property into a miniature military fortress.

    It was no exaggeration to say that if Herman had chosen to activate all of the automatic weapons on his property, there was no guarantee that the Mechguard units that Adam had brought with him would''ve been able toe out on top.

    If someone else had been in Herman''s shoes, erecting a military fortress in a wealthy area in a major metropolis would''ve been a serious crime that was enough to get them thrown into jail for several decades. However, after making an inspection of Herman''s courtyard, Adam wasn''t able to find anything particrly egregious.

    He wasn''t able to find any evidence of human trafficking, and these weapons alone were nowhere near enough for him to build a sufficient case for Herman to be imprisoned.

    With that in mind, he made a call to Shivani to tell her about the situation.

    "Would it be possible for you to use your tform and your public influence to exert pressure on the government and make it difficult for Herman to get released on bail?"

    "I can do that, but it''s not going to be very effective, and it could also negatively impact our program."

    As a seasoned journalist, Shivani was astute in her ability to predict the effects that certain news stories were going to have.

    "How so?"

    "The general public, including even myself, is simply not interested in a news story like this. A rich person installed excessive weaponry on his property. So what? Does that have anything to do with them? The story doesn''t impact the immediate interests of the general public, nor is it very attention-grabbing, so it''ll do nothing aside from negatively impacting the poprity of our program.

    ¡°Also, reporting on stories like this would make it seem like our program is meddling in trivial affairs, thereby calling our professionalism and journalistic integrity into question. If the story doesn''t receive any attention or traction, there won''t be any pressure generated, so your efforts to get the government to deny Herman bail would ultimately be futile anyway."

    "That makes sense. As expected, it''s important to consult professionals like yourself! I''ll speak to you another time."

    After hearing Shivani''s advice on the matter, Adam ended the call.

 Chapter 326: Komi

    <h4>Chapter 326: Komi</h4>

    From there, everything that happened was exactly as Adam anticipated.

    Due to the fact that the Mechguard units had managed to record concrete evidence, Herman''s case quickly reached the prosecution stage.

    However, Herman wasn''t struck with the lengthy prison sentence that would''ve befallen an ordinary person for a simr offense.

    He had an apparently spotless criminal record, and it was discovered that the weapons on his property had never hurt anyone. Furthermore, he was deemed to be suffering from mild paranoia and mental impairment, thereby further justifying his actions on mental health grounds.

    Of course, his status as a phnthropist was also factored into the ruling.

    His defense essentially centered around the sentiment that everyone had self-preservation urges, except his were perhaps a little excessive.

    In addition to that, he had a very capable team ofwyers and close ties with certain extremely powerful figures, so in the end, both the jury and judge decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, resulting in a very light sentence of 400 hours ofmunity service.

    "That seems to be about it for this case."

    Shae was reading out the information regarding Herman''s ruling to Adam, while he was looking at other pieces of news.

    ording to news reports, the number of homicides in Sandrise City and the other two metropolises on the North American continent was rapidly rising.

    Even though all three of the major metropolises were home to countless criminals, most homicidal killers would make sure to clean up the crime scene and avoid all Mechguard units and public surveince cameras. Ideally, their goal was to make the homicide seem like nothing more than a missing person case.

    There were far too many people going missing every single day in this world, and even as far back as a century ago, each major country would have hundreds of thousands of people go missing each year.

    No one cared about where they had gone. Perhaps they had voluntarily gone into hiding.

    No one cared about problems that posed no threat to them.

    Hence, missing person cases weren''t a cause for panic, but homicides were an entirely different story, and the higher the status of the victims, the more panic and chaos that would ensue.

    "These people are behaving in a very strange way. It''s almost as if they''re intentionally causing chaos," Adam said as he pointed at a news headline for Shae to see. "Not only do they not clean up the crime scenes aftermitting their killings, sometimes, they would even go out of their way to toss the bodies into crowds of people or directly under surveince cameras."

    "Did you hear what I just said?"

    "I did. Herman''s been sentenced to 400 hours ofmunity service, right? In addition to that, he''ll be dealing with increased scrutiny from Mechguard, so he won''t be able to do anything out of line for a while," Adam replied. "To be honest, 400 hours ofmunity service is already more than I anticipated."

    "Why didn''t you bring me with youst time?"

    This was a question that Shae had constantly been hung up on over the past few days.

    She had already raised this question to Adam many times. She had a very headstrong personality, and previously, she had been forced to stay out of Adam''s affairs as she was too weak to keep herself safe. However, now that Hellhound had be a level four anomaly, she wanted to be a part of everything that Adam did.

    "I''ve already apologized to you three times about this." Adam heaved a long sigh as he began his fourth apology. "Not bringing youst time was my fault. I was too arrogant and failed to assess the situation correctly. I thought that there was a dearth of powerful adapters beyond a certain point, but that actually wasn''t the case.

    ¡°If I had brought you and the three brothers with mest time, things would''ve gone a lot more smoothly, and I wouldn''t havee so close to being killed."

    Adam had endured many grueling battles in the past, and Herman had been an opponent that Adam deemed to be quite evenly matched with himself.

    If he had brought his allies along, things would''ve definitely been different.

    "What are you going to do from here? Have you found out where the airport in Herman''s memories is?"

    "It''s on an ind in the Pacific Ocean. The nation was only founded 30 years ago, and it has a poption of 19 million."

    Adam had been searching for images of airports using a search engine to try and find a match to the one that he had seen, and with the help of AI technology, he was able to track down the airport that he was searching for.

    The airport was situated in the city of Komi, which was the capital city of the ind nation of the same name.

    30 years ago marked the tail end of World War III, and a new government had arisen on that ind, following which came a change in the nation''s name.

    Just like many ind nations on the Pacific Ocean, this was a nation that specialized in mining and agriculture. Thanks to its various exports, including all types of ore, palm-based products, cocoa, and rubber, it was a rtively wealthy ind nation.

    However, that wealth wasn''t enjoyed by the people of the nation.

    The king and his noble subordinates had established all types of monopolistic corporations to im the wealth of the people.

    Adam had gathered this information from inte research, and the fact that Herman had such a poignant memory of this ce in his psychic world indicated that it was definitely not just some ordinary transfer station. In fact, Adam suspected that the ind of Komi was home to the human farm.

    The fact that this was a small nation that was run by a monopolistic dictatorship meant that it would be very easy for the Guild of Immortality to control.

    All the guild had to do was control the select group of people at the top, granting them sufficient benefits while also exerting some pressure on them through intimidation, and the ind would be the perfect location for housing the human farm.

    In the past, ces like this were considered to be paradises for illegal drug ntations.

    However, in this day and age, producing nk tes was far more lucrative than producing drugs.

    "Unfortunately, we won''t be able to go there for now," Adam sighed as he leaned back against his reclining chair to look up at the ceiling of the veterinarian hospital. "If we go there, we won''t have the protection of Mechguard, and that would make us far too vulnerable."

    "When will we be able to go then?"

    "When we be powerful enough. If I had Hebi no Miko''s power, I would sneak onto the ind right now. With my telegnosis, I would be able to sense danger long before it gets to me. No automatons or adapters would be able to detect my presence, and I''ll be able to go anywhere I please and take out anyone I want without being noticed."

    "Hebi no Miko hasn''t even been able to hunt you down after all this time. Are you sure getting to her level of power would be enough?"

    "Hebi no Miko is arrogant and impulsive, acting like a deranged nutjob without any capacity for nning or prudence. Her weaknesses are far too severe. If I possessed her power, I would be able to do countless things that are impossible for her. Hence, I must be stronger! Improving through things like visualization is far too slow. I need to be stronger in my own way!"

    Adam was naturally referring to the absorption of anomalic power here, and Shae was also aware of this.

    However, at his current level, Adam no longer had any interest in the anomalies lurking in the psychic worlds of normal mental illness sufferers. After all, the majority of people suffering from mental illnesses only harbored level three or weaker anomalies.

    Adam had previously determined that upon reaching level three on his self-coined power system, anomalies would begin to pose a threat to the lives of their hosts. An example of this was Li Qi, who had been goaded into attempting suicide on many asions by the nun anomaly.

    Anomalies of this caliber would constantly torment their host. In Li Qi''s case, he was constantly being told how much his mother detested him, how he was a murderer, how no one liked him, how his very existence was a curse to all those around him, and that he was going to be forever alone.

    As a result, Li Qi had almost been driven to suicide.

    Simrly, Deranged Pig''s daughter had also almost been tormented to death by her anomaly. Her situation had been even more dire. The PTSD that she had suffered from witnessing the human farm had triggered such a severe physical reaction in her that it had almost killed her.

    Hence, generally speaking, there was an upper limit to how mentally ill the ordinary person could be. If they reached this upper limit and didn''t receive effective treatment, then they weren''t going to live for much longer.

    What Adam needed right now were extremely high-level anomalies. At his current level, killing the average anomaly simply didn''t help him improve in any meaningful way. At the moment, his ideal prey were level six anomalies, or even level seven anomalies.

    For this purpose, he would need toe into contact with some truly sick and disturbed individuals, namely ones who weren''t killed by their anomalies, but had fused with them instead, such as Sima Kai, the head collector.

 Chapter 327: Hannibal Party

    <h4>Chapter 327: Hannibal Party</h4>

    Only the true psychic deviants who had fused as one with their anomalies were on Adam''s radar at the moment.

    "Should we go back to the prison?" Shae was naturally aware of Adam''s situation as well. "Aside from the prison, I can''t think of any better ce to search for the type of people you''re looking for. Wasn''t there someone who killed hundreds of peoplest time, but we couldn''t get to him because of what happened to Sima Kai?"

    "Indeed, there was. He killed 285 people."

    Adam still recalled this number as he had been astonished by it at the time. Based on this number, he had determined that this man''s psychic world had to be the most dangerous out of the three inmates fromst time, and that was why Adam had decided to save him forst.

    "His name is Noah, and he took advantage of his job as a retirement home caretaker to intentionally discard the medication for elderly people under his care who were suffering from chronic conditions, or ce those medications in a ce that was inessible to those elderly victims, thereby ultimately leading to their demise.

    ¡°In court, his excuse was that he was doing a good deed by putting them out of their misery, and he referred to himself as an angel of death. I''ve read through his file many times since ourst visit to the prison."

    Adam was very interested in Noah.

    Of course, he wasn''t interested in the person. Instead, he was interested in the anomaly in Noah''s psychic world.

    Adam''s intuition told him that Noah was an extremely disturbed individual, and that the anomaly in his psychic world was very likely to be even more powerful than Sima Kai''s.

    "I really want to go see him, but I can''t," Adam sighed. "The southern congress is keeping a constant eye on me, so I can''t kill any more prison inmates. Killing Sima Kai already almostnded me in a lot of trouble, and Wax Figure won''t be able to bail me out every time. On top of that, I can''t just use Mechguard units as I please anymore, either."

    The main difference between psychic deviants and normal mental illness sufferersid in the fact that the former had already fused as one with their anomalies.

    For the average mental patient, having their anomaly killed would free them from their mental torment. However, killing the anomaly of a psychic deviant would be equivalent tomitting psychic murder.

    He could perhaps get away with killing one inmate, but if he were to do the same thing again, then the southern congress was definitely going to find a way to hold him ountable.

    "Where should we go then? Mental hospitals? The problem with that is that ever since thews were changed 30 years, fugitives can no longer seek exoneration by iming insanity, so the majority of mental illness sufferers who have killed or injured people in the past have been locked up in prison. In extremely severe cases, like Sima Kai''s, certain fugitives are even locked up in Darvaza Prison."

    "Indeed, the best ce to find these disturbed people is in Darvaza Prison, but the second-best ce should be the dark web. Looks like I''ll have to bother Aunt May again."

    At the moment, May was not very fond of Adam. However, Hebi no Miko wasn''t going to let the pawn shop off the hook even if she were to cut all ties with Adam, so they were essentially in the same boat.

    Hence, she was willing to provide him with assistance in some matters.

    The next day, Red Spider arrived at the veterinary hospital and gave Adam a dark web ount.

    .

    This was a special ount that had already passed the member verification process of all types of strange clubs, thereby allowing Adam to sign up for those clubs right away.

    It was clear just from the names of these clubs alone that they had to be full of some of the most sick and twisted individuals imaginable.

    Examples included the Dismemberment Hobbyists, the Blood Drinking Clique, the Asphyxiation Club, the Band of Hunters...

    All of the people in these clubs wereplete and utter psychos, and there were various reasons that could exin why they hadn''t been caught. Perhaps some of them were extremely intelligent and prudent, perhaps some possessed vast wealth and powerful connections, and there were also some who had simply been in lucky.

    Prior to being caught, Sima Kai was a professor, and he was most definitely a member of the Human Head Appreciation Club.

    Hence, there was certainly no guarantee that a demented psycho had to be in prison. In fact, there were most likely more of them in society than locked up in jail cells.

    "I hear that no one cares if a few people die in these clubs at a time, and there are even designated people that take care of the bodies of the deceased, is that right?"

    "Our pawn shop is a legitimate organization, so I don''t know any of the specific details," Red Spider replied with a shake of her head. "However, I''ve heard one of my friends talk about this stuff, and it seems to be true."

    "I see. Does your friend know any of the addresses of any of these clubs? Are there any that are close to Sandrise City?" Adam asked.

    "There are. This one, this one, this one, and these ones are all quite close to Sandrise City."

    Adam inspected the names of the clubs that Red Spider had pointed out to him, and in the end, his gaze settled on one with a rather strange name.

    "Hannibal Michelin Restaurant? What is this club supposed to be?"

    "My friend tells me that it''s a club of cannibals. The head chef of the restaurant cooks human meat, and the establishment aims not just to provide a culinary experience, but also a psychotherapeutic service. The patrons of the restaurant are served with only the flesh of their enemies, or people that they simply don''t like the look of in society.

    ¡°The idea is that the meal will provide not just physical enjoyment, but also psychological bliss. Normal dishes are judged based on the criteria of presentation, aroma, and taste, while their dishes add an extra element of ''soul'', and they''re meant to be enjoyed on both a physical and a spiritual level."

    "That sounds like a good choice. I''ll go with this club."

    Adam contacted the club using the ount provided to him by Red Spider, and due to the fact that the ount was verified, the club members had no reservations and weren''t suspicious of Adam at all, and his questions were answered by an administrator.

    "What time is the party?"

    "It''ll begin on Sunday at 8 PM."

    "Still the usual location?"

    "Yes, still the usual location on Crocodile Ind."

    After securing a few more verified ounts from Red Spider, Adam began to prepare for the uing cannibal party.

    The name "Crocodile Ind" sounded quite menacing, but in reality, it was situated on a scenic small town on the outskirts of Sandrise City.

    The town was called Zephyr Town, and it was less than 100 kilometers away from Sandrise City. It was considered to be a retiree''s paradise on the outskirts of the city.

    The ind had been named Crocodile Ind as it was a crocodile farm, and fried crocodile was one of the area''s unique delicacies.

    Sandrise City was situated in a semi-desert environment, so the scenery around the city wasn''t spectacr. In addition to that, nuclear weapons had been deployed during the war 30 years ago, so much of the arablend around the city had been transformed into desert as well. Hence, that made areas with natural scenery even rarer and more precious.

    Zephyr Town was precisely one such location. It had an abundance of water resources, with all types ofkes flowing through the town. Many residents of Sandrise City liked to visit the town on holidays, and it was also a popr retirement town for wealthy older individuals.

    The most prevalent businesses here were restaurants and holiday vis, and even just by relying on tourism alone, the town was able to generate a sizeable annual revenue.

    In ces like these, there were always rtively fewer Mechguard units. No one wanted to see those cold killing machines while rxing on holiday.

    After conducting some research on the area, Adam set off for the ind with Shae and the three psychic mutants that Sunday afternoon. After the incident with Herma fromst time, he had been taught a valuable lesson and didn''t dare to act on his own anymore.

    After leaving Sandrise City, they arrived in the desert wilderness, and as they continued their journey, which spanned roughly 100 kilometers, the air outside the car was bing more and more moist and humid. By the time everyone had caught a whiff of the fragrance of soil andkewater, they could already see a "Wee to Zephyr Town" sign at the end of the road up ahead.

    Adam slowed down the car as he called out to the four people napping in the backseat.

    "Hey, it''s time to get up. The party is about to start."

    "Have we arrived?"

    Shae was having to fight back the nauseous reaction that arose whenever she thought about the fact that she was going to be participating in a cannibal party.

    She cast her gaze toward Zephyr Town, and her hands unconsciously balled up into tight fists.

 Chapter 328: Man-eating Crocodiles

    <h4>Chapter 328: Man-eating Crocodiles</h4>

    Adam paid no heed to Shae''s emotions. After witnessing the human farm, he had already been made aware of just how sick and depraved the dark underbelly beneath the facade of the civilized world was. Compared with witnessing countless infants being crushed to death on a conveyor belt, a cannibal party almost seemed tame and mundane.

    He calmly drove the car into the town, and as he looked around, he was greeted by a picturesque scene of tranquility.

    The convenience stores, the pergs, the strolling young couples, the old peopleying under the shade on reclining chairs, the children who were ying andughing as they trailed along behind their parents... Everything seemed sofortable and rxed. This was indeed a far more leisurely cepared with the tense and busy environment of Sandrise City.

    However, Adam didn''t want to waste even a single second here. He had no intention of appreciating the scenery around him as he stepped on the elerator, driving toward the center of the town ording to the map.

    Around 10 minutester, another car slowly drove past down the same road.

    "What do you think he''s doing here, Boss? Hasn''t he been keeping a low profile after what happened to Herman? Is there anything special about this ce? I thought this was nothing more than a vacation and retirement town."

    There was a total of four people in the car, consisting of three men and one woman, and they were led by none other than Thn.

    He had already been spying on Adam for a very long time, constantly tracking Adam wherever he went, so he was naturally aware of the incident concerning Herman.

    "My assessment of Adam is that he''s an extreme pragmatist. He doesn''t seem to waste any time with recreation in his life, and he''s a very driven and goal-oriented man. There''s almost no chance that he''s driven all this way just to take a vacation, and the fact that he''s brought hispanions along with him confirms to me beyond a reasonable doubt that he''s up to something."

    Thn also seemed to bepletely disinterested in the scenery around him. Instead, he seemed to be far more intrigued by Adam.

    "I really want to know what he''s up to. Let''s keep going and follow them."

    ¡­¡­

    After passing through several streets in the town, Adam and his group arrived on a food street. At this point, all of them had already adopted disguises.

    Many of the signs of the restaurants on the food street bore crocodile symbols, and there were many outdoor streetside stalls where crocodile meat was being fried and roasted.

    Not far away from the street was ake, which was a crocodile farm that waspletely sealed off by a metal fence in all directions.

    "This is it."

    "What a shoddy ce!" Rabbit eximed as she looked at the small restaurant on the side of the street. "You''re telling me they just eat human meat mixed in with crocodile meat here? Didn''t you say that only members could ess this ce?"

    While Rabbit was speaking, Mole plucked a piece of meat straight out of the bowl of one of the restaurant patrons, then chewed on the piece of meat a few times before remarking, "This doesn''t taste like human meat."

    "What the hell''s your problem?"

    The man who had just had his food stolen by Mole naturally wasn''t very pleased, and he immediately red up with rage.

    It was a very burly man, and he grabbed tightly onto Mole''s cor, much to Mole''s excitement.

    Adam naturally didn''t want to raise a fuss, so he shed his exoskeleton and prosthetic limbs at the man to intimidate him into backing down.

    After that, he inspected his surroundings before discovering a high-end clubhouse on the ind at the center of theke.

    He pointed at the clubhouse and said, "If I''m not mistaken, that should be the party venue."

    He sat down as he spoke, then struck up a conversation with the burly man who had just had his food stolen by Mole.

    "Are you a local here, Brother?"

    "What do you want?"

    "Nothing, I just wanted to ask you some questions about this ce," Adam replied with a smile, then transferred some electronic currency to the man.

    After receiving the money and seeing the amount, the anger on the man''s facepletely faded, and he smiled as he replied, "I''m not a local, but I''ve living here for close to three months, so feel free to ask me anything."

    "Have you been to that clubhouse on the ind over there?"

    "No. That''s not a clubhouse, I''ve heard that it''s a private residence that isn''t open to the public. Having said that, I do see customers being invited into the building every weekend, but I never really thought much of it.."

    "Do you know anything else about that ce aside from the fact that it''s a private residence?"

    "Not really. I presume the owner of the residence has to be a wealthy guy who likes to keep a low profile. I don''t think I''ve ever seen him before, but I''ve heard that he runs the crocodile farm here."

    "Do you know how to get there?"

    "Go straight up ahead, and you''ll find a metal gate at the end of the road. Beyond that gate is a small dock where there are boats that can take you to the ind, but you won''t be able to get in without an invitation. Like I said, it''s private property, so if you''re caught trespassing, you could get into a lot of trouble."

    "I see. Thanks, Brother!"

    Adam made a subtle gesture to Shae, and the group set off once again.

    Sure enough, after passing through the food street, they did indeed spot a dpidated metal gate.

    Given how rundown the metal gate was, there was no way that Adam would''ve made a connection between it and a cannibal club had he not been informed in advance that this was indeed the ce that he was looking for.

    While Adam was still inspecting the gate, he noticed that a tiny electronic eye on the gate suddenly shed once, and a thought urred to him as he pulled out hismunicator before pulling up his virtual membership card.

    The gate immediately opened after a beeping tone.

    "I can''t believe they put an electronic lock on such a shitty gate. What a joke!"

    Mole gave the metal gate a kick before making his way onto the wooden dock.

    There were some dpidated wooden boats around the dock, and Adam and hispanions piled onto one of the boats, then began to make their way toward the ind at the center of theke, using the old and rundown oars that looked as if they were on the verge of snapping.

    "What the hell is this supposed to be? Are they trying to build up suspense? This entire setup is like a horror film!"

    Mole seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself in this situation.

    At the center of theke was a cannibal ind, while theke itself was full of crocodiles.

    Meanwhile, he and his friends were rowing toward death on a rickety old boat.

    "This ce is really living up to its name! We haven''t even reached the venue yet, and they''ve already built up a superb atmosphere. I bet the average person wouldn''t even dare toe here! What the fuck are you looking at?"

    While Mole was rowing the boat along, a crocodile slowly rose to the surface of theke nearby, and Mole immediately smacked the oar straight onto the top of the crocodile''s head.

    However, these crocodiles seemed to be different from normal crocodiles. Even though this one had copped an oar to the head, it didn''t disy any intention of backing down. This was very uncharacteristic behavior for a farm-bred crocodile. In fact, it seemed to be even more intrusive than wild crocodiles.

    "It seems to be very interested in human meat," Adam remarked as he crouched down to take a closer look at the crocodile.

    Sure enough, the crocodile didn''t fear him at all. In fact, it seemed to have developed a keen interest in him, and with a massive ssh, it erupted out of the water in an attempt to chomp down on Adam''s head.

    Adam''s telegnosis allowed him to react before the crocodile had even made its move, and thanks to the strength enhancements provided by his exoskeleton, he was able to push the crocodile back into the water with ease.

    "It looks like these crocodiles are being fed scrap human body parts, so they''re very familiar with the smell of human meat."

 Chapter 329: Foie Gras and Monkey Brains

    <h4>Chapter 329: Foie Gras and Monkey Brains</h4>

    After being pushed away by Adam, the crocodile''s natural self-preservation instincts kicked in, and it swam away instead of attacking the boat any further.

    At this moment, someone else had arrived at the metal gate, and the crocodile had directed its attention to the neer as its next target.

    "I didn''t think someone would show up so soon after us. Looks like business is going well for this club," Shae remarked as she looked at the boat that was several dozen meters behind them with a perplexed expression. "Are there that many people who are into eating human meat?"

    "Don''t forget that Sandrise City has an enormous poption in excess of 300 million. Back a century ago, even arge nation wasn''t guaranteed to have such a huge poption."

    "Even so, aren''t there a few too many of these strange clubs? Were there this many of them 100 years ago as well?"

    "Who knows? Perhaps there weren''t as many back then," Adam replied as he sat back down on the middle of the boat, then picked up another oar and began paddling as well.

    With him and Mole paddling together, the boat was able to speed up quite a bit.

    They were drawing closer and closer to the ind at the center of theke, but Adam''s mind had drifted elsewhere.

    "Do you still remember Area 66?"

    "I do. That''s the area with all the nursing hubs. Why are you suddenly bringing that up now?"

    "Ever since a century ago, the natural birth rate of the human race has been in constant decline, with birth rates in some ces dropping to extremely low levels, but birth rates have dropped even further ever since the invention of immortality technology."

    "You know about history from a century ago?" Armadillo interjected. "Where did you learn all this stuff?"

    "I was wondering about that too. Aren''t nk tes supposed to have had their memoriespletely cleared?" Shae asked. "The installed persona will have all of this general knowledge anyway, so why was all of this information nted in your brain? Who could''ve gone out of their way to do this?"

    "I don''t know the answer to that, but can you please not get me off topic? We''re about to reach the ind soon. What were we talking about?"

    "We were talking about why there are so many sick people in the world," Rabbit replied. "And you were just talking about birth rates."

    "Ever since the concept of immortality was released by the Gaia Corporation, the natural birth rate reached a true all-time low. Everyone began preparing for immortality, dedicating all of their time, energy, and wealth to themselves, leaving them with no resources to spare for raising children.

    ¡°Thankfully, artificial nursing technology has been developing rapidly over the past few decades, so not only has the poption not decreased, it''s been on the rise. This has also resulted in many children not growing up in a normal home environment. Many of them grew up in non-profit organizations, and some were even raised by machines."

    "I see. It''s because of these strange upbringings that there are so many strange people."

    "That''s my theory on the matter. The funny thing is, the environment in Shadow City is even more abnormal, but people don''t have to suppress their true nature as much there..."

    While Adam was speaking, their boat reached the shore, and thus, the conversation drew to an abrupt halt.

    As soon as their boat arrived at the shore, they were immediately approached by a butler and several porters.

    "Wee, esteemed guests."

    All of them were dressed in formal clothing, and they were speaking in a very polite manner.

    Adam nodded at them in acknowledgment, then followed them into the estate.

    The ind wasn''t veryrge, but the estate was massive, taking up over half of all of thend on the ind.

    After entering the estate, they were led through a garden before arriving in front of a hall. In contrast with other buildings, there was a long and sealed-off corridor leading into the hall.

    Adam''s telegnosis was telling him that there was danger inside. Electronic weapons had most likely been installed in the corridor, which meant that they would be trapped sitting ducks upon entry.

    However, this premonition of danger was very faint, which meant that even if there were weapons inside, they weren''t there to target his group.

    "Pleasee in."

    The five of them were led into the sealed-off corridor by the butler, following which the light around them turned a very strange crimson color.

    "Please disy your ounts and identification information again."

    "Sure."

    Adam took a nce at his surroundings, and he presumed that those who didn''t pass the identity verification process here were most likely fed straight to the crocodiles.

    Thankfully, even though the pawn shop charged steep prices, its ability to gather intelligence was truly unmatched, and Red Spider had provided them with very reliable ounts, so they were able to pass the identity verification checks very quickly.

    However, the screening process didn''t end there.

    After all of their information was verified, the porters approached them with a small trolley used to deliver dishes in restaurants.

    The trolley was pushed over to Adam and his group, following which an insted cover was removed to reveal...

    "What''s this? A brain?"

    Adam looked down to find that a small hole had been dug into the trolley to reveal a mass of white substance. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the white substance was pulsating.

    "That''s right. This is the appetizer for today, sh-fired brains."

    The butler removed the cloth around the trolley to reveal what was underneath.

    As it turned out, there was a living person crouched down there.

    His skull had been opened up, but he was being kept alive by various different machines.

    "The inspiration for this dish is derived from the ssic monkey brain dish enjoyed by nobility in ancient times. At the time, foie gras and monkey brains were considered to be delicacies of the same level of decadence. The monkey brain must be fresh, and hot oil infused with different seasonings is poured onto the brains to remove its natural rank vor. At the time, this was an extremely popr dish among the nobility."

    The butler picked up a container full of bubbling oil as he spoke, then poured it straight onto the exposed brain.

    The man down below only had a chance to let loose a single blood-curdling howl before his life came to an end. The butler then set down the empty container before turning to Adam and his group.

    "Please enjoy."

    Ever since his awakening, Adam had witnessed more than his fair share of grotesque and gorey scenes, but this gruesome scene still struck him with a sense of difort.

    The thought of consuming a human brain was naturally one that he was extremely resistant to, but he knew that this was a test, one that he had to pass.

    The first test was the electronic identity verification at the metal gate, while the second test was being conducted here.

    If he couldn''t even eat a human brain, then there was no way that he could be a member of the club.

    If he couldn''t pass the test, then the electronic weapons in the corridor were most likely going to be immediately activated.

    Right as Adam was hesitating about how to proceed, the butler urged, "Eat up! The dish doesn''t taste anywhere near as good once it gets cold."

    Adam had only just given a nod when three figures rushed past him in a sh, picking up spoons before digging into the brain without any qualms.

    As they consumed the "dish", they were giving their own critique.

    "Oh, this is very nice! Even more delicious than tuna."

    "I don''t like it very much. It''s quite nd, and its texture is too soft and insubstantialpared with tuna."

    "You don''t know shit!"

    The three psychic mutants were discussing spiritedly among themselves as they quickly finished the entire brain.

    Adam''s brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he feigned an expression of displeasure and exasperation as he said, "You ate everything again! You guys do this every time!"

    "It''s alright, Sir. This is just the appetizer, the main course is still yet toe."

    After watching the three psychic mutants eagerly devour the brain, the butler finally let down his guard and invited Adam''s group into the hall beyond the corridor.

    Upon arriving in the hall, the butler departed with the porters to wee the subsequent guests.

    For the first time, Adam was able to see the interior of the Hannibal Michelin Restaurant for himself.

 Chapter 330: Husband

    <h4>Chapter 330: Husband</h4>

    The furnishings in the cannibal restaurant were very luxurious, taking great inspiration from the ancient Byzantine style.

    The walls were riddled withplex patterns, while the tables and chairs were marked with intricate engravings. In addition to that, there were all types of borate ornaments present in the restaurant, further contributing to the sense of luxury and opulence.

    These extravagant furnishings were a clear indication that the club was very profitable.

    Those who wanted to join this cannibal club had to pay a very expensive monthly membership fee, and an additional fee also had to be paid for each special event that was attended.

    Thankfully, even though there weren''t many top-tier tycoons among these cannibalistic fiends, but the majority of the club''s members were wealthier than the average person. They acted without any morals, nor any regard for rules and thew. Due to their radical nature, most of them found themselves either killed, locked up in prison, or bing rich.

    After entering the restaurant, Adam approached the three psychic mutants before asking in a low voice, "Are you alright? You don''t feel ufortable or anything?"

    "Why would we feel ufortable?"

    The three psychic mutants turned to Adam with puzzled expressions.

    Adam immediately realized that his concerns werepletely unnecessary. He suddenly recalled that back when he had first met them in the psychic battle royale, they had told him that they had eaten their fourth team member.

    Even though they had only consumed a psychic body in there, it was clear that this was something that they had done in real life as well.

    Having spent so much time with them, Adam was reflexively beginning to see them as normal people, but it was clear that this was not the correct mindset. The three psychic mutants were on friendly terms with Adam, but theypletely detested the rest of humanity.

    Hence, they had truly enjoyed that feast of human brains, and there was no performative element to their disy of cannibalism.

    With that in mind, Adam didn''t say anything further.

    Meanwhile, Shae was constantly gulping down saliva. It was clear that she was feeling extremely nauseous, and that she was doing everything in her power to prevent herself from throwing up.

    "Distract yourself," Adam said as he bumped Shae on the shoulder. "What are we going to do next?"

    In reality, Adam had already had a n that he was going to follow, and he was only raising these questions to Shae to distract her from the situation that she was in.

    .

    Shae gulped down another mouthful of gastric acid, then looked around to find that a few other guests had already arrived. Aside from those guests, there were also servers busy at work in the restaurant.

    "All of these people arepletely messed up!"

    "I agree, but I''m sure they''re all messed up to different degrees, so their psychic anomalies will also vary in power. If only I could hunt down all of their anomalies at once."

    "That''s not going to be possible," Shae sighed with a shake of her head, finally turning her focus to the task at hand.

    Indeed, it wasn''t going to be possible to hunt down the anomalies of all of the restaurant''s diners. There were defense measures set up here, and if Adam were to drag everyone into his psychic world at once using his mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmitter, then he was sure to be overwhelmed.

    With so many anomalies of varying levels gathered in one ce, Adam didn''t possess the power to take them on all at once.

    "What should we do?"

    "We''ll target the stragglers, then do our best to gather information on the members of the club."

    While Adam was speaking, someone else entered the restaurant, and judging from the timing, he was most likely one of the people on the boat behind the one that Adam and his group had taken.

    Adam took a nce at the man to find that he was in a disguise, making it impossible for Adam to glean his true appearance.

    In fact, virtually all of the people in the restaurant were in disguise. The butler didn''t care about that. As long as these people could pass the test, they would be weed with open arms. After all, there were many people here who were considered to be normal people in society. Some of them even had families of their own, and even though they were all extremely twisted and demented individuals, no one wanted to expose the ugliest side of themselves for others to see.

    There weren''t many people in the restaurant at the moment, so Adam could only quietly observe and wait for an opportunity to strike.

    As time slowly passed, and day began to transition into night, more and more people appeared in the restaurant. By the time several dozen patrons had entered the restaurant, the atmosphere was beginning to heat up and be more lively.

    Some people were conversing with one another, while some snacks and beverages were being brought out by the servers.

    These people were waiting for their prey, and Adam was also searching for his target.

    He was walking around the rest with a ss of lemonade in his hand, and a steak just so happened to be brought out right as he arrived beside a woman. This was one of the main dishes of the day.

    "That''s my husband!" the woman said to Adam in an excited voice.

    "Is that right?" Someone was finally striking up a conversation with him, and Adam wasn''t going to pass up this opportunity. "I''ll definitely have to give him a taste."

    The woman nodded eagerly in response, and it was clear that the prospect of tasting her husband with another man was something that greatly appealed to her.

    After arriving at this realization, Adam began to purposefully guide the conversation while using his adapter abilities to fool the woman into thinking that he was also enjoying the meal with her.

    The more the two of them chatted, the closer they became, and by the time the steak was finished, the woman was already itching to take this conversation elsewhere.

    Adam could tell that the woman was ripe for the picking, and he suggested, "Should we take this conversation somewhere private?"

    "My thoughts exactly!" the woman said as shetched onto Adam''s hand and led him to the staircase leading to the second floor.

    There were private rooms for the guests to rest in on the second floor, and as a regr at the club, she was naturally aware of this.

    Adam took a nce at Shae in silence, and after discovering that she was already watching him, he followed the woman up the staircase.

    Shae was in the process of speaking to someone else, and she quickly disengaged herself from the conversation.

    "I''m sorry, I have to go."

    She then made her way over to the three psychic mutants, who were thoroughly enjoying the feast.

    She took a disdainful nce at them, and the three psychic mutants immediately caught her.

    "Hey, your brother may be our friend, and we''ve fought alongside each other in the past, but that doesn''t mean that you can look at us like that," Mole protested.

    "This is the first time, so we''ll let you off the hook with a warning. If you do it again, don''t me us for turning on you," Rabbit chimed in. "We''re just eating some meat here, what''s the big deal? Our telegnosis is way sharper than yours, so don''t go around giving us snide looks."

    In the end, it was Armadillo who had to step in to defuse the situation.

    "Come on, guys, she''s our brother''s sister, so she''s half a sister to us as well. Adam''s already gone upstairs, we should go and help him. If we encounter another anomaly like the one fromst time, he''s definitely not going to be able to deal with it on his own."

    "Alright, let''s go."

    After swallowing the meat in their mouths, the three psychic mutants made their way up to the second floor.

    Upon reaching the second floor, it only took a few turns before Shae and the psychic mutantspletely lost sight of Adam. The second floor had far better privacy than the first floor, and the avable field of view here was very narrow.

    Thankfully, their sharp telegnosis, coupled with the subtle signs that Adam had intentionally left behind for them, allowed them to quickly track down the room that he was in.

    By the time they opened the door and entered the room, Adam had already knocked the woman unconscious andid her down onto the bed.

    "Let''s make this quick so we can go after as many targets as possible today. Shae, lock the door and stand on lookout duty. In the meantime, I''ll get started in here."

    "No. I get put on lookout duty every time. I need to fight as well so I can grow stronger too."

    "Alright, then you keep a lookout, Rabbit."

    "Sure thing. I''m stuffed right now, so I wanted to rest anyway," Rabbit said as she sat down in a corner of the room. "Rest assured, if anyone dares to enter the room, I''ll kill them right away! Then again, I don''t think anyone would just barge in here anyway."

 Chapter 331: Guardian Angel

    <h4>Chapter 331: Guardian Angel</h4>

    Generally speaking, no one would barge into a club like this.

    However, there were always exceptions. Perhaps the intruder coulde from outside the club rather than from within it.

    ¡­¡­

    "I finally managed to get my hands on a verified dark web ount! Those bureaucrats from the southern congress are so inefficient, they really should''ve been wiped out by the resistance army 30 years ago," Thn grumbled as he looked at the message that had just been sent to hismunicator. "Let''s see what this club is all about... Holy shit!"

    "What''s wrong?"

    "This is a cannibal club!" Thn replied as he showed the message on hismunicator to hispanions.

    "The guy seems to be abnormally driven and obsessive, but he doesn''t seem like a cannibal!"

    The other members of Thn''s team were rather perplexed by this revtion.

    "I don''t think he''s a cannibal at all." Thn was getting very intrigued. "What is he doing here? Could it be that he found some leads pertaining to the Guild of Immortality?"

    Through his investigation into Adam''s activities, Thn had be aware of some of the secrets of this world.

    For example, the previous incident concerning Herman had shown him many interesting things.

    "What should we do, Boss? Should we report this to the southern congress? If we can expose him as a member of a cannibal club, his reputation will surely be swept to the ground! The main reason why he''s untouchable right now is his influence and public image. If we canpletely tarnish his public image, he''ll be screwed!"

    "How long have you been working under me?"

    "I began working under you from back when you were a private detective."

    "Then why are you still so stupid? Why should the general public believe you if you don''t have any evidence? He could easily proim that he infiltrated the club to investigate a case. Many of the previous cases that he''s investigated have been rted to psychotic killers, so this is perfectly in character for him.

    ¡°Also, I don''t want to bring him down so quickly. He''s a very interesting target to investigate! Alright, that''s enough chit-chat. Who''sing in with me?"

    "I''ll go."

    "Me, too."

    "Let''s all go together."

    All of Thn''spanions were eager to follow him, but what Thn revealed to them next had them feeling far less enthusiastic.

    "I''ve received information from the southern congress that we might have to pass a test by eating human meat before we can be granted entry. Do any of you still want toe now?"

    "I''ll stand on lookout duty!"

    "I''ll remain on the outside in case anything goes wrong!"

    "I... Uh... I..."

    The final member of Thn''s team was unable toe up with an excuse.

    "You''re a bunch of spineless cowards! I''ll go in myself," Thn grumbled before making his way to the metal gate, and after being granted entry, he rowed toward the ind at the center of theke on a small boat.

    At this point, Adam and the others had already entered the cannibalistic woman''s psychic world.

    As soon as Adam''s group entered the woman''s psychic world, they immediately detected a familiar atmosphere.

    "There''s no mistaking it, the primary crimson color scheme of her psychic world indicates that there''s definitely a powerful anomaly in here. As for exactly how powerful it is, we''ll have to find out."

    However, in contrast with the primarily dark and oppressive atmosphere of the average disturbed individual, the primary crimson color scheme of this psychic world made one feel as if they had entered the stomach of Satan and were about to be digested at any moment.

    "The anomaly in here has to at least be a level five anomaly." Shae wasn''t as experienced as Adam, but she had still arrived at her own conclusion. "How do we search for it?"

    "In most cases, the birth of an anomaly has something to do with the host''s childhood trauma, so let''s search for the psychic modules in here that contain memories of her childhood."

    As he was speaking, Adam invoked Hellhound and Sludge for himself and Shae to fuse with.

    After that, Adam''s group rushed out onto the street. Adam didn''t care about how he was perceived by the people in the woman''s psychic world, and he was galloping along the street, covering a distance of seven to eight meters with every single stride that he took.

    At this speed, he quickly charge through several connected psychic modules before drawing to a halt.

    "Stop! The buildings here and the electronic products used by the people around us don''t seem to belong to our day and age."

    "You''re right, it looks like a scene from 30 years ago."

    "Sandrise City wasn''t so big back then."

    Mole was the eldest of the three psychic mutants, and he was looking around at the surrounding scene with a nostalgic expression.

    "This should be where the host spent her childhood."

    "What should we do from here?"

    "Let''s split up."

    Under normal circumstances, Adam would''ve been averse to the idea of splitting up out of safety considerations. However, he wanted to be able to hunt down as many targets as possible before the party came to an end.

    He wouldn''t be able toe here again after this, so he had to fully capitalize on this one-off opportunity.

    Most importantly, both he and Shae had be significantly more powerful ofte, so even if they were to run into high-level anomalies while on their own, they would''ve been able to ensure self-preservation, at least for some time.

    As for Mole and Armadillo, there was no need to worry about them. One of them was extremely fast, while the other could burrow into the earth at will, so it was extremely unlikely for them to get caught.

    "If any of you run into any danger, cause as much of amotion as you can right away. This psychic module isn''t very big, so we should be able to look out for one another."

    "Don''t worry so much. Given how massive you are in this form, even if we don''t cause amotion, you''ll be able to see all of us from afar."

    Having established a course of action, the four of them split up and went their separate ways.

    While Adam was traversing through the psychic module, he was simultaneously inspecting his surroundings, making full use of his height to see further into the distance. However, after passing through several streets, he still hadn''t discovered anything. Right as he was considering invoking Nun to aid him in his search, an explosion suddenly rang out in the distance.

    That''s the direction that Shae was going in, and that explosion looks like it came from her Explosive Fireball...

    With that in mind, Adam immediately rushed in that direction without any hesitation.

    With his massive stride length, he was able to arrive at his destination in less than two minutes. Mole had already gotten there ahead of him, and he was locked in a fierce battle against an angel.

    Why is there an angel here?

    While Adam was looking on in befuddlement, another loud explosion rang out from beneath the rubble off to the side, and Shae was sent flying out by a punch from an anomaly,nding right beside Adam.

    Adam took a quick nce at her, and upon determining that her injuries weren''t very severe, he immediately asked, "Why is there a guardian angel here?"

    "That''s here mother. I saw her mother feeding her father to her."

    "So cannibalism runs in the family?" Adam asked. "But what does that have to do with a guardian angel?"

    In all of the psychic worlds that Adam had explored, he had only encountered two psychic guardians, the first of which was Kim Garcia''s father in her psychic world.

    Kim loved Deranged Pig very much, and she was certain that her father would protect her. Hence, in her psychic world, Deranged Pig was a superhuman being.

    The second instance of a psychic guardian that Adam had encountered was in the form of that girl in Li Qi''s psychic world.

    Both of those psychic guardians had provided Adam with a great deal of assistance in his battle against the anomalies in those two psychic worlds.

    However, never had he imagined that there would be a psychic guardian here, and certainly not one that was as powerful as the angel.

    "What the hell are you just standing there for, Adam? I''m about to get killed here!"

    While Adam was observing the unfolding situation, Mole was almost sliced into two by a sh from the angel''s holy sword.

    Thankfully, he was fast enough to dodge the attack, and after doing so, he immediately rushed over to Adam before swatting him on the head.

    "What the fuck are you thinking about?"

    "I''m wondering why there''s a guardian in her psychic world."

 Chapter 332: Seduction

    <h4>Chapter 332: Seduction</h4>

    "What other reason could there be? Clearly, her mother was very good to her, or she perceives her mother as someone who treated her very well and could provide her with a sense of security. Don''t think that nutjobs like us don''t have any emotions. I''m really good to you, aren''t I?"

    While Mole was speaking to Adam, Armadillo also arrived on the scene from another direction, following which he immediately raised the same question as Adam.

    "Why is there a psychic guardian here?"

    "Cut the chit-chat! Let''s kill them first!"

    "You''re right, let''s not waste any more time. We''re here to hunt anomalies, not conduct an investigation."

    While Adam was speaking, the angel had already flown over to everyone, and Adam extended an arm to block the angel''s shing sword.

    The golden holy sword sliced around a meter deep into his arm, but thankfully, the diameter of his arm exceeded a meter in this form.

    After blocking the attack, he sent the angel flying with a punch.

    Immediately thereafter, Shae sprang up into the air, sinking the fangs of her heads into the angel''s neck. At the same time, Mole also released a series of lightning shackles to restrict the angel.

    However, the angel was extremely powerful, and it was able to force back Shae with an eruption of golden holy light, then severed all of the shackles with a sh of its sword.

    "All of you go after the anomaly, and leave the angel to me. As long as the anomaly dies, the angel will also die."

    If the host were to perish, then the psychic guardian would naturally also meet its demise.

    Following that initial sh, Adam had determined that the angel possessed extremely formidable offensive prowess, almost slicing off one of his arms with just a single sh.

    Given its incredible offensive prowess, if any of hispanions were to be struck by one of its attacks, they would''ve most definitely at least sustained grievous injuries, if not killed on the spot. Thankfully, this was the perfect job for Sludge. Even if he couldn''t defeat the angel, he could certainly keep it preupied.

    After establishing a strategy, Adam pounced at the angel before wrapping its entire body in a tight embrace. The angel was constantlyshing out with its sword in retaliation, and before long, around a dozen holes had been stabbed into Adam''s body.

    However, its attack ultimately proved to be futile. Adam''s body possessed sufficient mass to contain the attacks, and thanks to Sludge''s regenerative abilities, he was able to quickly recover from any injuries that were inflicted upon him. While holding tightly onto the angel, Adam invoked Clown and Nun to assist the others in their battle against the anomaly.

    Unfortunately, he couldn''t invoke Distortion here as it was simply too unpredictable in a setting like this. There was no telling who Distortion would target in this situation, and it was very likely that it would hinder the team, rather than be an asset.

    While Adam was holding onto the angel, an intense battle against the anomaly was also unfolding.

    The woman''s anomaly was presented in the form of an archetypal ogre, with a thickset body, heavy breasts, and a massive head with a cavernous mouth.

    It was clear just from its physical appearance that it was a tank with immense offensive prowess.

    Mole had almost fallen to his demise as soon as the battle began.

    He rushed onto the top of the anomaly''s head like a bolt of lightning, and right when he was about to attack the anomaly''s eyes, it suddenly let loose an extremely seductive voice, one that struck even Adam with a sense of captivation despite the fact that he was so far away.

    Mole was far closer to the anomaly than Adam was, so he was naturally even more heavily affected, and he was instantly rooted to the spot as his eyes became filled with love and affection toward the hideous ogre.

    However, the feeling was not mutual, and the ogre grabbed onto him before cing him into its mouth, almost chewing him to bits with its sharp teeth.

    Thankfully, Shae arrived on the scene right in the nick of time, leaping onto the ogre''s neck before forcing its jaws open with her hands so that it couldn''t chomp down on Mole any further.

    "Wake up!"

    Shae''s urgent voice finally snapped Mole back to his senses, and he was extremely rmed as he hurriedly fled in retreat. At this point, gruesome wounds had already been inflicted onto his abdomen, and his internal organs were visible through those wounds.

    "What the hell just happened?"

    "You were seduced just now."

    "By that ugly thing?" Mole was inplete disbelief. "That''s impossible! If I was seduced, then why were you unaffected? Your technomantic resistance can''t be all that high!"

    "Because she''s a woman." As a distant observer, Adam was able to see the entire situation, thereby allowing him to gauge what had just happened. "All of us were affected, but Shae and Nun were fine. I''m assuming that in the real world, this woman often eats her husbands or her lovers by seducing them. As a result, that ability of her psychic body is only effective on male beings."

    "Anomalies have genders?"

    "It appears so. For example, Nun is certainly more feminine than masculine, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "I guess."

    Mole could ept this theory proposed by Adam, and after that close call, he didn''t dare to get close to the anomaly any more, choosing to attack it from afar with his lightning attacks instead.

    However, the effectiveness of those attacks was quite limited.

    The anomaly was like a massive mountain of flesh with superb defensive capabilities, and Mole''s technomantic attacks were rather mediocre in their destructive power to begin with. Hence, he wasn''t able to contribute much to the battle at all.

    Simrly, Armadillo was also wary of falling prey to the ogre''s seduction ability, so he was fighting in a rather cautious manner as well, and they weren''t able to make much progress against the anomaly.

    In terms of overall power, this was approximately a level five anomaly, and at this rate, it was going to take a very long time to kill it.

    "Don''t waste time, Boss. You''ve been injured, so get out here." As Adam was speaking, he was decapitated by the angel''s sword, but he then transformed into a mass of sludge that ensnared the angel''s body from all directions. "After you get out of here, get Rabbit to rece you. She''s a woman, so she''s immune to the anomaly''s seduction ability, and she''s stronger offensively, so she''ll definitely be more useful in this battle."

    "I knew you were a smart guy, Adam! You''re almost as smart as I am!" Mole praised with a hand sped over his wounded abdomen, then opened up a psychic passageway to leave the psychic world.

    From there, it was a waiting game.

    A few minutes passed by, and neither side was able to defeat the other, with the situation reaching an impasse.

    Seven or eight minutester, Rabbit finally arrived.

    "You guys just can''t do anything without me, huh?"

    After arriving on the scene, Rabbit immediately adopted her giant form, gathering soul power on her hands before mming her fists down onto the anomaly''s head, sending it tumbling to the ground.

    "I wanted to take a rest, but it looks like I have to do everything," Rabbit continued in a braggadocious manner.

    After the anomaly was knocked to the ground, a vortex of sand emerged beneath it, and Armadillo''s arms extended out of the sandy vortex to hold down the anomaly.

    Shae certainly wasn''t going to pass up such a fantastic opportunity, pouncing onto the anomaly before sinking the fangs of itsrgest head into its neck. With the head''s immense bite force, she was able to tear off arge chunk of flesh from the anomaly''s body, and ck blood came gushing out of the wound.

    Shae quickly went in for a second bite, and another huge chunk of flesh was torn away.

    In the meantime, Rabbit was umting soul power onto her hands off to the side, and upon umting so much power that she was unable to control it any longer, she thrust her hands forward, pushing all of the soul power into the anomaly''s wounds.

    The anomaly''s entire body instantly began to swell up rapidly like a balloon.

 Chapter 333: Watchdog of the Underworld

    <h4>Chapter 333: Watchdog of the Underworld</h4>

    As the anomaly''s body continued to swell in size, Shae, Rabbit, and Armadillo were all struck by a sense of foreboding, and they quickly fled in all directions before the balloon inevitably burst.

    In the end, a massive explosion rang out, and all three of them were swept up by the resulting shockwaves, sustaining injuries of different levels of severity.

    Armadillo was the one who got off the lightest. After burrowing into the earth, he was shielded from the majority of the explosion''s power, and he was rtively unharmed aside from beingpressed by the earth.

    However, the same didn''t apply to Rabbit and Shae. They had been situated quite close to the anomaly, and it had severely injured both of them with its self-detonation.

    Is it dead?

    While continuing to suppress the guardian angel, Adam backtracked toward the epicenter of the explosion. However, he couldn''t sense any anomalic power in the area, and he immediately yelled out to hispanions, "It''s not dead! It''s still alive!"

    Right at this moment, a burst of crimson light converged in mid-air to form a ball of corruptive blood, which immediately pounced onto Rabbit.

    Rabbit''s pristine white fur was instantly stained bright red, and her already red eyes became an even darker shade of red. After struggling for a while, she suddenly let loose a strange roar.

    "Are you alright?"

    Armadillo emerged from the ground to inspect her condition, but as soon as he got close, Rabbit gathered soul power on her hand before giving him a vicious p.

    Rabbit''s offensive prowess was already extremely formidable, and the force of that p was enhanced even further by the power of the anomaly. Hence, many of Armadillo''s scales were shattered by the blow, and severe injuries were inflicted upon him.

    This could be trouble.

    Aside from Adam, everyone else in his group had been debilitated.

    Shae and Armadillo were severely injured, while Rabbit had been possessed by the anomaly.

    This anomaly possesses some exceptional abilities. If possible, perhaps it would be a good idea to develop it.

    Nun also had a possession ability, but it was only able to possess normal people, and powerless to possess adapters or anomalies. Hence, its possession ability was really only useful for scouting purposes, and it was essentiallypletely useless in battle.

    However, the ogre anomaly''s possession ability was a different story.

    Rabbit''s powers wereparable to those of a level four anomaly. In fact, she was quite formidable, even among level four anomalies.

    This ogre anomaly was only a level five anomaly, so it wasn''t too much more powerful than Rabbit, yet it was still able to possess her after sustaining extremely severe injuries. If Adam could utilize this ability effectively, it could turn the tide in crucial battles.

    In particr, if he ever found himself in a situation where he was surrounded, possessing an enemy and turning them into an ally would immediately create a hole in the encirclement.

    I''m assuming there must be limitations to this ability.

    After swatting Armadillo away, Rabbit immediately set off in pursuit, only to be stopped in her tracks by Clown''s rocket projectiles. Adam took advantage of this opportunity to get a little closer, grabbing onto Rabbit while simultaneously invoking Distortion.

    In this situation, Distortion''s tendency to attack the target closest to itself came in useful, and as soon as it appeared, it immediately pounced onto Rabbit to restrict her with its distortive power.

    Under the sunlight, Rabbit was fighting against her own shadow. Enhanced by the power of a level five anomaly, Rabbit currently possessed superior strength to Distortion, but even so, her mobility was still severely limited, as if her hands and feet had been shackled.

    "Attack her non-vital regions to force out the anomaly!"

    As soon as Adam issued this instruction, Shae immediately unleashed her Infernal Howl ability. As a result, all of her injuries began to rapidly heal, while all of her allies received an instant boost, as if they had been directly injected with stimnts.

    Clown and Nun were unleashing their abilities from afar with all their might, while the wounded Armadillo had also burrowed into the ground, and Distortion''s powers were enhanced even further.

    After letting loose her Infernal Howl, Shae got down onto all-fours, galloping forward like a true wolf. In the blink of an eye, she had already reached Rabbit, and she sank her fangs viciously into Rabbit''s shoulder.

    In the face of everyone''s attacks, crimson light began to appear on Rabbit''s body, and as more and more crimson light appeared, the crimson color of her fur began to fade, while the deranged look in her eyes also gradually receded.

    Finally, all of the crimson light was forced out, and it squirmed momentarily in mid-air before forming an anomaly of blood.

    However, after receiving so many heavy blows and severely depleting its psychic power to unleash its powerful abilities, it was already a spent force.

    The anomaly of blood had only just taken shape when the sandstorm that Armadillo had been preparing this entire time swept through the air, sucking all of the anomaly''s blood dry amid an anguished howl.

    Finally, arge cloud of anomalic power arose to take the anomaly''s ce, and once again, it was time for Adam to reap the spoils.

    Right as Adam was thinking about which anomaly he was going to choose to devour this anomalic power, the guardian angel suddenly let loose a high-pitched shriek after witnessing the demise of the anomaly, and it unleashed the three most powerful sword strikes it had unleashed thus far.

    A vast expanse of golden radiance erupted from the three sword strikes, and after unleashing that string of attacks, the angel vanished into nothingness, while the psychic world also began to disy signs of copse.

    Adam''s body had also been sliced into pieces, but thankfully, Sludge''s regenerative abilities allowed him to easily recover from what would''ve otherwise been a lethal injury. Before he had even fully recovered, he hurriedly withdrew all of his anomalies so that they couldn''t pounce onto the feast of anomalic power.

    The only ones left behind were Sludge and Hellhound, which were fused with himself and Shae, respectively.

    After some careful consideration, Adam decided, "Let''s make Hellhound evolve."

    Due to Hellhound''s synergy with Shae, evolving it came with certain strategic benefits. When not fused with anyone or taking direct instructions from Adam, the anomalies were very stupid in the way that they fought in battles.

    For example, even though Hellhound was quiteparable in power to Clown, the former generally performed far better in battle than thetter thanks to the fact that it was being controlled by Shae.

    Clown was quite a powerful and versatile anomaly, possessing several very useful abilities, but its effectiveness in battle was very limited when left to its own devices.

    Hence, in contrast with enhancing any other one of his anomalies, evolving Hellhound was definitely the superior option.

    In any case, this was only a level five anomaly, so its anomalic power wouldn''t be sufficient to trigger an evolution in Sludge, thereby making it an even easier decision to allocate this anomalic power to Hellhound.

    Shae was very much ted to hear this verdict from Adam.

    After instructing Hellhound to split up with Shae, the anomaly immediately pounced onto the cloud of anomalic power, devouring it eagerly with all three of its heads at once.

    This time, Hellhound managed to devour more of the anomalic power than Adam had anticipated, only stopping after around 80% of the anomalic power had been devoured.

    After that hearty meal, Hellhoundid down onto the ground, and it began to undergo a series of physical changes. Its body was bing stronger, and at the same time, bone spikes began to sprout out of its joints, while ck mist began to permeate out of its body.

    Following thistest evolution, Hellhound''s entire body was enveloped in ck mist, and the anguished howls of the souls of the underworld could be heard ringing out faintly around it. Finally, it was beginning to look the part as the watchdog of the underworld.

 Chapter 334: Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 334: Arrival</h4>

    Of course, Adam wasn''t going to waste the rest of the anomalic power.

    While Hellhound was undergoing its evolution, he invoked Camera and allowed it to devour what remained of the anomalic power.

    Even though there wasn''t much left, the anomalic power had been left behind by a high-level anomaly, so it was enough to trigger an evolution in Camera as well, transforming it into a level three anomaly that was even more powerful than it had been at its previous peak.

    Adam had always wanted to evolve Camera as quickly as possible. Even though Camera was extremely fragile and also rather mediocre in direct battle, its incredible offensive prowess and abilities made it an exceptional surprise trump card.

    "We don''t have much time left, so I''ll get you to test out your new abilities in the psychic world of our next target."

    The psychic world was about to copse, and Adam didn''t waste any more time with words as he promptly departed.

    Following his departure, all of his anomalies also vanished.

    A slightly forlorn look appeared on Shae''s face as her gaze lingered momentarily on the spot where Hellhound had just vanished, following which she also departed with everyone.

    After returning to the real world, they were still in the same luxurious room as before.

    At this point, the woman on the bed had already fallenpletely still, and Adam approached her to examine her vital signs. After experiencing psychic death, some people would also suffer from brain trauma, while those who were lucky would be spared such a fate.

    It was clear that this woman didn''t fall into that category of lucky individuals, and her vital signs were already on the wane.

    Mole had been responsible for lookout duty, and after everyone returned to the real world, he pointed at the woman on the bed as he asked, "What do we do with her body? Toss it to the crocodiles?"

    "In a club like this, there may not be any cameras in the rooms out of consideration for the privacy of its members, but I''m certain that there are cameras in the corridors outside," Adam said. "Just leave her here. Lock the door, and it should take quite some time before anyone discovers her. What time is it right now?"

    Adam opened hismunicator as he spoke to find that it was 8:45 PM, which meant that they had stayed in the psychic world for around 20 to 30 minutes.

    "Looks like we still have a lot of time. Let''s go find our next target."

    After taking a moment to adjust his clothes, Adam departed from the room with hispanions with a pleased look on his face. He was thest one to leave the room, and prior to his departure, he used the enhanced strength granted to him by his prosthetics to warp the doortch slightly. That way, even if someone had a key or the password to the passcode lock, they wouldn''t be able to open the door.

    After leaving the room, Adam made his way down to the first floor just in time to see someone making their way into the club. It seemed that they had justpleted the test as well, and they were wearing a strange homemade mask, but that wasn''t what had drawn Adam''s attention to him.

    At this point, Adam''s telegnosis was quite well-developed. The main benefit that he had received from being involuntarily fused to Clown was that his telegnosis had been enhanced. At the moment, he could sense his own telegnosis slowly being honed further and further each time any of his anomalies grew stronger.

    There''s something fishy about that guy...

    Even though the masked figure appeared rather innocuous, Adam felt a hint of difort when looking at him.

    That man''s telegnosis seemed to be even sharper than Adam''s, and Adam had only been looking at him for less than five seconds when the man raised his head to meet his gaze. Beneath the mask was a pair of hawk-like eyes that seemed to be able to see through everything. This feeling of being stripped bare sent a chill running down Adam''s spine, and he unconsciously stopped in his tracks.

    The masked man seemed to be able to sense Adam''s apprehension, and the look in his eyes immediately softened, following which the difort that Adam was feeling alsopletely faded.

    It was as if everything that he had felt just now had been nothing more than an illusion.

    Am I just overly sensitive because I just came out of the psychic world, or is he actually a potent threat to me?

    Adam was rather perplexed, but it was always better to be safe than sorry, so he was more inclined to believe thetter option.

    Hence, even after making his way down to the first floor, he still made sure to take a nce at the masked man from time to time.

    However, the masked man was behaving in a very calm and collected fashion. In fact, he was even trying out all of the dishes beingid out on the tables, and that made Adam partially drop his guard.

    After all, even if the southern congress or the Guild of Immortality had sent someone to investigate him, they most likely weren''t going to send a psychic mutant for the job. All psychic mutants werepletely deranged and impossible to control. In fact, despite how erratic the three brothers could be at times, they were actually rtively sane among psychic mutants.

    There were psychic mutants out there who were far more deranged than them, and those people couldn''t be trusted to do anything.

    Hopefully, I was just overly sensitive.

    While Adam was still keeping an eye on the masked man, most of his attention was focused on searching for more prey.

    His initial idea was to strike up a conversation with someone, just as he had done with the woman from earlier, but most of the people in the restaurant were purely here for the meal, and they were interested in conversation. Furthermore, he wasn''t eating any of the food on the tables, so that made everyone else even less inclined to talk to him.

    After that, Adam paid a visit to the bathroom to see if he could find some stragglers.

    However, due to how luxurious the ce was, the bathroom was massive, and people were constantlying and going, so there weren''t any suitable opportunities to strike. After all, they weren''t here to carry out assassinations. Killing someone would''ve perhaps only taken two seconds, but killing a powerful anomaly could take dozens of minutes, perhaps even longer than that.

    Thus, Adam was forced to abandon his bathroom strategy as well.

    In the end, an opening appeared on Rabbit''s end.

    After returning to the first floor, she began wandering aimlessly, eating anything that caught her interest, and it was her rxed and carefree demeanor that attracted attention from some of the other restaurant patrons.

    In addition to that, she had an exceptional figure. Even her disguise couldn''t conceal her attractive body, and thus, it didn''t take long before someone approached her to strike up a conversation.

    "I''ve been here quite a few times, but very rarely do I find a woman who enjoys the heart. It''s a very good cut of meat, but unfortunately, not many people know how to appreciate it."

    Rabbit was chewing noisily on something when she raised her head to discover a gentleman next to her, and without putting any thought into her response, she replied, "This stuff has a great texture. It''s very chewy, and I prefer chewy things over foods with softer textures."

    "Is that right? I like this type of texture as well. It makes me think of a beating heart, as if eating it is the equivalent of injecting someone else''s life force into my own body."

    "It''s not that deep for me, I just think it tastes good."

    Rabbit was chatting with the gentleman as she ate, and her pure and unfiltered attitude was making the gentleman more and more interested in her by the second.

    After a brief conversation, he invited her to his booth.

    "I reserved a private booth today, and I would like to invite you toe and dine with me. May I have this honor?" the gentleman asked as he extended a slight bow and offered a hand to Rabbit.

    Rabbit reflexively wanted to refuse, but thankfully, she had just enough mental wherewithal to remember the objective for this trip, and she took a nce in Adam''s direction before nodding in response.

    "Let''s go."

    The two of them departed from the hall, and the man said something to the butler before taking Rabbit to a private booth.

    The style of the decor and furnishings inside the booth was different from what was outside. The hall had been constructed in the Byzantine style, but the construction of the booth was in a minimalistic Japanese style. The wooden doors, paper windows, short tables, and the peaceful ssical Japanese music ying all contributed to a sense of peace and serenity.

    Not long after the two of them sat down, a group of Japanese chefs ced a series of small dishes onto their tables, containing things like wasabi, soy sauce, and various different types of snacks.

    After that, the main dish for the day was brought out, and it was a living person who had been tied up like a tuna.

 Chapter 335: Combining Body and Soul

    <h4>Chapter 335: Combining Body and Soul</h4>

    "This restaurant is able to stand out among the many restaurants on the dark web, not just because of their exceptional chefs, but also because there''s a focus on the concept of soul, outside of just the three pirs of presentation, aroma, and taste.

    ¡°What they seek to offer here is an experience for both the body and the soul," the gentleman introduced. "This used to be one of my subordinates. I trusted her very much, and I was very good to her, assigning her many important jobs, but unfortunately, she betrayed my trust."

    "I didn''t, Boss! I was framed..."

    While the gentleman was setting the scene for Rabbit, the tied-up individual began to try and exin herself.

    The gentleman waved a dismissive hand, and one of the chefs jammed a special tool into her mouth to silence her.

    "I came to discover that not only was she using thepany''s money for her own private ends, and she was also working with people outside of thepany to take over certain projects in order to profit those people. Even after I discovered something wasn''t quite right, I still didn''t suspect her.

    ¡°Instead, I asked her to carry out an investigation, but she abused the power given to her to eliminate those in thepany who opposed her. What do you think I should do to a person like her?"

    "If it were me, I would definitely kill her," Adam replied, then took a nce at the entrance of the booth.

    Adam and the others still hadn''te in yet, most likely due to the fact that there were so many chefs who were still in the booth.

    Rabbit wasn''t a very strategic or tactful person, and she pointed directly at the chefs as she asked, "When are they going to leave?"

    "In Japanese cuisine, raw dishes are a major specialty, and as I''m sure you can imagine, eating raw human meat is a far rare opportunity than dining on sashimi. All of these chefs possess exceptional knife skills and understanding of human anatomy, allowing them to avoid all major arteries while slicing flesh off a human subject.

    ¡°In ancient times, there was a form of punishment in the east known as ''death by 1,000 cuts''. 1,000 slices of flesh must be removed from the subject''s body, and they must remain alive throughout the entire process. Only exceptional knife masters are able to carry out this type of torture..."

    "Alright, so when are they going to leave?"

    "They''ll leave when we''re past the halfway point in our meal."

    Rabbit''s repeated questioning was getting on the gentleman''s nerves, but he was able to keep his cool and return to the original topic.

    "Even after I chose to give her my trust many times, she still chose to betray my trust every single time. If I go the legal route, her punishment won''t be very severe at all because this is a business crime. At the very most, she''ll be ordered to pay somepensation and locked up a few years. After shees out, she could even start over again.

    ¡°However, the losses that I''ve suffered and the resentment that I feel for her will permanently remain. Hence, I brought her here. She must pay for her crimes, and the legal system simply won''t be able to deliver the justice that I desire."

    The gentleman made his way over to the woman as he spoke, then pulled out her gag before indicating for the chefs to begin.

    With a swift slice of a sharp knife, a sliver of flesh that was as thin as a cicada''s wing was removed from her body, then ced onto a elegant dish. The gentleman dipped the slice of flesh in some wasabi and soy sauce, then consumed it amid the woman''s agonized howls.

    After that, the woman began to beg for mercy, but her pleas fell upon deaf ears.

    A few slicester, her pleas for mercy turned into violent cursing, only to quickly revert back to blood-curdling screams.

    In the end, even her screams had be extremely feeble, trailing off into barely audible groans as the gentleman continued to enjoy his meal.

    "What a wonderful thing this is. Every single slice is a blissful experience for both the body and the soul. Just eating her flesh alone without witnessing her suffering would not have been anywhere near as cathartic, wouldn''t you agree?"

    "That''s true," Rabbit replied as she plonked her legs onto the table, making no effort to mind her manners. "Killing an enemy is definitely a cathartic experience. I have a friend who''s so obsessed with hunting down his enemy that he finds no enjoyment in anything in life. You know how to enjoy life far better than he does. You should enjoy yourself while you still can..."

    Not long after Rabbit''s voice trailed off, the chefs finally prepared all the food, and after wishing the two patrons an enjoyable culinary experience, all of them departed from the booth.

    Shortly thereafter, the man picked up a slice of meat with his chopsticks, and he was just about to say something to Rabbit when he discovered that the woman next to him had suddenly transformed into a giant white rabbit.

    What the hell?

    The man smacked himself on the cheek to find that he could still experience pain, but the pain was rather muffled and surreal.

    At this point, he had already figured out what was happening.

    This isn''t the real world! When was my psychic world invaded?

    He had traveled extensively for business purposes all over the world, and unlike the average person, he had encountered many adapters during his travels. In fact, he had even experienced what it was like to have his psychic world invaded on multiple asions.

    Hence, he was immediately able to sense that something was amiss, but it was already toote.

    In the next instant, the boothpletely copsed, and the massive palm of a stone giant that was even more massive than the booth itself smashed through the ceiling before crashing down upon the gentleman''s head.

    The gentleman couldn''t react in time and was smashed straight into the ground.

    The average person would''ve undoubtedly been crushed into mincemeat by such an almighty blow, to the extent that it would''ve been impossible to discern their flesh and blood from the soil down below.

    However, in the gentleman''s psychic world, he was an anomaly, not an average person.

    "Are you an adapter?" The voice of the gentleman rang out from the ground beneath the booth, following which an anomaly in a ck cape slowly flew out from the crater that had been smashed into the ground by Sludge''s palm. "You''re a very powerful adapter. Just the power of that blow alone far exceeds the power of the vast majority of adapters that I''ve seen. May I ask what I''ve done to wrong you?"

    The anomaly rose up into the air as it spoke, revealing itself to be a vampire.

    Adam had encountered a simr anomaly in the past, but this one was looking far more regal and elegant.

    If he had topare the two, then the previous vampire that he had encountered could only have been considered to be a vampire of the lowest rank, while this one had to have at least been a count.

    After rising up into the air, the anomaly didn''t immediately retaliate. Instead, it began to speak to Adam.

    Adam was also quite curious to see an anomaly like ths, and he asked, "You can speak? I''ve encountered many anomalies in the past, but not many of them possess sentience and autonomy like you do."

    The majority of the anomalies that Adam had encountered in the past had beenpletely deranged, with Raven being the only exception.

    Aside from Raven, this was the only other anomaly Adam had encountered that was capable ofpletely controlling its host''s psychic body.

    "In the beginning, I was unable to control myself, either. I felt like I was in a fever dream, unable to control or predict anything. The more I tried to not do something, the more I would push myself into doing that very thing. However, after an extensive amount of training, I was finally able to wrest back control."

    "Training? What kind of training?"

    Adam had heard of training for adapters, but never had he heard of any training methods for anomalies.

    "You still haven''t answered my question yet."

    "You haven''t done anything to wrong me," Adam replied, finally answering the anomaly''s first question. "I cam here to kill you purely because I want to test out my powers."

    "That''s a very unreasonable exnation, but I believe you," the vampire replied with an elegant nod. "In exchange, I''ll answer your question. Aside from the training methods adopted by adapters, there are many niche psychic training methods out there, most of which evolved from religions and meditation techniques of the past.

    ¡°I train using a dream technique from a secret eastern sect. The training process is extremely arduous, but so is anything that''s worth pursuing. Thanks to my training, I''ve managed to survive two psychic assassinations. This is the third time, and you are by far the most powerful psychic hitmen I''ve had to face."

 Chapter 336: An Intelligent Battle

    <h4>Chapter 336: An Intelligent Battle</h4>

    "I see."

    After hearing what the vampire had to say, Adam thought of Dead Wood and his two disciple brothers, as well as Medusa and the others.

    North America wasn''t the only continent in this world, and there were more psychic training methods out there than just the "scientifically sound" methods proposed by the Psychic Church. The psychic world was a domain that had only seen exploration for the past few decades, and there were many strange things that hadn''t been revealed to the public.

    Perhaps those strange things were inherently evil, so even if they had been discovered by the Psychic Church, these things weren''t going to be made public knowledge.

    "Shall we have a chat?"

    "About what?"

    "You just said that there''s no bad blood between us, so I''m sure you don''t necessarily have to kill me. In that case, why can''t you choose another target?"

    Instead of attacking right away, Adam was happy to continue this discussion.

    "It''s not easy to find a straggler in here. I may only have two or three opportunities to strike tonight, what makes you think I''ll let you go?"

    The fact that he was willing to speak to the anomaly indicated a sense of wariness, stemming primarily from the fact that he couldn''t tell just how powerful this opponent was.

    "Indeed, many negotiations have onlye about at the conclusions of wars. We can battle it out first, and if you feel like killing me wouldn''t be worth the price you''d have to pay to do so, then please let me go. Of course, I assure you that I won''t leak what happened here to anyone."

    Despite the peril that he was in, the vampire was very calm and collected, and its demeanor reminded Adam of Raven.

    "You can rest assured that I''ll keep my promise. Those who don''t keep their promises won''t be able to go very far in life, wouldn''t you agree?"

    Adam crouched down so that his massive head was visible to the vampire, and he then nodded in response.

    "If you win, then you''ll naturally get to live!"

    As soon as his voice trailed off, Adam immediately threw a punch at the vampire, which was evaded by the anomaly amid a sh of red light.

    Adam followed up with a barrage of attacks, all of which also failed to hit their mark.

    These rooms are really annoying!

    In this massive form, fighting indoors was quite a disadvantage for Adam. Thankfully, the cannibal club had been constructed on a massive estate, and with Adam intentionally going on a spree of destruction, all of the walls were quickly knocked down, reducing the entire club to a huge pile of rubble.

    Much better now.

    With all of the rooms knocked down, the ind outside waspletely visible again, and Adam continued in his attack. He had thought that things would be easier this time, but to his surprise, the vampire was able to dodge his attacks far more easily than before, as if it had grown ustomed to the rhythm of his attacks.

    In fact, not only was it dodging all of Adam''s attacks with ease, it was even beginning to retaliate, sending several crimson des shing through the air.

    The crimson des crashed into Adam''s giant body, but were only able to inflict several shallow marks.

    The prative power of its technomantic attacks was far inferior to that of the guardian angel in that woman''s psychic world.

    "Your defenses are exceptional. Are you a defensive-type adapter?"

    Instead of persisting with a mode of attack that clearly wasn''t going to work, the vampire quickly changed its strategy. Instead of unleashing any further destructive technomantic abilities, red light began to glow from its body.

    "I''ve done a lot of homework on defensive-type adapters like yourselves. Generally speaking, all of you are quite weak to debilitating abilities."

    The vampire raised its arms as it spoke, and as it did so, red light began to radiate from Adam''s body as well. The light was constantly emerging from his body like some kind of radiant mist before being drawn into the vampire''s body.

    From that instant, Adam could feel his own life force seeping away at a slow but steady rate.

    "That''s a very sound strategy."

    Indeed, this type of life force leeching ability was most effective against highly destructive tanks like Sludge.

    Adam wanted to retaliate, but the vampire drew an array in the air, following which the earth beneath Adam''s feet immediately became as soft and viscous as a pit of blood. The technomantic array itself also possessed restrictive properties, thereby severely restricting Adam''s mobility.

    Following that initial sh, Adam was able to roughly gauge the power level of this anomaly.

    It was roughly a level six anomaly, possessing superior overall power to Sludge. Adam felt like he would be able to gain the upper hand with the help of all of his other anomalies, but it was most likely going to be very difficult to take down such a formidable opponent.

    Thankfully, he wasn''t here alone.

    "Can we negotiate now?"

    Even afterpletely restricting Adam''s movements, the vampire still wanted to negotiate, but right as it thought that it had weathered the storm, theke, the ground, and the rubble beneath him exploded in unison as a three-headed werewolf, an armadillo, and a rabbit pounced at him at once from three different directions.

    "You have allies?"

    For the first time, a fearful look appeared on the anomaly''s face, breaking through his calm and elegant facade.

    To his horror, he discovered that the three-headed werewolf seemed to be an even more formidable opponent than the stone giant.

    Even though the three of them had sprung forth at once, Shae was the first one to reach their target.

    Following Hellhound''stest evolution, Shae''s powers had received a significant boost, allowing her to stand toe to toe against level five anomalies. Furthermore, Hellhound''s offensive prowess far exceeded that of Sludge, making it far more useful in one-on-one battles.

    This feels awesome!

    As she sped through the air, Shae could feel unprecedented power coursing through her veins as shetched onto the vampire''s cape.

    The vampire immediately tried to get away once again by transforming into a burst of crimson light, but Shae appeared directly above it in a sh.

    "You''re not getting away!"

    In this ssic battle between the vampire and the werewolf, it was thetter that gained the upper hand, with Shae''srgest head chomping down onto the vampire''s shoulder.

    Following itstest evolution, Hellhound''s bite force had be even more formidable, instantly biting through the vampire''s shoulder with a loud crack as if it were nothing more than a piece of hard candy.

    The vampire gave a pained groan, and it released a burst of red light out of its hand to immobilize Shae. At the same time, the wound on its shoulder was constantly squirming and healing from the life force that it was absorbing from Adam.

    Up to this point, the vampire had been forced onto the back foot, but it was still able to hold its own. Unfortunately, it was facing four opponents rather than just two.

    The third one to arrive on the scene was Rabbit. She had sprung out of the rubble of the destroyed cannibal clubhouse before mming a palm against the vampire''s head, shattering its skull with her tremendous power.

    The final one to join the party was Armadillo, and he wasshing out repeatedly with his sharp ws while yellow sand swirled all around him, and it didn''t take long before the sand was saturated with the vampire''s blood.

    With Adam and his threepanions attacking the vampire at once, the situation was quickly bing dire.

    In a battle of life and death like this, once an advantage of this magnitude was secured by either side, the losing side was prone to be killed at any moment, particrly when their psychic body didn''t possess exceptional physical resistance.

    The vampire was a very intelligent anomaly, and it knew that if things were to continue like this, then it wasn''t going to be able tost much longer. Hence, it immediately unleashed all of its power at once, initiating a blood explosion at the cost of an immense amount of psychic power.

    Everyone was blown back by the force of the explosion with the exception of a single person, whom the vampire had grabbed onto.

    Rabbit''s been captured!

    Adam was furthest away from the battle, so he was able to see everything that was happening.

 Chapter 337: Monopoly

    <h4>Chapter 337: Monopoly</h4>

    "Can we have a chat now?"

    The blood mist in the sky faded, and the vampire was looking nowhere near as elegant andposed as before. It had sustained many wounds to various parts of its body, and it was also looking quite weary and ragged from excessive psychic power expenditure.

    However, it was still able to maintain a stranglehold over Rabbit, digging its long nails firmly into her neck. Those nails had pierced through her skin, and blood was seeping out onto her white fur.

    "I admit my defeat. I''ve never even heard of a band of psychic hitmen as formidable as yourselves. Even the most powerful hitmen organizations on the dark web would struggle to produce such a fearsome lineup. In the Oni Organization, only the eight Onise close to your level, so admitting defeat here is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I would say that all of you are powerful enough to be granted entry into the Guild of Immortality."

    "You know of the Guild of Immortality as well?"

    This was an intriguing subject for Adam, so he didn''t mind having a conversation with the vampire. Of course, he also had no choice, given that Rabbit had been taken hostage.

    This battle had presented a vastly contrasting experiencepared with the previous battle they had just fought in, and it showed Adam the difference between battling a normal anomaly and an intelligent anomaly.

    Normal anomalies were extremely vicious, so if one didn''t possess superior power to such an anomaly, then they were going to be in for a very difficult battle. Even in defeat, these anomalies would choose to self-detonate without any hesitation in order to take down their opponents with them.

    In contrast, intelligent anomalies that were controlled by the host were far less extreme, but also far more cunning.

    They were capable of implementing coherent strategies and tactics, and even if they were to fall to a disadvantage, they would try to use their intelligence to put an end to the battle. Unlike normal anomalies, their main objective wasn''t to win. Instead, it was to survive.

    However, in Adam''s mind, there was still a fundamental difference between the average person and an anomaly being controlled by its host.

    Those who were able to ovee the vicious and brutal nature of anomalies and tame them had to be calmer and more steadfast than the average person, but also more snide and cunning. This vampire was a prime example of this. The calmness and decisiveness that it had disyed in battle was something that even Adam was willing to admit that he was unable to match, despite enduring more than his fair share of perilous battles himself.

    Some things were far easier said than done, and making the correct split-second decision while in a state of peril was one of the most difficult things that one could do.

    "Of course I''m aware of the Guild of Immortality."

    The vampire could tell that Adam was interested in this subject, and it was eager to continue the conversation.

    Deep down, it wasn''t certain whether Adam would be willing to ept negotiation as a course of action. In its eyes, the majority of hitmen in hitmen organizations didn''t care all that much for the lives of their subordinates, so it was naturally a good thing if he could defuse the situation.

    "I once tried to join the Guild of Immortality, but I was rejected," the vampire continued, and in order to earn Adam''s trust, it didn''t hesitate to reveal some secrets about itself. "I am a freight merchant, and I''m already quite an old man. Back in my heyday, I was quite a renowned and wealthy figure in North America, but unfortunately, immortality technology didn''t yet exist back then."

    Adam knew that by immortality technology, the vampire was actually referring to nk te technology. He was certain that the vampire''s host was aware of the massive scam that the Metaverse was peddling.

    nk te technology had onlye around in the past two decades or so, and back then, it had still been at a very rudimentary stage in its development. In fact, that was the reason why Shae''s "grandfather" had perished.

    Even now, Shae still hadn''t yet reached 20 years of age.

    The fact that he was more than 20 years past the peak of his wealth and influence indicated that he had to be in his sixties or seventies, or even older than that.

    After all, in the freight and shipping industry, even if he had inherited an empire, he would''ve had to have been at least 40 years of age before reached his peak.

    "Ever since World War III 30 years ago, vacuum tract transportation technology has been constantly developing. In the past, the transport industry was primarily driven by oil and gas, but now, there are more and more things that can be transported through vacuum tracts, and even interstate freight is possible now.

    ¡°Hence, the shipping industry has been on a constant decline. I considered venturing into other industries, but given the monopolistic culture at the moment, it''s easy to earn some money, but extremely difficult to be the leading figure of any industry."

    "Why did the Guild of Immortality reject you, and how did you get into contact with them?"

    "When you''re in the business world for a long time, you''ll always end up meeting all types of different people. As a result, you''ll gain ess to more information ande to learn about certain things. Some of my past business partners are members of the Guild of Immortality, so it was only a matter of time before I learned about the organization."

    "They rejected you just because your industry is on the decline?"

    "That''s right. They need members with true power and influence. A dying industry like this can perhaps still earn me some money, but it''s nothing more than the futile struggles of an old man in their eyes."

    "Why did you want to join the Guild of Immortality?"

    "Because I want to live forever, and they control the safest route to immortality," the vampire replied in a very straightforward manner.

    "Are you referring to nk tes? You''re saying they have a monopoly on nk tes? Surely that''s not possible."

    "They don''t have a monopoly, but the vast majority of nk tes are connected to them in one way or another. On top of that, nk tes are actually just like organs in that only the mostpatible nk tes with someone can ensure that no rejection urs. They are the only ones with aprehensive catalog of nk tes to choose from, and they also have the most cutting-edge technology, thereby maximizing one''s chances of survival."

    This was the first time that Adam had been made aware of this information.

    As it turned out, one couldn''t just use any nk te that they pleased, and even with apatible nk te, cutting-edge medical technology had to be used to ensure the best survival rate.

    With these two barriers to entry, the Guild of Immortality did indeed virtually have a monopoly over the immortality market.

    "I see."

    Adam really wanted to explore this man''s psychic world, but this clearly wasn''t the right time to do so.

    There was a limit to how long one would generally take to enjoy a meal, so the servers of the restaurant could pass by at any moment, and in addition to that, Adam was also running on a tight schedule.

    "Let''s go back to negotiation. I agree with your earlier proposal. Let my friend go, and we won''t kill you. However, I have to also be sure that you won''t sell us out on the spot once we leave the psychic world."

    "That''s simple, I''ll reveal some of my identification information to you so that you know who I am in real life. With that information at your disposal, given the power of the organization behind you, you''ll be able easily exact revenge on me if I go back on my word.

    ¡°As soon as you leave the psychic world, you''ll be able to contact whoever it is you need to contact using yourmunicator. However, you have to leave right after you learn my identity. Otherwise, if you decide not to hold up your end of the deal after I return my hostage to you, I''ll bepletely screwed. "

    "Alright."

    Adam agreed to this proposal with a nod.

    After that, he immediately departed, hurriedly exploring a nearby psychic module to learn the man''s identity before departing from the psychic world with Shae and Armadillo.

    After returning to the real world, the first thing that Adam did was make his way to the booth that the man and Rabbit were in from the neighboring room.

    By the time he arrived, Rabbit and the man had also already opened their eyes.

    Upon seeing Adam''s arrival, the man said in a quiet voice, "Rest assured, I''ll keep my promise, but if you''re thinking about going back on our agreement, I''ve already pressed down my pager."

    The man raised his hand as he spoke, and sure enough, he was holding a pager with a button already pressed down, so it would release a piercing rm tone as soon as his finger was removed from the button.

 Chapter 338: The Truth

    <h4>Chapter 338: The Truth</h4>

    After assessing the situation, Adam turned his attention to Rabbit.

    "Are you alright?"

    "I''m fine."

    All psychic mutants possessed superhuman psychic recovery abilities, so she had alreadyrgely recovered.

    Rabbit stood up as she spoke, and after giving the man a punch, she turned her gaze toward the woman, who was still hanging onto life by a thread.

    "Please... kill... me..." the woman implored, and Rabbit picked up a knife before plunging it into her neck to put her out of her misery, then stepped over her body to arrive by Adam''s side.

    Mole had been standing on lookout duty, so he had no idea what had happened, and he asked, "What happened? Was the guy too strong to beat? Are we alright to just leave like this?"

    "I''ll tell you about what happened in thereter. Let''s get out here for now."

    With that, Adam and his group left the booth, taking care not to attract any attention to themselves.

    Even after arriving in the hall, Adam was still extremely alert. If that man were to go back on his word, then he and hispanions would have to get ready for battle at the drop of a hat.

    However, the man did keep his promise.

    In other words, he chose to keep silent as he didn''t want to face potential retaliation from Adam''s backers.

    "What should we do from here?" Shae asked. "Do we stay or do we leave?"

    "Let''s get out of here. That woman upstairs has been dead for a while now, and the party''s also progressed past its halfway mark. On top of that, our cover''s been blown, so it would be too risky to stay here any longer."

    "But it''s such a shame that we only managed to hunt down one anomaly."

    Shae was very greedy as she had an intense yearning for power.

    "It is indeed a shame, but we have to cut our losses. We can hide in ambush on the way out to see if we can capture a few stragglers."

    "That''s a brilliant idea!" Mole said as he patted Adam on the shoulder. "As expected of a brother of mine."

    Thus, after a brief discussion, Adam and his group left the cannibal club.

    No examination was conducted on them on the way out, and they were able to leave without a hitch. At this point, it was already veryte at night, and Adam and his group departed from the ind on a small boat.

    The gentleman who was still in the club finally heaved a sigh of relief as he watched Adam and the others leave the clubhouse, and there was still a hint of lingering fear in his heart from that near-death experience.

    The older I get, the more I fear death,?the gentlemanmented internally.

    Thinking back to when he was 30 years of age, he had been an avid adventurist, often going on long voyages by sea.

    He had almost lost his life countless times during the violent storms out at sea, but never had he been fearful for his life.

    However, as an old man, all he wanted was to be able to survive and find a path to immortality.

    Regardless of whether it be injecting a young person''s blood into his own body, taking different medications, or switching to a different body altogether, he was willing to do anything as long as he could live.

    Right as the gentleman was caught up in his own thoughts, a hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder.

    He was quite startled by this sudden contact, and he hurriedly turned around to find aplete stranger standing behind him.

    "Are you with those people from before? We''ve already made an agreement, so please don''t bother me any further."

    "No, I''m not with them. In fact, I''m an enemy of theirs, and I wanted to ask you some things."

    "My apologies, but I have no interest in getting involved in your conflict," the gentleman said with a shake of his head. "If I had known that this meal would be such a troublesome affair, I would''ve nevere here. I was very much looking forward to this, but now, I''m in a terrible mood."

    "Likewise, I''m in a foul mood myself." Indeed, having eaten so much human meat to fit in, Thn''s stomach was currently churning violently, and he had a feeling that the first thing he would do after returning home would be throw up everything in his stomach. "Hence, I don''t want to leave this ce empty-handed. If I don''t get the information I came here to find, no one gets to leave!"

    Thn lifted his jacket slightly as he spoke, revealing the special psychic police badge inside.

    "I''m a special psychic police officer, and there are more of my colleagues waiting outside. If you don''t cooperate with me, then all of the psychos in this club, including yourself, will be sent to rot away in Darvaza Prison for the rest of your lives!" Thn threatened in a cold and menacing voice.

    The gentleman heaved a heavy sigh upon hearing this, then asked, "Will you spare me if I tell you everything?"

    "That depends on whether you have sufficiently valuable information for me to justify letting you go. Let''s talk in the booth."

    Thn led the gentleman into the nearest booth as he spoke.

    Through inspecting the man''s memories, Thn was quickly made aware of everything that had just happened, following which he fell into deep thought.

    Getting stronger through battle is indeed the fastest way for an adapter to improve, but why did hee here of all ces?

    Thn recalled thatst time, Adam had gone to Darvaza Prison and sought out several inmates suffering from mental problems to conduct an investigation, ultimately resulting in the death of one of those inmates.

    Right as Thn was pondering the situation, amotion suddenly rang out outside the booth.

    He rushed outside to see some people gathered on the second floor, and spurred on by his inquisitive personality, he immediately made his way upstairs before squeezing his way through the crowd, upon which he discovered a woman holding onto the lifeless body of another woman while yelling furiously at surrounding clubhouse employees.

    "Why is my friend dead? I was wondering why I couldn''t find her! This club has to take responsibility! This ce can''t even ensure the basic safety of its members! Where''s that man who came up here with her? We have to find him!"

    ¡­¡­

    By listening to themotion that was taking ce, Thn was able to make sense of the situation.

    This woman was most likely a friend of the woman who had been killed. They hadn''t arrived together, but they had agreed to meet up at the club at an agreed-upon time. However, after arriving at the club, the woman was unable to find her friend.

    After receiving ess to the security footage, she discovered that her friend had entered a room with another man. Initially, she didn''t pay much heed to this, merely thinking that this was another one of her friend''s flirtatious flings. However, the footage showed that the man left the room not long after they entered it, but her friend remained failed to emerge.

    She was unable to get through to her friend viamunicator, so she made her way up to the room on the second floor, and upon discovering the state of the locked door, she knew something was terribly wrong.

    Thn strode forward to examine the woman''s cause of death, and he quickly determined that she had most likely suffered brain death.

    After making this assessment, Thn was all but certain that Adam had been responsible for this.

    So he targeted another psychic deviant before that man from earlier. Is he able to somehow rapidly improve himself through battling these psychic deviants?

    After connecting all the dots, that was the conclusion that Thn had arrived at.

    At this point, he knew Adam very well, and he knew that Adam was a pragmatist.

    He hade all this way and taken quite a significant risk, and the only usible exnation for his actions was that he could somehow benefit immensely from this trip.

    .

    I feel like I''ve heard of this self-improvement method from somewhere else before...

    Thn pulled out hismunicator, and after some thorough research, he finally found what he was looking for in an old news article from several decades ago.

    Back in his younger days, the ruler of Shadow City also had a simr period in his life where he went around seeking out and killing psychic deviants. During that period, his powers were?elevated very quickly, bringing him to the top of the adapter pyramid in just two short years. Could it be that Adam has some type of connection to the lord of Shadow City?

    The more Thn uncovered, the more excited he became. He felt like he was already very close to the truth.

 Chapter 339: Minor Radiation Zone

    <h4>Chapter 339: Minor Radiation Zone</h4>

    It was gettingter andter into the night, and Adam was situated on a small road in Zephyr Town. This was one of the roads that could be taken to leave the town from the ind, and the rest of his group were all split apart and waiting on different roads in order to abduct as many people as possible.

    Looks like it''s about time...

    Adam took a nce at hismunicator to find that it was already close to midnight, which meant that the restaurant''s patrons had to be on the way home soon.

    Sure enough, after waiting a few more minutes, he spotted a luxury car in the distance.

    Generally speaking, those who came to the town for a vacation wouldn''t drive such a luxury car. Hence, Adam had paid close attention to all of the luxury cars that had passed by before this, and this one was no exception.

    Right as the car passed him by, Adam caught sight of a man sitting in the car, a man who was still yet to remove his disguise.

    This wasn''t just a simple disguise like makeup or a mask. Instead, it was some type ofplex essory, and from the style, Adam was able to immediately identify the man as a patron of the cannibal club.

    After identifying his prey, Adam immediately set off in pursuit of the car, lunging forward beforeunching himself into the air above the car using the jetpack on his back.

    As he came crashing heavily down onto the roof of the car, the spider legs on his back plunged into the car''s sunroof before destroying it violently.

    The driver was greatly startled by this, and he instinctively cried out in rm, but his voice drew to an abrupt halt as he was quickly knocked out by a swift punch from Adam.

    After knocking the driver unconscious, Adam made his way into the car, parking it by the side of the road before setting it on fire and dragging his prey away.

    10 minutester, Adam reunited with all of hispanions at a predetermined location. Meanwhile, Mechguard units had already arrived in the town outside. Even though Zephyr Town was a tourist destination with rtively few Mechguard units, almost all of them were drawn to the town due to thebustion of the car that Adam had set on fire earlier.

    "You guys only managed to capture a single person between all of you?"

    "There''s not much we could''ve done. There are only a few roads with no surveince cameras, and after the woman''s body was discovered, the majority of the people in the club left along the main road," Shae exined while Adam and the others stuffed the two captured club patrons into their car.

    "Alright, clean up a bit, then get into the car. Let''s get out of this town first."

    After a quick cleanup job, everyone departed from the town, making sure to avoid the Mechguard units in the process.

    After leaving the town, they didn''t return directly to Sandrise City.

    Sandrise City was monitored by countless surveince cameras and patrolled by countless Mechguard units. Even though Adam was granted a degree of protection as he was a special psychic police officer, he didn''t want to take any unnecessary risks.

    Hence, after leaving the town, Adam drove the car into the wilderness.

    This ce was in the middle of nowhere, and it was a minor radiation zone. In addition to that, it was currently extremely early in the morning, so no one would stumble upon them.

    After opening the trunk and dragging the two people inside onto the patch of t ground, Adam was just about tomence his psychic infiltration when he noticed Mole approaching him.

    "What are you doing, Boss? Aren''t you going to keep a lookout?"

    "There''s no need for that. We''re in a minor radiation zone, and it''s pitch-ck. Who could possibly have followed us here?"

    "It''s better to be safe than sorry. I had a rather bad feeling back at the cannibal club. Also, you have to remain conscious in case the other one wakes up."

    "If you wanna fight, then just say it!" Rabbit was able to immediately see through Mole''s intentions. "You go in, I''ll keep a lookout. I''ve already fought in two battles, so I''m tired anyway."

    "You know me too well, Rabbit!"

    Thus, Adam and the others established physical contact with their subject before invading her psychic world together.

    Upon arriving in the psychic world, they found themselves in a mysterious church, which appeared to be a branch of the Psychic Church. There were strange andplex symbols engraved on everything in the surrounding area, and those symbols struck the beholder with a strange sense of distortion and psychic pain.

    Does this woman have ties with the Psychic Church?

    The Psychic Church had always been the most officially recognized adapter organization.

    The first time Adam had received a systematic education about adapters was at Layton Academy, which was one of the academies under the Psychic Church.

    The majority of adapters came from normal families. Their parents weren''t adapters, so they didn''t know what to teach their children. As a result, those children were sent to study in the academies under the Psychic Church to learn how to harness their psychic powers.

    The Psychic Church was a massive organization, but it was also bloated andcking in efficiency.

    The Psychic Church oversaw many adapter academies, as well as Carlin Asylum. The majority of Psychic Church adapters that Adam had encountered in the past had been extremely arrogant, with their arrogance matched only by their ipetence andck of practical battle experience.

    They had all been so very mediocre, just like the majority of people working in any massive organization.

    However, one would be making a grave error if they thought that everyone in Psychic Church was like this.

    The 12 bishops of the Psychic Church were proimed to be the most powerful adapters in the world, and when it came to research into the psychic sphere, they had made more contributions to adapters than anyone else.

    Of course, adapters of their caliber had close ties with all types of powerful and influential figures.

    I wonder if any of them are in the Guild of Immortality.

    Adam was still inspecting the symbols on the walls around him when all of a sudden, his visionpletely faded for an instant, following which he returned to the dark and boundless wilderness that he was situated on in the real world.

    "What''s going on?"

    "Did something happen?"

    Shae and Mole''s voices rang out nearby, but Adam didn''t say anything.

    The fact that they had instantly returned to the real world indicated that someone had put an end to his psychic invasion on a physical level.

    The only one who could''ve done that was Rabbit, who was standing on lookout duty.

    "What happened, Rabbit? Why did you wake us up?"

    "Listen... Do you hear that?"

    The wind was howling ferociously over the dark wilderness, but thanks to his sensitive telegnosis, Adam was able to hear the sound of car tires and buzzing drones through the sound of the wind.

    Adam was very familiar with this type of miniature drone as there was a very simr one fitted in his spider legs.

    "Something''s wrong! We have to go!"

    Unfortunately, it was already toote, and a powerful bullet punctured one of the tires before they were able to make it back into the car.

    The entire rim and wheel disc that the tire was attached to had also been sent flying, rendering the carpletely undrivable.

    "Who''s there?" Mole yelled into the wilderness, and several beams of light appeared in the darkness, as if to answer his question.

    The beams of light wereing from motorcycles, cars, and drones.

    Adam peered into the distance to see a person emerging from one of the cars.

    "Who''s there? Would you like toe over for a chat?"

    At the moment, their assants were wielding a super long-distance firearm resembling a sniper cannon, and they were outside of the effective range of his mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmission device.

    "I know what you''re thinking, Adam. I have no intention of facing you in the psychic world. Instead, I''m much more content staying a safe distance away from you," the man yelled from afar. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Thn from India."

 Chapter 340: Secret

    <h4>Chapter 340: Secret</h4>

    The voice wasing from very far away, but Adam was still able to make out what was being said through the howling wind.

    "What do you want?" Adam yelled back in response.

    "I haven''t finished my self-introduction yet," Thn said. "I don''t know if you''ve heard of me before, but I''m also a special psychic police officer. However, I''m different from you as I was sent by the southern congress with the sole purpose of investigating you."

    While Thn was speaking, the miniature drone in the sky was taking a series of photos.

    "I now have concrete evidence of your criminal wrongdoing, including abduction, involuntary psychic invasion, and intent to murder. All of these are severe crimes. You can say that you''re just doing this as part of an investigation, but even so, I''m sure you''re aware that these crimes will be enough to lock you away for at least 10 years."

    "What do you want?" Adam repeated, asking the same question once again.

    It was indeed true that Thn had backed him into a corner.

    He had both concrete evidence and long-range firepower support, so Adam waspletely at his mercy.

    However, the fact that Thn hadn''t closed in to arrest him indicated that there was room for negotiation.

    The gentleman from earlier had been able to talk his way out of a dire situation, and Adam was confident that he would be able to do the same.

    "I want you to answer a question for me."

    "If I give you an answer, will you let us go?"

    "That depends on whether your answer is one that I want to hear."

    "Go ahead."

    "Do you have some type of special ability that sets you apart from normal adapters, one that allows you to rapidly be more powerful through battling psychic deviants?"

    Adam was silent for a long while after hearing this, and truth be told, he was a little astonished, stunned by the fact that someone he had never before had suddenly uncovered his most well-kept secret.

    He had never told this secret to anyone aside from the people that he trusted the most.

    "Answer me!" Thn urged from afar. "If the answer is yes, then I may consider letting you go."

    "Why? Why would you do that?"

    Thn had just dered that he was working for the southern congress, and he had uncovered Adam''s most closely guarded secret. However, he was now telling Adam that if he could confirm his suspicions, then he would be willing to let him go, and the whole situation made no sense to Adam.

    The southern congress was the most influential organization in Sandrise City, and even the entire North American continent. The past two presidents and all of the mayors since the founding of Sandrise City had been from the southern congress.

    In contrast, the northern congress had evolved from the resistance army from 30 years ago, and it had always been at a disadvantagepared with its more powerful counterpart.

    "I just told you that I''m from India, and I couldn''t give less of a shit about the power struggle between the northern and southern congresses of North America, do you understand me? I''m only working for them because they can give me a ton of money and many privileges and information sources that I wouldn''t have ess to otherwise."

    "So?"

    "So, if you can show me some deeper secrets about this world than they can, I wouldn''t mind letting you go."

    Thn was starting to grow a little excited as he spoke.

    He had an obsessive personality when it came to uncovering secrets and an insatiable desire to get to the bottom of things.

    Adam was harboring many secrets, but ultimately he was just one person.

    What Thn wanted was to be able to uncover the deepest and dirtiest secrets of this world, ones concerning the powerful figures in the Guild of Immortality, the powerhouse corporations in the technology sector, and the politicians from both congresses.

    Thn had already attempted tounch an investigation into all of this several years ago, but he simply didn''t have the power and resources required to uncover these secrets, and that was what had led him to work for the southern congress.

    Despite his previous failure, his true nature was simply not something that could be suppressed. Those who longed for freedom would always yearn to be free, and those who liked uncovering secrets were forever going to pursue this path.

    When it came to certain things, the more one tried to repress them, the more they would ferment in the background.

    At the moment, Thn was like an obsessive voyeur who knew where the most beautiful women in the world were, but for one reason or another, he was unable to go and peep on them.

    However, it seemed that an opportunity to get what he had always wanted was being presented to him.

    After an extended period of contemtion, Adam finally gave Thn the answer that he wanted to hear, confirming his suspicions about Adam.

    In doing so, Adam was making a gamble that Thn wasn''t doing this solely to goad more information out of him.

    He had no choice but to make this gamble. Given the fact that he was living on borrowed time, he couldn''t afford to be locked up in prison as that would essentially be an extended death sentence.

    "I can drastically improve mybat prowess by battling psychic anomalies. If you''ve been investigating me all this time, then I''m sure that you''re aware that when I first awakened, I wasn''t even as powerful as the average student from Layton Academy. However, now, I can defeat the vast majority of adapters in this world, and I was even able to survive several encounters with Hebi no Miko."

    "That is indeed extremely impressive, but I have to see for myself just how powerful you can be. There are some adapters who can make rapid progress, but don''t have very high ceilings. It''s the same thing for some athletes. They start off as prodigies, but after reaching a certain level, they stagnate and are unable to advance any further."

    Thn began to slowly approach Adam as he spoke, and as he drew closer, his voice was also bing clearer and clearer.

    Before long, he was already within range, and all Adam had to do was activate his mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmission device, and he would be able to instantly invade Thn''s psychic world.

    However, he didn''t do that.

    Thn wasn''t alone, and hispanions were still on high alert in the distance with their firearms raised.

    Thus, Thn continued to approach Adam, and he took a nce at Adam''spanions, then turned his attention to the two people they had captured from the cannibal club.

    After that, he extended a hand toward Adam.

    "Would you agree that we''ve established a rtionship of trust?"

    "You can say that," Adam replied as he shook Thn''s outstretched hand.

    "Then let''s deepen this trust. Show me your potential," Thn said as he pointed at the peopleying on the ground. "Continue with what you were doing earlier, and I''ll take part as well this time."

    "Aren''t you afraid?"

    "Afraid of what? Afraid that you''ll kill me in the psychic world? Of course I am!" Thn replied with a smile. "However, I can''t help myself."

    Looking at Thn''s fervent expression, Adam realized that yet another deranged person seemed to have entered his life.

    He didn''t say anything further as he crouched down andid his hand on the female cannibal''s body once again to invade her psychic world. Within the span of a few seconds, Shae, the three psychic mutants, and Thn had all entered her psychic world as well.

    In the psychic world, Thn was a detect wearing a round top hat and a long coat, looking much like the depictions of Sherlock Holmes from the movies of the previous century.

    However, the look in his eyes was far sharper than that of the actors in this films, looking as if they belonged to a hawk rather than a human.

    As soon as he appeared, he was immediately knocked to the ground before being bound by lightning shackles.

    Mole then turned to Adam as he asked, "Should we kill him?"

 Chapter 341: Disguise

    <h4>Chapter 341: Disguise</h4>

    Thn took a nce at Thn, then shook his head in response.

    "I trust what he told me."

    "As expected of someone who''s destined for great things."

    Thn''s approving voice rang out behind Adam, while the "Thn" who had been knocked to the ground transformed into a mannequin, much like a magic trick.

    "Judging from the appearance and brainless actions of your friend here, I''m assuming he''s a psychic mutant, right?"

    "I hate it when people call me brainless!"

    Mole immediately flew into a rage at the mention of the word "brainless", and he transformed into a sh of lightning that set off in pursuit of Thn, but Thn was even faster than him. Furthermore, his body was like an insubstantial wraith, easily thwarting Mole''s efforts to capture him.

    "Come back, Boss. All of the cards are in their hands, and killing him won''t do us any good. Hispanions are still outside, and they may already be right beside us in the real world."

    "This is what things should be like! If you''re going to cooperate with someone, then do it sincerely. I detest people who have no integrity and don''t keep their promises. Ack of trust and integrity makes it impossible to do anything." Thn pushed Mole away as he spoke before arriving by Adam''s side. "Come, I''ll take you to the anomaly you''re looking for."

    "You know where it is?"

    "I''m not very good in battle, but I''m very good at scouting and running away." Thn pointed at his own nose, then at his eyes as he said, "I can smell all abnormal scents, and I can see all traces left behind by anomalies in psychic worlds."

    "You remind me of a friend of mine..."

    Adam couldn''t help but think of his former teammate, Hook.

    With his bag of gadgets, Hook was always able to see psychic connections that were invisible to Adam. These connections were like thin threads that extended in all directions and could lead directly toward their target.

    However, it was clear that Thn''s information-gathering abilities were far superior to Hook''s.

    In fact, he was even able to piece together the host''s life from the traces and signs he saw in the psychic world.

    "We''re currently in the psychic world of someone who works in the finance department of the Psychic Church. She most likely had mental problems to begin, and during her work at the Psychic Church, she was constantly forced to endure the pain of seeing the symbols championed by the Psychic Church, thereby further exacerbating her mental problems."

    "How are you able to see all of this? You''re not just making this up, are you?" Rabbit asked with a skeptical expression.

    "There are many tiny information streams in one''s psychic world, so it''s much easier to glean information in the psychic world than in the real world. Trust me, I''m a professional."

    "There are so many adapters in the Psychic Church, haven''t any of them noticed her mental condition?" Shae asked.

    "This is an anomaly that''s very good at self-concealment, so it would require a very capable adapter to identify her mental condition, and there aren''t many capable adapters in the Psychic Church, just like in our special psychic police force."

    Adam nodded in agreement to this sentiment. Indeed, most of the applicants who had applied to join the special psychic police force had been roughly on the same ne as level two anomalies.

    "Those in the Psychic Church capable of identifying her mental condition are all lofty figures who wouldn''t waste their time paying attention to an ordinary employee working in the finance department, and that''s what allowed her... Oh, we''re almost there."

    Upon emerging from the hall of the Psychic Church branch, Adam saw many employees making their way through the corridor outside.

    The Psychic Church had many different business operations, including psychotherapy clinics, academies, as well as all types of non-profit organizations and coborative projects with the government.

    Hence, it was far more lively and hectic in the corridor than in the hall of pain.

    "You see that kid over there? That''s the anomaly you''re looking for," Thn said as he pointed at a little boy who was walking along behind his father. "Fight him and show me how much more powerful you can be. Your potential is the foundation of our coboration."

    "Are you sure that''s the anomaly?"

    Adam couldn''t sense any anomalic power from the boy.

    If weren''t for Thn, even if he had scoured this entire psychic world, he wouldn''t have ever identified the boy as an anomaly.

    "Hold on, isn''t the host a woman?" Shae asked.

    "Who cares? Let''s just kill that kid first! If that boy''s not the anomaly, then that means that this Indian idiot''s a fraud, and we''ll kill him together!"

    Mole vanished on the spot as a sh of lightning as he spoke, and by the time he reappeared, he had already arrived beside the boy. Lightning was crackling over his paws as he swatted his ws violently into the boy''s head.

    The boy''s head was instantly shattered by the blow, sending brains and intracranial fluid sttering all over the ground.

    "I knew he was a fucking fraud!" Mole dered as he turned to Thn with vindictive glee. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

    "Look out beneath you."

    Mole reflexively looked down upon hearing this to find that the scattered brains of the boy were beginning to converge toward the center, while his body was also gradually expanding in size. It didn''t take long before a tall and slender anomaly had appeared in the boy''s ce.

    The anomaly resembled a harpy, butpared with the standard visage of a harpy, its entire body was deathly pale in color, and it also had a far more sinister appearance.

    The first thing that the anomaly did after revealing its true form was to attack Mole in retaliation, aiming a vicious swipe at his head in an attempt to give him a taste of his own medicine.

    However, Mole had a vast wealth of battle experience under his belt, as well as a speed advantage of the anomaly. In addition to that, he had received advanced warning from Thn, so he was able to evade the attack amid a sh of lightning.

    The anomaly spread its wings and set off in pursuit, disying speed that wasn''t much inferior to Mole''s. Furthermore, as it was racing through the air, it abruptly vanished on the spot.

    "Invisibility?"

    Mole was dumbstruck by this turn of events, following which several bleeding gashes suddenly appeared on his body, and as soon as he turned around, another gash appeared on his neck.

    "Get back, Boss!"

    It was clear that this anomaly excelled in disguise and concealment, so it would be impossible to defeat it unless they could track it down first.

    After hearing Adam''s call, Mole immediately fled into the distance in a straight line. As long as his assant couldn''t match his absolute speed, he would be able to get away from anyone.

    Sure enough, the anomaly was unable to match Mole in a contest of speed, and he didn''t sustain any further injuries after running away.

    "The anomaly''sing back, and this time, its target is... you!"

    Adam was struck by a premonition of peril before Thn had even finished his warning, and he immediately invoked Sludge before fusing with it. Halfway through the fusion process, a trail of sparks erupted from his cheek, and several w marks had been scratched onto his face by the anomaly.

    "That''s some exceptional physical resistance," Thn praised. "In terms of defensive ability alone, you''re superior to the vast majority of high-level adapters. However, this form seems to be rather heavy and cumbersome."

    After fusing with Sludge, Adam attempted to retaliate, swinging his massive arms haphazardly through the air in the hope that he would be able tond a lucky shot on the anomaly.

    However, his random swings proved to bepletely futile, doing nothing aside from toppling several of the stone pirs in the corridor.

    Where is it?

    After a string of blind swipes in the dark, Adam began to try and track down the anomaly using his telegnosis.

    Even though the anomaly had concealed itself, there would definitely be some sound produced by its high-speed movement. After focusing for a while, Adam suddenly detected something beside him, and he immediately swung a palm through the air in that direction.

 Chapter 342: Devouring

    <h4>Chapter 342: Devouring</h4>

    A resounding thump rang out as Adam''s massive arm mmed onto the ground,pletely shattering the marble floor. The attack was extremely powerful, but it didn''t evene close to grazing the anomaly.

    After that failed attack, Adam continued to listen for the anomaly, and in the next instant, he turned around to force the sound of the wind into a corner, cutting off all avenues for escape with his enormous body.

    Immediately thereafter, he pounced forward violently, trying to crush the anomaly to death.

    However, that attack also failed to strike its target, with Adam crashing through the wall in futility, leaving a massive hole behind.

    How did I miss? I clearly heard the anomaly in this direction!

    The first time, Adam still wasn''t very certain in his conviction, but the second time, he was 100% certain that he had heard the anomaly in this direction.

    "Don''t bother, you''repletely missing the mark. The anomaly has been in another direction this entire time. It''s behind you now."

    As soon as Thn''s voice trailed off, Adam was struck by a heavy blow to the back.

    Judging from the power of that attack, he determined that this was roughly a level five anomaly, so it wasn''t all that powerful.

    Even so, it was still quite a difficult opponent for Adam to deal with.

    It was capable of self-concealment and shapeshifting, and it could also manipte the sound of the wind to throw its opponents off its trail. Adam could certainly defeat it in a direct battle, but aside from Thn, no one could see it.

    If Adam were to face the anomaly on his own, it would''ve most likely taken a long and drawn-out battlesting several hours before he could grind down the anomaly and kill it.

    "You''re not just here to watch the battle, right?"

    Adam made a swipe behind himself, but just as he expected, the anomaly had already fled, so his attack struck nothing but empty air.

    Thankfully, this was only a normal situation where the deranged nature of the anomaly had devoured its host''s intelligence. Otherwise, if this anomaly were as intelligent as Raven and the vampire fromst time, then it was going to be even more difficult to deal with.

    "That''s right. My main objective is to gauge your potential. I''ve made a rough estimate of your practicalbat prowess, and it seems that I was pretty much right on the mark."

    Thn was a smart man, so he could naturally read between the lines and see what Adam was implying.

    "You want me to help you, right? That''s not a problem, I want this battle to end as quickly as possible as well. The anomaly is situated in front of you to your left. That''s right, it''s over there. Now, it''s up in the sky. Scratch that, it''se back down..."

    Under Thn''s instructions, Adam was finally able tond a blow on the anomaly.

    However, Adam could feel that it was only a ncing blow, and at this rate, it was still going to take him a very long time to make any significant progress.

    "Don''t you have any other abilities? Just yelling instructions at me isn''t helping very much."

    "You''re talking to me like we''re actual allies," Thn chuckled. "Fine. Seeing as there''s a chance we could be coborative partners, I''ll give you a hand."

    Thn raised his arm as he spoke, and some insubstantial threads flew out of his palm beforetching onto Adam''s body, immediately following which Thn''s eyes began to glow with a sharp and piercing gleam.

    In the next instant, Adam suddenly felt like his surroundings had be countless times brighter, clearer, and more vibrant.

    He had never seen such a dazzling and vibrant world before, and it was as his telegnosis had been elevated to a whole new ne.

    Is he sharing his vision with me?

    While Adam was still reeling from this turn of events, he was struck by another w attack, and he turned around to find a transparent shadow. It was none other than the anomaly.

    At this moment, the anomaly resembled a jellyfish in his eyes. It was still transparent, but it was unable to hide from him any longer.

    Thanks to his newfound visual prowess, nothing could escape Adam''s vision.

    With this enhanced vision, Adam pounced directly toward the anomaly, and the anomaly seemed to have been caught off guard by the uracy of his attack.

    As a result, Adam was able to grab onto it, and it struggled violently, but there was simply far too massive a disparity in strength between them.

    Generally speaking, at a certain level, the more powerful an anomaly''s abilities were, the weaker they would be physically. If an anomaly were to possess both powerful abilities and formidable physical traits, then they would be an anomaly of a higher level.

    Given its array of useful abilities, the harpy anomaly was inevitably going to be more physically frail, and could barely struggle at all after being caught in Adam''s grasp.

    However, Adam knew better than to growcent in battle, and as a safety precaution, he invoked Distortion to help him control the anomaly. After that, he stomped onto it with a massive foot, pinning it down while tearing at its body forcefully in opposite directions.

    The anomaly''s body was no match for Sludge''s enormous strength, and in the end, its entire body was torn in half like a piece of cloth amid a blood-curdling shriek.

    However, there was still no anomalic power in the air, so Adam continued to stomp violently down onto the two halves of the anomaly''s body. By the time the entire corridor was riddled with craters, the anomaly finally perished, and arge cloud of anomalic power emerged.

    At the same time, Thn saw something that he had never seen before, thanks to his shared vision with Adam.

    What''s this? Is that psychic power? I''ve never heard of a psychic entity releasing psychic power after its demise!

    Thn was quite a knowledgeable and experienced adapter, and he had also never heard of anything capable of releasing psychic power upon its death.

    How is this happening? Is Adam making the anomaly release this psychic power?

    This was already quite a perplexing scene in Thn''s eyes, but what happened next made him even more astonished.

    He watched as the semi-transparent anomaly invoked by Adam began to greedily devour the psychic power in the air, and as it did so, Thn could clearly sense that it was bing more powerful.

    By the time all of the energy had been devoured, the anomaly became even more warped and twisted, and a series of transparent hooks had emerged on its body. These sharp hooks,bined with its Physical Shackles ability, would undoubtedly allow it to instantly inflict death by 1,000 cuts upon anyone that it decided to turn on.

    "It... It became stronger just like that? Is this a joke?"

    Thn was utterly astonished as he began to make his way toward the anomaly.

    "Stay away! This anomaly can''t distinguish between friend and foe."

    "Did it really be more powerful just like that?" Thn was still inplete disbelief. "Surely this isn''t possible!"

    Having witnessed all types of adapters in the past, Thn simply couldn''t bring himself to believe that someone could be more powerful so easily.

    Training for adapters was very difficult, and aptitude yed a primary role.

    Some people were naturally brave, or violent, or cunning, or bright, or twisted... Generally speaking, only people with extreme personality traits could be powerful adapters. These people possessed mental attributes that were far removed from the average person, and even if they weren''t adapters, there was still a very good chance that they would go on to achieve great things or be heinous viins as a normal person.

    Of course, talent was one factor, and training was another part of the equation.

    Through things like psychic battles and visualization, an adapter could continue to hone their powers over time.

    However, Adam was somehow capable of directly devouring someone''s psychic power, and that waspletely unheard of to Thn.

 Chapter 343: Plot

    <h4>Chapter 343: Plot</h4>

    "This... Hold on, let me think for a second." After doing his best to regain hisposure, Thn pointed at Distortion as he asked, "Is this enhancement effect temporary?"

    "No, it''s permanently be more powerful."

    "I see. All invoked entities are essentially part of the invocator''s psychic body. Does that mean you''ve also grown more powerful?"

    "You can interpret it that way. Recently, my telegnosis has constantly been improving, but not as quickly as it used to."

    Adam withdrew Distortion as he spoke as he could already sense that the anomaly was itching to pounce on Thn.

    "Alright, this is my most important question for you: is there an upper limit to this ability of yours?"

    Thn had seen some outrageously talented adapters in the past who had developed rapidly in the initial phase, only to quickly hit their ceiling.

    Even though Adam was already creating somewhat of a stir with his rate of development, he still wasn''t attracting all that much attention from the people at the very top, who had seen far too many prodigies to count.

    Objectively speaking, every single Lamp Keeper in the Guild of Immortality was a prodigy, but there could be vast disparities in power even among prodigies.

    People like May and Hebi no Miko were prodigies among prodigies, and the absolute cream of the crop was exceedingly rare.

    In Thn''s eyes, only those who had the potential to reach that level were worth coborating with.

    "At the moment, there doesn''t appear to be an upper limit."

    "And yet, you''re still developing so slowly?" Thn eximed with an exasperated expression. "If I had this ability, I would definitely be far beyond your current level at this stage."

    "My situation is veryplicated."

    When Adam first awakened, he knew next to nothing about this world.

    Every step that he had taken had been extremely arduous, and there had never been prolonged periods of stability that had allowed him to develop in peace. Even now, in his pursuit for more power hadnded in trouble with Thn.

    "What''s soplicated about it?"

    "Consider if you were in my shoes. You want to be more powerful, but you''re under the constant scrutiny of the southern congress, the Guild of Immortality, and Hebi no Miko. You don''t have the time or the opportunities to make steady progress. Last time, I almost got caught in Darvaza Prison, and this time, I was caught by you. Nothinges easily to me."

    "Now that you put it that way, your situation is indeed quite difficult," Thn replied with a nod. "Are you only able to grow stronger by killing anomalies? Also, I''m assuming the more powerful the anomaly is, the more psychic power you can absorb from them, is that right?"

    "That''s right."

    "That does pose quite the conundrum." Given Thn''s intelligence, he was immediately able to identify the crux of the problem. "The anomalies in the psychic worlds of normal people are very weak, and that includes even those who suffer from mental illnesses. Only truly twisted and depraved people are able to develop high-level anomalies. That''s why you went to Darvaza Prison beforeing here, and both times, something went wrong."

    "That''s right."

    "Let me think..."

    Thn was carefully considering all possible options. After witnessing what he had just seen, he had already determined Adam to be the best coborative partner that he could ask for.

    "Let me think of a way to make you more powerful as quickly as possible. All of these dark web clubs are definitely good ces to search for psychic deviants, but these clubs are the ythings of the extremely wealthy and powerful. Some of the members of these clubs even have ties to the Guild of Immortality, so killing too many of them is definitely going to result in serious repercussions.

    ¡°When that timees, even if I try to cover for you, other people are going to be sent to investigate you. I''ve heard that there are some psychic deviants who have recently been tantly killing people to challenge the authority of the government. However, not only are these people hard to find, they''re all high-level adapters who act in groups, so they could pose a major threat to you at your current level of power."

    After some contemtion, Thn finally thought of something.

    "I know the best ce for you to go. You should go to prison!"

    "What?"

    "I''m saying you should go to Darvaza Prison," Thn re-emphasized as he looked directly at Adam. "There are many psychic deviants in there, and most importantly, all of the psychic deviants who get thrown into that prison are ones that don''t have any powerful backers or ties to major organizations. There''s a very high death rate in there, and you can just cover your tracks by ming it on prison riots."

    "You''re telling Adam to go to prison? How about you go fuck yourself?"

    Armadillo sprang out of the ground to attack Thn, and after Thn dodged the attack, Adam stepped in to hold Armadillo back.

    "Let him finish."

    "Darvaza Prison is a ce that no one pays any attention to. Aside from some of the outer activity areas, which are overseen by surveince cameras and Mechguard units, many of the internal areas don''t even have any Mechguard presence. Most importantly, there aren''t any important figures locked up in there, so even if they die, the general public wouldn''t care.

    ¡°Brawls break out very frequently there, and dozens of inmates could easily be killed in a brawl. I''m sure you''re already aware of all of this, but something that you may not be aware of is that the chief warden is aplete idiot."

    "How so?"

    "The chief warden''s name is Emmanuel Hosman, and he''s a member of the Hosman Family, a prominent political family of the southern congress. He''s the eldest son of that family, but he has a naturally low IQ, azy personality, and he suffers from bulimia, so he as gradually ostracized by his family and sent to Darvaza Prison so he wouldn''t get in anyone''s way.

    ¡°Acting as chief warden of the prison is the perfect job for someone aszy and useless as him because no one cares what happens in the prison. Hence, you can do a lot of things under his ''supervision''."

    "Only people who havemitted extremely serious crimes end up getting locked up in Darvaza Prison. If I get locked up in there, how do Ie out? Also, I need to maintain a positive reputation in the eyes of the general public. If I don''t have that to protect me, the southern congress would be able to crush me like an ant."

    Indeed, at the moment, Adam''s reputation was like a talisman to him, and it was something that he couldn''t afford to give up.

    "I understand. That''s why you made that special news program with Shivani, right? What an exceptional journalist she is! Us Indians are the kindest and most intelligent people in this world!" After chuckling to himself for a while, Thn''s smile gradually faded, and he returned to his normal brooding demeanor. "That is indeed a problem, but if we work together, we should be able to resolve it."

    "What do you suggest?"

    "The general public loves to see a story with a twist, such as a phnthropist who ends up beingpletely corrupt, or a hero who''s actually just a puppet for a sinister organization. At the moment, you''re a hero in the eyes of the people. What do you think would happen if it were exposed that in reality, you were a demented killer yourself all along, and in addition to that, you''re a cannibal? How many points would you rate that twist as the plot of a novel?"

    "Zero points."

    "Alright, hear me out. The story progresses from there, and I provide concrete evidence to the southern congress that you''ve visited the cannibal club, thereby confirming that you''re a cannibal, and as a result, you''ll undoubtedly be sent to Darvaza Prison. How many points would you rate that?"

    "10 points."

    "While you''re in prison, I''ll use my connections within the southern congress to instigate conflicts between the factions in the prison, and you take advantage of this to kill a bunch of psychic deviants to drastically improve your own powers. What do you think of that?"

    "I''ll give it 30 points."

    "After you be a drastically more powerful adapter while in prison, I''ll present evidence to Shivani, indicating that you only went to the cannibal club to investigate a case, thereby clearing your name. She releases this evidence to the public, and with the help of the northern congress, the script turns once again.

    ¡°As it turned out, the hero is still the hero, except he was framed by certain politicians. After that redemption arc, your public image with be enhanced even further, and you''ll be able toe out of prison. How''s that for a story?"

    "I''d give that close to full marks," Adam said as a smile finally appeared on his face.

    "Good. After youe out of prison, you''ll be able to quickly crush the killers wreaking havoc in the city with your newfound powers, thereby elevating your reputation to even greater heights. When that timees, I''d say you''d even be able to win the Sandrise City mayoral election and flip the script to be one of the people calling the shots, rather than someone who''s constantly being oppressed and restrained."

 Chapter 344: Incarceration

    <h4>Chapter 344: Incarceration</h4>

    Thn had presented a very good storyline for Adam to follow, and as soon as they emerged from the psychic world, Thn immediately set about making preparations for his vision.

    Initially, Adam still had his reservations about Thn, but as Thn began manufacturing fake evidence while still at the scene of the crime, Adam was beginning toe around. From the very beginning, Thn had held all the cards. Adam waspletely at his mercy, and he could''ve killed Adam or taken him to court, so there was no need to go to all of this trouble.

    "Alright, stand over there... That''s good..." Thn was like a director, instructing his actors to create the scenes that he wanted before taking photos. "Carry that guy over here. We''ll me the woman''s death on him."

    Adam had captured a man and a woman, and thetter had already suffered psychic death. After confirming the man''s identity, Thn had confirmed that he was someone that they could pin the me on.

    "Good. After I take these photos, I need to collect some fingerprints as well."

    "What do we do with him?"

    "Come over here, Rider!" Thn yelled at one of hispanions in the distance, and another man of Indian descent immediately approached him.

    "What''s going on, Boss? Aren''t we here to kill them? You''ve already been chatting with them for quite a while now."

    "The n''s changed. Help me perform some psychic tampering on this man," Thn instructed, then turned to Adam as he asked, "He didn''t see any of you as you were abducting him, did he?"

    "No, we knocked him out with a blow to the back of the head," Armadillo replied.

    "Good. In that case, we''ll make him take the fall for us, and we''ll get him to say that he had no idea what had happened at the time. I''ll be counting on you, Rider," Thn said as he patted hispanion on the arm.

    It was clear that all of hispanions also possessed certain special abilities.

    "Are your people trustworthy?" Adam asked as he nced at the well-built Indian man.

    "I could ask you the same."

    "I have full trust in my people." The three psychic mutants weren''t exactly of the soundest frame of mind, but there was no way that they would betray him, and the same could be said of Shae as well. "We''ve gone through a lot together, and no amount of wealth or power would be able to sway them."

    "My friends and I have been through even more together. We go way back to when I first opened my private detective agency. Let''s not waste any more time with words, time is of the essence."

    Thn entered the man''s psychic world as he spoke, followed immediately by Adam.

    "What the hell is this?"

    As soon as Adam entered the psychic world, he caught sight of a massive motorcycle, which was carrying dozens ofpletely identical riders.

    "That''s my brother, Rider. Each motorcycle produced in India can carry dozens of people. I can already see the anomaly, so let''s cut the chit-chat. Get on the motorcycle!"

    ¡­¡­

    It took them an entire night to manufacture the required false evidence.

    Sure enough, after returning to Sandrise City, Mechguard units arrived at the veterinarian hospital at around noon the next day to arrest Adam and his team.

    After entering the detention center, Cowboy paid Adam a visit.

    "What happened? How did you allow such clear evidence of wrongdoing to fall into their hands?" Cowboy asked with tightly furrowed brows. "Then again, you''re not entirely to me. I heard that it was a man by the name of Thn who provided the evidence. I''ve heard of him, he''s done a lot of things for the southern congress these past few years.

    ¡°He''s an extremely perceptive person, and his sess rate is very high when ites to investigating cases. In fact, I''ve heard that he even has the nickname of Little Holmes. Having said that, there''s nothing you need to worry about. Even though there''s concrete evidence, it won''t be so easy to prosecute you. We just need to..."

    "There''s no need to do anything on your end," Adam said in a quiet voice.

    "Oh?" Adam could immediately tell that there was a hidden story from the look in Adam''s eyes, and after a brief hesitation, he confirmed, "Are you sure?"

    "I''m sure."

    "Alright. I know you''re trying to do some big things, and I have faith in your judgment."

    With that, Cowboy immediately stood up and left without any hesitation.

    During the next few days, everything was progressing ording to n.

    Under the pressure applied by the southern congress, Adam''s case quickly reached the prosecution phase. Due to the concrete nature of the evidence and thepleteck of resistance from the northern congress, Adam was quickly sentenced to 120 years in Darvaza Prison for cannibalism.

    Ever since the trial began, the inte went into aplete uproar.

    Adam''sst wave of inte relevance still hadn''tpletely passed by yet, and a new wave had already arisen, thereby making him a true inte celebrity. Just as Thn predicted, the public was very eager to jump on a story with a twist, particrly one as stunning as this one.

    "From Hero to Cannibal."

    "The Cannibal Hiding Behind the Mask of an Enforcer of Justice."

    "You Either Die a Hero, or Live Long Enough to See Yourself Be a Cannibal."

    All types of headlines of this nature were appearing on the inte, with some specting about Adam''s personality, some discussing his motives, some promoting conspiracies rted to this crime, and there were even some people who had published gorey images and footage from the cannibal club, much to the disgust and horror of the unsuspecting web surfers who had stumbled upon the disturbing material.

    Of course, there were also people on Adam''s side, arguing that this wasn''t the first time that the southern congress had tried to drag him through the mud.

    Heated debates naturally arose, further elevating the notoriety of the case.

    For now, none of that had anything to do with Adam himself.

    Following the conclusion of the prosecution process, he was sent to the most notorious prison in the entirety of Sandrise City, the ce known as the Gates of Hell, Darvaza Prison.

    "Turn around! I need to see if you''re hiding anything in your asshole!"

    Standing in the shower room, there was a burly warden standing in front of Adam.

    Adam''s telegnosis told him that the warden had sinister intentions.

    "What are you looking at? Did you not hear me?"

    Before Adam had a chance to say anything, he immediately copped a baton blow to the head, instantly causing him to bleed profusely.

    Right as the warden was about to continue beating Adam, a familiar voice rang out nearby.

    "His prosthetics have already all been removed, and he''s been put through all the electronic detectors as well. ording to regtions, there''s no need to examine his private regions."

    The voice belonged to Ryan.

 Chapter 345: Venomous Vipers

    <h4>Chapter 345: Venomous Vipers</h4>

    "Even so, we have to conduct a manual search. What if he''s carrying non-metallic objects?"

    "With the technology we have nowadays, even non-metallic objects can''t escape the detectors."

    "I wouldn''t be so sure of that. I need to conduct a manual search to be safe."

    The burly warden had close ties to Chief Warden Emmanuel, so he didn''t fear Ryan, and he had been told by the chief warden that he had to prepare a "special wee" for this inte celebrity.

    Thus, he began to search Adam again as he spoke, but he was more restrained with Ryan watching from the side, thereby allowing Adam to get through without too much trouble.

    Following the departure of the burly warden, Ryan took over from him and led Adam to his cell.

    "How are you feeling?"

    Ryan could tell that Adam was receiving special treatment from the burly warden, so he had brought some medical supplies with him. Following the burly warden''s departure, Ryan sprayed something onto Adam''s head to stop the bleeding.

    Adam shook his head from side to side. The blow from the baton just now had given him a minor concussion, so he was feeling a little dizzy as he shook his head, but this degree of pain was nothing for an adapter with exceptional mental fortitude like him.

    "I''m fine, I have a very high pain tolerance. You must''vee here because you have questions for me, right? Go ahead."

    "Are you a psychic deviant?"

    Ryan strongly detested psychic deviants as members of his family had been hurt by psychic deviants in the past, and simrly, that was also why he held such a high level of reverence for Adam.

    After all, in his eyes, Adam was a good cop leading the fight against psychic deviants in society.

    Even though he had been prosecuted with concrete evidence supporting the prosecution, Ryan was still quite skeptical, just like most people on the inte invested in his story.

    "I don''t know if I count as a psychic deviant, but I am quite obsessive when ites to my goals."

    Adam had a clear understanding of his own personality. Ever since discovering his own identity as a nk te, he had been constantly and tirelessly working toward a single objective, and his behavior could¡¯ve easily been seen as obsessive or extreme.

    "However, I''m not a cannibal, and I didn''t kill those people," Adam said in a calm manner.

    Even if he had actually been framed and wasn''t just putting on an act as part of Thn''s scheme, it would still have been in character for him to profess his own innocence.

    "I believe you." In contrast with the people on the inte, Ryan had previously met Adam in the real world, and he didn''t think that Adam was a cannibal. "However, I''m afraid I can''t offer you much help."

    "It''s fine, just take me to my cell."

    After emerging from thevatory and putting on his clothes, Adam followed Ryan through the wire fence and arrived in the internal area of the prison.

    "This is the outdoor activity area, and all inmates are allowed toe out here for a period of time every day. This is the safest ce in the prison," Ryan said as he pointed at the surrounding Mechguard units as an exnation for why this area was safer than others.

    "Are there lots of factions in here? Most of the inmates are psychic deviants, right?"

    Due to the fact that the n had been hatched on very short notice, Adam only had a very basic understanding of the environment in Darvaza Prison.

    All of the content on the inte had to be taken with a grain of salt, and Ryan much preferred to hear from Adam himself.

    "Yes, there are a lot of psychic deviants and factions in the prison."

    "Can you go into more detail?"

    "I''ll use the two people you sawst time as examples. Prior to being arrested, Sima Kai was still able to go to his job as a university professor as normal. He was able to blend into society, and no one had any reason to suspect that he was a criminal. As for Dwight, he has bipr disorder and violent tendencies, but when those conditions don''t re up, he''s also no different from a normal person.

    ¡°These people have different wants and needs, just like every other person, so this prison shares many simrities with normal prison. It has everything a normal prison has, and it also has things that other prisons don''t have. Essentially, there are two worlds in here, one on the surface, and one in the darkness."

    "How are the factions here different from the factions in other prisons?"

    "They''re a lot more brutal and vicious!"

    Ryan hadn''t been a warden at Darvaza Prison for very long, but he had clearly already seen some traumatic things during his time here. His face paled significantly as he spoke, and he couldn''t help but gulp down some saliva.

    .

    Having been to the cannibal club recently, Adam could tell that Ryan was gulping down saliva to suppress his nausea and prevent himself from throwing up on the spot.

    "In other prisons, the factions only exist to do things like smuggle food, drugs, and cigarettes into the prison, or at the very most, make some trades with the outside world. However, there are all types of twisted individuals in this prison, like cannibals, human head collectors, eyeball collectors, foot fetishists...

    ¡°The majority of the people locked up in here will never see the light of day, and they''ve dedicated all of their time and energy to fulfilling their twisted hobbies, so the conflicts between factions are more like conflicts between cults."

    "Sounds like this ce is even more dangerous than I imagined."

    In Darvaza Prison, adapters weren''t as powerful as they were in the real world. Virtually all of the inmates here were psychic deviants harboring powerful anomalies, essentially protecting them from psychic invasions.

    Furthermore, he had lost his prosthetics, so he was only roughly at an average level when it came to physical brawling prowess.

    If I want to keep myself safe, I need to find some backers.

    As this thought sprang into Adam''s mind, he had already passed through the activity area and arrived in the indoor area of the prison.

    At the moment, all of the inmates were locked up in their cells, and upon seeing a new arrival, there was no rowdy "wee" as one would expect in a normal prison.

    In most prisons, new inmates were weed with torrents of amused or ironic cheers, but it waspletely silent here, menacingly so.

    It was so quiet that it was as if anyone who broke the silence would instantly drop dead on the spot.

    Adam looked around, and all he could see were pairs of vicious eyes looking back at him from beyond the metal bars of the cells.

    If the inmates locked up in the cells of normal prisons were like ferocious dogs, then these inmates were like venomous vipers, giving off an air of sinister brutality that could drive a normal person insane.

    "God, I hate this ce."

    Ryan involuntarily shuddered as he sped up in his footsteps.

    The two of them arrived at a cell on the second floor, and Adam was locked up in cell number 207.

    "Be careful. Aside from certain mandatory tasks that we have to perform, wardens like myself rarely evere here, so you''re on your own from here onward."

    After delivering Adam to his cell, Ryan locked the door before departing.

    Adam looked at the poor environment of the cell, and he was just about to heave a faint sigh when he detected a hint of danger through his telegnosis. He immediately turned around, upon which he spotted an emaciated figure huddled in a corner.

    He was so thin and gaunt that it was impossible to make out his appearance, and he smiled at Adam, revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth as he greeted, "Hello."

 Chapter 346: The First Day

    <h4>Chapter 346: The First Day</h4>

    Adam observed the emaciated figure for a few seconds, then nodded in response.

    "Hi, you must be my cellmate, right? Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Adam."

    "My name is Guang Fei."

    Guang Fei''s speech was a little slurred due to the gaps in his teeth and how weak and powerless his tongue was, but that didn''t interfere with hismunication with Adam.

    Adam didn''t care if this person posed a threat or not. In any case, there weren''t any innocuous individuals here in Darvaza Prison. At the moment, Adam''s top priority was to gather more information on this ce as quickly as possible.

    "What are you in here for?"

    Guang Fei seemed to also be quite eager for a chat. Having been in this prison for so long, he yearned for human interaction.

    "They prosecuted me on grounds of cannibalism, but I didn''t actuallymit the crime."

    "Of course, everyone whoes in here says that they''re innocent." Guang Fei wasn''t concerned in the slightest to hear that Adam was supposedly a cannibal, and he even made a joke about it. "Given my understanding of cannibals, I''m assuming someone like me definitely wouldn''t be appealing to you, right?"

    Adam looked at Guang Fei, then thought back to what he had seen in the cannibal club. All of the "meals" served up there either had emotional ties with the patrons, or were fine specimens to dine on, so it was true that someone like Guang Fei would''ve most likely been rejected.

    "Let''s not talk about that. Can you tell me about Darvaza Prison? How long have you been in here for?"

    "23 years? Or has it been 24 years? I can''t remember." Guang Fei shook his head as he spoke, and his spine crackled audibly as he did so. "There''s not much to be said about Darvaza Prison. Did you not do some research before you came here?"

    "I did. We work for eight hours a day and earnbor points in exchange for food. We get a total of four hours for activity and meal times, and outside of that, we have to remain in our cells."

    Ever since World War III, human rights had taken a sharp decline. Human rights had already been in quite a terrible state prior to that, but since World War III, the government wasn''t even trying to keep up pretenses anymore.

    There were many consequences to the copse of humanitarianism, one of which was the terrible condition of these prisons.

    A century ago, the environment in the prisons of some of the wealthier countries had been exceptional. In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that those prisons were no different from living in a dormitory with the exception of the restrictions on one''s freedom.

    However, things werepletely different in this day and age. Even in Darvaza Prison, where mental illness ran rampant, inmates were still mandated to perform manualbor. In addition to that, there were also many rules that had to be followed, rules that were enforced by Mechguard units, so failure or refusal to follow those rules could easily result in an inmate being executed on the spot.

    Of course, this was only publicly avable information that Adam had seen on the inte, and the conditions in the prison were sure to be far moreplex than that.

    "What kind of work do we need to do?"

    "We make handmade art pieces."

    "What?"

    Adam didn''t know if the man was joking or not.

    "Most of the inmates in Darvaza Prison are insane, and there''s a theory in Sandrise City and the entire world that art pieces created by insane people have a unique type of artistry to them. Some wealthy people or even average people on the outside like to collect art pieces of this nature. Regardless of whether it''s paintings, sculptures, or just ordinary handmade essories, there''s never a shortage in demand."

    "I see."

    In this world, money was paramount, even in a ce like Darvaza Prison.

    Money was intertwined with the fabric of human society, and even deranged killers couldn''t escape from its influence.

    After developing some understanding of Darvaza Prison, Adam finally asked the most important question on his mind: "Who are the people in this prison that absolutely cannot be messed with."

    "There are severalrge factions, and also the wardens."

    After answering Adam''s question, Guang Fei turned over and curled up in the corner in a different position. After changing his posture, it was as if he had be apletely different person, and he refused to speak to Adam no matter what Adam said.

    Adam could already guess that his days in this prison were going to be quite tumultuous.

    Not only was he going to have to start trouble with the factions in the prison so that he could take advantage of the resulting chaos, even more importantly, he had already made an enemy out of the wardens. More specifically, he had made an enemy out of the chief warden, which was sure to be a major problem for him.

    No matter how stupid the chief warden was, he was definitely going to target Adam to appease his higher-ups at the southern congress. Adam was certain that the southern congress wouldn''t be opposed to seeing him die in a prison brawl.

    ¡­¡­

    .

    The next morning, while Adam was still half-asleep, he was woken up by the sound of the rm ringing out outside.

    Adam didn''t dare to sleep too soundly on his first night in the prison. He had constantly kept his telegnosis sharp and alert to ensure that Guang Fei didn''t try anything funny, and thankfully, the night proved to be a peaceful and uneventful one.

    The sound of the rm heralded a brand new day in Darvaza Prison, and it was 6 AM.

    Adam had no time to wash up, and he hurriedly left his cell as soon as the door was opened.

    All of his days here were going to be strictly regimented, and he had to take full advantage of every second that was avable to him.

    It was time for breakfast, and following the rm, a series of flying Mechguard units arrived, supervising all of the inmates as they passed through the cell area to the nearby cafeteria.

    After arriving at the cafeteria, Adam didn''t see any human workers. Instead, there were only countless mechanical arms serving food to the inmates.

    Adam lined up and made his way over to one of the mechanical arms, which pulled out a blob of white food from a conveyor belt on the ceiling before thrusting it at Adam.

    The blob of food was very small, only roughly the size of Adam''s fist, and it appeared to be a piece of bread, but it was very sticky, with a texture that resembled mashed potatoes.

    Adam hesitated momentarily, but still decided to eat it.

    He was confident that even if the chief warden wanted to kill him, he wasn''t going to tamper with his food. Death from poisoning was far too easy to detect, and the repercussions would be quite severe, considering Adam was still a very relevant figure when it came to public discourse.

    To the chief warden, Adam was apletely inconsequential political enemy, and it simply wasn''t worth risking his career to have Adam killed.

    The best way to kill Adam was to have him die in a prison riot.

    This is disgusting.

    The food served at the cafeteria was like a blob of wax that had no vor whatsoever and a terrible texture.

    Even so, he still wished that he could get another piece.

    A piece of food that was only around the size of his fist was nowhere near enough to fill his stomach, but this was the only food that he was going to receive unless he hadbor points that he could pay for more food withbor points.

    There were Mechguard units and surveince cameras in the cafeteria, so everyone was very docile and obedient as they quietly collected their food.

    However, with his sharp telegnosis, Adam noticed that instead of eating their food right away, some of the inmates chose to hide it somewhere on their bodies instead.

 Chapter 347: The Factory and Art

    <h4>Chapter 347: The Factory and Art</h4>

    From the previous day up to this point, everything had been extremely quiet in the prison. All of the inmates resembled tamed dogs that didn''t make any unnecessary sounds, and Adam knew that this definitely wasn''t normal.

    After breakfast, everyone made their way out of the cafeteria in a line, then passed through a dark corridor where their bodies were scanned before arriving in a massive space that resembled a factory.

    However, in contrast with normal factories, there were no orderly pieces of equipment here. Instead, there were all types of strange things strewn chaotically all over the ce, including sculpting materials, art brushes, paints, basketballs, and sewing materials.

    While Adam was observing his surroundings, the electronic door behind him mmed shut, and the line of inmates that had beenpletely silent just a second ago instantly erupted into a chaoticmotion, making Adam feel as if he had suddenly been thrust into a full sports stadium.

    There were over 20,000 inmates locked up in Darvaza Prison, and they were split up into three different areas. Adam was in the third area, which housed several thousand inmates, and just a second ago, all of them had resembled well-trained dogs, yet as soon as the doors of the factory swung shut, they had all transformed into vicious, wild dogs that had been released from their cage.

    Before Adam had even had a chance to make sense of the situation, he was suddenly struck by a sense of peril from the back of his head, and he instantly ducked down, just in time to dodge a steel pipe that shed over his head.

    "Don''t you know the rules here, you little shit?"

    Adam turned around to find a more physically imposing man than himself approaching him with a steel pipe that he had picked up somewhere. As he approached Adam, he continued, "A newbie like you has to offer your breakfast up to your seniors!"

    He swung his steel pipe through the air again as he spoke.

    Adam wasn''t a skilled hand-to-handbatant, but he had endured countless battles of life and death in the psychic world. Furthermore, he possessed immense courage and potent telegnosis, so he was more than equipped for a fight in the real world.

    Using his telegnosis, he dodged the man''s second attack, then crouched down to pick up a pair of scissors, which he plunged into the man''s leg, causing him to fall to the ground with a cry of pain.

    Adam had made sure to avoid puncturing any of the man''s major arteries. He had only just arrived and didn''t know the rules, so he didn''t want to kill anyone.

    However, the choice was taken out of his hands.

    As soon as the man fell to the ground, a bunch of people with wooden expressions quickly gathered around him. They were looking at the man like a wake of vultures scrutinizing an animal that was about to die, and they were waiting for him to perish.

    There were also some other people who were unable to hold back upon smelling the scent of blood in the air, and they pounced on his body with frenzied expressions, gnawing and sucking at his wound as if they were zombies.

    "Get away from me, you filthy cannibals!"

    The man swung his steel pipe through the air in an attempt to drive away these people, but to no avail.

    It was very difficult for someoneying on the ground to muster up much strength, so he wasn''t able to deal much damage at all with his attacks. Furthermore, his panicked screams only sped up his demise as more and more zombie-like inmates flocked to the scene. Some plucked out his eyeballs, some tore chunks of flesh straight off his body, and some began to create art using his blood.

    More and more "artists" converged on the scene, taking body parts from the man to use in their artistic creations.

    Aren''t there any Mechguard units or wardens here?

    No one had stepped in to prevent the grotesque feeding frenzy.

    All of a sudden, a burly man arrived on the scene with hisckeys, and he didn''t even have to say or do anything before everyone else quickly scattered.

    At this point, the man on the ground was already as dead as dead could be. Every single part of his body had been taken to be incorporated into the surrounding artworks, and the only thing left behind was a remarkably well-preserved skeleton.

    The burly man picked up the skeleton on the ground, then made his way over to the wax figure production area in the factory and began to use the skeleton as the framework for his wax figure.

    .

    Throughout this entire process, no one raised anyints or said anything.

    This was the first time that Adam had seen what was essentially a primitive animalistic ecosystem in a society of humans.

    There were snatchers, hunters, scavengers, dposers... Everyone served a clear niche in this system, and there was a very clear food chain in ce. Wounded animals had no chance of putting up any resistance and were instantly devoured by nature.

    In the forest, no animal wanted to sustain injuries. If a predator were to determine that the price for hunting down its prey would be to suffer injuries, then it would rather lose that meal.

    The exact same thing applied here. Everyone was wary of everyone else, and that created a rather strange equilibrium.

    The incident quickly passed without much fuss, and after every piece of the man''s body had been taken away, everyone departed to work on their artistic creations.

    Of course, there were still some inmates who were offering up their breakfast to others.

    Adam didn''t pay any heed to all of this. After observing everyone else for a while, he discovered that no one was paying any attention to him, either, and he made his way directly to an Asian man.

    The man was in the process of creating an inkndscape painting, consisting of a mountain, at the foot of which was a pond, atop which sat some lily pads and flowers. The man embellished the flowers with the blood that he had just taken from the recently deceased, and the bright red color of the blood instantly made the flowers the focal point of the entire piece.

    "That''s not bad at all," Adam remarked.

    The artist was indeed quite skilled.

    "I''ve been working on this for quite a few days, but it''s always been missing that final touch that pushes it over the edge. Thanks to you, I can finally finish it," the man said as he gave Adam a nod of acknowledgment. "I''ll be able to sell this painting for a good price now."

    "How much can you sell a painting like this for?"

    "I don''t know how much money it''ll sell for, but I should be able to exchange it for at least 200bor points."

    "200?" Adam had no idea whether that was good or not. "What would you be able to buy with that?"

    Having justpleted his painting, the man was clearly in a very good mood, and he also wasn''t bothered by Adam''s questions, perhaps because he was thankful to Adam for providing the final piece that his painting needed.

    "You can buy many good things with 200bor points, such as pizza, steak, or wine. Cigarettes and marijuana are a bit more expensive, but you''ll be able to buy some with 200bor points as well. Of course, you can also exchange those points for some extra recreation time or a chance to meet your family."

    "That does sound like quite a good haul."

    "It is, but you don''t normally get that much for a piece of artwork."

    After chatting with Adam for a while, the man continued in his painting, while Adam familiarized himself with this new environment.

    Everyone was making sure to keep their distance from everyone else while working, maintaining a state of alertness.

    After concluding his conversation with the painter, Adam made his way around the factory to find that there was indeed not a single Mechguard unit present.

    A total of three brawls erupted in one morning, but no one came to intervene or mediate.

    The brawls also weren''t as brutal as Adam had imagined, and the only reason for this was that no one wanted to sustain any injuries.

    The morning quickly passed by, and at noon, the passageway to the cafeteria was opened again. However, this time, there was a Mechguard unit overseeing the proceedings, and only those wearing special bracelets could enter the cafeteria for lunch.

    The meal cost 12bor points, but Adam didn''t have even a single point.

 Chapter 348: Water Buffalo

    <h4>Chapter 348: Water Buffalo</h4>

    Adam wasn''t the only one who couldn''t afford the 12bor-point pricetag.

    The majority of the people didn''t enter the cafeteria. Instead, they packed up their things and carried them over to the mechanical arms that were responsible for sortation.

    Adam watched as a crude sculpture was carried to the mechanical arm, in exchange for which the creator didn''t receive even a singlebor point.

    "Why didn''t you get anything for that sculpture, brother?"

    Adam approached the man and reached out to pat him on the shoulder to establish some camaraderie, but the man was very alert and maintained his distance from Adam.

    Despite how wary and alert the man was, he still exined, "It''s normal to receive nobor points."

    "Why is that?"

    "Because these things are generally ultimately sold on the inte, and most of the pieces don''t have any artistic value. The prison takes everything and puts them through an initial appraisal to categorize them as crafts or artworks.

    ¡°Crafts are generally sold at a set price onrge tforms, generally going for somewhere between dozens to hundreds of dors, whereas artworks are put up for auction. If something is deemed to not even qualify as a craft, then the creator generally won''t receive anybor points or only very fewbor points."

    "Will someone starve to death if they don''t get anybor points?"

    "They''ll be very hungry, but they won''t die from starvation. The nutrient bundle from the morning can cover your basal metabolic needs."

    "I see."

    With the copse of humanitarianism, everyone on the outside was constantly working themselves to the bone, like donkeys running after the proverbial carrot of immortality that was always just out of reach, and no one was going to spare a thought for the evil-doers in the prison.

    This was a world that was far more brutal and unforgiving than the outside world.

    The dangling carrot of immortality had turned into the dangling carrot of food. In the outside world, the Gaia organization was using hope to string people along, while in the prison, the inmates were being forced to work just to satisfy basic needs.

    Having been forced to skip lunch, Adam was feeling quite weak and feeble.

    Prior to dinner, several of the factions split the inmates up into different areas before charging protection money, which consisted of 10bor points per person.

    "You there, new guy,e over here."

    Adam was instructed to mix in with a certain group, and he was soon approached by a brawny figure.

    "Hand it over."

    "I don''t have 10bor points," Adam replied with a shake of his head.

    He had attempted to create a few pieces earlier in the day, but he simply didn''t have talent in this area, and the majority of the things that he had created didn''t even qualify as crafts. He had submitted five pieces in total, but only earned twobor points.

    Not only was ack ofbor points going to deprive him of food, it was also going to earn him a beating.

    As soon as Adam expressed his inability to pay the protection fee, some members of a certain faction immediately closed in around him. It was going to be very difficult for him to take on so many people at once, and with no Mechguard units or wardens ensuring overseeing the inmates, he would immediately be a public enemy to everyone if he were to reveal his adapter abilities.

    Without his transmission device, there was no way that he could drag people in arge area into his psychic world.

    I can''t afford to get injured!

    Adam had already raised his arms in preparation for a beating, protecting his neck and other vital regions. As long as they didn''t use any sharp weapons on him, a beating wasn''t a cause for concern.

    Right as Adam was already prepared to be beaten, a voice suddenly rang out to stop the group of inmates.

    "Let him go for now. He''s clearly a bit of a fighter. There aren''t many ways to earnbor points in Darvaza Prison. You have to either be good at art, or you have to be a good fighter, and I reckon he''ll be decent in a fight. Give him a test, Water Buffalo."

    The man who had spoken was clearly the leader of the group, and as soon as his voice trailed off, a physically imposing man slowly stepped forward before positioning himself in front of Adam.

    "If you can beat Water Buffalo, I''ll let you join my Desert Gang!"

    Right as the leader''s voice trailed off, Water Buffalo''s fist was already being swung through the air.

    Adam was able to sense the danger with his telegnosis, thereby allowing him to take timely evasive measures.

    With so many people watching, he naturally couldn''t use any adapter abilities, so he could only fight Water Buffalo on a physical basis.

    After dodging a few punches in session, Adam was gradually beginning to struggle. Even though he was able to predict his opponent''s attacks with his telegnosis, he didn''t have the assistance of his prosthetics, and Water Buffalo was in far better physical condition than him, making it so that he was only just barely able to evade his opponent''s attacks.

    There was simply a vast disparity in speed and technique between the two.

    Adam''s strength and speed were only slightly superior to those of the average person. Due to the fact that he was a nk te, all of his health parameters had been artificially maintained at peak level, thereby granting him superior physical attributes to the average person.

    However, he had no training in hand-to-handbat, and he was physically only slightly superior to the average person, so he waspletely no match for such a muscr opponent who had clearly been training regrly for many years.

    Even though he could predict his opponent''s attacks in advance, it was still a struggle to evade them. Thankfully, he had experience in fighting opponents faster than himself in the psychic world, and he was able to manufacture an opportunity to retaliate, allowing him tond a punch on Water Buffalo''s abdomen.

    It was quite a solid punch, and Water Buffalo seemed to have had the wind knocked out of him for an instant.

    However, Water Buffalo was only stopped in his tracks for a moment, while Adam felt as if he had punched a wall, and even his wrist was hurting from Water Buffalo''s solid abdominal muscles.

    Having drawn close to Water Buffalo tond that punch, he was unable to avoid Water Buffalo''s subsequent attack, and Water Buffalo took advantage of this opportunity to grab onto him before mming him to the ground in a wrestling maneuver.

    It''s over...

    Adam felt as if his body had almost fallen apart at the seams from that violent throw, and not only had all the wind been knocked out of his chest, he felt as if all the strength had been sapped from his body.

    After that, Water Buffalo straddled him and grabbed onto his arm.

    If Water Buffalo were to catch him in an armlock, Adam could sense that his arm would be instantly snapped, and he would most likely suffer the same fate as the man from earlier in the day.

    Right as Adam was about to invade Water Buffalo''s psychic world, the leader of the group spoke up to stop him.

    "Stop! There aren''t many people who canst that long against you. Let''s take him in before he starves into a monkey."

    Water Buffalo seemed to be mentally handicapped, and he made a strange sound in response before obediently getting up from Adam''s body, while Adam sessfully became a member of the Desert Gang and earned 100bor points.

    "As a new member, we have to treat you to a good meal as part of our gang''s tradition."

    "Thank you, Boss."

    Joining a gang was exactly what Adam wanted as there was strength and protection in numbers, he wouldn''t have to starve.

    Most importantly, he was here to kill people and cause chaos, and only in ces with gangs was there chaos.

    "Let''s go. We get more activity time at night, but the cafeteria is only open for an hour, and if we want to get some good stuff, we have to get there early."

    The leader led Adam and his men out of the factory and into the cafeteria as he spoke.

    Upon returning to the cafeteria, Adam discovered that it was clearly different in the evening than it had been in the morning.

    In the morning, there had only been those nutrient bundles on the conveyor belts overhead, but right now, there were all types of packaged food on the conveyor belts up above, and the mechanical arms would instantly fetch the requested food item after thebor points were issued.

    Adam had only just ordered some food with the people from the Desert Gang when a warden suddenly walked in and called the leader away.

    "Come with me for a second, Ross."

 Chapter 349: Unexpected Turn of Events

    <h4>Chapter 349: Unexpected Turn of Events</h4>

    Prior to Ross''s departure, Adam didn''t detect anything, but upon his return, Adam was immediately struck by a clear sense of danger.

    It was quite apparent that the warden had told Ross something that was very detrimental to Adam''s situation.

    "Done?" Ross asked as soon he returned.

    "No, I just started eating," Adam replied.

    "Then hurry up. After dinner, we''ll go to the showers. The showers are the best ce in this prison. The flow of water is really strong, strong enough to wash away all blood, no matter how much someone bleeds. Come with us to the showers and help us kill a guy called Blood Thorn. That''ll count as your pledge to our gang."

    "Pledge?"

    "A pledge is a show of allegiance. Basically, you have to do something to show the gang your courage and loyalty. Even in the outside world, if you try to join a gang, they''ll make you do something to show them that you''ll be loyal and useful to the gang. Surely you didn''t think it would be that easy to join a gang in prison."

    As Ross was speaking, Adam nced at the dozen or so people around him, and there were still more and more peopleing in from the factory. With so many people around, Adam didn''t know how many Desert Gang members were present, so if he were to try and resist, he had no idea what the oue was going to be.

    Essentially, even though he knew that going to the showers was going to put him in a perilous situation, he had no choice but to go.

    "Alright, just tell me who it is that I have to kill. We don''t need to bring too many people, let''s just make it quick and snappy."

    "Sure."

    Ross nodded in response, then took a nce at Water Buffalo and a few other members of the Desert Gang.

    In the end, Adam was apanied by a total of eight other Desert Gang members to the showers after dinner.

    This wasn''t arge number of people, but they were all very capable fighters, and they would have no issues taking care of a newbie.

    The warden that had approached Ross earlier had told Ross to kill Adam in secret. Ross didn''t know why he had been instructed to do this, but he naturally wasn''t going to ask any questions.

    In Darvaza Prison, making an enemy out of the wardens was never a good thing, and he certainly wasn''t going to go against them for the sake of a newbie.

    ¡­¡­

    While making his way toward the showers with the other Desert Gang members, Adam was constantly looking for opportunities to get away, but the way that the prison was designed didn''t grant him any such opportunity.

    The corridors were long and narrow, and there were no gaps.

    How the hell do I get myself out of this one? qheitqewotqwhethewhothoiewhtowhet

    Adam took a nce at the eight other people around him, and it wasplete overkill. In a physical brawl, Water Buffalo alone would''ve been more than enough to kill him.

    Without his mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmission device, he would only be able to drag a maximum of three or four people into his psychic world at once, and once he did that, his physical body would bepletely powerless and vulnerable.

    No matter how he looked at this, it was a hopeless situation.

    In the chief warden''s office, Thn had just learned the situation that Adam was in, and he was getting extremely agitated.

    He stabbed a finger directly at Emmanuel as he roared, "Why are you doing this so soon? Didn''t we agree to wait until he and hispanions were all gathered in one ce before killing them together? Hispanions are still in the other areas, and they haven''t been transferred to the third area yet! If we kill them off one by one, we''ll be attracting a lot of attention from the outside world!"

    "So what? Adam is the main guy we want to take down. As long as he dies, it doesn''t matter if hispanions survive or not."

    As Emmanuel was speaking, he began to slurp down arge volume of spaghetti, making a sound that resembled a feeding pig.

    Thn became even more incensed at the sight of this disgusting pig of a man.

    This idiot hadpletely ruined his entire n!

    In his mind, the southern congress was definitely going to target Adam, but only after some time had passed since his incarceration.

    Firstly, Adam was a public figure with a great deal of renown outside the prison. If he were to pass away so soon after his incarceration, that would be sure to spark heated debate in the outside world. If that were to happen, all types of conspiracy theories would arise, heaping enormous pressure onto the southern congress.

    Hence, they had to wait before they had Adam killed, and during that time, Thn could get the northern congress to use their connections to provide Adam with a great deal of assistance.

    At the same time, Adam would also be able topletely familiarize himself with the prison environment, and once he established a firm foothold in the prison, he would be able to enact his n of hunting down psychic deviants in the prison.

    However, Emmanuel was aplete and utter idiot who did things in apletely wild and unpredictable fashion, therebypletely spoiling Thn''s n.

    "It hasn''t even been two days, and you''ve already arranged for people to kill him?"

    "Yes, what''s the problem?"

    "Stop eating! The consequences of your actions are going to be extremely severe!" Thn yelled as he pushed the te of spaghetti away. "Tell your people to call off the n!"

    Having had his te of food pushed away, Emmanuel turned to Thn with a vicious gleam in his eyes that resembled the look of a wild animal.

    He was fighting back his rage as he glowered at Thn, and his voice was distorted with fury as he snarled, "Who the hell do you think you are? How dare you touch my food? You may be a decent detective, but you''re still nothing but apdog to our Hosman Family, whereas I have the blood of the Hosman Family running in my veins, which means that I am your master! What kind of dog would dare to touch his master''s food?"

    Thn looked at the pig of a man before him, and he wasn''t enraged by his derogatory words.

    He despised the people who regarded themselves to be superior to other people just because of their bloodlines. He knew that there was no point in talking to an idiot like Emmanuel right now. If he wanted to prevent Adam''s death, then he had to turn to other people to intervene in the situation.

    With that in mind, he pulled out hismunicator and dialed a number to report this incident to his superior in the southern congress.

    Emmanuel''s actions went directly against the wishes of the southern congress, so he was definitely going to be stopped and reprimanded.

    However, it seemed that Thn was already toote.

    At this point, Adam had already arrived in the showers of the prison.

    This was a massivemunal shower area with several hundred showerheads, beneath which were some basic hygiene products.

    After arriving in the shower area, Adam found it to bepletely empty, and that confirmed to him beyond a doubt that he was indeed being targeted.

    However, he still had to pretend to be oblivious, both to stall for time to think of countermeasures, as well as to see exactly what his assants were plotting.

    "So? Where''s the guy I''m supposed to kill?"

    "I''m sorry, brother, but you''re the one that needs to be killed."

    Ross made a subtle hand signal as he spoke, and everyone else immediately formed a semi-circle around Adam, making it impossible for him to escape.

    "Why?"

    "It''s nothing personal. Someone told me to kill you, so you have to die, it''s as simple as that."

    "Can I fight Water Buffalo one more time before I die?" Adam requested. "I felt like I could''ve done better in that fight. If I had been more astute with my tactics, I feel like I could''ve beaten him."

    "You guys aren''t even in the same weight ss! Without your prosthetics, even three of you won''t be able to beat him. This guy weighs over 150kg, that''s probably more than twice your weight. But if that''s what you want, I''m happy to grant your final wish."

    Compared with the more vicious inmates in Darvaza Prison, Ross was a rtively easy-going guy. He shook his head with an amused smile, then turned to Water Buffalo as he instructed, "Go on, tear him to bits. There''s no need to hold back this time."

    As soon as this instruction was issued, Water Buffalo let loose an animalistic roar andunched his hulking body at Adam.

 Chapter 350: Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 350: Trouble</h4>

    Here hees!

    Thanks to extensive battle experience in the psychic world, Adam wasn''t panicked at all as he took a quick nce at everyone else. He could see that the other Desert Gang members hadn''tpletely surrounded him yet, and he took advantage of this opportunity to quickly shuffle back in retreat.

    As he did so, he turned on several showerheads in quick session.

    There was a fee charged for using the showers in Darvaza Prison, so hot water was provided.

    As Adam continued to retreat, a row of showerheads had been turned on, and hot water was pouring out incessantly.

    After that, Adam pulled out one of the showerheads and aimed it directly at Water Buffalo''s face. Water Buffalo reflexively raised his arms to shield his own face, and Adam took advantage of this opportunity to jump onto Water Buffalo before strangling him with the cord of the showerhead.

    In contrast with the showerheads in most prisons, the ones in Darvaza Prison were able to be pulled out in the exact same way as the ones found in normal homes.

    Adam gritted his teeth tightly as he strangled Water Buffalo with all his might.

    If he could take Water Buffalo out of the equation, then his chances of survival would increase by at least half.

    "It''s no use!" Ross waspletely unfazed by what he was seeing. "If that''s all it takes to ovee such a massive disparity in strength and bodyweight, then there wouldn''t be any weight sses inbat sports. He''s over 100 pounds heavier than you, how could you possibly win?"

    As soon as Ross''s voice trailed off, Water Buffalo rushed back to m Adam against the wall, causing him to loosen his grip. Water Buffalo then reached around and grabbed onto Adam''s shoulders before throwing him onto the ground.

    However, despite the fact that he was almost knocked unconscious by the impact, Adam refused to let go of the showerhead, continuing to strangle Water Buffalo viciously with its cord.

    "Die!"

    Water Buffalo''s fury was building by the second. Not only had he failed to kill Adam up to this point, he had sustained injuries to his neck, and he crouched down in a fit of rage to grab onto Adam''s neck and tear him to pieces.

    However, right at this moment, his vision abruptly blurred.

    Immediately thereafter, Adam''s body began to rapidly expand, and all of his skin fell away, only to be reced by what appeared to be chunks of stone.

    Water Buffalo looked on with a stunned and horrified expression as the man beneath him transformed into an eight-meter-tall stone giant, with its head already punching through the ceiling.

    Water Buffalo was so frightened by this that he hurriedly stumbled back in retreat, but Adam was about to let him get away.

    He had to kill this opponent in the shortest time possible because in the real world, the brawl was still supposed to be ongoing, but due to the fact that both of them had lost consciousness, the other Desert Gang members were soon going to realize that something was amiss.

    Thus, Adam crouched down and extended his right hand as quickly as he could to grab onto Water Buffalo.

    I hope you''re not an anomaly.

    Not all of the inmates in Darvaza Prison were bona fide psychic deviants.

    Anyone whomitted murders using excessively brutal methods had a chance of being thrown into Darvaza Prison. As an example, Dwight wasn''t a psychic deviant. While it was true that there was an anomaly in his psychic world, he hadn''t fused one with it.

    The same thing clearly applied to Water Buffalo as well.

    His psychic body was very ordinary, and as Adam grabbed onto him, he was barely able to offer up any resistance.

    "Who''s the big guy now?"

    "No!" Cowboy yelled with all his might, but all Adam had to do was tighten his grip, and Water Buffalo''s entire psychic body was crushed into mincemeat.

    After killing Water Buffalo, Adam hurriedly left the psychic world.

    In the real world, hot water was continuing to gush out of the showerheads, causing steam to fill the surrounding area.

    This was something that Adam had set up in advance so that Ross and the others would be able to see what was happening.

    "Why did they suddenly go quiet?"

    "Isn''t Water Buffalo always yelling and screaming when killing people?"

    "Bruce, Monkey, go take a look."

    Two of the Desert Gang members made their way over to where Water Buffalo and Adam were situated at Ross''s behest.

    At this moment, Adam waspletely concealed under Water Buffalo''s enormous body.

    "Yo, Water Buffalo, you alright?" one of the two gang members asked, but he was met with no response.

    The two men realized that something seemed to be wrong, and they approached Water Buffalo to try and drag him back to his feet, but a pair of hands suddenly shot out from under Water Buffalo''s body before grabbing onto their ankles.

    Five secondster, Adam emerged from beneath Water Buffalo, and there were three lifeless figures on the ground beside him.

    None of the three Desert Gang members had been harboring any excessively powerful anomalies in their psychic worlds, so it had only taken Adam mere seconds to put an end to their lives.

    At this point, Adam was already far more powerful than the likes of Oni no Hanzou, and the two men weren''t even able to detect that their psychic worlds had been invaded.

    "What the hell?"

    Ross was immediately struck by a sense of foreboding as he watched Adam rise to his feet, while Water Buffalo and the othersid around him in apletely still and lifeless manner.

    "Boss, he must be an adapter!"

    One of the smarter Desert Gang members instantly realized what had just happened.

    "You''re right," Ross replied with a nod, then took a nce at his fellow gang members as he said, "There''s no need to be scared of him, there are still five of us and only one of him. Even if he''s an adapter, his long-range transmission device has to have already been removed before he was thrown into prison, so we''ll be fine as long as we don''t make physical contact with him."

    As Ross was speaking, he and all of the other gang members around him pulled out different types of weapons, most of which had been taken from the factory. Their destructive power was quite mediocre, but taking a hit from one of those things was definitely going to hurt, and a good blow to the back of the head could even spell death.

    "Are you sure?" Adam asked, putting on a bluff as he made his way toward Ross.

    Indeed, Ross was right.

    Even if Adam could grab onto one of the gang members and sessfully invade their psychic world, his physical body would bepletely vulnerable to attack.

    However, he was taking a gamble, making a bet that Ross only had a very limited understanding of adapters.

    After all, adapters were extremely rare, and not much information on them was avable to the general public. Out of the tens of thousands of inmates in Darvaza Prison, there were perhaps only a handful of adapters, so it was only to be expected that the rest of the inmates didn''t know much about them.

    Even if Ross did know more about adapters than other inmates, perhaps he wasn''t so certain in his knowledge that he would be willing to test it with his own life, and that was what Adam was counting on.

    "Don''t be scared of him! Go!"

    Ross was clearly beginning to feel a little uneasy. This was only an order from a warden, and it wasn''t worth it if he had to die to carry out the order.

    While he was backing away, he pushed one of his underlings forward. The underling was also scared, and even though he was putting on a menacing disy, he didn''t dare to approach Adam, either.

    "Do you wanna give me a try?" Adam asked as he turned to that person.

    The man was very hesitant about how to proceed, and he took a couple of steps backward, then said to Ross, "Boss, we don''t have any vendetta against him, and I don''t think we have enough numbers to kill an adapter. How about we bring our crossbows next time so we can take him down from a distance? That''ll be a far safer bet."

    "You''re right, there''s no need to risk our lives here."

    "He''s right, Boss!"

    The other gang members were also eager to back out of the n.

    "In that case, let''s retreat."

    Ross took a few more backward steps as he spoke, but he naturally couldn''t just scurry away with his tail between his legs. Hence, he pointed the section of sharp rebar in his hand at Adam as he dered, "This isn''t over! You killed three of my brothers, and you''re definitely going to have to pay with your life sooner orter!"

    Adam didn''t say anything, merely looking back at him in silence.

    Only after the five Desert Gang members had fled from the showers was he certain that he had managed to survive this ordeal.

 Chapter 351: Skunk

    <h4>Chapter 351: Skunk</h4>

    Adam heaved a long sigh of relief after Ross and the others had faded out of sight.

    This battle hadn''t been anywhere near as spectacr as his battles in the psychic world, but it hadn''t been any less perilous, and even the slightest misstep would''ve resulted in his death.

    It seems like I''ve been pretty lucky.

    If even a single one of the three people who had perished here had harbored an anomaly that had been able to put up any resistance, then Adam would''ve been well and truly screwed.

    Thankfully, even in Darvaza Prison, there weren''t many inmates like Sima Kai, whose psychic bodies werepletely fused as one with their anomalies.

    ¡­¡­

    After weathering this storm, Adam wasn''t going to be in any immediate danger in the near future.

    This was because Thn had been pulling some strings.

    In the chief warden''s office, Emmanuel had received a call from his father. As the disgrace of the Hosman Family, a fat pig with below-average intelligence, Emmanuel had always been looked down on by his father, and his father was also the person that he feared the most.

    Ever since he was a child, Emmanuel had been abused extensively by his own father, both physically and mentally.

    Hence, as soon as he heard his father''s furious voice on the other end of the line, the vicious look on his face instantly turned into one of shock and horror.

    "Yes, I understand... Rest assured, Father... Yes, I know it''s very important. I know he''s really popr in the outside world, and I know he has close ties with the northern congress... Yes, I''ll make sure to do a clean job... Don''t worry, Father, there''s no way he would die so easily. I''ll send someone to check on him right away... I understand, I''ll wait until some time has passed before I target him again..."

    ¡­¡­

    After the call ended, Emmanuel immediately slumped back in his chair like a deted balloon, and he looked up to see Thn entering his office once again.

    "Just you wait!"

    He knew that it was Thn who had reported his actions to his father, so in the instant that he caught sight of Thn, he finally saw someone that he could vent his cowardice and fear on. Of course, those emotions were being expressed in the form of anger.

    "Sooner orter, I''m going to..."

    "What''re you going to do?" Thn asked as he watched Emmanuel through narrowed eyes.

    Throughout his investigation, he was constantly being impeded by ipetent figures, and that was one of the reasons why he had decided to betray the southern congress.

    "There''s a saying in the east that a dog that bites its owner will die sooner orter. You may not suffer the consequences right away, but at some point..."

    Emmanuel''s voice trailed off here as he pressed a button on the table, and it didn''t take long before a pair of wardens made their way into the office.

    "Go and check on Adam. If he''s not dead, then tell the others not to touch him for now."

    The two wardens immediately departed to carry out the instruction, and several minutes, they returned, bearing a piece of news that came as a massive relief to both Emmanuel and Thn.

    "Adam isn''t dead, Mr. Chief Warden. Members of the Desert Gang in the third area tried to make a move on him, but he seems to be quite a capable fighter, and he was able to take out three of the gang members while emergingpletely unscathed himself."

    "Good. Tell all of the gang leaders that he''s not to be killed within the next 10 days."

    "Yes, Mr. Chief Warden."

    After the pair of wardens departed, Thn took a nce at Emmanuel, then departed in silence.

    He had to make some preparations.

    Adam''s status as an inte celebrity would allow him to remain safe in the initial phase of his incarceration, but in this day and age, there was a constant stream of explosive news stories sting the public consciousness.

    Hence, it wasn''t going to take long before Adam was forgotten, and that was going to ce him in a very perilous situation.

    During this period of respite, he had to use his connections to help Adam establish a firm foothold in the prison.

    Thn ignored Emmanuel''s vicious gaze as he closed the door to his office.

    Don''t disappoint me, Adam. I''m betting everything on you.

    ¡­¡­

    It had already been a week since Adam arrived in Darvaza Prison, and during this time, he had developed a good grasp of the prison''syout.

    The prison was split up into several areas, namely the cell area, the factory, the cafeteria, the activity area, and the showers.

    The safest of those areas was the activity area as it was situated outdoors and was overseen by arge number of Mechguard units, so none of the inmates dared to start any conflicts there.

    The second-safest area was the cell area, which was patrolled by miniature flying Mechguard units and overseen by surveince cameras.

    Then came the cafeteria, where the situation was simr to that of the cell area, except there were fewer patrolling Mechguard units.

    The most dangerous areas were the factory and the showers, and there were people dying in those two areas virtually every single day. Of course, in a prison with tens of thousands of inmates, a handful of people dying here and there wasn''t enough to cause much of a stir.

    Darvaza Prison had a terrible reputation in the outside world, and with the copse of humanitarianism, all of the people on the outside were hoping that the inmates would die sooner so they wouldn''t waste any more taxpayer dors.

    In terms of the daily schedule, it was much the same as working a job in the outside world. The only difference was that there was no hope for those who didn''t work in the outside world, whereas those who didn''t work in the prison were only given one meal a day andpletely deprived of any time for recreation.

    Inmates had to work during the day and received time to rx at night, while weekends meant additional time off.

    However, even during those hours where inmates weren''t working, the majority of themid around and did nothing as the white energy bundles provided in the morning were only just enough to fulfill their basal metabolic needs.

    Hence, even though there were inmates being killed almost every day, the number of inmate deaths wasn''t very high. Without sufficient sustenance, inmates were far less aggressive than they otherwise would''ve been.

    After familiarizing himself with the different areas and daily schedules in the prison, Adam began to learn about the different powers here.

    There were a total of three major factions in the three areas, and they were split up based on regions and ethnicities.

    The Desert Gang was the faction that represented Sandrise City. Sandrise City was situated in a desert, so the Desert Gang was essentially the local faction.

    The Asian Gang had fewer members, but it was a very tightly knit organization that didn''t take in any members who weren''t of Asian descent.

    There were even fewer members in the Radiation Gang. These were people who came from the radiation zones, and virtually all of them were extremely abnormal, both physically and mentally. Many of them had physical mutations from radiation exposure, only to be turned into essentially humanoid monsters after receiving treatment from cutting-edge technology.

    The Desert Gang had the most members out of the three factions, and its members were always going around charging protection fees, but they always made sure to stay out of the way of the monsters from the Radiation Gang.

    The advantage that the locals from the Desert Gang had was that they all appeared to be rtively normal and were on good terms with the wardens. Hence, on the surface, the Desert Gang was the most powerful of the three major factions.

    On this day, Adam was squatting in a corner during the allotted activity time, observing the inmates around him when he suddenly felt someone looking at him. He turned in that direction, and the person who was looking at him gave him a subtle hand signal, indicating for him to leave the area being overseen by surveince cameras.

    Adam had no idea who this person was. Then again, with several thousand inmates in the third area alone, he wasn''t familiar with the vast majority of the inmates here.

    The man waspletely unremarkable in appearance, and Adam couldn''t sense any animosity from him through his telegnosis.

    Thus, Adam didn''t hesitate before rising to his feet and following the man from a distance to a secluded corner.

    "I was instructed by Wax Figure to give you this."

    The man pulled a stinky object out of his pants, and Adam looked down to find that it was a tiny synapse transmission device.

    "This was the biggest one we could smuggle in for you. Its effective range is 12 meters. My name is Skunk, you cane to me if you need anything."

    With that, the young man promptly departed.

    Adam took a sniff at the synapse transmission device, then tucked it under his own clothes with a rather disgusted look on his face.

 Chapter 352: Survival of the Fittest

    <h4>Chapter 352: Survival of the Fittest</h4>

    Not long after Adam left the corner, he was approached by someone else.

    This was a man who was clearly a psychic deviant, as evidenced by his peculiar expression, which was a physical manifestation of his twisted psyche.

    These psychic deviants weren''t particrly high up on the prison food chain.

    All of the inmates in the prison hadmitted some type of heinous crime, so no one feared these mentally disturbed individuals.

    It was clear that this man wasn''t ranked very high in the prison hierarchy, and his severely emaciated body indicated that even the daily morning nutrient bundle wasn''t a guaranteed meal for him.

    "Someone... told me... to tell you... your friends... are about to be transferred here."

    After delivering that message, the man departed with his face spasming uncontrobly.

    Sounds like Mole and the others are about to arrive.

    Adam, Shae, and the three psychic mutants had been arrested together, but their trialssted different durations, so they weren''t sent to prison together. Having said that, they were being prosecuted for the same case, so they were most likely also going to be arriving in prison in the next few days.

    Rabbit and Shae were going to be in the prison''s female division, but it sounded like Mole and Armadillo had been assigned to different areas, but were about to be transferred to the third area.

    Thn''s most likely behind this. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have gotten two separate people to deliver this information to me.

    The southern and nothern congresses were quite wary of one another, and neither side wanted to be caught doing something wrong by the other. Hence, the northern congress would definitely want to minimize the number of people rying information to Adam, and the fact that he had been approached by two people told him that these two inmates had been sent by different people.

    In any case, they had brought him the two things that he needed the most, which were allies and equipment.

    With this synapse transmission device in his possession, he wouldn''t have to fear small-scale conflicts. Even though its effective range was only 12 meters, that would''ve still been enough for the majority of situations.

    Furthermore, the arrival of allies would finally allow him to carry out his n.

    ¡­¡­

    Another uneventful half-day passed by, and that night, some people were transferred to the third area from another area.

    This appeared to be quite arge-scale transfer, with several hundred inmates arriving at once, filling up all of the third area''s spare cells.

    What''s going on?

    All of the inmates of the third area were quite surprised by this turn of events.

    All of the transferred inmates seemed to have undergone some type of meticulous selection process, and none of them appeared to be starving or emaciated at all. In fact, they were all physically imposing figures who were above average in both height and weight.

    A shared trait between all of these inmates was each of them was missing a piece of skin in a special shape on their shoulder. The shape resembled a swastika, but wasn''t exactly the same.

    All of these inmates had violent and bloodthirsty looks in their eyes, and it seemed that if they weren''t under the supervision of Mechguard units, they would immediately rush into the cells and dismember the inmates inside with their bare hands.

    Not only had these people attracted the interest of everyone else in the third area, they had naturally attracted Adam''s attention as well. He had thought that Mole and Armadillo would''ve only been transferred to the third area along with a small group of other inmates, and he certainly wasn''t expecting so many of them to arrive at once.

    "Those people are from the first area. The first area is the earliest area to have been established in the prison, and it holds the prison''s most brutal inmates. At the time, World War III had only recently concluded, and the number of Mechguard units had still been quite limited. As a result, violent crime was rampant on the streets, and that''s why Darvaza Prison came into existence," Guang Fei exined.''

    Having been locked up in Darvaza Prison for over two decades, Guang Fei knew far more about the prison than Adam did.

    "After that, as time passed, Darvaza Prison continued to expand, but as a tradition, the most brutal and most destructive inmates were always locked up in the first area."

    "These people look like they all belong to a faction."

    "That''s right, Survival of the Fittest."

    "Survival of the Fittest?"

    "That''s the name of their faction."

    "I see."

    As he was speaking, Adam finally spotted a familiar figure. This inmate didn''t have anything on his shoulder, and he was particrly burly and imposing, even more so than all of the other inmates around him.

    Dwight?

    Dwight was once a star rugby yer who was renowned for his power and explosiveness. Compared to him, the average person resembled nothing more than a twig, and he was extremely easy to pick out in a crowd.

    Dwight definitely hadn''t been locked up in the first area because he was particrly violent or brutal. Instead, it had to be purely due to his potential for causing destruction.

    Adam had a feeling that it was also thanks to Thn that Dwight had been transferred to the third area.

    After spotting Dwight, Adam began to carefully search through the crowd, and sure enough, it didn''t take him long to spot Mole and Armadillo.

    They had also been looking around when Adam spotted them, and it didn''t take long before their eyes met, upon which smiles appeared on both their faces.

    "You know those two?"

    Guang Fei was very perceptive and immediately noticed the subtle interaction between the three of them.

    "No," Adam replied with a shake of his head.

    He was feeling a lot more reassured now that Mole and Armadillo had also been transferred to the third area.

    "Recently, brawls have been frequently taking ce in the first area."

    While Adam was looking out through the bars of his cell, a warden stepped forward. It was the very same warden that had struck Adam on the head with a baton on his first day in the prison, and it appeared that he was a direct subordinate to the chief warden.

    "Hence, we''ve integrated the first area with the third area to avoidrge-scale brawls."

    After that deration from the warden, the inmates from the first area were taken to their cells.

    "Sounds like there are going to be some rough times ahead," Guang Fei remarked, then huddled up into a corner of the cell again.

    ¡­¡­

    An uneventful night passed by, and the next morning, Adam picked up his energy bundle before arriving in the factory.

    Right as he was about to begin searching for Mole and Armadillo, he was approached by a pair of burly men.

    "Hand it over."

    Adam looked up to find that both of the men were from the Survival of the Fittest faction.

    Adam didn''t want to hand over the energy bundle. He didn''t have manybor points left, so this was his only source of sustenance for the day, and handing it over meant that he would have to starve for the entire day.

    However, as he was looking around to see if there was a way out, more members of the same faction were already closing in around him.

    "Here you go."

    "From now on, you have to give us your breakfast every day, understood?"

    "Sure," Adam replied with a nod, putting on an obedient and docile disy.

    He had thought that this would be enough to get the Survival of the Fittest faction members to leave him alone. After all, he had already given up his food, so there was no reason for them to target him any further.

    However, he quickly realized that he was mistaken.

    "There''s no reason why the weak should be allowed to continue living!"

    The man who had taken Adam''s food whipped out a sharp metallic object as he spoke, then shed it at Adam''s throat.

    Adam had sensed the danger in advance, and he was in the process of dodging the attack when a dull thump rang out, and before he knew it, his entire face was covered in blood.

    A sharp steel pipe had appeared out of nowhere to pierce through the man''s throat.

    Before Adam even had a chance to turn around to see who it was, a familiar voice rang out behind him.

    "That''s what you get for picking on my brother! I''ll fuck you all up!"

    A burst of deranged cackling rang out as Mole rushed out of the crowd, and as he did so, he hurled the other steel pipe that he was holding through the air.

 Chapter 353: My Brother

    <h4>Chapter 353: My Brother</h4>

    The same attack naturally wasn''t going to work twice in a row, and this time, Mole''s steel pipe failed to strike any targets.

    Thepanions of the inmate who had just been killed were just about to retaliate when both of them were struck by a sharp pain in the Achilles tendon. As it turned out, Armadillo had snuck up on them before attacking them from below.

    Armadillo liked to attack people from underground in the psychic world, and he was employing the same tactics in the real world, sneaking up on the two inmates while they were distracted by the chaos before shing their Achilles tendons with a penknife.

    After the two of them copsed to the ground, Armadillo plunged the penknife straight into their eye sockets.

    Blood instantly began to gush forth, making a sound resembling a leaky pipe, and the two men were spasming uncontrobly on the ground while their life force rapidly slipped away.

    Prior to the arrival of the scavengers, a group of inmates with the swastika-like marks on their shoulders converged onto the scene.

    They were led by a man with deathly pale skin and no eyebrows.

    Upon arriving on the scene, he didn''t immediately seek retaliation. Instead, he seemed to be rather impressed as he turned to Armadillo and Mole.

    "That was quite impressive. You two would make good additions to our faction."

    "Get fucked!"

    Mole spat directly at the man, sending a globule of phlegm mixed with blood sttering onto his face.

    Instead of being enraged by this, the man grinned as he wiped his face clean, then said, "For killing members of my faction, you''ll either have to die or join my faction. Of course, if you want to join us, you have to do three things first."

    "Get the fuck..."

    Mole was aplete and utter psychic mutant, and when he flew off the handle, he didn''t have any concept of fear or life and death.

    He didn''t like the look of the man, so he wanted to kill him.

    He had never feared any opponent in the psychic world, and he certainly wasn''t going to back down in the real world, either.

    However, right as he was about to escte the conflict, Adamid a hand on his shoulder from behind to calm him down a little.

    As a result, he returned to his senses and recalled that they had an objective toplete while in prison. With that in mind, he looked around at the inmates converging on the scene. With so many people ganging up on them at once, they were screwed regardless of whether they chose to fight these men in the real world or invade their psychic worlds.

    He wasn''t afraid of death, but he couldn''t die before he fulfilled his promise to his brother.

    "Alright, what do you want us to do?"

    "We''ve only just arrived in the third area, and what we have to do now is gather all of thebor points in this ce."

    With enoughbor points, this ce was no much different from the prisons of 100 years ago.

    However, withoutbor points, this ce was truly hell.

    Labor points were the currency here, and just like in the outside world, everyone in the prison was being controlled by Mechguard and the currency.

    "You killed three of my men today, so you have to pay with three lives. Kill three leaders of the factions in the third area, and I''ll let things slide. Otherwise..."

    The man didn''t finish his threat, but his intentions were already very clear.

    After that, he departed with the rest of his men.

    Right after they left, the scavengers arrived to dissect the bodies for their artwork.

    "Nobody fucking move! We were the ones who killed them, why should we let you use their bodies for free?" Somehow, Mole had suddenly transformed into a businessman, and he dered, "Anyone who uses my stuff needs to pay me 30% of thebor points they receive! If you''re fine with that,e take whatever you want. Otherwise, piss off!"

    Mole was being very aggressive and overbearing here, but he had disyed sufficient power to back himself up, and he wasn''t asking for a very steep price, so no one wanted to oppose him.

    Soon, a ster sculptor took a body as a model, and after that, a craftsman who specialized in making wine gons took the head of another body.

    Thus, the three bodies were quickly dissected and sold like animals in a butcher''s shop from a century ago.

    "Looks like we''ve got money for lunch now. It''ll be my treat."

    "Thanks, Boss."

    Adam had always been referring to Mole as "Boss" in order to appeal to his child-like sense of vanity, but at this moment, there was a genuine sense of respect and emotion in his words.

    Given how many times they had endured life-and-death situations together, Mole had truly be a brother of his. Even Hook, who was once Adam''s closest friend, often backed out at the first sign of danger, but despite theirints, Mole and the others were always willing to put their lives on the line for him.

    Adam didn''t want them to die, and he definitely didn''t want them to die because of him.

    It could be argued that Hook had been swept up in Adam''s business because of his dream to be a celebrity influencer, but Mole and Armadillo were in prison solely for his sake.

    With that in mind, he said, "Boss, we''ve only juste here, so I think it wouldn''t be a good idea to make enemies out of everyone."

    "Are you saying what I did was wrong? They were going to kill you!"

    "I''m not talking about that, you definitely did the right thing just now. I thought that they would be willing to let me off the hook if Iplied with their demands, I didn''t think that would make them deem me as unworthy of living. The fact that you were able to see through them right away shows that your intelligence is truly unmatched."

    "Well, that''s a given!"

    Mole was always extremely receptive topliments on his intelligence.

    "However, if we keep doing things like this, we''ll definitelynd ourselves in trouble eventually. There are only three of us, and we can''t drag our enemies into the psychic world unless there''s no other choice."

    "Adam''s right," Armadillo chimed in. He had always been the one who was most supportive of Adam. "We have to rein in our tempers and focus on executing our n."

    "What are nning to do then?" Mole asked.

    "I''m fairly certain that Thn convinced the southern congress to carry out this transfer of inmates. He knows our objective, and he did this to create more chaos so that we can take advantage of the situation and implement our n."

    "That guy''s just ackey, does he really hold that much sway in the southern congress?"

    "It''s not a matter of how much sway he holds. Instead, this transfer of inmates is something that''s beneficial to the southern congress as well. They want to kill us, but they''re afraid of the public bacsh that could be directed at them if they get found out, so it''s also in their best interests to muddy the waters in the hope that we''ll die in arge-scale prison brawl."

    "That makes sense. As expected, your intelligence is second only to mine, Adam. What should we do then?"

    "It''s very likely that a major riot is going to take ce in the near future, and we''re only three people, so our power is limited. Hence, I suggest we join some factions so we can better our chances of survival and pit these factions against one another."

    "Which factions do we join?"

    "I think we should try to join as many factions as possible, and it would be best if we split up. You two can try to join the Survival of the Fittest faction, while I''ll try to join the Desert Gang. These two factions have the most members, so it would theoretically be best to stir up trouble in these two factions."

    "Alright, then it''s decided."

    ¡­¡­

    As it turned out, conflicts were arising even sooner than Adam anticipated.

    While he was still finalizing his n with Mole and Armadillo, the first round of brawls was already breaking out in the massive factory.

    The reason for the conflict was very simple: the newly arrived faction wanted to take more energy bundles, but most of the energy bundles in the third area were already being taken by the Desert Gang, so there was a direct conflict of interests.

    At a time like this, there was no use in negotiating, and that wasn''t the style of Darvaza Prison anyway.

 Chapter 354: The City from 30 Years Ago

    <h4>Chapter 354: The City from 30 Years Ago</h4>

    The members of the Survival of the Fittest faction were already fighting with the members of the Desert Gang, and the conflict was quickly escting.

    Initially, it was only a brawl consisting of around a dozenbatants, but the number of people involved rapidly multiplied, and in the end, it turned into arge-scale melee with hundreds ofbatants involved.

    There were conflicts and battles in normal prisons as well, but in those prisons, the number of casualties generally far exceeded the number of deaths. However, the prison brawls here were different. All of thebatants here aimed for vital regions with every single one of their attacks, and even those without weapons who were beaten down would try to grab at the crotch region of members of the opposing faction.

    "This is quite the brawl! I''m starting to get excited!"

    Initially, Mole was able to hold back under Adam''s persuasion, but his self-restraint quickly ran out, and before long, he had already picked up a weapon before rushing into the thick of the action.

    Mole wasn''t particrly strong or physically imposing, but he seemed to have received professionalbat training and was very agile in battle. In addition to that, his telegnosis allowed him to sense danger in advance, so he was able to fight his way through the crowd with ease.

    The brawl was bing more and more brutal, and if this had been a brawl involving normal people, many of them would''ve already been backing out in fear at this point.

    However, this was Darvaza Prison, and there were barely any normal people here.

    Not only was all the bloodshed not striking fear into the hearts of the inmates, it was only serving to rile up the bloodlust in the hearts of many of the bystanders. Those with violent tendencies were beginning to sumb to their violent urges, those with panic disorders were being driven crazy from fear, while those who suffered from severe anxiety werepletely losing their sense of reason in this chaotic atmosphere.

    Right as things were about topletely spiral out of control, the doors of the factory were flung open, and a series of Mechguard units swarmed in, following which their arms opened up to release a barrage of smoke bombs.

    Smoke that was carrying potent sedatives instantly permeated throughout the entire area, and it didn''t take long before everyone fell unconscious.

    In the face of these mechanical monsters, even the most violent and physically imposing human criminals stood no chance whatsoever.

    It had only taken no more than five minutes for the scene to de-escte from chaotic pandemonium toplete silence. However, the suppressed resentment and bad blood between the factions was only going to continue to ferment, and it was going to erupt sooner orter.

    That was what Adam wanted to see, and it was also what Emmanuel wanted to see.

    It was clear that a period of extreme strife and unrest, the likes of which had never been seen before, was about to fall upon the third area.

    ¡­¡­

    The day after the massive brawl was the first day that Adam was preparing to enact his n.

    There was a list of names that hemitted to memory prior to entering Darvaza Prison.

    Even inside Darvaza Prison, there were many inmates who weren''t anywhere near demented enough to be psychic deviants. Granted, there was certainly a far higher percentage of psychic deviants in here than in the outside world, but Adam estimated that only less than 1% of the inmates were harboring anomalies above level five anomalies.

    Afterparing the information he hadmitted to memory with the corresponding inmates in reality, Adam had picked out some targets.

    After dinner, he spotted one of his targets making his way toward the showers.

    Adam tapped Armadillo on the shoulder, and thetter wasn''t done eating yet, but he immediately stood up to follow Adam.

    After that, Mole also quickly joined them.

    They issued thebor points required to enter the showers, and Adam discovered that there weren''t many other inmates there. This made sense, considering showering in Darvaza Prison was quite a luxury. The average inmate didn''t even have enoughbor points for food, so they naturally weren''t going to waste thosebor points.

    Thus, the only ones who regrly visited the showers were faction members or artists.

    Artists were essentially cash cows that were able to earnrge amounts ofbor points, so the factions generally wouldn''t target them. In exchange, all they had to do was pay a cut of their ie to the factions as a protection fee.

    Even if they only had a third of their ie remaining, that was still enough for them to live a far better life than the average inmate.

    Out of all of the artists in the prison, the ones who were able to create the most violent and grotesque artworks were mostly true psychic deviants.

    "He''s gone in. How do we do this?"

    "I''ll corner him a cubicle. There are going to be faction membersing in as well, so turn on all of the showerheads around the cubicle to create a smokescreen and drown out all sounds. Also, take this." Adam pulled out the synapse transmission device before handing it to Mole as he spoke. "Use this if there are too many people to deal with at once."

    "Will you be alright on your own? What''s the guy''s history like?" Armadillo asked in a concerned voice.

    "He''s a human skin artist, and he''s 72 years old this year. During World War III, a small nuclear bomb was set off in the city that he was living in, but he was living on the outskirts of the city, which was outside of the direct radiation zone.

    ¡°However, he saw many people on the brink of death fleeing out of the city, and that gave him the inspiration to create a piece of taboo artwork that stunned the entire world. The artwork is called the Lamenting Wall, and apparently, it was an exceptional piece of artwork that perfectly encapsted the despair of war and the horror of its victims.

    ¡°Many people found themselvespletely ovee by negative emotions just from seeing photographs of the artwork online, and it''s said that the original artwork is currently in the possession of a high-ranking member of the Psychic Church."

    "Why is it a piece of taboo artwork?"

    "Because it''s said that the faces on the Lamenting Wall were the actual faces of the victims that he had surgically removed."

    "Will you be able to take him down on your own?"

    "I can give it a shot. I''m fairly confident in myself right now, but it''ll probably take some time, so you have to make sure to keep a good lookout, that''ll be the key to this n. If I can''t beat his anomaly, I''ll just have toe out. With Sludge up my sleeve, I should be able to ensure self-preservation, at the very least."

    "Alright, leave it to us."

    "Cut the chit-chat! The old fart''s gonna be done showering soon!"

    Mole made his way into the shower area as he spoke.

    The shower area had over 1,000 showerheads, and the deeper one went, the fewer people there were. asionally, there would be a cluster of around a dozen faction members showering together.

    In the wake of the recent riot, all of the faction members were on high alert, and they would all turn to scrutinize Adam''s trio with wary expressions as they passed by.

    Adam paid no heed to them as he continued to make his way deeper into the shower area, and as he approached the cubicle that the human skin artist was in, he turned on all of the nearby showerheads, then arrived directly behind the old man.

    The old man immediately swung around upon hearing the footsteps ringing out behind him, and his eyes widened with fear and rm as he asked, "What do you want?"

    "Shut the fuck up!"

    Mole didn''t waste any time as he knocked the old man out with a heavy punch, then situated himself right in front of the opening of the cubicle alongside Armadillo so no one could see what was happening inside.

    Adam didn''t waste any time, either, as he crouched down and pressed a finger against the old man''s forehead.

    A psychic connection was instantly established, and one moment, Adam was still in the prison showers, but in the next instant, he had already arrived in a city in the old man''s psychic world.

    This looks like a city from before World War III.

    Adam had arrived on a street on the outskirts of a city, and as was the case with the psychic worlds of all psychic deviants, the environment here was extremely oppressive.

    Adam had already grown ustomed to this feeling, and he was looking around with an intrigued expression, wondering how the world from 30 years ago was different from the present world.

    He looked down at the grass on the ground, then directed his gaze toward the houses and shops in the area, and he could see that there was a clear difference in the style in which the buildings from 30 years ago had been constructed.

    Following World War III, many super metropolises had arisen in order to conservend and better allocate resources.

    The vast majority of the human poption resided in these metropolises, while the rest inhabited the still arablend, forming small towns that resembled massive farms.

    However, this ce clearly wasn''t one of those farms, nor did it belong to a metropolis.

 Chapter 355: The Monsters in the Artwork

    <h4>Chapter 355: The Monsters in the Artwork</h4>

    This psychic module seems to be from a time before the nuclear war.

    Adam looked at the picturesque city around him as he made his way down the street.

    He saw many people who were strolling around, doing nothing in particr, and all of the nearby shops had been taken over by a type of service robot with a "T" logo imprinted upon them.

    These service robots were making meals and beverages and brewing coffees for customers, and the nearby cars and aircrafts were all driverless vehicles.

    The street was very clean and tidy, and the T robots were responsible for pruning the trees as well.

    These T robots were very different from Mechguard units. They seemed to purely be service robots, and even though they weren''t armed like Mechguard units, they still weren''t very popr around these parts.

    As Adam continued to make his way through the psychic module, he saw many homeless people on the side of the street. Even though these people were being served by these T robots, they were eager to damage these robots in any way that they could at any given opportunity.

    Some of them were loudly denouncing these robots for stealing their jobs, some were pouring coffee onto them, and some were picking up rocks from the side of the street before hurling those rocks at the robots.

    If these robots had been Mechguard units, these people would''ve been executed on the spot, but these T robots were likepletely docile servants, continuing to serve their abusers without anyint or retaliation.

    Adam could sense an atmosphere of despair in the air, and despite the fact that the robots were the ones being abused, this despair wasing from the people, not the robots.

    "Hey, how about you do something useful for once in your life?"

    "Scum!"

    asionally, passengers passing by in luxury cars would wind down their windows to hurl insults at the homeless people on the side of the street, and it seemed that the world from 30 years ago wasn''t in a much better state than present-day society.

    Society was still crippled by oppression, discrimination, and the ever-widening wealth gap.

    It was in a setting like this that a long-awaited revolution finally came.

    While Adam was still observing his surroundings, the sound of air sirens suddenly rang out up above, and it didn''t take long before Adam spotted a missile flying through the sky overhead, followed by a dazzling eruption of light in the city up ahead.

    Adam heaved a faint sigh as he watched the beginning of the nuclear war unfold before his eyes. This was the war that had imed the most lives out of any war in human history.

    It was a war with countless names. Those in Asia called it the War of Vengeance, and those in North America called it the Second North-South War, but in the rest of the world, it wasmonly referred to as World War III.

    In the instant that the nuclear explosionsmenced, Adam immediately invoked Sludge before fusing with it. Thankfully, in the psychic world, these small nuclear missiles were far less powerful than Yamata no Orochi''s forbidden techniques.

    Yamata no Orochi''s All-epassing Furnace could reduce this entire city to a sea ofva, whereas the nuclear missile was only able to destroy a small area of the city, as well as contaminating the entire city with its nuclear radiation.

    Even so, this was still far beyond what the average person could withstand. At the moment, Adam was situated quite far away from the epicenter of the explosion, and he could see everyone fleeing the city in a blind panic in the aftermath of the nuclear explosion.

    Some people were fighting over cars that could still be driven, while others were frantically taking medication and pouring salt onto their own heads, as if doing so would keep out the radiation in the air.

    Following his transformation, Adam stood on the street like a massive stone statue. People were somewhat fearful of him, but they were far more horrified by the nuclear radiation behind them. Countless people were screaming in panic and rm, and the picturesque sky had been concealed behind a denseyer of dust particles.

    If had had sufficient time on his hands, Adam would''ve explored more of the old man''s psychic modules to see what the world was like three decades ago, but he couldn''t afford to do that now.

    In the real world, he was still in the shower area of Darvaza Prison, and even though there weren''t many people around, there was no guarantee that no faction members would suddenly stumble upon them, so it was definitely not a good idea to be wasting time.

    Adam looked down at all of the people fleeing the city, and he knew that the fact that these people were in the old man''s memories indicated that he had to be nearby. Adam had no scouting abilities, so he could only invoke his other anomalies to search the area manually.

    Hellhound, Camera, Nun, Clown, and even the ogre anomaly that he had recently obtained were all invoked before scattering in all directions to search the area at Adam''s behest.

    A short whileter, Adam received some information through his telegnosis that had been transmitted back to him by Ogress.

    Ogre had a concealment ability, so it was able to search through the area in a more stealthy and discrete manner. As a result, it was naturally more likely to uncover useful information.

    Looks like he''s a bit further away from the city.

    Adam followed the information stream transmitted back to him by Ogre, and it didn''t take long before he spotted the anomaly in front of a small mansion.

    As expected, this guy has already fused as one with his anomaly.

    Adam was very pleased by the sight of this anomaly. The fact that it was able topletely devour the psychic body of its host indicated that it had to have at least been a level five anomaly, and that was exactly what Adam was looking for.

    The anomaly was quite imposing in stature, and it had the head of a horse, but the most perfect arms and hands in the world. Its fingers looked as if they had been perfectly carved out of a piece of jade, and with a brush sped in its hand, it was clear at first nce that this anomaly was a true artist.

    Directly in front of the horse-faced anomaly was a massive sheet of paper that was hovering in mid-air, and it wasparable in size to the murals in ancient Roman churches. Adam watched as the anomaly grabbed onto one of the people who were fleeing for their lives, then slowly peeled off the skin of the man''s face before stering it onto the sheet of paper. \

    With its exceptional artistic ability, it was able to perfectly replicate the despair on the man''s face in his dying moments with just a few strokes of its brush.

    You''re an interesting anomaly, but that doesn''t mean I''m going to spare you.

    Up to this point, Adam had seen enough, and he charged directly at the anomaly like a moving fortress.

    All of the cars in his path were ttened, while all of the trees were snapped, and Adam crashed into the anomaly with tremendous force.

    The anomaly was furious that its artistic process had been disrupted, and it immediately tried to retaliate.

    However, meleebat didn''t seem to be its forte, and it was unwilling to let go of the brush in its hand. As a result, it was quickly sent flying through the air, howling as it did so.

    The horse-faced anomaly had only just mbered to its feet when it saw Adam charging at it again, and it hurriedly whipped out its brush and began drawing something in the air.

    It was extremely fast in the creation of its artwork, creating an extremely life-like piece of art in virtually just a single sweep of its brush. However, the colors of the artwork were quite dark, and the style was rather grim and oppressive, striking the beholder with a sense of difort.

    Adam had never seen this type of ability before, but he remained unfazed. Given his immense physical defenses in this form, he was confident that he could withstand anything that was thrown his way.

    Thus, he paid no heed to the artwork as he continued to rush at his opponent, but right as he arrived in front of the horse-faced anomaly, his momentum drew to an abrupt halt, and he discovered that his entire body was bound by countless tentacles.

    He look down to find that it was none other than the artwork that was impeding him.

    To be more urate, it was the monster depicted in the artwork, which had somehow sprung to life.

 Chapter 356: Lamenting Wall

    <h4>Chapter 356: Lamenting Wall</h4>

    The monster that had been created by the horse-faced anomaly was a creature resembling the mythical Cthulu. Adam wasn''t able to sense much power in the creature''s tentacles, and he felt like he would be able to free himself with ease.

    However, in the next instant, all types of negative emotions flooded into his mind, plunging his thoughts into a state of disarray.

    The powers of someone''s psychic body reflected the special characteristics of their personality.

    The human skin artist was someone who created pieces of artwork that evoked boundless negative emotions within both his subjects and the beholders of the artworks, and this ability was amplified in the psychic world. Even though Adam was fused with Sludge, he was unable to ward off the corruption of these negative emotions, and he immediately became extremely weary and pessimistic.

    Humanity is evil at its core... There''s no actual point to anything in life... Humanity has brought nothing but destruction to this world... Wouldn''t it be better if everyone just died?

    It was as if Adam had suddenly been afflicted by severe depression, and he instantly lost all of his will to fight. As a result of his nihilistic emotions, even his psychic body was bing weaker.

    He fell to one knee, and it was as if all of the strength had been sapped from his body, making him resemble a corrupted stone statue.

    Thankfully, prior to rushing into battle, Adam had already invoked his other anomalies.

    Those anomalies could sense that he was in a battle, and they quickly arrived on the scene one after another.

    Hellhound was the fastest of all of Adam''s anomalies, so it was naturally the first one to arrive on the scene, rushing at the Cthulu-like creature before sinking its fangs into one of the creature''s tentacles, tearing it off with a vicious whip of its head. At the same time, its other two heads were releasing mes and toxins to ravage the creature''s body.

    After undergoing multiple evolutions, Hellhound was a bona fide level five anomaly at this point, and after itstest evolution, bone spikes had sprouted from all of its joints.

    After destroying several of the Cthulu-like creature''s tentacles, Hellhound spun around in mid-air, tearing the creature''s body to shreds with its de-like bone spikes.

    The creature was quiteckluster in both its physical strength and defenses, but its emotional attacks were extremely potent.

    After the creature was killed, Adam''s emotions gradually returned to a normal baseline, but there was still a hint of lingering fear in his heart as he rose to his feet and cast his gaze toward the anomaly before him.

    That was quite the close call, but at the same time, Adam was able to gather some information on his opponent from that exchange.

    Fighting an opponent that one knew nothing about was always a risky endeavor, and it was very important to know what the enemy''s strengths and weaknesses were.

    The skill of constantly learning and adapting during the course of a battle was one that was just as important as any ability, particrly in battles in the psychic world, which were extremely unpredictable.

    Adam had encountered opponents with all types of abilities in the past, so even though he had been caught off guard here, he was able to quickly steady himself.

    During high-level battles, falling prey to an opponent''s ability in an unsuspecting manner could easily result in fatal consequences, and there was even a chance of major upsets taking ce.

    For example, with his time-based abilities, someone like Herman could potentially kill an opponent far more powerful than himself, as long as that opponent didn''t excel in physical defenses. Another example was Medusa, who, in the right circumstances, could also defeat opponents of a far higher level than herself, and the same applied to this horse-faced anomaly as well.

    The horse-faced anomaly''s physical body wasn''t very powerful, but its strange abilities made it very troublesome to deal with.

    From that initial exchange, Adam had determined that this thing was at least a level six anomaly.

    However, Adam was no slouch himself at this point, so he had nothing to fear.

    After being rescued by Hellhound, Adam charged at the anomaly once again while instructing Hellhound to nk the anomaly from the other side.

    It was clear that the anomaly didn''t excel in close-quartersbat, and Adam was eager to target that weakness.

    The foundation of all good strategies was making use of one''s strengths to attack the opponent''s weaknesses, and with two level five anomalies that excelled in close-quartersbat, Adam was certainly well-equipped to target the anomaly''s shorings.

    Adam charged at the anomaly from one direction, leaving a trail of destruction and wreckage in his wake, while Hellhound galloped through the air from another direction with a cloud of ck mist around its entire body.

    The horse-faced anomaly quickly waved his brush through the air at the sight of the two oing assants, and before long, two more monstrous creatures had been created.

    This time, Adam didn''t allow the creatures to make physical contact with him. Instead, he uprooted a street light and swung it at the creature like a club.

    Part of the creatures'' bodies were destroyed by two heavy blows from the makeshift club, following which a flurry of Explosive Fireballs arrived from Hellhound to destroy the pair of creatures, and Hellhound wasn''t slowed down in the slightest as it charged straight through the mes and sank its fangs into the anomaly''s body.

    The anomaly howled in agony once again, but as soon as it opened its mouth, the street light was plunged down its throat, piercing through the back of its neck.

    After that, Adam''s massive hand came crashing down, and the anomaly''s head waspletely pulverized like a watermelon after just a few powerful ps.

    Despite this, Adam didn''t dare to allowcency to set in against a high-level anomaly, and right as he was about to tear the anomaly''s body to shreds, paint began to spread from the anomaly''s brush, which had been dropped onto the ground. Before long, an enormous mural with a radius of several hundred meters had appeared on the ground.

    The mural depicted all of the disced victims of the nuclear attack, and all of them wore different expressions, disying emotions like pain, horror, and urgency, but there were also some people who seemed to be excited by the situation and were taking advantage of the chaos for their own benefit.

    The countless different faces came together to form the world-renowned artwork known as the Lamenting Wall.

    In the instant that the wall appeared, a strange sigh rang out from the earth, as if the entire ground had been infected by the tragedy in the scene being depicted, and Adam and Hellhound found themselves falling into the mural.

    It was like a nested dream, or a psychic world within a psychic world.

    Upon falling into the artwork, Adam could see that the surrounding scene was already beginning to change.

    Even though he was still in the same city from before, the eruption of light from the nuclear explosion seemed to be permanently lingering in the air, refusing to fade, while the expressions of the people down below had be even more twisted, and moltenva was flowing over the ground.

    While he was observing his surroundings, all of the people depicted in the mural using human skin turned to face him in unison, and they opened their mouths up wide before letting loose a collective piercing screech.

    The screech was filled with despair, pain, horror, resignation... Countless negative emotions were swirling together at once to crush Adam on a mental level, and Hellhound also copsed to the ground with an anguished wail.

    This emotional attack was 10 times more powerful than the one unleashed by the Cthulu-like creature, and neither Hellhound nor Adam was able to withstand the attack, instantly sumbing to the overwhelming wave of negative emotions washing over them.

    At the same time, the headless horse-faced anomaly reappeared in a corner of the mural, and its body was slowly regenerating as it derived power from the despair around it.

    Its regenerative abilities were severelyckingpared with Sludge''s, but time could heal all wounds.

    In its eyes, its opponents were nothing more thanmbs to the ughter at this point anyway, so it was in no hurry to strike.

    After regenerating its head, the anomaly picked up its brush again, quickly creating several giant monstrous creatures that rushed directly at Adam and Hellhound.

    It had decided that it was time to put an end to this battle.

 Chapter 357: Evolving Three Anomalies at Once

    <h4>Chapter 357: Evolving Three Anomalies at Once</h4>

    The pack of monstrous creatures stormed onto the scene, reaching Adam and Hellhound in the blink of an eye. One of them was a creature that was entirelyprised of a phlegm-like substance, and it enveloped Adam''s entire body with its own to erode him from all directions.

    Meanwhile, two other monstrous creatures were tearing at Hellhound, and none of these creatures were particrly powerful or destructive, but over time, as more and more damage umted, the situation was quickly beginning to spiral out of control.

    The monster continued to secrete more and more corrosive fluid, stripping away oneyer of Adam''s stone body after another. What was even more damning was that the horse-faced anomaly was continuing to create more and more monsters with its brush, which certainly wasn''t good news for Adam.

    It didn''t take long before Hellhound was in critical condition.

    One of its hind legs had been torn off, while one of its heads had also been decapitated by another monster with saw-like arms. At this rate, it wasn''t going to be long before it was killed, but Adam was unable to do anything.

    Not only was he not able to do anything, he was in such a terrible emotional state that he wasn''t even able to sense what was happening around him.

    Thankfully, Adam had invoked more than just one anomaly prior to falling into the mural.

    In order to search for Adam, all of the anomalies that he had invoked jumped into the mural as well.

    The first one to arrive was Clown, and it immediately began attacking the horse-faced anomaly, which was continuing to conjure up more monstrous creations with its brush. The barrage of bullets from its gatling gun forced the physically frail anomaly to stop what it was doing and take evasive measures.

    The next ones to arrive were Nun and Camera, which were both still level three anomalies at this point.

    As soon as it arrived, Nun immediately unleashed its Lights Out ability to plunge the entire surrounding area into darkness. After that came Camera, which made short work of the monstrous creatures around Adam.

    At this moment, Adam also returned to his senses somewhat, and while the Lights Out ability was still in effect, he inspected his surroundings to track down the horse-faced anomaly, following which he saw all of the despairing faces around him.

    Right at this moment, those faces began inhaling in preparation to let loose the next wave of screeching.

    Having already fallen prey to the devastating emotional attack once, Adam had no intention of allowing the same attack to be unleashed again, and he immediately instructed all of his anomalies to unleash their abilities at once.

    Hellhound let loose its Infernal Howl that quickly revived it from a dire physical state, while also enhancing the speed and power of its allies.

    Clown instantly conjured up the maximum number of clones that it was capable of, thereby significantly enhancing its firepower output.

    Camera turned to face the horse-faced anomaly before quickly pressing down its shutter, stopping time for an instant amid a bright sh.

    Distortion used its Shadow Strike ability to instantly close down the distance between itself and the horse-faced anomaly, emerging directly behind it from its shadow before taking advantage of Camera''s Time Stop ability to plunge all of the hooks on its entire body into its target.

    At this point, Distortion was already a level five anomaly, and it was Adam''s most powerful anomaly, possessing individualbat prowess that far exceeded both Sludge and Hellhound.

    As soon as all of its hooks had been plunged into the horse-faced anomaly''s body, it immediately unleashed its signature Physical Shackles ability.

    In the past, Distortion had relied on its enormous distortive power to crush the bones and internal organs of its target, but in its current form, things were different.

    While it was unleashing its Physical Shackles ability, all of its hooks were vibrating at an extremely high frequency, and at the same time, its entire body was twisting rapidly from side to side.

    It was as if it had be a living meat grinder, and Adam watched as the horse-faced anomaly was ground into mincemeat.

    Its blood, flesh, and internal organs had all mixed together and spilled onto the ground, and it was as dead as dead could be.

    In the instant that the horse-faced anomaly met its demise, all of the despairing faces on the mural screeched in anguish once again, but with the demise of the anomaly, it didn''t take long before all of the vanished into thin air along with the entire mural, like ashes in the wake of a nuclear explosion before blown away by the wind.

    In the end, the Lamenting Wall was able to outlive the artist that had created it, but only for a brief moment.

    After the mural and all of the despairing faces hadpletely vanished, Adam and his anomalies emerged from the nested dream and returned to that city street from 30 years ago.

    As soon as they did so, Distortion immediately went on a rampage, ferociously attacking its own allies. Thankfully, Clown''s clones were the only casualties of its rampage, so none of Adam''s anomalies were actually killed.

    Upon witnessing its incredible power, Adam was tempted to continue prioritizing its growth.

    This anomaly was very difficult to control, only reining in its chaotic nature when Adam''s attention was focused on it, and anypse in concentration from him would instantly result in Distortion reverting back to its true nature.

    Let''s bring it back in for now.

    After withdrawing Distortion, Adam withdrew all of his other anomalies as well, and at the same time, the horse-faced anomaly''s anomalic power emerged nearby.

    After some consideration, Adam decided that it was best to continue enhancing Sludge.

    This was not a decision that he was taking lightly, and it was one that he felt to be the best option following this battle against the horse-faced anomaly.

    At the moment, he was situated in Darvaza Prison, so he couldn''t implement the same safety measures that he had been able to during his previous psychotherapeutic treatments of mental illness sufferers. In those cases, he always had someone on the outside observing the scene unfolding within the psychic world, and that person would be able to sever the psychic connection at the first sign of danger.

    Not only did he not have ess to this safety here, the amount of information that was avable to him was also very limited.

    He could only recall very general information on some of the inmates, and he had no idea just how deranged they were and just how powerful their anomalies could be.

    As an example, this horse-faced anomaly seemed to be at the pinnacle of level six anomalies, but if it had been a level seven anomaly, Adam would''ve met his demise for sure.

    Hence, the top priority for him was to continue elevating his own self-preservation abilities.

    As long as he wasn''t killed right away, he would be able to escape from the psychic world safely.

    After making that decision, he split up from Sludge, and the massive anomaly immediately rushed at the cloud of anomalic power, quickly devouring the majority of it before beginning to undergo an evolution.

    While it was evolving, Adam released two more anomalies, namely Nun and Camera, and those two devoured what little remained of the horse-faced anomaly''s anomalic power before also beginning to evolve.

    Both of them were evolving from level three anomalies into level four anomalies, and following its evolution, Nun had be even more terrifying in appearance. Its blue eyes looked as if they truly belonged to a hellish demon, striking the beholder with a sense of fear and unease.

    As for Camera, its evolution hadn''t brought on much of a change in its physical appearance, but its scythe-like arms seemed to be even sharper than before, and even a level six anomaly wouldn''t be eager to cop a blow from those things.

    However, its evolution seemed to have only made its characteristics even more skewed. Not only had it not be more physically durable, its body had be even slimmer than before, indicating that its physical defenses had decreased even further. In its current form, it seemed that even a stiff breeze could knock it over.

 Chapter 358: Fledgling Domain

    <h4>Chapter 358: Fledgling Domain</h4>

    Not long after Nun and Camerapleted their evolutions, Sludge alsopleted its evolution to be a level six anomaly amid a sh of purple light.

    This was the highest level anomaly currently in Adam''s possession.

    Even Scarecrow, which had been residing in his psychic world this entire time, hadn''t ever reached this level, even at the height of its powers.

    Sludge had evolved very slowly, but the process wasplete after that sh of purple light.

    Following its evolution, its height had swelled to around 12 meters, and the light purple coloration of its body had be dark purple, while the stone material of its body had be even harder than meteorite.

    On top of that, a series of blue patterns that resembled a neuralwork had spread across its entire body.

    All invoked entities were a part of the invocators psychic body, and with his sharp telegnosis, Adam was immediately able to sense that something was different.

    Is this a domain in its fledgling stage?

    All of the top-tier adapters that Adam had met in the past, including May, Wax Figure, and Hebi no Miko, had all possessed the ability to severely interfere with their environment, and for the first time, Adam was sensing this type of ability in one of his own invoked entities, albeit only in trace amounts.

    Right as he was about to explore this ability further, the psychic world around him began to copse.

    I''ll just have to leave it for next time.

    With that in mind, Adam withdrew Sludge before departing from the human skin artist''s psychic world.

    This battle had been quite an eye-opening experience for him.

    Up to this point, all of the anomalies that he had encountered had been so different from one another, possessing a vastly diverse range of abilities and traits depending on the experiences and personalities of their hosts.

    The anomaly of the human skin artist was able to produce artistic creations capable of unleashing extremely powerful emotional attacks, and if it weren''t for the fact that its physical defenses were severelycking, even all of Adam''s anomaliesbined would''ve been no match for it.

    If I can develop it at some point, it''ll be a great help to me in battle.

    In the instant that he returned to the real world, Adam was greeted by the sound of flowing water and the sight of a vast expanse of steam.

    He turned to find that Mole and Armadillo were still keeping a lookout outside the stall, and the human artist had already suffered psychic death. Due to his old age, psychic death had led to brain death for the elderly artist, and his breathing seemed to have alreadypletely ceased.

    Mole and Armadillo were also adapters with potent telegnosis, and they were immediately able to sense it when Adam returned to the real world.

    "How did it go, Adam? Did you manage to kill it?"

    "I did. Did anything happen while I was gone?"

    "Someone started a fight over there, but there was too much mist, so we couldn''t see anything. In any case, they were quite far away, so I didn''t bother to wake you up."

    "I see."

    Adam picked up a showerhead as he spoke, then smashed it repeatedly against the back of the old man''s head, only stopping once his brains and intracranial fluids had spilled onto the ground.

    "Why did you do that?"

    "We can''t blow our cover and let people find out that he suffered from psychic death," Adam exined as he washed the blood off his body, then gestured to depart with the pair of psychic mutants.

    "You really are a smart guy, Adam!"

    The three of them made their way out of the showers as they spoke to one another, and along the way, they spotted roughly a dozen bodies gathered together in one ce.

    Judging from the symbols on those bodies, they appeared to be members of the Desert Gang and the Survival of the Fittest faction.

    "Only five out of 18 bodies have that mark on their shoulder... Looks like the members of the Survival of the Fittest faction are pretty capable fighters," Armadillo remarked.

    Right at this moment, another group of people began to approach them, and the leader of the group was directly facing Adam.

    "You know this guy?"

    "I do. His name is Ross, and he tried to kill me before you two arrived."

    "Is that right?"

    Right as the two groups were passing by one another, Armadillo intentionally shoulder-barged one of the oing figures as hard as he could.

    The bodyguard beside Ross was sent stumbling to the side before bumping into Ross, who turned around to find Armadillo glowering at him with a twisted expression.

    "You''ll be the next one to die!"

    Ross and his dozen or sopanions stood still on the spot as they looked at Adam''s trio in silence.

    They had witnessed what Armadillo and Mole had done earlier in the day, and given their ferocity in battle and the fact that Adam was an adapter, the odds were stacked against their favor, despite their numbers advantage.

    "What''re you looking at? Do you wanna fight right now?" Armadillo threatened as he took a step forward,pletely unfazed by the opposing party''s superior numbers.

    "We have more people waiting outside."

    There was no way that one of the leaders in the Desert Gang would be a coward, and Ross was certainly no coward, but he was a smart man, and he knew that certain confrontations were best avoided.

    In this situation, the best option would be to intimidate Adam''s group into backing down as that would allow him to save face while also avoiding an unnecessary conflict.

    This was usually a very effective strategy outside, but it wasn''t always so reliable in Darvaza Prison because there were far too many insane people here.

    "I don''t give a fuck who you have waiting outside! I''ll fuck you up right now!"

    All of a sudden, Mole sprang out from the side while Armadillo and Ross were speaking.

    He was as fast as lightning in the psychic world, and he was also an extremely agile fighter in the real world. Before anyone had a chance to react, he jumped onto the tallest figure in Ross''s group, then bit down onto the man''s ear.

    Right as the man''s ear was torn off, he grabbed onto Mole''s neck in preparation to m him down onto the ground, only for Mole to reach up and plunge his index and middle fingers into the man''s eyes.

    Mole had already sprung into action, so Adam and Armadillo naturally had to join him.

    Armadillo was also quite a capable fighter, quickly knocking down two people in a row. Meanwhile, Adam dodged several attacks using his telegnosis, and he knew that hisbat skills were ratherckluster, so he locked his gaze on the three people who appeared to be the most normal out of Ross''s group, then rushed over to the trio before tackling the three of them all at once.

    As soon as physical contact was made, a psychic connection was instantly established, dragging the three men into Adam''s psychic world.

    Sure enough, none of them possessed particrly powerful psychic bodies, and they were no match for Adam in a psychic battle.

    Within just a few seconds, the battle had concluded, and by the time Adam returned to the real world, the battle there was also drawing to a conclusion.

    There were only around 10 people in the opposing group to begin with, and there were only four left standing at this point.

    With Adam''s help, Mole and Armadillo were able to make short work of the three people around Ross, following which Adam directed his gaze toward the man who had recently tried to kill him.

    "I can tell you''re a smart guy. I''m offering you an opportunity to live now. Are you going to ept the opportunity?" Adam asked as he approached Ross with his entire body drenched in blood once again.

    Ross looked at the adapter standing before him, then at the pair of deranged, demonic figures behind him, and an emotion that he hadn''t felt in a very long time emerged in his heart.

    He had been locked up in Darvaza Prison for murder and robbery. Back then, Ross had been a bull-headed young man who feared and respected nothing, and even though he had heard the rumors about Darvaza Prison, he didn''t take them to heart.

    The first day he arrived in the prison, he set out to pick a fight with another inmate to establish a reputation for himself, but someone got there ahead of him, and what happened after that was something that he would never forget for the rest of his life.

    That man was skinned alive before being dissected and eaten. His skin was made into gloves, his hair was used as thread for a sewing project, his blood was used as paint, his skull was transformed into a cup, and his finger bones had been plucked out one by one before being made into a ne.

    After witnessing that traumatic scene, he became a lot more reserved and subdued, relying on his street smarts to get on the good side of the Desert Faction and the wardens, and only then was he able to survive to this point.

    It had been a very long time since anyone had dared to mess with him, but what he had just witnessed reminded him of the fear that he had felt on that day.

 Chapter 359: Meeting the Angel of Death

    <h4>Chapter 359: Meeting the Angel of Death</h4>

    As a rtively normal person, Ross couldn''t help but feel fear in the face of these deranged monsters.

    In Darvaza Prison, he wasn''t the strongest fighter, nor was he sufficiently vicious to make people wary of him. He had only been able to survive to this point thanks to his street smarts and a healthy dose of luck.

    In this situation, Ross forced himself to calm down and weigh up his options.

    Due to the fight that had just taken ce between the two factions earlier, there was no one else around in the showers, so no one would see what he was going to say and do next.

    "Of course I want an opportunity to live. Please don''t kill me." In the face of other inmates, he had to maintain a strong and unyielding facade, but seeing as there was no one around, he was more than willing to beg for his life. "I can be very helpful to you."

    "Is that right? In that case, I want you to answer a few questions first."

    "Please go ahead," Ross hurriedly said.

    "You said that there are more of you outside. Is that true?"

    "No, I was just saying that as a bluff. I was actually sent here to clean up in the aftermath of the fight that just happened," Ross replied as he scratched his head with a sheepish smile. "I said what I did because I wanted to avoid a conflict."

    "I see. Tell me about how you were instructed by the wardens to kill me. Tell me what happened in as much detail as possible. Depending on how much useful information you can give me, I''ll decide whether I''ll let you live or not."

    Adam could''ve invaded Ross''s psychic world to obtain this information, but he didn''t do that.

    "The warden who instructed me to kill you was Seth Loo. He doesn''t seem to be in any position of significant power, but anyone who''s been in Darvaza Prison for some time knows that he''s one of the chief warden''s direct henchmen, and he does a lot of dirty work for the chief warden. If we want anything from the outside world, we have to obtain it through him.

    ¡°He even steals some of the art pieces in the prison to sell on the ck market, and the chief warden simply turns a blind eye to this. He''s a dirty cop, but because of that, the chief warden has dirt on him, so he''s confident that Seth won''t betray him."

    "What did he say to you?"

    "All I was told by him was that you had to die, and that he wanted me to be discrete about it. After that, you saw what happened. Not long after what happened in the showers, some of his colleagues approached all of the faction leaders and issued an urgent order, saying that you''re not to be killed.

    ¡°That''s one of the reasons why I didn''t want to start any conflict with you today. I didn''t think that I would be able to beat you anyway, and even if we could, that would''ve onlynded us in trouble with the wardens."

    "Is there a time limit on that order?"

    "I don''t know, all I was told was that you had to be kept alive for at least the near future. When those guys attacked you in the factory, even if your friends hadn''t stepped in, we would''ve intervened anyway. I''m assuming the Asian Gang and the Radiation Gang also received the same instruction, so their members would''ve most likely stepped in as well."

    "Is there anything else?"

    "That''s it." Ross was racking his brains, but couldn''t think of any more useful information, and his voice was trembling slightly as he asked, "Is that enough for you to spare me my life?"

    He took a nce at Adam, then looked at the pair of menacing psychic mutants behind him, and finally, the verdict arrived.

    "Get out of here."

    Ross heaved a long sigh of relief upon hearing this, and he slowly backtracked to a safe distance away before fleeing as quickly as he could.

    "Why didn''t you kill him? Aren''t worried that he''ll go around telling everyone about what happened here?" Armadillo asked with a puzzled expression.

    "He wouldn''t dare. In fact, I''m certain he''ll even cover for us. He told us a lot of things that should''ve been kept secret from us, so it won''t benefit him at all to be exposed. Also, keeping him around could prove to be useful."

    Adam looked down at the bodies of the Desert Gang members as he spoke, and a thought suddenly urred to him.

    "One of you stay here, while the other one goes to the Survival of the Fittest faction. With these kills, the Survival of the Fittest faction should be willing to ept you two."

    "What about you?"

    "I''ll stay out of this. I need to join the Desert Gang so we can gather information from both sides."

    "Alright, you get out of here then."

    Mole wasted no time carrying out the n suggested by Adam, immediately departing from the showers to call up members of the Survival of the Fittest Faction.

    Just as Adam predicted, Mole and Armadillo were sessfully able to infiltrate the Survival of the Fittest faction, and thanks to their outstandingbat prowess, they were made into leaders right away.

    However, Adam still refrained from joining any faction as the time wasn''t right.

    His safety wasn''t a concern for now, so he was going to take full advantage of his freedom to hunt down as many anomalies as possible.

    "You guys keep a lookout outside, and don''t let anyonee in. Call me if anyone tries toe in."

    Mole had arranged four of hisckeys to stand on lookout duty outside the factory toilets.

    Inside, Adam had dragged an unconscious man into a cubicle, and he set the man down onto the toilet seat before locking the cubicle door.

    Thanks to Armadillo and Mole, Adam was able to capture three of the people on his list, one of which was the Angle of Death, Noah, the second one was the Highway Serial Murderer, Walker, and the final one was the Square artist, Deng Xiaoyuan.

    The one that Adam had taken into the cubicle was Noah, while the other two were stillying on the ground outside.

    With so many high-level anomalies at his disposal, Adam was currently an extremely formidable adapter, and he was confident that even if he were to encounter another opponent of the same caliber as Sima Kai, he would be able to defeat them on his own.

    Hence, Adam felt like he was ready to take on this challenge.

    "Is everything going alright outside, Boss?"

    "Don''t worry about what''s going on outside, just focus on what you''re doing. Our faction recently took over the toilets, so we''ve got a bunch of guys out here. There are a total of seven toilets in this area, and I''ve already made it clear that we''re doing something important in here, so no one''s going toe in and interrupt you."

    "Alright."

    With Mole overseeing proceedings outside, Adam was able to focus his attention entirely on the unremarkable-looking person in front of him.

    Noah''s story was one that had made a very deep impression on Adam, and there was a reason behind why Adam had chosen to save Noah as his final target during his first trip to Darvaza Prison.

    With over 280 victims, he had an extremely extensive kill count, and he was far too calm and indifferent in the face of the judge. He had killed countless elderly people because in his mind, he thought that he was doing the right thing by putting them out of their misery. It was very clear from his mentality and his thought processes that he had already fused as one with his anomaly.

    This is going to be a very tough opponent.

    Adam took a deep breath, thenid a hand onto Noah''s forehead before entering his psychic world.

    His vision darkened before quickly brightening again, and he found himself standing at the entrance of a massive retirement home by the name of Green Heaven.

    Adam felt as if he were standing outside the pearly gates of heaven, and the entire ce was glowing with holy light, much to Adam''s befuddlement.

    To his surprise and confusion, he was feeling extremely warm andfortable here, and his environment wasn''t hostile in the slightest.

    Adam had explored the psychic worlds of many mental illness sufferers in the past, and the environment in all of those psychic worlds had been very oppressing and forbidding. Some of them had blood-red skies, some werepletely enshrouded in darkness, and there were even some psychic worlds in which the ground was so sticky that it was as if it were covered in blood.

    In summary, the psychic worlds of the majority of mental illness sufferers were extremely twisted and macabre, but that was far from the case here.

 Chapter 360: Pain and Joy

    <h4>Chapter 360: Pain and Joy</h4>

    Adam had passed by the Green Heaven retirement home once in the real world, so he had some recollection of it.

    In the real world, the retirement home wasn''t as grand and luxurious as the one in Noah''s psychic world.

    Luxury retirement homes were a thing 100 years ago, but they hadpletely died out in this day and age.

    The wealthiest people in the world were pursuing physical immortality through the use of nk tes, while those in the upper ss sought out an eternal psychic lifetime of bliss in the Metaverse.

    Even those in the middle ss were working themselves to the bone so that they could live a bit longer in cyberspace.

    Thus, only the least privileged members of society would go to retirement homes to await their death.

    These elderly people generally had very low ies and no savings or rtives willing to support them. They lived in the dark corners of Sandrise City, and no one paid any heed to them.

    Even journalists had no interest in reporting their stories. No one wanted to see how these pitiful elderly people perished, particrly in an age where everyone was pursuing immortality.

    In the real world, the Green Heaven retirement home was a dpidated and depressing ce. Aside from the asional painful groan from the elderly sufferers of chronic diseases, the ce was just as silent as a morgue.

    However, in the psychic world, the retirement home was presented in apletely different light. Its entrance resembled the gates of heaven, and everything was glowing with holy light. In fact, Adam could even hear a chorus of singing angels as he made his way into the retirement home.

    What the hell?

    Adam was very perplexed, and he knew that the more abnormal something was in the psychic world, the more deranged and out of touch with reality the host had to be.

    This meant that Noah was already so deranged that he was seeing the worldpletely differently from what it actually was.

    Even though Adam had entered the psychic worlds of many insane and disturbed individuals, never had he seen anyone quite so out of touch with reality.

    As he made his way into the retirement home, the first thing that Adam saw was a massive fountain. In a ce like Sandrise City, wherend was worth its weight in gold, there was no way that such a luxurious fountain would''ve been found in such a low-ie area.

    Even the water pouring out of the fountain was glowing with resplendent radiance.

    Beside the fountain, some of the retirement home''s patrons were exercising, some were watching the fountain, some were ying chess, some were chatting amicably with one another, and every single one of them had peaceful and blissful looks on their faces.

    Adam tried to speak to one of the elderly patrons, but as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, the old man turned to him and said, "I''m living a very good life here. Thank you."

    "That''s fine, but I was asking what you''re doing."

    "I''m living a very good life here. Thank you."

    The old man''s smile remainedpletely unchanged, and even though his expression was one of bliss and contentment, it became more and more unnerving the longer one looked at him.

    Adam could see this conversation wasn''t going anywhere, so he approached a pair of old men who were ying chess instead. Adam observed them for a while to find that they were just ying the same couple of moves back and forth without making any progress.

    He tried tomunicate with them.

    "Hello."

    "I''m living a very good life here. Thank you."

    The same response was delivered with the exact same expression, and it seemed that none of the elderly patrons here were capable of holding a normal conversation.

    Before Adam had a chance to approach anyone else, he spotted a pair of employees in uniforms emerging from the radiant holy pce that was the retirement home, and the two men quickly made their way over to him.

    "You''re new here, right? Come with us."

    That was all that the two men said before turning around to lead the way back to the retirement home.

    Adam was very wary of the situation that he was in, but he still followed along.

    The pair of employees led Adam into the retirement home, and after passing through an extremely grandiose corridor, they arrived in a massive hall, at the direct center of which was a throne. Atop the throne sat an angel with ck wings with a regal crown on its head.

    The angel had no face, and from a rough visual estimate, Adam could see that it had to have been close to 20 meters in height, far more massive than even Sludge. If it weren''t for the enormous size of the hall, it wouldn''t even have been able to contain the angel.

    Adam had never seen such an enormous anomaly before, and he immediately prepared to fuse with Sludge, but before he could do so, the angel picked up a scale from beside the throne.

    Due to how massive the scale was, the patterns and text on it were clearly visible.

    Adam could see that the word "joy" was inscribed on one side of the scale, and the word "pain" on the other.

    With a wave of the angel''s hand, the massive scale flew over to Adam before slowly descending in front of him, following which it began to release some type of strange force that seemed to be absorbing Adam''s emotions.

    First, it sucked away all of his happy emotions, and soon, ayer of faint mist arose on the joy side of the scale.

    However, it took far longer to suck away his painful emotions, and by the end, there was a dense cloud of ck mist weighing on the other side of the scale.

    "You have lived a painful life. Your pain far outweighs your happiness," the angel on the throne dered in a grand and imcable voice, as if it were passing judgment upon Adam on behalf of the heavens.

    "You''re right, I have experienced far more pain than joy in my life."

    All anomalies had their own unique abilities, so it didn''t surprise Adam that this was one that was capable of seeing into his heart, and he had no qualms in epting the angel''s judgment.

    "Death can bring an end to all suffering and pain. Hence, for someone like you, death would be a blessing."

    "That''s true. I''ve seen far too much darkness and deception in my life. From the very moment I first awakened, I was destined to lead a tragic life. I havee here with my hands stained by blood and darkness, and death would indeed be a blessing for me, but that''s not up ot you to decide."

    Adam had already invoked Sludge as she was speaking.

    At this point, he had a rough idea of this angel''s origins.

    Back when he was offering psychotherapeutic services, he had read some books to develop a general understanding of how different types of mental illnesses arose. In this case, he could tell that Noah was being controlled by a twisted desire for power and control.

    There was a great deal of joy and gratification to be gained from controlling others, particrly when it came to controlling the life and death of other people.

    In the case of a person with kindness in their heart, they would try to logically justify their actions.

    Noah was of the opinion that ending the lives of elderly people suffering from chronic illnesses or emotional torment was a blessing and an act of kindness, and he was passing the same judgment upon Adam.

    In his eyes, if someone experienced more pain than joy in their life, then they were better off dead.

    "My apologies, but I have my reasons for why I must continue living!"

    Adam fused as one with Sludge as he spoke, and a sense of tremendous power instantly swept through his entire body.

    His enormous body, the power of a level six anomaly, and his newly developed domain instilled him with immense confidence."

    "Those who are weak are always unwilling to embrace death. I will help you!"

    The angel stood up from its throne, then spread a hand wide open to invoke a hammer-like staff, which it swung down upon Adam''s head.

 Chapter 361: Life and Death

    <h4>Chapter 361: Life and Death</h4>

    Adam watched as the angel''s staff came crashing down, and the blue patterns on his body extended onto the ground, following which a stone wall abruptly rose up to oppose the staff.

    He had practiced extensively the previous night to control his new domain.

    Due to the copse of the human skin artist''s psychic world, Adam wasn''t able to test out Sludge''s new abilities after bing a level six anomaly, but he had plenty of time to examine Sludge''s new abilities after returning to his cell.

    The first thing that had to be introduced was this domain ability. It was only a rudimentary domain, but it still granted him many abilities, the first of which was that he was able to control all things of a stone material epassed within the psychic vessels extending from his body.

    On top of that, his bodily structure had be morepact, and he was even able to shrink his own body at will.

    In a shrunken state, his stature and destructive radius would both be reduced, but the density of his body would be increased, thereby allowing him to withstand more powerful attacks.

    Overall, Sludge had taken a significant leap in the wake of itstest evolution.

    However, this angel was clearly an anomaly of a far superior level.

    After smashing the stone wall conjured up by Adam with just a single staff strike, it sent its staff crashing down upon Adam''s head once again.

    Adam raised his arms to block the attack, thinking that he would be able to withstand it easily thanks to Sludge''s tremendous strength and physical resistance, but as soon as the attacknded, his arms instantly turnedpletely numb from the impact.

    After withstanding another blow, his arms began to crack, andrge chunks of stone came falling off following a third strike.

    Thankfully, with his newly obtained domain ability, he was able to draw upon all of the surrounding structures that were constructed from stone to facilitate recovery. The psychic veins on his body shed, and the cracks on his arms regenerated at a far faster rate than what he would''ve been capable of in the past. At the same time, he shrunk down his own body to increase his own bodily density in order to better withstand the subsequent attacks.

    Judging from its strength alone, this thing has to at least be a level eight anomaly.

    Even a level seven anomaly wouldn''t have been able to break through Sludge''s defenses so easily.

    While withstanding the angel''s attacks, Adam invoked Distortion, which emerged out of the angel''s shadow before climbing onto its body.

    However, the vast disparity in size between the two meant that Distortion was only able to attack the angel''s ankles and knees.

    Distortion attached all of its hooks to the angel''s body, following which a loud grating sound rang out, but the bones in the angel''s legs remained firmly intact. In fact, Distortion was barely even able to cut into the angel''s skin. Compared with its offensive prowess, it seemed that the angel was even more defensively astute.

    There''s no way I can kill this thing!

    At this point, Adam had already seen enough to determine that this was far too formidable an opponent for him to take down.

    However, Adam didn''t leave the psychic world right away. Fighting a powerful opponent was a great opportunity to hone one''s practicalbat skills and psychic power, and he wanted to see just how powerful this Angel of Death was.

    "Merciful Judgment!"

    After attacking in futility for a while, the angel raised its staff high above its head, then began to chant what sounded like an incantation, but upon closer listening, sounded more like the incoherent ramblings of a mental patient.

    It was constantly telling itself that it was doing the right thing.

    Adam had once heard that people were always at their most determined when they were doing things that they felt to be justified and righteous.

    The most heinous evil in this world was always concealed under a facade of justice.

    Following its incoherent ramblings, a burst of holy light erupted from the angel''s body to send Distortion flying. Immediately thereafter, the holy light on its body began to slowly gather toward the staff in its grasp, turning as bright and radiant as the sun.

    "If you are suffering, but cannot work up the resolve to face death, then I will help you."

    The angel lowered its staff in a merciful manner, and a pir of golden light fell upon Adam, piercing straight through his body and leaving a massive wound, even though his physical defenses had been enhanced after he had shrunk down to a smaller form.

    Furthermore, after the pir of holy light pierced through his body, it lingered there and refused to fade, so Adam was unable to heal from the injury.

    One pir of light after another pierced through Adam''s body, while the angel raised a hand, and the scale on the ground rose up into the air at its behest.

    After rising up into the air, the "joy" and "pain" on the scale turned into "life" and "death", respectively.

    Adam''s life had been one in which pain had far outweighed joy, so the scale was heavily tilted toward the side of pain, which currently represented death.

    As the scale began to tilt further and further toward death, Adam could feel his own life force rapidly receding. It wasn''t that his body was physically breaking down. Instead, it was his psyche that was withering away and approaching death.

    Even with Adam''s tremendous physical resistance and life force, he would only be able tost fewer than 20 seconds at this rate. He could sense that in no more than 20 seconds, his life force wouldpletely run dry.

    I have to get out of here!

    At this point, Adam had already developed a good grasp on the powers of the Angel of Death.

    It was an anomaly that excelled in attack, defense, and technomancy, and just the power that it had disyed thus far indicated that it was a level nine anomaly.

    If it still had other tricks up its sleeve, then perhaps it was an anomaly of an even higher level.

    This was the most powerful anomaly that Adam had encountered up to this point.

    By his estimations, its overall power was very close to the level of May and Wax Figure, and the only one Adam could think of that could defeat this anomaly for sure was Hebi no Miko.

    Perhaps the director would''ve been able to as well, but Adam had never witnessed the director''s power before.

    While his life force still hadn''tpletely run dry, Adam hurriedly departed from the psychic world. The main upside to battling non-adapter opponents was their inability to use psychic boundaries, thereby allowing Adam to disengage himself from the battle anytime he pleased.

    What a pity...

    Adam was feeling quite dismayed after returning to the real world.

    If he could defeat Noah and absorb his anomalic power, he would''ve been able to elevate himself to be a truly top-tier adapter. Unfortunately, this was simply an impossible task for him at the moment, even with the assistance of Mole and Armadillo.

    If only I can take him out of the prison with me.

    If he could take Noah out of Darvaza Prison, he would be able to recruit the assistance of May or Sadou. Those two didn''t dare to oppose Hebi no Miko or the southern congress, but it shouldn''t be a difficult task to convince them to help him take down a non-adapter felon.

    With Diana thrown into the mix as well, Noah would''ve stood virtually no chance.

    There''s nothing I can do at the moment.

    Adam shook his head as he heaved a forlorn sigh, then opened the cubicle door and dragged Noah outside.

    Mole and Armadillo were waiting outside, and they approached Adam as soon as he emerged from the cubicle.

    "That was fast. How did it go?"

    "There''s an extremely high-level anomaly in his psychic world that''s far too powerful for me to defeat, even if I had you two to help me. I''m nning to keep him alive and have another crack at him at some point." After handing Noah over to Mole, Adam continued, "There''s going to be a lot of turmoil in the prison in the near future, so make sure to keep an eye on him and do your best to keep him alive."

    "I''ll try."

 Chapter 362: The Freakish Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 362: The Freakish Anomaly</h4>

    After handing Noah over to Mole, Adam crouched down and picked up another unconscious inmate.

    He had brought in three inmates in total, and Mole and Armadillo had been keeping an eye on the other two this entire time. At this point, the two of them still hadn''t regained their consciousness yet, and Adam dragged one of the two into the cubicle with him.

    "It looks like you''re about to fuck him!" Mole chortled as he kicked the door of the cubicle.

    Adam ignored Mole''s jibes as he continued with what he was doing.

    Hopefully, I''ll have better luck this time.

    Adam looked down at the man''s face, and the man''s information sprang up in his mind.

    The inmate''s name was Liu Teng, and he was of Asian descent. He appeared to be quite friendly and benign, but in reality, he had a very strange fetish.

    Prior to his incarceration, he lived in a small town on the outskirts of Sandrise City.

    Generally speaking, all of the small towns on the outskirts of Sandrise City were agricultural towns, and the families living there were either farm owners or people who worked on farms.

    Liu Teng was a farm worker, but he had a twisted fetish for molesting and killing the farm animals in his care.

    Each time he imed a victim, he would always manufacture a scene that made it appear as if the animal had actually been killed in a wolf attack. The farm that he worked on was quite vast, and it was close to the radiation zone, so attacks from mutated wolves were quite amon event. Hence, no one suspected him in the beginning.

    However, a zoologist was passing by the farm one time, and after examining the bodies of the animals, Liu Teng''s heinous actions were exposed. ording to his testimony, he had raped and killed over 100 animals.

    Even though humanitarianism hadpletely copsed in Sandrise City, animal protection organizations were still quite active, and he was handed a very severe sentence and locked up in Darvaza Prison.

    "I heard you''re quite a screwed-up guy. I hope you won''t disappoint me," Adam murmured to himself as he entered Liu Teng''s psychic world, arriving on a farm.

    There was a vast number of corn crops growing on the farm, and the boundless cornfield presented a nice piece of scenery.

    The environment in here isn''t that oppressive.

    Indeed, the surrounding environment was a little distorted, but it was nowhere near the same extent as what Adam had experienced in Noah''s psychic world, and that made him a little concerned.

    I hope he lives up to his reputation.

    Despite the seemingly innocuous environment, Adam still invoked and fused with Sludge as a safety precaution.

    In the blink of an eye, his body grew from less than two meters in height to over 10 meters tall, allowing him to see much further into the distance, but he wasn''t able to find any anomalies in the surrounding area. However, he did spot a small town in the distance.

    After a brief moment of contemtion, he decided to travel to the town to gather some information. Hence, he shrank his own body as much as he could, but even in his smallest form, he was still a hulking stone giant that was around 2.8 meters tall, presenting quite an intimidating sight.

    At the same time, he also invoked Nun and Ogress, one of which was capable of possessing others, while the other was adept at self-concealment and was also capable of taking on the form of any human that it had seen in the past, so both of them were very effective scouts.

    "Go to that town and help me search for information on the host''s whereabouts," Adam instructed, and the two anomalies immediately vanished on the spot.

    Meanwhile, Adam also began to slowly approach the town.

    Right as he was getting close to the town, Adam crouched down to conceal himself in the cornfield before anyone managed to spot him, following which he focused his attention on the information being transmitted back to him by Nun and Ogress.

    Adam had learned from Sadou that all of his invoked entities were fundamentally manifestations of his persona, and that he would be able to sense everything happening to them as long as his telegnosis was sufficiently sensitive.

    In the past, Adam wasn''t able to aplish this, but as he had be more and more powerful, he was able to better sense the situations that his invoked entities were in.

    Nun was a level four anomaly, so it was far faster than Ogress and reached the town first. It then possessed the body of the first town resident that it encountered.

    After that, it began to familiarize itself with its surroundings.

    This town was named Sweetgum Town, and it seemed to be quite arge town. At the very least, it was bigger than the town of Ash that Adam had previously visited, but there was only a single farm in the entire town.

    The farm was massive, and all of the town''s residents were relying on it for their livelihoods.

    After Nun had learned some basic information about the town, it was time for Ogress to take over.

    Upon arriving in the town, it concealed itself and make its way to the center of the farm. There, it killed the farm owner before taking on his likeness to search for Liu Teng.

    "Have you seen Liu Teng?"

    While disguised as the farm owner, Ogress raised this question to everyone that it encountered while making its way through the farm.

    Finally, after asking seven or eight people the same question, an answer was provided.

    "I saw Liu Teng over at the seventh cattle ranch just now."

    "Thanks."

    With that piece of information under its belt, Ogress quickly made its way to the farm''s seventh cattle ranch.

    Upon opening the wooden doors of the cattle ranch, Ogress was greeted by the sight of several dozen beef cattle, following which it spotted a figure sneakily doing something under one of the cows.

    "Who''s there?"

    The figure hurriedly emerged from under the cow upon hearing the ranch doors swinging open, revealing himself to be none other than Liu Teng.

    In the psychic world, Liu Teng''s appearance was no different from his appearance in the real world.

    On the surface, Liu Teng was someone who appeared to be quite unremarkable in every way, regardless of whether it was in terms of looks or personality, and that was why no one had suspected that he would be a serial zoophile.

    "What are you doing?"

    "I was giving that cow a physical examination. It had an abscess on its belly, and I had to squeeze out the pus inside to avoid infection," Liu Teng replied while maintaining a humble and honest facade.

    However, as he approached Ogress, he was constantly sniffing the air as if he were searching for something, and all of a sudden, his brows furrowed tightly as a twisted look appeared on his face.

    "You''re not the farm owner! Who are you?"

    Liu Teng raised his hand and plunged it through Ogress''s chest as he spoke. Right as he was about to tear Ogress apart, Nun swooped in to save Ogress by severing Liu Teng''s arm with its sharp ws.

    Green blood came gushing out of Liu Teng''s severed arm, and his body began to slowly mutate, transforming into a strange anomaly that was around four meters tall with reproductive organs growing all over its entire body.

    Afterpleting his transformation, Liu Teng sted a jet of white liquid at Nun, who avoided the attack, and the st of white liquid struck the wall as a result.

    Immediately thereafter, mushrooms began to grow all over the entire wall before exploding violently to destroy the entire cattle ranch.

    The dozens of cows inside erupted into a panic, and they began to flee blindly in all directions. Amid the pandemonium, Liu Teng snuck behind Nun before piercing a biological catheter on his body into Nun''s back, following which an injection of white fluid was administered.

    As soon as the fluid was injected, mushrooms sprouted all over Nun''s body, and an explosion erupted from inside its body, almost killing it on the spot.

 Chapter 363: Minor Victory

    <h4>Chapter 363: Minor Victory</h4>

    All of a sudden, a burst of rhythmic rumbling rang out within the town. The rumbling wasn''ting from any explosions. Instead, it was the sound of something of an enormous weight stomping its way through the town.

    A stone giant that was 12 meters in height was rushing toward the center of the town, ttening all of the houses and cars in its path.

    All of the town''s residents were fleeing in panic and horror in the face of the stone giant, and those who didn''t manage to get away in time were stomped into the ground alongside the wreckage of the houses and vehicles.

    From the instant that Ogress discovered Liu Teng, Adam had reverted back to his original size before rushing toward the center of the town.

    Thanks to his massive frame, he had an enormous stride length that granted him extraordinary speed, and he arrived on the scene right when Nun was being detonated.

    The shockwaves from the explosion swept over Adam''s body, and it felt like nothing more than a light breeze.

    What a weak explosion.

    For a purely defensive-type level six anomaly, this explosion was severelycking in power, and Adam was slightly disappointed to find that his opponent most likely wasn''t as powerful as what he had hoped for.

    It seems to be somewhere between a level four and a level five anomaly, Adam thought to himself as he swept a hand through the air, razing the wreckage of the cattle ranch to the ground so he could see what was happening inside.

    Upon catching sight of the anomaly, he discovered something quite intriguing.

    It seemed that the fusion between Liu Teng''s psychic body and his anomaly wasn''t quiteplete, as evidenced by the fact that its face still belonged to Liu Teng. Adam had witnessed this type of anomaly once before in the form of the two-faced anomaly in Sean''s psychic world.

    For people like them, shes of humanity still asionally peeked through their depravity, but when fused with their anomalies, they werepletely powerless to deny their depraved urges.

    Adam heaved a disappointed sigh upon making this observation.

    An anomaly of this caliber really couldn''t enhance his powers by much.

    Having said that, it was certainly still better than nothing, and he had many useful low-level anomalies that were waiting to be evolved.

    With that in mind, he reached out to crush the anomaly, but before he could reach it, Nun began her retaliation.

    Thankfully, there wasn''t much of a disparity in power between the two anomalies, so even though Nun had been severely injured by the injection of white fluid, it still retained itsbat prowess.

    Following itstest evolution, Nun had be even more ferocious than before, and it instinctively retaliated even without requiring any instructions from Adam.

    First, it unleashed its Lights Out ability, which affected arger area andsted a longer duration thanks to itstest evolution. Following that came its signature w attacks, and by the time the Lights Out ability ran its course, Nun was revealed to be straddling atop the anomaly''s head, spewing forth its Fountain of Contamination to corrode the anomaly''s body.

    The anomaly raised its catheters again to retaliate, but Adam grabbed onto the catheters and waved off Nun before lifting the anomaly into the air.

    He looked down at the helpless anomaly in his hands, and he couldn''t help but feel a little sentimental.

    The first elite adapter that he had ever encountered as an enemy was Oni no Hanzou.

    At the time, Oni no Hanzou had seemed like an insurmountable mountain to him, yet now...

    An anomaly of this caliber should be around the same level of power as Oni no Hanzou. Granted, adapters possess more intelligence and abilities than anomalies, so he would''ve most likely been able to defeat this thing, but purely in terms of power, there''s not much of a gap between them.

    An opponent that would''ve once seemedpletely beyond his reach was now so far beneath him that it may as well have been a helpless infant.

    As these thoughts were running through Adam''s mind, he brought his palms together to tten the anomaly''s body, then quickly tore it into shreds.

    The anomaly waspletely powerless to resist, and its body was torn into pieces, spilling arge volume of sticky fluid in all directions.

    The fluid clung to Adam''s arms, quickly sprouting mushrooms that exploded violently, but the explosions were barely even able to leave a mark on his body.

    Afterpletely tearing the anomaly''s body apart, Adam hurled its remains onto the ground, then began pummeling it repeatedly with his enormous fists.

    Soon, a deep crater had been smashed into the ground from Adam''s repeated blows, and anomalic power slowly began to seep out of the crater.

    Nun and Ogress immediately pounced toward the anomalic power, but Adam didn''t allow them to devour the feast.

    Nun had only recently evolved into a level four anomaly, so devouring the anomalic power of another level four anomaly most likely wasn''t going to allow it to evolve further.

    Ogress was very useful as a scout, but itsbat prowess was rather mediocre, and if it were to be used purely as a scout, then its current set of abilities as a level one anomaly sufficed for that purpose. Hence, it was better to prioritize the horse-faced anomaly in this case.

    Horse Face''s abilities were very unique, and its emotional attacks were very effective even against opponents who excelled in physical defenses.

    Furthermore, it was once a level six anomaly, so it would recover very quickly without having to evolve one level at a time, and for those reasons, Adam decided that it was the best anomaly to evolve in this scenario.

    After invoking Horse Face, which was in its infantile ragdoll form, it immediately pounced onto the anomalic power in a feeding frenzy like a wild boar that had caught a whiff of corn.

    Basked within the cloud of anomalic power, Horse Face''s body was expending incessantly as itpleted one evolution after another. In the end, its body swelled to over three meters in height, which was still slightly smaller than its peak stature, but its brush had already taken shape, so it was clearly not going to be an easy opponent to deal with.

    Not bad, looks like this trip was worthwhile, after all.

    The reward reaped by Adam from this battle certainly wasn''t significant, but there wasn''t much that he could do about that, and he promptly departed from Liu Teng''s psychic world right as it was about to copse.

    After dragging his victim out of the cubicle, Adam epted the sharp steel object offered to him by Mole, then plunged the object into the inmate''s eye socket without a second thought.

    Blood sttered onto his face, striking him with a warm sensation.

    What was supposed to be rank and putrid blood was somehow smelling rather sweet and appealing to him at this moment, but he didn''t think much of this as he turned his attention to the final inmate.

    Only one left. I hope he has something good for me.

    Every time Adam didn''t something like this, it was like opening a mystery box, and he could only pray for good luck.

    At the moment, the best "mystery box" for him would be one that contained a level six anomaly like Horse Face.

    An anomaly of this caliber would be able to significantly advance his powers while also being something that he was still able to deal with. In fact, he wouldn''t even have been opposed to the idea of encountering a level seven anomaly. It was definitely going to be quite dangerous, and there was a decent chance that he would die, but having endured so many life-and-death battles, Adam was confident in his own abilities, even if he were to be pitted against a level seven anomaly.

    The worst case scenario would be to go up against an ultra-powerful anomaly like the Angel of Death, or a piece of small fry like Liu Teng''s anomaly. The former was like a chest full of treasures that was too heavy for him to move, while the other one was like picking up some spare change from the ground, making no significant contribution to Adam''s powers.

    After dragging the third inmate into the cubicle, Adam wasted no time before invading his psychic world.

 Chapter 364: Adams Acorn

    <h4>Chapter 364: Adam''s Acorn</h4>

    Hold on a second, something doesn''t feel quite right...

    Upon entering the third inmate''s psychic world, Adam was just about to inspect the environment around him when he suddenly noticed that something felt a little off.

    He looked down to find that his entire body was covered in ayer of fur, and he felt something dragging along behind him. He turned around to discover that there was a long and bushy tail attached to his backside.

    Did I fuse with something?

    Adam''s initial thought was that he had perhaps inadvertently fused with one of his anomalies, but that clearly wasn''t the case, and he didn''t have any anomalies that looked like this anyway.

    Hence, there seemed to only be one possible exnation for this drastic change in his appearance.

    Have I... mutated?

    Adam looked down at his own hands, and in order to gauge his current appearance, he barged into a nearby house.

    Once again, he had arrived in a small town, one that was popted by many residents. After breaking into a house, he made his way into the bathroom, where he was granted by the sight of a squirrel face in the mirror.

    I did mutate!

    Adam was finally able to confirm his psychic state upon seeing his current face.

    Finally, he had mutated just like all other adapters who had suffered too much pain and adversity.

    He didn''t know when this mutation process had begun, but if he had to guess, it had most likelymenced after the deaths of Hook and Nie Yiyi. Due to the urgency of the situation at the time, he hadn''t noticed the process setting in, and he had noticed that something wasn''t quite right after his incarceration.

    He had be more and more aloof to human lives, and his thought processes and actions were beginning to bear a closer and closer resemnce to those of the three psychic mutants.

    There had been precursors to all of this, but he had never paid those signs any heed.

    Even if he had taken notice, he would''ve been powerless to do anything.

    He still had to continue with his mission, and that would''ve inevitably taken him further and further down this dark path.

    He simply had no choice.

    I didn''t think I was already this abnormal.

    For some unknown reason, the psychic bodies of the majority of psychic mutants took on an animalistic form.

    Examples of this included Mice King, the three psychic mutants, Diana, etc.

    This wasn''t the case for all psychic mutants, but the majority of them had animalistic traits.

    Perhaps it was because humans were quite closely rted to animals, or perhaps it was because certain traits in animals gave them a strong corrtion with mutated humans.

    Looking at his own reflection in the mirror, Adam realized that he had be a very obsessive person, and his obsessive nature had only been further and further exacerbated in his plight to uncover the truth about his own past.

    He was telling himself every single day that it didn''t matter if he died, but he had toplete everything that he had set out to do before he met his demise.

    At this point, he no longer feared anything aside from dying before hepleted all of his objectives, and this fear was so intense that it made him unable to sleep on some nights.

    This obsessive nature was somethingmonly seen in squirrels. They were willing to dedicate their entire lives to the pursuit of an apricorn, and that obsessive pursuit was very much like the one that Adam was undertaking in his life.

    This obsession was what had ultimately led to Adam''s mutation.

    This isn''t a bad thing. At the very least, my thought processes are still clear, and as a psychic mutant, I''ll have better psychic recovery.

    Not only was Adam not horrified or abhorred by his own reflection, he found it to be rather adorable.

    This is what I''ve always been, and it''s time for me to find my apricorn.

    With that in mind, Adam turned and departed from the room.

    After returning to the town, he invoked Nun and Ogress once again, instructing them to gather information for him.

    The host of the psychic world that Adam had invaded was an inmate that everyone in Darvaza Prison referred to as the pig farmer, and this nickname stemmed from his past history.

    The inmate in question was the owner of a small farm. In contrast with Sweetgum Town, which only had a single farm, thend in the town that the pig farmer lived in didn''t have a single unified farm. Instead, there were many families that owned plots ofnd, and none of those plots of private farnd were particrlyrge, but they were big enough to sustain those families.

    In contrast with the majority of farmers in the town, who liked to grow corn and raise cattle, the pig farmer preferred to raise pigs instead, and he had his own supply chain.

    Southeast Asians had a special preference for pork, and pork dishes were very popr in many Asian restaurants. Hence, after securing this supply chain, the pig farmer had begun raising pigs on his farm.

    Pigs were a type of animal that could eat virtually anything, including fruits, grains, hay, meat, and bones.

    ording to the information that Adam had obtained on the pig farmer, he had a habit of killing teenagers around 14 years of age whenever he delivered his pork to Sandrise City, and he would feed the bodies of his victims to his pigs.

    It was the twisted nature of his crimes that had led to him bing a target on Adam''s list.

    It didn''t take long before Nun tracked down his farm, but it quickly noticed that something wasn''t quite right.

    Upon his arrival, Adam also noticed something rather strange.

    There was a young man in the farm, and judging from the bone structure of his face, he seemed to be a direct rtive of the pig farmer. In fact, there was a very good chance that he was the pig farmer''s son.

    The young man appeared to have only been around 20 years of age, and his face still retained some boyish features, but he was very tall, standing at at least 195 centimeters. His tall frame was also quite strong and muscr, but unfortunately, he was mentally handicapped.

    After possessing one of the town''s residents and tracking down the pig farmer''s residence, Nun had found the pig farmer''s son in the house, sitting by the side of a bed with a dazed expression.

    There was a young teen on the bed who had clearly just been assaulted, and both their face and their sensitive regions were severely mangled, to the point that they werepletely unrecognizable.

    Meanwhile, the pig farmer''s son was spouting a bunch ofpletely unintelligible gibberish at the corpse.

    At this moment, the pig farmer wasn''t home, but he was on the way back home. Ogress had already spotted him driving into the town in his truck.

    The timeline doesn''t seem to add up... Was this one of his victims from hisst trip to Sandrise City? But the body''s degree of dposition doesn''t seem to be severe enough.

    Adam didn''t have much time to think about the situation, and he quickly found a hiding ce to conceal himself.

    Before long, the sound of a rumbling truck rang out outside, heralding the pig farmer''s return.

    The first thing that he did upon his return was to enter his son''s room, where he immediately caught sight of the body on the bed.

    "How many times do I have to tell you? Stop doing this!"

    The pig farmer was furious at the sight of the body on the bed, and he pped his son on the head while swearing incessantly.

    Even so, he still carried the body down from the bed before dragging it into the pigsty.

    Inside the pigsty was a huge mixer for making animal feed, and normally, things like pumpkin, hay, sweet potatoes, and corn were thrown in there to be blended into pig feed.

    However, on this day, the pig farmer was going to throw the body into the mixer, but right as he was about to do so, Adam appeared.

 Chapter 365: The Mutated Squirrel

    <h4>Chapter 365: The Mutated Squirrel</h4>

    "Did you kill them?"

    The pig farmer was greatly startled by Adam''s sudden emergence.

    "Wh, who''re you?"

    "You don''t need to know who I am, just answer my question."

    Adam was getting a little frustrated as it seemed like things were progressing in a very undesirable direction.

    The pig farmer was so frightened that he was beginning to tremble, and he was temporarily at a loss for words.

    Adam was quickly running out of patience, and he instructed Nun to grab the pig farmer''s son and bring him into the pigsty.

    Despite the young man''s tall and imposing frame, he was being thrown around effortlessly by Nun as if he were nothing more than a helpless infant, and even though the pig farmer became even more fearful at the sight of the terrifying anomaly, his paternal instincts granted him the courage to ovee his fear.

    "Don''t hurt my son!"

    "Then answer my question! Otherwise, I''ll chop up your son and throw him to the pigs!"

    People in the psychic world weren''t aware that they were in the psychic world, just like how people in dreams were oblivious to that fact.

    They would still act in ordance with what they would normally do in the real world, an example of which was the pig farmer''s insistence on protecting his son.

    "You''re right, I didn''t kill them. I''m only..."

    Adam didn''t bother hearing what the pig farmer had to say next. If he wasn''t the one killing these teenagers, then it was most likely the case that his mentally handicapped son was the real culprit.

    He was only dissecting the bodies and feeding them to the pigs in order to take the fall for his son, so in reality, he waspletely innocent.

    Every prison had some innocent people locked up inside, and Darvaza Prison was no different. However, none of that mattered to Adam. What mattered to him was that if the pig farmer were truly just an overprotective father who had taken the me for his son''s crimes, then he wasn''t actually a demented serial killer, and there wouldn''t be any powerful anomalies in his psychic world.

    Fuck, I knew something didn''t feel right! I didn''t sense any oppressive atmosphere in this psychic world at all. I thought it was because of my psychic mutation, but it looks like that''s not the case.

    Upon making this discovery, Adam had no interest in lingering in the pig farmer''s psychic world any longer, and he promptly departed.

    After returning to the real world, he dragged the pig farmer out of the cubicle, and as soon as he did so, he was immediately handed the same sharp metal object by Mole.

    "There''s no need to kill him, his psychic body isn''t dead," Adam said with a shake of his head.

    "Why? Did he also have a really powerful anomaly?" Mole was quite surprised to hear this, and he mused, "Surely not! This may be Darvaza Prison, but even in here, anomalies of that level shouldn''t be thismonce. I''ve gone to all types of ces and met all types of people, including some really screwed up people, but it should still be very rare to find people with anomalies too powerful for us to take care of."

    On Adam''s self-coined power scale, the three psychic mutants were all roughly halfway between level four and level five anomalies.

    However, given that they had an intelligence advantage over anomalies, theirbined powers should''ve been enough to take down any level five anomaly, and even against a level six anomaly, they should''ve at least been able to ensure self-preservation.

    At the very least, it would''ve had to have taken a level seven anomaly to have thempletely outmatched, and anomalies of that caliber were exceedingly rare.

    It was usible that one of these three inmates would be harboring such a powerful anomaly, but surely lightning wouldn''t have struck twice in the same ce two out of three times.

    "No, he''s just a normal person who was framed."

    "That exins it. I knew there wouldn''t be that many powerful anomalies around," Mole said as he turned his attention to the unconscious Noah, then remarked, "This one''s a rare breed, it''s a pity that you can''t take him down now."

    "Even if he''s just a normal person, we should still kill him," Armadillo said as he picked up the sharp metal object, but he was stopped by Adam.

    "Let him go. He doesn''t know anything, so even if an adapter from the southern congress enters the psychic world, they won''t be able to find out anything, and they certainly wouldn''t be able to guess that I''m killing people in order to obtain more power."

    "What''s going on? Why did you suddenly be so soft? Hold on, something doesn''t seem quite right here."

    With his perceptive telegnosis, Mole was immediately able to sense that Adam was a little different from normal.

    He made his way over to Adam, then took a sniff at his chest, then continued, "You smell a little different. Come here, Armadillo."

    After hearing what Mole had to say, Armadillo also approached Adam before taking a whiff, then confirmed, "He does indeed smell a little off. Did something happen just now, Adam? Are you keeping something from us?"

    "As expected of my genius brothers," Adam said with a wry smile, then revealed, "I mutated. I''m a psychic mutant now."

    "Oh?"

    Mole was very intrigued to hear this, and he immediately invaded Adam''s psychic world.

    Adam didn''t resist, allowing Mole to enter as he pleased.

    Thus, a mole and a squirrel ended up staring at one another on a street.

    After a brief moment of bewildered silence, Mole burst into raucousughter, rolling on the ground as tears and snot began to pour down his face. "I can''t... Oh lord... You look so goofy! You finally look like you fit into our brotherhood now!"

    Mole got up from the ground, then rushed over to Adam as a bolt of lightning to carefully examine his squirrel fur.

    "I can''t get over this goofy tail of yours!"

    Right as Mole burst intoughter once again, Armadillo arrived in the psychic world, and he also began to chortle with mirth, but hisughter was a little more restrained than Mole''s.

    "You''re finally truly one of us now, Adam. It''s been a long timeing!"

    "Is it alright for both of you to be in here?"

    "It''ll be fine if we''re only in here for a short while." Armadillo brushed off Adam''s concerns as he eagerly inspected Adam''s new form. "Generally speaking, after undergoing psychic mutation, an adapter will grow stronger. Do you feel like you''ve be more powerful?"

    Adam swung his fists through the air a few times upon hearing this, and he didn''t indeed feel about 30% to 40% more powerful than before.

    While he was testing out his powers, Mole sted a bolt of lightning straight into his body, charring the fur on his chest.

    The lightning st knocked him to the ground, but even as he was getting up, the charring on his chest was already slowly receding. Even without fusing with any of his anomalies, he now possessed remarkable regenerative abilities.

    Adam then invoked Hellhound before fusing as one with it, and following the fusion, Adam could clearly sense that he was once again around 30% to 40% more powerful in this form than before, and that was a very impressive improvement.

    Adam sank the fangs of hisrgest head into his own arm to tear off a chunk of flesh in order to examine whether he still retained his regenerative abilities in this form.

    Without using its abilities, Hellhound''s regenerative powers were normally quite mediocre. However, at this moment, the self-inflicted wound on his arm was slowly healing. Its regenerative abilities were still no match for Sludge''s, but it was already quite the improvement.

    At the very least, this was going to be very useful in long and drawn-out battles.

    "I really have be a lot stronger!"

 Chapter 366: Mass Evolution

    <h4>Chapter 366: Mass Evolution</h4>

    Mutation has granted me more power, but I can''t afford to mutate any further.

    In his obsessive pursuit for more power, Adam had no qualms with bing a monster, but the more mutated he became, the more his brain chemistry would be altered, and he would gopletely insane if he were to stray too far down this path.

    He was willing to sacrifice a lot for the sake of his objectives, but he wasn''t willing to sacrifice his sanity as it would negatively impact his ability to carry out his n.

    <i>I have to suppress my killing urges, deranged thoughts, and everything that goes against my human nature, </i>Adam thought to himself, and at this point, the self-inflicted wound on his arm had alreadypletely healed.

    Eager to perform more experiments, Adam invoked Sludge.

    Sludge already possessed tremendous regenerative abilities to begin with, and he was eager to see what kind of effect his psychic mutation had had on Sludge.

    After invoking and fusing with Sludge, Adam began to attack himself once again, but his massive fists were unable to do anything even as he pounded his own chest with all his might.

    Sludge''s defensive prowess had always far outstripped its offensive capabilities, so it naturally wasn''t able to break through its own defenses.

    "Can you two give me a hand?"

    "Of course!"

    Under Adam''s request, Armadillo and Mole began to attack him, along with Hellhound.

    However, all three of them possessed ratherckluster offensive prowess, and they were only able to inflict minor injuries upon Sludge, with the most severe one being a chunk of rock around the size of a washbasin being torn away by Hellhound''s powerful jaws.

    An injury of that size was akin to a mosquito bite on a normal person, and he was able to recover from it in an instant, so it was impossible to tell whether his regenerative powers had improved.

    "Forget it, this isn''t gonna work."

    It was clear that this experiment wasn''t going anywhere, and considering the situation outside in the real world, he felt it best to leave the psychic world right away.

    "Let''s get out of here. I don''t trust those gang members. One of them coulde in and kill all three of us while we''re unconscious."

    Thus, the three of them promptly left the psychic world one after another, and as soon as Adam opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of a haggard and wizened face.

    As it turned out, the pig farmer had woken up before everyone else, and Adam reflexively took a step backward at the sight of him.

    "How the fuck did he wake up so soon?"

    Mole was also quite rmed to see this, and he immediately prepared tosh out, only to be stopped by Adam.

    "It''s fine, let him go."

    "Get out of here!"

    Mole shoved the pig farmer away, and thetter stumbled before steadying himself, but instead of departing, he turned around to face Adam again.

    There was a hint of excitement on his face, and he stared at Adam for a long time before finally asking, "I heard them say that you''re an adapter, is that true? Also, that dream I just had, all of it just happened in the psychic world, right?"

    Adam was rather taken aback as he looked at the pig farmer. This wasn''t the reaction that he had expected from someone who had just survived a close brush with death.

    "Are you an adapter?" the pig farmer repeated.

    "What do you want?"

    Adam was beginning to lose his patience.

    "If you''re an adapter, then your friends must be adapters as well. I want to hire an adapter to help me investigate a case."

    "What case? The one to do with your son?"

    "That''s right."

    Adam''s response acted as further confirmation to the pig farmer that his dream was indeed something that had unfolded in the psychic world.

    "What do you want me to investigate for you?"

    "I was incarcerated for the crimes of murder and bodily dismemberment. I..."

    "I know what happened to you, and I know that you took the fall for your son. Get to the point."

    Adam didn''t want to listen to the pig farmer''s pointless ramblings. His time and energy was very limited, and there were far too many things that he had to do in the short lifespan avable to him, so he had no interest in and reason to help others.

    However, it then urred to him that he wasn''t going to be in Darvaza Prison for very long, and not only did he have to focus on bing more powerful here, he also had to enhance his own reputation for his long-term n.

    ording to the path Thn had mapped out for him, he was going to enter the Sandrise City mayoral election following his release from prison. There were only three super metropolises on the entire continent of North America, and with a poption of over 300 million, Sandrise City was home to a third of the entire continent''s poption. If he could be the mayor of Sandrise City, his power would rival that of the presidents of a century ago.

    Only by attaining such an enormous amount of power and influence would he be able to carry out his n.

    Hence, he had to paint himself as a hero to the general public, so the more good deeds that he did, the more his reputation would be embellished.

    Hence, this seemed to be an opportunity, not just for the pig farmer, but for Adam as well.

    "Take your time and tell me what happened."

    "As you just said, I took the fall for my son." The pig farmer paused momentarily here to heave a long sigh, then continued, "I thought my son was the one who had killed all those teenagers, and in order to protect him, I helped him dispose of the bodies, and I was willing to serve the prison sentence for him. However, after my incarceration, I gradually realized that something wasn''t quite right."

    Adam nodded in response, prompting the man to continue.

    "Not long after my incarceration, I heard that some type of ore was discovered under my farm. It was nickel ore or something like that, a material used for making batteries."

    "I see."

    All of the Mechguard units and the majority of prosthetic limbs were battery-powered, so batteries had always been short on supply.

    If there really were a nickel ore under the pig farmer''s residence, then there was a chance that he had been targeted in some type of sinister scheme.

    "I''ve been in here for quite a few years now, and during that time, the more I thought about it, the more things seemed fishy to me. My son is mentally handicapped, but he''s never hurt anyone. He was bullied as a child, but he would only retaliate when he was pushed too far. Even if he was experiencing heightened sexual urges due to puberty, there''s no way he would''ve killed others to satisfy himself. Most importantly, since I''ve had so much time to think about what happened, I realized that the crime scenes were suspiciously clean, and it didn''t seem like something my son was capable of."

    The pig farmer seemed to recall the crime scenes very clearly, and it was quite apparent that he had thought long and hard about this.

    "I see. I''ll help you look into this matter, but it''s going to take some time."

    "Thank you so much! If you can get to the bottom of this case for me, I''ll give you my farm aspensation!"

    "You have yourself a deal."

    ¡­¡­

    Time slowly passed by, and while Adam could still ensure his own safety, he made his way down his list of names one by one, hunting down the targets that he felt were likely to be psychic deviants.

    During the past nine days, he invaded the psychic worlds of 40 inmates, 27 of which were true psychic deviants, but 24 of them had rather low-level anomalies that were predominantly around the fourth or fifth level.

    Even so, with the sheer amount of anomalic power that he was able to umte over time, Adam had managed to evolve all of the anomalies that he deemed to be useful.

    Among them, Camera, Ogress, Nun, Clown, and Mummy had all evolved to be level five anomalies, while Horse Face and Distortion had be level six anomalies.

 Chapter 367: Silver Ant

    <h4>Chapter 367: Silver Ant</h4>

    The reason why only two anomalies had reached the sixth level was because of something that Adam had already discovered in the past, which was that higher level anomalies experienced very little growth from devouring the anomalic power of lesser anomalies.

    The anomalic power of arge number of lower level anomalies was required to fulfill the quota of anomalic power required to evolve a higher level anomaly, and therger the gap, the lesser the effect.

    For example, if a level six anomaly were to devour the anomalic power of a level four anomaly, the effects would be virtually negligible.

    Hence, it was very difficult to use sheer quantity to make up for ack of quality, and that was a conclusion that Adam had reached through past experimentation.

    As opposed to wasting arge amount of anomalic power for very little effect on a few anomalies, it was much better to spread the love and develop more anomalies.

    As a result of this philosophy, Adam had developed a small anomalic legion, and even Adam himself couldn''t help but feel terrified by the overall power of this anomalic legion.

    He was very much looking forward to the day where he would truly be able to test out the power of this formidable army.

    On this day, he was once again abducting targets ording to his list of names, but this time, he was stopped by someone.

    He had only just approached one of his targets when a hand suddenly grabbed onto his arm, and he was rather taken aback by this. Given how potent his telegnosis currently was, it was very unusual for him to have failed to detect someone until they were close enough to grab him.

    He turned to see who it was, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

    "Boss Charlie! To what do I owe this honor?"

    He had been approached by a man called Charlie Thompson, who was the head of the Desert Gang, and everyone in the third area knew his face.

    Apparently, Charlie had been a dark web hitman prior to his incarceration, so just like Adam, he was also an adapter.

    While it was true that adapters were extremely rare, each area in Darvaza Prison held thousands of inmates, many of whom couldn''t be considered to be normal people, so it was no surprise to see several adapters among them.

    Charlie was a ruthless adapter who had undergone professional training, and he was also quite an adept fighter in the real world, so it seemed reasonable that he would''ve eventually climbed to the top of the Desert Gang''s pecking order.

    Furthermore, it was clear that he had already been in here for quite a long time. Judging from his white facial hair, Adam estimated that he had to have at least been 50 years of age.

    "Can I help you?" Adam asked as he looked into Charlie''s eyes while also making a subtle hand gesture, indicating for Mole and Armadillo to remain put.

    "I heard that someone''s been killing a bunch of cash cows recently. That''s quite selfish, wouldn''t you agree?"

    By cash cows, Charlie was referring to the truly twisted inmates in the prison. Due to how mentally disturbed they were, they were always able toplete some outstanding pieces of artwork and earnrge quantities ofbor points, which was why they were generally protected by the prison factions.

    In order to ensure long-term prosperity, all factions had to protect these invaluable sources ofbor points.

    "Everyone is depending on these cash cows for our livelihoods, surely there''s no reason for anyone to go after them, wouldn''t you agree?"

    Charlie nced at Mole and Armadillo as he spoke, and he was making no attempt to disguise the threat in his voice.

    A thought urred to Adam as he gauged Charlie''s attitude.

    He had already been hunting the targets on his list for quite some time, yet the Desert Gang had never intervened. The fact that Charlie had suddenly approached him with a threat here indicated that the chief warden was losing his patience, and that was very bad news for Adam.

    He had been safe up to this point not because all of the other inmates were afraid of him. Instead, it was because of the order from the chief warden for everyone to leave him alone.

    The fact that Charlie was starting trouble here meant that the tide was beginning to shift against Adam''s favor.

    "What are you talking about? I don''t understand," Adam replied with an innocent expression.

    "I hear that you''re a very renowned and formidable adapter in the outside world. I just so happen to be an adapter as well, and I would love to see how I match up against you."

    Charlie extended a hand toward Adam as he spoke, offering a handshake.

    This gesture held no significance in the eyes of the average person, but for adapters, this was an invitation for a spar.

    Adam looked at the Desert Gang members that were gradually gathering behind him, then nced at his own allies before finally epting the handshake.

    As soon as the handshake was established, Adam immediatelymenced a psychic invasion, to which Charlie offered no resistance.

    Upon regaining his vision, Adam found himself in a world from 30 years ago.

    He was able to identify that this was a setting from 30 years ago because he had appeared on a battlefield in the wilderness. The sky was filled with unpiloted aircrafts, while the ground was riddled with powerful tanks and armored vehicles.

    During World War III, mechanical units had been deployed alongside human troops, and on wilderness battlefields like this one, unpiloted aircrafts and mechanical crawlers formed the backbones of the opposing armies.

    Adam had appeared right at the center of the battlefield, and as soon as hended, a mechanical crawler immediately rushed rapidly toward him. The crawler had bombs installed on its body and heat sensors on its forehead. Furthermore, it was capable of rapid movement and burrowing into the earth, making it a nightmare for human troops on the battlefield.

    As soon as the crawler detected Adam using its heat sensors, it immediately rushed at him before leaping up into the air and exploding violently.

    The steel beads and shrapnel fragments within the explosive chamber were sent flying through the air in the wake of the crawler''s self-detonation, transforming the entire surrounding area into a lethal zone. Adam was swept up in the attack, and the projectiles were able to draw some blood from his body.

    Looks like my physical resistance in this new form is quite good.

    Adam was very pleased to make this observation, and he quickly invoked Sludge before fusing as one with it.

    As a 12-meter-tall stone giant, he instantly became the focal point of the entire battlefield.

    Countless mechanical crawlers converged from all directions before self-detonating, while missiles wereunched at him from the unpiloted aircrafts in the sky. As a result, countless explosions were ringing out all around him.

    The explosions weren''t able to break through Adam''s defenses, but he was being knocked around incessantly, making it difficult for him to make any progress. Hence, he was forced to shrink his own body, and only then was his awkward situation alleviated.

    This type of environment is quite disruptive in a battle, Adam remarked internally as he began to search for his opponent.

    Seeing as his opponent had invited him to engage in this sparring match, he should''ve been somewhere nearby.

    Adam had no idea how formidable an adapter Charlie was. He had read some information on Charlie, but none of that information had been particrly useful.

    Charlie had already been locked up in Darvaza Prison for a very long time, and it was always easier for adapters to improve in painful and adverse environments. Hence, it was impossible to estimate how much more powerful he had be since his incarceration.

    While Adam was searching for Charlie, he suddenly sensed the earth moving beneath his feet, and he immediately reacted, but he was still toote. A silver object shed through the air, grinding along his back to raise a trail of sparks.

    It was a silver ant, and both Adam and the silver ant were stunned by that initial sh.

    Adam was astonished by the silver ant''s speed, while the silver ant was shocked by Adam''s physical resistance.

    The antnded on the ground roughly a dozen meters away from Adam, and the twobatants looked across at one another.

    As expected, he''s also a psychic mutant.

    Having been in Darvaza Prison for so long, Charlie had already undergone psychic mutation, and he stood before Adam as a huge silver ant, a Saharan silver ant, to be precise.

    Even though Adam''s memories had been wiped as a nk te, he retained a vast wealth of general knowledge, and there was some information pertaining to Saharan silver ants in his mind.

    The Saharan silver ant was a type of desert-dwelling ant that was renowned for its speed, able to reach a maximum speed of around one meter per second. Essentially, it was able to cover a distance equivalent to 100 of its own body lengths in a second, which would''ve been the equivalent of a human running over 100 meters per second.

    They were like arcs of silver lightning in the desert, but in Adam''s eyes, a purely fast opponent posed no threat.

    After a brief standoff, Adam took the initiative to go on the attack, expanding his own body once again to cover the distance between himself and Charlie in a single stride, then swung a massive palm through the air.

    Of course, Charlie was able to dodge the attack with ease amid a sh of silver light.

    However, at the same time, a streak of light flew out of Adam''s body, and Clown emerged onto the battlefield. At this point, it had already evolved to be a level five anomaly, and it picked up its gatling gun before firing a barrage of bullets at the streak of silver light.

    The silver ant was extremely fast, far too fast for the bullets to catch up to, and from Adam''s perspective, all he could see was a thin silver line constantly shing around him.

    In fact, not only was the silver ant able to dodge all of Clown''s bullets, it was even able to constantly attack Adam in the meantime.

    In terms of pure physical offensive prowess, the silver ant was definitely worthy of being ssified as a level six anomaly, and its speed far exceeded that of the average level six anomaly.

    Adam could feel arge wound being sliced into his ankle each time the silver line shed past.

    The silver ant had even attempted to climb onto his body to tear him to shreds.

    If a normal person had been in Adam''s shoes, they would''ve been dismembered in an instant, but the attacks were futile against Adam.

    Not only was he able to quickly heal from the inflicted wounds, his body was so enormous and thick that there was no way it could be dismembered. The silver ant''s attacks didn''t reach anywhere near deep enough to make significant inroads into Adam''s body, and as a matter of fact, it was inflicting less damage onto Adam than the missiles beingunched at him by the unpiloted aircrafts and tanks on the battlefield.

    Meanwhile, Clown had conjured up over 100 clones, a number that it had only been capable of reaching following its most recent evolution. At the same time, its arsenal of weapons had also be far more diverse, and its clones were attacking Adam from all directions.

    Having evolved into a level five anomaly, the main improvement experienced by Clown hadn''te in the form of the increased number of clones it was capable of conjuring up. Instead, it was the improvement in its weaponry, particrly chemical weapons.

    There were bullets tipped with lethal poison, smoke bombs that release noxious fumes, dirty bombs that were filled with contaminants, and even the projectiles fired by its rocketunchers were releasing corrosive chemicals into the air following their detonation.

    Thus, countless chemical weapons were bombarding Adam from all directions, and Adam waspletely impervious to these attacks, but the silver ant didn''t possess anywhere near the same level of physical and chemical resistance.

    It wanted to run away, but the entire area was basked in a toxic cloud, so it had no choice but to burrow into the earth.

    "You''re not getting away!"

    The blue patterns on Adam''s body extended onto the ground as he spoke, and the surrounding area instantly transformed into his domain.

    At his behest, the previously soft and loamy ground suddenly became as hard as iron and steel.

    He could sense exactly where the silver ant was within his domain, and he reached into the dirt to pull out the trapped silver hand before holding it in his grasp.

    "This is it for you." A demonic smile appeared on Adam''s massive face as he looked down at the silver ant in his grasp. "I can easily crush you into bits right now."

    "I didn''t think you would be this powerful. Are all of the people on the outside this powerful right now?" Charlie asked as he looked up at Adam with an astonished look in his eyes.

    He had already been in Darvaza Prison for 20 years. Prior to his incarceration, he had already been an elite adapter, and during the past two decades, he had be significantly more powerful. He was alreadypletely unmatched in the third area, yet Adam had been able to defeat him with ease.

    "No, the people on the outside aren''t that strong. With your powers, you would be one of the top hitmen in the world right now. I''m sure you''ve heard of the Oni Organization. I can tell you that even the eight Onis in there aren''t as powerful as you."

 Chapter 368: Balance

    <h4>Chapter 368: Bnce</h4>

    "That''s good to hear."

    For an adapter, confidence was the most important thing, so Charlie was quite relieved to hear that he would''ve still been considered an extremely formidable adapter in the outside world. However, he was also rather surprised that Adam would tell him this.

    "Why did you tell me that? Isn''t this the best chance for you to crush my confidence?"

    "If I wanted to crush your confidence, I may as well just crush your psychic body. You''repletely at my mercy right now, and I could easily crush you like an actual ant," Adam replied.

    Following this period of training, Adam''s powers had be significantly enhanced, and this battle had provided a major confidence boost for him.

    "Then why are you sparing me?"

    Charlie appeared to be quite a calm and steadfast person. Even though his life was in Adam''s hands, there were no apparent fluctuations in his emotions. It was as if his extensive prison sentence had already sapped away all the passion that he had for life.

    However, Adam knew that he was just putting on a fa?ade.

    If he truly had no passion for life, then he wouldn''t have be the head of a faction, nor would he have carried out the chief warden''s instructions or cared so much about how hepared with adapters in the outside world.

    However, Adam chose not to expose him. Instead, he said, "There are two reasons for that. Firstly, there are a lot of your men outside right now, and killing you could turn them against me. Secondly, I want to join your Desert Gang."

    "Why?" Charlie asked.

    "It''s simple. As I''m sure you''re aware, there are people trying to kill me. I presume it''s the wardens, right?"

    Charlie offered no response to this, choosing not to confirm or deny this notion.

    Adam continued, "If the wardens want to kill me, they definitely wouldn''t do so in person. Over these past few days, I''ve managed to get a rough idea of how the wardens are perceived among the inmates.

    ¡°Due to differences in ethnicity, the Asian Gang don''t like to deal with the wardens, and the Radiation Gang is full of screwed-up people who are very difficult tomunicate with. Hence, they can only rely on the Desert Gang or the Survival of the Fittest faction to have me killed. I''m wondering if you''ll spare me if I join your faction."

    "Even if we don''te after you, other people will do it."

    "Then let them! I just want to know if I can join your gang or not."

    Charlie was silent for a moment, then nodded in response.

    "Of course you can."

    He didn''t know what Adam''s thought process was, but that wasn''t important to him. This wasn''t the right time to be going after Adam, and his own life was currently being held in Adam''s hands, so he had no choice in this negotiation. No matter what happened from here onward, he had to ensure his own survival first.

    Adam scrutinized Charlie for a moment, then left his psychic world.

    The two of them awakened one after the other in the real world.

    Everyone was watching the "battle" as it unfolded, and they had no idea what had happened, so they were all trying to gauge the oue of the battle from the expressions of the twobatants.

    It was Adam who broke the silence first.

    "You really are a formidable adapter, Boss Charlie. Even in the outside world, adapters of your caliber are exceedingly rare."

    "You''re not so bad yourself," Charlie replied in an ambiguous manner, then gestured toward his subordinates before departing with them.

    After all of the Desert Gang members had departed, Mole and Armadillo approached Adam, and the former asked, "How did it go?"

    "He was pretty strong."

    While it was true that Adam was simply a more powerful adapter than Charlie, the reason why he had been able to secure such an easy victory was because Sludge was a perfect counter to the silver ant''s strengths.

    If Mole and Armadillo had gone up against Charlie, there was a very good chance that Charlie would''vee out on top thanks to his speed advantage. IN particr, Mole waspletely powerless without his speed advantage.

    "However, I won anyway."

    "Good. Regardless of what the circumstances are, the winner is the one who calls the shots."

    ¡­¡­

    It seemed that the incident had blown over without leading to anything, but that night, as Adam returned to his cell, he noticed several people waiting for him outside.

    "Our boss wants to see you."

    Generally speaking, there weren''t many people who would start trouble in the cell area, but the Desert Gang was an exception to this. The members of the gang worked closely with the wardens, and sometimes, the wardens would adjust the direction that the surveince cameras were facing, essentially turning a blind eye to what the Desert Gang members were doing.

    Adam looked around to find that there was no one else around. Aside from these Desert Gang members, the only one in the general vicinity was his cellmate, Guang Fei.

    After a moment of contemtion, he nodded in response.

    "Let''s go."

    He followed the Desert Gang members to a corner area. Due to certain special reasons, there were some surveince blind spots here, and most of the Desert Gang''s core members resided in this area.

    As soon as he arrived, Adam was immediately struck by a sense of pressure.

    There were at least 100 people standing in this area, and if they were to swarm him all at once, there was no way that he would survive.

    "We hear you''ve been going after a bunch of cash cowstely."

    "The members of the Survival of the Fittest seem to be getting pissed off at you as well."

    "You''re not gonna have too much longer left to live..."

    As he was passing through the area, the surrounding inmates were openly taunting him while also knocking some metal objects against the walls for intimidation.

    Adam waspletely expressionless as he squeezed past them, and he was led into a cell that was more spacious than all of the other cells in the area.

    Atop the bed in the cell sat Charlie Thompson.

    "I didn''t think you would actually dare toe," Charlie said as he took a nce at Adam, and judging from the look in his eyes, it seemed that he was making an important decision.

    An amused smile appeared on Adam''s face as he sat down next to Charlie, then said in a quiet voice, "Quit acting. I know you can''t kill me today. If you kill me now, not only will you not be rewarded by the chief warden, you''ll be punished instead, and you could even lose your life over this."

    Charlie didn''t say anything, but Adam was very confident.

    During these past few days, he had constantly been tantly hunting down cash cows without any fear for consequences because of the information that was constantly being fed to him by Thn from the outside. Through Thn, he was able to gain a very clear understanding of how the entire prison worked, and he had even learned a great deal about the Hosman Family.

    Without the information being supplied to him by Thn, perhaps he would''ve refrained from taking these risks, but given what he currently knew, he was confident that his actions wouldn''t be met with any repercussions.

    Adam continued, "I''m fully aware of the situation that I''m in. In the outside world, I''m still a public figure. The chief warden isn''t going to kill me now, and I won''t die in a pure murder plot, either, isn''t that right?"

    Charlie put away his menacing expression upon hearing this, and a smile also appeared on his face as he said, "Alright, seeing as you know everything, I won''t bother keeping up these pretenses any longer. Tell me about your n and how you want us to work together."

    ¡­¡­

    Of course, Adam wasn''t going to tell Charlie his true n, and the same applied to Charlie as well.

    Charlie was only trying to cate Adam and ensure that Adam would be within reach when the order came for him to be killed.

    As for Adam, he wanted to gather more information, and as an adapter, there were countless ways he could achieve that objective.

    Thus, both of them had their own objectives, and that led to the formation of a tenuous bnce.

 Chapter 369: Miller

    <h4>Chapter 369: Miller</h4>

    During the next three days, Adam could feel the tension in the air bing more and more palpable.

    His sharp intuition as an adapter told him that the nextrge-scale riot wasn''t going to be far away.

    During these past three days, he had continued to hunt down more cash cows in order to enhance his own powers. This was his main objective during his time in prison, so it was something that he had to prioritize no matter what.

    However, he hadn''t had much luck at all in the past three days.

    As he went further and further down his list, the quality of the remaining cash cows was declining further and further.

    He had chosen his prey based on how demented the inmates were and the nature of the crimes that they hadmitted

    He didn''t know how long he was going to be in here for, so he naturally chose to go after the best targets first. At this point, the remaining targets on his list simply didn''t hold much value for him.

    Aside from certain faction members, there doesn''t appear to be any more valuable targets in the third area.

    At this moment, Adam was standing in the most dangerous ce in the third area.

    It was a ce very rarely visited by the members of the Desert Gang, and even the wardens stayed away from here.

    This was the territory of the Radiation Gang.

    There were many inmates with missing limbs here, so even their food came in the form of special provisions.

    If it weren''t for the fact that many people in the outside world suffered from conditions rted to radiation, and there was a lot of attention directed toward this underprivileged demographic, the prison wouldn''t even have set up this special area.

    All Adam could hear in this area were all types of tormented voices. Some were screaming, some were sobbing, and some were making sounds that seemed to be impossible for human vocal cords to produce. The chaotic cacophony of sounds made this ce resemble a living hell.

    Adam took a deep breath before stepping into the area, but as soon as he did so, a massive arm immediately came swinging at his head.

    Thanks to his telegnosis, he was able to dodge the attack, and the arm, which was even thicker than his leg, smashed into the wall beside him.

    The walls were all constructed from reinforced concrete, and the sound of bones breaking instantly rang out as the arm made contact with the wall.

    However, Adam''s assant paid no heed to this, and with a forceful movement, his broken wrist was snapped back into ce. It was as if this were a prosthetic limb rather than his biological arm, and he didn''t feel any pain from it, nor was he afraid of sustaining damage to the arm.

    Adam turned to his assant to find that it was a mutated human with half of his facepletely sunken due to ack of a cheekbone on that side. Both of his eyes were on one side of his head, and due to the absence of his cheekbone, his nose drooped all the way down to his mouth. Thus, his facial features were all clumped together in a disorderly mess.

    Compared with his face, his body was even more severely mutated. His entire bone structure was extremely warped, but he stood at a towering height in excess of 2.5 meters, resembling a small giant.

    Furthermore, his arms were extremely thick, easily exceeding a meter in circumference.

    While Adam was looking at him, the man swung his arm at Adam once again, and Adam hurriedly said, "I''m here to see Mr. Miller."

    However, the mutant didn''t seem to have heard Adam, and he continued attacking.

    Close to 20 secondster, a man who looked as if he had suffered burns all over his entire body emerged and yelled out in a strange voice, and only then did the giant mutant stop taking swings at Adam.

    This type of skin deformity was a trait that wasmonly seen in people from the radiation zones. Many survivors from the radiation zones had developed cellulite as a form of self-protective mechanism from being tormented back and forth by the radiation and anti-radiation drugs.

    "Hello there, I''m here to see Mr. Miller," Adam dered once again.

    "I know you, you''re the new inmate who''s been going around killing cash cows."

    The man with the skin deformity was looking at Adam with apletely neutral expression that was matched by the indifferent tone of his voice, as if he were speaking about something that waspletely unrted to him.

    "He won''t see you. Our Radiation Gang never interferes with the affairs of other people, and I''d advise you not toe and disturb us. You''ll only be receiving one warning. If you insist on staying, I''m going to leave you here, and you''ll have to fend for yourself."

    The man took a nce at the giant mutant as he spoke, and what he was implying was very clear.

    Adam could see that the man was about to leave, and he hurriedly stepped forward as he said, "I''m here to discuss something that has everything to do with your Radiation Gang! I heard that your gang is suffering from shortages in both food and medication. I can resolve those problems for you permanently!"

    The man stopped in his tracks upon hearing this, and he turned to look at Adam, but he still didn''t say anything.

    "People who have suffered from radiation poisoning require many types of medication to survive, but those medications are all quite expensive, and Darvaza Prison only provides the cheapest standard medication. Also, some people require more food than the average person, such as this big guy here.

    ¡°I''m sure he eats far more than what normal people do. If you rely solely on artistic creation, you''ll only be able to earn enoughbor points to just barely feed yourselves. Am I correct in saying that?"

    Having already been in Darvaza Prison for some time, Adam had grown quite familiar with the prison environment, and in addition to that, he was also receiving information from Thn, so he was very well-versed with the internal workings of the prison.

    All of the other inmates proimed that the members of the Radiation Gang were extremely cruel and barbaric, but just like normal people, they also had certain needs that had to be satisfied.

    Sure enough, after hearing what Adam had to say, the man finally began to speak again.

    "You have a solution to these problems?"

    "Yes, and it''s a permanent solution."

    The man was silent for a while longer, then gestured for Adam to follow him as he said, "Come with me. I must warn you that once you enter this ce, you won''t have a chance to change your mind. If you lie to us, you''re not going to be able to make it out of here alive."

    As he made his way into the cell area upied by the Radiation Gang, Adam saw inmates with all types of strange deformities in the cells on either side of him.

    Some had ulcers all over their bodies, some had skin that was riddled with huge tumors, and there were even some with extra limbs.

    This ce was very much like the director''s man-made hell, except it was even more terrifying because none of these people had had their bodies tampered with.

    Looking at these inmates, Adam came to realize just how cruel war could be, and it also urred to him that this present day and age didn''t seem too far removed from the era 30 years ago.

    In this major metropolis, Adam hadn''te into contact with many people suffering from the effects of radiation, but in reality, there were many of these people in existence.

    They were either concealed in the dark underbelly of the metropolis, or living far away in radiation zones.

    After passing through the dimly lit cell area, Adam was taken to a brighter area, where a single person was standing.

    The man wasn''t particrly tall or physically imposing. In fact, he was quite short and thin, standing at less than 160 centimeters in height.

    However, Adam felt an acute sense of danger as soon as he began to approach this man.

    Even though they had never met before, Adam immediately knew who this was.

    "It''s an honor to meet you, Mr. Miller. My name is Adam."

 Chapter 370: Collaboration

    <h4>Chapter 370: Coboration</h4>

    "Hello."

    Not only was Miller not physically imposing in the slightest, his demeanor was also far more benevolent than that of the other inmates in the Radiation Gang, and he nodded at Adam, gesturing for him to reveal the purpose of his visit.

    Adam repeated what he had said to the man with the skin deformity, and Miller was silent for a while before asking, "How do you n to aplish that?"

    "The key is the Desert Gang. As long as we can get rid of them, the rest will naturally fall into ce. The Desert Gang hasid im to the majority of thebor points being produced in the factory, and even though the Survival of the Fittest faction has been transferred here, they haven''t been here long enough to be able to truly contend with the Desert Gang. Labor points are the key to surviving in this prison."

    "Get rid of the Desert Gang? That''s not going to be so easy." If this were an easy task, Miller would''ve done it himself long ago. "Not only do they have the most members out of any faction, they have ties with all of the wardens and even the chief warden. Even if we can get rid of them, the wardens will still draw more people from the other areas of the prison. No one wants to see a bunch of mutant freaks taking over an area."

    "Freaks" was the term that Miller used to refer to the members of his own faction.

    This was a very discriminatory term, and if anyone outside of their faction dared to refer to them as such, the consequences were going to be extremely severe.

    Just as Miller had said, no one would want to see an area fall under the control of a faction of mutated freaks.

    All human societies were governed by rules, even societies in prison, the Radiation Gang was simply too vtile and unpredictable to be entrusted with the task of running such a society.

    The chief warden could allow the Desert Gang to do whatever they pleased in the prison because its members were willing and able to carry out the tasks assigned to them by the wardens. However, the members of the Radiation Gang were different. Many of them were unable to control their bodies and emotions, and if control over the third area were entrusted to them, things could quickly spiral out of control.

    Adam had already considered everything that Miller could think of, and he nodded in response.

    "That may have been true in the past, but it''s no longer the case now."

    Before Miller had a chance to ask any questions, Adam continued, "As you just said, the Desert Gang is able to run this ce because it has the most members and close ties with the wardens. However, its numbers advantage has been diminished by the arrival of the new faction. As for the wardens, why do you think they transferred members of another faction into our area?"

    Miller remained silent as he looked into Adam''s eyes, and a short whileter, he nodded to express his agreement with Adam''s thought process. The fact that the wardens had transferred another faction into this area was a clear indication that they wanted to stir up conflict between the factions.

    "Even if the Desert Gang and the Survival of the Fittest faction didn''t exist, there would still be other factions taking their ce. Darvaza Prison has never been short of people or factions. I hear that the environment in the outside world is very oppressive nowadays.

    ¡°Due to the existence of Mechguard, crime rates have been quite low, but there are more and more extremely heinous crimes taking ce. Overall, the number of crimes has decreased, but the severity of the crimes has increased."

    "You''re concerned that even if those two factions were eliminated, your Radiation Gang still wouldn''t be able to take over the third area, is that right?"

    "That''s right, but you seem to have a n prepared," Miller replied. "Go on."

    Adam took a deep breath. He knew that his survival depended on whether he would be able to convince Miller to ept his n.

    Since his awakening, he hade to understand that in order to aplish something significant, one had to recognize the value of coboration and working with others.

    In the initial phase of his new life, Adam had to rely on the pawn shop and Red Spider for his survival.

    In order to improve as an adapter, he had to work with his fellow students from Layton Academy.

    In Shadow City, he had struck a deal with the director.

    After returning to Sandrise City, he had used the northern congress to propel his own meteoric rise.

    Even in prison, he was relying on Thn to supply him with useful information.

    Coboration was vital for achievement, but simrly, in order to establish coborative rtionships, something had to be given up. Thn, the northern congress, and the pawn shop had all lent Adam their power, but only because they could get something from him in return.

    In this situation, Adam knew that what was most important here was for him to express to Miller what he could bring to the Radiation Gang, and he also had to convince Miller to believe in his n.

    "There''s going to be a massive riot in the prison soon. I''m sure you can sense it just like I can. The wardens will orchestrate a conflict between the Desert Gang and the Survival of the Fittest faction. Do you know why they''re nning this?"

    "Is it all just to kill you? Why? Are you some type of important figure in the outside world? ording to my knowledge, only the deaths of high-level politicians in prison need to be covered up like this."

    "I''m not a politician, but I am quite renowned in Sandrise City. It''s a simple task for you to verify this im. I hear that the Asian Gang is very good at gathering information, you can just go ask them if I''m telling the truth."

    Adam was revealing his status in the outside world as a basis for what he was about to say next.

    "Given how renowned I am in the outside world, regardless of which sidees out in this riot and whether the wardens achieve their objective, the incident will attract attention from journalists in the outside world. What do you think will happen after that?"

    "I''m not sure, but at the very least, they most likely won''t be sending any other factions here in the near future."

    There was clearly more interest in Miller''s eyes as he was speaking now.

    "When is this riot going to start?"

    "I don''t know. For now, I only know that it''s going to happen soon."

    Time was required for Thn to send information to him from the outside world.

    Even if an order were to be sent down from the chief warden, only an approximate time frame could be determined. For example, the instruction could be something like "make a move this week".

    The exact timing depended on how the Desert Gang was going to carry out the n.

    "The exact time that the riot breaks out is something that I''ll have to find out from the Desert Gang. I''ve already been epted into the Desert Gang, but they''re very wary of me, so the amount of information that I''m able to obtain is very limited."

    "We don''t have any moles in the Desert Gang."

    Due to their physical traits, members of the Radiation Gang stuck out like sore thumbs, so there was no way for Miller to nt any of his people in the rival factions.

    "We have to employ the services of professionals in this matter. The Asian Gang doesn''t have many members, nor is it on very good terms with the wardens. The only reason it''s been able to survive to this point is because of its ability to gather intelligence. We can approach them with the same proposal.

    ¡°After all, it''ll benefit them as well if the Desert Gang disappears. With more resources freed up, even if they''ll only be able to receive 20% to 30% of the resources previously imed by the Desert Gang, that would still be worth the risk for them."

    "Will those neers really act ording to the script?" Miller asked.

    "You don''t have to worry about that. The members of the Survival of the Fittest faction are the easiest people to rile up in the prison. The philosophy that they champion means that they have to rise to every challenge, and that''s why they were transferred to this area in the first ce. As long as a riot breaks out, they''ll be sure to join in."

    Adam had considered all possible variables in this situation.

    As long as everything went ording to n, not only would he be able to survive this riot unscathed, he would be able to enhance his own reputation even further.

 Chapter 371: Commencement of the Operation

    <h4>Chapter 371: Commencement of the Operation</h4>

    Everything was progressing just as Adam had nned.

    Adam was able to ensure everything was within his control not just because he had be increasingly more mature over time, but also because of the vital assistance that he was receiving from Thn.

    Thn was an extremelypetent investigator, and he was also situated deep in enemy ranks, so he was able to provide Adam with a great deal of information.

    All of the information provided by Thn was extremely vital, allowing Adam to better understand how the prison operated and even informing him of the ns of the chief warden and the Hosman Family.

    Armed with this knowledge, he was able to n far more effectively than he would''ve otherwise been capable of.

    As the days passed, the tension in the prison was only bing more and more palpable, and by Adam''s estimates, the riot was most likely going to begin sometime in the next couple of days.

    During this time, Adam had approached Miller once again, but the sly old fox still refused to say for sure whether he was going to get involved.

    However, one thing that he did make clear to Adam was that he would intervene if it favored him to do so, but if no suitable opportunity arose, then he would continue to watch from the sidelines, and the Asian Gang had also given the same response.

    The Asian Gang didn''t have many members in the third area, but all of its members were very shrewd and adept at managing interpersonal rtionships. As a result, they were all on good terms with the normal inmates of the prison.

    Hence, they had many information sources, and the information that they provided was always very urate.

    These people made a good living from selling information, but due to the factions limited numbers, it was unable to gain any significant power, living between the cracks without much future prospects.

    They were willing to lend Adam their assistance, but just like the members of the Radiation Gang, they were very cautious and made no promise that they would get involved in the uing riot.

    In Darvaza Prison, any wrong decision could cost one their life, so everyone was extremely cautious and prudent.

    However, this was already enough for Adam. He was certain that these two factions would step in if they could see that the Desert Gang was about to fall. A was confident that with Mole, Armadillo, and himself working with the Survival of the Fittest faction, they would be able to wipe out most of the Desert Gang''s members.

    It''s about time...

    On this day, Adam had only just gotten up when he was stopped by a pair of Desert Gang members who were apanying him.

    "Where''re you going, Boss?"

    "I''m going back to my cell to rest."

    At this moment, it was close to dusk, and the sun was setting, while the lights in the third area had been switched on.

    It was Reflection Day, which was a special day tomemorate the loss of the hundreds of millions of soldiers who had perished during World War III.

    This was a public holiday across virtually the entire world, and that applied to Darvaza Prison as well.

    However, it was also on this day that Adam''s telegnosis was screaming at him, telling him that danger was afoot.

    The two Desert Gang members who had been assigned with the task of keeping an eye on him had only recently been incarcerated.

    Due to the fact that Adam was an adapter who was capable of peering into the minds of others, there was no way that Charlie would''ve sent any important members of the Desert Gang to supervise Adam for fear of important information being leaked.

    Adam wouldn''t be able to gather any useful information from these two, but at the same time, they were also not very good at their jobs.

    The two of them had no idea what they were doing, and they were genuinely under the impression that they had been assigned to be Adam''sckeys.

    "I heard that there''s going to be a gathering today. Boss Charlie bought a lot of good food from the cafeteria for a feast. Are you not going to attend?"

    In Darvaza Prison, any food outside of the energy bundles that were necessary for survival were considered to be luxuries, and virtually no one could resist the prospect of a good feed.

    Even for faction members, good meals were quite rare toe by, and that was why both of Adam''s ckeys" were astonished that Adam would choose to return to his cell at a time like this.

    "I''ll pass. I have a headache, so I''m gonna go rest in my cell," Adam said, then turned to depart.

    As he passed through the crowd in the Desert Gang''s gathering area, he was observing everyone''s expressions and movements.

    He had invaded the psychic worlds of several Desert Gang members, but he hadn''t been able to gather much information from doing so. However, he was able to gather much more information from simply observing those around him.

    For example, the expressions that he could see on everyone''s faces indicated to him that there was a very good chance that this was the day the riot would be taking ce.

    After parting ways with hisckeys, Adam tracked down the contact assigned to him by Thn, instructing him to inform Thn of the situation in the prison. After that, he was just about to find Mole and Adam when the sirens suddenly began ring.

    At the same time, all of the Mechguard units in the area were transferred elsewhere, and all of the lights in the prison shed a few times before turning dark.

    At this point, dusk had already arrived, and the prison barely had any windows, so the entire prison was instantly plunged into darkness now that all of the lights had been snuffed out. Furthermore, visibility was only continuing to deteriorate as dusk transitioned into night, and it wasn''t going to take long before the entire third area was plunged into darkness.

    Meanwhile, at the Desert Gang''s gathering ce.

    "Our men are on the move. Should we begin as well, Boss?"

    Charlie nodded in response. At this moment, he was in his cell with seven or eight of his most trusted subordinates, and they were going to form the core of this operation.

    "Why didn''t we make a move before Adam left? We would''ve definitely been able to take him down then."

    "If he could be killed that easily, then our involvement wouldn''t even be required. All of the wardens have guns, they could''ve just shot him down at any moment. The problem is that his status is very sensitive, so he has to die in a riot along with hundreds of other inmates. Only then can his death be convincingly framed as an ident."

    Charlie bent down as he spoke and pulled out a box from under his bed. Inside the box were several pieces of special equipment, and a bunch of sharpened makeshift weapons.

    "Get the people outside toe in and grab some weapons!"

    The contents of the box were the source of the Desert Gang''s confidence and the reason why Charlie had been willing to take on this mission.

    Without sufficient resources, there was no guarantee that the Desert Gang would be able to beat the Survival of the Fittest faction.

    The members of the Survival of the Fittest faction weren''t exactly the brightest bulbs in the box, but they were all formidable physical specimens.

    After handing out all of the weapons, Charlie led his men out of the Desert Gang gathering area. Along the way, he ran into a couple of inmates who were doing some exercise, and Charlie immediately approached them before plunging a sharp metal object into each of their hearts.

    "Why..."

    The two inmates resided in cells neighboring the Desert Gang gathering area, and they were on good terms with the Desert Gang''s members, so they couldn''t understand why Charlie had suddenly done this to them.

    "We''re trying to create some chaos, so the more people that die, the more convincing the end result will be. Let''s go!"

 Chapter 372: Transmitter

    <h4>Chapter 372: Transmitter</h4>

    The members of the Desert Gang were led on a killing spree under the light of the dying sun, killing all of the inmates in their path. Before long, the entire third area had erupted intoplete pandemonium, and the riot had well and truly begun.

    The majority of inmates in the third area had no idea what was happening. All they knew was that chaos had suddenly set in.

    On Reflection Day, the events transpiring within Darvaza Prison once again emphasized a notion that everyone was already aware of, which was that humans never reflected on their past mistakes.

    The Desert Gang''s members were like a contaminated stream, wreaking havoc and chaos everywhere they went.

    Adam could hear the chaos andmotion from a distance, and he knew that the riot had begun. He had no time to find Mole and Armadillo, so he could only rush to the predetermined meeting area. Upon his arrival, he could see that Mole and Armadillo weren''t there yet, so he made his way into the nearest vacant cell to hide.

    Due to the electricity outage, the locks on the doors were automatically opened, but there weren''t many hiding ces in the bare cell.

    "Go and find Adam!" Charlie instructed once the riot was under way. "Take two teams of 30 men with you. That should be more than enough to ensure that he dies, but make sure to not make any physical contact with him. He''s an adapter, so use your weapons to take him out from a safe distance."

    "Alright, Boss. What''re you gonna do in the meantime?"

    "I''ll go straight to the Survival of the Fittest faction. Adam has two friends in that faction, so there''s a very good chance that he''s hiding there."

    Thus, a small group split off from the Desert Gang in search of Adam.

    The third area housed several thousand inmates, which appeared to be quite arge number, but theyout of the prison made for very few hiding ces. In addition to that, most of the inmates were concentrated in the cell area before the riot began, so it was quite easy to track down someone, especially with three teams searching at once.

    The Desert Gang members scoured through one cell after another, and around 20 minutes, one of the teams tracked down Adam.

    All of the gang members were wielding metal weapons, and all of the inmates in their path were scrambling to get away.

    At this point, night had alreadypletely fallen, and the leader of the team that had tracked down Adam shed an old-school shlight from several decades ago into the cell. As soon as he did so, he was immediately struck by a baton to the nose.

    The blow was very heavy, instantly breaking his nose, and he stumbled back a few steps as blood came gushing out of his nostrils.

    After steadying himself, he cast his gaze toward the baton-wielding Adam, and he paid no heed to his own injury as he shook his dizzy head while a smile appeared on his face.

    "There you are!"

    The man was holding a knife in one hand and a torch in the other. After shing the torch around the cell to confirm that Adam was the only one in there, he became even more arrogant.

    "Where are your two buddies? Howe you''re the only one here?"

    Even if Mole and Armadillo were here, it would''ve been very difficult for them to oppose 30 men, all of whom were armed with knives.

    .

    A weapon like a knife made a world of difference in a fight. Even an untrained man wielding a knife could beat a strong professional boxer, and topound his woes even further, Adam was trapped in a cell, having to face 30 knife-wielding assants at once.

    "I''ve never killed an adapter before. I hear you''re very famous outside, is that right?" The man led the way into the cell with hisckeys trailing along behind him. "There''s always a first time for everything! Seeing as you''re a celebrity, I''ll let you choose how you want to die. Do you want to be dismembered, or disemboweled, or do you want a knife through a major artery?"

    "Is that all the people you have?"

    Thanks to the light from the shlight, Adam was able to see the people outside the cell, and from a rough visual estimate, there appeared to have only been about 20 to 30 men. Perhaps there was a bit more than that, but it was definitely fewer than 40 people.

    Furthermore, these people were grouped together very tightly.

    "Where are the rest of the gang members?"

    "What, is this not enough to kill you?"

    The leader of the team of Desert Gang members seemed to be very interested in Adam''s identity as an adapter. To put it more urately, it seemed that he was very envious of Adam.

    Prior to his incarceration, he had also been a gang member.

    At the time, the leader of his gang was an adapter, and he possessed many superhuman abilities. In fact, he was able to avoid prosecution thanks to his abilities, and hisckey, the man standing before Adam at this very moment, was locked up as his scapegoat.

    Aftering here, the head of the Desert Gang was also an adapter, and that had always been something that he felt to be extremely unfair.

    "You adapters always think you''re better than everyone else, isn''t that right? What a shame it would be if you were killed by someone like me!"

    The man shed his knife at Adam as he spoke.

    Adam dodged the attack, and at the same time, he cast his gaze out of the cell, trying to calcte the distance between himself and the Desert Gang member that was furthest away from him.

    They should all be within range already, but just to be sure, I''ll lure them in a little further.

    With that in mind, Adam retreated further back into the cell, where the toilet was situated.

    "You''re not getting away!"

    The man charged at Adam as he shed at him a few more times, but all of his attacks were evaded.

    Even though Adam had never undergonebat training, his telegnosis as an adapter granted him the ability to always be one step ahead of his opponents.

    After failing to strike Adam with his attacks, the man gestured for hisckeys to join in as well.

    Seven or eight knives instantly came shing at Adam from all directions, leaving him with no choice but to retreat even further. Soon, he was backed into a corner, and he was just barely able to keep out the oing des with the steel pipe that he had removed from the bedframe, but his resistance wasn''t going tost much longer.

    Sure enough, with one more sh of his knife, the leader of the Desert Gang members was able to inflict a wound onto Adam''s shoulder.

    "So what if you''re an adapter? You''re nothing special!"

    Encouraged by his sessful attack, the man shed his knife through the air again, shing a wound onto Adam''s chest this time.

    Neither of the cuts were very deep, and he seemed to be relishing the thought of being able to torture an adapter to death.

    "How does it feel?"

    He shone his shlight onto Adam''s face, hoping to see an expression of fear or despair.

    However, all he could see was that Adam was still looking outside.

    "What the hell are you looking at?''

    "I''m looking to see if everyone''s in here yet." Adam sneakily pulled out an object from under his clothes as he spoke. "Looks like even if you''re not all in here yet, you should be within range."

    "What is that?"

    The man could see what Adam was doing, and he lowered his head to find an electronic transmitter in Adam''s hand.

    He had seen something like this before. This particr one was a miniature version of the ones he had seen in the past, but it most likely had the same function.

    "How do you have something like that? How did you bring it in here? That''s impossible!"

    The man was absolutely horrified at the sight of the object in Adam''s hand.

    It was a neuron transmitter that could significantly enhance an adapter''s ability, allowing an adapter to draw everyone within the range of the device into their psychic world.

    If they were dragged into the psychic world, there was no way that they would be able to oppose Adam.

    "Kill him! Hurry!"

    In the same instant that Adam pressed down the button on the transmitter, the man hurriedly stabbed his knife at Adam''s throat, but it was already toote.

    In the next instant, the de of his knife was snapped, and his arm had been caught in a vice-like grip.

 Chapter 373: Golden Mummy

    <h4>Chapter 373: Golden Mummy</h4>

    "Looks like the tables have turned."

    A terrifying voice rang out overhead, sounding as if it were reverberating within the depths of hell.

    The man looked up to see a row of three terrifying wolf heads above him, all of which had mouths that were filled with teeth as sharp as daggers. Drool was dripping down from the tips of those sharp fangs, and it was clear that they could tear through flesh and bone with ease.

    "C... Can you spare me?"

    The man''s envy and brutality had instantly turned to horror.

    "What do you think?"

    "..."

    At this point, the man knew that there was no way he would be spared. He was silent for a moment, then said, "Before I die, could you at least tell me how you got that transmitter? How were you able to get an electronic weapon into the prison without the help of the wardens?"

    "You want to know how?"

    Adam responded as if he were going to answer the question, only to suddenly chomp down onto the man''s head, putting a swift end to his life.

    "You''re up, old friend. Long time no see!"

    As Adam was speaking, he invoked an anomaly that hadn''t seen battle in a very long time, Mummy.

    Mummy had also undergone multiple evolutions from Adam''s psychic deviant hunting spree, and it was now a level five anomaly.

    At this level, its appearance had undergone some massive changes. All of its bandages had taken on a golden color, and there were some crimson cyberglyphs that resembled ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs inscribed onto its back and its forehead.

    Just from its appearance alone, it was already beginning to look like a high-level anomaly.

    As soon as it appeared, Mummy immediately sent its golden bandages sweeping through the air, and the bandages sliced all of the people in its path in half at the waist.

    In the blink of an eye, the 30 Desert Gang members and some bystanders who were watching from outside the cell had all been in by Mummy and Hellhound.

    The power of level five anomalies was nothing to be scoffed at.

    In the outside world, level five anomalies were already more powerful than first-rate hitmen like Oni no Hanzou, and even in Shadow City, an anomaly of this caliber would''ve been considered to be quite formidable even among S tierbatants.

    None of Adam''s assants here were true psychic deviants, so even if there were anomalies in their hearts, those anomalies were concealed somewhere in their psychic worlds, and they stood no chance against such a formidable pair of anomalies.

    Thus, the battle concluded in the blink of an eye as soon as the psychic world became the battlefield.

    Thank heavens for this neuron transmitter.

    Upon emerging from the psychic world, Adam picked up the shlight before shining it around the cell.

    At this moment, there were dozens of bodiesying all over the cell, and each of them was holding a knife. If it weren''t for this neuron transmitter, even 10 Adams wouldn''t have stood any chance against them.

    After stowing the neuron transmitter away, Adam picked up a few knives from the ground and set off to find Adam and Armadillo.

    He was the Desert Gang''s main target, so if he were to be caught on his own by the Desert Gang''s main forces, then his chances of survival would be very slim, even with the miniature neuron transmitter at his disposal.

    After all, the effective range of the neuron transmitter was quite limited, and he would only be able to use it on a small group of people at a time.

    If it weren''t for the fact that he had managed to lure that previous group of Desert Gang members into a confined cell, he wouldn''t have been able to deal with them.

    If he were to go up against even more people at once, they would be able to easily kill him just by hurling their weapons at him from a safe distance.

    Furthermore, Adam wasn''t seeking out Mole and Armadillo for his own sake. At the same time, he was concerned for their safety as well. It was most likely the case that they were currently in the Survival of the Fittest faction''s territory, and that was most definitely going to be the main target of the Desert Gang''s attack.

    Thanks to the shlight, Adam was quickly able to navigate his way out of the cell in the darkness. He proceeded cautiously through the prison, and as he approached the territory of the Survival of the Fittest faction, he began to hear sounds of fighting and yelling.

    He carefully shed his shlight in that direction to find that a fierce battle was taking ce, and overall, it appeared that the Survival of the Fittest faction was in bad shape.

    The members of the faction were more physically powerful, and they had a private stash of weapons as well, butpared with the weapons in the possession of the Desert Gang, their weapons were far more crude and far fewer in number.

    A weapon could significantly enhance one''sbat prowess, and thanks to their weaponry advantage, the Desert Gang was able to secure a clear advantage over their opponents.

    However, Adam couldn''t tell exactly how significant this advantage was for now. Given that he was all on his own, he didn''t dare to shine the shlight at the unfolding battle for too long for fear of drawing attention to himself.

    Thus, he switched off the shlight, then used the machete in his hand to slice up his own prison uniform, turning it into a makeshift mask. After that, he arrived on the battlefield with his face concealed.

    The outskirts of the battlefield was riddled with Desert Gang members, but his arrival didn''t attract much attention. Due to the power outage, the entire prison had been plunged intoplete darkness, and his face was concealed. Furthermore, he was wielding a standard machete handed out to all Desert Gang members, so it was automatically assumed that he was also a Desert Gang member.

    At this moment, Adam was feeling rather hesitant about how to proceed. If he were to force his way into the fray, then his fate would no longer be in his hands.

    Right as Adam was hesitating about how to proceed, he suddenly felt something through his telegnosis. He turned in a certain direction to find that someone was sneaking furtive nces at him. The man was being very discrete about it, but Adam was still able to sense his gaze.

    Ross?

    With the little light that was avable, Adam was able to identify the man based on his height, build, and the outlines of his face.

    Ross was the first person in Darvaza Prison who had tried to kill him, but he wasn''t a cruel or vicious person. In fact, his personality didn''t really fit in with the other inmates of Darvaza Prison. Ross was a man with a great deal of street smarts and a strong desire for survival.

    He knew that his own life was more important than anything else, and his desire for survival governed all of his actions.

    Adam had used him once before, and now, he was going to use him a second time.

    Upon spotting Ross, Adam squeezed his way through the crowd to arrive beside him, then bumped him on the shoulder as he jibed in a voice that was audible only to the two of them, "As expected of you to be standing back like this. Are you too scared to go in?"

    "Who''re you?" Ross asked as he turned to Adam with a bewildered expression.

    "Quit pretending. We''ve met several times before, I''m sure you''ve already figured out who I am. Help me out, tell me about the situation in there?"

    "..."

    "I''m standing beside you right now, and we''re inplete darkness. If I invade your psychic world and kill you, no one will notice anytime soon. I know you''re a man who values his life, and I''m going to give you three seconds to make a decision. 1... 2..."

    "Alright, alright, you''re the boss." Adam knew exactly what Ross feared, so it was a simple matter for him to make Ross do his bidding. "The battle is very intense right now, and we were able to kill many of the opposing faction''s members thanks to our weapons advantage, but they''ve since formed a defensive line that''s proven to be quite difficult to break through in a short time. However, they''re constantly losing more and more members, so it''s only a matter of time before we break through their defenses."

 Chapter 374: Waiting for an Opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 374: Waiting for an Opportunity</h4>

    "I see."

    Adam looked around to find that the main forces of the Desert Gang were all assembled here, which meant that they felt like there was a very good chance that Adam was hiding inside.

    "Let me see what''s going on in there..."

    Adam dragged Ross a couple of steps closer to the center of the battlefield as he spoke, and as soon as he did so, he immediately heard a string of agonized howls ringing out from inside.

    The center of the battlefield was more brightly lit than elsewhere, thanks to all of the shlights being aimed in that direction, and Adam could see that the Survival of the Fittest faction members were either hiding in their cells or behind the walls around corners.

    The biggest trump card held by the Desert Gang was a pair of crossbows, which posed a major threat to any of the opposing faction members trying to rush out into the open.

    "Fuck all you Desert Gang cowards! How about you throw those things away and fight me one-on-one!"

    Some of the Survival of the Fittest faction members were hurling abuse at the Desert Gang, and the loudest one of them was none other than Mole.

    Now that it was confirmed that Mole was indeed in there, Adam was beginning to grow a little agitated. The Desert Gang had far too significant an advantage here, and it was only going to be a matter of time before they overwhelmed the defenses of the opposing faction.

    Right as Adam was considering how to proceed, someone was struck by a crossbow bolt to the eye. The bolt pierced through his head, and blood and intracranial fluids instantly began gushing out of his eye socket. However, he didn''t die right away. Instead, he let loose a blood-curdling scream, then copsed to the ground and spasmed for a few seconds before finally falling still.

    Following his demise, the Desert Gang was able to gain a few more meters of ground, and Adam knew that he couldn''t wait any longer.

    "Go tell Charlie that I''ve been tracked down elsewhere, but reinforcements are required to take me down."

    "You want me to go just like this?" Ross asked with a surprised expression. "Aren''t you afraid that I''ll..."

    "That you''ll betray me?"

    Adam smiled as he dragged Ross into a corner. There were Desert Gang members there as well, but no one paid any attention to Adam and Ross thanks to thetter''s status as a leader in the faction.

    Adam lowered his voice as he continued, "We''ve met more than once, and I can tell that you''re someone who does everything for the sake of survival, whether that be joining the Desert Gang or serving the wardens, isn''t that right?"

    "What are you trying to say?"

    "I''m telling you now that the Desert Gang is about to fall, so you have to find a way out for yourself."

    "The Desert Gang has a major weapons advantage over all of the other factions, as well as the backing of the wardens and the chief warden, so there''s no way it could fall anytime soon!"

    "What if this thing is thrown into the mix?"

    Adam pulled the neuron transmitter out of his pants before showing it to Ross.

    He was certain that as a leader in the Desert Gang, Ross definitely knew what this thing was, and he was also certain that as a non-adapter, Ross wouldn''t have any clue what the effective range of the transmitter was.

    In his eyes, a transmitter was a transmitter, and ording to news stories in the outside world, any transmitter had an effective range of at least dozens of meters, if not over 100 meters.

    In his eyes, an adapter with a neuron transmitter was even more terrifying than an army.

    "How do you have something like this?"

    It was clear that Ross was well and truly spooked.

    Not only was this a devastating weapon, the fact that Adam was able to smuggle such a thing into the prison indicated that he had to have some type of special connection to the higher-ups of the prison.

    As a result, Ross had no choice but to take Adam more seriously. Even the Desert Gang didn''t have a weapon like this, and to him, it had suddenly be unclear exactly who the higher-ups of the prison were trying to kill.

    As a mid-tier leader in the Desert Gang, Ross was privy to some information, but not a lot, and people like him were very easy to deceive.

    However, Adam knew that this still wasn''t enough.

    Ross was too much of a coward, and he was extremely averse to risk, so Adam had to make a morepelling case to convince him.

    "It looks like the Desert Gang has the upper hand right now, but what if the Radiation Gang and the Asian Gang also get involved? What do you think the Desert Gang''s chances of securing victory would be then?"

    ¡­¡­

    Ross didn''t say anything, and he seemed to be silently weighing up his options.

    However, Adam still had more to tell him. He knew that if he wanted someone like Ross to do his bidding, then he had to present a path that would ensure Ross''s safety regardless of the oue here.

    As long as his survival would be ensured, Ross would be willing to follow Adam''s instructions.

    "I know what you''re thinking. Everything that I''m saying ispletely impossible to verify, right? At the moment, the Desert Gang holds all the cards, and if you choose to help me, but the Desert Gang doesn''t fall, then you''ll be screwed.

    ¡°However, if you don''t help me, and the Desert Gang does get wiped out, you''ll be screwed as well. What I''m proposing to you is a course of action that will ensure you make it through this unscathed no matter what happens."

    Ross was finally willing to give Adam his full attention upon hearing this.

    "I''m going to head off in that direction in a bit." Adam pointed in a certain direction as he spoke. "Find an opportunity to approach Charlie and tell him that I''m somewhere over there, and that reinforcements are required to take me down. Make sure to limit the number of people sent after me to somewhere between 30 and 50. You''re a smart guy, I''m sure you''ll be able to pull that off."

    "What do I get out of this?"

    "If the Desert Gang falls, I guarantee you that you''ll be spared for helping me."

    "How can I trust you?"

    "We''ve worked together once in the past, haven''t we? I let you go that time, and I''m happy to let you off the hook again. Killing you doesn''t benefit me in any way."

    The pawn that Adam had nted in the Desert Gang was finally being put to use.

    Ross nodded in response.

    "If the Desert Gang wins, then everything will be fine for you. In fact, you''ll probably be rewarded for supplying information on my whereabouts. How does that sound?"

    "It certainly sounds like a good course of action for me."

    Ross was just about to say something else, but Adam had already departed. After taking a moment tomit the direction that Adam was going in to memory, he waited for an opportunity to approach Charlie.

    ¡­¡­

    Meanwhile, the other factions were also waiting for an opportunity.

    Information was constantly streaming into the Asian Gang from various different sources.

    "Everyone''s been assembled, Boss. Do we go in or not?"

    "We have to wait and see. Given the current state of affairs, I suggest we stay put." A man with a muscr physique was seated in a cell, and he took a nce at the person who had just departed, then said, "ording to our informant in the Desert Gang, they''re currently doing very well. They have torches, superior weapons, and even crossbows.

    ¡°In contrast, our faction doesn''t have that many members to begin with, so if we rush in recklessly, we''ll be nothing more than cannon fodder."

    "Does that mean we''re calling off the operation?"

    Disappointed looks appeared on the faces of several Asian Gang members at the prospect of having to pull out.

    The Asian Gang had always been living in the cracks. The wardens had never taken a liking to them, and even the other factionless inmates weren''t particrly fond of them, referring to them as intelligence rats. The higher-ups of the Asian Gang were getting by just fine, but it was a struggle for the low-level members just to feed themselves.

    The head of the Asian Gang, Li Tie, could sense the disappointment in the air, and he added, "Don''t be disheartened. There''s still a chance that the tide could turn, we''ll just have to wait and see."

    Meanwhile, Miller was also facing the same question.

    "Do we go in?"

    "Not right now. We have no idea what''s happening at the moment, and we don''t have any good sources of information. If the Asian Gang gets involved, then we''ll go in as well. Otherwise, we''ll continue to wait."

    Miller was also waiting for an opportunity.

 Chapter 375: Laying a Trap

    <h4>Chapter 375: Laying a Trap</h4>

    At this point, Adam had already found a safe location to bunker down in.

    The chief warden had already been nning this riot for a long time, so if he wanted to survive along with Mole and Armadillo, then the only option was topletely destroy the Desert Gang.

    After all, the Desert Gang was thepdog of the chief warden.

    However...

    As expected, the other factions are still waiting and watching.

    Through his telegnosis, Adam could sense that the riot was nearing its climax, but the Asian Gang and the Radiation Gang were still disying no intention of getting involved.

    Adam knew what they were thinking. For them, they could only afford to get involved if victory could be assured, and what Adam had to do right now was to turn the tide of the battle against the Desert Gang''s favor.

    As long as he didn''t get swarmed by too many people at once, his neuron transmitter would ensure that he was all but invincible. If he could chip away at the Desert Gang''s forces, the tide of the battle would be turned, particrly if he could take down some of the Desert Gang''s elite members.

    ¡­¡­

    After a long period of hesitation, Ross finally made his decision, squeezing his way through the crowd. Charlie had just killed an opposing faction member, and with victory all but assured, he was feeling a little more rxed.

    The sensitivity of one''s telegnosis would inevitably decrease while in a rxed state, but even so, he could still tell that something wasn''t quite right about Ross.

    "What are you doing here? Aren''t you always hiding at the back when things like this happen?"

    Charlie was well aware of Ross''s cowardly personality, but he liked to keep Ross around because he was a smart man who could be entrusted with certain tasks that were beyond the capabilities of his peers.

    "I just received news that someone spotted Adam in that direction."

    A serious look immediately appeared on Charlie''s face upon hearing this. Their primary mission was to kill Adam, so his immediate thought was to lead his main forces to hunt Adam down.

    "Is the information source reliable?"

    "Yes."

    "Alright, then let''s get going."

    Charlie picked up a crossbow and prepared to instruct the other Desert Gang members to depart.

    Ross''s heart jolted slightly upon seeing this.

    If the entirety of the Desert Gang''s main forces were to go after Adam, then that would fail toply with Adam''s request. Furthermore, with these crossbows thrown into the mix, Adam most likely wasn''t going to survive the ordeal.

    "Do we really need that many people to catch a single person, Boss? He''s on his own, we can just send a small team of men after him."

    "He''s our main target for this operation..."

    "But what''s going to happen here if we take too many people with us?"

    Right as Ross was raising this concern, Mole''s furious voice rang out from the other end of the dark corridor.

    "Don''t let me get out there, you spineless bastards! I''ll chop off all of your heads and use them as ser balls!"

    "Come fight us without weapons!"

    "They wouldn''t dare! They''re no match for us without their weapons!"

    "When we get out there, all of you are going to die!"

    The other Survival of the Fittest faction members were also beginning to yell provocative insults, and Charlie was forced to reconsider upon hearing this.

    While it was true that the main mission assigned to them by the head warden was to kill Adam, if he didn''t wipe out the Survival of the Fittest faction, then there would be no end to the trouble toe.

    Prior to the conclusion of the power outage, these were the people who were going to pose the biggest threat to his faction.

    Killing Adam was something that he was doing for the chief warden, while wiping out the Survival of the Fittest faction was something that he was doing for himself, and the choice was obvious.

    "Alright, then take some people with you and bring Adam back, dead or alive."

    "You want me to go after him?"

    "What are you so afraid of? He''s just a single person!"

    Charlie gave Ross a hard shove as he spoke, and thetter stumbled a couple of steps before scurrying away.

    After returning to the outskirts of the battlefield, Ross took a moment to consider how to proceed, then followed Adam''s instructions, picking out around 30 people to take with him.

    He made sure to be as self-serving as possible with his choices, picking out only the people that he was on bad terms with or in directpetition against.

    "Will, Ken,e with me, I need your help with something."

    "Who the fuck do you think you are? We''re with Spud!"

    There were naturally many branches in a prison faction, and as a mid-tier leader in the Desert Gang, Ross wasn''t able to just call on anyone that he pleased.

    "Boss Charlie told me to gather people for an important task. You can choose not to go if you want, but you''ll be held responsible for the consequences of your refusal to cooperate."

    "Really?"

    The men that Ross had called upon were a little suspicious, and they turned to search for Charlie, but the area was too dimly lit for them to see anything.

    However, as a high-level adapter, Charlie had always been the undisputed leader in the Desert Gang with absolute authority, so no one dared to risk being used of insubordination against him.

    "You''re a dead man if you''re lying to us."

    "If I go around rying false orders from Boss Charlie, he''ll have me killed before you can even get to me," Ross said with a roll of his eyes, then called upon some more men until the quota was reached before leading them in the direction that Adam had departed in.

    After some searching, they finally spotted Adam in a cell in a secluded corner of the prison.

    Ross immediately drew to a halt at the sight of Adam, and everyone else stopped in their tracks as well.

    "Over there?"

    "Where?"

    "There!"

    Ross focused the beam of his shlight onto Adam, who was curled up in a corner of the cell, looking as if he had been injured.

    In order to make himself appear even more vulnerable and disoriented, Adam raised an arm to shield his eyes from the light.

    "That looks like him!"

    "He''s on his own?"

    "If he''s on his own, then we have nothing to be afraid of! This is our chance tond a big fish!"

    After confirming that the person in the cell was indeed Adam, the 30 or so Desert Gang members immediately became very excited. They didn''t know exactly why Adam was a primary target, but they knew that if they could take Adam to Charlie, then they would undoubtedly receive promotions in the gang.

    However, they certainly couldn''t allow Ross to take all the credit, and one of them immediately grabbed him by the cor as he dered, "Let me make this clear: you can''t take the credit for this all for yourself!"

    "Of course. I was the one who found him, but I''m not the one who''s going to capture him. You get my drift?" Ross asked with a meaningful smile.

    "Hell yeah! We''ll be the ones to capture him!"

    The Desert Gang members were far from intelligent, and all of them quickly rushed into the cell, eager to get their hands on the prize.

    Ross watched as all of the Desert Gang members piled into the confined cell like a bunch of cockroaches swarming onto the morsel of food, but before they could pounce on Adam, all of them were instantly rooted to the spot.

    After that, they began to fall one after another at an rming rate.

    It only took around a second for each person to be killed, and everyone was dead in only roughly half a minute. The incredible speed at which Adam was able to kill these men made Ross even more terrified.

    He was quite cowardly to begin with, and he was at a loss for what to do at the sight of all of the bodies in the cell. He was only snapped back to reality by the sound of Adam''s voice.

    "Bring more people to me! This isn''t enough!"

    "Ah, yes! I''ll go right away!"

    Ross hurriedly turned and ran away into the darkness.

 Chapter 376: Attacked from Three Sides

    <h4>Chapter 376: Attacked from Three Sides</h4>

    After returning to the battlefield, Ross took a moment topose himself, then squeezed his way through the crowd to approach Charlie once again.

    "Boss, we need reinforcements!"

    "What?" Charlie turned around with a bewildered expression. "Didn''t you say he''s on his own?"

    "I don''t know what happened, it seems like there''s an ambush over there."

    "Are all of the people you took with you dead?"

    "No, but we need reinforcements!"

    Charlie nodded in response, but didn''t say anything. He looked into Ross''s eyes, and his telegnosis told him that Ross wasn''t lying.

    The panic and fear in his eyes were genuine, and he really did need more reinforcements. It was also true that the people he had taken with him weren''t dead as they had only suffered psychic death and not physical death.

    "I can tell you''re not lying, but I can''t help but feel like something isn''t quite right."

    Charlie was scrutinizing Ross intently as he stepped forward, preparing to examine Ross''s memories.

    Right at this moment, the Survival of the Fittest faction members were finally sick of being dominated, and they rushed out of the corridor.

    During the time they had been bunkering down in their cells, they had crafted some makeshift shields out of bed ts, and the shield-bearers positioned themselves next to one another to form a wall, then began to charge forward.

    "Stop them!"

    Charlie was forced to hurriedly direct his attention back to the battle, thereby letting Ross off the hook.

    The Survival of the Fittest faction was a major faction that had once reigned supreme over another area of the prison, and all of its members were physical specimens. If it weren''t for the weapons and numbers advantage that the Desert Gang had, they would''ve been no match for the Survival of the Fittest faction.

    Hence, this retaliative charge could spell extremely bad news for the Desert Gang if they weren''t careful.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ross hurriedly squeezed his way out of the crowd, and he fell into deep thought as he watched the unfolding battle. He had been a little shaken upon meeting Adam earlier, but now that he had had a chance to calm down, he had identified a vital problem, which was that adapters were capable of examining one''s memories!

    Ross had never had his cover blown because Charlie hadn''t paid much attention to him, but things were different now. If it weren''t for that timely charge made by the Survival of the Fittest faction, there was a very good chance that he would''ve already been dead at this point.

    With that in mind, a conclusion instantly took form in Ross''s mind: Charlie had to die!

    Essentially, only one of them could survive this ordeal.

    After making up his mind, Ross decided that he had to fullymit himself to Adam''s camp. He raised his shlight to inspect his surroundings, and he discovered that even though the ongoing battle was quite fierce, many of the Desert Gang members on the outside were unable to squeeze through the narrow corridor. As a result, there were many bystanders who weren''t doing anything.

    Upon making this observation, Ross hatched a n.

    "Hey, you there,e with me."

    "You, you, and you, get over here as well."

    Using the same method as before, Ross quickly assembled a team out of the Desert Gang members at the back of the group.

    After a quick count to ensure that he had assembled a team of roughly 30 members once again, Ross said, "Boss Charlie is asking you toe with me to hunt down our primary target."

    "But we need more people here to deal with the opposing faction!"

    "Those guys aren''t gonna be able to do anything, they don''t even have any proper weapons. What we''re doing is more important." In order to quell all opposition, Ross brought up Charlie once again. "These are instructions from Boss Charlie himself. If anything happens, I''ll take responsibility."

    "Didn''t you already take some people with you just now?"

    "Things aren''t going ording to n over there, so I had toe back to get reinforcements."

    Ross was a leader in the Desert Gang to begin with, and he was using Charlie to exert pressure on his fellow Desert Gang members, so they quickly folded to his demands and departed with him.

    In the wake of their departure, the Desert Gang''s forces were looking far less formidable.

    The Desert Gang did have a numbers advantage over the opposing faction, but Ross had led around 60 to 70 of its members away to be killed by Adam.

    In addition to that, the first team of Desert Gang members that Adam had disposed of had also consisted of roughly 30 men, so overall, he had reduced the Desert Gang''s numbers by roughly 100 men.

    This was sending a signal to the other two factions.

    Thanks to their informants, the Asian Gang was quickly able to detect that something wasn''t quite right.

    "The Desert Gang''s members seemed to be getting killed off faster than expected, and they''re also quite spread out."

    "It seems like the retaliation from the Survival of the Fittest faction is quite fierce. They''re definitely putting up more resistance than I thought they would."

    Li Tie was seated on his bed, and as he looked at all of the expectant faces around him, he finally made a decision.

    "Let''s go!"

    The surrounding Asian Gang members were extremely excited to hear this, and this excitement soon reached another part of the prison as well.

    ¡­¡­

    "The Asian Gang is on the move!"

    It didn''t take long for the Radiation Gang to receive wind of what was happening.

    "Have they joined the battle?"

    "No, but they''ve cut off the Desert Gang''s retreat path, and all of them are armed as well. What should we do?"

    "Let''s get going as well," Miller said as his hands balled up into tight fists. "It''s time for the food in the prison to be redistributed in our favor. Our brothers have been starving for far too long!"

    ¡­¡­

    The second team led by Ross was also one that had just the right number of men.

    A team of around 30 was bordering on the maximum range of the neuron transmitter, but this time, there were a couple of psychic deviants among the team of Desert Gang members, so it took a little longer thanst time for Adam to take care of them.

    Even so, given Adam''s current level of power, he was still able to make short work of the team of Desert Gang members.

    Once all of them had met their demise, he opened his eyes to find that Ross was still standing outside the cell.

    He then looked down at the bodies around him, and after a moment of contemtion, he picked up a knife from the ground before plunging it into the vital regions of the Desert Gang members one after another.

    The cell was quite small to begin with, and it didn''t take long before the ground in the cell was entirely covered in blood. The blood reached all the way up to the back of Adam''s feet, resulting in a rather ufortable sticky sensation.

    However, he continued to persevere, inflicting lethal wounds onto the bodies of all of the Desert Gang members so that the southern congress wouldn''t have any evidence that they had been killed in a psychic attack.

    With each sh or stab, he would slit a gang member''s throat, or pierce one through the heart, and blood spurted out of the wounds.

    Some of the blood sshed Adam on the face, some of it sttered onto his body, and his feet were submerged in the rest.

    In the beginning, this was something that Adam felt a little ufortable with, but as he continued on his killing spree, the sense of difort gradually turned to numbness, then transformed into a warped sense of pleasure.

    At this moment, Adam''s entire body was drenched in blood, and his eyes werepletely cold and devoid of emotion. Even though he wasn''t in the psychic world, he already resembled a demonic anomaly.

    As he emerged from the cell and appeared before Ross, thetter couldn''t help but shudder in fear.

    "Bring some more people to me."

    "I can''t! Charlie is already beginning to suspect me. If I go back now, I''ll be dead for sure! I..."

    "Get ''em!"

    "Don''t let them get away!"

    "Make sure they can''t retreat!"

    ¡­¡­

    All of a sudden, Adam raised a hand to cut Ross off. He could hear amotion ringing out in the distance, and he took Ross''s shlight before shining it in the direction that the sound wasing from.

    Guided by the source of themotion, Adam returned to the battlefield between the Desert Gang and the Survival of the Fittest faction, except at this point, the battle no longer just involved those two factions.

    The situation had be even more chaotic than when he had departed from the battlefield earlier as the Asian Gang and the Radiation Gang had also entered the fray.

    The Desert Gang had a weapons and numbers advantage, but with the other three factions attacking all at once, the situation had be extremely perilous.

    In particr, some of the mutants from the Radiation Gang were extremely formidable fighters, and they were exerting immense pressure on the Desert Gang''s ranks.

    Finally!

    Adam was finally able to heave a sigh of relief upon seeing this.

    All of his nning had finally paid off.

    The chief warden wanted to kill him, and theoretically speaking, with the Desert Gang working with the wardens, there should''ve been no way for Adam to survive this ordeal. However, Adam was able to save himself thanks to Thn and the existing conflict between the factions in the prison.

    Now that all of the factions had gotten involved, Adam was essentially untouchable.

 Chapter 377: Shadow Killer

    <h4>Chapter 377: Shadow Killer</h4>

    All I need to do now is ensure that I survive to the end.

    After taking a moment to assess the situation on the battlefield, Adam could see that the Desert Gang was in severe trouble, and it was no longer in any position to be hunting him.

    All he had to do was weather the storm until morning arrived the next day. In fact, he didn''t even have tost that long. As soon as the northern congress received wind of the riot taking ce, journalists would swarm to the prison, and order would have to be restored.

    Before I find a ce to hide, I have to find Mole and Armadillo. I can''t let them die here.

    Mole and Armadillo were both insane, and in particr, Mole was extremely susceptible to being swept up in the heat of battle. He was a formidable fighter, but he didn''t have any good weapons, and he fought in an extremely reckless fashion, so Adam was afraid that Mole would end up dead if he didn''t find him soon.

    In a chaotic battle like this one, there was no telling what could happen.

    With that in mind, Adam squeezed his way into the crowd to begin searching for the pair of psychic mutants.

    At this moment, his entire body was drenched in blood, and he waspletely unrecognizable as a result. Furthermore, everyone was focused on surviving the battle, so no one paid any attention to him.

    All of a sudden, Adam felt someone grab onto his wrist, and he was greatly rmed as he looked down to find that a dry and wizened hand had closed itself around his wrist.

    In this perilous situation, Adam was fully alert and vignt, and his telegnosis was working in overdrive. Hence, it was incredible that someone had managed to get so close to him that they were able to grab onto his wrist before he detected their presence.

    Adam immediately swung around, upon which he was greeted by the sight of a familiar face.

    "Guang Fei? When did you get here? What do you want?"

    "I want to kill you..."

    Guang Fei made no attempt to hide his intentions, and it seemed that he had been waiting for this moment for quite some time.

    "I knew something wasn''t quite right about you the moment I first saw you!"

    "I also wanted to kill you the moment I first saw you, but that fat pig told me that I had to wait until the riot. That suits me just fine. With so many people dying today, I''ll be able to pose as one of the bodies and escape once all the bodies are transported out of the prison."

    Guang Fei was revealing his n to Adam without any qualms or hesitation. It seemed that in his mind, Adam was already a dead man.

    Judging from what Guang Fei had just said, Adam was able to deduce that the chief warden had promised him that he would be able to escape from Darvaza Prison by posing as a dead body, so long as he killed Adam during the riot.

    All of the inmates in Darvaza Prison were imprisoned for life without the possibility for parole, so no one would''ve passed up an opportunity like this.

    "You''re an adapter? I''ve never seen any information about you on the outside."

    "That''s because the sly old foxes of the Hosman Family always like to keep a pawn around. Perhaps they''ll never use the pawn, but they would rather have a redundant pawn than risk not having one in their time of need."

    Guang Fei continued to grip tightly onto Adam''s wrist as he spoke, and somehow, despite the fact that he resembled a dried and shriveled corpse, he possessed incredible grip strength, locking Adam firmly into ce.

    "Let''s go settle this somece where there''s no one around, what do you say?"

    A chaotic battle was still unfolding all around them, so it would''ve been no different tomitting suicide had they chosen to engage in a psychic battle here.

    "Sure," Adam agreed without any hesitation.

    He could tell that Guang Fei was most likely quite a formidable adapter, but the same applied to himself as well.

    On the outside, someone like thete Oni no Hanzou was already considered to be an elite adapter, yet his powers were only on par with those of a level four anomaly. Charlie Thompson appeared to be the most powerful adapter in the prison, and his powers would''ve allowed him to stand toe to toe against a Lamp Keeper of the Guild of Immortality, yet even he was no match for Adam.

    Adam''s primary objective for his voluntary incarceration was to advance his own powers as an adapter.

    .

    Perhaps Guang Fei would''ve been able to kill him on his first day in the prison, but Adam had made significant strides since then.

    "You''re very good at concealing your aura, but are you really sure that you''ll be able to beat me in a psychic battle?" Adam asked.

    "I won''t know unless I try," Guang Fei replied as he made his way into the darkness with his hand still tightly wrapped around Adam''s wrist.

    The two of them left the most chaotic area before arriving in a cell. After entering the cell, they piled up some objects in front of the door to act as an obstacle, following which Adam turned off his shlight, leaving the two of them inplete darkness.

    "Shall we begin?"

    "Let''s begin."

    As soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, he felt his opponent invading his consciousness.

    "You must be very confident if you''re invading my psychic world!"

    In a psychic battle, there was always an element of home advantage involved, unless the twobatants were fighting in a neutral psychic venue. Thus, Adam offered no resistance and allowed Guang Fei to enter his psychic world.

    He had no idea how powerful an adapter Guang Fei was, so as soon as he entered the psychic world, he immediately invoked Sludge before fusing with it as a safety precaution.

    Sludge was very bulky and cumbersome, and it wasn''t versatile, either, but it was a very safe option as even an adapter of Hebi no Miko''s caliber had no way of killing Sludge in a short time.

    As soon as hepleted his fusion with Sludge, Adam''s body instantly broke through the cell around it, with its head punching straight through the roof.

    As was the case the majority of the time, one entered the psychic world in the same location as they were situated in in the real world.

    The cramped cell was nowhere nearrge enough to hold Adam''s enormous frame, and he was outside of the building altogether, allowing him to see the other areas and the outdoor activity area of the prison.

    Adam shrank himself down as much as he could, but in the end, he was still standing at around eight meters tall.

    In its normal state, Sludge was around 12 meters in height, while the two-story structure of the prison was only roughly seven meters tall. Hence, even after shrinking himself down as much as possible, he still had to crouch down to be able to see what was happening inside the prison.

    Where is he?

    Adam pulled apart the rubble of the building with his hands as he began searching for his opponent, but all of a sudden, he felt something tighten around his neck.

    What a sneaky bastard!

    He had already been attacked, even though he hadn''t sensed anything through his telegnosis.

    He reached a hand toward his own neck, but didn''t feel anything there.

    What the hell am I being attacked by?

    Right as he was looking around in befuddlement, he felt his limbs being bound as well, and this time, he was able to see what he was being attacked by.

    It was a shadow.

    Within the dark cell, there were even darker shadowstching onto his body and his limbs.

 Chapter 378: Shadows and Flames

    <h4>Chapter 378: Shadows and mes</h4>

    The shadows possessed tremendous power, and Adam tried tugging on them a few times, but they refused to budge, and even more shadows were beginning to wrap themselves around him.

    "You''re very strong," Adam remarked. "It''s no wonder you''re so confident, but this isn''t going to be enough to beat me."

    Adam was trying to use the echo from his own voice to search for his opponent in the darkness, but to no avail.

    Thus, all he could do for now was struggle free from his bindings.

    Sludge was quite heavy and cumbersome, but its power was no joke. Not only did its strength stand at the pinnacle of level six anomalies, even level seven anomalies weren''t guaranteed to possess superior strength.

    Even so, Adam had to exert around 70% to 80% of his full strength to tear through all of the shadows, indicating that his opponent was more powerful than he had anticipated.

    "You have remarkable strength and body weight. I presume your defenses must be quite solid as well."

    Guang Fei''s voice finally rang out, but it seemed to being from all directions. Essentially, his voices seemed to being from all of the surrounding shadows in the cell, making it impossible for Adam to determine his location.

    Despite this, Adam remained calm and collected, standing on the spot as he awaited the next round of attacks.

    It didn''t take long before the second round of attacks arrived, with a series of spears formed by shadows shooting at him out of the darkness.

    The spears were flying extremely fast, but they made no sound as they hurtled through the air, silently piercing into Adam''s body.

    The spears possessed tremendous prative force, plunging over a meter deep into Adam''s body. If it weren''t for the fact that Sludge''s body was extremely thick and bulky, the spears would''ve been able to pierce straight through Adam.

    After plunging into Adam''s body, the spears began to change shape, and Adam hurriedly pulled them out, following which the wounds inflicted onto him by the spears began to quickly heal at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.

    "Your defenses and regenerative abilities are quite remarkable as well. However, you''re clearly very heavy and cumbersome, so you must be susceptible to terrain-type attacks."

    Guang Fei seemed to be an exceptional strategist, and he was able to make a fast and urate assessment of Adam''s strengths and weaknesses, even though this was the first time that they had faced each other in battle.

    In the same instant that his voice trailed off, Adam felt a massive shadow vortex begin to take shape beneath his feet. He wanted to take evasive measures, but the surrounding shadows restricted him to prevent him from moving, while the vortex beneath his feet resembled a swamp that further impaired his mobility.

    As a result, Adam''s massive bodyweight had be his downfall, making it impossible for him to move.

    In psychic battles, there were certain adapters who held innate advantages over other adapters.

    For example, back in Shadow City, Adam had heard that Diamond had once been defeated by an A tierbatant.

    That adapter was very proficient at terrain maniption, and he transformed the entire battlefield into a swamp to render Diamondpletely powerless. Despite his tremendous strength and offensive and defensive prowess, Diamond found himself trapped in the swamp, unable to do anything.

    Hence, given the right matchup, it was possible for an adapter to defeat someone far more powerful than themselves.

    In that instance, there had been a clear mismatch in power between the twobatants, but in this situation, it was clear that Guang Fei was not an inferior adapter to Adam, and Adam instantly found himselfpletely immobilized by the surrounding shadows and the vortex beneath his feet.

    However, Adam had never been one to fight with just a single anomaly, and he had already thought of some countermeasures against Guang Fei''s abilities.

    His opponent was gathering information on him, and he was also doing the same.

    Guang Fei possessed exceptional concealment abilities, and the fact that he was able to attack using all shadows indicated that he also possessed a domain. Most importantly, his offensive prowess and restrictive powers were both top-notch.

    Against an opponent like this, the best strategy would''ve been to invoke Camera and Horse Face, with the former used to gather information, while thetter was used to unleash emotional attacks. After all, even if Guang Fei were concealed within the shadows, he would''ve still been susceptible to emotional attacks.

    Not only did Horse Face''s attacks cover arge area, as someone who had been on the receiving end of those attacks in the past, Adam knew that they were also extremely formidable. Even with so many anomalies on his side, he had almost fallen prey to Horse Face''s insidious abilities.

    However, after a moment of consideration, Adam decided against invoking those two anomalies, choosing to invoke Clown instead.

    The reason for this was that both Horse Face and Camera were too frail.

    While it was true that their abilities were extremely potent, if they couldn''t take down the enemy in a single strike, then there was a very good chance that they would be killed in an instant by the surrounding shadows, and Adam couldn''t afford to take that risk.

    He had gone to great lengths to evolve those two anomalies to their current level, and if they were to die, then he would have to start again from square one, thereby wasting all of his prior efforts.

    At this point, Clown was already a level five anomaly, and thanks to its clone ability, it wouldn''t die so easily. Most importantly, Adam had identified a chink in his opponent''s metaphorical armor.

    If he relies so heavily on shadows, then won''t he be a lot weaker if there are no shadows to work with?

    After Clown was invoked, it immediately conjured up an army of clines, all of which were wielding methrowers and sh grenades, and the entire area was instantly illuminated by mes and bright shes of light.

    Sure enough, as the shadows receded, Adam could feel the restrictive power of the surrounding shadows lessen significantly.

    It''s working!

    Adam struggled free from the restrictive shadows and the vortex beneath his feet, yet right as he was about to do something, he suddenly noticed that the shadows behind the methrower-wielding Clown clones were bing darker.

    The brighter the mes were, the darker the contrasting shadows.

    "Look out!"

    Through his psychic connection with Clown, Adam instantly alerted it to the impending threat, and all of the Clown clones immediately sprang up into the air in unison, but it was toote.

    Countless ck hands emerged from the shadows beneath their feet, grabbing onto their ankles before dragging them into the darkness.

    The Clown clones struggled with their might, but they were nowhere near as strong as Sludge, and all of them were dragged into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

    The process had unfolded so quickly that Adam wasn''t even able to save Clown in time, and he could only look on with fury and anguish as Clown was devoured.

    An enormous amount of anomalic power was required to nurture a level five anomaly, so the demise of Clown was a major setback for him.

    It had taken him a long time to get Clown to its level, yet it had only taken an instant for it to be killed.

    "I can sense your emotional fluctuations. You seem to be very angry right now. A mature adapter shouldn''t reveal their emotions so easily."

    Guang Fei''s voice suddenly rang out from behind Adam, and in the next instant, Adam''s massive head was decapitated amid a sh of ck light.

    His head came tumbling down onto the ground, then rolled around amid the rubble for a while beforeing to a rest.

    "Is it over?"

    Guang Fei was standing on Adam''s shoulder, and the only response to his question was a massive palm flying his way.

    "What do you think?"

    Adam pped his own shoulder as if he were pping a mosquito. The entire prison rumbled violently from the force of the impact, yet Guang Fei had vanished into thin air.

 Chapter 379: Training

    <h4>Chapter 379: Training</h4>

    What an annoying opponent!

    Adam didn''t feel any reciprocation from beneath his palm. As it turned out, right as he was about to make contact with Guang Fei, his opponent was able to flee using the shadow cast by his palm.

    As soon as the shadow was cast onto his shoulder, Guang Fei had disappeared without a trace.

    At this point in the battle, Adam had lost an anomaly, and he had been decapitated, but he hadn''t even managed to catch a glimpse of his opponent, and he couldn''t help but wonder exactly who Guang Fei was.

    After sprouting a new head, Adam asked, "How was an adapter as powerful as yourself thrown into Darvaza Prison? Who are you?"

    "Who am I? I''m just an old man. No one knew of me 30 years ago, and no one knows of me now. 30 years is a very long time..."

    30 years was indeed a very long time.

    .

    The celebrities that had been household names 30 years ago were nothing more than distant memories for those of the previous generation.

    It was quitemon for celebrities and politicians to be household names, but no matter how powerful an adapter was, they simply weren''t known to the general public, and that applied even to the likes of Hebi no Miko and Sadou.

    One could only remember far into the future if they were widely renowned to the general public at some point.

    In the case of a powerful adapter from 30 years ago, only those who had fought against and alongside him in World War III would''ve had any recollection of him.

    Furthermore, Adam had a feeling that Guang Fei most likely wasn''t all that renowned even 30 years ago.

    One''s psychic body was always a manifestation of their personality, so the fact that Guang Fei was so adept at self-concealment indicated that in the real world, he had to be someone who preferred to keep a low profile.

    Generally speaking, these people weren''t very well-known, and simrly, they would usually be able to avoid capture.

    "How has an adapter of your caliber been locked up in Darvaza Prison for so many years."

    "That''s another story for another time," Guang Fei chuckled.

    Guang Fei was very patient in this psychic battle, and even though he had just in one of Adam''s anomalies, he didn''t rush to press his advantage.

    At this point, their conversation was nearing a conclusion.

    "How about this? If you can beat me, I''ll tell you my story."

    Right as Guang Fei made this deration, the surrounding shadows began to close in on Adam again, and Adam began pondering potentially viable strategies.

    Having endured countless battles of life and death, he had already thought of a few ideas during the conversation that had just taken ce.

    The best way to counteract Guang Fei''s abilities was to create an environment in which shadows couldn''t take shape.

    If mes won''t work, then I should just destroy all of the surrounding structures so they can''t cast any shadows.

    With that in mind, Adam quickly reverted back to his original height of around 12 meters, then went on a frenzied spree of destruction,ying waste to all of the surrounding structures.

    He was like a rampant force of nature, tearing through the entire third area of the prison, quickly reducing all of the surrounding buildings to piles of rubble.

    It was very difficult for the average person to conceptualize the existence of a 12-meter-tall giant.

    Essentially, that was around the same height as a four-story building.

    As another point ofparison, an adult elephant generally only reached around three to four meters in height, and as a level six anomaly, Sludge''s physical prowess far exceeded that of any animal.

    "What a wonderful spectacle of destruction you''re putting on."

    Under the moonlight, Adam heard Guang Fei''s voice ringing out from his shadow, and he immediately swung around before mming a fist into the ground, but Guang Fei was able to retreat into a rift in the ground.

    After destroying all of the surrounding structures, there were indeed far fewer shadows around, and Adam was even able to clearly see traces of Guang Fei''s retreat.

    He followed Guang Fei''s path of retreat, tenaciously pursuing his opponent whileunching a violent barrage of attacks into the ground.

    I got him!

    Finally, Adam felt a hint of reciprocation through his fist, but it seemed that Guang Fei wasn''t particrly susceptible to physical attacks.

    Even though he had managed to strike his opponent, the blow hadn''t managed to inflict much damage at all. While Adam was pursuing Guang Fei, he invoked Hellhound, which sted an Explosive Fireballs in the same direction as Adam''s attacks.

    In its current form, Hellhound''s Explosive Fireballs were extremely powerful, and the entire area was instantly transformed into a sea of mes.

    All of a sudden, a ck shadow erupted out of the rubble before appearing in mid-air.

    This was the first time that Guang Fei had revealed himself to Adam.

    He was a humanoid ck swan that appeared to be quite blurry and insubstantial, as if he could disintegrate into a shadow at any moment.

    The animalization of one''s psychic body was amon trait seen in psychic mutants, and Adam had seen all types of examples of this, including Mole, Armadillo, Rabbit, Raven, and now, he was witnessing a new species, namely a ck swan.

    "I knew that fat pig''s information would be unreliable. You''re far more powerful than what he told me."

    Guang Fei was hovering in mid-air, looking very calm and collected.

    Adam and Hellhound didn''t give chase. He knew that the true battle had only just begun.

    Up to this point, Guang Fei had already disyed powers far superior to those of a level six anomaly, and at this level, one would attain the power of domains. Adam had very little experience battling adapters who possessed domains, so he was proceeding with a great deal of caution, choosing to adopt a defensive stance first.

    "It''s good to be cautious against an unfamiliar opponent, but it''s not going to be enough. You''re simply no match for me."

    Guang Fei spread his wings as he spoke, and those wings quickly swelled drastically in size. ck mist began to permeate through the air, and in the blink of an eye, his wingspan had increased from around two meters to a vast size that seemed to be epassing the entire heavens. The light of the moon waspletely blocked out, and the entire area had been cast into shadow.

    "So this is your domain..."

    Adam''s heart immediately sank as he assessed the area of Guang Fei''s domain.

    It was a domain that was even more vast than Wax Figure''s domain.

    One would be remiss to gauge the power of an opponent based purely on the size of their domain, but it was certainly true that Guang Fei was far more powerful than Adam had originally anticipated.

    "That''s right. It''s time for round two, boy!"

    Guang Fei''s body faded into the darkness as he spoke, and before Adam could do anything, Guang Fei had already appeared behind him, as if by instantaneous teleportation.

    Just like Distortion''s Shadow Strike ability, Guang Fei seemed to be able to instantly move anywhere at will as long as there was a shadow there.

    Before Adam was able to turn around with his cumbersome body, a shadow had already pierced through him.

    Guang Fei''s offensive prowess was extremely formidable, as evidenced by the fact that he was able to decapitate Sludge with a single strike even before the activation of his domain, and now, his attacks had be even more fearsome.

    Several shadows that were roughly the size of doors had plunged through his body, while countless feathers descended out of the sky, forming a set of chains that locked Hellhound into ce so that it was unable to assist Adam.

    "It''s a pity that I have to kill you here. I''ll admit that I wasn''t as powerful as you back at your age, but as you are now, you don''t have what it takes to oppose me or coborate with me."

    As Guang Fei was speaking, he moved around from behind Adam to in front of him.

    Guang Fei raised a hand to the heavens, and the shadows in the sky converged over his palm to form an enormous battle ax. He looked straight into Adam''s eyes as he swung the ax down from above.

    The head of the ax alone was over four meters in length, and it was almost able to ve Adam''s upper body cleanly in half.

    Furthermore, after burying itself into Adam''s body, the ax began to release a type of invasive energy that was constantly disrupting Adam''s self-regeneration.

    Under the effects of this type of corrosive energy, the stone material of Adam''s body began to soften, then disintegrated into ck sand that waspletely devoid of vitality.

    "Your defenses and regenerative abilities are both exceptional, but I''m sorry to tell you that I''ve faced opponents like yourself in the past, and I know that you''re not actually unkible."

 Chapter 380: Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 380: Illusion</h4>

    Even though Guang Fei was well and truly in the driver''s seat, he wasn''t in a hurry to kill Adam.

    Thanks to his past experience in fighting simr opponents, he knew that it would take some time before Adam met his demise.

    "Let me take a look at your memories..."

    While continuing to attack Adam, a shadow split off from Guang Fei''s body before flying to another psychic module.

    As soon as that shadow split off from Guang Fei''s body, Adam could feel the restrictive power around him grow a little weaker, but he still didn''t resist.

    He was waiting for an opportunity, waiting for Guang Fei''s clone to get further away.

    He still had many more cards to y, two of which could be considered to be trump cards.

    "Oh? I''m seeing some interesting stuff. You''ve experienced quite a lot on the outside, haven''t you?"

    Through its exploration of Adam''s psychic modules, Guang Fei''s clone quickly learned about his ties with the northern congress.

    "It seems like you''re implementing a very sound n."

    As Guang Fei continued to examine Adam''s memories, he fell into deep thought, and a momentter, he suggested, "How about we work together?"

    "What do you mean?" Adam asked.

    "My original mission is to kill you, and the mission was assigned to me by the chief warden. He promised me that he''ll release me if I can kill you. Of course, he ns to do so through illegal means, asking me to pose as a corpse to be transported out of the prison. However, to tell you the truth, I don''t really trust him."

    Guang Fei was being very candid with Adam here.

    Even though he was a top-tier adapter, he was nothing but a bird trapped in a cage here in Darvaza Prison without a neuron transmitter at his disposal. For all his powers in the psychic world, even a single bullet could kill him in the real world.

    "If you don''t trust him, then there''s no way you''d trust me."

    "Not necessarily. Compared with those high and mighty bastards who only see me as a pawn, I can be more useful to you. I don''t believe in promises. Instead, I believe in greed. Everyone''s actions are governed by their greed. In the eyes of that fat pig, my usefulness is limited, and he doesn''t know how to use me to my full potential.

    ¡°Hence, the best option for him is to go back on his promise and have me killed after I kill you. However, you''re different. You seem to be going through a lot of trouble on the outside, and you need a powerful ally."

    "Surely that''s not the only reason you want to work with me."

    "You''re right. The other reason is that the situation outside doesn''t seem to be going very well."

    Before the two of them had entered the psychic world, the Desert Gang had already found itself locked in a battle against the other three factions.

    Even though the Desert Gang had superior numbers and equipment, it was extremely unlikely that it would survive a collective attack from all three opposing factions. If Guang Fei were to kill Adam, there was a great likelihood that he would die before the conclusion of the power outage.

    After all, with all of the surveince cameras ceasing to function, no one on the outside could know what was happening in the prison, and the wardens would most likely wait until the next day before cleaning up the aftermath of the riot.

    At that point, it would be far toote for Guang Fei.

    "Of course, don''t get it twisted, I''m still the one calling the shots here." Guang Fei exerted greater force through his shadows as he spoke. "Your life is in my hands. Even if the Desert Gang loses, your friends won''t know who it was that killed you. Even if they find out, there''s no guarantee that they''ll be able to track me down.

    ¡°I am a master of concealment. In this dark environment that''s full of bodies, I''m willing to even crawl into the abdominal cavity of a body if it means I can survive. I suggest you have a long, hard think about my proposal. Working with me is the best option for you."

    "Perhaps you''re right," Adam said as he raised his head.

    "Good. I enjoy working with smart people. Now then, let''s discuss the details of our coboration... Hmm?"

    Right in the same instant that Guang Fei let his guard down, a strange anomaly suddenly appeared within his body.

    The anomaly had appeared directly inside him without any warning, as if it had been a part of his body all along.

    As soon as the anomaly emerged, it immediatelytched onto Guang Fei with all of the hooks all over its entire body. In his shadow form, Guang Fei normally wouldn''t have been easily bound by something like this, but as soon as he attempted to struggle against the anomaly, he felt his entire body and even his soul being shackled in an instant.

    After evolving to be a level six anomaly, Distortion''s powers had be even more formidable, and it was unleashing its Physical Shackles and Spiritual Shackles at the same time. Even an adapter of Guang Fei''s lofty caliber wasn''t able to struggle free from such a lethalbination in a short time.

    While he was bound by Distortion, another anomaly appeared, namely Horse Face.

    Horse Face''s emotional attacks were bound to be extremely effective, even against an insubstantial opponent like Guang Fei.

    As soon as Horse Face appeared, Adam wasted no time, immediately instructing it to unleash its most powerful attack, Lamenting Wall.

    Horse Face began to rapidly sweep his brush over the ground, and it didn''t take long before an extremely immersive doomsday-like scene had appeared over the entire ground of the prison.

    The entire sky was filled with the dazzling radiance of a nuclear explosion, while on the ground below was a city in ruins and countless people looking up with despair on their faces.

    This doomsday-like scene was something that had actually transpired in the real world, and it had been encapsted in one of the most renowned pieces of artwork in the entire world.

    The expressions of the people in the artwork were all extremely life-like and diverse, disying emotions like pain, horror, and urgency, but there were also some who seemed to be excited by the situation and were taking advantage of the chaos for their own benefit...

    Back when Adam had been on the receiving end of this attack, it had almost led to his downfall.

    Even as a level five anomaly, Horse Face''s emotional attacks had already been extremely formidable, and now that it was a level six anomaly, its Lamenting Wall had be several times more powerful than before.

    After the Lamenting Wall came into existence, everyone fell into the artwork. It was also at this moment that Guang Fei struggled free from Distortion and attempted to retaliate, but before he could do so, he saw the despairing faces of the countless people around him turn to him in unison.

    Their expressions instantly left a profound impression on his mind, and immediately thereafter, the despairing people began to screech with all their might.

    This screech was like the only sound that a human was capable of making in their final moments before their bodies werepletely obliterated in a nuclear explosion.

    Their collective voices carried powerful emotional fluctuations that swept directly toward Guang Fei, and even though he was far more powerful than the level six anomaly that Horse Face was, he was still unable to ward off the emotional attack, falling intoplete and utter despair.

    Guang Fei was struggling with all his might against the weight of his despair, but as soon as he lifted his arm, Camera instantly appeared before him, snapping its shutter down multiple times in rapid session to arrest the passage of time around him.

    After that came a ferocious barrage of attacks.

    Thanks to its tremendous offensive prowess, Camera was able to easily tear Guang Fei''s shadowy body into shreds with its scythe-like arms.

    At the same time, Adam invoked all of his most powerful anomalies to attack the shreds of Guang Fei''s body all at once.

    Hellhound''s Explosive Fireballs, Nun''s Fountain of Contamination, Mummy''s vicious knife strikes, Distortion''s distortive abilities...

    All of those attacks were directed at Guang Fei in unison, instantly inundating him from all directions.

    "Your offensive and concealment capabilities are all top-notch, but your defensive prowess is far moreckluster inparison. Perhaps you thought I was too far below you to pose a threat to you, or perhaps you''ve been locked up for too long and lost your edge. In any case, you let your guard down, and now, you''re paying the ultimate price."

    After the final shred of Guang Fei''s body was destroyed, Adam was no longer able to sense his aura.

    Hence, he was able to confirm that Guang Fei was dead, and he promptly departed from the psychic world.

    As soon as he did so, a familiar voice rang out beside him.

    "Looks like I made the right choice! You''re even more powerful than I imagined."

    Adam turned around, and was greeted by the sight of Guang Fei''s wizened face.

    Furthermore, instead of being in an empty cell, they were situated on the edge of the battlefield between the four factions, which meant that from the very first moment that he caught sight of Guang Fei...

    "You managed to hypnotize me?"

 Chapter 381: Investigators

    <h4>Chapter 381: Investigators</h4>

    How is this possible?

    At this point, Adam was an extremely advanced adapter, so it was virtually impossible for him to be hypnotized. Even an adapter of Hebi no Miko''s caliber wouldn''t have been able topletely hypnotize him like this.

    "Perhaps it''s not hypnotism..."

    Guang Fei''s words alerted Adam to the fact that there was perhaps another possibility. He turned to inspect the battle that was unfolding nearby, and he discovered that the state of the battle didn''t match up with his memories.

    At this point, the Desert Gang was alreadypletely on the back foot, which meant that some time had to have passed since he first arrived here. This meant that the psychic battle just now had actually taken ce, but at the same time, it also hadn''t actually transpired.

    This was a very perplexing situation for Adam.

    "I like to call what happened just now a tactical rehearsal. You can interpret it as a type of illusion. Illusions are far more advanced than hypnotism. A convincing psychic illusion not only has the ability to manifest things, it can also give you a sense of space and time, and the best illusions are always ones that sit on the border between illusion and reality."

    "Alright, you win."

    Adam willingly conceded his own defeat.

    He had beenpletely fooled by Guang Fei''s illusion, and in order to secure victory in that illusory battle, he was forced to reveal all of his trump cards. Now that Guang Fei was aware of the abilities of all of his anomalies, there was no way that Adam could beat him no matter how many times he tried.

    When it came to mastery over one''s psychic domain, Guang Fei was far superior to Adam.

    "In that case, do you agree to my prior offer of coboration? After tonight, you help me get out of prison, and I''ll help you achieve your objectives in exchange."

    "How can I trust you?"

    "You''ll have to take a gamble. I''m also doing the same thing." Guang Fei pointed at the battle taking ce in the distance, and during the course of their conversation, the Desert Gang had lost even more of its members. "I''m putting my life on the line here. If they win, you''ll be able to kill me at any time."

    No matter how powerful an adapter was, they were still susceptible to being overwhelmed by sheer numbers in prison.

    Even if he were to take Adam''s neuron transmitter, it would''ve still only taken a volley of crossbow bolts to put an end to his life.

    "Alright, let''s do it!"

    Adam finally made his decision. Guang Fei was a very suspicious character, but in order toplete his objectives, he had to take some risks.

    ¡­¡­

    As Adam and Guang Fei established their agreement, the battle was finally beginning to draw to a conclusion.

    Adam had killed around 100 Desert Gang members on his own, and the Desert Gang''s remaining forces were having to face three factions all at once, amounting to apletely hopeless endeavor.

    Right at this moment, a massive mutant from the Radiation Gang smashed a Desert Gang member''s head open using the deformed bone tes on his arm, and that turned out to be the straw that broke the camel''s back, with all of the remaining Desert Gang membersying down their weapons to surrender.

    They tried to beg for their lives, but to no avail.

    None of the other factions of the third area were willing to spare their lives.

    Resources in the prison were very limited, and the demise of the Desert Gang benefited everyone.

    "These bastards are trying to surrender! The Survival of the Fittest faction takes no prisoners!"

    In the eyes of the Survival of the Fittest faction members, surrender was never an option, and they immediately swarmed on the Desert Gang members who were trying to surrender before smashing their heads open.

    Steam was rising up from their warm brains and intracranial fluids, and some mutants from the Radiation Gang rushed onto the scene, devouring the grotesque feast while continuing to kill more Desert Gang members.

    In this moment, Darvaza Prison truly resembled the gates of hell.

    Adam swept his shlight across the area, and he was greeted by the sight of a hellish scene, apanied by blood-curdling screams and the nauseating sounds of skulls being shattered and flesh being consumed raw.

    In the past, Adam would''ve been extremely ufortable in such an environment, but having endured so much up to this point, he was already ustomed to seeing the worst that human nature had to offer.

    He no longer felt any difort in this hellish environment as he already belonged to the depths of hell himself.

    He was an obsessive psychic mutant, and there was no longer any going back for him.

    "Looks like it''s about to end soon."

    Guang Fei''s voice rang out beside Adam, and he had also picked up a shlight. At this moment, the beam from the shlight was resting on Charlie.

    Charlie was kneeling on the ground, and a de had already hacked his head open like a watermelon. He wasn''t dead yet, but that was only a matter of time.

    As Adam turned to Charlie, their eyes met, and there was aplex look in Charlie''s eyes.

    Before Adam had a chance to decipher what his expression entailed, someone charged over from afar and decapitated Charlie while yelling at the top of his lungs.

    It was aplete nobody who hadnded the final blow on Charlie, and following his decapitation, Charlie''s head was kicked away by another nobody.

    "Boss!"

    Amid the chaos, Adam spotted Mole and Armadillo. After verifying that they were rtively unscathed, he knew that they had sessfully weathered the storm.

    Everything hade to an end in the prison, and it was now up to those on the outside to take care of the rest.

    ¡­¡­

    The next day, before daybreak had even arrived, Cowboy received a mysterious message on hismunicator.

    After reading the message, he immediately contacted everyone from the northern congress to initiate an emergency meeting. A perfect opportunity had fallen onto theirps, and everyone used all of their influence and connections to contact arge number of reporters.

    As a result, the son had only just begun to rise, and countless journalists were already gathered in front of Darvaza Prison.

    "We''re screwed, Boss!" Seth Loo, the chief warden''s right-hand man, was in the chief warden''s office, and he pointed out the window as he said ina panicked voice, "There are tons of journalists outside, and all of them are from major publications like the Sandrise Times and the Tiger Television Station! What do we do?"

    "How the fuck am I supposed to know?"

    Emannuel was sweating profusely, and his bby rolls were quivering incessantly from anxiety. He was just a useless piece of trash who was never tasked with making any important decisions in the Hosman Family, so he had no idea how to deal with such a major crisis.

    Thankfully, right at this moment, hismunicator began to ring, and he immediately grabbed onto it like a life raft.

    "Father... Yes, there are a lot of them outside right now, what should I do?... Alright, I''ll send people to clean up the scene right away... Yes, they haven''te in yet... Yes, I''ll make sure they don''t get in..."

    "It''s toote!"

    While Emannuel was still speaking to his father, the door of his office was abruptly pushed open, and Cowboy strode in with a few others behind him.

    "How did you get in here? Who let you in?"

    Seth immediately strode forward to get in Cowboy''s way, but he was immediately stopped in his tracks as a piece of documentation was disyed to him.

    "The supervisorymittee has a right and duty to oversee the actions of all political personnel. Ever since its founding 30 years ago, this has been the ultimate right of the northern congress. We are protected byw to be here, and if anyone wants to break thew, they''re free to give it a try! Interfering with the work of the supervisorymittee is a serious offense!"

    With that stern warning from Cowboy, everyone trying to get in their way instantly stopped cold in their tracks.

    Having served as chief warden of Darvaza Prison for many years, Emannuel had developed some trusted subordinates, but most of them were just gluttonous fools like him, and none of them dared to challenge the authority of thew.

    Thus, Cowboy and the investigators quickly took over the prison''s facilities, opening the gates to allow the countless journalists outside to flood into the prison.

 Chapter 382: Overturning the Case

    <h4>Chapter 382: Overturning the Case</h4>

    Darvaza Prison... Gates of hell... Inter-faction riot...

    Any news stories rted to the aforementioned terms were sure to be hot topics of interest for the general public, and the media was deliberately highlighting the graphic and gory scenes left behind in the aftermath of the prison riot to further invoke a visceral reaction from the citizens of Sandrise City.

    Sex and violence had always been the hottest selling topics, and that was something that had remained true throughout history.

    From the moment that the Darvaza Prison incident was exposed by the media, the story immediately swept through the entirety of Sandrise City like wildfire, generating a tremendous amount of attention.

    Initially, everyone was more so focused on the news story itself, but it didn''t take long before some rabble-rousers restored all of the images that had been censored by the news outlets reporting on the story. As a result, it was revealed to the general public just how brutal and gruesome the prison riot had been.

    In the restored images, there were even many reporters depicted, throwing up or falling unconscious at the scene.

    On the day of the riot, the entire third area of Darvaza Prison had been transformed into hell on earth, with dismembered limbs, eyeballs, intracranial fluids, and blood sttered all over the walls and the ground.

    Many young people were spreading these pieces of media far and wide, and there was even a "dare" element involved, with people from all walks of life suppressing their visceral reactions to the images and footage in order to satisfy their curiosity and prove their courage.

    Following the initial reaction of shock and disgust, a question arose in the minds of many: how had Darvaza Prison been plunged into such an extreme degree of chaos?

    Inter-faction riots in prisons were amon sight. Even in normal prisons, it wasn''t all that rare to see brawls, or even the asional homicide, taking ce, let alone in a prison like Darvaza Prison.

    Prisons had always been cut-throat and unruly ces, ever since the inception of the institution.

    However, during the past century, particrly in the past few decades in whichrge strides had been made in AI technology,rge-scale riots resulting in excessive loss of life had be exceedingly rare.

    After all, with machines overseeing all of the prisons, human inmates were forced to conform and obey the rules.

    No matter how adept a fighter an inmate was, there was no way they could oppose Mechguard units with their bodies of flesh and blood.

    Hence, most of the homicides that had taken ce in prisons in the past few decades had resulted from assassinations or small-scale riots. As soon as Mechguard units or wardens arrived on the scene, the riot would quickly be quelled, sorge-scale riots rarely ever happened in the prison system in this day and age.

    The only situation in which arge-scale riot like this could possibly arise would be if the Mechguard units were absent, or there was a power outage.

    Soon, everyone was beginning to consider the very real possibility that there had been foul y involved in the incident, and many of the news outlets controlled by the northern congress were also leading people to question the nature of the power outage that had taken ce on the day of the riot.

    Most of the machines in Darvaza Prison were mechanical arms, and these mechanical arms were capable of performing all types of tasks, such as cooking, transporting objects, and subduing inmates when required.

    Due to the special nature of prison establishments, there was always a backup power supply, which meant that even in cases of emergency power outages, the prison would never be in a state of power outage for very long.

    What were the chances of two regrly maintained power supplies failing together at the exact same time?

    This soon became a question on everyone''s mind, and through some research, it was found that the chances of a power supply suddenly failing were around 0.3%, which meant that a power outage would ur roughly once every year on average.

    As for backup power supplies, they were rarely required and were maintained alongside the main power supplies, so the probability of them spontaneously failing were even lower.

    Hence, it was found that the chances of both power supplies experiencing spontaneous failure at once were lower than 0.001%.

    Could this really have been just a coincidence?

    Perhaps one could argue that this was the case, but what was revealed next was even more suspicious.

    Even in the case of a power outage, all of the humanoid Mechguard units ran on battery power, so they would''ve been able to easily quell the unrest. However, on the day of the riot, not only had all of the Mechguard units been directed away from the third area, the wardens just so happened to be switching shifts, and the incident wasn''t immediately reported to anyone on the outside.

    With all of these signsing together, it was clear that there was a major conspiracy afoot.

    Now that it had been all but confirmed that this was a conspiracy, the next logical question would be to ask exactly who this conspiracy was targeting.

    Darvaza Prison was filled with the most heinous criminals, all of whom were serving sentences in excess of 100 years without the possibility of parole, so there was no chance that they would''ve ever seen the light of day.

    Hence, there wasn''t much point in going out of one''s way to target any of the inmates, considering they were just going to rot in prison anyway.

    Hence, everyone was left feeling quite perplexed, unable to understand what this conspiracy was all about. Right as it seemed as if the trail were about to run cold, Shivani suddenly released another bombshell story to her massive number of fans on her independent news program.

    "Cannibal or Victim?"

    Just the title alone was enough to tell everyone what the news story was going to be about.

    Everyone was aware that Shivani had a coborative partner.

    With the constant influx of new content, no news story was able to remain in the public consciousness for very long on the inte, but the story concerning the heroic police officer that had been exposed as a cannibal had only been recently released, so it was still a rtively fresh and relevant topic.

    Most importantly, prior to being exposed as a cannibal, the police officer in question, Adam, had been an extremely renowned inte celebrity for quite some time.

    The Shadow City incident, the southern congress falsified footage controversy, and the subsequent news stories that Shivani had released in coboration with Adam had all propelled him on a meteoric rise to superstardom.

    In particr, after bing a special psychic police officer, Adam had captured many demented killers who had been hiding in in sight, posing as normal, everyday members of the general public, and through these stories, Adam had always been able to maintain his relevance.

    Hence, when it was exposed that he was a cannibal, the story had instantly sparked widespread heated debate on the inte, with most people falling into one of two camps.

    Some proimed that Adam had to be a heinous criminal himself to understand the minds of other twisted criminals, while others refused to believe that Adam would be the type of person to do something like this.

    In this recent news story released by Shivani, it was revealed that Adam had been carrying out an investigation in a cannibal club.

    Throughout this entire process, Adam had strictly followed proper protocol as a special psychic police officer, and the new footage released by Shivani alongside the story debunked all of the pieces of evidence used to incriminate Adam, making it clear that he was simply investigating the club, rather than attending the event as a member of the club.

    This was another bombshell that had been dropped very close to the prison riot news story, and people soon began connecting the dots.

    Given the precedent set by the southern congress falsified footage controversy, this wasn''t the first time that Adam had been framed, and public opinion was quickly turned as everyone came to the conclusion that Adam had been framed once again.

    Furthermore, not only had the southern congress thrown him into prison, they had even tried to kill him so that he wouldn''t be able to overturn the case!

 Chapter 383: Mayor

    <h4>Chapter 383: Mayor</h4>

    "You imbecile!"

    In a hilltop mansion in Area 69, a portly figure was pped to the ground by a man with a mechanical arm.

    The portly figure was none other than the chief warden of Darvaza Prison, Emmanuel Hosman.

    In the prison, he ruled with absolute authority, doing whatever he pleased, yet at this moment, he was curled up into a ball on the ground, and not only did he not even dare to think about retaliation, he was so scared that he was trembling incessantly.

    "How did you manage to screw up something so simple? I can''t believe I have such a useless piece of trash for a son!"

    Standing before Emmanuel was his father, Kerry Hosman. Kerry was a man in his sixties, and he was glowering at Emmanuel with his lips quivering with fury.

    Emmanuel was putting on a docile demeanor to appease his father while defending himself.

    "Please don''t be mad at me, Father. The recement date for your heart isn''t far away, so you need to take it easy. I did everything you told me to do, this was most likely a trap set by the northern congress..."

    "Most likely a trap? Even an imbecile would be able to tell that they nned this well in advance! I understand that you didn''t have enough time to clean up the scene before the media arrived, but how did you also fail to have Adam killed? If he''s dead, everything would be fine, but now that he''s still alive, the northern congress is definitely going to use him to make a big deal out of the situation!"

    Kerry was bing more and more furious by the second, and he picked up a nearby penholder before hurling it at his son.

    The penholder bounced off Emmanuel''s bby rolls, then ttered onto the ground before rolling to the doorframe.

    Right at this moment, the door was opened, and two people strode into the room.

    "Who let you in?"

    Neither the security guards nor the surveince cameras on the property had alerted Kerry to the arrival of any guests, so he was caughtpletely off guard by this sudden intrusion.

    However, as soon as he raised his head and caught sight of the two figures who had just entered the room, his surprise and confusion instantly turned to fear.

    "Take it easy, Kerry. You''re not a young man anymore."

    The duo that had just entered the room consisted of a man and a woman. The man had a short and thin build, while the woman had a set of gentle features and a head of green hair that resembled the color of vibrant leaves.

    "Mr. One, Madam Tree, to what do I owe this honor?"

    The anger in Kerry''s eyes had instantly faded at the sight of the two visitors, but the fear on his face was still very apparent.

    "We''vee here to mop up this mess, of course. The damage has already been done, and our job is to limit the consequences as much as possible." Mr. One smiled as he turned to Madam Tree before making a polite gesture. "I''ll leave the rest to you, Madam Tree."

    Madam Tree nodded in response, and she made her way over to Emmanuel, then looked into his eyes as she said in a gentle voice, "Don''t be afraid, this won''t hurt at all."

    "No! Don''t touch me! Father, save me!"

    Emmanuel didn''t know what was going to happen next, but he still instinctively struggled as he yelled at the top of his lungs. He wanted to get up and run away, but for some reason, he waspletely unable to move, as if he had been sedated.

    Immediately thereafter, a burst of green light appeared in Madam Tree''s eyes, and Emmanuel let loose one final scream before abruptly falling silent.

    The exceptional soundproofing in the mansion ensured that no one outside heard the final scream let loose by Emmanuel''s independent persona.

    ¡­¡­

    It didn''t take long before Adam''s case entered a retrial.

    Due to the concrete evidence presented and the immense scrutiny and attention ced on the case, the trial progressed very quickly. Before long, Adam and the others had all been acquitted of their crimes.

    During the trial, the prison riot incident was naturally brought up.

    The oue of that investigation was that the riot had taken ce due to ipetence from prison management, and due to the fact that there was no footage of the riot, any killingsmitted by Adam and the others could only be adjudged as justified self-defense.

    Furthermore, Adam didn''t have ties with any of the prison''s factions, so it was even easier to acquit him of all wrongdoing.

    However, during the trial, there was one thing in particr that Adam had found to be rather strange.

    He saw Emmanuel once in court, and thetter had put on a very angry disy. Furthermore, he hadn''t disyed any fear in the face of the judge, and that waspletely out of character for someone as cowardly as him.

    However, that was hardly a matter of any importance.

    On the day of his release, Adam thought that some familiar faces would arrive to pick him up.

    However, that didn''t turn out to be the case. As he made his way out of the court building, he was greeted by the sight of a sea of reporters, as well as some protestors and independent content creators trying to capitalize on the ongoing story.

    After taking a deep breath and instructing Mole and the others not to say anything, Adam strode toward the crowd with a righteous expression.

    At this point, Adam had alreadypletely understood the rules by which society operated, and he knew that he was going to have to face many more scenarios like this in the future.

    In the instant that he emerged from the courthouse, countless microphones were thrust toward him from outside of the cordon set up by Mechguard, and the microphones were apanied by countless questions.

    "Mr. Adam, what are your thoughts on the southern congress political conspiracy that''s been spreading on the inte ofte?"

    "Mr. Adam, were you involved in any violent activity or killing on the day of the prison riot?"

    "Did you prepare the evidence used to overturn the cannibal club case in advance?"

    "Why didn''t you present the evidence during the initial trial?"

    "Will you continue to serve as a special psychic police officer?"

    "The trial for the prison riot case is still ongoing. Aside from Emmanuel, who else do you think is involved? Perhaps the southern congress or the Hosman Family?"

    "..."

    "I will answer everyone''s questions, but I can only answer one at a time. You''re from the Sandrise Times, right? What was your question just now?"

    "My question is, will you continue to serve as a special psychic police officer following your release?"

    "I will continue to perform my duties as a special psychic police officer. Law and order appear to be well-maintained in Sandrise City, but there is still a lot of filth lurking just beneath the surface. There are far too many heinous crimes beingmitted in ces where Mechguard is unable to reach.

    ¡°Up to this point, I have only revealed the tip of the iceberg, and for the sake of Sandrise City, I will continue to serve as a special psychic police officer. I can also reveal here that this will not be my only n for the future..."

    Adam paused momentarily here, and in order to be able to hear what he was saying, all of the journalists had also fallen silent.

    "During my time as a special psychic police officer, I''ve discovered that there are not just independent cases of heinous criminals waiting to be uncovered. Instead, there is organized crime that encroaches upon the rights of everyone taking ce right under our noses.

    ¡°Does everyone still remember the initial controversy I was embroiled in, the one regarding the Carlin Asylum incident? As all of you are aware at this point, there''s a very good chance that the psychic mutants of Carlin Asylum hadn''t escaped on their own.

    ¡°After that came a series of cases, including the Shadow City incident, that ced me in direct conflict with many powerful organizations, and I was incarcerated on multiple asions as a result. Hence, not only will I continue to serve as a special psychic police officer, I hereby dere that I will enter the running for the next Sandrise City mayoral election!"

    Adam''s voice was calm yet determined as he made this deration.

 Chapter 384: Mayoral Election Procedure

    <h4>Chapter 384: Mayoral Election Procedure</h4>

    "Is it really a good idea to be announcing your intentions to run for mayor so early?"

    In the gamepany owned by Cowboy, Adam was seated in Cowboy''s chair, while Cowboy was standing beside him with his brows slightly furrowed.

    "Why isn''t it a good idea? I''m going to do it anyway, so why not make the deration while the incident is still at the height of its relevance?"

    What Adam was refraining from telling Cowboy was that he didn''t have much time left, so he had to do everything as quickly as possible.

    "I guess that''s true. Right now, everyone is talking about you. Do you even know the procedure required to run for the Sandrise City mayoral election?"

    "No, please enlighten me."

    "The first thing that you have to know is that the mayor of Sandrise City isn''t actually just a mayor. Do you understand what I mean?"

    "Can you borate?"

    "There are only three metropolises on the entire continent of North America. Due to the residual radiation from World War III, many ces arepletely barren and arid, and over 80% of the North American poption is focused in these three metropolises. This is both to grant more convenience in terms of resource allocation and a phenomenon that''s born out of necessity due to all of the uninhabitable areas of the continent."

    "I''m aware of all of that."

    "As a result, the poption of each metropolis could exceed that of an entire nation in the past. For example, Sandrise City has a higher poption than Canada from 30 years ago."

    Adam nodded in response.

    "Hence, the mayor of Sandrise City is referred to as a mayor, but in reality, the power and influence of Sandrise City''s mayor isparable to those of the presidents of the past."

    "That is indeed an enormous amount of power, and that''s exactly what I need. Tell me about the specific procedure required to run for mayor."

    "The process shares some simrities with the presidential elections from a few decades ago, but there are also some differences. I''ll start from the first step. Firstly, you need to be eligible to be a candidate for the Sandrise City mayoral election, and eligibility is usually acquired through the submission of an application, followed by a vote from the general public."

    "Can anyone run for mayor?"

    "Theoretically, yes, but in practice, it''s not so easy to acquire eligibility. You need to possess an enormous amount of influence, wealth, and the backing of one of the congresses."

    "Why is that?"

    "A huge amount of wealth is required in order for someone to maintain influence and relevance over an extended period of time. Of course, you''re very much a relevant figure in the eyes of the general public at the moment, but you have to keep in mind that the mayoral election will run for several months, and you need to be able to maintain your relevance throughout that entire duration.

    ¡°In order to do that, you need to have an actual political agenda, and it needs to be one that appeals to the majority of voters if you want to be elected."

    Cowboy paused here momentarily, then continued, "Your political agenda must represent the people, as well as an area that''s relevant to one of the two congresses. Only then will you be promoted and receive political donations.

    ¡°For example, our northern congress represents traditional industries, mechanical production, military manufacturing, vessel transportation, construction of infrastructure, etc."

    "What about the southern congress?"

    "They represent cutting-edge technology, pharmaceuticals, inte technology, artificial intelligence..."

    "I see, so I have to earn the support of the leading figures in the industries under the northern congress, but what does that have to do with the general public? How do they hold any sway in those industries?"

    "They don''t," Cowboy replied in a forthright manner. ¡°However, they''ll factor into the equationter. Your campaign slogan, political agenda, and true objective could be threepletely different things. For example, after you''re elected as mayor, you can choose to support the military manufacturing industry, whereas your campaign slogan could state that you''re working to ensure safety in Sandrise City and fight against crime.

    ¡°These two things have nothing to do with each other, but you can fabricate a connection between them. For example, you can say that the crime rate in Sandrise City has been on the rise, so more Mechguard units are required to maintainw and order, thereby giving you an excuse to inject more funds into the military manufacturing industry.

    ¡°In doing so, not only will you be able to fulfill your political promise, you''ll also be able to satisfy your true objective. Of course, that''s only something for you to think about further down the line. After securing eligibility, the next step would be to approach the upper ss of Sandrise City to obtain political donations.

    ¡°After that, you use the donated funds to initiate an advertisement campaign, hold speeches, organize political debates with yourpetitors, hold press conferences... Of course, ultimately, your objective is to secure as many votes as possible so you can be elected as mayor.¡±

    "Generally speaking, how many people end up securing eligibility?"

    "It''s usually eight people, four each from the two congresses."

    "I see. On the surface, it looks like the two congresses are quite evenly matched, but ording to my knowledge, the past two mayors of Sandrise City have both been from the southern congress."

    "That''s right. Back when World War III first concluded, the northern congress was able to hold its own, albeit with some difficulty, but recently, the northern congress has been on a steady decline," Cowboy conceded. "Due to the constant advancements in the Metaverse and AI technology and the decline of traditional industries, the southern congress has be more and more powerful and influential."

    "It sounds like my chances of being elected as mayor are quite slim."

    "Not necessarily. Recently, the Metaverse has been putting too much strain on thebor force, and many citizens of the city have been expressing their displeasure. They''re not idiots, they know who the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes are.

    ¡°All we have to do is capitalize on this unrest and dissatisfaction, and you have some chances. Of course, I advise against doing this in the initial phase of your campaign. In the early stages, it''s best to take a safer and more conservative approach."

    "Alright. Would you be able to help me with this?"

    "I''ll definitely lend you a hand in this process. I''ll help you assemble a campaign team and secure the support of as many people from the northern congress as possible. However, at the same time, I''m a businessman, not a phnthropist. If you really are elected as the mayor of Sandrise City someday, then I want to be granted more power and a position in your staff team."

    "That sounds like a very reasonable request."

    Adam extended a hand toward Cowboy as he spoke, and Cowboy smiled as he epted Adam''s handshake offer.

    ¡­¡­

    It didn''t take long before a new candidate appeared on the election website.

    The candidate had an avatar of Adam, and clicking the avatar or entering the connected Metaverse sector would allow one to see all of his information, which mostly consisted pieces of footage depicting his heroic deeds, such as his battles against heinous criminals in the psychic world, his showdown against the psychic anomaly at Mirror Lake Primary School, and his detainment of demented serial murderers.

    After being framed and acquitted on multiple asions, Adam had developed quite a positive image in the eyes of the general public. In addition to that, he was still a household name, so his candidacy application quickly received arge number of votes.

    It didn''t take long before he reached the top eight among all of the applicants, and all he would have to do was hold onto this position for a while to secure candidacy eligibility.

    Once that happened, all he required would be the backing of the northern congress, and he would be able to officially enter the running for the mayoral election.

    On this day, two special guests arrived at the veterinarian hospital before anyone from the northern congress had even paid Adam a visit. These two people weren''t particrly renowned, but they were extremely feared among wealthy tycoons and powerful politicians.

    "Who are you?"

    In the instant that Adam caught sight of the duo, he was immediately struck by a sense of difort, as if he were a rabbit under the cold gaze of a hunting eagle.

    This was a sensation that he had only ever felt in the presence of Hebi no Miko.

    One of the two visitors was a man, and he replied, "Who we are isn''t important. In the outside world, they call me Mr. One, and she is referred to as Madam Tree."

 Chapter 385: Choice

    <h4>Chapter 385: Choice</h4>

    Adam unconsciously took a half-step backward upon hearing this, and he was stunned by what he had just heard.

    He didn''t know who Mr. One was, but Madam Tree was someone that had left a deep impression on him.

    Even though he had only seen Madam Tree in the memories of Liu Shouyi, he had always regarded her as someone who stood at the very pinnacle of the adapter pyramid, alongside the likes of Hebi no Miko and the director.

    In Adam''s eyes, she was someone who transcended beyond even May, Wax Figure, and Sadou.

    As Adam had be more powerful over time, he had developed a more detailed ssification of top-tier adapters.

    Madam Tree was an adapter of the same caliber as Hebi no Miko, but in contrast with Hebi no Miko, who was a deranged maniac that waspletely unable to control her own emotions, Madam Tree was clearly going to be far more troublesome to deal with.

    Madam Tree alone was already too much for Adam to handle, and this Mr. One seemed to be even more mysterious.

    "What do you do?"

    Even though Adam was feeling very shaken by this sudden visit, he was still able to maintain a calm fa?ade, pretending as if he had no idea who these two people were.

    "I am the chairman of the southern congress''s shadow council, and Madam Tree is the chief psychotherapist of the Gaia Corporation."

    Even though Adam had already deduced that Mr. One had to be quite an important figure, he was still caught off guard by just how lofty a position he held.

    ording to Adam''s understanding of the southern congress, the so-called congress system was nothing more than a fa?ade to cate the general public.

    On the surface, the congresses were formed by elite politicians and representatives from different fields, but in reality, the shadow councils were the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes.

    As far as the general public was concerned, the shadow councils were only responsible for overseeing affairs rted to border defense, but that was far from the truth.

    As such, it was no exaggeration to say that the chairman of the shadow council, particrly that of the southern congress, was one of the most powerful figures on the entire continent, even the entire world, and at this very moment, this incredibly powerful figure was standing right before Adam.

    "Why are you here? Have youe here to kill me?"

    Adam was already prepared for battle.

    "No, I''m just here to see you. Killingpetitors is something that only third-rate politicians would stoop to. I''ve already given them a stern-talking to for what they tried to do to you, it''s simply not in the spirit of our southern congress," Mr. One replied with a smile. "Smallpanies focus onpetition, whilergepanies acquire potentialpetitors.

    ¡°A worthy opponent could also be a great ally. Prior toing here, I''ve done some research into you, and I''ve learned about your past. I know what you want, and I can help you get there in a single step."

    "You know about my past?"

    "I do. It wasn''t all that difficult for me to find out. Not only do I know which factory you were born in, I''m also aware of the identities of the manager of the factory and the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes. It just so happens to be the case that I don''t share any close ties with them, so if you choose to join me, I can reveal all of their identities to you."

    "All of them?"

    "That''s right, all of them. I can give you the names of everyone involved in the operation of the adapter factory and allow you to do with them as you please. Not only will you be unable to uncover your own past, you''ll be able to exact your revenge as well."

    Mr. One exuded an air of absolute confidence, as if the entire world and everyone in it were held within his grasp, and Adam was struck by an instinctive sense of inferiority in his presence.

    He looked straight into Adam''s eyes as he continued, "Everyone has a price that they''re willing to settle for. Money and reputation aren''t worth anything to you, but uncovering your own past and exacting revenge are objectives of the utmost importance to you, isn''t that right?"

    Adam fell silent upon hearing this.

    Indeed, as someone who had been working obsessively toward those two objectives ever since he first awakened, this was an offer that was almost impossible for him to refuse.

    This was what he had been striving for all along, and now, it was being tantalizingly offered to him on a silver tter.

    If he were to turn down the offer, not only was there a chance that he would be killed on the spot, it was extremely unlikely that he would be able toplete those two objectives through his own power.

    It was still yet to be seen whether he could secure the position of mayor Sandrise City, and even if he could, there were still countless obstacles standing in his way. Given his limited lifespan, his chances of sessfullypleting his objectives before he met his demise were extremely slim. If he couldn''t achieve his goals before his time ran out, then all of his prior efforts up to the point of his death would''ve been for naught.

    "Can you give me some time to think about it?"

    Adam was very much tempted by the offer, but this was not a decision to be taken lightly.

    However, Mr. One clearly wasn''t a very patient person.

    "My time is very precious, I don''t wait for anyone. If you''re going to make a decision, then it has to be now."

    Mr. One took a nce at the entrance of the veterinarian hospital as he was speaking. The entrance was very far away, and there were obstacles in between, but he could sense through his telegnosis that three more visitors had arrived outside, two of whom were Cowboy and Wax Figure.

    Standing between them was a very tall man with a thin and shriveled body, but a massive bone structure. What was most remarkable about him were his eyes, which were as sharp as des, and all of the people that he passed by unconsciously averted their gaze away from him.

    Upon arriving at the entrance of the veterinarian hospital, the man stopped in his tracks.

    "Our old friends have arrived before us."

    "Who... Ah, so it''s them."

    As soon as he sensed the presence of the duo inside, Wax Figure¡¯s brows immediately furrowed slightly, and he wanted to speed up and make his way into the veterinarian hospital, only to be stopped by the tall figure beside him.

    "Hold on a second."

    "Why? That bastard definitely hasn''te here with good intentions. Given his theory of acquisition, Adam is most likely facing a very difficult decision right now..."

    "That''s exactly what I''m banking on," the tall man said in an expressionless manner as he assessed the situation unfolding in the veterinary hospital. "If he makes the cowardly choice, then there''s no point in supporting him. The mayor of Sandrise City is someone that wields an enormous amount of power, we can''t just allow anyone to im that position."

    The tall man fell silent here, and Cowboy and Wax Figure could see that he had made his decision, so they didn''t say anything further, either.

    However, the two of them were clearly far more agitated than the tall man.

    They knew Mr. One very well, and the same applied to Adam.

    Mr. One was always able to propose irresistible offers, and due to Adam''s circumstances, there were certain offers that were impossible for him to turn down.

    Cowboy could roughly guess what was happening inside, and he knew that if he were in Adam''s shoes, even if he were faced with this choice 10,000 times, he would fold every single time.

    On the surface, a choice was being presented to Adam, but it seemed that there was only one option that he could choose.

    It''s over...

    Cowboy heaved a faint sigh, and he had already given up on Adam.

    Meanwhile, after a brief silence, Adam finally made his decision.

    "I choose to pursue the truth on my own." After a brief internal conflict, a resolute look returned to Adam''s eyes, and he looked fearlessly directly into Mr. One''s eyes as he dered, "Everyone who yed a part in the deaths of my friends must pay the price, and that includes you."

 Chapter 386: Decision

    <h4>Chapter 386: Decision</h4>

    Not only was Mr. One not infuriated by Adam''s provocation, he erupted into raucousughter, and hisughter was tinged with hints of surprise, admiration, and also mockery, much like the reaction one would expect from a hawk at the sight of a rabbit that dared to rush directly at it.

    "Interesting! You''re a very interesting guy. Let''s go."

    Mr. One patted Madam Tree on the shoulder, then turned to depart. As soon as he made it to the entrance of the room, he bumped into Cowboy and the others making their way in from outside.

    "Long time no see, Commander," Mr. One greeted as he extended a slight bow toward the tall man, but he ignored Wax Figure and Cowboy.

    Mr. One''s height only reached around Commander''s midriff, but there wasn''t any disparagement in Commander''s eyes, and he replied, "Long time no see, Mr. One. It''s certainly not every day that I get to see you fail. This is a very rare asion, indeed."

    "You''ve unearthed an interesting little gem."

    "He''s not someone that I unearthed. He is his own person, and he has his own goals. Congrattions, you''ve passed the test!"

    That final sentence from Commander was directed at Adam.

    "Thank you. I feel much better now that I''ve gotten all of that off my chest," Adam replied with a smile.

    He was under immense psychological pressure in Mr. One''s presence.

    Part of this stemmed from Mr. One''s innate psychic pressure. All top-tier adapters possessed tremendous psychic pressure, and it was something that truly existed, but was also intangible and impossible to describe, just like the auras that certain powerful figures exuded.

    However, that was only a minor contributing factor. The main thing that Adam was fearful of was the very real threat to his safety.

    He knew that an adapter of Mr. One''s caliber would be able to easily see through his lies, so there was no point in lying to someone like him. However, at the same time, Adam was afraid that Mr. One would kill him if he were to give him a dissatisfactory answer.

    Even so, he still had to remain true to himself.

    In the instant that he overcame the enormous pressure on his shoulders, he felt himself undergo a psychic evolution. This was the first time that he had felt something like this so clearly. Right as he made his decision, his sense became unprecedentedly sharp, and his psychic power was very clearly elevated.

    He was convinced that he had be more powerful in that instant.

    So this is what it means to strengthen one''s psyche...

    The techniques taught in Layton Academy were only the most basic of psychic training techniques. True psychic evolution could only transpire during trials by fire. Remaining resolute and true to oneself even in the face of tremendous pressure or immense temptation could make one incredibly powerful, and the effects of this were even more pronounced than that of the battles of life and death that Adam had endured.

    "I''m leaving now. You made your choice, so you have to bear the consequences."

    After those parting words, Mr. One departed with Madam Tree, leaving the trio from the northern congress behind.

    Adam had never met Commander before, but he already knew who it was without requiring an introduction.

    "I believe this is our first official meeting, Commander."

    "Indeed, and I certainly don''t regret making this trip."

    Commander made his way over to Adam, then sat down onto the sofa. Now that he had sat down, his remarkably tall frame wasn''t so jarring anymore.

    After taking a seat, he remarked, "No matter what offer you just refused from him, you made the right choice."

    "How so?"

    Adam had only turned down Mr. One''s offer because he didn''t want to bend to the will of someone indirectly responsible for the deaths of his friends, and he certainly wasn''t convinced that he had definitely made the right choice.

    "Because that man''s forte is making others submit to him. After you''ve bowed your head to him once, you''ll never be able to raise it again when facing him. Also, if you had made the decision to concede to him, then you would''ve permanently lost your chance to be a top-tier adapter.

    ¡°When ites to adapters at the very top of the pyramid, regardless of whether they be nutjobs like Hebi no Miko or psychic modifiers or psychic modifiers like Madam Tree, they''re not people who can be tamed or bought. I chose not toe in and intervene because I was waiting for you to make your decision. I know it was a very difficult decision, but I must congratte you on making the right choice."

    Commander was full of praise for Adam as he continued, "You''re a high-level adapter, so I''m sure you understand what I''m saying. As for the offer that he raised to you..."

    "He said that he can help me uncover the truth about my past and provide me with information on all of the people on that production line. Can he really do that?"

    "I assume so," Commander replied with a nod. "In order to keep you on the end of his line, he has to always be able to follow through on his promises. Otherwise, his hold over you will gradually disappear. Prior toing here, I looked into your past as well, and I''m not surprised that he was willing to sacrifice that production line for you. He has many simr production lines, so he can easily afford to sacrifice one, and he can rece it at any time."

    "Do you know about that factory as well?"

    "I only know some rough details. This is a matter rted to the southern congress, so I don''t have ess to all of the insider information. If you want to find out everything, then you''ll have to uncover the truth yourself. Of course, our northern congress is willing to provide you with assistance.

    ¡°I came here today to confirm some matters rted to candidate eligibility with you. Our northern congress will can provide you with eligibility, but I need to be sure that you''ve made up your mind on participating in the election."

    "I''ve made up my mind."

    "Good. In that case, we''ll provide you with the assistance that you need." In contrast with Mr. One, Commander did things in a very simple and straightforward manner, and he pulled out a few old paper business cards as he spoke, then tossed them at Adam. "There are a few people in here that you need to see.

    ¡°Some of them can provide you with the funds required for your political campaign, while the others are responsible for our northern congress''s media-rted affairs."

    Adam epted the business cards, and just a casual nce was enough to reveal to him that the names on these business cards all belonged to very important people.

    These were business cards being provided by Commander himself, so at the very worst, they had to have at least been leading figures in certain industries.

    "Sandsea Energy and Orto Technologies are the most important corporations for you to win over. One of them is thergest energypany in North America, while the other is thergest weapons manufacturer in Sandrise City. Of course, given your affiliation with our northern congress, they''ll be willing to provide you with their assistance, but as for exactly how much support you can garner from them, that''ll be up to you.

    ¡°These people are all self-proimed value investors, so in order to earn more of their support, you''ll have to increase your own value first. Now then, let''s move on to the second order of business..."

    Commander took a nce at Cowboy, and thetter immediately pulled out a palm-sized projection device, casting a holographic projection into the room.

    The projection depicted a crime scene, and at the scene were clear signs of technology being destroyed, but other than that, the destruction was quite minimal.

    However, every single person in the image was dead with no exceptions.

    Judging from the victim''s living conditions, they had to have been either a politician or a very wealthy individual. The room was wide and spacious withvish d¨¦cor, and the victims were all wearing attire of different degrees of formality, but even for those who were only wearing a bathrobe, it was clear that their attire had to have been very expensive and well-made.

    "This is material that''s yet to be disclosed to the public by the police. The deceased victims include politicians, sports stars, and managers of inte-basedpanies. All of them died recently, and even though their deaths still haven''t been announced yet, it won''t be a secret for much longer.

    ¡°The adapter killer that''s popped up recently has been growing more and more brazen. Not only have the killings been increasing in number, the victims are also bing more and more high profile. This is an opportunity for you. If you can get to the bottom of this case, you''ll be winning a lot of votes for yourself."

 Chapter 387: Helper

    <h4>Chapter 387: Helper</h4>

    The first part of the material was some footage, and after that came some professional analysis in text form.

    After reading through the analysis, Adam immediately came to the conclusion that this was not a simple case.

    "I''m going to assume that these people aren''t that easy to kill, right? Aside from normal bodyguards, these people should also be apanied by adapter bodyguards, right?"

    "That''s right. The area that they live in is one where assassinations are very difficult to carry out, and not only are these people retrofitted with cutting-edge prosthetic limbs, they''re protected by very powerful adapters as well." Commander pointed at one of the people in the image as he introduced. "This man was a congressman of the southern congress, a director in Area 30. ording to my knowledge, he was also a Lamp Keeper of the Guild of Immortality."

    Adam''s expression changed ever so slightly upon hearing mention of the term "Guild of Immortality", and it was only a very subtle shift, but it failed to escape Commander''s perceptive gaze.

    "I know everything that you know, and I know some things that you''re unaware of as well. Rest assured, our northern congress doesn''t have very close ties with the Guild of Immortality. In fact, we stood in opposition to the Guild of Immortality 30 years ago." Commander offered no further boration on this subject, switching topics instead as he continued, "All Lamp Keepers possess exceptional psychicbat prowess and are very perceptive to danger.

    ¡°At the very least, they''re superior in those regards to most adapters. The fact that they were still killed so easily indicates that we''re dealing with a very formidable group of killers."

    Commander''s voice trailed off here, and Adam could tell that this was a precautionary warning.

    Adapters capable of killing Lamp Keepers had to be among the cream of the crop in the world of psychic hitmen. After all, even Oni no Hanzou would''ve struggled to aplish such a feat.

    "What I''m curious about is how such arge group of adapters of such a high caliber have suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. This doesn''t make sense. Top-tier adapters are very rare, and even if there are some who have gone into hiding, surely they can''t have all be hitmen at once. Do you have any leads on this matter?"

    Upon hearing this question, Adam''s mind immediately jumped to Raven.

    Top-tier adapters were indeed extremely rare, but there were countless deranged individuals in this oppressive city.

    They didn''t possess adapter abilities, but they harbored extremely formidable anomalies.

    If someone could extract those anomalic personas before uploading them into the body of adapters, then they would be able to create top-tier hitmen, but this was something that even the Guild of Immortality was incapable of.

    There was only a single person capable of doing this, and that person was more familiar with anomalies than anyone else in this world. That person was the director.

    "You seem to know something."

    Commander was very perceptive, and he was able to sense something despite Adam''s expressionless fa?ade.

    "I know very little on this matter, and I can''t be certain if my theories are correct," Adam replied in an ambiguous manner.

    His intuition told him that it was best not to reveal to others the connection between him and the director as thetter seemed to also be harboring many secrets.

    "Alright, if you don''t want to tell me, then I won''t force you. Just focus on doing your own thing. Are you confident in your ability to capture those killers? I can provide you with some high-level adapters if you need.

    "How many can you provide, and what level are they?"

    Adam naturally wasn''t going to refuse help, particrly when his opponents were too powerful for him to deal with on his own.

    Just Raven alone was already too much for him to deal with, and as for the others, the fact that they were chosen by the director to be hitmen indicated that they had to have been quite formidable as well.

    "Three."

    "Only three?"

    "High-level adapters are rare to begin with, and there are even fewer willing to risk their lives. Even the Lamp Keepers of the southern congress generally don''t like to take on dangerous jobs. On top of that, you''re still only a mayoral candidate at the moment, so the amount of resources we can invest in you is naturally going to be limited."

    "Alright, then how powerful are these three?"

    "You''ll find out when you meet them in a couple of days."

    After that response, Commander rose to his feet, indicating that the conversation was over, and he promptly departed.

    Wax Figure patted Adam on the shoulder before also departing, but Cowboy didn''t leave with them.

    Only after Commander and Wax Figure had departed did he fully rx.

    "I''m always a nervous wreck whenever I go anywhere with Commander." After taking some time to rx, Cowboy reverted back to his usualckadaisical demeanor, recliningzily against the sofa as he crossed his legs and asked, "Where are those brothers of yours?"

    "They went to the zoo, so they''re not here today. Thank heavens they''re not around."

    All of Adam''s visitors had been extremely important figures, and the psychic mutant trio could''ve caused a lot of trouble had they been present.

    Cowboy was quite familiar with Adam''s team at this point, and he mused, "That is indeed quite a stroke of luck. Let''s get back on track. I came here today to tell you that I''ve already organized for the inmates that you requested to be released."

    "Did everything go off without a hitch?"

    "Rest assured, Darvaza Prison has already beenpletely taken over by our people. The southern congress is far too busy dealing with the fallout of the recent incident to keep a close eye on everything else."

    "Where are they?"

    "I can take you to see them right now."

    ¡­¡­

    That night, in a dimly lit Japanese teahouse.

    There were some whole wheat snacks ced on the table, alongside some simple teaware.

    Seated on one side of the table were Adam and Cowboy, while Guang Fei and Noah were seated on the other side with electronic devices strapped around their necks.

    "We''re already coborative partners, surely it''s inappropriate for you to make us wear these things."

    Guang Fei pointed at the electronic bomb strapped to his neck as he spoke, then picked up his cup before taking a sip of tea.

    He savored the tea in his mouth for a long while before finally swallowing it, following which he gave a blissful moan.

    "This is fantastic... It''s been many years... since I''ve had something this good." He then picked up a wheat biscuit before taking a bite. "There aren''t any snacks like this in prison. When are you going to... let me go?"

    "Help me do something. Once that''s done, neither of us will owe the other anything."

    "Sure... You got me out of prison, so it''s only fair that I do something for you. What do you need me to do?"

    "I need you to help me deal with a group of adapter hitmen."

    "How many of them are there?"

    "I''m not sure at the moment."

    "When will it be over?"

    "It''ll be over by the conclusion of the mayoral election, so there are only less than four months left. During this time, you have to help me, and don''t even think about trying to take off the thing around your neck."

    Adam had no trust in Guang Fei. Back in prison, he had turned on the southern congress at the drop of a hat, so he could just as easily turn on Adam, and a promise from him waspletely worthless.

    "What you''re wearing around your neck is thetest military product from Orto Technologies. You can try and find someone to remove it, or try to leave the effective area, or you could even gamble that it''s just a dud. If you lose, you''ll pay with your life, and if you win, you''ll be free. However, as opposed to taking such a huge risk, I suggest..."

    "You suggest I take my chances with you, right?" Guang Fei chuckled. "Fine, you have yourself a deal."

 Chapter 388: War Machine

    <h4>Chapter 388: War Machine</h4>

    "What do we do with him?" Cowboy asked as he pointed the tip of his shoe at Noah. "This guy looks like he''s mentally impaired. Why did you get me to bring him out of prison as well?"

    "You also look like someone who experiences more pain than joy," Noah remarked with a cold smile.

    On the surface, Noah appeared to be quite disheveled and rather timid, but deep down, he was judging everything. If it weren''t for the fact that wasn''t an adapter, he would''ve already passed judgment on Cowboy.

    "Send him to the veterinarian hospital in secret," Adam replied.

    Adam had already grown numb to killing people, and having to kill an extra fugitive didn''t weigh on his conscience at all.

    He had brought Noah out of prison for that Angel of Judgment in his psychic world.

    You''ve passed judgment on so many people and killed countless elderly people, so surely it''s not too much for me to pass judgment on you once.

    ¡­¡­

    During theing few days, Adam''s status as a mayoral candidate of the northern congress was confirmed.

    He was receiving a lot of votes online, and thanks to his poprity, he was able to squeeze his way into the top eight, but even with his current wave of relevance and poprity, he was still unable to climb any higher than seventh. Compared with the other candidates, all he had was some temporary fame, but his political nous certainly didn''t inspire confidence in the general public.

    "In any case, we''ve sessfullypleted the first step." Shae was in the office of the veterinarian hospital, looking at the online discussions as she remarked, "The people who haven''t voted for you are mostly sitting on the fence. Before you make a substantial move, you''re probably not going to get many more votes.

    ¡°If you want to earn more votes, then you''ll have to do something that helps you garner more support. Recently, those killers have killed quite a few more public figures, and the general public is bing more and more fearful by the day. Have you found any leads on this case?"

    "I haven''t, but Thn has gathered some leads. Apparently, the killers will be on the move tonight, and they''ll be targeting several celebrity creators of Dellers Animation."

    "Dellers? Thatpany that specializes in animations and virtual idols? I heard that their virtual meteorologist, Anne, has way more subscribers and viewers than all of the meteorologists working for the news. They also have many virtual celebrities, singers, and animated characters that are far more popr than human celebrities. If all of the creators of thepany are killed, that would cause quite the panic..."

    Having grown up as the daughter of the head of Golden Teeth Incorporated, Shae had a very in-depth understanding of the media sector.

    "Not only are they going to kill all of the creators, they''re going to delete all of the raw data of the virtual stars as well."

    "If that''s true, then this is a big problem," Shae replied. "If the original raw data or real-time data is deleted, even if there are backup copies, the data will inevitably be inurate, and that would make them lose their charm and humanity in the eyes of their fans.

    ¡°For all first-rate virtual idols, their real-time data is updated by artificial intelligence, so they remember every single interaction with every single viewer, and that''s the advantage that virtual idols hold over human idols. They can even remember every single viewer that they''vemunicated with, and that data will have a bearing on their virtual personalities.

    ¡°If the original raw data is deleted, then the consequences would be catastrophic. Having said that, the raw data is all stored very securely, so this won''t be an easy task. It looks like this is going to be a big operation for those killers."

    "It will indeed be quite a major operation. Thn really is a genius investigator. Without him, there are many things that I wouldn''t be able to do."

    "Where is he right now? I haven''t seen him ever since you got out of prison," Shae said.

    "He has to be really careful. After all, he made a really big messst time, and there are many powerful adapters in the southern congress. In particr, if he gets cornered by an adapter of Madam Tree or Mr. One''s caliber, then he''ll bepletely screwed. Thankfully, ording to him, Mr. One is an extremely important figure, and even the head of the Hosman Family is five official ranks under him.

    ¡°In contrast, Thn is nothing more than apdog of the Hosman Family, and his status can''t evenpare with that idiot, Emmanuel. There''s such a vast disparity in their positions that Thn has never even met Mr. One before. Even so, he''s still doing some clean-up work and severing all of his contacts so that he doesn''t catch the attention of these important figures.

    ¡°Hence, we can onlymunicate with him through confidential avenues, and we won''t be able to meet him in the near future. Right now, we have to focus on what we''re doing. We have to use this information and take advantage of our resources toplete our objectives. Looking at the time, our helpers should be here soon..."

    Sure enough, around 10 minutester, three visitors with no pets entered the veterinarian hospital.

    They made their way around the hall and arrived directly at the office area before knocking on the door.

    After being granted entry, one of them dered, "Greetings, Mr. Adam, we''ve been sent here to help you by Commander. Prior toing here, we''ve already passed the special psychic police examination and obtained the relevant qualifications, so you can rest assured on that front."

    The visitors were very direct and straightforward in their way of speech, and that, coupled with their immacte postures, indicated to Adam that they were from the military.

    "You came right in time. We just so happen to be making a move tonight." Adam rose to his feet with a nod, then shook the hands of the three visitors one by one as he offered a friendly self-introduction. "My name is Adam."

    "Patriot."

    "me."

    "Thunderbird."

    As opposed to their actual names, it was clear that these three preferred to use their military nicknames.

    "It seems like all of you like to get things done fast. I''m the exact same, so let''s not waste any time with pleasantries. Show me what you''re capable of."

    Adam extended an arm forward as he spoke, and the three visitors immediately followed suit without any hesitation.

    As soon as their arms made contact with one another, all four of them instantly arrived on a battlefield in the psychic world.

    The battlefield appeared to be situated in a radiation zone, and there was nothing in the surrounding area aside from desert and mutated nts.

    Adam was faced with three war machines that resembled mechas, all of which were over seven meters tall, with the tallest of them exceeding 15 meters in height.

    Aside from their enormous statures, the three war machines were also armed with all types of weapons, including modern technological weapons, as well as hyper modern weapons that only existed in movies and animations.

    These three giant war machines were the psychic bodies of the three soldiers.

    Adam could tell at a single nce that the psychic bodies of these three were extremely powerful, but as for exactly how powerful they were, there was only one way for him to find out.

    With that in mind, Adam quickly fused with Sludge to transform into a giant that stood at 12 meters in height.

    Thus, the three mechas were pitted against a mythological creature, and a battle was imminent.

 Chapter 389: Moving Turret

    <h4>Chapter 389: Moving Turret</h4>

    "Let''s go one at a time." Adam didn''t know how powerful his opponents were, so he decided to y it safe, pointing at thergest of the three mechas as he dered, "You can go first!"

    The mecha immediately responded to Adam''s instruction, firing a st out of the heavy cannon on its chest.

    The barrel of the cannon was several meters thick, and the projectile that flew out from within was as massive as a boulder.

    Just the diameter of the projectile alone was a terrifying sight to behold.

    Of course, the offensive prowess of an adapter''s psychic body was directly corrted to their psychic power, so some attacks appeared quite intimidating, but weren''t all that powerful. In contrast, some people could topple mountains with a casual punch. An example of this was Hebi no Miko, who was able to unleash tremendous power with the most casual of strikes.

    Hence, there was only one way to find out if an attack from an adapter was truly powerful or not.

    In the face of the oing giant projectile, Adam crossed his arms to defend himself, and in the blink of an eye, the projectile crashed into him with a resounding boom.

    A massive eruption of mes ensued as the projectile exploded against Adam''s arms of stone.

    Adam''s huge feet plunged into the ground, but he was still sent flying back several dozen meters by the force of the impact, then blown back several dozen more meters by the violent explosion.

    After being sent flying by the attack, Adam wanted to mber to his feet, but he was unable to do so as he no longer had any arms to support himself with.

    "That was an exceptional attack!"

    Adam was ecstatic to see this, and only after his arms slowly reformed did he return to his feet.

    Judging from the power of this attack alone, Adam''s assessment was that his opponent''s offensive prowess was at leastparable with that of a level seven anomaly, and perhaps it was even of the same caliber as a level eight anomaly.

    It was important to realize that when fused with Sludge, Adam was a purely defensive-type level six anomaly.

    In other areas, he wasckingpared with the average level six anomaly, but in terms of defensive prowess, he was on the same level as a level seven or level eight anomaly, so the fact that his opponent was able to destroy his arms with a single attack was verymendable.

    "Did you have to charge up power for that attack, or was it just an ordinary attack?" Adam asked after regrowing his arms.

    "It was just an ordinary attack."

    "How many times can you unleash an attack of that caliber in a row?"

    "I can do it indefinitely."

    "Show me!"

    Adam began to charge at his opponent once again as he spoke, and as he did so, he unleashed his elementary domain ability, extending the psychic patterns on his body onto the ground beneath his feet.

    It was clear that the three soldiers had been informed of Adam''s abilities prior toing here, and his opponent didn''t hold back.

    After undergoing a transformation, countless cannon barrels extended out of the mecha''s body, coupled with missileunchers andser sters.

    His entire 15-meter-tall body had transformed into a walking turret, and following this transformation, he fired all of his weapons in unison, instantly inundating the entire area with his devastating firepower output.

    "I know who you are, you''re me!" Adam dered as he crouched down before raising both hands, instantly lifting up the ground beneath him.

    The ground had consisted of nothing more than ordinary sandstone just a moment ago, yet now that it was enhanced by his domain, it had be just as hard as his body.

    The wall of reinforced earth appeared in the path of the oing projectiles to shield Adam from the ferocious barrage, and a string of explosions instantly rang out.

    me''s firepower output was tremendous, and the wall of reinforced earth was several meters thick, it was destroyed in no more than half a second, following which Adam''s body was exposed to the oing attacks.

    As it turned out, he didn''t fare much better than the wall, and in just a single second, his entire body was riddled with countless holes.

    He attempted to use his domain to draw upon the surrounding sandstone in order to repair his own body, but the rate of regeneration was nowhere near as fast as the rate of destruction. Before long, he was unable to withstand the fierce barrage any longer, and his entire body was blown up into pieces.

    However, me didn''t cease his attacks there, continuing to st the pieces of Adam''s body relentlessly.

    "Surely that''s enough, me," one of hispanions couldn''t help but interject. "If you keep this up, he''s going to die!"

    "If he dies this easily, then there''s no chance that he could be the mayor or deal with those killers. ording to the information that we''ve gathered, the most powerful members among those killers are even more powerful than us."

    Before me had a chance to finish, his voice suddenly trailed off. Something had hooked onto his body, and even his soul had faltered for a moment.

    Immediately thereafter, a creature that was riddled with hooks appeared on his body, and as the creature spun around, many of the cannon barrels on me''s body were damaged by the creature''s sharp hooks, resulting in projectiles exploding while still in their chambers.

    After that, the entire area around him suddenly went dark, and by the time he could see again, he found himself surrounded by countless clowns, which were retaliating against him using all types of old weapons from the World War II era.

    These weapons weren''t very powerful, but all of them had corrosive abilities that were damaging arge number of the weapons on me''s body.

    Right after that, a bunch of anomalies jumped onto him.

    There was a de-wielding mummy, a nun that was releasing extremely corrosive ck liquid out of its entire body, and a strange anomaly with a camera for a head that was able to easily slice through his fortress-like body with its scythe arms.

    He was just about to retaliate when a horse-faced anomaly appeared, and a series of negative emotions instantly began to well up in his heart. The horse-faced anomaly was constantly painting onto his body as if it were an artist, and with each artwork that it created, a monstrous creature would emerge, and with the emergence of each monster, a new negative emotion would arise in me''s heart.

    More and more negative emotions began to umte in me, and his will to resist was slowly being whittled down.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, Adam was able to regenerate his body.

    He could see that me''s psychic body was a defensive tank, and he knew that aside from Sludge, all of his other anomalies were far too small to be able to inflict much meaningful damage onto me.

    Hence, after making his recovery, Adam immediately charged toward his opponent, tearing forcefully into the gashes inflicted onto me''s body by his other anomalies to rip away chunks of his body.

    At this point, me''srades finally interjected.

    "I think we should stop there, sir."

    The fact that they were now referring to Adam as "sir" rather than "Mr. Adam" was a clear sign that they were acknowledging his power.

    Both soldiers and adapters respected those who were more powerful than them, so perhaps they wouldn''t have been willing to follow Adam''s orders had he not disyed superior power to theirs.

    "He doesn''t have your self-regenerative ability, so if you keep going, it''s going to take him quite a few days to recover his psychic body. Weren''t you saying that there''s going to be a battleter tonight?"

    Adam''s intention wasn''t to inflict excessively severe damage onto his opponent anyway, so he immediately ceased his attacks after hearing what the other two mechas had to say.

    Through that battle, he was able to determine that me possessed possessed power equivalent to an upper-mid-tier level seven anomaly, and that he was approaching a level eight anomaly.

    He was a very formidable adapter, but even a tiger couldn''t fight off a pack of wolves, so it only made sense that he would struggle against a small army of level five and level six anomalies.

    Furthermore, Adam had be even more powerful following the recent pivotal choice that he had made in the face of Mr. One''s offer.

 Chapter 390: Virtual Celebrity

    <h4>Chapter 390: Virtual Celebrity</h4>

    During the battle that had just concluded, Adam could clearly sense that all of his anomalies and abilities had been enhanced. This wasn''t an enhancement in the level of his anomalies. Instead, it was an overall enhancement to his psychic body as a whole.

    All of his anomalies had be more powerful, and there were even ones that were on the cusp of breakthroughs.

    This type of overall enhancement was far more beneficial to hisbat prowess than the improvement of any single anomaly, and it was also why Adam had been able to defeat me so quickly.

    Otherwise, given his former level of power, it would''ve been quite the hassle to take down an opponent with power approaching that of a level eight anomaly.

    "It''s time for you two to show me what you''re capable of now. At the very least, I have to learn about how you like to battle so we can work together effectively."

    "Yes, sir."

    Thus, Adam faced Patriot and Thunderbird in battle as well, and he discovered that in terms of overall power, the three of them were all roughly on even footing, possessing power that ranked them near the pinnacle of level seven anomalies.

    However, there was a vast disparity in their battle styles.

    Even though all three of them possessed mecha-type psychic bodies, me excelled in both offensive and defensive prowess, while Thunderbird was more agile and adept at conducting reconnaissance, and he was capable of transforming into a fighter aircraft, a form that granted him immense speed and mobility.

    As for Patriot, he was a very strange guy. All of his abilities were quite ordinary, or even mediocre, among adapters of his caliber, but he had a trump card that was extremely powerful, and that was the ability to fire nuclear bombs, each of which was no less powerful than a tactical nuclear bomb in the real world.

    Just a single one of his nuclear bombs could evenpare with the power of some of Hebi no Miko''s abilities, and it was capable of destroying everything in a radius of several hundred meters, making it an incredibly devastating weapon that could allow him to challenge opponents far more powerful than himself.

    After examining the abilities of his three new allies, Adam was very pleased.

    Commander had followed through on his promise of investing resources into Adam, and these three adapters made for extremely powerful allies.

    However, even with these three new allies, Adam didn''t growcent, and he was still aiming to bolster his team. For the operation that was going to be carried outter that night, he had decided that he was going to bring along Guang Fei and someone else.

    With that in mind, he made a call to Sadou, who passed themunicator to the final team member that he wanted to recruit.

    "Long time no talk, Diana. I need your help with something."

    "Why should I give you my help? Are we friends?"

    Diana''s cold voice rang out from the other end of the line.

    "It sounds like your speech has be a lot more fluent during your time training under Sadou."

    "If you don''t have anything important to say, then I''m hanging up."

    Adam could hear that Diana was quickly running out of patience, so he hurriedly said, "Hold on a second! I''m sure this is something you''ll be interested in. We''re going after some adapter killers, and these killers are linked to Raven, who, ording to my knowledge, is currently with Hebi no Miko. Hence..."

    "When are youmencing the operation?"

    "Today."

    "Where are you right now?"

    "I''m at the Four Brothers Veterinarian Hospital."

    "Alright, I''m on my way."

    As soon as Diana''s voice trailed off, the call was cut off, and a faint smile appeared on Adam''s face. With that, he had another powerful ally on his side.

    I wonder how much stronger she''s gotten after training under Sadou.

    ¡­¡­

    As it was approaching nighttime, everyone that Adam had recruited for this operation finally arrived.

    Aside from the new allies, me, Thunderbird, and Patriarch, Diana was also present, and of course, the psychic mutant trio had turned up as well. Adam had also decided to bring Shae along just to have one more person who was of a sound frame of mind, in case any unforeseen circumstances were to arise.

    With Adam and Guang Fei thrown into the mix, that made for a total of nine people, all of whom were powerful adapters. Everyone was armed to the teeth, and with the weaponry that they had equippedplementing their adapter abilities, the chances of sess for this operation were significantly increased.

    With such a formidable lineup assembled, there was a decent chance that they would be able toe out on top even against top-tier adapters of Wax Figure or Raven''s caliber.

    After the team was finalized, Adam checked the information provided by Thn to confirm the location, following which the team set off from the veterinarian hospital.

    Soon, everyone arrived in Area 37, which was home to many entertainmentpanies, making it extremely popr among young people who wanted to have a good time.

    Everyone arrived in Area 37 right on the stroke of nightfall, and as soon as they emerged from the void railway station, they were greeted by the electric atmosphere in the area.

    "Damn, this ce is noisy."

    As soon as Adam set foot out of the station, he was immediately met with a raucousmotion. In contrast with the other areas in Sandrise City, he could sense a true atmosphere of joy and rxation here.

    Standing on the station tform that was several dozen meters above the ground, Shae was looking down at the chaotic crowd through the ss as she remarked, "Most of the people here are young people with no mortgages to pay off, and they don''t have to support any deceased parents in the Metaverse yet, so they have time and money toe out and y."

    The crowd down below was gathered around all types of animated virtual celebrities, and these virtual celebrities were also able to interact with their fans. They were able to call out every single one of their fans by name, and they were even aware of what their fans liked and had prepared gifts ordingly. It had to be said that these virtual celebrities really were able to do many things that many human celebrities were incapable of.

    "Virtual celebrities really do have their unique advantages. It''s no wonder that human celebrities have fallen off so drastically over the past few years. Only the older generation are still into human celebrities, while all of the young people have already moved on," Shae remarked with a hint of envy in her eyes.

    Adam noticed the look in her eyes, and he said, "It seems like you''re quite interested in the media sector. Once we''ve done everything we''ve set out to do, you can continue to pursue your other dreams."

    "We''ll think about that when the timees. Let''s go," Shae replied, choosing not to dwell on this subject.

    After leaving the void railway station, the group traveled to a massive industrialplex via taxi.

    Three of thergest mediapanies in the city were gathered in this industrialplex, which wasplete with all types of supporting facilities.

    Aside from some office buildings, there were also residential buildings, food streets, hobby disy areas, and the all-important data repositories.

    It was said that the data repositories were underground, and just like bank vaults, the exteriors of the repositories consisted of concrete structures reinforced with rebar, so even the average missile wasn''t guaranteed to be able to destroy them.

    Furthermore, the keys of the repositories were held by different people to prevent any of the data from being leaked, and there were also all types of security measures set up outside the repositories.

    All of these measures had ensured that the data of the virtual celebrities had always been protected, and those who wanted to tamper with the data generally had their efforts thwarted.

    However, this was a different situation.

    As opposed to normalmercial spies, the data repositories were being targeted by adapters on this asion.

    Furthermore, all of them were advanced adapters, and there was quite arge number of them.

    All they had to do was capture all of the key-holders, then invade their minds to find out the locations of the keys and the relevant passwords, as well as all of the measures required to disable all of the security measures, and the data repositories would bepletely at their mercy.

 Chapter 391: Mother Anomaly

    <h4>Chapter 391: Mother Anomaly</h4>

    "There are so many people here, how are we going to find our targets?"

    After arriving in Area 37, Shae discovered that tracking down the targets for their operation was not going to be an easy task.

    The industrialplex wasn''t veryrge, but there were thousands of people in it, and it was going to be quite difficult to track down their targets among these people.

    "Shae, take Mole, Rabbit, and Armadillo and go to the people being targeted for assassination. As long as we keep an eye on those people, the killers will turn up eventually."

    Seeing as they couldn''t find the killers, they would just have to track down the people being targeted by the killers.

    There was a very high likelihood that they were in their respectivepanies or homes, so it wouldn''t be a difficult task for adapters to track them down.

    "Why do we have to go? It''s not every day that wee to such a fun ce, I want to y," Rabbitined as she nced at the bustling crowd around her, then purchased a pair of virtual celebrity scented panties before putting them on her head.

    "Because none of you are good at scouting."

    The three psychic mutants were the most mentally unstable members of the team, so they were the best choice to carry out this task.

    "Let''s go."

    Shae dragged the psychic mutant trio away to search for the assassination targets, while Adam and the others split up to search for the killers.

    Walking along the streets in the industrialplex, Adam was constantly sensing the emotions of the people around him.

    High-level adapters possessed extremely sharp telegnosis, and in particr, after making that important decision, Adam''s sensitivity toward human pheromones had improved even further.

    Regardless of what emotion a person was feeling, they would inevitably emit different pheromones corresponding to those emotions. As long as he could detect these pheromones, he would be able to differentiate between the normal visitors of Area 37 and those deranged psychic killers.

    Adam wandered through the crowd, and while on the food street, he bought a light-up mask to conceal his face. Assuming the information provided by Thn was urate, the killers had already adopted their positions at this point.

    When it came to killing protected individuals, it was very important to carry out scouting in advance.

    Adam was certain that the killers had already mingled themselves into the crowd.

    Adam continued to roam through the industrialplex while keeping tabs on everything around him, and around 10 minutester, he detected something amiss in front of a small stall that was selling figurines.

    A woman was staring at a figurine in a conflicted daze, seemingly harboring intense desire for the figurine, but also not daring to take it.

    The pheromones that she was giving off were very chaotic, and Adam could sense that she was very mentally stable. One second, she was struck by the urge to kill the stall owner, but the next second, she would be very gentle and benevolent.

    Ever since his awakening, Adam had been constantly dealing with all types of mentally abnormal individuals, and in particr, following this period of incarceration in Darvaza Prison, he had be an expert when it came to psychic deviants.

    Hence, he was certain that there was something wrong with this woman, and as for whether she was one of the killers, there was only one way to find out.

    After approaching the woman, Adam inspected his surroundings to ensure that she had nopanions nearby, then strode directly toward her before attempting to barge into her with his shoulder.

    However, before he could make contact, the woman sidestepped his shoulder charge.

    She''s definitely more agile than the average person.

    Through that failed shoulder charge, Adam became even more convinced that the woman was an adapter. He reached out to try and grab onto her arm, but the woman evaded him once again, then turned to flee the scene.

    Adam immediately activated his rocket booster, and at the same time, he aimed all of his weapons at his target while quickly sending his position to hispanions using hismunicator.

    However, right as he was preparing to fire his weapons to capture his target, the woman activated her mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmission device and dragged everyone in the surrounding area, including herself and Adam, into the psychic world.

    This was rather unfortunate as Adam would''ve much rather taken care of the situation outside the psychic world.

    His prosthetic limbs were very advanced, and with the power of technology, he would''ve been able to easily defeat and subdue his target.

    However, no weapon was faster than the speed of thought, so ultimately, the battle was moved to the psychic world.

    At this moment, there was an anomaly standing before Adam.

    This was an "adapter" that had been chosen by the director, and he was willing to invest a nk te into them, so they either had to possess enormous potential like Fighter Li, or already possessed an extremely powerful psychic body like Raven, and it was clear that this woman belonged to thetter category.

    It was clear just from the anomaly''s outward appearance that she was not going to be easy to deal with. She wasn''t particrly tall or imposing, standing at only around three meters in height, but her expression was extremely twisted.

    She was presented in the form of a middle-aged woman, but she was cradling a "child" that was even bigger than herself. The child had clearly already reached adulthood, but the woman was still cradling him like a baby. At the same time, many hands grew out of the woman''s hands to stroke the child, and she was constantly repeating phrases like "Don''t be scared, mommy will look after you" and "Mommy will never let you get hurt".

    These seemingly caring and soothing words were actually a reflection of her intense desire for control, and they enveloped the giant "child" like a suffocating cocoon.

    The anomaly appeared to be quite powerful, but the most troublesome thing about this situation was all of the members of the general public that had been unwittingly dragged into the psychic world.

    In contrast with his past battles, his objective for this operation was to enhance his own reputation, and he couldn''t allow his name to be tarnished at all. If his actions were to result in the deaths of innocent civilians, then there was a chance that he would be stripped out of his mayoral candidacy outright.

    Hence,pleting the mission was only his second priority, while protecting the people had be his top priority.

    At this point, the surrounding bystanders were still oblivious to the fact that they had been dragged into the psychic world, and there were only some fearful reactions to the anomaly.

    In the psychic world, ordinary people were like people in dreams, so their reactions to everything around them were quite dull, and they needed someone to inform them of the situation that they were in.

    "Everyone, get back! It''s very dangerous here!" Adam yelled as he invoked his anomalic legion.

    As soon as the army of anomalies appeared, they began to evacuate the crowd at Adam''s behest.

    Clown was the most efficient at this task. Clown had been killed in Guang Fei''s tactical simtion, but that had only been an illusion, so it hadn''t actually been killed.

    As soon as it was invoked, it immediately conjured up an army of clones, each of which picked up the people closest to them before carrying them away.

    "No one is allowed to leave me!"

    A fierce desire for control surfaced in the eyes of the mother anomaly as she watched everyone fleeing the scene around her, and the "silken threads" that had sprung out of her body were reaching out to try and capture the fleeing bystanders.

    However, in the next instant, a stone giant appeared in front of her, and at the same time, a near-transparent shadow emerged behind her before digging its hooked spikes into her body.

    At this point, Adam had already fused as one with Sludge, and he grabbed into the mother anomaly with his giant hands before crushing her viciously.

 Chapter 392: Reuniting with Diana

    <h4>Chapter 392: Reuniting with Diana</h4>

    Even though the mother anomaly''s body had been crushed, she didn''t perish as a result. Instead, a pile of silken threads appeared between Adam''s palms, and they adhered themselves to his hands before spreading toward the rest of his body.

    What the hell is this stuff?

    Adam attempted to shake off the silken threads, but to no avail. The threads were extremely sticky, and it was virtually impossible to shake them off with brute strength alone.

    In fact, even as Adam was attempting to shake them off, the threads were already burrowing into him through the gaps in his stone body.

    "Hellhound, hit me with some fire!" Adam instructed, and the three-headed Hellhound immediately sprang toward him, then opened its mouths to st mes directly onto Adam''s hands.

    However, the silken threads seemed to be impervious to mes. In fact, the mes were only making them more wild and active, and it didn''t take long before they spread over Adam''s entire body.

    Adam was frantically tearing at his own body, but he was unable to escape from the threads no matter what he did.

    What was even more disturbing was that after the silken threads burrowed into his body, they began to attempt to control him as if they were parasites. Adam was doing everything in his power to resist the threads, but he waspletely outmatched. The threads were stronger than him, and they were also capable of affecting his emotions, making him involuntarily conform to their control.

    This is at least a level seven anomaly, and its abilities are very troublesome to deal with.

    Given sufficient time, Adam was confident that he would be able to eradicate this anomaly, but in this situation, time was of the essence, and he didn''t have any to waste.

    The woman had dragged arge number of people into the psychic world using her neuron transmitter, and that was sure to have sparked a panic among the bystanders in the real world.

    The effective range of the transmitter appeared to be roughly 100 meters, so from the perspective of the people outside of that range, they would''ve seen a massive crowd of people suddenly lose consciousness at once without any warning.

    Hence, it was most likely the case that a panic had already ensued outside, and that would undoubtedly tip the killers off to the fact that their operation was being met with opposition.

    Once that happened, the entire situation would spiral out of control.

    It seems like I won''t be able to escape her control anytime soon.

    Under the control of the silken threads, Adam was already taking swings at his own allies.

    He swung a massive fist at Hellhound, and thetter hurriedly evaded the attack with an rmed yelp.

    All of a sudden, the surrounding space quivered momentarily, following which several more people entered the psychic world.

    Adam immediately swung around with a grim expression, thinking that more killers had arrived on the scene, but he was relieved to find that the new arrivals were allies instead.

    "Get these things off me, and make sure not to harm any of the civilians'' psychic bodies!"

    Even without requiring any instructions from Adam, everyone had already sprung into action. Diana was the main offensive unit, and at this point, she had already transformed into a giant ck dragon. She flung Adam''s huge body up into the air with her ws, then sted a jet of ck dragon mes straight onto his body.

    In the face of the destructive ck mes, Adam''s body was set alight before dripping down as drops of magma.

    Diana''s dragon mes were of a far higher temperature than Hellhound''s fireballs.

    Following this period of training under Sadou, Diana had clearly be more powerful than before, and her ck dragon form was beginning to resemble the mythical N¨ªeh?ggr.

    The mes were hot enough to melt Adam''s body, so the anomaly concealed within was naturally severely harmed as well.

    Even though it had beenpletely impervious to Hellhound''s mes, it was unable to withstand the scorching heat of Diana''s mes, and after changing forms in mid-air for a while, it was forced to leave Adam''s body and revert back to its original form.

    As soon as the anomaly appeared, a thunderous draconic roar rang out in the sky, followed by the emergence of a hexagram array. Diana had unleashed her draconic technomancy to immobilize the anomaly in mid-air.

    me and the others immediately pounced on this opportunity to unleash a barrage of attacks upon the anomaly, and even though this was quite a high-level anomaly, it was unable to withstand the attacks of so many powerful adapters.

    In particr, these adapters all possessed tremendous offensive prowess, and thus, the battle drew to a conclusion in less than a minute.

    The anomaly''s body waspletely destroyed, and the woman''s psychic body met its demise.

    At this point, Adam had already reformed his body on the ground below, and he was looking up at the sky with a slightly disappointed expression.

    There''s no anomalic power? Is that because it''s been modified by the director? That''s a real pity. That anomaly would''ve been exceptional for exerting control over the battlefield.

    Adam had previously participated in Shadow City''s battle royale, and there had been a huge number of anomalies in there, but all of them had been artificially created by the director, so they hadn''t yielded any anomalic power upon death.

    However, amount of pain that could be artificially inflicted upon someone was quite limited, and Adam knew that it was very difficult to create super high-level anomalies through torture alone.

    Compared with a torture chamber, the world was the true hell.

    Only in society could one experience all types of hardships, thereby slowly warping their personalities over time.

    Judging from the outward appearance of this anomaly, it was clearly one that arisen from a twisted sense of motherly love, so this anomaly most likely wasn''t one that had been artificially manufactured.

    Instead, what had most likely happened was that the director had found the host of the anomaly, then thrust that twisted persona into a nk te.

    However, due to the fact that the anomaly had been tampered with by the director, it could no longer yield anomalic power for Adam.

    Is this something that the director has done deliberately, or is it just because we share the same genes?

    Adam didn''t know the answer to that question, nor did he have the time to mull it over in the current situation.

    Following the anomaly''s demise, he and hispanions quickly left the psychic world and returned to the real world.

    After crushing the neuron transmission device underfoot, all of the unconscious bystanders in the area slowly began to return to their senses.

    "Have any of you seen her aplices?" Adam asked as he pointed at the dead woman.

    "No."

    "We didn''t run into any of them on the way here."

    "Crap!"

    A thought immediately urred to Adam upon hearing this, but before he had a chance to do anything, Shae''s urgent voice rang out from hismunicator.

    "Come here right now! I''ve sent you the location, the killers have already arrived!"

    "Let''s go!"

    Adam hurriedly set off toward the location that Shae had sent to hismunicator.

    By the time Adam and his group emerged from the crowd, he noticed that everyone had already begun to panic, and some people had called the Mechguard hotline, so it wasn''t going to take long before Mechguard units were deployed to the scene.

    Those killers were naturally going to be aware of this as well, so their n was clearly to take an aggressive approach toplete their mission and flee the scene before the Mechguard units arrived.

    "We don''t have much time," Adam said as he took a hoverbike by force, then rode it directly toward the Shae''s location.

    After arriving at his destination, Adam arrived underground through the fire escape.

    The database was situated underground, and by the time Adam arrived, the security guards in the area had already been incapacitated, while the mechanical defenses and rm system had also been disabled. Adam continued to venture deeper into the area, yet before he had even reached the entrance, a sense of danger suddenly arose in his heart, and he hurriedly took evasive measures.

    In the instant that he dove to the side, an explosion rang out up ahead, followed by the sound of bullets whistling through the air.

    Adam was rather perplexed at the fact that his assants were using such ordinary firearms, and through the smoke resulting from the explosion, he spotted seven or eight masked men who were armed with guns.

    It was clear from their attire that they were just ordinary killers who weren''t adapters.

 Chapter 393: Devour

    <h4>Chapter 393: Devour</h4>

    The only thing that killers of this caliber could aplish was stall for time.

    Their weapons and equipment were mediocre, they didn''t possess the telegnosis of adapters, and they werepletely incapable of warding off psychic attacks.

    Is this just a distraction?

    Adam wasted no time, immediately activating his neuron transmission device to drag his assants into the psychic world before knocking them all unconscious, and the entire process took no more than 10 seconds.

    In the hands of a powerful adapter, a neuron transmitter was far more useful than a bomb.

    In contrast with his normal missions, Adam had to maintain a positive public image here, so he only knocked these killers unconscious, rather than put an end to their lives.

    After taking care of the small fry, he continued to venture deeper.

    Finally, at the entrance of an underground vault, he spotted the psychic mutant trio, who werepletely rooted to the spot.

    It was as if they had fallen asleep,ying on the ground or standing motionlessly with their eyes closed, and it was clear that they were locked in battle in the psychic world.

    However, Shae was nowhere to be found, and Adam couldn''t see the opponents of the psychic mutant trio, either.

    "Over here!"

    Shae''s voice rang out from behind a corridor, and Adam rushed over to her as he asked, "What happened here?"

    "We were attacked from above, and I suspect that those adapter killers are still on the surface, but they''ve infiltrated this ce using their neuron transmitters. Rabbit and I had only just arrived at a producer''s office when we ran into the killers, and we were no match for them, so we couldn''t stop them. After that, they invaded the producer''s psychic world, presumably to secure a password, and they left immediately thereafter."

    "Why didn''t they kill you?"

    "They were in a real hurry, and killing us would''ve taken time."

    It seemed that the looming threat of the Mechguard units'' imminent arrival had saved Shae and Rabbit.

    In order tomit a crime in Sandrise City, the first thing that had to be done was to disable the surveince cameras or the electricity system in the area, then finish the job as quickly as possible before Mechguard units arrived on the scene.

    This wasmon knowledge for all criminals, so even if those killers had been significantly more powerful than Shae and Rabbit, it made sense that they didn''t want to waste any time dealing with the two.

    While Adam was speaking to Shae, he suddenly received a message on hismunicator.

    "We''ve discovered another group of killers in another database, and there seems to be an enemy of Diana''s among them. She immediately went after them as soon as she saw them."

    "Is it Hebi no Miko? You have to be careful, that woman is not someone you can deal with."

    "It''s a man, not a woman," Thunderbird replied, then ended the call.

    After considering the situation for a moment, Adam decided to resolve the situation at hand first.

    "Stay here and don''t let those non-adapter killers get near the database, I''ll go help Diana and the others."

    Adam rushed toward a warehouse area as he spoke, and as soon as he entered the area, he was immediately drawn into the psychic world.

    The ce that he appeared in the psychic world was still the entrance of the warehouse, but it was clear that a fierce battle had just taken ce, as evidenced by the severe destruction present in the psychic module.

    Adam fused with Sludge before rushing into the warehouse, and he could hear the sounds of a battle ringing out in the distance.

    Aside from that, Adam could also see mes erupting up ahead intermittently.

    Adam hurried onto the scene to find the psychic mutant trio locked in battle against a pair of anomalies, and the trio was beingprehensively dominated, to the point that they had almost perished in battle.

    "Holy shit, you''re finally here, Adam!"

    Due to Adam''s enormous stature, his arrival immediately caught everyone''s attention.

    Adam arrived on the scene just in time to see Mole and Armadillo being incinerated within a ball of mes controlled by one of the anomalies, and Mole was already on the verge of death, while Armadillo''s superior defenses meant that he was faring better, but only just slightly.

    "Help!"

    Adam immediately entered the fray, barreling into the me-wielding anomaly before invoking his other anomalies to destroy the array that was supporting the fireball.

    "Where''s Rabbit?"

    "That bastard ate her!"

    Mole was panting heavily as he fell onto the ground, and at the same time, he was pointing frantically at the other anomaly present, a creature that resembled a mountain of flesh.

    In real life, the host of the anomaly was most likely a sufferer of bulimia, and the anomaly''s entire body wasprised of fat.

    The creature was around seven to eight meters tall, but its height seemed to be outmatched by its waist circumference, and even though it was standing in a prone position, its body was sagging so much around it that it didn''t appear to be standing at all.

    What was most disgusting of all was that the anomaly was feasting on absolutely everything, including the surrounding rocks, dirt, the building itself... Anything that appeared around it was invariably stuffed down its gullet, and as a result, its body was expanding further and further in size.

    "Target that anomaly first! Rabbit is in its stomach!" Armadillo yelled, then grabbed onto Mole before burrowing into the ground.

    "I''m on it!"

    Adam wasted no time, directing all of his anomalies to attack the mountain of flesh.

    As always, the first to arrive on the scene was Distortion, but as soon as it dug its hooks into the enemy anomaly''s body, Adam immediately realized that something wasn''t right.

    The anomaly''s entire body was secreting some type of special oil, and thanks to the oil''s lubricating properties, Distortion was unable totch onto its body with its hooks. For the first time, Distortion had failed.

    What kind of ability is this?

    Right as Adam was about to rush at the mountain of flesh, a second anomaly arrived.

    Generally speaking, the second one to arrive at the target after Distortion was always Hellhound, and this asion was no exception.

    With its Hyperspeed ability, it had the fastest physical movement speed out of all of the anomalies.

    Hellhound pounced onto the mountain of flesh, then began to st fire into the anomaly''s body while tearing at its flesh with its fangs, but the attacks werergely ineffective, and Hellhound fell into the anomaly''s grasp before being stuffed into its mouth.

    Hellhound wasn''t much smaller in staturepared with the enemy anomaly, but thetter was able to swallow Hellhound whole, disying an oral cavity diameter that was no less terrifying than a snake with its jaw fully unhinged.

    Furthermore, there was abination of strange noxious gas and suction force in its oral cavity, and after being stuffed into its mouth, Hellhound''s struggles quickly became more and more feeble, and it didn''t take long before it was devoured whole.

    These bastards are so annoying to deal with!

    Adam finally arrived on the scene, and he used his huge stone hands to forcibly prise open the enemy anomaly''s mouth, then reached his hand into its gullet to try and pull out Hellhound and Rabbit.

    However, the anomaly''s stomach was like a ck hole, and Adam was unable to feel the bottom even after reaching his entire arm into its body.

    Thus, he had no choice but to pull his arm out of the anomaly''s body, then crushed it beneath his massive frame.

    "Camera, slice open its stomach!"

    In response to that instruction from Adam, Camera began to charge up power in preparation for an all-out attack.

    Camera may have been mediocre in all other areas, but its offensive prowess was never to be underestimated, and its appendages were as sharp as ever.

    Upon arriving at the scene, Camera sprang up into the air, then shed its legs across the side of the anomaly''s abdomen. Two secondster, the sound of tearing flesh rang out.

    Having had its belly sliced open, a huge volume of fat and oil began to gush out of the anomaly''s body.

    However, its fat was providing so much cushioning that Camera was unable to slice through to its stomach with one sh, and right as Adam was about to instruct Camera to go again, a fireball flew over from the distance and knocked Camera down onto the ground.

 Chapter 394: Inducing Vomit

    <h4>Chapter 394: Inducing Vomit</h4>

    "Stop that thing!"

    The fireball that had knocked down Camera had naturally been unleashed by the other enemy anomaly.

    With its terrible defenses, Camera was naturally severely wounded by the blow, and Adam hurriedly directed Distortion to target the other anomaly through their psychic connection.

    The gluttonous anomaly''s abilities rendered Distortion next to useless, so it was a much better idea to get Distortion to target the other anomaly.

    However, even after evolving so many times, Distortion still didn''t heed Adam''smands at times, and Adam issued the same instruction to it several times in a row to no avail. Thus, he had no choice but to direct Nun, Clown, and Mummy to attack the other anomaly.

    "Almost there! One more sh and its stomach will bepletely torn open!"

    After the other anomaly was intercepted by Adam''s trio of anomaly, Mole and Armadillo also entered the fray to make it a one on five battle, and the fire-wielding anomaly waspletely upied, unable to st any further attacks in Adam''s direction.

    Meanwhile, Adam was preparing to rescue his allies.

    Even though Camera had suffered severe injuries, its offensive prowess was stillrgely unaffected, and it unleashed another all-out strike with its legs. This time, it was able topletely tear through the gluttonous anomaly''s belly to reveal a warped and boundless space that resembled a ck hole.

    The abdominal cavity of the gluttonous anomaly resembled an alternate dimension that was filled with a massive quantity of undigested food, most of which were things like dirt and rocks, but Hellhound and Rabbit were also inside.

    Hellhound was in decent condition as it possessed strong physical resistance, and it hadn''t been in there for a long time, but parts of Rabbit''s body had already disintegrated, and the rest of her body was riddled with signs of corrosion.

    Most importantly, no matter how Adam called out to the two, neither of them disyed any reaction. It seemed that any living being that entered the gluttonous anomaly''s stomach wouldpletely lose consciousness.

    "Camera, aim at its stomach and go again."

    After receiving this instruction, Camera unleashed another all-out blow, but this time, it wasn''t very effective as the strange space within the gluttonous anomaly''s abdominal cavity was somehow able to absorb the majority of the force behind Camera''s attack.

    Meanwhile, the gluttonous anomaly was beginning to retaliate, and it was so strong that even Adam was struggling to hold it in ce.

    This was a very difficult predicament for Adam as the gluttonous anomaly wasrgely impervious to physical attacks, and Adam didn''t possess any spatial abilities. Most importantly, time was of the essence, and he simply didn''t have enough time to think of a n.

    He looked on as Rabbit''s body continued to disintegrate bit by bit, and he was feeling very anxious. As a result of his agitation, his psychic body was also disying a slight reaction.

    All of a sudden, Adam''s eyes abruptly lit up. It had urred to him that emotions like anxiety, stress, and disgust were all capable of inducing vomit.

    In the instant that this thought arose in his mind, Horse Face had already pulled out its brush.

    The brush fell out of mid-air, painting that world-renowned piece of artwork, the Lamenting Wall, on its own.

    After drawing everyone into the Lamenting Wall, Horse Face continued in his creation, but on this asion, as opposed to painting throngs of horrified and despairing bystanders, it was creating hordes of anxious, disgusted, and agitated monsters.

    As soon as these monstrous creatures emerged, they immediately pounced at the gluttonous anomaly one after another.

    Horse Face''s emotion-based abilities were so formidable that even an adapter of Guang Fei''s caliber wasn''t immune to them.

    At this point, these emotion-based attacks were the most fearsome method of attack at Adam''s disposal, and having fallen prey to the Lamenting Wall himself in the past, he knew just how terrifying this ability was.

    As it turned out, the gluttonous anomaly wasn''t able to fare much better than he had.

    In the face of the repeated emotional attacks, its body began to twitch and spasm, causing its bby rolls to ripple and quiver. After withstanding yet another round of attacks, a monster that seemed to have been the very embodiment of stress and anxiety emerged, constantly whispering something into the gluttonous anomaly''s ear.

    The sound of a pencil''s tip gliding over paper was constantly ringing out beside the gluttonous anomaly''s ears, and the stressful sound finally overcame its resistance.

    Its entire body spasmed violently, and it opened its mouth up wide to throw up the contents of its stomach.

    A massive volume of sludge came gushing out alongside all types of different objects, and Adam hurriedly caught Rabbit and Hellhound as they were flying past him.

    After setting Hellhound down onto the ground, Adam turned his attention to Rabbit and called out, "Wake up, Rabbit! Are you alright?"

    "It fucking... hurts..."

    That was all Rabbit was able to respond with before she fellpletely unconscious.

    Adam was very relieved that she wasn''t dead.

    For psychic mutants, recovery was only a matter of time as long as they didn''t suffer psychic death.

    However, Adam was still a little concerned, so he continued to carry Rabbit with him as he cast his gaze toward the battlefield.

    Both of the enemy anomalies were level seven or level eight anomalies, making them extremely formidable opponents that were virtually impossible to take down in a short time, so Adam decided not to try and destroy them.

    All he had to do was stall for some time, and once the Mechguard units arrived on the scene, the physical bodies of these anomalies'' hosts would be destroyed.

    The same thought had urred to everyone else as well, and after the battle wore on for a while longer, the two enemy anomalies could see that they weren''t going to win, so they attempted to leave the psychic world.

    However, that was not going to be a simple task. They were on the back foot to begin with, and they were severely outnumbered, so there was no way that they could escape.

    Another two minutes passed, and as Adam intercepted the gluttonous anomaly once again, it suddenly began to beg for its life. "Let me go. Please, I''m begging you."

    This thing has autonomy?

    In contrast with normal anomalies, these anomalies seemed to have attained adapter abilities after having their personas uploaded into ck tes, thereby granting them a certain degree of autonomy.

    "Have you always had autonomy, or did you only be autonomous after your persona was uploaded into the nk te?"

    Adam thought back to the gentleman that he had encountered at the cannibal club. Both Raven and that man had managed to attain autonomy on their own so they weren''tpletely ovee by the extreme emotions of their anomalies, but this gluttonous anomaly didn''t seem to be as intelligent as those two were.

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about! Just let me go!"

    The gluttonous autonomy''s patience finally ran out, and it flew into a thunderous rage, howling in a deranged manner as it rushed directly at Adam.

    However, it then suddenly stopped cold in its tracks before abruptly vanishing on the spot, as did the fire-wielding anomaly at almost the exact same moment.

    A bolt of blue lightning shed past Adam, and Mole arrived by his side before asking, "Have they been killed by Mechguard units outside?"

    "I don''t know, but I assume so. Let''s get out of here and take a look."

    Adam departed from the psychic world as he spoke, and as soon as he returned to reality, he was greeted by a string of messages on hismunicator, the first of which was from Shae, and it read: "I''m up on the ground level!"

    The subsequent messages were all from Thunderbird.

    "There''s a group of killers over here, and we''ve already taken care of them."

    "The Mechguard units have arrived."

    "We''ve been separated from Diana, requesting further instructions."

    Adam rushed outside while calling Thunderbird on hismunicator.

    "How did you get separated from Diana?"

    "We encountered another group of killers and she insisted on going after someone, but the rest of us were intercepted."

    "I see. Go and look for her, and instruct the Mechguard units to look for her as well."

    While Adam was speaking into hismunicator, he had already emerged from underground.

    Sure enough, the entire area had already been surrounded by Mechguard units, and Shae was also waiting for him at the entrance.

    "Those two are the killers," Shae said as she pointed at two people nearby, both of whom had been tased unconscious by Mechguard units.

    To Adam''s surprise, it was a pair of thin girls.

    "Are these two really the killers that we dealt with? One of them should be really fat, and looking at their psychic bodies, both of them should be men."

 Chapter 395: Death of the Idols

    <h4>Chapter 395: Death of the Idols</h4>

    Adam strode over to the unconscious duo, then crouched down to inspect their bodies.

    Both of them had very short hair, and they seemed to have been bald not long ago.

    Adam rummaged through their hair to find that both of them had some small scars on the tops of their heads, which seemed to have been left behind by some small needles that had been pierced into their heads as part of some type of brain experiment.

    "I see, so these used to be a pair of men, one of which was very fat, while the other one was an arsonist, and they''ve only changed bodies." Adam picked up the two girls before handing them to a nearby Mechguard unit as he instructed, "Take them to the police station, and make sure they don''t die. I want to interrogate them myself."

    As soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, an explosion suddenly rang out several kilometers away. Adam could see aerial Mechguard units in that direction, but they were unable to prevent the explosion.

    Damn it! We missed a spot after all.

    Adam''s first reaction was to rush to the scene, but he was afraid that this was a diversion tactic from the enemy, so he could only remain where he was and get an idea of the situation through hismunicator and the images being transmitted to him by the Mechguard units on the scene.

    Thankfully, Patriot replied very quickly this time.

    "One of the databases just exploded. We presume it was the handiwork of the group of people that Diana was pursuing."

    That must be Raven''s group. They brought a total of three teams this time, and his team was the only one that seeded. Not only did they obtain all of the keys and passwords, they managed to ess the database and sessfully nt a time bomb inside. To add insult to injury, the entire team managed to make an escape. This is very much in line with his style.

    Just the mere thought of Raven was giving Adam a headache. Raven was a very strange guy with outstanding foresight and intelligence. He appeared to be quite gentle on the outside, but on the inside, he was cold-blooded and heartless, and willing to do anything to achieve his objectives.

    Adam even had a feeling that those other two teams were always meant to be sacrificial distractions

    Looking at the two incapacitated killers, they didn''t appear to be part of members of Raven''s inner circle anyway. Raven''s true inner circle consisted only of the psychic mutants that had managed to escape from Carlin Asylum and were still atrge.

    In contrast, his rtionship with the two incapacitated killers seemed to be more like one that required them to work together, but also topete against one another.

    Is he not worried that the director will punish him for selling out his allies?

    After some careful consideration, Adam was finally able to make sense of the situation.

    At this point, arge number of Mechguard units had already arrived on the scene, and given Raven''s style, this was most likely the conclusion of the incident.

    As for how the news was going to report on this incident the next day, that was not something for Adam to worry about.

    This was the most severe crimemitted by the killer organization thus far. Not only had they detonated a bomb in a very well-frequented area, this was also the most number of killers that had been deployed at once.

    Most importantly, some databases had been destroyed, so there was no way to keep this incident a secret.

    Perhaps the general public would be oblivious to the death of a politician or a wealthy tycoon, but the death of arge number of virtual idols was sure to have massive repercussions.

    ¡­¡­

    Sure enough, as Adam returned to the police station on the same day of the incident, the story had already blown up on the inte.

    The first ones to realize that something was wrong were the fans watching the live streams of the deceased virtual idols.

    All of a sudden, their idols had vanished into thin air, and a disappearance of this nature had never taken ce before.

    Furthermore, this hadn''t taken ce in just a single live stream. Instead, some of the virtual idols who were taking part in interview programs also vanished in unison, and the virtual gaming idols who provided interactive y services also suddenly disappeared while ying games on teams with human yers.

    The disappearance of so many virtual idols of all levels of poprity and all types of categories immediately sparked a panic among everyone.

    Everyone knew that something had gone wrong, and discussions about the subject were rampant on inte forums and Metaverse chat rooms.

    In the beginning, the matter wasn''t taken very seriously, but a piece of footage was soon leaked that sparked mass panic among the fans of the deceased virtual idols.

    The footage depicted an explosion with Mechguard units on the scene, while fearful bystanders fled in all directions.

    This was already quite a disturbing piece of footage, and once the fans of the virtual idols noticed the location where the explosion had taken ce, they were plunged intoplete despair.

    "Those buildings belong to the Fujiwara Corporation!"

    "Screw the buildings! Look at where the explosion took ce! It happened right under the buildings, where the databases are!"

    "Oh god, please don''t tell me the databases have been destroyed!"

    "We can only pray..."

    ¡­¡­

    A post about the incident quickly turned viral, and in a short span of time, it received hundreds of thousands of responses from people discussing the incident and praying for the safety of their virtual idols, and this number was only rapidly increasing.

    Sandrise City had a poption in excess of 300 million, and close to 100 virtual idols had been wiped out in the wake of this incident.

    There were mainly two types of virtual idols stored within the databases of the Fujiwara Corporation, the first of which were performative idols who specialized in singing and dancing, while the second type were interactive gamey idols.

    Only several dozen idols had been destroyed, but those idols could set up hundreds of thousands of live streams and participate in millions of games. The "clones" of these idols would then cote all of the data that they had collected to remember every single one of the fans that they had interacted with.

    The next time they encountered those fans, the idols would be able to recall their gaming styles and preferences so that they could bestplement those yers.

    Hence, in this painful high-tech world, virtual idols were like a ray of light or a safe haven for many.

    Some people referred to this form of entertainment as "tittytainment", [1] but without these forms of entertainment, society as a whole was at risk of copsing.

    "If my idols die, then I don''t want to live anymore, either."

    "How could my beloved Nine Stripe Girl have just disappeared like this? I refuse to believe this! I haven''t even beaten the 108-level tower of the underground city yet! We agreed to keep ying together tomorrow!"

    "Don''t be so pessimistic. Maybe it''s just a malfunction that can be fixed."

    "Perhaps there are still backup copies of the data."

    "Will a backup idol still be the same idol? Will they still remember all the days and nights that they spent with us?"

    The forums and Metaverse chat rooms were filled with despair.

    Before morning had even arrived, rabble-rousers had already begun to appear on the streets.

    In ces that were blind spots for the surveince cameras and Mechguard units, there were people setting cars alight and kicking over trash cans to vent their frustration.

    Meanwhile, in the sewage system, Raven was watching footage of the scenes unfolding outside with a smile on his face.

    "We should''ve earned enough points from this mission to not have to do anything for a long time, right?" Big Genius asked as he wiped the snot from his nose.

    "That''s true, but why should we rest and do nothing? That would be way too boring, and you wouldn''t be able to test out those new weapons of yours, isn''t that right?"

    "You''re right! I created a new electromaic pulse weapon that can disable the electricity system of an entire block! On top of that, there''s also a jammer that canpletely disrupt those Mechguard units. During our next mission, I''ll make sure those robots can do anything to us!"

    "You really are a genius!" Raven praised as he pulled out a handkerchief to help Big Genius wipe the snot from his nose. "I''ll be counting on you."

    1. Tittytainment is a derogatory term, and ording to Wiktionary, it''s defined as: "A blend of titty +? entertainment, in reference to the pacifying effect of watching TV, simr to that of a child sucking on its mother''s breast." ??

 Chapter 396: Memories of the Glutton

    <h4>Chapter 396: Memories of the Glutton</h4>

    At the police station, Adam interrogated all of the detained adapter and non-adapter killers overnight.

    The non-adapter killers were all just a bunch of ouws on the dark web who would do anything as long as the price was right. There were ouws like them all over the entire world, and they weren''t all that expensive to hire. Generally speaking, each person only cost around 50,000 to 200,000 per mission, so one could easily hire a bunch of ouws for several million dors.

    Of course, these people were far from professionals, and they were essentially just a bunch of thugs for hire, with rather mediocre equipment and weaponry as well, but that was enough.

    These people had only been hired to serve as a distraction, while the adapter killers were the ones responsible for carrying out the main mission.

    "Where did you get your money from? Did someone else provide it to you, or did you get it yourself?" Adam was seated in the interrogator''s chair, facing the glutton from across the table, and he was ying with a burger in his hands as he said, "Don''t try to lie or refuse to answer my question. You know I''m an adapter as well, so even if you don''t say anything, I can still find the answers I want."

    The glutton''s gaze remained fixed firmly on the burger as she said, "Can you give me that burger? I''ll tell you everything if you let me eat it."

    "Sure. If you tell me everything you know, you''ll get not just this one burger, but an entire truck full of them, and that''s a promise."

    Adam tossed the burger at the glutton as he spoke, and thetter devoured the burger in no more than five seconds.

    "If this is how you eat, yet you''re still not fat, then you must''ve only recently obtained this new body. I''m going to assume that you''ve only been in this body for less than a month, maybe even less than half a month."

    "I''ve only had this body for seven days," the glutton replied before asking, "When is the resting?"

    "They''ll be here once you''ve answered all of my questions, so the quicker you answer my questions, the sooner you get to eat. Also, you''ll need to open up your psychic world for my examination. Is that alright?"

    "I definitely wouldn''t let you do that under normal circumstances, but given the situation that I''m in, let''s just get this over with." The glutton was no idiot, and she was well aware that she was in no position to be negotiating with anyone. "Go ahead and ask what you want."

    "Who instructed you to kill people?"

    "The same people that turned me into an adapter. To be honest, I''m really grateful to them for giving me a second lease on life. By the time they discovered me, I had almost already rotten away in my basement. I had spent all of my savings, and my caretaker wasn''t showing up anymore."

    "Does your organization have a name?"

    "No, but in private, we call ourselves the Chaos Raisers. There are no specific instructions for us to do anything aside from kill people and create chaos. There''s a group of people that score us based on the kills we collect, and the higher our score, the longer the period of freedom that we''ll be granted."

    "If you don''t kill people, then you''ll die, right?"

    "That''s right. This is a wed body," the glutton replied as she pointed at her own head. "They can kill me at any time that they please."

    "Tell me as much as you can before you die. They may not know exactly who''s been captured, so you may still have some time left."

    Adam pulled out hismunicator as he spoke, then made a call to Shae.

    "Shae, send some food over here, the more the better. Our friend here is very hungry."

    "Alright."

    "Did you hear that?" Adam asked as he ended the call. "The food is on the way. In the meantime, tell me more about your organization. They saved you just so you can create chaos? What is their objective for doing this?"

    "I don''t know, and I don''t get it myself. However, they don''t seem to be purely deranged people. To be honest, I don''t know much about the organization at all. Also, there was another person who came with us. His name was some type of bird..."

    "Raven?"

    "Yes! You know him? In that case, I''m sure you already know that he knows far more than I do. He was one of the first people to have joined the organization, and he''s really smart. He''se into contact with the true top dogs of the organization in the past, so if you can track him down, you''ll definitely be able to uncover more information."

    Adam nodded in response, and he believed what the glutton was saying. She was just a tool that didn''t have any control over her life and freedom, and the same most likely applied to everyone else in the organization as well.

    "I''d like to go into your psychic world and take a look if you don''t mind."

    "Sure."

    The glutton reached out her arm, and Adam quickly entered her psychic world.

    As soon as Adam entered her psychic world, he was immediately struck by a sense of frustration. In order to not waste time, Adam didn''t pay any heed to how the glutton''s personality had taken shape.

    The host of every single high-level anomaly always had an unfortunate past, and on top of that, they also had to have had some type of innate personality ws. Only with those two factorsbined could such a powerful anomaly arise.

    Adam clearly recalled Li Qi''s story. The boy had been controlled by his mother for his entire childhood, and he had attempted suicide on many asions, but even so, the nun anomaly in his psychic world hadn''t been of a very high level.

    If it had managed to advance a step further and devoured Li Qi''s original psychic body, then perhaps it would''ve been able to evolve into a level four or level anomaly, but even so, that still wasn''t very powerful.

    The most powerful anomaly that Adam had ever seen belonged to Noah, and after being released from prison, Adam had conducted some research into him. After interacting with him on multiple asions, Adam was able to deduce that Noah was a sociopath with an intense desire for control and power.

    Additionally, he had endured misfortune throughout his entire life, and it was due to thisbination of factors that he had developed such an almighty anomaly.

    Adam had already seen far too many tragic stories like his.

    After fusing as one with Hellhound, Adam quickly rushed over the irrelevant psychic modules before arriving at the ones that contained the glutton''s recent memories.

    In this memory, the glutton was in the process of securing funds.

    She quickly infiltrated the psychic world of the owner of a restaurant chain, and after examining his memories, she essed the safe in his home to obtain arge quantity of gold and valuable collectors'' pieces.

    After securing these items, she sold them for a type of special electronic currency on the dark web before using the money to hire some hitmen.

    For a high-level adapter, securing funds through illegal means wasn''t a difficult task.

    Furthermore, her objective was to kill people and create chaos anyway, and she was mostly killing important figures, most of whom had a great deal of wealth for her to take.

    Through examining her memories, Adam could see that the glutton had carried out a total of four missions using simr methods.

    With her neuron transmitter and immense psychic power, she was always able to quicklyplete her objectives, and the more she did this, the more proficient at it she became.

    Mechguard units were very formidable, but in order to prevent them from getting out of control, their associative abilities had always been suppressed. Hence, they continued to operate ording to the most rigid and inflexible code, making it very difficult for them to solve ratherplex cases like these.

    Adam wasn''t interested in seeing how the glutton carried out her missions, and he continued to retrace her memories back to the day that she was granted a new life.

    Just as she said, it was a cold and damp night. It was raining outside, and the entire basement was filled with the stench of rot and decay.

    At the time, the glutton was still male, and he was a 300-kilogram mountain of fleshying on a bed that had copsed long ago. He was trying to get up using his prosthetic limbs, but they had given out long ago and werepletely useless.

    His entire body was covered in bedsores, and some parts of his rotten flesh had already spawned maggots. All that awaited him was a miserable and painful death.

    However, on this day, the door of the basement was suddenly opened, and a masked figure in white entered the room.

    "I''m here to give you a choice," the figure in white dered in a firm and concise manner.

 Chapter 397: A Chance

    <h4>Chapter 397: A Chance</h4>

    "Who... are you? Are you from... a support organization? Help me..."

    The glutton called out for help from his bed, but the figure in white strode directly toward him, seemingly having not heard him at all.

    "I''m here to give you a choice. The choice is yours to make voluntarily, and no one will force you."

    "What are you talking about?"

    The glutton''s oral cavity had already split open, and some rotten fluids sprayed out as he spoke.

    The figure in white remained unfazed as he continued, "All of the choices are to be made by you, and you have an opportunity right now. Have you heard of adapters?"

    "I''ve seen stuff about them on the inte before."

    "Have you heard of nk tes?"

    "No."

    .

    "I''m giving you an opportunity right now to be an adapter and exchange this body of yours for a healthy one, but in exchange, you''ll be losing a part of your freedom."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "You have toplete some missions every month to earn points, and you can do anything, as long as it creates chaos. You can kill an olddy crossing the street, you can poison the food served in the municipal government cafeteria, you can create some type of hazardous chemical and leak it... As long as you do that, you can do anything else you want, and we won''t stop you. So what''s your choice going to be?"

    "Who are you?"

    "What is your choice?" the figure in white repeated. "We have a limited number of spots. You''re already in an unsalvageable state, so why don''t you give this a try?"

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, but I''m definitely willing to change to a new body."

    ording to the glutton''s memories, after he agreed to the offer, a group of people arrived to transport him into a vehicle.

    The interior of the vehicle was modified to maximize capacity, and inside was a cutting-edge mobile hospital.

    After the glutton was loaded into the vehicle, all types of needles were pierced into his body, and in particr, many electronic chips were attached to the top of his head. After that, the glutton''s consciousness began to fade, and the final thing that he saw before falling unconscious was a person, one that was familiar to Adam as well, namely the director.

    In the instant that Adam saw the director in the glutton''s memories, he was finally convinced that his own theory and the information given to him by Raven were all urate, and that the director was indeed the one behind all of this.

    What is he doing? What is the purpose of his actions? Is he helping me? No, that''s definitely not it. He doesn''t care whether I live or die, and we have no connection aside from our shared genes.

    Thinking back to all of the close calls he had endured in Shadow City, Adam immediately dismissed any possible notion that the director could''ve been doing this to help him.

    However, that only made him more perplexed.

    The director was essentially the ruler of Shadow City, so why was he wreaking havoc in Sandrise City? Furthermore, it seemed that he was purely wreaking havoc with no objective, nor even any personal emotions.

    What on earth is he trying to aplish?

    Right as Adam was mulling over these questions, everything suddenly began to copse around him, and he looked up at the sky to find that the entire psychic world was folding on itself.

    This was a sign that the host had passed away.

    There were only several minutes between a person''s death and theplete disintegration of their brain cells, and it was in those few minutes that one''s psychic world would copse.

    Adam immediately left the glutton''s world without any hesitation upon seeing this.

    Upon returning to the interrogation room in the real world, Adam saw that blood was already flowing out of glutton''s nostrils, eyes, and ears, as if something hadpletely destroyed his brain from the inside.

    "..."

    Right at this moment, someone knocked on the door of the interrogation room before stepping inside, and it was Shae carrying a copious amount of food.

    Unfortunately, the food was no longer required.

    "Is he dead?"

    "Yes."

    "What do I do with all this food then?"

    "You can have it."

    "I can''t finish all of this! I bought enough for seven people. Where are you going?"

    "I''m going to call Cowboy. He has a lot of contacts, and I want to get in touch with a brain specialist to see what''s inside her head."

    "I don''t think you have the time to do that."

    "What do you mean?"

    "The police station has already been surrounded by reporters, and everyone''s waiting for a report on what happenedst night. Some people have already posted footage of the incident onto the inte, and some special psychic police officers were sighted in the footage, so not only has our police station been surrounded, the same applies to all police stations with special psychic police officers."

    "I see. I''ll take care of what''s happening outside, you focus on finding a brain specialist."

    "Got it."

    Adam thought that he was already ustomed to facingrge crowds, but as he made his way out of the police station, he still couldn''t help but be stunned by what he saw.

    It wasn''t like he hadn''t been surrounded by reporters before. On the contrary, he had been surrounded by throngs of reporters on multiple past asions, but none of those asions couldpare with this one.

    Not only was there a huge number of reporters outside, there were even more people surrounding the reporters, and all of them were extremely worked up. If it weren''t for the presence of the Mechguard units in the area, they would''ve rushed straight into the police station.

    Are virtual idols that popr? -

    Following Adam''s awakening, he had spent most of his life pursuing his goals, and aside from the few times that he had been with Twerking Karen, he had engaged in barely any other recreational activities, so he didn''t understand what these virtual idols meant to the average person, nor was he aware thatpared with the political battle between the northern and southern congresses, the average person was much more interested in living their lives.

    Hence, even the fiercest of political conflicts would only create a limited stir among the general public, but the demise of dozens of virtual idols could stir everyone into a frenzy.

    Looks like I have to answer these questions carefully, Adam thought to himself as he strode out of the police station.

    As soon as he did so, he was immediately met with a tidal wave of sound, and he couldn''t help but be impressed with the police station''s soundproofing measures. In the interrogation room, he wasn''t able to hear anything at all.

    "Please quiet down, everyone. If you have questions for me, then I''ll need to be able to hear them."

    Some of the reporters and fanatical virtual idol fans began to calm down a little upon seeing Adam emerge from the police station, but it still took quite a while before themotionpletely died down, following which Adam pointed at a reporter from a television station with close ties to the northern congress, indicating for that reporter to ask their question.

    "Hello, sir, you must be Mr. Adam, the current special psychic police officer and one of the mayoral candidates, right?" The reporter made sure to paint Adam in a very ttering light with these favorable titles before asking, "Are you aware of what happened at the Fujiwara Corporationst night?"

    "Not only am I aware of what happened, I was there at the time."

    Adam''s response immediately sent the crowd into a frenzy once again, and this time, themotionsted over 10 minutes before dying down again.

    "Everyone, be quiet and listen to what he has to say!"

    "Last night, I received a tip-off, informing me that the group of killers that have been recently active have set their sights on the virtual idols and their producers. After hearing about this, my colleagues and I arrived on the scene together."

    ¡­¡­

    Adam gave everyone a recount of what had taken ce the night before, but of course, he made sure to ce special emphasis on the role that he and his colleagues had yed during the incident.

    However, that wasn''t what the people were interested in hearing about.

    "Have those databases really been destroyed in the explosion?"

    "That''s right."

 Chapter 398: Impregnable Fortress

    <h4>Chapter 398: Impregnable Fortress</h4>

    m!

    A person fell off the sky before falling onto the ground like a limp ball of dough.

    The buildings in Sandrise City were so tall that the person who had jumped off this particr building was reduced to apletely unrecognizable state uponnding.

    He passed through the neon lights in the sky before being captured by the roadside surveince cameras, following which Mechguard units arrived to clean up the scene, as well as to send the data they had gathered to the Dataist Union.

    This was the 361st suicide on this day, and in total, 382 people had passed away, out of which 21 had been crushed to death by thosemitting suicide.

    After Adam revealed the extent of damage, the Fujiwara Corporation also released a public statement two hourster, confirming that the databases had been destroyed, and that some virtual idols were unrecoverable.

    After the list of unrecoverable virtual idols was released, there was another spike in the suicides taking ce.

    "You shouldn''t have released the news before the Fujiwara Corporation."

    Standing in front of Adam was an Asian man by the name of Toshiyuki Matsumara, and he was a high-level consultant in the electoral team that Cowboy had assembled for Adam.

    At this moment, he appeared to be quite displeased, and there was a serious look on his face as he said, "Releasing bad news like this will impact your public image. You should''ve waited for someone else to do this. The Fujiwara Corporation didn''t release any public statement for fear of invoking the wrath of the general public, and now, you''re the one who''s going to be targeted."

    "But he''s received more votes because of this," Cowboy said as he examined the live vote counter on the website.

    "Of course that''s a good thing, but that''s only a short-term impact. The best course of action would''ve been to hide your knowledge of what happenedst night and exert pressure on the Fujiwara Corporation to force their hand." Toshiyuki Matsumara was a very cautious man, and he continued, "Having said that, what''s done is already done, and from here, our priority is to manipte the resulting consequences to be in our favor. Did you record footage of what you didst night?"

    "I did. The entire process was recorded, including even the psychic battles," Adam replied with a nod.

    He had sought out those killers for the objective of securing votes, so evidence of his involvement was of the utmost importance.

    "Alright, in that case, what we need to do now is to draw more attention to your involvement inst night''s incident, informing more people of what you did, rather than what you failed to do. It was thanks to your intervention that the real-time data of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of virtual idols was saved. We have to promote this notion as much as possible, and we have to split this promotion up into several stages, but there''s a problem right now..."

    "What is it?"

    "We don''t have enough funds. Our team has received some political donations recently, but the total sum isn''t very significant, so we''re still missing a lot of money if we want to promote this incident and use the media in our favor."

    "Have you still not paid a visit to those two majorpanies?" Cowboy asked.

    "I haven''t had time..."

    "You should go as soon as possible. I''ll contact them for you now. Also, your footage and the footage captured by me and the others have to be submitted to the team to be edited."

    After giving those rmendations, Cowboy dialed the number of the assistant to the chairman of Orto Technologies to arrange a meeting.

    Meanwhile, Adam merely turned and departed.

    After Adam left the room, Toshiyuki Matsumara was silent for a while, and after Cowboy ended his call, he asked, "Mr. Adam doesn''t seem like a rash person, so why didn''t he consult his team before making this public statement?"

    "Because there are certain factors driving his decisions. He''s a rather obsessive person, and he''s very fixated on uncovering the secrets behind his past and his identity, which is why he doesn''t like to keep secrets from the general public.

    ¡°As for the consequences, all of the people involved are adults, so the decisions that they make are entirely up to them. To him, it''s much more important that they make an informed decision, rather than be kept in the dark and misled."

    Toshiyuki Matsumara was silent for a moment, then nodded as he mused, "I suppose his openness and insistence on spreading the truth will be our main weapon for this election. I was too focused on political maneuvers and lost sight of the big picture. The people of Sandrise City have already gotten sick of those spotless political derations long ago, and they need someone like Mr. Adam."

    ¡­¡­

    Perhaps it was due to Adam''s identity, or perhaps it was due to the fact that he was rapidly gaining poprity as a mayoral candidate. In any case, it would''ve normally taken very long to arrange a meeting with the chairman of Orto Technologies, but on the very same day that he was contacted by Cowboy, the chairman invited Adam to his home.

    Cowboy apanied Adam on the visit, and the two of them arrived in Area 77, the wealthiest area in all of Sandrise City.

    Prior toing here, Adam had been to quite a few affluent neighborhoods, including the areas that Deranged Pig and Lamp Keeper Herman lived in.

    However, Area 77 waspletely different. It was virtuallypletely isted, and there were no forms of public transport leading to the area, not even a void rail track.

    Even Adam and Cowboy had to go through a check-in to enter the area.

    As the two of them arrived on the outskirts of Area 77 in a hover car, they were greeted by the sight of a moat.

    To be more urate, it was more like a vast ring-shaped ind sea.

    It was said that the bodies of water around Area 77 led straight to the sea, and a series of tall spires could be seen on the other side.

    Upon the arrival of Adam''s group, they were immediately met with Mechguard units that gathered their basic information before transmitting to the people inside, and only after the information was confirmed were they granted passage.

    "It seems like Mechguard units have be personal belongings of theirs," Adam couldn''t help but remark.

    "Ever since a century ago or even further back than that, there have always been more police officers and better security measures in affluent areas than impoverished areas," Cowboy replied. "People have always been like this, and it won''t change in 100 years, 1,000 years, or even 10,000 years. Some people will inevitably take up more resources than others."

    "Does the Dataist Union permit the privatization of Mechguard units?"

    "I forgot to tell you how those people obtained their resources. All of them obtained their resources while acting within the boundaries of the rules. These things are all legally permitted, and those people are the ones who make the rules. Thew permits them to do this, and the Dataist Union has no right to intervene."

    As Cowboy was speaking, a smart airship flew over from the massive moat.

    The airship was traveling extremely quickly, but its flight was very stable, and it was impossible to find such a technologically advanced airship anywhere else in Sandrise City.

    Following the airship''s arrival, the artificial intelligence program invited Adam and Cowboy to take a seat before the airship set off toward the true Area 77.

    After flying quickly over the ind sea, the airship arrived in the air above Area 77, and the tall spires that had appeared murky and indistinct from afar gradually became clearer.

    As it turned out, those tall spires were all mansions, and the spires themselves acted only as bases for the hovering inds above them.

    Each ind had aplete ecosystem, and the owner of each mansion was also the owner of one of the hovering inds.

    Not only that, but unmanned aerial vehicles and all types of mechanical security enforcement units were flying over all of the inds.

    At this point, it was no exaggeration to say that Adam was a master among adapters, but even he feltpletely powerless in the face of these security measures. These inds were impossible to infiltrate.

    "High-speed elevators are connected to the underside of these aerial inds, and the elevators can descend dozens, even over 100 meters into the ground, where there areplete doomsday survival bases inside.

    ¡°Lead bs are fitted onto the ceilings of all of these survival bases, and with the ground above them being several dozen meters thick, they would be able to survive even nuclear missilespletely unscathed.

    ¡°Furthermore, there are warning systems above the inds, and all of the residents have connections with the National Department of Defense, so if anyone were to fire a nuclear missile at Area 77, they would immediately be notified and flee into the survival bases with at least a minute to spare. This ce is a true impregnable fortress."

 Chapter 399: Propaganda and Votes

    <h4>Chapter 399: Propaganda and Votes</h4>

    The airship carried them into the air above an ind before descending, and Adam and Cowboy disembarked.

    As soon as they emerged from the airship, they were immediately greeted by several employees, and that showed Adam the only possible hole in this so-called impregnable fortress.

    "Human presence is still required. Even though machines can rece humans in the vast majority of cases, there are still some jobs that only humans can do."

    Adam and Cowboy were led by the group of employees to theke at the center of the aerial ind, which had been constructed to resemble a beach, and there were some animals around the area that Adam recalled were supposed to have already been extinct.

    Sitting on a beach chair on the artificial beach was a man in his fifties, and he stood up slowly upon witnessing the arrival of Adam and Cowboy.

    He wasn''t dressed in a very formal fashion at all, wearing a pair of board shorts and flip flops, and he greeted Adam''s duo with a great deal of enthusiasm.

    "It''s a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Adam, and long time no see, Mr. Cowboy."

    "The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Kevin Reed."

    Even though Adam had beenining about the amount of resources that the residents of Area 77 had imed for themselves on the way here, he needed to borrow those resources, so he was addressing the Orto Technologies chairman in a very polite manner.

    "Here, take a seat," Kevin said as he led Adam and Cowboy to his beach chair.

    Even though the sky had already turned dark, there was a glowing sphere that resembled an artificial sun in the air above the beach chair, illuminating the entire area so that it was as bright as day.

    Adam took a seat on another beach chair, and an assistant quickly brought him a ss of watermelon juice. Following the departure of all of the assistants, the three of them were left to speak in private.

    "I''ve heard about your electoral campaign, Mr. Adam. You''ve secured quite arge number of votes recently, elevating you from the seventh position to close to fifth. Barring any mishaps, you should be able to reach the fifth position in theing few days.

    ¡°However, when ites to mayoral elections, there are only two possible oues: either you''re sessfully elected, or you fail, so there''s almost no difference between the candidate that''s in second ce and the one in eighth ce. You understand what I''m saying, right, Mr. Adam?"

    "I do. You want me to tell you how I n to win this election, right? My initial n for my campaign is to put a strong emphasis on improvingw and order. In the wake of the incident concerning the virtual idols, there will be a lot of scrutiny ced onw and order from the general public.

    ¡°If I can capture the perpetrators and have them detained, I''m sure I''ll receive arge number of votes for my efforts, and I think there would be a decent chance for me to win the election."

    "Pardon me for being frank, Mr. Adam, but I''ve done some research on you prior to your arrival, and with your powers, I don''t think it''s very realistic for you to be able to take down all of those powerful adapters. I''ve conducted some research into those killers as well, and all of them are very formidable.

    ¡°Even the weakest ones among them are all superior in power to the Lamp Keepers of the southern congress, and as for the strongest ones, even Commander himself would struggle to defeat them. On top of that, there''s a huge number of them, so it''ll be very difficult for you to uproot the entire organization.

    ¡°If you''re unable topletely eradicate the organization, then the remaining members will continue to wreak havoc in the city, and your campaign will fall t on its face."

    "What I''m gathering here is that you don''t believe in my power, right?"

    "That''s correct," Kevin replied in a straightforward manner. "I''ve examined your information over and over again, and you''re certainly very strong, but you''re not among the cream of the crop."

    "If you''ve seen my information, then I''m sure you''re aware that I''ve disyed an astonishing rate of growth. Do you know what I was like prior to my trip to Shadow City, following my return, and where I stand right now?"

    Adam inched closer to Kevin as he spoke, looking straight into Kevin''s eyes, and Kevin looked directly back at him,pletely unfazed.

    In the end, Kevin chuckled as he gave Adam a firm pat on the shoulder and said, "You''re right. There are still a few months left, and I like someone with confidence. I was going to make a political donation of 40 million to your campaign, but I''ve changed my mind now.

    ¡°Instead, I''m going to pledge 1.5 billion dors to your campaign. I''m sure this is a sufficient show of my sincerity, and the funds will be transferred to your public donations ount."

    "That''s a massive donation!"

    Even though Adam had already experienced a lot up to this point, he still couldn''t help but be stunned by this number.

    "I''m willing to invest this much as I think you''re worth the investment. Even if you only have a 1 in 15 chances of being elected as mayor, this will have been a worthwhile investment. However, you have to be on your guard, the southern congress won''t be so easy to beat.

    ¡°There are far too many things that you still have to do in the next few months. By the way, let me take a look at your prosthetics." Kevin rose to his feet as he spoke, then walked in a circle around Adam to examine his prosthetic limbs, and an impressed look appeared on his face as he praised, "I can tell that this is the work of a true master, but the weaponry is a little outdated. If you trust me, I can send you some cutting edge stuff in the next few days. What do you think?"

    "That would be great."

    Orto Technologies was thergest arms manufacturer, so it had to have had many pieces of cutting edge equipment that hadn''t been released onto the market yet. In fact, it was said that they were responsible for manufacturing Mechguard units.

    Physical enhancements were enhancements all the same, and Adam wasn''t going to pass up any opportunity to grow stronger.

    "In that case, it''s settled. Here''s to a prosperous coboration!"

    ¡­¡­

    A few days after Adam received Orto Technologies'' political donation, a new wave of viral news about Adam swept across the inte and the Metaverse, revealing to the general public the extent of Adam''s involvement in the recent incident.

    "Ozawa Sensei was in that area as well! Thank heavens Officer Adam was there to save him," a middle-aged man mused to himself with a grateful expression as he sat in front of hisputer.

    One of the only things that single middle-aged men like him were concerned about was the safety of their revered pornographic virtual idols.

    Virtual idols weren''t always positive and healthy, but it was exactly because of this that they were able to cater to the masses.

    The middle-aged man in question was someone that had been born in a birth center, and he had no family, nor any intentions to start one. Every day, he worked the most mundane and boring of jobs, and his only hobby was to watch pornographic virtual idols.

    In his heart, this "Ozawa Sensei" was his wife, and they slept together in the Metaverse every night, so he was naturally extremely grateful that his "wife" had been saved by Adam.

    "If I recall correctly, he seems to be running for mayor. All politicians are scum, but I''m gonna give him my vote just for saving Ozawa Sensei."

    Simr scenes were unfolding all across Sandrise City.

    Even though some databases had been destroyed, Adam had managed to protect far more than the ones that had been destroyed, and discovering this, many people were willing to cast him their vote.

    Of course, there were also many fence-sitters who didn''t believe that Adam had actually yed the role that he imed he had, but what soon followed was a second wave of propaganda.

    Edited clips of the incident and the psychic battles that had taken ce at the scene were released.

    In the footage, Adam was risking his life as he pit himself against the killers, and the footage was edited in such a way to make the battles appear as perilous for Adam as possible.

    With the release of this supporting evidence, Adam received another batch of votes.

    Several dayster, he had already climbed to the fourth position, and he was flying up the ranks.

    At this rate, it wasn''t going to take long at all before he made the top three.

 Chapter 400: Meeting Peter Again

    <h4>Chapter 400: Meeting Peter Again</h4>

    However, as long as the group of killers remained atrge, there would be a persistent roadblock standing in the path of Adam''s campaign.

    Soon, another incident took ce, and this time, the middle ss had been targeted.

    One of the things that middle-ss citizens were most concerned about were their insurance and superannuation ounts. This time, a targeted attack had beenunched against an insurancepany. The adapter killers had stolen the memories of the insurancepany''s managers and data keepers, then infiltrated thepany''s databases to imnt a never-before-seen virus.

    As a result, all of the ounts were plunged intoplete chaos, and after that, they had destroyed the hard copies of the data in thepany''s warehouse, spreading fear and panic among all of thepany''s clients.

    "How many ounts have they destroyed?"

    "Hundreds of thousands. Here''s part of the footage from the site of the incident. We can''t make out the features of the suspects, and many of the tasks were carried out by thepany''s employees," Toshiyuki Matsumara said as he handed the file over to Adam. "Before theymitted these acts, all of the people involved disyed clear signs of suffering mental breakdowns."

    "Hold on, I seem to have spotted a familiar face." Adam paused the surveince footage, then zoomed into the image. "It really is him! Where is he right now?"

    "He''s in the interrogation room of the police station that you''re responsible for. Some of the suspects were taken by the police officers under the southern congress, but this man is among the group of suspects that we were able to keep."

    "Good. I''ll go pay him a visit."

    Adam arrived at the police station that he belonged to, and he quickly spotted an old acquaintance in one of the interrogation rooms.

    "Hello, Peter!"

    Adam made his way into the room and turned to the man before him with a hint of a smile on his face.

    The man was none other than Adam''s second patient during the time that he had spent as a psychotherapist, and their interaction at the time had left a very sour taste in Adam''s mouth.

    Adam recalled that at the time, Peter had requested a psychic cleanse, which was a psychic maintenance procedure that many wealthy individuals liked to get done.

    They would periodically seek out adapters to cleanse their psychic worlds of negative emotional baggage and aberrations, thereby ensuring that they were able to maintain the best level of mental health possible.

    Generally speaking, each treatment would cost somewhere between 100,000 to several hundred thousand dors.

    At the time, Adam was in dire need of money, so he had offered a rtively cheap price of 120,000 to 150,000, depending on the difficulty of the cleanse.

    It was no exaggeration to say that Peter''s psychic world at the time had been utterly filthy. There were all types of negative emotions piled up in it, so 150,000 was a very low price.

    After all, there were very few adapters to begin with, and adapter psychotherapists were even rarer. High-level adapters didn''t want to engage in this line of work, while newbie adapters could easily perish during jobs.

    "Do you still remember me?"

    Peter was quite lost and dazed to begin with, and the sight of Adam in his special psychic police officer uniform seemed to have caused his brain to short circuit, and he was rooted to the spot, staring nkly at Adam.

    "Let me give you a reminder: I performed a psychotherapeutic treatment on you once. ording to the contract, you should''ve given us 150,000 for the job, but in the end, you went back on our agreement and insisted that I didn''t do a good job, so you were only willing to give us 120,000.

    ¡°I bet you would''ve never imagined that in all of Sandrise City, you would fall into my hands. So tell me why you changed jobs. I recall that you were working in the finance sectorst time we met, are you working in insurance now?"

    "I changed jobs not long ago. The finance and insurance sectors have always been interconnected," Peter sighed, and he finally recalled who Adam was. "I was in the wrongst time. Sorry."

    "Do people like you always wait until moments like this before you finally apologize?" Adam took a seat, then looked straight into Peter''s eyes as he said, "Don''t you frequently get psychic cleanses performed on you? Theoretically speaking, someone like you shouldn''t suffer a mental breakdown and do something so extreme. Can you tell me about what happened?"

    "I... I don''t know what happened myself. I feel like I was framed."

    "What type of people did you meet before you burned those files?"

    "Can you tell me what my sentence will be first?"

    This was something that Peter was very concerned about.

    "You and your aplices destroyed the superannuation ounts of hundreds of thousands of people. Given the huge number of victims and the enormous sum of money lost, you''ll probably receive a sentence of over 100 years. You may even get thrown into Darvaza Prison. Have you heard of Darvaza Prison?"

    "I''ve seen some information about it on the inte."

    "Well, I can tell you now that I was locked up in there for a while, and a guy like you wouldn''t evenst three days in there before your internal organs are all dug out! Those people will devour your flesh, then use your brains to create artwork. I''m sure you know that I''m not exaggerating."

    Peter began to tremble uncontrobly from fear upon hearing this, and in this instant, the emotion of fear quickly began to pile up in his psychic world.

    "Don''t be so scared. If you give in to your fear, it won''t be long before you develop an anomaly, and your fear will slowly consume you. As you currently are, you won''t have anyone to administer psychotherapeutic treatments for you."

    "Save me! I didn''t do anything, I was framed!" Peter insisted in a desperate voice. "I want awyer! Get me awyer!"

    "Awyer isn''t going to help you. There''s concrete evidence that you burned all of those files. This is something that happened in the psychic world, so only an adapter can help you. Think back to all of the people that you met near the time of the incident and consolidate your memories. Otherwise, when I go in there, your memories will be nothing more than a blurry mess."

    "Who did I meet at the time? There''s no one special. Oh, I remember I was going to the bar to have some drinks that day after work, and I had only had a few drinks before someone tapped me on the shoulder and said that he wanted to buy me some drinks."

    "What happened after that?"

    "After that, I felt like I was in a daze for a short while, and the time didn''t seem to match up, but at the time, I didn''t think anything of it. I thought I had merely be disoriented from drinking, and that was what affected my perception of time, but now that I think back, that guy was definitely an adapter. I''ve had many psychotherapeutic treatments done on me, and it was a very simr feeling to when those adapter psychotherapists entered my psychic world!"

    "Was it a young man of a medium build?"

    Adam felt like Raven had to have been the one responsible for this, but Peter denied the notion.

    "No, it was a muscr middle-aged man."

    So there¡¯s someone other than Raven that can manipte someone''s actions? Looks like I have another annoying opponent to deal with! This group of killers really is full of talent!

 Chapter 401: Succubus Beth

    <h4>Chapter 401: Subus Beth</h4>

    While Peter was working on consolidating his memories from that day, Adam invaded his psychic world.

    .

    Having already performed a psychic cleanse on Peter once before, he was very familiar with Peter''s psychic modules.

    It seemed that Peter lived quite a monotonous life, and no new psychic modules had appeared aside from ones rted to sex, recreation, and work.

    Adam quickly tracked down his recent memories, and everything was normal between his resignation from the stock exchange office to themencement of his insurancepany job.

    Just a few days ago, he entered a very ordinary pub.

    The pub was simr to the type of beer bars that could be frequently seen at the ends of streets in Ennd, and it wasn''t veryrge, with many of its patrons drinking alone.

    For Peter, this was a normal day, and after arriving in the bar, he drank by himself while looking at the stocks and the news on hismunicator.

    With his alcohol intake, the environment in the bar began to turn blurry as a result of his inebriation.

    Hence, Adam didn''t notice the middle-aged man until he patted Peter on the shoulder and said, "Hey brother, how about I treat you to a drink?"

    "I''m sorry, I''m not interested in men," Peter replied as he turned to nce at the man while waving a hand to shoo him away.

    It was this nce that allowed him and Adam to catch a clear glimpse of the man.

    It was a muscr man that was over 190 centimeters tall with a thick beard and arms in excess of 45 centimeters in circumference.

    There were some prosthetic limbs on his shoulders, but his original limbs hadn''t been amputated or modified.

    This is a ssic adapter retrofitting configuration.

    After inspecting the man''s body, Adam looked at his face, particrly observing his eyes.

    Following his decision to defy Mr. One, Adam''s telegnosis had be even sharper, and just a single nce was enough for him to be able to tell that something wasn''t quite right about the man.

    This is a woman. In other words, his psychic body is female.

    This mismatch in the genders of the man''s physical and psychic bodies, coupled with the fact that he was an adapter, indicated to Adam that there was an over 90% chance that he belonged to the Chaos Raisers organization.

    Due to how precious nk tes are, there weren''t that many people in this world who had changed bodies.

    This wasn''t just because there were very few adapters in the world, another factor was that psychic body eradication technology and safe instation technology were among the most well-kept secrets in this world.

    Not only was this technology not open to the general public, it was impossible to find any information on it unless one had the right connections, and it was a piece of cutting-edge technology that had only matured in recent years.

    Shae''s "grandfather", who was supposed to have taken over her body, was an example of a failed instation.

    20 years ago, the technology had still been very rough around the edges, but the old man''s body was giving out on him, and that was why he had decided to take the risk to switch bodies.

    However, the eradication wasn''tplete, and the instation process had also gone wrong, thereby allowing Shae''s persona to survive to this day.

    Given the aforementioned reasons, there definitely weren''t many people capable ofpleting this procedure. Aside from organizations rted to the Guild of Immortality, the director was the only one that Adam knew to possess this technology.

    As long as this man wasn''t transgender, he was definitely harboring someone else''s persona.

    That just about confirms it.

    Adam examined the rest of Peter''s psychic world after that, and he couldn''t find any other information about the man, so it was clear that they had only ever met once.

    The psychic modules in Peter''s mind since their meeting were all slightly warped.

    The degree of warping was so minute that even the average adapter would''ve struggled to identify it, and only adapters of Adam''s caliber or higher would''ve been able to detect it.

    This can''t be used as evidence to indicate that he was hypnotized at all!

    Adam continued his inspection, and he discovered that Peter had indeed only evere into contact with that man once.

    However, what also became apparent to him was that Peter''s actions had be rather abnormal since that encounter. Whenever he was sorting important files, his consciousness would begin to blur as if he were being controlled, and everything around him would also be blurry and indistinct, as if he were inebriated.

    This can be used as partial evidence, but it''ll most likely only be taken as an indication that he''s suffering from a physical or mental ailment. There are simply far too few cases of adapter hypnotism...

    Adapters capable of hypnotizing others for long periods of time were exceedingly rare, and Adam was only aware of two such adapters, the first of which was Madam Tree, while this man was the second one.

    Long-term hypnotism could only be aplished through the modification of one''s psychic body or psychic modules, and it waspletely different from short-term hypnotism. The difference between the two was like that between manufacturing bicycles and manufacturing cars.

    After witnessing Peter destroy the paper documents, Adam didn''t find anything else useful, so he departed from Peter''s psychic world.

    After returning to the real world, Adam sat in his chair and pondered the situation for a while.

    There were a few other employees of the insurancepany who were in a simr situation to Peter. The middle-aged man in Peter''s memories had somehow altered their psychic worlds, thereby achieving his objective of creating chaos.

    This was an even more impactful heist than the one that Raven had pulled off.

    After all, virtual idols only existed in the virtual world, and their real-time data may have been impossible to recover, but the idols themselves could be easily recreated.

    Aside from a tiny minority of fanatical fans, the rest of the fans only treated virtual idols as a form of entertainment, but the same didn''t apply to superannuation.

    It was no exaggeration to say that superannuation was the lifeblood of workers, particrly in the present world, where money equated to immortality. Only with sufficient superannuation funds could they hope to live rtively happy lives in the Metaverse.

    Now that so many superannuation ounts had beenpromised, widespread pandemonium was sure to follow.

    On the flip side, if I can resolve this matter, it''ll definitely earn me a huge number of votes, so I have to make an effort here.

    Right as Adam was considering what to do next, he suddenly received an encrypted message on hismunicator.

    These encrypted messages were all sent using throwawaymunicators with overseas IP addresses purchased on the ck market. Adam was worried that the message could¡¯ve been carrying a virus, so he wasn''t going to open it, but the signature at the end of the message caught his attention.

    Raven?

    After seeing this name, Adam decided to open the message.

    "Dear Adam, long time no see..."

    As usual, Raven was as polite and gentlemanly as ever.

    "Piss off!" Adam cursed under his breath, then continued to read the message.

    "Congrattions on bing a mayoral candidate. I''ve been keeping an eye on you this entire time, and you did an exceptional job in Darvaza Prison. Also, I should mention that I ran into Diana and your new colleaguesst time, and Diana has be very powerful. Of course, she was very powerful to begin with, but she''s even stronger now.

    ¡°Among your new colleagues, the skinny guy is already really strong. Given how emaciated he looks, I presume you brought him out of prison, right? Do you need me to check him out? He has a very heavy aura of darkness about him. As I''m sure you''re aware, I''m an expert in this area, so I can see things others can''t.

    ¡°I sent you this message primarily because I wanted to speak to you about Subus Beth. I''m sure you''ve already received information about her. She''s a difficult opponent to deal with, and I propose we join forces to take her out."

 Chapter 402: Paper and Canvas

    <h4>Chapter 402: Paper and Canvas</h4>

    Raven''s message was very long, and Adam was quite perplexed by what he was reading. Raven seemed to have predicted the question in his mind, and the message went on to exin:

    "I''m sure you must be very confused. Subus Beth and I are in the same organization, so why would I plot against her. What you have to understand is that just because we''re in the same organization doesn''t necessarily mean that we''re allies. In fact, there are many people in my organization that I don''t even know as well as I know you.

    ¡°Most importantly, even though we share the same objective, we arepeting against one another, and so long as she exists, I will never have enough people on my side. I want to use this organization to create an empire of my own, yet Subus Beth is always able to recruit a bunch of newbies through special means.

    ¡°Those newbies are always able to earn a lot of points with her, and I really like some of those new recruits. Their abilities are very powerful andplement my abilities very well, so I''m very unhappy that they''ve been taken by someone else!"

    At the conclusion of thatst sentence was the first time that Raven had used an exmation mark, and for someone as mild-mannered as he was, this was a very strong indication of his dissatisfaction.

    Looks like he really is pissed off.

    A grin appeared on Adam''s face as he continued to read the message.

    "Hence, I have sufficient reason to take her out, and I''m sure the same applies to you. We can work together to bring her down for our own ends. What do you say? If you agree, then let''s meet up tonight at the old spot."

    The old spot?

    It took Adam a moment to figure out where this supposed old spot was.

    It was Area 8, the area that the Hong Kong gang was situated in.

    It was the ce where their previous negotiation took ce, and it was also where Adam had ambushed Hebi no Mikost time.

    Come to think of it, Hebi no Miko seems to be working with Raven at the moment.

    He and Hebi no Miko were sworn enemies, and given her personality, there was no way that she would simply let bygones be bygones, so Adam was worried that this was a trap.

    However, after considering the situation extensively, he wasn''t able to think of any better solutions.

    The man in Peter''s memories had left behind far too little information, and it would''ve been impossible to find him with just the clues in the memories of Peter and his colleagues alone.

    If he were to use the police system, then an extremely lengthy process was sure to follow. In the past, whenever the police hadunched searches for hidden fugitives, it had always taken months to reach an oue.

    The only ally of his who could gather any meaningful information on this case in a short time would be Thn, but at the moment, Thn wasying low and keeping a low profile due to the sensitive situation he was in.

    Furthermore, even if he could investigate the matter as he pleased, it was still yet to be seen whether he would''ve been able to dig up any information, and there simply wasn''t enough time left for Adam to take the slow approach.

    It seems like he''s already predicted that I''ll definitely agree to his offer.

    Raven seemed to always be able to see right through him, and that was a very ufortable feeling for Adam.

    While Adam was lost in thought, Peter slowly regained consciousness, and as soon as he did so, he began to weep.

    "You entered my psychic world just now, right, Officer Adam? You can see that I''m innocent, right? I was framed! Can you write down your observations to be used as evidence supporting my innocence in court?"

    "My apologies, but it''s very difficult for evidence collected from the psychic world to stand up in court as they could just be a figment of your imagination. Even if special circumstances arise, there''s no way to determine whether you''re suffering from mental problems, or took drugs at the time, or if some other factor affected your judgment."

    .

    Adam took a nce at Peter, then leaned down and whispered into his ear, "If we hadn''t met before, perhaps I would''ve been willing to provide a more detailed record and leave the rest to the judge, but seeing as we have met in the past, all I can say is... Darvaza Prison wees you."

    Adam patted Peter on the head, then turned to depart, but as soon as he stood up, Peter roared, "You weren''t like this before, Officer Adam! I''m sorry, I truly am! Please give me another chance!"

    "I wasn''t like this before?" Adam thought back to when he first awakened, then thought of all of the deception and near-death experiences that he had been forced to endure. "Back when I first awakened, I was a nk te. Do you know what a nk te is?

    ¡°Essentially, I was like a nk canvas. As for how I became like this, this is how you and the rest of society painted me out to be. You were one of the brushes responsible, so this is karma. You painted filth onto my canvas, and it''se back to bite you."

    Adam exhaled at the conclusion of his dialog, and in that instant, he discovered that he really had changed.

    At the moment, he was definitely no longer a nk te. Instead, he had turned into a dark canvas.

    ¡­¡­

    Ultimately, Adam decided to meet Raven that night.

    Even if this were a trap, he had no choice but to go.

    However, prior to his setting off, he gathered the psychic mutant trio, Shae, and Diana.

    After all of them had arrived in the lobby of the veterinarian hospital, he pulled Noah out of detainment.

    "I need your help," Adam said in a direct and straightforward manner. "There''s an extremely powerful anomaly in this man''s psychic world, and it''s far too powerful for me to handle on my own, so I need you guys to help me kill it."

    "I''m happy to help," Mole replied. "But where are those subordinates of yours? Those serious-looking guys and that skinny guy who always looks like his mother just died."

    "Are you talking about Guang Fei and those other guys?" Adam shook his head as he exined, "I don''t want them to know my secret."

    Even though Guang Fei and the others were technically his subordinates, in reality, they were only colleagues, and some of them couldn''t even qualify as his colleagues.

    Adam''s secret was very important, and even though it had already been leaked to some people, they were all people who were in his inner circle.

    If his secret were to be leaked, Adam had a feeling that he would immediately be hunted down by an adapter of the same caliber as the likes of Mr. One and Madam Tree.

    Those two had to have been adapters on the same level as Hebi no Miko, and they could draw upon an immense amount of power thanks to their integral positions in the southern congress. Additionally, both of them were extremely intelligent, so they were definitely going to be far more difficult to deal with than a crazy woman like Hebi no Miko.

    As long as they didn''t decide to target Adam, he would be fine, but if they changed their minds, then Adam would''ve been as good as dead.

    In addition to Mr. One and Madam Tree, there would''ve been far more people in the southern congress and the Guild of Immortalitying after him if they were to find out his secret, so he absolutely couldn''t reveal it to anyone else.

    "What about me?" Diana asked as she pointed at herself. "I know your secret as well."

    "Well, I''d say you''re also part of my inner circle." Adam didn''t have much reservations when it came to Diana. "We''ve been through so many life-and-death battles together, and you''re not very bright, so I don''t think you''d... Oof!"

    Diana put a premature end to the conversation with a straight punch.

    With that, it was time for the true battle to begin.

    "If we can take down this anomaly, then my powers will receive a massive boost." As Adam was speaking, he set up the psychic projector and assigned Shae to control the device from the outside. "It''s been a long time since I used this thing.

    ¡°There''s a slight dy between what''s happening in the psychic world and what''s being projected, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled. This is going to be an extremely formidable opponent, so any of us could find ourselves in life-threatening danger in the blink of an eye."

 Chapter 403: The Despair of the Elderly

    <h4>Chapter 403: The Despair of the Elderly</h4>

    The Angel of Death, Noah, had delivered the death penalty to countless elderly people ording to his own set ofws. Even after he was thrown into Darvaza Prison for his crimes, he still maintained that he hadn''t done anything wrong.

    He had a code of conduct that he strictly abided by, and regardless of what anyone told him or what the consequences of his actions were, he was convinced that he was doing the right thing.

    Among all of the people that Adam had seen, he was the most mentally twisted one, so his anomaly was also unprecedentedly powerful.

    If it weren''t for Diana''s inclusion in the part, Adam wouldn''t have chosen to have a second go at the Angel of Death at this time.

    "Why do I have to stay out here again? I want to fight as well!"

    Shae was fiddling around with the controller with a displeased look on her face, but despite her dissatisfaction, she knew that she was the only one who could take on this role and there were barely any normal people present in the room.

    "Just how powerful is this anomaly, Adam?" Ever since Rabbit was saved by Adamst time, she had noticed a problem. "It seems like it''s bing more and more a struggle for us to keep up with youtely. Why have your opponents suddenly be so powerful?"

    "My enemies have always been this powerful, it''s just that back when I was weak, I couldn''t afford to face them directly," Adam exined. "Once the battle begins, just stay on the edge of the battlefield and assist us from there. Given how powerful that anomaly is, it''ll be very difficult for any of you to inflict substantial damage onto it."

    "Is the anomaly more powerful than Hebi no Miko?" Diana asked.

    She had set Hebi no Miko as her target, so she liked topare Hebi no Miko against all of her opponents.

    "I''d say Hebi no Miko is still more powerful. We wouldn''t be able to beat Hebi no Miko by ourselves. If I had topare this anomaly to someone, then I''d say it''s close to Wax Figure''s level, so it''s a very formidable opponent in its own right."

    "You mean that waxy guy?"

    "That''s right."

    "I''m starting to get a little excited! Four Wax Figures should be evenly matched in battle against Hebi no Miko... Let''s begin."

    Shae connected everyone together, and the group entered Noah''s psychic world.

    Thus, a giant dragon and four animals appeared at the same time in a retirement home.

    .

    "Damn, there''s not a single normal person among them. They''re all psychic mutants!" Shae sighed as she watched the projection in the real world. "How are they supposed to win the public''s trust when they look like that? How can they be expected to vote for a squirrel as their mayor? If I was from the southern congress, I''d make a big fuss out of this..."

    Even though Shae wasining about the appearance of Adam and the others, she was highly focused and alert.

    She had heard about this Angel of Death quite early on, and she knew if they could take it down, then Adam would receive a significant boost to his powers, cing him among the top adapters in the world.

    At the same time, Shae had a feeling that things weren''t going to be so simple.

    ¡­¡­

    "Green Heaven?" In the psychic world, Mole was looking up at the sign above his head with a perplexed expression. "This ce gives me a really strange feeling. The air is so fresh, and the environment is so harmonious. Shouldn''t the psychic worlds of these freaks be really forbidding and filled with a foul stench?"

    "His psychic world is like this because he thinks he''s doing the right thing."

    Prior toing here, Adam had taken the time to pay a visit to the Green Heaven Retirement Home in the real world.

    Just as he imagined, in the real world, the retirement home was a tiny apartment-style retirement home with old and outdated facilities. Furthermore, even following that incident concerning Noah, the retirement home was still operating and hadn''t been shut down.

    There were simply far too few ces where impoverished elderly citizens could choose to spend their final years.

    The wealthiest people in the world were able to enjoy physical immortality, while those who weren''t quite at that level of wealth, but were still quite wealthy in their own right, were enjoying life as cyberliches in the Metaverse. Even the middle-ss citizens were able to attain immortality by working asborers in the Metaverse.

    Even though immortality in the Metaverse for the majority of middle-ss citizens was aplete scam, they didn''t know that themselves.

    The datapression matter was a secret, and it was virtuallypletely unknown by anyone aside from the higher-ups of the Gaia Organization.

    In this world, only the most impoverished elderly individuals went to retirement homes. They didn''t even have the money to hire a mechanical carer, so they could only be managed in a centralized system.

    Due to how impoverished they were, even businesspeople didn''t want to have anything to do with this sector, which was why there were so few retirement homes in all of Sandrise City.

    There was perhaps only a single retirement in one area, so these old people had no options, and that was why Green Heaven was still operating as normal even after the Noah incident.

    After visiting the retirement home once, Adam was struck by the urge to visit it again as he could sense a unique aura of despair there, so it had to have been a perfect ce for nurturing anomalies.

    However, that was Green Heaven in the real world, whereas in Noah''s psychic world, Green Heaven had been imagined to be like a true heaven.

    "Where''s the anomaly?" Diana asked in her dragon form, and her voice was booming like rumbling thunder. "It''s been a long time since I''ve had a good battle!"

    "It was in that pce-like building thest time I came here, but I''m not sure where it is this time, given anomalies are free to move around in the psychic worlds of their hosts as they please..."

    Before Adam had a chance to finish, Diana had already soared into the heavens and was flying directly toward the holy pce.

    After arriving above the pce, she opened her giant mouth to release an almighty breath, and the ck mes instantly destroyed the roof of the pce, creating a massive hole.

    Right as Diana was about topletely destroy the pristine pce with her draconic technomancy, a scale suddenly flew out of the building from the hole that she had just sted into the roof.

    At the same time, a burst of holy light erupted forth from within, alongside an authoritative deration: "Let me see into your heart, neer."

    The scale drew to a halt as it arrived before Diana, following which it began to emit a type of strange suction force.

    Diana wanted to resist, and she was even attacking the scale with her mes, but to no avail.

    The strange mist continued to pour out of her body before surging onto the two ends of the scale, where one side measured pain, while the other measured happiness.

    Of course, Diana''s life was one in which pain far outweighed happiness, but from down below, Adam noticed that Diana seemed to have experienced far more happiness than he had.

    It seems like she really enjoyed her time with Arthur.

    Adam heaved a faint sigh as he observed this from afar, and at the same time, he invoked Sludge before fusing with it.

    After the fusion wasplete, the scale had also arrived at its verdict.

    All of a sudden, a massive angle with a pair of ck wings crashed its way straight out of the pce''s roof.

    "Your life is one of pain. Particrly right now, your pain far outweighs your happiness. I will do you the kindness of putting an end to your life so that you can escape this torment," the angel dered, then invoked a morning star mace that it swung down toward Diana''s head.

 Chapter 404: The Scale of Death

    <h4>Chapter 404: The Scale of Death</h4>

    Diana evaded the attack, thenshed out at the angel with her ws, and thus, a physical brawl ensued.

    "Should we go in now?"

    "Not yet."

    Adam could tell that Diana had always been itching for a good battle to consolidate the improvements she had made during her special training under Sadou, and a battle of this caliber could allow her to execute everything that she had learned in practice, thereby elevating herbat prowess in a short time.

    "I''m d we don''t have to do anything. Why do I feel like our presence doesn''t even make any difference here?" Mole mused. "I think we really have fallenpletely out of the loop!"

    Diana has definitely be a lot more powerful than before...

    As Adam observed the ongoing battle, he could sense a clear improvement in Diana''s powers.

    In the past, Diana was like the embodiment of fury. All she had were battle instincts, and her bodily control and her usage of telegnosis had both been terrible.

    She was like an enraged bull with zero technical proficiency.

    However, in her current form, even though Diana''s body remained as massive as ever, she was no longer looking clumsy at all, and there was far more control and uracy in both her attacks and her evasion.

    Furthermore, it seemed that during the period of time that Adam was in prison, Diana had prioritized her visualization training.

    Her visualization subject was N¨ªeh?ggr, which, ording to legends, was one of the perpetrators that had destroyed the world tree, and symbolized disaster and destruction.

    Visualization was a practice that derived power from belief, and the more synergy one had with their visualization subject, the quicker they would be able to progress.

    On the opposite end of the scale was Wax Figure. He had already made a name for himself as a master adapter 30 years ago, but in the present day, he wasn''t considered to be particrly powerful among the second-rate adapters of the world.

    In the same generation, both Sadou and May were slightly superior to him, and that was because he was unable to find a suitable visualization subject among mythical and legendary characters.

    If he were to create a fake god, then that would be too hollow and baseless,cking in cultural foundation and logical support, so it would''ve been very difficult to use such an entity as a visualization partner.

    However, Diana was different. Her physical form and mental state were both extremely simr to N¨ªeh?ggr''s, so she was able to make rapid progress in her visualization training.

    At this point, she had already attained a domain of destruction, and as she unfurled her ck domain, everything within it began to copse and disintegrate.

    "I feel like we have to get back a little."

    Diana''s domain epassed a a farrger area than Adam''s, and upon being fully unleashed, it epassed half of the entire retirement home.

    All of the elderly people with blissful expressions on their faces were destroyed alongside the buildings.

    The angel of death waspletely infuriated by this.

    Noah firmly believed that everything that he had done was right, so in his imagination, the old people who had undergone his judgment were happy, yet Diana had just destroyed so many of the "happy" residents of his psychic world.

    Looking at the blissful old people around it meeting their demise, the benevolent aura radiating from its body disappeared, and it was reced by an aura of death.

    It kept Diana''s domain of destruction at bay with its holy light, then raised the scale in its hand and pointed it at Diana.

    The "pain" and "happiness" ends of the scale had turned to "life" and "death".

    The scale was quickly tilting toward death, and at the same time, Diana''s life force was rapidly receding.

    How is it this powerful?

    Adam was greatly rmed as he looked on from afar.

    He had witnessed Diana''s technomantic resistance before. As a dragon, Diana possessed tremendous technomantic resistance to begin with, and that had only improved thanks to her visualization training.

    ording to legends, N¨ªeh?ggr was capable of resisting even the magic of the gods. In fact, magical resistance was considered to have been one of its fortes.

    Sincemencing her visualization training, Diana had disyed superior technomantic resistance to May and Wax Figure during that battle against Hebi no Miko, withstanding Yamata no Orochi''s forbidden techniques for quite some time.

    This version of Diana was more powerful than the one from back then, but her body was withering away at a rapid rate, and even her scales were bing dry and t.

    This could only have meant one thing: the angel of death possessed superior single-target technomantic power to Hebi no Miko.

    Diana let loose a roar of indignation as she felt her body rapidly wither away.

    She was extremely powerful, yet her recent battles had all ended in defeat. She could ept being beaten by Hebi no Miko, but the notion of being inferior to this anomaly filled her with such intense rage that she began to prepare an almighty destructive technique at the cost of a vast amount of her psychic power.

    Countless technomantic arrays appeared within her domain of destruction, giving rise to countless balls of ck light.

    Diana had unleashed a simr technique in the past, but now that the technique was enhanced by her domain, these balls of ck light had be extremely powerful.

    Even the air and rays of light in the wake of these balls of ck light were instantly devoured or torn apart.

    Each ball of light that glided through the air left a trail of inky darkness behind it, and this level of destructive power was impacting the entire psychic world, while the dark rifts in the air lingered and refused to mend.

    The balls of ck light crashed into the angel of death, and they were finally able to inflict substantial damage upon the anomaly.

    The protective holy light around the angel''s body began to crack, as did its suit of holy armor. The balls of ck light crashed into its body, destroyingrge chunks of golden flesh and blood.

    It looks like we might have a chance, after all!

    Adam knew that at this point in the battle, it was time for him to get involved.

    Diana had alreadypleted her wish and proven her power, so she wouldn''t resent Adam for jumping in at a time like this.

    Furthermore, the angel of death had just sustained some injuries, and Adam wanted to strike it down once and for all.

    Following hisst battle against the angel of death, he had determined that it had to have been at least a level nine anomaly, perhaps even a level 10 anomaly.

    Both its physical and technomantic defenses were extremely potent, and the only anomalies at Adam''s disposal capable of harming it were Horse Face and Camera.

    His other anomalies would''ve struggled immensely to break through the angel''s defenses. Even in its current state, they wouldn''t have been able to do much to it.

    Adam didn''t dare to use Camera as it was simply far too fragile, and even a casual flick of a finger from the angel of death could kill Camera on the spot. It had taken Adam a great deal of time and effort to nurture Camera to this level, and it would''ve been a massive waste if it were to perish here.

    However, he was definitely open to the idea of getting Horse Face to attack the angel of death from afar.

    With that in mind, Adam arrived at the foot of the domain of destruction, then invoked Horse Face, shielding it behind his massive stone body.

    As soon as Horse Face appeared, it immediately began painting on the ground at Adam''s behest. Shortly thereafter, the Lamenting Wall took shape, and it began to emit a burst of tremendous suction force.

    However, this burst of suction force wasn''t powerful enough to move the angel of death, so Adam could only call to Diana for help.

    "Diana, throw that thing in here!"

 Chapter 405: The Angels Weakness

    <h4>Chapter 405: The Angel''s Weakness</h4>

    After hearing Adam''s call, Diana whipped its tail violently at the angel of death right as it was being struck by a ball of ck light.

    With her massive body and tremendous strength, she was able to strike the angel of death down from the heavens, following which Adam leaped up into the air, encircling his massive arm''s around the angel''s waist before throwing it into the Lamenting Wall.

    "Let''s go in as well!"

    Horse Face wasn''t going to be able to subdue the angel of death by itself, so Adam called out to Diana before jumping into the Lamenting Wall.

    He was already very familiar with the world within the Lamenting Wall, and even though he had seen them many times, he still couldn''t help but be moved by the sight of the despairing faces around him.

    After entering the Lamenting Wall, Adam didn''t dare to waste any time, immediately instructing Horse Face to unleash its most powerful attack upon the angel of death.

    Horse Face waved its brush through the air, and all of the faces illuminated by the radiance of the nuclear explosion, ones that carried emotions like despair, fear, insanity, and eptance, all of those faces turned to the angel of death in unison before letting loose the final scream of their lives.

    Those screams were the final expressions of despair let loose by the countless people facing the hellish nuclear explosion, and their voicesbined together to culminate in a strange sigh.

    A wave of emotions instantly washed over the angel of death.

    This emotional attack was one that had never failed, even against opponents far more powerful than Horse Face, but the angel of death turned out to be an exception.

    After being struck by the attack, the angel of death was only dazed for a second before the scale in its hand began to counteract the attack.

    A vast amount of pain was gathered on one end of the scale, while the angel of death raised its morning star mace.

    "All pain in this world should be brought to an end. If life isn''t full of joy, then it has no reason to exist."

    The holy light glowing from the morning star mace became brighter and brighter, and as the mace was swung down from above, the entire Lamenting Wall was instantly destroyed.

    Illuminated by the holy light, it was as if the tragic piece of artwork were an oil painting that had been thrown into a fire, and it quickly began to burn. Horse Face let loose an anguished howl, and it was almost killed in an instant.

    Thankfully, right before it was struck by the waves of holy light, Shae severed the connection from the real world, thereby saving Horse Face''s life.

    "That was close!" Adam eximed as his eyes sprang open in the real world. "It would''ve been a terrible loss if Horse Face had died in there."

    "There was no need to sever the connection, I was still fit to continue," Dianained after opening her eyes.

    "Give it a rest," Adam countered. "I saw what was happening to you in there. Your scales were splitting open from the angel''s holy light, and you were a spent force anyway, whereas I have a feeling that the angel wasn''t even using its full power. The damage that you were able to inflict upon it was virtually negligible, while you seem to be in much worse shape."

    "Its holy light isn''t much of a threat, but that scale that it was holding..."

    Diana''s voice trailed off there, and everyone knew that the scale had posed a major threat to her.

    If she were to face the same attack again, there was no way that she would''ve survived.

    That scale of death was an extremely rarew-type attack, and it was virtually impossible to defend oneself against.

    If I can obtain that power, it''ll be an extremely effective trump card against strong opponents.

    Not only did the angel of death possess tremendous power, its abilities were just as formidable, and Adam was already envisioning what it would look like in his army of anomalies.

    "If you want to beat it, then you have to ovee that scale first." Having witnessed the entire battle, Shae had a clear idea of what had to be done in order to defeat such an opponent. "Diana has outstanding defenses, and she should''ve been able tost longer in there, but she was quickly weakened by that scale. If she hadn''t lost a part of her life energy, I''m sure her retaliation would''ve been more powerful."

    Adam nodded in response with a contemtive expression.

    Theoretically speaking, all anomalies and psychic bodies had weaknesses, or ways through which they could be countered.

    If he could identify those weaknesses, then they would stand a far better chance next time.

    For the likes of Oni no Hanzou and Clown, who relied heavily on their clones, their weakness was their true body.

    For the likes of Diamond and Sludge, terrain-type abilities were a perfect counter.

    Invocators like Oni no Miko were weak in close quartersbat.

    So what was the weakness of that scale?

    All of a sudden, a thought urred to Adam, and he mused, "One one side of the scale is death, while life is on the other side, but in reality, during my two battles against the angel of death, I noticed that the first things that impact the bnce of the scale are pain and happiness, which means that there''s a very good chance that there''s a direct corrtion between the power of the scale and the pain experienced by its target.

    ¡°Realistic logic has to be followed in the manifestation of psychic bodies, and the same applies to anomalies as well. In the real world, Noah thinks of himself as an agent of justice. He killed all those old people to help them escape their pain and suffering. At the very least, that''s what he ims. That means that in reality, he most likely hasn''t killed any of the old people who appeared to have been quite happy."

    With that in mind, Adam crouched down and pped Noah awake, then asked, "Hey, out of all of the old people that you''ve killed, were there any who appeared to have been quite content with their lives?"

    "No!" Noah replied in a vehement manner. "Let me repeat myself again: I''m not a serial killer, I''m just someone who helps put others out of their misery! I told the judge that, and I told you the same thing..."

    p!

    Adam knocked him out with another p.

    "You hear that? He hasn''t killed anyone who''s been content with their lives."

    "So you''re saying that the scale may not be very effective on happy people?" Shae asked. "But how are you supposed to determine how happy a psychic body is?"

    "One''s psychic body is the most apparent representation of one''s psychic properties. In fact, many psychic bodies have physical features that reveal one''s psychic properties. What we have to do is find an ally that will be immune to the most powerful ability of that angel of death, while also being sufficiently powerful to take it down."

    "Where are we supposed to find anyone like that? No such person exists!" Shae eximed.

    "We''re pretty happy all the time," Mole interjected. "We get to y with animals every day, but we''re too noob to be able to do anything."

    "It''s true," Armadillo chimed in with a forlorn shake of his head. "It feels really bad that we''re unable to help Adam."

    "Adam''s been progressing far too quickly. During that battle just now, we couldn''t do anything aside from watch," Rabbit sighed. "I think we should just leave. We still have quite a bit of the prize money from Shadow City left, so let''s return to our original n and buy an ind."

    "We''ll leave after Adam gets elected as mayor."

    "There''s no guarantee that I''ll be elected, so let''s not count our chickens before they hatch," Adam said as he took a nce at the time. "I have something to do tonight, so I''ll need to go prepare."

    "Where are you going?"

    "That''s a secret."

 Chapter 406: Long Time No See

    <h4>Chapter 406: Long Time No See</h4>

    Area 8 still looked the same as during Adam''sst visit.

    There were electricityworks everywhere, some buried in the earth, some running along the ground, and some stretching between tall buildings.

    All of them had been set up to impede Mechguard units.

    Of course, there was also the matter of the surveince cameras in the area, which were constantly being damaged. Criminals had already mastered ways to damage the cameras from blind spots, and whenever new cameras were installed, they would quickly be destroyed or have their lenses covered in viscous ck substances.

    Mechguard had cleaned up this area on multiple asions, but to no avail.

    If the concentration of experienced criminals reached a certain level in a ce, then the effectiveness of Mechguard units would be ratherckluster, given their rigid programming.

    After all, ording to thew, as long as there was no evidence, it was impossible to convict someone.

    Destroying surveince cameras and setting up electricityworks were definitely both illegal activities, but as long as there was no footage captured of such activities, there was no incriminating evidence.

    Of course, the root cause for the high crime rate in this area was poverty.

    Sandrise City was a city that ran on money, and the same applied to the legal system.

    Of course, there were cutting-edge products in Mechguard. For example, Adam had recently learned that there was a new type of Mechguard unit developed by Orto Technologies by the name of "Wraiths".

    These Mechguard units specialized in reconnaissance, and they were extremely small and able to conceal themselves in the night. Furthermore, they were equipped with high-tech electronicpound eyes, and they also had heat vision and electric current detection abilities, so these old-school electricityworks would''ve beenpletely powerless to stop them.

    However, it was very expensive to manufacture such Mechguard units, and there was no incentive to deploy them to the poverty-stricken Area 8.

    Thus, due to a variety of factors, Area 8 had be paradise for criminals.

    As soon as Adam arrived in the area, someone was immediately onto him.

    At this point, Adam''s telegnosis was extremely sharp, allowing him to easily detect any hint of danger in the air. He opened one of his prosthetic limbs, and a series of tiny drones flew out. It didn''t take long before these detection drones transmitted real-time images back to him.

    As it turned out, Adam was being targeted by a bunch of adolescents who appeared to have been around 15 years of age.

    After determining this, Adam continued onward, not wanting to waste any time here, but he had only taken a few steps when he was abruptly struck by a sense of peril. He immediately took evasive measures, following which he spotted a bullet hole that had just appeared in the building beside him.

    As he turned around to search for the source of the gunfire, another string of bullets was fired at him, only to be kept at bay by the spider legs on his back.

    I forgot about these things. Looks like I don''t need to dodge bullets from these old-school firearms.

    The spider legs had been installed for him by Baldie Lin from Shadow City, so the craftsmanship was exceptional, as was the technology used. Overall, they were superior even to Red Spider''s spider legs, so there was no way that a few adolescent thieves with guns could do anything to him.

    However, these kids who had grown up their entire lives in this poverty-stricken area had no idea about such concepts.

    Seeing as their sneak attack had failed, all of them rushed out into the open from dark alleys. There were dozens of them, and most of them were wearing strange attire that was abination of cheap and old clothes coupled with luxury clothing.

    Clearly, the cheap clothes belonged to them, while the luxury clothes had been robbed from others. In addition to that, some of them were wearing very overstated essories, and it was certainly a unique feature of this area.

    "Hand over all of your money and valuables!"

    Their leader was a slightly older child who appeared to have just reached adulthood or was close to that age. He had a decent physique, and he was also one of the few children fitted with prosthetic limbs.

    "I don''t want to waste time on kids like you," Adam said as his gaze roamed over the group of robbers, assessing how much of a threat they posed to him.

    The leader of the group and a couple of other robbers were fitted with prosthetic limbs, but they were clearly all cheap products that had been installed by incapable retrofitters.

    One of them was clearly suffering the effects of a retrofitting job gone wrong, as evidenced by the necrosed skin that covered half of his body.

    Aside from them, the majority of the robbers were holding weapons like knives or baseball bats, and there were no more than five of them who were holding guns.

    This group of robbers posed no threat to Adam at all.

    They most likely spent all of their time targeting people around the void rail station, and Adam assumed that there had to have been quite a few of them in Area 8.

    "I''ll repeat myself: I don''t want to waste time on kids like you, and I don''t have anything valuable on me."

    "Leave your prosthetics behind and we''ll let you live."

    The adolescent robbers clearly weren''t going to back down, and Adam heaved a faint sigh. He touched his mask briefly to ensure that his disguise was still in ce, then sighed, "This is why I don''t like inexperienced criminals like you kids. More experienced criminals would immediately back down after seeing the quality of my prosthetic limbs. I''ll give you all one final chance, are you going to let me through or not?"

    "Get him!"

    The leader of the robbers wasted no further time as he immediately fired his gun.

    Adam heaved another exasperated sigh, then activated his neuron transmitter.

    In the next instant, the group of robbers was transported into the exact same setting, except there were suddenly all types of demonic creatures towering over them, striking genuine fear straight into their hearts.

    "Seeing as you like to y so much, why don''t you y with these guys?"

    As soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, his army of terrifying anomalies pounced onto the group of robbers, and mere momentster, he returned to the real world.

    As he had said, he didn''t want to waste time on a bunch of kids, and it was also unsafe leaving his physical body exposed while he was in the psychic world.

    "There are demons! Run!"

    Not long after Adam returned to the real world, the robbers around him also returned to their senses before fleeing in all directions in a blind panic, unable to discern between the real world and the psychic world.

    Adam hadn''t killed them. Instead, he had only given them a hyper-realistic horror film experience.

    This type of experience was far more realistic than virtual reality because it had truly taken ce in the psychic world, and those anomalies were all embodiments of negative emotions, so they were able to strike debilitating fear into the heart of the average person.

    "I don''t want to die..."

    Adam stepped over the leader of the robbers, who had copsed to the ground in horror, then made his way deeper into Area 8.

    After searching for a while, he arrived at the spot where he hadst met Raven, and as soon as he arrived, he immediately detected a figure behind the wall through his telegnosis.

    "Come out, Raven."

    "I didn''t think you''d be able to sense me from so far away. It looks like you''ve grown stronger since west met."

    Raven emerged from behind a dpidated wall, walking elegantly toward Adam as he greeted, "Long time no see, old friend."

 Chapter 407: News

    <h4>Chapter 407: News</h4>

    "We''re not friends, and it hasn''t been that long since west met." Adam inspected his surroundings as he spoke, but he didn''t sense any danger in the air. "Did that insane woman note with you?"

    "Are you talking about Hebi no Miko? She went back to Japan," Raven revealed, dropping a massive piece of news onto Adam right away. "Given her personality, it''s no surprise that she had many enemies back there, and if she''s absent for too long, then things could go sour very quickly, so she has to go back and take care of some matters."

    "Why are you telling me this?"

    "To win your trust, of course," Raven admitted with a smile.

    It had to be said that Raven had managed to instill a sense of reassurance into Adam very quickly, but that was immediately followed by a sense of intense alertness.

    "I have to admit that you really do have some tricks up your sleeve. If I had your abilities, I''m sure it would be far easier for me to be elected as mayor."

    .

    "Is that right? In that case, if I ever manage to earn my freedom someday, perhaps I can run for mayor as well, but that''s only something I''ll need to think about far in the future. With an infinite life at my disposal, I can afford to take my time in many things, so let''s resolve the matter at hand first," Raven chuckled.

    "Tell me about Subus Beth. How powerful is she?"

    "I''ve brought some data for you," Raven replied as he pulled out a miniature projector, which contained some battle footage.

    Judging from the angle and resolution of the footage, it was a projection of the psychic world, and the image depicted a battle between a group of psychic mutants and an anomaly.

    The image didn''t capture the whole scene, but even so, Adam could still see that there were at least seven psychic mutants attacking a single anomaly. The seven psychic mutants were all quite powerful, and outside the frame of the image, there were more allies providing them with technomantic support. In the beginning, the anomaly was only just barely able to hold its own, but after a while, the scene suddenly took a dramatic turn.

    All of a sudden, the psychic mutants turned on their own allies, abandoning the anomaly to rush out of the frame to attack the very same allies that had been providing them with technomantic support.

    "This is Subus Beth."

    Raven paused the footage, and Adam made his way to the projector to take a closer look.

    Subus Beth was an anomaly that was wearing a tight-fitting ck jumpsuit with a pink love heart tattoo on her chest. She had a voluptuous chest coupled with a rotund bottom, and her facial features were rather blurry and indistinct, much like an image reflected in a pond of rippling water. Even so, Adam still couldn''t help but be enamored by her.

    This was the first time since his awakening that Adam was truly struck by the urge to enter a rtionship.

    For an instant, he was even tempted to give up his quest for revenge so that he could focus all of his time and energy on pursuing Beth.

    Upon snapping back to his senses, Adam was so rmed that sweat was running down his back, and he eximed, "She''s able to affect the mental state of others just through an image?"

    "That''s right. She''s an extremely troublesome opponent to deal with, and that''s why I''vee to you for help."

    It was clear that this was an opponent that Raven couldn''t defeat on his own.

    "I''m no match for her," Adam conceded as he turned to Raven. "Can you beat her?"

    "No," Raven replied. "But I know a weakness of hers."

    "What is it?"

    "In the psychic world, Subus Beth possesses extremely potent seductive abilities that allow her to easily turn her opponents into her ves, and her abilities are particrly effective against male adapters."

    "So you''re saying that adapters of other genders will be granted certain degrees of immunity to her seductive abilities? My apologies, but I have to ask: is your psychic body male or female? Ever since I first saw you, you''ve always been a raven."

    "It''s more inclined toward the male side of the spectrum."

    "Is that one of the reasons why you can''t beat her?"

    "That''s right."

    "Let me have a think."

    Adam''s thoughts immediately went to Diana.

    In her current state, Diana was close to Raven''s level, and given her outstanding technomantic resistance and partial immunity to Subus Beth''s seductive abilities, there shouldn''t have been much of a power gap between the two.

    Objectively speaking, Diana was a good counter to Beth, but the problem was her instability.

    From the information that he had been given, he knew that Beth was just like Raven in that she liked to recruit as many subordinates as she could, so she had no fewer subordinates than Raven, and if this were to turn into a battle of numbers, then Adam would have no advantage.

    Beth''s abilities were ideally suited to subjugating allies, so if she had all of her subordinates with her, there was no way that Diana could defeat her. Counterintuitively, if Diana had allies on her side, then she would''ve stood even less of a chance at beating Beth as there was a very good chance that Beth would be able to turn Diana''s allies against her.

    Aside from Diana, another top-tier female adapter had sprung into Adam''s mind, namely May.

    However, May was a pure businessperson who didn''t want to get involved in the political battle between the two congresses, so it was very unlikely that she would agree to help him here.

    Having said that, there was only one way to find out for sure whether she would be up to the task.

    After considering some potential candidates that could take on Beth, Adam went through all of the data that Raven had gathered on Beth.

    In some cases, developing an understanding of an enemy''s abilities and weaknesses could drastically increase one''s chance of victory.

    For example, if Adam had been familiar with Guang Fei''s abilities, then he wouldn''t have been dominated soprehensively.

    "That''s all I have. If you ever face her in battle, make sure you don''t getcent just because you think you know all of her abilities. She''s capable of much more than what I''ve shown you here."

    "I understand," Adam replied with a nod.

    "I''ll make sure to notify you right away if she makes a move. You should start preparing on your end as soon as possible. After all, we have no idea when her next move will be."

    "You''re not going to participate in the battle?"

    "I won''t for the majority of the time, unless I can be certain that I can kill everyone at the scene. If I can do that, then I won''t have my body taken back by the organization."

    "I see."

    Adam had seen all of the data provided by Raven, and it was time for him to leave.

    Meeting Raven in private was very unsafe.

    The southern congress had many informants, and if his meeting with Raven were to be exposed, then that would be a political blemish that was impossible to wipe away.

    "I''m going now."

    Adam and Raven were only in a coborative rtionship, so Adam didn''t bother to make any small talk, immediately departing after obtaining what he required.

    After leaving Area 8, Adam returned to the void rail station.

    At this point, the group of adolescent robbers had already vanished, leaving behind only some bloodstains on the ground.

    What happened here after I left? Did another brawl take ce?

    The bloodstains on the ground were still quite fresh, so it was clear that a scuffle had just broken out.

    This was the reason why the average person wasn''t able to live in Area 8.

    There were fights taking ce all the time, and even for a tiny area like this, there were countless people fighting over it.

    Adam didn''t linger there for much longer before getting into a void rail capsule and taking it to the pawn shop.

    Soon, he arrived on the top floor and found himself face to face with May.

    "You again?" May groaned as she rolled her eyes at Adam.

    "I don''t seem very wee here."

    "Of course not! Nothing goodes from your visits. Let me make this clear: I almost diedst time trying to help you take down Hebi no Miko, so if I owed you anything before that, I''ve already repaid you in full.

    ¡°Also, don''t even think about asking me to help you take on the southern congress. I''m just a businessperson, and the southern congress is way more powerful than the northern congress. If I get on their bad side, then my pawn shop will have to close down."

 Chapter 408: Bishop Renee

    <h4>Chapter 408: Bishop Renee</h4>

    May''s stance had always been very firm on this matter, and she had made it clear that she wasn''t going to take on the southern congress.

    She had only agreed to help Adam take down Hebi no Miko as she was essentially a ticking time bomb, and neither of the congresses wanted to see someone so vtile and dangerous roaming freely in Sandrise City.

    Furthermore, that had been a well thought-out operation, and they had assistance from Mechguard, leading her to believe that there was no chance of failure, which was why she had agreed to help.

    May''s psychic body was the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, and that reflected her personality, which was akin to that of a hunter in that she was extremely cautious and only struck to kill.

    Hence, there was no way she would engage in something so dangerous.

    Having interacted extensively with May in the past, Adam knew her very well, and he had already anticipated this oue.

    "I''m not here to ask you to help me take on the southern congress."

    "I won''t help you in your election bid, either. That''s no different from going against the southern congress, and truth be told, I don''t think you have any chance of winning the election," May said in a direct and straightforward manner. "There''s no way that the southern congress would allow you toe out on top in this election."

    "I know, I know." At this point, it seemed that Adam''s n to recruit May to help him take down Beth hadpletely failed. "I wanted to ask you if you have a friend that''s not only quite a powerful adapter, but is also very reliable and has always led a happy life."

    "What kind of strange question is that?" May asked as she raised an eyebrow. "Ask me the question in a way I can understand."

    "I wanted to know if you have an adapter friend that can satisfy the three following criteria: firstly, they have to be no much weaker than you. Secondly, they have to have lived a very happy life. Thirdly, they have to be reliable and someone you trust."

    Adam didn''t really have high hopes for this visit. In his mind, these three criteria were too difficult for a single person to satisfy.

    However, to his surprise, May asked, "You''re not asking for someone to help you go against the southern congress, are you?"

    The fact that she was asking this question immediately tipped Adam off to the fact that she had someone in mind, and he hurriedly replied, "No, it''s to help me take down an anomaly, and it has nothing to do with the southern congress."

    "In that case, I do have someone suitable," May replied with a nod. "I can help you, but in return, if you really do get elected as mayor, you have to expand the pawn shop''s operating area by threefold."

    "Didn''t you just say that I have no chance of winning the election?"

    "There''s always a possibility for miracles to happen, and you''ve already proven that many times, so it''s not impossible for you to pull off another miracle. Having said that, I still don''t think you have much of a chance. The one who''s currently on top of the voting leaderboard is way too difficult to ovee."

    "Clyde is his name, right?"

    Adam was naturally aware of the name of his mainpetitor. Clyde was from the southern congress, and at the moment, he had a dominant lead on the voting leaderboard.

    Even though he had the southern congress''s support, he was actually an amateur politician, just like Adam.

    Furthermore, he was from the Dataist Union.

    His political ethos was that all politicians had to be assumed to be evil, and he wanted to implement the rigidw-enforcement philosophy of Mechguard into the political sphere.

    "It won''t be the best, but it also won''t be the worst, and at the very least, it''ll be fair."

    That was Clyde''s election slogan.

    During the past century, there had been a very low level of trust toward politicians from the general public, particrly following the nuclear war 30 years ago.

    As opposed to cing their trust in politicians, people much preferred to trust machines.

    Clyde''s identity and slogan were both verypelling, and if it weren''t for the fact that he still had his own objectives toplete, Adam would''ve been inclined to cast Clyde his vote.

    "He is indeed quite a difficult opponent to ovee, and that''s why I need to speed up in my preparation. When can I meet this friend of yours?"

    "Today. She just so happens to be in Sandrise City," May replied, then made a call to the friend in question.

    That night, the three of them arrived at a high-end restaurant.

    It was already midnight, yet the business district of Sandrise City was still brightly lit.

    Under the neon lights and the artificial sun, Area 36 was an area that never slept.

    There was no night time here, only people indulging in their vices.

    Almost at the exact same time as Adam and May''s arrival, a golden vehicle descended out of the sky, following which a woman emerged, apanied by four or five young men as she made her way to the entrance of the restaurant.

    Adam was struck by a sense of familiarity at the sight of the woman, as if he had seen her somewhere before.

    After some thought, he realized that the woman was one of the 12 bishops of the Psychic Church, but he couldn''t recall her name.

    He only had a recollection of her from the research he had conducted following the Carlin Asylum incident.

    Through his research, he had discovered that the director of Carlin Asylum was another one of the Psychic Church''s 12 bishops, Li Pengfei, and while researching Li Pengfei, he had briefly researched the other bishops as well.

    "Hello, May, long time no see. Thanks for taking care of that problem for mest time. Ah, if I''m not mistaken, this must be our mayoral candidate, Mr. Adam, right?"

    It was impossible to tell the woman''s age from her skin, nor from her expression or disposition.

    She possessed both the regal grace of a mature and wealthy woman and the sense of mischievous vitality only seen in young girls.

    This was a very uniquebination that made her appear quite affable and approachable, but also ensured that she wasn''t looked down on by anyone.

    Having conducted some research on her, Adam knew that she was not a young woman. The average age of the 12 bishops was over 50, so this woman had to have been old enough to be his mother.

    As for how she had managed to keep such a youthful appearance, or whether she had switched bodies, that was not for Adam to pry into.

    "Hello, you can just call me Adam."

    "Renee," the woman replied, then casually tossed her shawl to one of the handsome young men beside her before making her way into the restaurant. "I''m starving! Let''s have some dessert first. I recall that this restaurant is really well-known for its ice cream."

    Renee''s entourage followed her into the restaurant, while Adam was slightly dazed as he looked on at her from behind.

    "You wanted someone who''s lived a happy life, and she definitely fits the bill."

    "Indeed, she does."

    In contrast with Adam himself, who was constantly tightly wound, or May, who resembled a prowling hunter that was always in search of business opportunities, Renee was like the very embodiment of rxation.

    It was as if she had been born into this world to enjoy herself, and everyone and everything around her were designed to serve her.

    She was the main character in this world.

    Actually, that wasn''t urate. It was more like this world existed for her, and she was the center of the universe.

    What a powerful aura!

    One''s aura was a reflection of their psychic power, and with that in mind, Adam gave May a nod before following Renee into the restaurant.

 Chapter 409: Renees Response, Information from Thilan

    <h4>Chapter 409: Renee''s Response, Information from Thn</h4>

    By the time Adam made his way into the restaurant, Renee had already sat down at a table. Her entire body was sparkling, and as soon as she sat down, she was immediately offered an electronic menu by a server.

    "Bring me one of each dessert item on your menu. I want to taste all of them," Renee instructed with a smile.

    For some reason, the server seemed to be extremely anxious, like a servant tending to the needs of a princess, and it didn''t take long before all of the desserts were brought to Renee''s table.

    Renee immediately dug into the desserts one by one, taking extra bites of ones that caught her fancy and spitting out ones that she didn''t like.

    She had no regard for table manners, how wasteful her actions were, or what other people thought of her.

    This would''ve been rather abhorrent behavior in anyone else, but for some reason, she made it seem utterly mundane and justified.

    Every single one of her actions was able to impact the people around her, indicating that her psychic power definitely wasn''t inferior to May''s. On top of that, she was one of the bishops of the Psychic Church, and at this point, Adam was already convinced that she was going to be a powerful ally.

    "May, you called me out today to help Mr. Adam, right? I recall that you never got involved in politics, and that''s one of the reasons we''ve always been able to get along. Why the sudden change of heart?"

    Only after having a taste of the ice cream that she desired did she turn to the main topic at hand, but it seemed that the ice cream hadn''t been to her liking, as evidenced by the fact that she threw it away after having only one mouthful.

    "The Psychic Church is a ce for adapters tomunicate and exchange ideas, and it''s only been able to exist to this point as it also keeps itself out of all political conflicts."

    "Is that right?" Adam challenged.

    It was clear from the Carlin Asylum incident that the Psychic Church was politically inclined, but Adam didn''t explicitly point this out.

    "Of course. At the very least, that''s always been the case for me."

    Renee turned to Adam with a smile, but it was clear that she was preparing to leave.

    May could see her intentions, and she hurriedly interjected, "It''s not a political matter. Instead, we want to administer psychotherapeutic treatment on the friend of a friend."

    Adam had naturally already revealed to May what his intentions were, but of course, he had given her a "legal" exnation.

    He knew that the pawn shop only engaged in business that fell within the boundaries of thew.

    As for whether May actually believed him or not, that was up to her.

    "So it has nothing to do with the election?"

    "Nothing at all," May confirmed with a shake of her head. "You know me. If this had something to do with the election, I wouldn''t even get involved myself, much less drag you into this as well."

    "That''s true, you are a smart woman," Renee mused with a nod. "In that case, I''ll help you just this once to return the favor you did me."

    "Thank you!"

    Adam was very relieved to hear Renee''s response.

    He had yearning for both the abilities and the anomalic power of the angel of death for a very long time.

    This level nine or level 10 anomaly possessed immense anomalic power, and if he could obtain this power, then that would propel him to the ranks of the most powerful adapters in the world.

    Only with more power could he carry out his ns.

    "By the way, I have a small request," Adam said. "There''s a contact between the patient and me, stating that I have to be the one to personally treat his condition, so once the anomaly is on the brink of death, I''ll have to get you to leave the psychic world and leave the rest to me."

    "That''s fine, it makes no difference to me. When do we do this?"

    "As soon as possible."

    "Alright, then let''s make it tomorrow. I need to sleep today. Come find me tomorrow."

    Renee left Adam her addresses, then tasted a couple of beverages before departing, yawning as she did so.

    However, prior to her departure, Adam raised a question that had been on his mind this entire time.

    "All of the schools under the Psychic Church teach their students that pain is what makes adapters stronger, and that''s always been the fundamental training ethos of the Psychic Church, so why are you..."

    Renee couldn''t help but burst intoughter upon hearing this. "''Pain makes you stronger'' is only a training philosophy aimed at ordinary people like you. There are countless ways in which powerful adapters can be born, and the Psychic Church only teaches the most universally effective method. Once you reach a certain level, you have to find your own path."

    ¡­¡­

    .

    "Hey Adam, we''ve wrapped Noah up like a mummy and knocked him out with strong sedatives just like you asked." The next morning, Mole followed Adam''s instructions, using the medical supplies at the veterinarian hospital to disguise Noah as a critically ill patient. "What is this for?"

    "We need to transport him elsewhere without anyone else finding out. I''m a public figure after all, so I have to maintain my image. Bring Shae with you and transport him to this address. I''ll meet you there."

    "Alright," Mole replied with a nod, then handed the address to Shae. "You drive, I don''t like having to drive while looking at an address."

    After receiving the address, Shae quickly determined that it was somewhere in Area 21.

    "That''s the area that the Psychic Church is in. Normally, it would be considered to be quite a safe area, but for us right now, it''s very dangerous. Do you still remember what happened with Prince? The Psychic Church has very close ties with the southern congress."

    "We have no choice. This is a very important matter, if we keep dying it, then we won''t have any chance of winning the election."

    Adam had checked the voting leaderboard earlier and discovered that Clyde had extended his lead even further.

    Even after everything Adam had done recently, he had only managed to catch up to some of hispetitors, but the gap between him and Clyde was only continuing to widen.

    If he couldn''t make an important breakthrough, then his fate in this election would''ve been all but sealed.

    "Let''s go."

    Instead of traveling with Shae and Mole, Adam was leaving the hospital in a car with heavily tinted windows that Cowboy had prepared for him.

    Hover cars were significantly slower than void rail capsules, and after getting into the car, Adam switched on the autopilot mode while he began to watch the news.

    Following the previous incident, he had thought that the Chaos Raisers would lie low for some time, but that wasn''t the case at all.

    There were still Chaos Raisers wreaking havoc all over the city, and ording to the news reports, the organization had recruited a lot of new people.

    It looks like finding deranged people is a lot easier than finding top-tier adapters.

    Given the poption and the oppressive environment of Sandrise City, it did make sense that mentally disturbed individuals were very easy to find. As long as one had sufficient nk tes, they would be able to mass-produce powerful adapters.

    There''s not much I can do about that, let''s take care of the matter at hand first.

    Adam was just about to close his eyes to rest when he suddenly received an encrypted message on hismunicator.

    There was no name attached to the message, and it had been sent using an untraceablemunicator purchased from the dark web, but Adam could tell from its contents that it had been sent by Thn.

    "The southern congress is about to make a move on you. Killing a mayoral candidate will create huge controversy, and you''ve already been targeted in the past, so you won''t be in any danger, but things will be very difficult for you from now on.

    ¡°Some problems will arise in Mechguard''s deployment data, and it''s not a major issue, but it means that Mechguard units will be slow to arrive at crime scenes, and they''ll also be given less priority when traveling along roads.

    ¡°Most importantly, the southern congress has already called upon the power of the Guild of Immortality to disrupt your future missions. They''ll disguise themselves as the adapter criminals that you''re targeting to foil your operations."

    The message wasn''t very long, but it was jam-packed with useful information.

    They''re still not satisfied, even though they already have Clyde. The southern congress really does like to cover all of its bases...

 Chapter 410: Main Character

    <h4>Chapter 410: Main Character</h4>

    Adam''s car arrived in Area 21, and this was the first time he had ever visited this area.

    Sandrise City was massive, and he had only awakened not too long ago, so there were many ces that he hadn''t had a chance to visit.

    He looked out onto the streets of Area 21 to find that it was filled with all types of schools and other facilities rted to adapters, including psychotherapy consultation offices, business intelligence centers, private detective agencies, bodyguardpanies, equipment shops...

    This ce seemed to have been the central hub for adapters, and it was protected by the Psychic Church. If an adapter were only seeking a consistent and high ie, then it seemed that finding a job in Area 21 would''ve been their best option.

    Looking at the peaceful scenes on the streets, Adam couldn''t help but think back to his first coboration with members of the Psychic Church.

    Back in Mirror Lake Primary School, he initially had very high expectations for their allies from the Psychic Church. As it turned out, they weren''t all that weak, but their battle experience and practicalbat abilities were downright pitiful.

    Looking at the peaceful and harmonious environment in Area 21, Adam was beginning to understand why they were socent andcking in battle experience.

    Perhaps most of the adapters who choose toe here are trying to avoid conflict. All they want is to be teachers or psychotherapists. That does seem like a good choice.

    Adam withdrew his gaze from the streets outside and arrived in a private area ording to the address given to him by Renee.

    This entire area was Renee''s residence, and he was immediately greeted by a group of handsome men upon emerging from his car.

    After being led into the estate, Adam was greeted by the sight of all types of handsome men, some of which resembled marble statues of muscr Greek deities, some of which were more fashionable in appearance, much like popr boy band members. There were also adorable guys with round faces and short statures, mature and well-built middle-aged men, and also handsome male assistants who appeared to have been quite intelligent.

    Aside from these handsome men, the entire yard was filled with flowers.

    The sea of flowers and the elegant fountain at the center of the yard made the ce resemble a fairytale setting.

    "Has she moved the Metaverse''s Sex into her home?" Adam grumbled to himself, then continued to make his way through the garden behind the handsome male attendants.

    Upon arriving in the hall, he was greeted by several more young men dressed as butlers.

    "Mistress Renee is still in bed, but rest assured, your request is on her agenda, and she''ll meet you once she''s gotten up and had some breakfast."

    "I see."

    Even though this was a rather impolite gesture from Renee, she was doing Adam a favor, so he was in no ce toin.

    Most importantly, he was searching for someone who had lived a happy life, and the fact that she was sleeping until noon was a clear indication of her blissful existence, so he had no objections to this.

    However, it was an entirely different story for Mole.

    Around 30 minutes after Adam''s arrival, Mole and Shae dragged Noah into the hall.

    After learning about the situation, Mole immediately erupted into a fit of anger.

    "What the fuck? We have to wait until she wakes up? Can''t we drag her out of bed? Also, there are more men here than the dogs I keep! How can that bitch even keep up?"

    "Be quiet and wait! We need her help, so we have to adopt the right attitude."

    "Tch!"

    Mole turned away with a displeased expression, only to immediately have his attention drawn to the food in the hall.

    There were all types of desserts and lollies spread around the hall as artistic pieces, and Mole quickly began to snap them off before stuffing them into his mouth.

    Even at the stroke of noon, Renee still wasn''t awake, but a new guest had arrived. It was May.

    "You must be aware of her sleep schedule, considering you chose toe sote."

    "Yes, I figured she wouldn''t be awake anytime before this."

    "Then why didn''t you tell me?"

    "What if she suddenly chose to wake up early today? We can''t have her waiting for us."

    May also began to dig into the desserts in the hall following her arrival.

    Another 20 minutester, Renee was finally awake, and she made her way into the hall in her sleeping gown. She greeted everyone in azy manner, then called up a few of her attendants to help her wash up and apply make-up.

    Only after another hour had passed did she reappear before everyone, this time in full make-up.

    "Sorry to keep you all waiting. Shall we begin?"

    "Let''s begin." Adam didn''t want to waste any more time, and he dragged Noah over to Renee as he introduced. "This is my patient."

    "I see."

    Renee took a nce at Noah, who was wrapped up like a burrito, then turned to Adam with a meaningful look in her eyes. However, she wasn''t one to ask questions, and she also wanted to stay out of trouble, so even if she could tell that something wasn''t quite right, she didn''t say anything as sheid a finger on Noah''s forehead and entered his psychic world.

    "Shae, you stay on the outside and make sure no one gets close with psychic world recording equipment."

    .

    "I''m on it."

    "Alright, I''m going in."

    Adam entered Noah''s psychic world as he spoke, and he was immediately greeted by the sight of Renee''s psychic body.

    It was a main character.

    It wasn''t some mythical entity. Instead, it was the main character of a fairytale.

    Judging from her outward appearance, she seemed to have been abination of all types of fairytale princesses, including Snow White, Rapunzel, Cindere...

    There were features of all fairytale princesses that could be found on her.

    She was wearing a long ball gown and crystal shoes, and her entire body was sparkling. Even the nearby air was revolving around her, and it was very apparent to all observers just who the main character was.

    "Green Heaven Retirement Home? Since when was there such a good retirement home in Sandrise City?"

    By the time Adam entered the psychic world, Renee was already inspecting the retirement home. She was able to tread straight through the air, and cotton-candy-like clouds emerged on their own beneath her feet as she made her way directly above the retirement home.

    "Something''s not quite right here."

    While Renee was inspecting the psychic world around her, May also made her entrance in the form of Artemis.

    May was an extremely experienced adapter, and the first thing that she did was also to inspect her surroundings.

    "This person''s mental state is a little simr to Renee''s" May remarked as she flew up into the air to observe her surroundings with her sharp, hawk-like eyes. "He''s extremely self-centered, but unlike Renee, he possesses an intense desire for power and control, the extent of which I''ve only ever seen in Mr. One. What does this guy do?"

    "That''s a secret," Adam replied, and as soon as his voice trailed off, the pce up ahead abruptly copsed.

    It seemed that the angel of death had sensed how powerful the intruders were this time, and it had taken the initiative tosh out, raising its morning star mace before swinging it at Renee.

    Renee conjured up a beam of light with her hands to ward off the attack, then turned to Adam with a skeptical expression as she asked, "An anomaly this powerful will have already fused as one with their host long ago. How can it possibly be cleansed?"

 Chapter 411: The Goddess and the Angel

    <h4>Chapter 411: The Goddess and the Angel</h4>

    Low-level anomalies that hadn''t fused with their hosts could still be cleansed.

    All those who harbored low-level anomalies in their psychic worlds would be constantly tormented, and once the anomaly reached a certain level, it could even drive its host to suicide, as evidenced in the cases of Li Qi and many others.

    However, high-level anomalies would''ve already fused as one with their hosts, so those hosts weren''t tormented by their anomalies anymore, but they would bepletely deranged and demented.

    Every single person that had fused with their anomalies, whether it be Noah, Raven, or those people at the cannibal club, all of them exhibited strange behavior in one way or another.

    These were things that Adam had discovered through his countless battles, but the Psychic Church had been aware of these things for a long time.

    The Psychic Church had a huge number of members, and many of the low and mid-level members were quitezy and uninspired, but its top-level members, particrly the 12 bishops, were all extremely capable and powerful individuals, so it was no surprise that Renee had spotted the problem right away.

    "You must have some type of ulterior motive," Renee remarked, but she still didn''t care to pry or ask questions.

    She was here to return a favor, and she didn''t care about anything not rted to that.

    Refraining from sticking her nose into unnecessary business was one of the keys to a happy life.

    As soon as the angel of death emerged, it immediately engaged Renee in battle, while Adam watched from the sidelines.

    He wanted to see just how powerful one of the Psychic Church''s 12 bishops was.

    Among the general public, the 12 bishops were considered to be the most powerful adapters.

    Other top-tier adapters such as Hebi no Miko, Sadou, Mr. One, and Madam Tree were all rtively unknown to the general public and even to ordinary adapters, so the 12 bishops were widely considered to be the most powerful adapters in existence.

    After its first attack was kept at bay, the angel of death unleashed a consecutive string of attacks against Renee, swinging its morning star mace at her over and over again, but all of its attacks were nullified by the magical power around Renee.

    Adam had experienced the angel''s physical prowess firsthand, and he knew that it was capable of even smashing half of Sludge''s body into pieces with a single strike of its mace, so the fact that Renee was able to ward off consecutive attacks from the angel was a clear indication that she was quite a powerful adapter in her own right.

    However, her other abilities seemed to have been far more mediocre.

    After warding off the angel''s attacks, she began to retaliate using her fairytale magic light beams, but the attacks weren''t very powerful at all, and it seemed that she couldn''t even match up to Diana in terms of pure offensive prowess.

    Adam was rather perplexed to see this, but he disyed no intention of helping her.

    However, May wasn''t willing to stand around and watch any longer, and she had already fired an arrow as Renee unleashed her second wave of attacks.

    The first arrow was her green arrow.

    As soon as it was fired, it transformed into a vast storm of arrows, all of which were glowing with bright green light, and they were able to pierce straight through the angel''s body.

    Adam had witnessed May''s offensive prowess in the past, so he was aware of just how formidable she was.

    During their battle against Hebi no Miko, May possessed sufficient offensive prowess to pierce through Yamata no Orochi''s defenses with ease, while both Wax Figure and Diana had struggled immensely to do the same.

    The angel of death was far inferior to Yamata no Oroch, both in terms of size and defensive capabilities, so its body was naturally pierced through with ease.

    If I recall correctly, these green arrows have a binding effect as well.

    Sure enough, right as this thought sprang into Adam''s mind, the green arrow that had plunged into the angel''s body began to transform into blood-sucking vines, sucking its blood as sustenance to fuel its rapid growth.

    The growth process was extraordinarily rapid, and within the span of just a few seconds, the angel had beenpletely enveloped by vines.

    It struggled and thrashed violently, unleashing eruptions of holy light to try and tear the vines apart, but before it had a chance to break free, May''s golden arrow had already arrived.

    The golden arrow was capable of unleashing an even more powerful wide-scale attack, and it transformed into a storm of golden arrows that instantly reduced the angel to a golden porcupine. With just two arrows, May had managed to inflict severe injuries upon the angel.

    It looks like Diana is still nowhere near as powerful as May, even after her training with Sadou.

    At this point, Adam was still observing the battle. He had redeemed a favor to recruit these two, so he wasn''t going to get involved in the battle unless it was absolutely necessary.

    However, a thought then suddenly urred to Adam, and he yelled to May, "Look out, it''s about to retaliate! It has some type of strangew-based ability."

    "What do you mean by that?" May asked, but before Adam had a chance to answer, a scale had already flown out of the angel''s body.

    The scale flew up into the sky, then began to pass judgment down upon May.

    Her pain and her happiness were both drawn to the scale to be weighed up on opposite ends, and the angel spread its arms open as the scale began to tilt.

    "You''re a sharp and ambitious person. It seems that the pain that you''ve endured far outweighs the happiness you''ve experienced."

    Adam didn''t know much about May''s past. All he knew was that she was an intelligent and capable woman who had climbed up from the bottom.

    It seemed that her life was also one that had been filled with hardships, as evidenced by the tilting of the scale.

    The fact that her pain outweighed her happiness essentially granted the angel the right to pass judgment on her.

    "If one has experienced more pain than happiness in their life, then putting an end to their life would be an act of kindness."

    The angel''s booming voice reverberated through the air above the retirement home, and as the scalepletely tilted to one side, May''s body began to quickly wither away.

    She struggled with all her might, but there was no hope for her to ward off aw-based attack like this one, and her life force was rapidly receding.

    Adam immediately invoked Distortion upon seeing this, instructing it totch onto the angel from behind to disrupt its ability.

    He knew that even though May''s psychic body possessed tremendous offensive prowess, its defenses were actually quite frail. She wasn''t as durable as Diana, nor did she possess an undying body like Wax Figure. Essentially, she was like a massively upgraded version of Camera, possessing far superior offensive prowesspared to her defensive capabilities, and she had almost been killed by Hebi no Miko during their previous battle.

    In just a few seconds, May''s skin had be riddled with wrinkles, and it was clear that she wasn''t going to be able tost much longer at this rate.

    Thankfully, Renee arrived on the scene right in the nick of time, using her magical powers to cut off the angel''s attack.

    Adam took advantage of this opportunity to spring up into the air and catch her before lowering her out of the sky.

    "How is this thing so powerful?" May eximed with a hint of lingering fear in her eyes.

    "It''s not necessarily more powerful than you are, it''s just that you''re susceptible to its abilities because of your past experiences. That''s why I told you to recruit someone who''s lived a happy life, but it seems like she''s really going to be able to do much."

    "Don''t count her out yet, Renee has her own abilities," May reassured in a confident voice.

 Chapter 412: The Properties of a Main Character

    <h4>Chapter 412: The Properties of a Main Character</h4>

    May seemed to have immense confidence in Renee, but the battle taking ce in the air was not going so well.

    After forcing May into retreat, the angel destroyed all of the arrows and vines on its body with an eruption of holy light, then pped its wings and flew forward while swinging its morning star mace through the air, while Renee could only passively defend and fall back.

    Renee was swatted down from the sky onto the ground, then forced into a corner, following which the angel of death invoked its scale once again.

    Renee''s pain and happiness began to surge out of her body toward the scale, but her situation waspletely different from May''s.

    There was only a slight amount of pain, but it was far outweighed by her happiness, and the scale was quicklypletely tilted to one side.

    Let''s see what you have to say about that!

    One of the things that really irked Adam about this anomaly was that it was always spouting high-and-mighty nonsense and passing judgment on others as if it were a god.

    Out of all of the anomalies that he had killed in the past, only Nun couldpare with how noisy and annoying it was.

    "You''ve lived a happy life, but you shouldn''t havee to challenge a god," the angel of death dered in a shameless manner, then withdrew the scale and absorbed the happiness on one end into its own body.

    As a result, the injuries that it had sustained quickly began to heal, and it didn''t take long before it was able to make a full recovery.

    Adam was astonished by how versatile this ability was. He had thought that without its scale of death, the angel''sbat prowess would''ve been significantly reduced, but never had he imagined that the scale of death would have a secondary ability.

    This only made Adam even more eager to get his hands on this anomaly.

    "Go, Renee! You can do it!"

    "Instead of cheering for me, how about you lend me a hand?" Renee snapped in a disgruntled voice.

    After recovering from its injuries, the angel''s attacks were bing more and more violent, and in the end, Renee was struck down before having her head smashed open by the angel''s morningstar mace.

    "Is she dead?" Adam asked as she turned to May, only to find that she remained as calm andposed as ever.

    "She looks like she''s dead, but she''s actually not."

    Laying on the ground, Renee''s aura had already begun to fade.

    Not only did Adam think that she was dead, the angel of death was also of the same opinion.

    The angel of death swept its mace through the air to shake off Renee''s blood, then turned to Adam and May.

    However, as soon as it turned around, an explosive aura suddenly erupted behind it.

    Renee''s body had begun to hover in mid-air, and at the same time, a vast amount of magic power was swirling around her. At the same time, her aura was rapidly elevating, and it didn''t take long before she had gone beyond the former height of her powers.

    "Is this an ability of hers? Why didn''t she use it from the very beginning?"

    "This is not an ability, it''s one of her properties!"

    As soon as May''s voice trailed off, an explosion suddenly rang out, and everything around Renee was ttened by her aura.

    Adam was momentarily dazed upon seeing this, following which his eyes suddenly lit up as he eximed, "I know what this is! It''s the property of a main character!"

    Indeed, in all movies, games, and even urban legends, virtually every single main character had some shared properties.

    They weren''t necessarily the most powerful, but they were definitely the hardest to kill, and after returning from the brink of death, they would rise again in a far more powerful form.

    In the beginning, thebat prowess disyed by Renee had been inferior even to Diana''s, but following her resurrection, her magic power had swelled significantly, and she was able to st the angel back with just a single attack.

    Immediately thereafter, Renee transformed into a magic cannon, sting countless vibrant and colorful balls of light at the angel of death. Her dancing hands were like the wands of a fairy, containing boundless magical power.

    At this point in the battle, Adam felt like Renee''s victory was all but assured.

    "The angel is no match for Renee without its scale of death!"

    "You sound like a standard side character," May said as she turned to Adam after taking some time to catch her breath. "Whenever the main character is doing something badass, there are always side characters like you cheering them on, and whenever that happens, the situation always takes a turn for the worse, leaving the main character in peril again."

    Sure enough, right as these words left May''s mouth, her spection came true.

    In the face of Renee''s powerful magic sts, the angel of death finally unveiled its domain for the first time.

    Its domain was a domain of judgment, and inside that domain, it held absolute jurisdictive power. This twisted desire for power stemmed from the pleasure that Noah derived from deciding whether someone deserved to live or die.

    As a carer in a retirement home, his job was extremely exhausting and demeaning, often having to clean up the urine and fecal matter of the retirement home''s elderly residents.

    This was probably one of the most undesirable jobs for a young person, and given the aura of death that was rubbed off on him, no one liked to approach him, so he didn''t have any friends.

    However, on the flip side, he was able to decide the fate of countless old people.

    These old people had lived spectacr lives. Given their age, all of them had endured World War III, and they had all types of magnificent experiences, yet Noah held the power to put an end to those lives, and the sense of joy that he derived from this notion was unparalleled.

    Inside the domain of judgment, the aura of death weighing down on Renee was bing heavier and heavier, and her magical power was beginning to plummet, while the angel''s power was quickly rising.

    As a result, the angel of death was able to quickly turn the tables, flying over to Renee''s side before enveloping her entire body within its ck wings.

    Immediately thereafter, it raised its mace high above its head, and a vast amount of holy light began to converge toward the weapon.

    "That looks like a really strong attack! Will she be able to handle it?"

    The angel swung its mace down, and a burst of holy light shed through its ck wings as ck and golden light intertwined with one another.

    The dazzling eruption of light shed for four or five seconds before gradually fading, and Renee''s body had already beenpletely destroyed.

    Adam wasn''t sure if Renee could still resurrect herself under these circumstances, so he could only turn to May with an inquisitive gaze.

    May''s brows were slightly furrowed, and it was clear that she had never encountered a situation like this, either.

    "Will she be able to resurrect herself?"

    "Theoretically, yes, but I''ve never seen it done in practice."

    With May and Renee fighting alongside each other, it was almost impossible for them to be forced into such a dire situation.

    Given how powerful they were and the support that they had, the only entities that could really pose a threat to them were the southern congress and the Guild of Immortality.

    While Adam and May were still attempting to get a grasp on the situation, the angel of death had already turned to face them, and with a single p of its ck wings, its enormous body came hurtling directly toward them.

    It possessed absolute speed that was far superior even to Mole''s, and it only took it a couple of seconds to reach Adam and May.

    May was able to dodge the attack thanks to her superior speed, but Adam was only able to cross his arms as a barrier to defend himself.

    Boom!

    The angel''s morning star mace smashed into his stone arms, and thanks to the enhancements provided by the domain of judgment, the angel of death was able to smash straight through Adam''s body with its mace, sending stone fragments flying for several hundred meters.

 Chapter 413: A Vast Amount of Anomalic Power

    <h4>Chapter 413: A Vast Amount of Anomalic Power</h4>

    After Adam''s upper body waspletely smashed into bits, the angel of death continued its assault, destroying his lower body before he had a chance to regenerate.

    Thankfully, Sludge possessed tremendous regenerative abilities, and Adam''s body began to slowly reform as the patterns of Sludge''s domain appeared on the ground.

    However, the angel of death had already witnessed Sludge''s ability to regenerate, and it wasn''t taking any chances as it pulled out its scale of death.

    The aura of pain began to seep out of the stone fragments that littered the ground, and the scale of death quickly began to tilt.

    As it did so, Adam''s life force began to rapidly recede, and his rate of regeneration was bing slower and slower. There were even stone fragments on the ground that had already turned to powder as they had beenpletely sucked dry of life energy.

    As a result, Adam was unable to reform his own body, nor was he able to invoke his other anomalies to save him.

    The scale of death was a truly formidable ability, and after absorbing enough pain, it was able to kill even adapters of May''s caliber.

    Adam''s life was one that was filled with far more pain than May, so he waspletely powerless in the face of this ability.

    His life force continued to fade, and even though May was firing arrows at the angel of death from afar, she was unable to cut off its ability anytime soon.

    Finally, Adam''s life force was sucked dry, and all of his stone fragments had turned into powder, while the domain on the ground was also beginning to fade.

    However, right as his consciousness was starting to disappear, Renee''s voice suddenly rang out once again.

    "Who gave you permission to kill mypanions?"

    Just like the age-old clich¨¦ that had yed out in all types of media, the main character always made their return when theirpanions were in danger.

    It seems like there must be a trigger for her to undergo a second resurrection! This is the first time I''ve seen this, May thought to herself as she observed from afar.

    Having resurrected herself a second time, it was as if Renee had turned Super Saiyan, disying more than 10 times the power she had attained following her first resurrection.

    As soon as her voice trailed off, an enormous surge of magical power devoured the angel''s domain, following which Renee arrived atop a rainbow. Her magical power had manifested itself into a staff, and with just a gentle tap, the angel''s entire body began to disintegrate.

    "I won''t allow you to hurt mypanions!"

    The angel''s body began to sh with holy light as it forcibly attempted to regenerate while swinging its mace at Renee, while thetter raised her staff high above her head, conjuring up countless magical sprites that destroyed the mace in an instant before pulverizing the scale of death as well.

    Within the span of just a few seconds, the almighty angel of death had been defeated, and Adam took advantage of this opportunity to slowly regenerate himself.

    He raised his head to stare at the incredible scene unfolding before him. He had imagined that Renee was definitely going to be extremely powerful, seeing as she was one of the Psychic Church''s 12 bishops, but never had he thought that she would be this fearsome.

    Even though the triggering prerequisites that had to be satisfied were rather rigorous, following her second resurrection, she had attained power that wasn''t inferior to Hebi no Miko''s.

    Out of everyone that Adam knew, perhaps only Hebi no Miko would''ve been able to defeat the angel of death so easily. In fact, perhaps even she would''ve been incapable of this.

    "May, I''ll leave thest strike to you."

    Renee waved her staff through the air as she spoke, manifesting several enormous magical arms in the air. The arms were formed by rainbow magical power, and they grabbed onto the angel''s limbs, suspending it in mid-air.

    May had already been charging up power for a long time, and she immediately unleashed her most destructive diamond arrow.

    This was an arrow that had once severely wounded Hebi no Miko, and it pierced straight through the angel''s body, following which the angel was torn into pieces by the giant magical arms.

    Adam hurriedly called out for them to stop upon seeing this.

    "That''s enough! You can leave now!"

    After its body waspletely destroyed, the angel of death no longer had the ability to self-regenerate. Its massive head rolled over to Adam, and the light in its eyes was about to fade at any moment.

    "Are you sure? Can you take care of this thing on your own from here?" Renee asked.

    "Of course," Adam replied, and at the same time, he noticed that her aura was beginning to wane from its peak.

    Her abilities weren''t perfect, just as main characters weren''t always invincible.

    However, this wasn''t the time to be considering such matters. At this moment, Adam was so excited that it was as if fireworks were being set off in his heart, and he was having to stop himself from jumping for joy.

    "ording to our agreement, it''s time for you to go."

    "Alright, I don''t know what you''re plotting, but I don''t really care."

    Renee was still just as unwilling to meddle in affairs unrted to her, and she immediately left the psychic world.

    May also flew over from the distance, then took a meaningful nce at Adam in silence before departing from Noah''s psychic world as well.

    With Shae keeping an eye on them in the real world, they weren''t going to being back in, and Adam knew that he could finallymence his feast.

    I''ve never been able to devour so much anomalic power in one sitting!

    Adam was ecstatic as he invoked all of his anomalies. Aside from the ones that hemonly used, like Clown and Distortion, he even invoked the likes of Two Face and all of the other infantile anomalies that he hadn''t used before.

    This was an enormous amount of anomalic power, and there was no way that the anomalies that he often used would''ve been able to digest all of it on their own.

    "Come! It''s time to feast!" Adam dered as he crushed the head of the angel of death under his massive stone foot.

    The almighty angel of death finally met its demise, and an astronomical amount of anomalic power surged forth.

    I''ve never seen this much anomalic power before!

    All of the anomalies instantly pounced onto the feast of anomalic power as if they were starving animals without even requiring an instruction from Adam.

    I hope none of this goes to waste.

    Following this battle, Adam had finally managed to determine that the angel of death was definitely a level 10 anomaly, and that was why he had invoked all of his anomalies at once to share the feast.

    The anomalic power of a level 10 anomaly was simply too much, and the most powerful anomaly that he possessed at the moment was only level six.

    With each seeding level, thebat prowess of anomalies increased by severalfold or even over tenfoldpared with anomalies of the previous level. This ratio didn''t necessarily also hold true when it came to anomalic power, but a difference of four levels was still a vast gap.

    The first ones to evolve were the infantile anomalies, which quickly returned to their former peaks before preparing to advance even further.

    After that came the higher level anomalies that weremonly used by Adam.

    They had all been nurtured by Adam to be level five or level six anomalies, and each one of them that evolved represented a huge leap in Adam''s overall power.

 Chapter 414: Mass Evolution

    <h4>Chapter 414: Mass Evolution</h4>

    Among Adam''s level six anomalies, Clown was the first one to evolve.

    Following its evolution, it bore a stronger resemnce to the clown seen on joker cards. It was wearing a strange hat matched with peculiar attire, and not only had its expression be even more snide and cunning, its body had also taken on a rather unrealistic quality, making it resemble an oveppingbination of the two joker cards, with one in color, while the other was in greyscale.

    Through their psychic connection, Adam knew that the current Clown was able to switch between a substantial form and an insubstantial one at will, and it had also attained more abilities, while its existing ones had be more potent.

    Of course, aside from the upgrade in its appearance and abilities, it had also received aprehensive improvement in all of its base attributes, such as speed, strength, defensive prowess, and regenerative ability.

    The next one to evolve was Ogress.

    This was an anomaly that had never been all that strong in battle, but Adam had evolved it to level five while in prison, primarily for its versatility.

    Ogress''s abilities leaned more toward reconnaissance, and it was able to conceal itself, transform into anyone, and cover its own tracks very effectively.

    Up to this point, Adam had never truly used this anomaly, but he knew that on an unpredictable psychic battlefield, an anomaly like this was most definitely invaluable.

    Following its evolution, Ogress''s physical form also underwent a change, giving it a closer resemnce to ogresses seen in mythical stories, and its concealment abilities had also been enhanced.

    It had bepletely silent and formless, like an air current, and even with Adam''s current level of telegnosis, he was unable to pinpoint its exact location.

    The third one to evolve was Camera. There wasn''t much of a change in its physical appearance, except that its legs had grown longer, and they were constantly vibrating at an ultra-high speed, much like the des of a high-speed vibrational cutter.

    However, at the same time, its attributes were only bing more skewed.

    Even as a level six anomaly, itstest evolution hadn''t increased its defensive capabilities at all, but its offensive prowess had clearly been further enhanced, and given the right opportunity, it would be able to severely wound an opponent several levels above it.

    If Adam had been willing to sacrifice Camera tond a blow on the angel of death, then it would''ve definitely been able to slice through its defenses.

    The main reason why Camera hadn''t had much of a chance to shine was that Adam was very reluctant to use it. The opponents that he was facing were bing more and more powerful, and any one of them had the ability to kill Camera in a single blow. Camera had already perished once before, so if it were to die again, then it would be permanently gone.

    Hence, Adam could only use it as a trump card.

    After Camera''s evolution, the three level five anomalies, Mummy, Nun, and Hellhound, evolved at virtually the exact same time.

    Following thistest evolution, Mummy was finally beginning to take on a mythical appearance. Its bandages had turned red, and there were ancient cyberglyphs inscribed upon them. Its body represented the boundless pain that it had experienced, and this pain was constantly writhing, sealed within the bandages, unable to to be released.

    Just the mere sight of its writing and squirming body struck the beholder with a sense of pain.

    Furthermore, its defenses had improved even further, but not in the same way as Sludge''s defenses.

    Previously, the main difference between Mummy and Sludge was the former possessed tremendous defensive prowess, while thetter possessed superior self-regenerative abilities.

    Essentially, both of them were tanks, but one had a higher defense stat, while the other had superior HP and recovery. There was a difference, but it wasn''t that pronounced. The former was more proficient at dominating lower level opponents, while thetter had a better chance at survival against higher level opponents.

    However, Adam could clearly sense that those cyberglyphs on Mummy''s bandages had granted it superior technomantic resistance, thereby making it far superior to Sludge in this regard.

    I wonder if this thing will be able to ward off Subus Beth''s abilities.

    Adam was very pleased with this new ability of Mummy''s as he seemed to have found a way to counter Subus Beth.

    After that came Nun, the anomaly that Adam had once almost perished to.

    Nun was actually quite a well-rounded anomaly. It had great abilities, including the ability to possess others, and it was also very versatile in battle. If it weren''t for the fact that Adam had to focus on self-preservation against Hebi no Miko, he would''ve chosen to prioritize Nun''s development over Sludge''s.

    After evolving into a level six anomaly, Nun was even more terrifying in appearance.

    Its dark eyes, terrifying features, and sharp teeth presented a contrasting sense of horror when juxtaposed with its nun uniform.

    Its evolution didn''t bring any new abilities, but its original abilities had improved significantly, and out of curiosity, Adam instructed it to unleash its Fountain of Contamination.

    The ck sewage gushed out of Nun''s cavernous mouth, and as it left her mouth, the stream was only less than a meter in diameter, but as it descended, it rapidly expanded to form an enormous wave that inundated the entire retirement home, significantly eroding all of the buildings.

    "Not bad!"

    After Nun came Hellhound.

    Its appearance also hadn''t changed much, and it hadn''t attained any new abilities, either, but its evolution had elevated all of its physical attributes, making it a much more effective physical brawler.

    In the past, Hellhound had never been all that effective against opponents of a higher level than itself due to its rtively fragile body. It didn''t dare to get close to powerful opponents, so it was unable to maximize its tremendous bite force.

    Now that its body had be stronger, it was going to be far more effective in close-quartersbat.

    Right as Adam was rejoicing over the gains that he had made, the psychic world around him began to copse due to the demise of its host.

    The sound of the copsing began to ring out in the distance, and it wasn''t going to take long before everything crumbled away.

    Meanwhile, the most powerful anomalies in Adam''s collection were still devouring the anomalic power on the ground, yet to undergo evolution.

    "Hurry up!"

    Finally, under Adam''s urgent instructions, those anomaliespleted their evolutions one after another.

    Adam didn''t have any more time to examine his newly evolved anomalies, and he took a nce at the little anomalic power that remained, then heaved a forlorn sigh before leaving the psychic world.

    In the instant that he opened his eyes in the real world, he was greeted by the sight of Shae.

    "How did it go?"

    Adam merely nodded in response.

 Chapter 415: A True Invocator

    <h4>Chapter 415: A True Invocator</h4>

    Even though Adam hadn''t said anything, May and Renee could immediately sense that something was different about him.

    "You seem to have undergone some kind of change," Renee remarked as she approached him. "Your aura has be stronger and more stable. You''re really beginning to feel like a top-tier adapter now."

    She then took a nce at Noah, whose breathing had be as weak and shallow as a vegetable due to suffering brain death.

    "I have some dirt on you after this now, right?" Renee chuckled. "You owe me a favor, and don''t you forget it."

    "Didn''t you do this to return a favor from May?"

    Originally, yes, but the nature of the event has changed. It''s be both illegal and dangerous, so you owe me one. If I need your help someday, you have to lend it to me, do you hear me?

    "Loud and clear," Adam replied with a nod.

    Renee had indeed done him a massive favor, and given how much he had gained from this, it wouldn''t have been too much even for her to ask Adam to help her on 10 future asions.

    "I really overexerted myself in there, so I''m getting a massage. You''re free to go after you''re done with what you need to do, there''s no need to notify me."

    Indeed, Renee had been pushed extremely far in the battle against Noah, and it seemed that she was only able to maintain her peak power for a short time.

    After that, she promptly departed, but she didn''t go to rest and get a massage, as she proimed that she would. Instead, she arrived in a secret room, then sent a few messages to her subordinates at the Psychic Church.

    "Send me all of the information you have on mayoral candidate Adam, including from his time at Shadow City."

    After sending the message, her brows furrowed tightly as she murmured to herself, "How could their psychic properties be so simr? Could it be that he''s his son?"

    ¡­¡­

    "Is there something you want to tell me?"

    Havinge into contact with Adam so extensively, May had already roughly guessed the nature of Adam''s powers.

    She had known Adam ever since he first awakened, and she had witnessed his rate of growth from the very beginning.

    Prior to this, she had only been able to make educated guesses, but thistest incident had all but confirmed to her that her suspicions had been correct.

    "No," Adam replied, even though he could tell that May had already uncovered the truth through her deduction. "There are some things that won''t benefit anyone for you to know. You don''t want to go against the southern congress and the Guild of Immortality, so it''s in your best interests to know as little about my secrets as possible. We should maintain a friendly rtionship, yet still keep some distance between us. That would be beneficial to everyone, wouldn''t you agree?"

    May couldn''t help but burst intoughter upon hearing this.

    "You''re bing more and more mature. You''re right. I''m leaving now, you can take care of the rest on your own."

    After that, May also departed.

    "How did it go, Adam?" Mole asked.

    "I''ll tell you about it when we get back."

    ¡­¡­

    At the Four Brothers Veterinarian Hospital.

    "The operation was a tremendous sess!" Adam dered as he dragged Shae and Mole into his psychic world, then instantly invoked his entire legion of anomalies, which consisted of an enormous number of anomalies.

    "Those anomalies look really strong, but what are those ones over there? Why have I never seen them before?"

    Aside from the anomalies that Shae had seen in the past, there were also many other anomalies that didn''t appear to have been at a very high level, mostly only around level two or level three.

    There were even some that appeared to have only been level one anomalies, but there were dozens of them in total, making this a bona fide anomalic army.

    Perhaps a single one of these anomalies wouldn''t have been all that worthy of note, but if one were to be swarmed by all of these anomalies at once, then that would certainly have been a terrifying prospect.

    "I got them while in prison. At the time, I killed quite a few cash cows, and I also killed quite a few mentally disturbed inmates during the final riot. All of their anomalies have remained in my psychic world, and I thought that they were going to remain in their infantile form, so they weren''t ever going to be very useful, but there was so much anomalic power this time that I had to feed everyone."

    Adam''s gaze roamed over the army of anomalies as he mused, "I''m finally beginning to feel like a true invocator. This army of anomalies can rival Sadou''s invoked entities. Of course, these anomalies still form the backbone of the army."

    Adam turned his gaze to the higher level anomalies that he hadn''t had a chance to examine earlier, then began to inspect their current condition through his psychic connection with them.

    He started with Distortion, which had stopped randomly attacking Adam''s allies following itstest evolution.

    As Distortion had be more powerful, it had also be easier for Adam to control, and now that it had be a level seven anomaly, it had alreadypletely fused as one with Adam''s psyche.

    Its appearance hadn''t changed much, but its stature had increased even further.

    In its current form, even Adam couldn''t help but feel disturbed at the sight of its distorted body, and all types of strange and twisted thoughts were constantly springing into his mind.

    This was Distortion''s new ability, Mental Distortion.

    Adam didn''t know how powerful a level seven Distortion was, and he desperately needed a worthy opponent to test out his powers.

    However, he knew that Shae and the psychic mutant trio definitely wouldn''t have been up to the task.

    If he wanted to truly test out his powers, then he would have to seek out opponents of a higher caliber.

    Horse Face has also reached level seven.

    Adam turned to Horse Face to find that its brush had be even faster and more agile, and it had also be more well-rounded in its attributes.

    Horse Face and Camera shared the same fatal weakness in that they were both very physically frail.

    However, in contrast with Camera, which was going further and further down the path of no return, Horse Face had developed ayer of thick skin over its entire body, and its defenses had clearly been enhanced, thereby allowing it to be more useful and effective on the battlefield.

    Not bad. Last but not least is Sludge.

    Adam turned to Sludge, which had already grown to 20 meters in height, and its stature made it the most eye-catching figure in the entire anomalic army.

    It stood as tall as a seven-story building, given its broad and imposing figure, it resembled a small mountain.

    The increase in stature had granted it more destructive power and defensive prowess, and the blue patterns on its body had also be more concentrated, further indicating enhanced defensive capabilities.

    Furthermore, Adam discovered that he was able to manipte the size of Sludge even more easily now.

    At his behest, Sludge quickly shrank down to only two meters in height.

    Prior to thistest evolution, Sludge had only been able to shrink down to around eight meters at the smallest, and it was still quite cumbersome in many situations.

    However, given its current versatility in stature, it would be able to participate in many indoors battles without having to smash open the roof.

    In this shrunken state, Sludge''s body appeared to have be even denser and more difficult to break through. In battles where destructive capabilities and movement speed weren''t priorities, this would be quite a good size for Sludge.

    However, as Adam began to examine Sludge more closely, he noticed that something wasn''t quite right.

    It seems to have reached its limit and can''t evolve any further.

 Chapter 416: From the Body to the Mind

    <h4>Chapter 416: From the Body to the Mind</h4>

    This was the second time he had felt this, and the first asion was during Ogress''s evolution.

    It felt as if the anomaly had already reached a saturation point and could no longer ept more extraneous energy, as if it had reached the limit of its growth.

    These things belonged to Adam''s psychic world, so they were a part of him. Back when he had first gone to train with Sadou, he didn''t have much of an understanding of these invoked entities, but having experienced so much since then and honed his telegnosis to an exceptional degree, he was now able to sense all minute changes that took ce in his anomalies.

    Has it really reached its limit?

    An intrigued look appeared on Adam''s face as he instructed all of his high-level anomalies to gather around him, following which he began to stroke their bodies to get a better sense of their current condition.

    This time, he was able to clearly sense that Ogress and Sludge had indeed reached their limits, so they weren''t going to be able to evolve any further.

    "What are you doing?" Shae asked. "Why are you touching them? Is something wrong?"

    "It seems like the two of them won''t be able to evolve any further."

    "Which two?"

    Adam pointed at Ogress and Sludge, and Shae approached them for a closer inspection, but wasn''t able to draw any conclusions.

    She had no psychic connection with these anomalies, so she naturally couldn''t sense where their limits were.

    However, as an outsider, she had her own useful insights to provide.

    "Could it be that the evil intent that gave rise to them isn''t sufficiently potent to begin with?" Shae spected. "I recall that we obtained Ogress from the cannibal club, right?"

    "That''s right."

    "Could it be that its host didn''t possess enough evil intent? I recall that she was a cannibal who always liked to seduce men, then eat her husbands and lovers."

    "I think so, I can''t quite remember the details clearly myself. Is that still not enough evil intent?"

    "Perhaps not. Where did Sludgee from?"

    "It came from Peter, the second patient that we treated during my psychotherapy days."

    Peter was an extremely deplorable man, but Adam had to admit that Peter had given him a very useful ally.

    "That could be the reason. The origins of these two anomalies are too ordinary."

    "Is that right?"

    "I don''t know, I''m just guessing."

    This was the first time that Adam had encountered a situation like this, so he couldn''t think of any answers, either.

    The only thing that Adam knew for sure was that all of these invoked entities had an upper limit to their potential. Ogress''s upper limit was level six, Sludge''s was level seven, and the upper limits for the other anomalies were still yet to be determined.

    However, Adam was certain that the only infantile anomaly in his army, the angel of death, was definitely going to be able to be an extremely high level anomaly.

    If all anomalies had upper limits to their potential, then this anomaly would at least be able to reach level 10.

    As for his other anomalies, he couldn''t tell which ones had potential and which ones didn''t.

    Perhaps there were anomalies with immense potential in his army, but if he had to pick one to develop, then the angel of death was definitely the best choice.

    After all, there was no guarantee that he would get another opportunity like this.

    Some of the anomalies in his army had only evolved to level two or level three from their infantile forms, and that was already beyond what they would''ve otherwise been able to evolve to, thanks to the tremendous surplus of anomalic power that had been avable.

    From here onward, they would have to evolve one level at a time, and there was still a very long way to go.

    Furthermore, he wasn''t sure exactly what level they could evolve to.

    In any case, this anomaly is definitely one to be prioritized.

    After briefly examining the power of his anomalic army, Adam departed from the psychic world.

    During the few days after that, he was always itching to find someone to test out his newfound powers on, but the Chaos Raisers weren''tmitting crimes every day, and he wasn''t able to gather any leads on them, leading to a great deal of agitation and frustration.

    However, he hadn''t just done nothing during those few days.

    He was contacted by some technical personnel from Orto Technologies, who took him to Orto Technologies'' most confidential military research facility in Sandrise City to present him with their most cutting-edge products.

    "All of these prosthetic limbs have been prepared for you."

    Adam had been presented with a dizzying array ofbat prosthetic limbs, none of which had appeared on the market up to this point.

    In fact, they hadn''t even been made avable in the military yet.

    Kevin had well and truly delivered on his promise, providing a sufficient array of prosthetic limbs to arm Adam to the teeth.

    "These are all legal, right?"

    "Rest assured, all of the parts used are legal, and none of them are fitted with standard artillery."

    "Are there monitoring devices inside?"

    "No, you can take them back for examination if that''s an area of concern for you. Mr. Reed says that sincerity is vital in a coboration, and ying little tricks won''t lead to long-term sess. An ally who feels like they''ve been wronged will turn into an enemy, and if one makes too many enemies, life will be very difficult for them,"

    Unlike most technicians, this one was very talkative, and he had most likely been chosen to attend to Adam for that reason.

    Looking at the vast array of prosthetic limbsid out before him, Adam didn''t even know where to begin.

    "Do you have any rmendations?"

    "Given the fact that you''re an adapter, this surround sensory prosthetic limb should be your best choice," the technician introduced while pointing at a ck prosthetic limb. "During battles in the psychic world, the main concern for adapters is the safety of the physical body in the real world. ]

    ¡°This prosthetic limb has an independent AI battle system, and due to its special data analysis function, its automatedbat abilities are superior to when it¡¯s controlled by the user, and its reaction system is also superior to that of the average Mechguard unit. In terms of battle efficiency and proficiency, AI have far outstripped humans, regardless of whether it be real-world battles or battles in games."

    "So you''re saying this thing will automatically protect my body while I''m fighting in the psychic world."

    "That''s correct. In fact, it''ll even put up effective retaliation. It''s fitted with the most advanced sensoryponents, including infraredpound eyes and soundwave detectors, and those will allow you to detect your enemies in advance."

    "That does sound very appealing."

    Adam approached the prosthetic limb to take a closer look, and he discovered that in contrast with normal prosthetic limbs, this was an all-epassing one, so it was more like a suit of carbon fiber battle armor than a prosthetic limb.

    There were many miniature neural connection points all over the suit of armor, and its exterior was also riddled with many slots, into which otherponents from Orto Technologies could be inserted.

    "Tell me about the other prosthetic limbs. If there aren''t any ones more suitable than this one, then this is the one I''ll settle on."

    Adam had plenty of time on his hands, and he was in no hurry.

    The technician quickly introduced all of the other prosthetic limbs to Adam, and it had to be said that he was very familiar with thepany''s products.

    After hearing about all of the prosthetic limbs, Adam decided that the first one, the ck Panther 7, was indeed the one that suited him the best.

    "Alright, install it for me. Also, I need a rocket booster to provide me with the ability to fly for short bursts, so upgrade the one I currently have. Also, I need a neuron transmitter with arger effective range."

    "Got it!"

 Chapter 417: Release

    <h4>Chapter 417: Release</h4>

    The technicians and resources were all the best that Orto Technologies had to provide, so Adam''s psychic connection surgery waspletely painless, even with no anesthetics administered.

    After everything was done and he returned to the veterinarian hospital with his new prosthetics, he was immediately greeted by an exaggerated performance from the psychic mutant trio.

    "Woah, you''re looking badass, Adam!"

    "It''s a bit like something you''d see in a movie."

    "It really is!"

    "Where did you get this stuff?"

    "Is this stuff sold anywhere? If so, we''ll get a few sets as well."

    "Not at the moment. All of this was given to me by a political donor."

    Adam flexed his arm, and a faint electronic buzzing rang out as he did so. With these new prosthetics installed, he was itching for a fight more than ever.

    Right as he was considering whether to visit Sadou for a sparring match, some long-awaited news from Raven finally arrived.

    "Tonight in Area 45, Beth''s people are going to poison the water purification nt on Small Ink Street."

    Finally!

    Adam immediately rushed out of the veterinarian hospital upon receiving this message.

    This time, he wasn''t bringing anyone with him.

    Even though his prosthetics granted him the ability to fly, it was only for short periods of time due to fuel constraints, so he had to travel to Area 45 by car.

    Unfortunately, technology often wasn''t as exciting and brilliant as what was depicted in movies.

    Adam was very familiar with Area 45, and he couldn''t help but take a few extra nces at his surroundings as he drove into the area.

    There were many mentally disturbed people in Area 45, but he was quite fond of this ce.

    The poption of artists and creators in this area filled the entire air with a sense of creativity, which was perfect for Adam, who sorely detested rules and order at this point.

    All rules that were established catered to a minority of people at the expense of the majority.

    The oppressive atmosphere of Sandrise City was one that Adam resented with all his heart, and if it weren''t to exact vengeance and uncover the truth about his own past, he would''ve rather lived in a ce like Shadow City than Sandrise City.

    After driving through Area 45 for some time, he arrived in an industrialplex.

    Even though therge industrialplexes in Area 8 and Area 9 had already been abandoned, small industrialplexes were still a necessity.

    After all, things like food, water, and electricity were still essential to all of the city''s residents.

    The industrialplex wasn''t veryrge, and there were many people in it, either. The majority of the people living in Area 45 were averse to working, so the majority of thebor force here consisted of automatons.

    Adam drove through the industrialplex before stopping beside arge cistern.

    The cistern was connected to some underground pipes, resembling a smallke, and this was where the water used by over half of Area 45''s residents originated from.

    Behind the cistern was the water purifying reservoir, and after purification, the water was filtered twice for sterilization purposes before being pumped into the taps of Area 45''s residents.

    It doesn''t look that clean.

    Adam felt like the water in the cistern wasn''t very clean at all, and the security measures taken in the area were also quiteckluster.

    Only after Adam had been standing beside the cistern for a while did a security automaton approach him for questioning.

    These security automatons were very simr to Mechguard units, except they were significantly inferior in terms ofbat capabilities, both because they were legally prohibited from carrying artillery and also because their programming wasn''t as aggressive as that of Mechguard units.

    Mechguard units were extremely brutal, and they were programmed to kill in the case of certain transgressions.

    In contrast, these security automatons didn''t have the same programming, and even if they were attacked, they had to determine the intentions of the attacker before retaliating. In fact, they were prohibited from making any aggressive gestures before a threat was posed to them, and that severely limited their effectiveness.

    Under the automaton''s interrogation, Adam could only disy his documents, and the automaton departed after verifying Adam''s identity as a special psychic police officer.

    At this point, night hadn''t arrived yet, and there were still a few hours left until the time that Raven had stated that Beth and her people were going to carry out their operation.

    Adam wasn''t able to sense anything amiss in the surrounding area with his telegnosis, so all he could do was conceal himself and prepare to ambush his prey once they arrived.

    He parked his car far away from the industrialplex, then hid himself behind the water supply pipes.

    As the sky gradually darkened, his prosthetics began to disy their chameleon function, gradually darkening in color to blend in with the night.

    Adam waited for a very long time, from dusk to night, then from night to midnight, but still, no one came.

    However, he was very patient. He knew that Raven wouldn''t make ims like this willy-nilly, so he had full confidence that Beth and her people would arrive eventually.

    Finally, at around 1 AM, when most of the lights in the industrialplex had been turned off, Adam began to sense danger in the air.

    His extremely sensitive telegnosis allowed him to sense things that werepletely undetectable to the average person.

    They''re here!

    Adam clenched his fists tightly as he forcibly suppressed his excitement, then activated his infrared night vision equipment to inspect his surroundings.

    The water purification nt was a factory, so there weren''t many hiding ces, and Adam immediately discovered his targets.

    He first saw a group of people approach the nt from outside, then shot down the security automatons with electronic sniper rifles from afar.

    The security automatons were legally prohibited from patrolling anywhere outside of their designated area. Anything that happened outside of that area contained potentially sensitive information pertaining to other factories, which these automatons had no right to pry into.

    Hence, as long as the snipers stayed out of that area, the security automatons werepletely helpless and could only be sniped down like sitting ducks.

    Thankfully, there were human security guards present at the nt as well. Those security guards seemed to have discovered what was happening outside through the surveince footage, and they immediately activated the emergency protocol in the security automatons'' programming, thereby allowing them to retaliate.

    However, the intruders were already prepared for this, and they immediately released a series of drones, dominating the airspace above the battlefield to maintain the initiative.

    "We can take care of things here, you two go in and kill everyone!"

    "Got it!"

    A pair of figures had only just gotten up from the undergrowth when they suddenly heard a voice ring out from behind them.

    "I''m gonna have to stop you there. If you kill those people, my votes will take another hit."

    "Who''s there?"

    The dozen or so intruders immediately swung around with bewildered and apprehensive expressions.

    Even though they were manufactured adapters so their telegnosis wasn''t as sensitive as that of normal adapters, their senses were still far sharper than the average person, so it was extremely rming to them that someone had gotten so close without their detection.

    "I''m over here."

    Adam patted his prosthetics to deactivate its chameleon function, and only then did he be visible to the group of intruders.

    "Looks like he''s got some really advanced prosthetics! Let''s take care of him in the psychic world!" the leader of the intruders instructed.

    "That suits me just fine!"

    Adam activated his prosthetics'' automated battle function, then allowed himself to be dragged into the psychic world without putting up any resistance.

 Chapter 418: Adams Seven Heads

    <h4>Chapter 418: Adam''s Seven Heads</h4>

    As was quitemon, Adam arrived in the same ce in the psychic world as the one he was situated in in the real world.

    It was still the same water purification nt, but the dozen or so intruders had all turned into anomalies.

    Adam quickly counted the anomalies before him to find that there were exactly a dozen of them, and it was clear just from their appearances that they were quite formidable.

    Of course, if they weren''t, then there was no way that the director would''ve hand-picked them and wasted nk tes on them.

    All those who were chosen had to possess enormous potential or tremendousbat prowess.

    Prior to absorbing the anomalic power left behind by the angel of death, Adam definitely wouldn''t have dared to take on 12 anomalies of such a high caliber on his own.

    However, things were different now. The angel of death had granted him a true anomalic army, elevating him to a whole new level.

    "You''re on your own?"

    After entering the psychic world, an anomaly with feelers growing all over its head was meticulously inspecting its surroundings. Its extremely heightened senses and cautious nature indicated that its host was a very cunning and careful character, and that was reflected in the anomaly.

    "It looks like he''s on his own," the anomaly concluded after examining the surrounding area.

    "What an idiot! He must have a death wish!"

    An anomaly with a rough and rugged appearance stepped forward with an eager expressions. Its arms were attached to what appeared to be meat slicer des, and it was clear that its host was very fond of dismembering bodies.

    "We have to kill him quickly! We don''t have much time before Mechguard gets here!" the cunning anomaly urged. "He doesn''t look very strong, so this should be easy."

    "Shut up!"

    The other anomaly swung its arm straight into the cunning anomaly''s head, severing several of its feelers with its meat slicer de.

    Viscous fluid began to gush out of the severed feelers as the cunning anomaly stumbled back while howling in pain.

    It was clear that there was no cohesion to speak of in this rag-tag bunch of psychic deviants.

    Furthermore, these people were extremely twisted individuals to begin with, and they were only willing to work together as the director held control over their lives, but they would disy their cruel and brutal tendencies at any opportunity.

    "Prey has to be slowly sliced apart and toyed with. Otherwise, it won''t be fun. We still have plenty of time left, there''s no way Mechguard would get here so quickly!"

    Despite what it was saying, the meat slicer anomaly was still moving very quickly. It leaped up into the air, covering a distance of dozens of meters in one bound to arrive directly above Adam.

    "All of you, stay out of this! He''s mine!"

    Adam was certainly in no hurry.

    No Mechguard unit would harm him, and he hade here to test out his powers. If the enemy wanted to engage him in a one-on-one battle, then he was happy to oblige, and he wasn''t afraid of being ganged up on, either.

    With that in mind, Adam invoked Spider before fusing as one with it, transforming into a terrifying seven-headed monster.

    As opposed to Sludge, Nun, or any of the other anomalies that hemonly used, he had decided to bring out the seven-headed spider anomaly that he had taken form the human head collector.

    This was the only new addition to the ranks of his advanced anomalies.

    Adam had already evolved it several times while in prison, and thanks to the anomalic power left behind by the angel of death, it had quickly returned to the former peak of its powers.

    Seeing as he hade here to test out his powers, he was naturally going to start with the anomalies that he was least familiar with.

    "Hold on, are you one of us? Are you here to steal this job from us? You''ve really chosen the wrong people to mess with!"

    After witnessing Adam''s new form, the meat slicer anomaly mistook him for a fellow Chaos Raiser, but that didn''t mean that it was going to spare Adam.

    The massive meat slicer came swinging down toward one of Adam''s heads, but Adam took no evasive action, and a huge gash was instantly sliced into his neck.

    The meat slicer anomaly was reveling in the sensation of dismembering its prey, and it was just about tosh out at another one of Adam''s heads when one of the seven heads suddenly began to smile.

    These were heads that had been submerged in formaldehyde for long periods of time, and a smile appearing on such a head presented an extremely terrifying and sinister sight to behold.

    As the smile was disyed, Adam unleashed his super regeneration ability, and his wounds quickly began to heal.

    "I love guys like you with multiple heads! There''s nothing that feels better than slicing off heads one by one!"

    As the battle continued, the meat slicer anomaly appeared to be dominating, inflicting several injuries onto Adam''s body.

    All of a sudden, a smile appeared on a second one of Adam''s heads, and his speed instantly increased by severalfold, allowing him to evade all oing attacks while leaving trails of afterimages in his wake.

    A third head then smiled, and Adam''s defenses were instantly elevated to another level. Even if he were asionally struck by his opponent, the anomaly''s meat slicers would only raise trails of sparks against his skin, unable to inflict any substantial harm.

    "Looks like you''re not aplete slouch, after all!"

    The meat slicer anomaly was finally beginning to get serious, and it let loose a loud roar, following which its body became thicker and burlier, while its meat slicer des also began to revolve at a faster speed.

    However, it was time for Adam to retaliate, and as a smile appeared on his fourth head, his strength abruptly spiked through the roof, allowing him to tear away arge chunk of his opponent''s skin and flesh with just a single swipe of his w.

    "You''re not that strong," Adam remarked as he sprang back afternding an attack. "Is it because the organization is struggling to find strong members? That makes sense, considering how rare psychic deviants are."

    By Adam''s estimates, this anomaly was only a level six anomaly, and it was a bottom-ranking level six anomaly, to boot.

    Itsbat prowess couldn''t even begin topare with someone like Raven, and the fact that it was the clear leader of the group indicated that this was a very weak team of Chaos Raisers.

    "No wonder so many of you had toe out at once, I suppose you have to use quantity to make up for ack of quality."

    "What the hell are you talking about?"

    Adam offered no response, but in that instant, all of his heads began to smile at once.

    At the same time, his aura swelled drastically, and his body was basked in the light of a glowing hexagram.

    The seven heads of Spider represented seven different abilities, and Adam had struggled immensely to take down this fearsome anomaly.

    "Super strength, super speed, super regeneration, super defenses, hallucinogenic toxins, energy attacks, technomantic attacks... It''s time to show you the horrors that I once had to experience!"

 Chapter 419: Master Invocator

    <h4>Chapter 419: Master Invocator</h4>

    Adam charged at his opponent as he spoke, and before the anomaly had a chance to react, one of its wrists had already been severed.

    The meat slicer anomaly tried to retaliate with its other arm, but Adam had already appeared behind it in a sh before stabbing a poisonous spike into its body, administering an injection of hallucinogenic toxins.

    At the same time, a hexagram array appeared beneath his feet, and with Adam''s technomantic power and the toxins acting in unison, the meat slicer anomaly was struck by the urge to put an end to its own life.

    It raised its remaining meat slicer, then plunged it into its own belly, using the sharp pain to regain its senses.

    Spider was roughly somewhere in the middle of the pack among level seven anomalies, while the meat slicer anomaly was at the bottom of level six anomalies, and this vast disparity in power and battle experience was simply far too huge a gap to ovee.

    At this point, the meat slicer anomaly had finally realized what it was dealing with, and a horrified look appeared on its face.

    Even anomalies felt fear. In fact, some serial killers were far more fearful than the average person. They spent their days torturing and killing others, but they were horrified at the prospect of the same fate befalling themselves one day.

    This applied to Two-face, whose host had exclusively targeted underage victims, and this meat slicer anomaly was in the same boat.

    "Help! Hurry!"

    The meat slicer anomaly had been extremely arrogant and domineering just a moment ago, yet when faced with the threat of death, it couldn''t even maintain as muchposure as a normal person.

    "Your brutality is matched only by your cowardice! Let me show you how it feels to be hunted down yourself!"

    Adam snapped the anomaly''s other arm, then plunged the meat slicer de on the end of the arm viciously into its body.

    Viscous fluids erupted in all directions, and the anomaly was instantly torn into pieces, meeting its demise.

    Even though Adam already knew that no anomalic power would arise from these manufactured anomalies, he still couldn''t help but feel a little disappointed by theck of anomalic power provided by these enemies.

    "What are you going to do? Attack me all at once?"

    Even with the death of the meat slicer anomaly, there were still 11 more opponents, and Adam kicked the pieces of the anomaly''s body away before turning to its allies.

    "What do we do?"

    "Get him!"

    "Kill him!"

    "But he looks really strong!"

    "Don''t worry, we outnumber him!"

    "No matter how strong he is, he can''t beat all of us!"

    "You''re right, we have strength in numbers!"

    The 11 anomalies quickly reached a consensus, and Adam nodded in agreement.

    "You''re right, strength does indeede in numbers."

    As Adam was speaking, countless streaks of light flew out of his body, and his anomalic army was invoked.

    The tallest member of the army was Sludge, which stood at around 20 meters tall, while the shortest ones stood at less than a meter in height.

    These dozens of anomalies of different levels were standing together like a legion, presenting a formidable sight to behold.

    "Go!"

    Adam immediately directed his anomalies to attack without giving his enemies any chance to react.

    This was his first truerge-scale battle as an invocator, and he was having to divide his attention, instructing the higher level anomalies to charge at the front, while also directing the lower level and more fragile anomalies to keep their distance and provide assistance from afar.

    The sight of the formidable anomalic army immediately scared the enemies into retreat.

    They were new adapters who had no battle experiences, and they immediately fled in all directions in horror. In fact, they were so new to this that they didn''t even know how to break through psychic boundaries.b

    These people are so ipetent, it reminds me of the entitled trash from the Psychic Church.

    That was the first time that Adam had realized the importance of battle experience, and the second time was during the psychic battle royale.

    That hellish battle royale had given Adam a wealth of experience.

    .

    He had witnessed manybatants oveing opponents more powerful than them thanks to their experience, and likewise, he had also seen many formidablebatants fall due to ack of experience.

    There was a huge number of powerful adapters among them, including the likes of Eyeless and Medusa.

    In contrast, these seemingly fearsome and brutal anomalies were justplete noobs in the field of adapters.

    Despite their inexperience, they were quite powerful, and Adam quickly realized that one of them was a level seven anomaly, so they were even more powerful than the meat slicer anomaly, but they were also sorelycking in experience.

    Eyeless was also roughly on the same tier as a level seven anomaly, but he would''ve been able to y this anomaly in seconds.

    Even so, a bunch of anomalies between level five and level seven still formed quite a formidable lineup, and there was no way that Adam would''ve dared to challenge them on his own in the past.

    However, in the face of his current anomalic army, these opponents were nothing more than cannon fodder.

    Sludge was leading charge like a moving fortress, Horse Face was manipting their emotions and amplifying their fear, while Camera was slicing through their ranks, decapitating one anomaly after another...

    ¡­¡­

    The higher level anomalies naturally disyed very impressivebat prowess, but Adam was paying more attention to the lower level anomalies.

    He had previously thought that there was an insurmountable gap in power between low-level and high-level anomalies, and that no matter how many low-level anomalies ganged up on a single high-level anomaly, the former would still be defeated.

    However, it appeared that this wasn''t necessarily a sure thing.

    Among the low-level anomalies, many of them possessed very interesting abilities that were simr to abilities such as Nun''s Lights Out, Horse Face''s Emotional Disruption, and Clown''s illusions.

    Even when unleashed by low-level anomalies, these abilities could still cause some trouble for their opponents.

    One or two low-level anomalies was very much manageable, but if there were dozens of them appearing all at once, then even high-level anomalies would struggle immensely against them, significantly limiting theirbat prowess.

    In contrast, the purely offensive low-level anomalies were rather useless, with the most ineffective ones being the ones that specialized in close-quartersbat, like Sludge.

    Perhaps they were quite formidable against anomalies of the same level, able to defeat opponents slightly more powerful than them, but their abilities had no impact on the battlefield as a whole, and there was no way they could pose a threat to anomalies so many levels above them, so all they could do was stand around and watch.

    These low-levelbat-type anomalies can be used to protect the technomantic anomalies, Adam analyzed.

    The low-level anomalies were all quite frail, particrly the ones that specialized in technomancy.

    Given their frail nature and the vast level disparity between themselves and their opponents, each of them was at risk of dying to a single attack, so it was a good idea to assign them bodyguards.

    This is a good learning experience!

    Adam was constantly adjusting the formation of his army and arranging them in different ways for experimentation.

    For the first time, he was experiencing what it felt like to be a master invocator.

    He didn''t even have to do anything as his invoked entities could do all the battling for him.

    In fact, his anomalic army hadn''t even unleashed much of its power yet, and the battle was already close to over.

    As the final opponent fell, Adam''s excitement was tinged with a hint of disappointment.

    If only they put up a bit more of a fight.

 Chapter 420: Just in Time

    <h4>Chapter 420: Just in Time</h4>

    "That felt great!"

    Adam exhaled as he left the psychic world, and at the same time, he noticed that he moved a little in the real world.

    After reying the recording of what had just taken ce, he discovered that his prosthetics had moved him on their own. During the course of the psychic battle, a bird had flown past, and his prosthetics had moved him out of the way to ensure his safety.

    It looks like I''ve been upgraded both in body and in mind.

    Adam was very pleased with his current state, and he activated his rocket boosters to fly into the water purification nt, hoping that there were more people taking part in this mission

    That battle had been rather dissatisfactory for him as his opponents had been too weak, and he was yearning for more powerful opposition.

    However, he was left feeling disappointed. After entering the nt, he didn''t discover any enemies, and after that, he went to the surveince room to correspond with the human security guards, who informed him that there were no further threats.

    Even though this was only to be expected, Adam still couldn''t help but feel a little dejected.

    The security measures weren''t particrly formidable in this nt, so one team of adapters was already enough.

    "You''re a mayoral candidate, right?" One of the security guards recognized Adam, and he said in an excited voice, "Your contributions to Sandrise City have been enormous! I can''t believe those southern congress bastards tried to frame you twice! If you weren''t here today, all of us would have to die!"

    "Who did you vote for?"

    .

    "Er... Well..."

    "You voted for Clyde, didn''t you? I saved you for nothing!" Adam jibed, but all of a sudden, he detected that something wasn''t quite right.

    He hurriedly checked the surveince footage again, but didn''t discover anything abnormal.

    "Are there any ces in the nt that are blind spots to the surveince cameras?"

    "There shouldn''t be. Aside from some defunct areas, the cameras capture everything," the captain of the security guards guaranteed.

    However, Adam trusted his own telegnosis far more than these security guards, and patted his own shoulder, upon which a swarm of tiny reconnaissance drones flew out to examine every single corner of the nt.

    Almost at the exact same moment, arge chunk of the water pipeline in the nt was sliced open by aser cutter, following which several figures made their way into the nt.

    "This seems to be the ce. Are we going to participate in the poisoning?"

    "There''s no need for that. The southern congress only instructed us to disrupt Adam, not to help those Chaos Raisers. Doing more than what''s expected of us will only have a detrimental effect."

    The man who had just spoken had a very deep and authoritative voice, and even though he was wearing a mask, if Adam had been present, he would''ve definitely been able to identify the man.

    It was Oni-faced Dragon, the leader of the Oni Organization.

    The Oni Organization had always been working with the southern congress. They were like the toilet paper of the southern congress, doing all of the dirty work and cleaning up all the messes.

    Of course, they were financiallypensated by the southern congress.

    The Oni Organization had always worked for money, so it was no surprise that the two would form a coborative partnership.

    A while back, Oni-faced Dragon had gone into hiding due to Hebi no Miko''s presence, but now that Hebi no Miko had left North America, he had resumed normal operations.

    "Come to think of it, I have a personal vendetta against Adam. Both Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko were killed by him, but our mission this time isn''t to kill him."

    "Is he really strong?"

    Oni-faced Dragon was apanied by four of the eight Onis, none of whom hade into contact with Adam before, so they didn''t know much about him.

    "Not really. However, I''ve met him a few times, and each time, he''s shown significant improvement. Even so, he''s still just second-rate trash that poses no threat to us. Hold on a second..."

    Oni-faced Dragon suddenly sensed something as he was speaking, and he looked up to find one of Adam''s miniature drones flying past overhead.

    An alert look immediately appeared on his face as he said, "We''ve been discovered! How did it happen so fast? Did something go wrong outside?"

    While Adam was battling the adapters outside, Oni-faced Dragon was still on the way here, so he was oblivious to what had unfolded outside the nt.

    "What do we do?"

    "It''s alright. The southern congress has already dyed the arrival of Mechguard, so we have plenty of time. If those idiots can''t get the job done, then we can do it for them, at an extra cost, of course."

    Oni-faced Dragon had alreadypletely disregarded Adam as a non-factor. In his eyes, Adam was just a mediocre scrub, and even thetest information on Adam indicated that his powers were still nothing to fear.

    Adam was quite excited upon identifying Oni-faced Dragon from the images transmitted back to him by the drone.

    You came at just the right time!

    He had a long-standing vendetta against the Oni Organization, which was directly responsible for forcing him to flee to Shadow City and for the deaths of Hook and Nie Yiyi.

    If this confrontation had taken ce any earlier, Adam wouldn''t have had the power required to defeat Oni-faced Dragon, but if it were to take ce anyter, Adam didn''t know whether he would be able to live until that day.

    Hence, there was no better time than the present.

    Adam suppressed the fury in his heart as he instructed the people in the surveince room to stay in the room and not leave under any circumstances. After that, he verified Oni-faced Dragon''s location before immediately setting off.

    Meanwhile, Oni-faced Dragon was just about to carry out his mission when an rm suddenly rang out from his prosthetic limbs, and it didn''t take long before he heard the sound of rocket boosters in the distance, following which he saw a ck shadow approaching him.

    "Long time no see, Oni-faced Dragon!" Adam greeted as he removed his mask. "Did youe to find me?"

    "You seem really eager to rush to your death." Oni-faced Dragon removed his mask as well as he sized up Adam. "Your new equipment looks pretty advanced. Are you trying to use that to kill me? If so, then you should''ve tried to snipe me down from a distance!"

    "I''m not foolish enough to think that this stuff will be able to kill you. I came here today to use you for training!" Adam chuckled. "I''ve been waiting for this day for a very long time!"

    "You sure have be arrogant!"

    As a hitman, Oni-faced Dragon instinctively inspected his surroundings in a cautious manner, but both his eyes and his telegnosis told him that he was only facing a single enemy.

    Hence, he wasted no time beforeying down a challenge.

    "Shall we begin?"

    "Sure!"

    Adam was also keen to get the show on the road as he was worried that the southern congress would send more people to disrupt his ns.

    Furthermore, he was confident in his own abilities, so there was no need to stall for time.

    Thus, Adam activated his neuron transmitter, and his five opponents put up no resistance, allowing themselves to be dragged into the psychic world.

    In the psychic world, Oni-faced Dragon still appears like a normal person. He wasn''t an anomaly, nor was he a psychic mutant. It was clear that to him, killing was just a job that didn''t weigh on his conscience at all.

    However, the same thing didn''t apply to his subordinates, one of which was a psychic mutant that resembled a gray wolf, another one was a sword-wielding samurai, the third one was a half-human, half-beast hybrid, and thest one was a monk.

    "One Dragon and four Onis... In addition to the two that I killed before, if all of you die here, the Oni Organization would just about copse, wouldn''t it?"

 Chapter 421: The Power of Oni-faced Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 421: The Power of Oni-faced Dragon</h4>

    "Your arrogance is astounding!" the half-human, half-bear Oni eximed.

    Despite this, he wasn''t the first one to attack Adam.

    It was always the dogs that didn''t bark that had the strongest bite, and this applied to humans as well.

    The first one to attack Adam was the monk. He quickly glided his finger over his string of Buddhist beads, and a curse mark instantly appeared on Adam''s body. However, before the curse mark had a chance to take effect, Adam had already invoked and fused with Mummy.

    In this form, he possessed immense technomantic resistance, and the curse markpletely vanished, having been absorbed by Mummy''s bandages.

    Right as Adampleted his transformation, the wolf-like Oni had already appeared behind him before shing his ws across the back of Adam''s neck. However, his attack was only able to raise a trail of sparks against Adam''s bandages.

    In terms of pure defensive prowess, Mummy was superior to Sludge, so an attack of this level posed no threat to him at all.

    "It looks like you''re not just all talk!"

    The half-human, half-bear Oni also entered the fray upon seeing this. He took a deep breath, swelling to around seven to eight meters in height, then swung a huge paw directly toward Adam''s head.

    It was an attack that carried tremendous power, and Adam was swatted back a few steps, smashing straight through one of the water pipelines before managing to steady himself.

    <i>Just as I thought, the eight Onis are all on a simr level. </i>

    Having already withstood attacks from three of the four Onis present, Adam had developed an idea of their overall power.

    The giant bear before him was roughly on par with a level five anomaly, and the other two Onis were also on a simr level, as had been the case for Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko.

    Of course, given how experienced they were in practicalbat as hitmen, anomalies of the same level would''ve been no match for them.

    However, no amount of experience or technical proficiency could ovee an insurmountable gulf in power.

    "I think I may have overestimated all of you. You may all be top-tier hitmen, but ultimately, you''re still hitmen. You''re like rats crawling through sewage pipes, never able to see the light of day. If you were truly that powerful, then you wouldn''t have gotten into this filthy line of work in the first ce.

    ¡°Instead, you would''ve be Lamp Keepers for the Guild of Immortality, and that would''ve granted you more wealth, acim, immortality, and a more powerful backer, isn''t that right?"

    Adam''s voice was full of mockery as he spoke, and he waspletely looking down on the four Onis.

    Never had they been insulted like this before.

    During their missions, their victims were alwayspletely at their mercy, cowering in fear and begging for their lives. No one dared to insult them like this.

    Most importantly, Adam was speaking the truth. Insults were just words, but the truth was what truly hurt.

    "How dare you!"

    The samurai that had refrained from entering the battle this entire time finally made a move. It was clear that he was the most powerful one of the four Onis present, and with a sh of his sword, he was finally able to slice through some of Adam''s bandages.

    <i>He''s a little closer in power to Lamp Keepers than the others, but it''s not gonna help him. </i>

    While the samurai was in his follow-through following his sh, Adam released his bandages to ensnare the samurai while lifting his crimson carving knife before plunging it viciously at his opponent.

    The samurai raised his de to parry the attack, but more and more bandages were binding around him.

    The other Onis wanted to help him, but Adam invoked Sludge to stop them in their tracks.

    "I don''t want to waste time on small fry like you, so do me a favor and die!"

    Adam plunged his carving knife into the samurai''s body, and blood began to gush forth before being absorbed by the hilt of the knife, along with the samurai''s life force.

    However, before Adam could put an end to his opponent''s life, Oni-faced Dragon finally made a move.

    Adam didn''t even see what Oni-faced Dragon did. All he felt was a blur sh before his eyes, and all of the bandages around the samurai were severed, while Mummy''s carving knife had also been snapped.

    Oni-faced Dragon had already lost two powerful subordinates, so he naturally wasn''t willing to let Adam kill any more of the Onis.

    These elite hitmen were vital to the operation of his hitman organization. After all, how many missions could he possibly take on himself?

    "Very impressive. You''re a bit more powerful than what the information provided to me by the southern congress suggests. You''re certainly far more powerful than when I saw youst time, and it''s incredible that you''re able to take on all four of them at once and still gain the upper hand."

    Oni-faced Dragon was very liberal with his praise toward Adam, but he was still speaking in the condescending tone that an adult would use with a child.

    Adam knew that even up to this point, Oni-faced Dragon still didn''t see him as a threat, and that was exactly what he needed.

    .

    "There aren''t many missions these days that require my personal intervention, so you should feel honored!"

    As Oni-faced Dragon was speaking, he sprang directly toward Adam, moving so quickly that Adam could barely see him.

    Before he knew it, a deep gash that reached all the way down to his bones had appeared on his body.

    <i>His speed is close to Hebi no Miko''s, but his power is farcking inparison. </i>

    Adam was assessing Oni-faced Dragon''s power while inspecting his own wound.

    He certainly didn''t dare to underestimate an opponent of this caliber, and that was why he was holding back his trump card even at this point.

    He couldn''t? find any information on Oni-faced Dragon on the inte, but in his opinion, Oni-faced Dragon had to have been roughly on the same level as May.

    By his estimates, they were on the same level, but Oni-faced Dragon most likely wasn''t as strong as May.

    Up to this point, Adam had only seen around six or seven beings on the same level as May. They were Oni-faced Dragon, May herself, Renee, Sadou, Wax Figure, the angel of death, Raven, and Subus Beth, thest of whom he hadn''t yet met.

    Even though they were on the same level, there was still a significant gap inbat prowess between them.

    If Adam had to rank them in order, he felt like the most powerful ones out of this group were Renee and Sadou, followed by May. After that, the angel of death, Subus Beth, and Raven were probably about equal. Then came Wax Figure, which made Oni-faced Dragon the weakest of the bunch.

    This was a judgment that Adam had made based on the attitude that he had disyed toward Sadou thest time the two had encountered one another.

    However, this hierarchy was by no means guaranteed to be objectively correct, and sometimes, power wasn''t the only decisive factor in battles.

    For example, the angel of death was inferior to May in terms of absolute power, but its abilities allowed it to dominate May in battle.

    Another example would be Beth. Her effect on men could potentially allow her to defeat Sadou, but it would''ve been very difficult for her to beat May.

    Hence, this was a ratherplicated matter, and there was no way to predict the oues of certain battles unless they actually took ce.

    Having absorbed the anomalic power of the angel of death, Adam had reached this level as well, and there was only one way to find out whether he could defeat Oni-faced Dragon in battle.

    Oni-faced Dragon continued to sh through the air, and Adam was unable to track his opponent, but the wounds on his body were constantly increasing in number.

    Oni-faced Dragon was toying with him like a cat ying with a mouse, and all Adam could do was passively defend.

    "Is this the extent of your powers? I used to think you had to be a decent threat, given how much trouble you''ve caused the southern congress, but it seems like your deeds fail to back up your words."

    "Is that right?"

    Adam raised his head, and after taking so many consecutive blows, he was finally able to catch a glimpse of his opponent. He immediately invoked Distortion, which instantly appeared behind Oni-faced Dragon thanks to its Shadow Strike ability, and it simultaneously unleashed its Physical Shackles and Spiritual Shackles abilities to immobilize him on the spot.

 Chapter 422: Lone General

    <h4>Chapter 422: Lone General</h4>

    A perplexed look appeared on Oni-faced Dragon as he suddenly found himself rooted to the spot.

    ording to the information provided to him by the southern congress, Adam did seem to have some type of immobilization ability, but he hadn''t thought anything of it.

    Generally speaking, these types of abilities were only effective on opponents of the same level or lower than oneself, and in Oni-faced Dragon''s eyes, Adam was far from reaching his level, so there was no way that this ability would''ve been able to work on him.

    In fact, at the time, he had only taken a brief nce at the information on Adam before tossing it aside.

    Never did he think that there would be such a huge disparity between the provided information and what Adam was actually capable of.

    <i>How is this possible? </i>

    Under the effects of Distortion''s Spiritual Shackles, Oni-faced Dragon was feeling slightly dazed, and this was the moment that Adam had been waiting for this entire time.

    In the blink of an eye, he invoked all of his anomalies at once.

    Camera and Horse Face, Adam''s two most offensively inclined anomalies, instantly attacked Oni-faced Dragon in unison.

    Horse Face''s emotion-based attacks prolonged the dazed state that Oni-faced Dragon was in, while Camera sliced his entire body into two.

    However, there was no way that an adapter of his caliber would perish to such an attack, and the two anomalies immediately sprang back in retreat.

    .

    Adam had already achieved half of his objective innding such a heavy blow on Oni-faced Dragon, and the other half of his objective was to kill the four Onis all in one go.

    He was quite evenly matched with Oni-faced Dragon, so if the four Onis were constantly harassing him, he was definitely going to be at a disadvantage, Hence, the best course of action was to have all of them killed.

    The first one to be targeted was the giant bear, whose fortes were his strength and destructive capabilities.

    In the face of Sludge, which had suddenly swelled to 20 meters in height, it was made to resemble a toddler, and there was simply a vast gulf in power and size between them. First, the giant bear was stomped into the ground by Sludge, following which Sludge stomped down over and over again until its opponent was dead.

    At the same time, Hellhound pounced onto the wolf-like Oni for a dogfight.

    Having already be a level six anomaly, Hellhound was able topletely dominate its opponent both in terms of strength and speed, but it was still a little difficult for it to kill its opponent in a short time.

    However, this was never a one-on-one battle.

    While the wolf-like Oni was being upied by Hellhound, Nun plunged its ws straight through his abdomen before tearing his body apart. In the next instant, Hellhound bit down onto the Oni''s head with incredible force.

    With the two level six anomalies working together, the Oni stood no chance.

    Even though the two Onis had perished in rapid session, the monk Oni was quite far away, so he had some time to react. He was just about to flee when a seven-headed monster reached him in the blink of an eye before decapitating his bald head.

    The one that survived the longest was the samurai Oni.

    However, he, too, eventually fell. First, he was ensnared by Mummy''s bandages, following which Clown thrust the barrel of its gun straight into his mouth before unleashing a barrage of bullets.

    Having also evolved into a level six anomaly, Clown''s offensive prowess had improved even further, and amid the sound of its derangedughter and repeated gunshots, the samurai''s body was reduced to a piece of holey swiss cheese.

    All of a sudden, the sound of apuse rang out.

    The apuse hade from the two severed halves of Oni-faced Dragon''s body.

    ck mist was permeating out of the two halves of its body before transforming into a pair ofpletely different people.

    One of them was Oni-faced Dragon''s original body, and that was the one doing the apuding.

    However, even though he was apuding Adam, his face was twisted with fury.

    As for the other half of his body, it had transformed into a demonic being with ck hair and red skin. Adam carefully scrutinized the being for a moment before finally realizing what it was supposed to be.

    "Shuten-douji? That''s your visualization subject?"

    Shuten-douji was an extremely well-known demon in Japanese mythology.

    It was said to possess immense power, and just like Oni-faced Dragon, it was an extremely cruel and ruthless being.

    Shuten-douji enjoyed drinking wine and feasting on the flesh of women and children. It also liked to seduce young human women into sexual rtions.

    It was said that Shuten-douji had two faces, and whenever it was seducing women, it would adopt its human face, which was quite handsome.

    However, normally, it was always in its demonic appearance.

    Now that both faces had appeared at the same time, Adam knew that his opponent was about to get serious.

    "I truly didn''t think that you had already reached this level."

    Oni-faced Dragon continued to apud while inspecting his surroundings, which had beenpletely filled by Adam''s anomalic army.

    The anomalies leading the pack were all level six or level seven anomalies, and it was clear just from their physical appearance alone that they were not to be messed with.

    A serious look finally appeared in Oni-faced Dragon''s eyes upon seeing this.

    "No wonder you were able to cause so much trouble for the southern congress. It looks like you''ve been hiding a lot of your power."

    "I told you that I''m going to make the Oni Organization disappear today. Did you think I was joking? Six of the eight Onis are now dead, and the Tigers can''t take on any important missions, so you''re basically just a lone general now, right?" Adam was in quite a good mood after killing the four Onis. "I suppose that partially avenges my friends. After I kill you, my vengeance will be halfway exacted."

    "You want to kill me? You''re free toe and try!"

    Adam''s constant provocation had finallypletely enraged Oni-faced Dragon.

    All of a sudden, he arrived directly in front of Adam in a sh. After splitting up into his two forms, Oni-faced Dragon had be even faster than before, disying superior speed to even Hebi no Miko. Before Adam had a chance to react, his eyes had already been taken.

    After losing his vision, he hurriedly called upon his invoked entities to protect him, but at the same time, he had already received around a dozen heavy blows in session.

    Furthermore, all of the attacks had targeted the same spot on his body, almost snapping him in half in the process.

    <i>Looks like a level six anomaly won''t be enough to deal with him. </i>

    Sludge quickly swooped down out of the heavens at Adam''s behest, enveloping the entire battlefield with its enormous body, and Adam quickly transitioned from one anomaly to another, detaching himself from Mummy before fusing with Sludge.

    By the time he stood up again, he had already fused as one with Sludge, and he was ready for the next stage of the battle.

 Chapter 423: Enough Ants Can Overwhelm Even an Elephant

    <h4>Chapter 423: Enough Ants Can Overwhelm Even an Elephant</h4>

    Adam towered over the battlefield as he lifted the roof off the building, trying to use his size advantage to seize back the initiative.

    Where is he?

    After spotting his opponent, he immediately swatted a giant hand at Oni-faced Dragon, but thetter was far too fast and dodged his attack with ease, then sprang onto Adam''s body to try and attack his weak points.

    However, in this form, Adam had no weak points, and he was able to immediately regenerate his eyes after they were injured.

    "Your speed is impressive, but your offensive prowess is too weak. Once I catch you, you''ll be screwed!"

    Adam was just about to instruct his anomalic army to surround Oni-faced Dragon when a burst of mes suddenly shed past down below. Even before the sense of pain had struck him, Adam''s body was already beginning to topple like a massive building.

    What happened?

    As his upper body was falling, he looked down to find that both of his pir-like legs had already been destroyed, so his upper body no longer had any support.

    A streak of red light then shed past his eyes, and it was none other than Oni-faced Dragon''s demonic form.

    The demonic being arrived before Adam in a sh, and even though it wasn''t as fast as Oni-faced Dragon''s human form, it possessed more than tenfold the offensive prowess.

    As Adam''s body toppled toward the ground, the demonic being raised its staff, and with just a single swing, it was able topletely pulverize Adam.

    Boom!

    A powerful shockwave swept through the entire nt, and Adam''s body was smashed into countless pieces.

    At the same time, a series of blue patterns appeared on the ground, and the fragments of his body began to slowly converge together.

    "I''m not letting you regenerate!"

    The demonic being smashed its staff into the ground upon seeing this, scattering all of the blue patterns. Immediately thereafter, it sprang up into the air before opening its mouth up wide, inhaling an enormous amount of air, causing its body to swell up like a balloon.

    As it did this, the demonic patterns all over its entire body swelled, following which it sted a mouthful of mes toward the spot where Adam was attempting to regenerate.

    The mes were imbued with tremendous demonic power, allowing it to directly incinerate Adam''s life force.

    If these mes were allowed to spread unchecked, then Adam would be dead for sure.

    However, as an invocator, Adam never fought alone. Instead, he had aplete army of anomalies to call upon, and the first ones to retaliate were the ones capable ofunching long-range attacks.

    Clown immediately conjured up an army of clones, sting the demonic being with a barrage of powerful artillery that gave off strong chemical contaminants.

    At the same time, Hellhound also sted a fireball up into the sky, using its fire to counter the demonic being''s mes.

    Meanwhile, Nun unleashed its Fountain of Contamination, sending sewage gushing onto the ground to snuff out the mes there and buy Adam time to regenerate.

    The most effective attack was Horse Face''s emotion-based attack. Oni-faced Dragon was already enraged to begin with, and Horse Face took advantage of this, further fueling his fury, to the extent that he was struggling to control his emotions and was beginning tounch haphazard attacks in random directions.

    In a battle between masters, losing one''s poise andposure could result in dire consequences.

    Thanks to the assistance from all of his anomalies, Adam was able to reform his own body. He then turned to look at the two Oni-faced Dragons, and he finally developed an understanding of how powerful they were.

    As expected of the leader of the Oni Organization!

    At this point in the battle, Adam had already verified that Oni-faced Dragon was indeed on the same level as May.

    At the moment, Sludge was a level seven anomaly that specialized in defense. Even back when it was only a level six anomaly, it was able to endure Hebi no Miko''s forbidden techniques for some time.

    Right now, its defenses had be even stronger, yet its entire body had still been destroyed by just two blows from the demonic being, indicating that its single-target destructive power could already rival May''s.

    Furthermore, the demonic mes that it unleashed were capable of directly incinerating one''s life force, thereby presenting an extremely formidablebination of abilities.

    His defenses seem to be quite strong as well.

    Even after Adam reformed his body, the anomalies that were attacking Oni-faced Dragon continued their assault. Before the first wave of long-range attacks had ceased, the second wave ofbat units had already arrived on the scene to engage Oni-faced Dragon in battle, led by Distortion and Spider.

    However, Shuten-douji possessed immense physical resistance, sustaining barely any injuries even in the face of both Distortion''s distortive abilities and Spider''s sharp spikes.

    Offensive prowess and physical resistance were the fortes of Oni-faced Dragon''s Shuten-douji form.

    At the same time, his human form was also quite formidable.

    Right as Adam was pondering whether he should also enter the fray, Oni-faced Dragon''s human form sprang into action, charging like the wind into the army of anomalies to attack the long-range offensive units, such as Nun and Horse Face.

    His offensive prowess was rather mediocre, but that was onlypared with his demonic form.

    The fact that he was able to partially break through Mummy''s defenses indicated that he still posed quite a threat to the other more frail anomalies in Adam''s army.

    Thankfully, Horse Face and Nun had both developed decent defenses. Due to hisck of familiarity with Adam, Oni-faced Dragon wasn''t aware that Camera was the most vulnerable target.

    Which one should I target first?

    ording to Adam''s experience, when it came to adapters of this level, their clones were also part of their true body, so if he wanted to kill Oni-faced Dragon, then he had to kill both of his forms.

    Right as he was hesitating about which one to target first, an agonized howl suddenly rang out in the air. Hellhound had tried to sink its fangs into Shuten-douji''s body, but it had been struck by a staff blow to the head, resulting in one of its three heads beingpletely pulverized, causing it to fall out of the sky with severe injuries.

    I''ll go after the more potent offensive threat!

    Shuten-douji was able to smash Sludge into pieces with ease, so there was no way that the other anomalies would be able to withstand its power. With that in mind, Adam immediately picked up one of the water pipes that had fallen onto the ground, swinging it through the air like a baseball bat to send Shuten-douji flying.

    At the same time, all of his anomalies unleashed their long-ranged attacks in unison at his behest.

    This included all of the low-level anomalies in Adam''s army. As long as they were capable of unleashing long-range attacks, all of them were contributing to the collective effort.

    Around half of all of Adam''s anomalies were capable of unleashing long-range attacks, and the most useful ones among them weren''t the ones capable of using long-range offensive attacks. Instead, it was the ones with cyberhex abilities that could restrict and weaken the target.

    Some of the anomalies were chanting incantations to sap the target of its strength, some were using hypnotism to whittle down the target''s battle intent, and some were unleashing cyberhexes to weaken the target''s body.

    In the blink of an eye, dozens of abilities were unleashed in unison. Even though the majority of them only had a minor effect on Shuten-douji, theck of quality was more than made up for by quantity. With enough ants, even an elephant could be overwhelmed.

    The overall disruption caused by the army of anomalies was nothing to be scoffed at, and Shuten-douji''s overallbat prowess was significantly diminished.

 Chapter 424: The Power of Insignificant Characters

    <h4>Chapter 424: The Power of Insignificant Characters</h4>

    Adam naturally wasn''t going to pass up this opportunity, and he immediately instructed Camera, Spider, and several of his other anomalies that possessed immense offensive prowess to attack Shuten-douji.

    At the same time, Adam used the power of his domain to draw giant rocks out of the ground, then molded those rocks into the same hard material as his own body before hurling them at Shuten-douji.

    Shuten-douji''s defenses were quite strong, but it didn''t have the enormous stature of Yamata no Orochi, so it was much easier to destroy, and in the face of this new wave of attacks, it quickly sustained severe injuries.

    Right as Adam was preparing tounch another round of attack, he was suddenly alerted to the fact that some of the anomalies on the outskirts of his army were under attack from Oni-faced Dragon''s human body.

    Oni-faced Dragon wasn''t just standing around doing nothing while Adam was attacking Shuten-douji.

    Instead, he was putting his vast wealth of battle experience on disy, quickly identifying the correct targets.

    He could already tell that with his ratherckluster offensive capabilities, it simply wasn''t realistic to kill Adam''s high-level anomalies in a short time. If he were to force the issue, then he would only be able to take down one or two of those high-level anomalies at most before Shuten-douji met its demise, in which case he would be in a dire situation.

    However, killing those low-level anomalies was a different story.

    Those low-level anomalies possessed very frail defenses, and even though Oni-faced Dragon''s human body wascking in offensive prowess, that was onlypared with other beings of the same caliber. In reality, he was more than capable of ying these low-level anomalies with ease.

    Thanks to his extraordinary speed, he was able to charge rapidly through the anomalies'' ranks, ying them as he pleased.

    The long-range attacks unleashed by these low-level anomalies was having a very pronounced detrimental effect on Shuten-douji, so if he could kill these low-level anomalies, then he would be able to turn the tide of the battle back in his favor.

    This sounded like a simple judgment call to make, but the fact that Oni-faced Dragon was able to identify the correct strategy in such a short time while in the heat of battle was a clear indication that he was a vastly experiencedbatant.

    Upon realizing Oni-faced Dragon''s intentions, Adam hurriedly ordered his low-level anomalies to disperse, and at the same time, he also began rushing to them.

    Thankfully, he had arranged for all of the more frail anomalies to be apanied by bodyguards that were proficient in close-quartersbat, so Oni-faced Dragon''s first wave of attacks was only able to kill four of Adam''s low-level anomalies, but that was still quite a heavy blow to him.

    After all, every single one of these anomalies had been nurtured using anomalic power, and they were all able to contribute in their own way in battle.

    It''s a good thing that only low-level anomalies have been killed. They weren''t going to be all that useful in battle anyway.

    Adam was consoling himself as he charged into the anomalies'' ranks, then grabbed them inrge handfuls before thrusting them into his own body.

    Sludge was able to soften or harden its own body at will, and Adam had previously been encapsted in Sludge''s body. At this moment, he was using his own body as a giant fortress to protect the low-level anomalies.

    On average, these were only level two anomalies, so they weren''t all that imposing in stature, with most of them only around the size of a grown man. Back when Mummy and Hellhound were level two anomalies, they had also been around the same size.

    In the face of a 20-meter-tall giant, these low-level anomalies were tiny inparison, so Adam could fit dozens of them into Sludge''s body.

    After the low-level anomalies were encased in Sludge''s body, they no longer had to fear Oni-faced Dragon''s attacks.

    However, the downside was that Shuten-douji was no longer being hampered by long-range attacks, and it immediately turned the tables, forcing all of Adam''s high-level anomalies onto the backfoot.

    Thus, it seemed that the battle had reached an impasse.

    Oni-faced Dragon was truly a formidable foe. His overall power wasn''t inferior to May by much, and his wealth of battle experience made him an even more troublesome opponent to deal with.

    With that in mind, Adam was rather hesitant about how to proceed. If the battle were to continue like this, the oue waspletely unknown. The two of them were too evenly matched, and even if he could secure victory, it was definitely going toe at a heavy price, most likely requiring the sacrifice of arge number of his anomalies.

    As a result, his overall powers would take a severe hit, and that was uneptable to him.

    He had finally be a top-tier adapter, and he wasn''t willing to be knocked back down a peg no matter what.

    "How about we call a truce here?"

    Oni-faced Dragon could see that Adam was feeling rather hesitant, and at this point in the battle, he didn''t want to keep fighting, either.

    As a hitman, his goal was to earn money, not to challenge himself at the risk of his own life.

    Adam had earned his respect, and he knew that it was going to be very difficult for him to win this battle.

    "You''ve killed four of my best subordinates, so that goes some way to avenging your friends. It won''t benefit either of us to continue this battle, wouldn''t you agree?"

    Adam didn''t say anything.

    "You''re a very powerful adapter, so you''ll have plenty of opportunities to challenge me again in the fu... Hmm?"

    Right as Oni-faced Dragon was speaking, his psychic body suddenly began to wobble. Even though he wasn''t being attacked, both he and Shuten-douji were disying signs ofing under attack. This onlysted a short time, and around 20 secondster, both of Oni-faced Dragon''s bodies abruptly vanished in unison.

    What happened?

    Adam''s psychic boundaries were extremely resolute, so there was no way that Oni-faced Dragon could''ve escaped so easily. With that in mind, there seemed to have been only one possible exnation for this.

    Could it be that something happened in the real world?

    Adam immediately left the psychic world as this thought urred to him, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of a security guard standing before him in a victorious pose.

    "I got him!"

    "What happened here?"

    Adam turned to look at the security guards at the scene, then turned his gaze to Oni-faced Dragon, who wasying on the ground, and he couldn''t make heads or tails of the situation.

    "No one can infiltrate our nt on my watch!"

    The security guard who had spoken was the one that had voted for Clyde, and Adam took a nce at him with furrowed brows, then flew over to his side before asking once again, "What happened here?"

    "After you left, we immediately felt like something wasn''t quite right. We''re not just passive bystanders, we have a duty to protect the nt! Here, take a look at this."

    The security guard took off the miniature camera on his shoulder to show Adam what had just transpired.

    Right after Adam left the surveince room, the security guards had immediately sprung into action, gathering the security automatons that hadn''t been destroyed to conduct a search of the nt.

    Due to the fact that Adam had arrived at the nt very early, he was able to take out the group of Chaos Raisers before all of the security automatons were destroyed.

    After gathering the remaining security automatons, they began to conduct a search along the route that Adam had taken after departing from the surveince room, and they quickly managed to track him down.

    Upon arriving on the scene, they wanted to help Adam defeat his opponents, but Oni-faced Dragon had prosthetic limbs that served a simr function to Adam''s, and they were also quite advanced.

    Oni-faced Dragon was a very wealthy man, and he had ties with the southern congress, so it only made sense that he had cutting-edge battle prosthetics.

    The remaining security automatons were instructed to attack Oni-faced Dragon, but they were met with resistance from the AI automatic retaliation sequence of Oni-faced Dragon''s prosthetic limbs.

    His prosthetic limbs weren''t as technologically advanced as Adam''s, but they were fitted with many illegal firearms, thereby making them extremely dangerous to deal with. In the beginning, the security automatons and security guards were no match, but thankfully, one of Oni-faced Dragon''s prosthetic limbs struck Adam during its retaliation, causing Adam''s prosthetic limbs to automatically retaliate as well.

    Hence, their physical bodies were also fighting in the real world while their psychic bodies were battling in the psychic world.

    In the end, the retaliation from Adam''s prosthetic limbs opened up an opportunity for one of the security guards to hit Oni-faced Dragon with a high-voltage stun gun, following which all of the security automatons swarmed onto him and subdued him.

    Thus, in ratherical fashion, one of the top adapters and hitmen of the world had fallen to a stun gun from a measly security guard.

    "I was the one that fired the stun gun at the end," the security guard dered in a proud voice. "Don''t ever underestimate the power of insignificant characters! I don''t care who they are, if they dare to infiltrate my territory, then I''ll make sure they live to regret it!"

 Chapter 425: Debate and a Major Power Boost

    <h4>Chapter 425: Debate and a Major Power Boost</h4>

    Oni-faced Dragon was captured.

    In contrast with before, the southern congress couldn''t help him this time even if they wanted to.

    He was an extremely notorious criminal with crimesmitted all over the world, so no one could exonerate him.

    After realizing that the southern congress was going to abandon him, Oni-faced Dragon confessed a great deal of useful information in exchange for his own life, and through this information, Adam was able to dig up a lot of dirt on the southern congress.

    In the days following Oni-faced Dragon''s arrest, negative press on the southern congress was regrly being released, so the support for the southern congress''s mayoral candidates naturally fell as well.

    As a result, Adam was able to shrink the gap between himself and Clyde somewhat, but this still wasn''t enough.

    However, another opportunity soon presented itself.

    There were two debates held between the two mayoral candidates with the most number of votes to be held live on television during the election, and the first of those two debates wasing up soon.

    The viewership for this debate was unprecedentedly high, primarily due to the fact that the two candidates involved were the most peculiar mayoral candidates that Sandrise City had seen in the past dozen or so years. Furthermore, both of them were very influential in their own right.

    Adam had gone to prison multiple times and was deemed to be a deranged criminal more than once. His story could easily be adapted into a riveting television series.

    As for Clyde, he was the first-ever mayoral candidate from the Dataist Union, so despite his status as aplete amateur politician, he was extremely popr.

    "I don''t trust in human nature" was his election slogan, and it echoed the thoughts of many of Sandrise City''s citizens.

    They didn''t believe in politicians, or anyone else, for that matter.

    "Mr. Adam, do you think humans are good or evil by nature?"

    This was the first question that Clyde raised during their televised debate.

    "Evil," Adam replied in a truthful manner. "My past experiences make it impossible for me to believe that humans are kind."

    "Do you think a police officer can change this world? Of course, I''m not discounting your many heroic deeds, but I don''t believe in heroism or anything rted to human qualities. The digitization of politicians and the legal system is an inevitable trend and the only answer."

    "Unfortunately, the process of digitization is one that humans must be involved in. There must always be some extreme individuals in the world to ensure that this process is as foolproof as possible. Otherwise, the end product will inevitably be wed and fail to achieve the intended oue. You believe that digitization is the solution to everything, but that''s only because you don''t know how dark and twisted those who are in power are."

    "Of course I''m aware of this, and what I''m saying is that digitization can put an end to all of this."

    "No, you don''t understand. Perhaps you''ll be a better mayor in the future, but right now, I''m the better choice. You need someone to dig up all of the filth in this city and cleanse it. Only after that will your vision be possible to achieve."

    "Prove it!"

    "What do you mean?"

    "Prove it! If you can prove to me that what you''re saying is the truth, then I can even withdraw from the election."

    ¡­¡­

    In the wake of the first debate, Clyde was able to win back some support.

    Just as he said, before Adam could prove all of his ims, his method was the more effective one, even though the southern congress had fallen into a great deal of controversy ofte.

    Following the debate, Adam continued to follow the ns he hadid out for himself.

    First, he paid a visit to the Green Heaven Retirement Home, and he discovered that there were far more anomalies in there than in Darvaza Prison.

    These people were still living in the retirement home even after the incident considering Noah, so they were essentially being treated like discarded trash.

    The aura of death and despair permeating throughout this ce was even more suffocating than in Darvaza Prison.

    The automatons that were supposed to have been looking after the retirement home''s residents had been in disrepair for years, and the elderly were rotting in their beds with bedsores all over their bodies.

    Aside from the overhead feeders that asionally provided them with water and the needles that injected them with nutrient solutions, this ce was no different from hell on earth.

    Adam was the first living person to have visited the retirement home in a very long time, and upon his arrival, the retirement home''s elderly residents immediately begged to be put out of their misery.

    "Please kill me!"

    The elderly residents were so feeble that they were physically unable to evenmit suicide.

    "Please put an end to this torture..."

    The elderly residents were so neglected that maggots had infested their bodies, but no one cared.

    They had no value, no wealth, and even their organs were unwanted. They had truly been abandoned by society.

    "Set me free! I don''t want to suffer anymore!"

    These tormented voices were what Adam was hearing the most here, and he duly obliged.

    At night, he made his way into the retirement home in disguise and put an end to the lives of all of the elderly residents that wanted to die.

    He arrived in their psychic worlds and slew their anomalies to put them out of their misery.

    The psychic bodies of the majority of the elderly residents had already fused as one with their anomalies, and all of those anomalies had been born from pain and despair.

    After receiving an entire retirement home''s worth of sustenance, the Angel of Judgment had already gone beyond the former peak of its powers.

    Furthermore, due to the fact that it had absorbed an excessive amount of pain and despair during this process, the Angel of Judgment''s form had been altered. Its mace had turned ck, while its previously holy and pristine body had transformed into that of a fallen angel.

    In the face of this massive boost in power, Adam made an astonishing decision.

    He sought out Commander in the shadow council and dered, "I''m going to expose the entire human farming production chain."

    "Aren''t you targeting those people causing chaos in the city? Safety and order are the main themes of our campaign."

    "It''s not going to work. Do you think that on its own will be enough for us to win?"

    "..."

    "This election is different from previous ones. If we still can''t win with the southern congress in such apromised position, then there''s no way we''ll ever win."

    "If we expose that, then we''ll essentially be dering war on not just the southern congress, but the entire world''s upper ss. No one will support us, and even those who previously gave you political donations will instantly turn on you. What you''re nning to do will put an end to immortality for the upper ss, and the bacsh is not something that you can handle."

    "I want to give it a try. Has anyone in the northern congress participated in this?"

    "Definitely."

    "Have you?"

    Prior toing here, Adam had done some research into Commander, so he knew that Commander had tried to do something simr in the past, but had ultimately failed.

    "I haven''t."

    "In that case, I want your support."

    "You will die. You''re still too weak right now."

    "Even so, I still want to try."

    Adam was naturally aware that his current level of power still wasn''t sufficient to back up? what he was about to do, so prior to carrying out his n, he visited all of the retirement homes in the entire city, particrly the bottom-dwelling ones.

    He discovered that his previous thought process had been incorrect. The ces that were filled with the most despair in this world weren''t prisons.

    All prisoners had a choice before they were locked up, whereas the elderly people who had lost the ability to move had no choice when they were abandoned in those decrepit retirement homes.

    No one cared about them, and they couldn''t even choose whether they lived or died.

    Journalists were eager to report any riots that took ce in Darvaza Prison, yet everyone turned a blind eye to these retirement homes, and their residents were essentially considered to be dead.

    Through visiting these ces, Adam had managed to absorb a huge amount of anomalic power.

    During this time, Subus Beth had carried out countless terrible crimes, resulting in a massive downturn in support for Adam, but he didn''t care. He had to attain sufficient power to keep himself safe even if he became the public enemy to everyone. Only then could he make his return.

 Chapter 426: Clean-up

    <h4>Chapter 426: Clean-up</h4>

    Upon returning to the election center, Adam discovered that it was a lot more desertedpared with when he hadst left, and all of the workers were simply going through the motions without any passion or drive to speak of.

    The election manager immediately brought Adam thetest election report, and ording to the statistics, support for him had plummeted so severely that his election campaign was on the verge of copse. Adam paid no heed to this, tossing the report aside as he said, "Don''t worry, everything will get better."

    This was something that every politician would say, and the election manager was already ustomed to hearing things like this, but not long thereafter, Adam''s high-level consultant, Toshiyuki Matsumara, presented him with an even more terrible piece of news.

    "Mr. Kevin Reed is very unhappy with your recent performance. If he bes convinced that you''re intentionally wasting his election funds, then he may take some rather unpleasant measures."

    No capitalist would be willing to stand by and watch their investment being wasted, particrly a powerful arms merchant like Kevin Reed. If he were to discover that anyone was trying to deceive him, then that person would be met with extremely cruel retaliation that often entailed horrific torture and even death.

    Adam remained calm and collected as he replied, "Please inform Mr. Reed that he''ll see the situation take a turn for the better very soon."

    "Are you sure?"

    Toshiyuki Matsumara represented the northern congress, and he was well aware of just how dire the current situation was, so he couldn''t be cated so easily.

    "I''m certain," Adam replied in an assertive voice.

    "Alright, I''ll pass the message onto Mr. Reed, and I hope you can fulfill this promise soon to avoid leaving a permanent blotch on my resume."

    Shortly thereafter, Adam was visited by May and Cowboy, and both of them were astonished as soon as theyid eyes on him.

    "You seem to be more confident than before."

    May''s intuition was extremely sharp, and thinking back to the ces that Adam had recently visited, she had a rough idea of where this change in his disposition hade from.

    "I''d say it''s more like he''s more certain of himself than before. Looks like you''re preparing to make a big move," Cowboy said.

    They were quite pleased to see this positive change in Adam as it meant that their long-term investment hadn''t gone to waste.

    Adam smiled as he replied, "I have gained some power recently, but I still hope to receive your full support in what I''m about to do next."

    "What are you nning to do?" May asked with a wary expression.

    There was no way that she would agree to doing anything illegal as that entailed taking on an unmanageable level of risk, which could result in catastrophic consequences.

    Cowboy seemed to have seen right through Adam''s intentions, and he pursed his lips as he said, "He clearly feels like he''s powerful enough to make a radical move. I have a feeling we''re going to be very busy very soon."

    "Your efforts won''t be for nothing, and I assure you that the oue will be worthy of your investment."

    Adam was beginning to speak more and more like a standard politician, and May and Cowboy didn''t know whether to be d or concerned.

    However, they had already incurred far too much sunk cost, so the only option for them was to support Adam.

    "I''m nning to initiate an eradication operation to get rid of some chaotic elements first."

    Adam openly revealed his first target, which was Subus Beth.

    "Do you have a way to deal with her? Let me make this clear in advance: there''s no way we''ll fight with you on the front lines."

    May was expressing some doubts as even up to this point, the pawn shop was still unable to reliably track Subus Beth''s activities.

    Cowboy adjusted his hat slightly as he rose to his feet and said, "We''ll provide you with the support that you need as long as it''s within reason. I hope you can seed and inject some impetus into your campaign."

    Adam didn''t provide any in-depth exnations, and May and Cowboy didn''t pry into the matter any further. Following their departure, Adam immediately began to organize the required personnel for the operation.

    If Adam really could pull off his entire n, then May and Cowboy were going to reap immeasurable benefits during the process, so Adam hadn''t been lying to them. While taking the time to elevate his own powers, he had been constantly pondering and refining his n as well.

    When it came to the Chaos Raisers serving the director, the main obstacle standing in his way was the difficulty in tracking them down. All of their targets were selected at random, so Adam couldn''t just try to hunt them down carelessly. He had to conduct a thorough investigation, then hatch a n and assemble a team before disguising himself and infiltrating his target.

    The alternative was to influence their target selection and scope. This time, Adam had decided to take the initiative, sending an encrypted message to Raven through the dark web, and it didn''t take long before he received a reply.

    "Your n is definitely quite bold and daring. I hope everything will unfold ording to your n. If that happens, we''ll be entering a brand new stage of coboration. I''ll do everything I can to assist you in the execution of your n, and I wish you all the sess in the world."

    Adam''s n wasn''t veryplicated. For the Chaos Raisers, the ideal targets were those who had high levels of social influence, but could also be taken down with minimal risk. If such targets were to present themselves, then it was almost guaranteed that the Chaos Raisers would take the bait.

    With that in mind, he had meticulously selected several groups of people, among which were intermingled individuals that were more likely to be targeted. The n was to have the Chaos Raisers "inadvertently" discover these targets on their own to make the process seem more organic.

    The person who was chosen this time was a renowned heart surgeon, Doctor Jim Edwards. At least half of the most important figures in Sandrise City would turn to Doctor Edwards whenever they required heart surgery.

    .

    Furthermore, Doctor Edwards had many other identities, including shareholder in the Compassion Company and board member of the Ark Learning Children''s Fund. He controlled a legally ambiguous organ supply chain, which could be manipted to prioritize organ assignments for important figures.

    He was an extremely important figure on the list of people Adam wanted to investigate, and the n was to get the Chaos Raisers to set everything into motion and expose the dark underbelly of the city for what it really was.

    Three dayster, everything was confirmed.

    Adam took the void rail to Area 28, apanied by Diana and Shae. Last time, he hade here to investigate the Compassion Company, and it seemed that fate had brought him back here again.

    Doctor Jim Edwards lived a very regimented lifestyle. Aside from the very few surgeries that he had to carry out in person, he spent the vast majority of his time in his medical school and private clinic, and he barely had any hobbies. On this day, he was scheduled to carry out a heart surgery for a congressperson in his clinic, which had the most cutting edge equipment.

    Adam''s trio encountered a privately installed temporary security perimeter a kilometer away from the clinic, and in order to avoid spooking their target, they chose to stop and wait at the perimeter.

    As the surgerymenced, the mechanic bee that was transporting the new heart quickly approached the clinic under the protection of an armed drone.

    Right as the mechanical bee crossed over the security perimeter, two miniature missiles suddenly shot out of the ground, crashing into and detonating the mechanical bee and the armed drone, immediately following which a distress signal was sent out to all nearby Mechguard units.

    With the security perimeter breached, Adam''s trio snuck in before traveling toward the clinic at high speed, and another fully armed team was also approaching simultaneously from a different direction.

 Chapter 427: Secret Infiltration

    <h4>Chapter 427: Secret Infiltration</h4>

    Inside the operating room viewing gallery of the clinic, Doctor Edwards had his arms crossed as he peered through the ss with sharp, hawk-like eyes, overseeing the tense yet orderly operation. A transparent disy screen on his left shed a couple of times, following which an anxious face appeared.

    "Sir, we''ve received news from the security room and someone''s trying to impede our organ transportation."

    Doctor Edward''s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, seemingly very displeased at being interrupted at a time like this.

    "Take them down no matter why they are. Remember that the reputation of the clinic is paramount."

    "Yes, Sir!" the face on the screen hurriedly replied, following which the screen turned dark again.

    Doctor Edwards pulled out hismunicator before making a call as he ordered, "Send the backup organ, and make sure it arrives within half an hour."

    He then ended the call before the person on the other side of the line had a chance to reply, and this entire time, his expression hadn''t changed in the slightest, indicating that he was inplete control of the situation.

    Outside the clinic, Adam stopped in his footsteps once again, and Shae was just about to ask him why he had stopped when he held up a hand, gesturing for her to be quiet. He then pointed two fingers to the side, and Shae wasn''t able to notice anything amiss due to herckluster telegnosis, but Diana immediately detected that there was arge group of people approaching the clinic in a very fast and stealthy manner.

    <i>These Chaos Raisers have adapted to be smarter as well. No wonder they haven''t been caught even though there have been so many attacks recently. </i>

    Adam switched on the AI detection enhancement module on his helmet, revealing to him at least eight figures that had bypassed the inner protectionwork. They were clearly equipped with some type of technology that was able to disrupt the wireless cameras and surveince automatons, allowing them to sneak to the sentry in front of the clinic before taking out the security guards with stun guns. After that, they were able to infiltrate theplex and were heading straight for the main building.

    This was a development that spared Adam a great deal of trouble, and he snuck past the now unmanned sentry with Shae and Diana, being careful not to set off the three sets of booby traps and rms systems along the way.

    Meanwhile, two of the infiltrators split off from the group up ahead, making their way to the top of the building to sever the wiredmunication system and set up disruptive arrays, therebypletely isting the clinic.

    Another two went to the surveince room to take out the security guards there and shut off all of the entrances and exits of the main building, while the rest headed straight to the operating room. Judging from their efficiency and allocation of duties, they had clearly done their homework in advance and were extremely familiar with theyout of the entire clinic.

    Adam''s trio followed the infiltrators into the main hall, where they spotted the security guards and the receptionist, all of whom had been knocked unconscious by stun guns.

    <i>It''s clear that these people are aware that all of the workers here have vital sign sensors in their bodies, so if any of them were to die unexpectedly, the building''s internal defense system would instantly be activated. </i>

    In contrast with the Chaos Raisers that Adam had encountered in the past, these ones were far better prepared and more efficient. As expected of one of the best teams under Subus Beth''s control.

    ording to the information provided by Raven, the leader of this group was Subus Beth''s most trusted subordinate, Butcher, whose real name was Raymond. He was one of Raven''s strongest adversaries, so it would''ve definitely benefited Raven to have Butcher taken out of the equation.

    Adam indicated for Shae and Diana to hide in a blind spot for the surveince cameras while listening to the screams that were ringing out in the corridor from those being struck by stun guns. A steel roller gate descended from above the entrance topletely shut off the building, following which all of the lights in the hall were snuffed out.

    A secondter, the backup power supply kicked in, and all of the lights were turned on once again, but to the lowest level of brightness in order to minimize energy expenditure.

    The surveince room had been taken over, the internalmunication channel had been jammed, the electronic locks on all of the offices had been activated, while the windows were all fitted with panes of bulletproof ss. The entire building had turned into a cage that even a fly wouldn''t have been able to escape from.

    Inside the viewing gallery, Doctor Edwards took a nce up at the light above his head, and he could hear the sound of beeping from the electronic lock on his door. A cold look appeared on his face, while the transparent disy screen beside flickered momentarily before lighting up again, disying a face wearing a Jason mask, scrutinizing him in silence.

    "Regardless of who you are, you shouldn''t have interrupted my operation. This will be the final mistake that you ever make."

    Doctor Edwards lowered his crossed arms before taking off his scrubs, revealing the custom mechanical prosthetic limb system underneath, which could both assist him during surgery and be converted into extremely powerful weapons at any time..

    "Oho, would you look at that? You''ve finally got yourself a set of prosthetics," the masked man on the screen jeered.

    The perspective of the image was then turned to disy a pair of attackers setting up aser cutter in preparation to cut through the alloy doors of the operating room by force.

    ording to the rules set by Doctor Edwards, no one was allowed toe in without his permission once an operationmenced.

    "I can take down all of you before you manage to break through the door."

    Doctor Edwards pressed down on the neuron transmistter on his arm as he spoke, and that should''ve activated all of the cell sites in the entire building to drag everyone into his psychic world, but that didn''t happen.

    The masked man shed his forearm at Doctor Edwards on camera, and it was disying a message that stated that all of the cell sites in the building had been sessfully disrupted.

    "Looks like I''ll have to switch to a different supplier," Doctor Edwards remarked in a calm voice as he watched the Chaos Raisers burn a small hole into the alloy doors using theirser cutter before expanding the hole to the size of a bowl.

    The operation was still in progress inside, and the masked man pulled out a hand grenade around the same thickness of a human arm before waving it at the screen as he said, "Once I detonate this, all of the equipment inside will be disabled, and the esteemed Congressman Johnson will die. Your immacte record of sessful surgeries wille to an end."

    He was intentionally pulling the pin out of the grenade very slowly, trying to gauge Doctor Edwards''s reaction as he did so, searching for any hint of anxiety, rage, or panic, but he saw none of that.

    "You won''t get what you want. The Edwards Clinic has never failed a single operation, and that will continue to hold true."

    Doctor Edwards''s voice remained as calm as ever as he took two steps forward, then spread his left hand open and pressed his palm against the ss.

    Theser cutter outside began to move even faster, quickly cutting out a hole that a person could fit through, and the masked man stepped into the operating room, preparing to pull out the pin before tossing out the grenade in his hand.

    Meanwhile, arc light emerged from the palm of Doctor Edwards''s hand as a sharp screeching sound reverberated throughout the viewing gallery, causing the panel of ss before him to vibrate at a high frequency. All of a sudden, a figure rushed into the operating room like lightning, propelled by a rocket booster on his back.

    A man who appeared to have been d in a suit of full-body armor had flown into the operating room before the masked man and Doctor Edwards, and the man pressed a palm down onto the anesthetized patient''s head as he said, "We can''t let Congressman Johnson die, he''s still far from outliving his usefulness."

    A demonic smile had appeared on Adam''s face behind his helmet.

    At the same time, a strong neuron transmitter signal proliferated throughout the entire building, dragging everyone into the patient''s psychic world.

    As soon as Adam entered the psychic world, he was immediately struck by a rush of dizziness and inebriation. He shook his head vigorously to snap himself back to his senses, and he discovered that he was situated in a vibrant garden. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that every nt and rock in the garden was made from chocte, and there was even a strong aroma of sweetness in the air.

    <i>I didn''t think that such a deplorable politician''s psychic world would look so much like a fairytale setting. </i>

    Adam released Ogress to fly up into the air before concealing itself within the sweet and gentle breeze, while Adam himself quickly fused as one with Mummy, inspecting the entire area through Ogress''s point of view.

    They were situated on a small ind, at the very center of which was a castle. A portly elderly man with a hook nose was seated on a golden throne that was embellished with gems, and he was holding a deck of spread-out ying cards in his left hand while yelling at the intruders of the psychic world, "Take your cards, the game will begin soon."

 Chapter 428: Kings Game

    <h4>Chapter 428: King''s Game</h4>

    "What''s going on here? This doesn''t seem like a normal psychic world."

    Shae immediately fused as one with Hellhound, and upon seeing the two cards that had appeared in her hands, she immediately realized that they were about to y the King''s Game, an extremely popr game, but one that was yed with very dirty rules in many circles. In particr, with the rise of the Metaverse, even more twisted and bizarre rulesets had been invented.

    "This is most likely Congressman Johnson''s automatic psychic defensive mechanism," Adam concluded. "People like him have far too many secrets that they have to hide, so they have to keep their psychic worlds guarded at all times."

    Shae pursed her lips in disgust upon hearing this. At this point, she was also very familiar with how filthy high society could be.

    "So do we have to win this game before we actually get to ess his psychic world?"

    Even though she detested the game, she knew the rules very well, and she was quite good at it too.

    More and more people appeared in the psychic world, and those who were closest to the castle were the doctors, nurses, and security guards, who were the most powerless ones in the psychic world.

    "There''s no need to follow their rules. We''re here to instigate a battle, so we should dictate the pace ourselves."

    He took a nce up at the sky, thenmunicated to Diana in the distance, "Don''t hold back. Go all out and clear out this ce as quickly as possible."

    If they were to take too much time here, that would only benefit Subus Beth, who may have already infiltrated the psychic world.

    "Understood."

    Diana immediately transformed into her giant ck dragon form, and her body swelled to over 100 meters in size. As she spread her wings, they obscured virtually the entire sky above her, and she let loose a thunderous roar as she unleashed her draconic technomancy, conjuring up countless balls of ck light in the sky before sending them plummeting rapidly down from above.

    The portly elderly man seated on the throne immediately raised his head and held the staff in his right hand aloft as he yelled, "No one can stand above the king! No one can defile the king''s castle! No one can destroy the king''s game!"

    The jewel embedded onto the tip of his staff began to glow as he spoke, forcibly taking energy from every single person present beforebining it into a beam of rainbow light that shot up into the heavens. In the next instant, the beam of light formed a massive transparent barrier above the castle that epassed the majority of the small ind.

    At the same time, the balls of ck light conjured up by Diana struck the light barrier to unleash widespread destruction. Large sections of the light barrier were destroyed, only to be mended by more beams of rainbow light. The portly elderly man was using everyone''s power to ward off Diana''s attacks, and it was quite a powerful defensive resource.

    Perhaps this type of ability would''ve been able to stump someone else, but it posed no problem for Adam.

    "Shae, attack the others so that old fart can''t keep absorbing power from them."

    Both Adam and Shae were also epassed under the light barrier, and that was the king''s biggest mistake. This was only an automatic defense mechanism that wasn''t being controlled by anyone, so it could only function in a rigid and mechanical fashion.

    Unfortunately for the portly king, Adam wasn''t nning to follow the rules at all, and Shae eagerly sprang into action, springing forward beforeunching a string of Explosive Fireballs toward the surrounding psychic bodies, then followed up by releasing a stream of toxins with another one of her three heads.

    The majority of the people here were ordinary people who had been dragged into the psychic world, and they weren''t even able to survive for a single second in the face of the violent explosions.

    In the blink of an eye, only several people were left standing, and one of them had caught Adam''s attention. It was a man who was able to maintain a normal humanoid form, and his clothes remained pristine andpletely untarnished by the explosions. Furthermore, he was wielding a ridiculouslyrge scalpel.

    <i>That''s Doctor Edwards! </i>

    Adam wasn''t all that surprised to see this. Doctor Edwards was a world-leading surgeon, and the fact that he was able to reach such lofty heights in his profession indicated that he had to have possessed immense mental fortitude and unshakeable confidence in his own professional abilities. With these qualities converted into psychic power, it was no surprise that his psychic body was so formidable.

    At a rough visual estimate, Adam determined that Doctor Edwards''s powers had to have been at least on par with those of a level seven anomaly. With that in mind, he immediately braced himself for retaliation from Doctor Edwards, but the doctor''s psychic body only gave him a cold nce before vanishing from the spot.

    "What happened? How did he just leave like that?" Shae eximed as he hurriedly inspected her surroundings in case of a sneak attack.

    "He must''ve already done something to Congressman Johnson in advance to grant himself free passage in and out of his psychic world."

    Adam didn''t find this to be strange at all. If he were in Doctor Edwards''s shoes, he would''ve done the same thing, and in any case, this was good news for him. With Doctor Edwards''s departure, they had one fewer formidable foe to deal with, thereby saving them a lot of time and effort, but they had to pick up the pace.

    With that in mind, Adam immediately invoked Sludge, and its 20-meter-tall body came tumbling down onto the ground, sending violent tremors running through the earth. It charged directly forward at Adam''s behest, stomping a series of huge craters into the ground in its wake before crashing directly into the gates of the castle.

    The gates and the surrounding section of the wall instantly copsed, in response to which the portly king sitting on the throne fired a beam of light from its staff straight into Sludge''s chest, making it unable to advance any further.

    However, this wasn''t a very effective strategy. All of a sudden, Sludge shrank down to only two meters in height, then sprang up in a forceful fashion before crashing straight into the throne like a cannonball.

    However, the golden throne seemed to have been one with the small ind, and it wasn''t shattered by the collision. Instead, violent tremors rang through the entire castle, causing the pendantmps up above to sway and tter against one another.

    Adam''s brows furrowed slightly as he looked on at the portly elderly man, who was iling around in a panicked manner, but refused to stand up from his throne no matter what. All of a sudden, Adam arrived at a realization.

    <i>He can''t leave his throne! That''s the center of everything, and if the throne is destroyed, then this illusion will be automatically broken. </i>

    With that in mind, Sludge returned to its original size at Adam''s behest, and its head plunged straight through the roof. It swung its arms through the air to topple all of the pirs and walls with unmatched power, reducing the castle to a state where it was teetering on the brink of copse.

    The portly elderly man swung his staff through the air again, rapidly shrinking the rainbow light barrier down to less than three meters in size, epassing only himself and his throne.

    As a result, the balls of ck light conjured up by Diana encountered no further resistance as they came plummeting down and instantlyid waste to the castle. Adam immediately invoked Mummy to clear away the dust and debris using its runed bandages, and once rity was restored to his field of view, he began to direct his attacks toward the remaining attackers.

    Having withstood two formidable waves of attacks, all of the remaining attackers were quite powerful in their own right, and they unleashed their respective abilities to keep Mummy''s bandages at bay. Meanwhile, Hellhound pounced onto them with its sharp fangs and ws, quickly inflicting some severe injuries upon its opponents.

    Adam paid no heed to the ongoing battle as he made his way over to the wreckage of the castle, where Sludge was pressing down onto the light barrier with both hands with all its might, but it was being kept firmly at bay.

    This was not an enemy that could be defeated through brute force, and some strategy was required. Adam looked down at the shadow cast by the throne under the light barrier, and all of a sudden, Sludge vanished, while Distortion appeared directly in the shadow.

    It wrapped itself around the portly elderly man''s arms and legs, forcing him to stand up from his throne. A dazed look immediately appeared on the elderly man''s face, and the rainbow light surging out of his staff was snuffed out, thereby resulting in the eradication of the light barrier.

    The sky above the ind instantly fell away like a simtion, and the entire surrounding world quickly followed. As the illusion vanished, Adam was greeted by the sight of an extraordinarily seductive figure.

 Chapter 429: The Horrors of Succubus Beth

    <h4>Chapter 429: The Horrors of Subus Beth</h4>

    Even though this was the true psychic world, Adam felt as if he had been plunged into another illusion. Just a single nce was enough to make it almost impossible to look away from the seductive figure before him, even though he knew that this was the target of the operation, Subus Beth.

    His psychic body gave off a type of strange allure. Adam had seen footage of Subus Beth in real life, so he knew that "she" was actually a well-built man who stood at over 190 centimeters tall, but his psychic body was an extremely seductive woman.

    There was no need to look directly at him, even seeing his psychic body out of the corner of one''s eye would be enough to project a visage of perfection straight into the beholder''s mind.

    This was a very peculiar ability that directly used his psychic body as a medium, and there was no process required to unleash the ability. All one had to do was see his psychic body, and they would automatically fall prey to it.

    It was unavoidable and indefensible, and the only thing one could do was face it head-on.

    Adam was telling himself that he couldn''t run away from this battle. Otherwise, a permanent blemish would be left in his psyche, and he would never be able to muster up the courage to go after Subus Beth again, so he had to take her down here!

    Thankfully, Mummy possessed an extremely high degree of techonmantic resistance, and Adam turned its carving knife on himself, giving himself a vicious stab so that the resulting pain would snap him back to his senses.

    He was still unable topletely shake off the effects of Subus Beth''s ability, but at the very least, he was able to maintain a base level of rationality. In the face of such a formidable ability, his past self would''ve definitely already been beyond saving.

    Meanwhile, Shae had unconsciously split apart from Hellhound, and there was a starstruck look in her eyes as she began to walk toward Subus Beth. Adam hurriedly whipped out a bandage to drag her back before slicing a gash onto her arm.

    "Ow!" Shae yelped as she snapped back to her senses, and upon realizing what had happened to her, she hurriedly fused back with Hellhound again.

    "Holy shit, she almost turned me gay!" Shae eximed in bewilderment.

    In Adam''s eyes, Subus Beth''s seduction didn''t discriminate between age or gender. Instead, it purely fulfilled any person''s perception of beauty while also luring the beholder into depravity. Ultimately, it was still an ability, but it was one that had virtually no counters.

    As long as one was still human and still had an appreciation for beauty, even a twisted individual who had a fetish for collecting organs would fall prey to this ability.

    Diana descended from the sky as she folded her wings against her sides and shrank down to only around five meters in size. She appeared to have been unaffected by Subus Beth''s ability, but that wasn''t actually the case.

    "I can''t muster up any intent to hurt her. If I force myself to attack, I''ll be expending several times the psychic power as usual."

    This was already the best oue.

    Instead of being dismayed, Adam was quite relieved to hear this. As long as everyone on his side could retain their rationality and their ability to fight, then victory was all but assured.

    "Rx. Now that she''s appeared, we''ve already seeded for the most part. Now, all that''s left to do is..."

    Adam raised his carving knife, but didn''t unleash any attacks.

    Subus Beth''s attention was elsewhere. Instead, it was fixed on Doctor Edwards.

    Even though he was standing in very close proximity to Subus Beth, he remainedpletely unmoved by her allure.

    Innread ].

    "Your seduction has no effect on me," Doctor Edwards said in a cold and imcable voice. "In my eyes, you''re just a human bodyprised of a pile of blood, flesh, and organs. Your body is rife with ws, and you''re worlds away from perfection."

    His harsh words were no different from a bucketful of acid to face for Subus Beth, and he countered, "Is that right? In that case, why aren''t you attacking me? I''m trying to destroy your clinic and kill your patient."

    Subus Beth wiggled her seductive body slightly, and even though it was only a slight movement, it was still enough to evoke a sense of irrepressible desire in the hearts of Adam and all of her puppets.

    Shae and Diana shuddered in unison, and the former almost split up from Hellhound again.

    "This is really bad! If you ask me, we should justmence the battle right away."

    They were worried that they would soon bepletely stripped of their battle intent by Subus Beth''s seduction.

    Adam tightened his grip on his carving knife and stabbed himself once again to retain his sense of reason, then said, "Let''s wait a bit longer. That doctor will be of help to us."

    Doctor Edwards looked at Subus Beth in silence for a moment, then suddenly arrived beside Adam as he said, "I won''t interfere with your battle, but I have one condition: you have to ensure that my patient remains alive."

    Looking at Doctor Edwards''s expression up close, Adam could tell that he was also somewhat affected by Subus Beth''s ability, but to a lesser extent.

    "I came here today with the sole purpose of detaining criminal Subus Beth, and I won''t harm any innocent bystanders. However, you and Congressman Johnson will still have to answer to the past crimes that you''vemitted."

    At this point, there was no need for Adam to hide his intentions any longer. He couldn''t afford to back down in the face of any threat, and Doctor Edwards gave a stiff nod before backing away into the distance.

    Subus Beth''s attention was also turned to Adam, and just a single nce alone was enough to stir up her puppets into a frenzy as they rushed toward Adam''s trio, with some of them even unleashing long-range attacks.

    A string of bullets, an arrow, a streak of light, and a strange were instantlyunched at Adam and hispanions.

    "Prepare for battle!" Adam yelled, and Mummy''s runed bandages instantly extended several dozen meters through the air, then intertwined in a criss-cross fashion up ahead to form several defensive walls, warding off the oing attacks with ease.

    At the same time, he shed his carving knife upward to slice the oing apart down the middle.

    Diana rose up into the air, and her body rapidly swelled to around 100 meters in size as she let loose a torrent of draconic mes as thick as a truck toward Subus Beth and her puppets.

    "Why are you being so cruel? You''re making me sad!"

    Subus Beth''s voice was filled with an indescribable sense of seduction as it rang out directly within the hearts of Adam and hispanions, evoking with them an extreme longing and desire, as if she were an almighty spirit that could grant them any wish so long as they kneeled and submitted themselves to her.

    Diana shuddered as the torrent of mes pouring out of her mouth faltered, and at the same time, one of Subus Beth''s puppets raised a giant shield to the heavens to keep the draconic me at bay. Meanwhile, someone else sprang up into the sky with no regard for their own safety,shing out with the de in their hand around a dozen times in session to destroy this initial wave of attacks.

    Adam was having to fight his own mind as he released Nun and instructed it to unleash its Fountain of Contamination, inundating the entire psychic world with a vast torrent of sewage. An indescribable foul stench permeated throughout the entire space, while the intensely corrosive sewage destroyed everything in sight.

    Immediately thereafter, Horse Face was also invoked, and with a sweep of its brush, the Lamenting Wall took shape, presenting the hellish scene of a nuclear explosion as it epassed the entire area.

    The disaster was onlypounded by the Fountain of Contamination as countless people were inundated by the corrosive sewage before melting away into nothingness.

    In the face of the nuclear explosion, everything had been sapped of its vibrance. Concepts like beauty lost all meaning, and all beings were equal in the face of such an absolute cmity.

    This type of indiscriminate attack was one thatpletely caught Subus Beth off guard as well.

    In particr, as all of those despairing faces turned to him before letting loose a collectivementing sigh, Subus Beth felt his own psychic body flicker and waver for a moment.

 Chapter 430: Imperfect

    <h4>Chapter 430: Imperfect</h4>

    paw?ead ].

    <i>You''re not almighty! You''re also imperfect, just like everyone else! </i>

    As soon as this thought arose in Adam''s mind, his psychic world abruptly shuddered, and an invisible wall was toppled.

    As he turned to Subus Beth again, he discovered that thetter was still indescribably beautiful and seductive, but he was no longer struck by the urge to kneel to him and submit to his beck and call.

    There was still awe, amazement, and appreciation, but this was a very normal mindset, a type of reaction that the vast majority of normal people would experience at some point in their lives. It was no longer that sense of twisted, all-epassing desire, and Adam was left wondering how this change hade about.

    He had to ponder this matter as it was extremely important, even more so than the unfolding battle.

    Subus Beth was quite a formidable adapter, almostparable to Raven when it came tobat prowess, so he was able to withstand both the Lamenting Wall and the Fountain of Contamination, and he was even able to protect a few of his puppets in the process.

    He was still as alluring as ever, but there was no longer that sense of unreasonable, all-consuming seduction about him.

    All of a sudden, Adam realized that this change hade about right after he had heard what Doctor Edwards had said.

    With that in mind, Adam suddenly realized why Subus Beth''s seduction was able to work on everyone without fail, as well as the key to breaking this ability of hers. The key was disenchantment.

    Thinking back, when was the first time he had developed the idea that Subus Beth was going to be an extremely difficult opponent to ovee? It was when he saw his battle footage.

    His first impression was love at first sight, and he was unable to suppress the sense of desire and hormonal secretion that came with falling in love. From that instant forth, he had been enchanted by Subus Beth.

    From there onward, whenever he saw footage of him or heard his name, he would unconsciously embellish his image of him, thereby strengthening Subus Beth''s hold over him.

    It was through this repeated process of bias affirmation that he had developed the idea that Subus Beth was perfect and extremely difficult to defeat. In addition to that, Subus Beth had carried out many sessful operations and be extremely notorious among the media and the general public, thereby cing him on an even higher pedestal in Adam''s heart.

    As a result, as soon as he was pitted against Subus Beth, all of these subconscious notions were instantly brought to the fore, making him sumb to Subus Beth''s ability.

    In reality, everyone had failed to consider one question, which was that if Subus Beth really was perfect, then why did he only ever act in secret?

    This was because there was one person that his ability had no effect on, and that was the director.

    That was a weakness, a w.

    Very few people in Sandrise City knew of the director, so they wouldn''t even consider him, but thankfully, Adam had encountered a second person who was unaffected by Subus Beth''s ability in the form of Doctor Edwards.

    It was precisely what Doctor Edwards had said that had snapped Adam out of his stupor and begun the disenchantment process. Thanks to how immense his spiritual power had be, he was able toplete this disenchantment process in an instant.

    <i>We''ve returned to a level ying field now. Let''s see if you''re still as untouchable as you''ve alway been.</i>

    At this moment, Adam was feeling extremely rxed, and a twisted smile had appeared on Mummy''s face.

    Shae''s first reaction upon seeing this reaction was to wonder whether Adam had gone insane.

    "He''s not perfect!" Adam suddenly yelled at Diana and Shae.

    <i>What''s that supposed to mean?</i>

    The two women had no idea what he was talking about, but they could tell that he was overjoyed and extremely confident.

    Adam spread his arms open, and Mummy''s bandages revolved around him as the runes inscribed upon them began to glow, slowly elevating him upward so that he was looking down on Subus Beth, who was struggling within the Lamenting Wall.

    "You''re not perfect!"

    Adam''s voice was like an almighty deration of condemnation that resonated deep within Subus Beth''s heart.

    All of a sudden, the mystical charm around Subus Beth seemed to have worn off a little, and not only was this the case for Shae and Diana, even Subus Beth''s puppets were rooted to the spot.

    Some of them were unable to resist the urge to turn around, and for the first time, they were able to catch a clear glimpse of Subus Beth''s face. He was still breathtakingly beautiful, but they were able to look directly at him for the first time.

    <i>This isn''t right! </i>

    Subus Beth pointed at Adam as he screeched, "Kill him!"

    This was the first time that his puppets had ever seen him lose hisposure like this, and their perfect image of him was shattered like ss, leaving thempletely disoriented.

    A battle in the psychic world could often be decided in the blink of an eye. Adam''s gaze was scouring the entire battlefield, and he immediately seized this opportunity as he invoked Camera.

    Following a sh of white light, everyone stiffened momentarily as if they had been captured in a photograph, immediately following which most of the puppets present were abruptly sliced in half.

    One of Subus Beth''s arms had been severed, and for the first time, he wasn''t looking so invulnerable. Only the burly figure wearing the Jason mask was able to pull his own body back together after it was sliced in half, and it appeared that he hadn''t sustained any damage at all.

    <i>That guy''s gonna be trouble.</i>

    A hint of wariness welled up in Adam''s heart, and he immediately withdrew Camera, but right in the instant before Camera vanished, Jason swung his machete at it, and a massive rift was torn into the Lamenting Wall.

    Even though Camera wasn''t directly struck by the attack, it was still wounded.

    Jason and Subus Beth took the opportunity to rush out of the area that had been corroded and destroyed, while Adam looked on in astonishment.

    <i>That was an incredibly powerful attack! </i>

    Having reached level seven, Horse Face''s defenses had be quite formidable, so there was no way that anyone would''ve been able to slice open the Lamenting Wall so easily unless they possessed offensive prowess of the same caliber.

    However, Jason had clearly paid a price for that attack. His body had clearly shrunk down, and his machete had also been shortened as well, indicating that he couldn''t just keep using this attack indefinitely, which was quite a relief for Adam to see.

    Despite Subus Beth''s insistent orders, Jason didn''t immediately begin to retaliate. In the past, it wouldn''t have even required an order from Subus Beth before he charged into battle, without any regard for his own safety.

    He turned and peered through his mask at Subus Beth, seemingly observing him for a moment before turning away again.

    Subus Beth immediately flew into a thunderous rage, as if he had just received an unimaginable insult.

    "Why did you look at me like that?"

    He was beginning to panic.

    His foolproof seduction was his greatest weapon, yet not only was it not working on his enemies, it was losing its effectiveness on his own puppets as well.

    High up in the sky, Diana also discovered that she had suddenly been freed from Subus Beth''s enchantment, and a cruel smile appeared on her face as she opened her mouth to st forth a plume of draconic mes.

    Shae also did the same, lowering Hellhound''s heads before releasing a string of Explosive Fireballs with all her might.

    The two types of devastating mes collided as they swept toward Subus Beth and Jason, and a mushroom cloud rose up into the sky, while scorching light and heat erupted forth in all directions.

    The surrounding area was razed to the ground in the blink of an eye, then reduced to a sea of magma that was several hundred feet wide.

    The two women were clearly venting their fury at Subus Beth, and Adam was forced to withdraw Horse Face for now before instructing Sludge to shield him from the shockwaves resulting from the explosion. Only after the scorching shockwaves had passed him by did he jump onto Sludge''s shoulder and peer into the distance.

    "Hmm? What happened?"

 Chapter 431: Adjudication of Justice

    <h4>Chapter 431: Adjudication of Justice</h4>

    A massive bowl-shaped crater that was over 10 meters deep had been sted into the ground at the epicenter of the explosion. Magma was flowing down the sides of the crater, and at the very bottom, Jason was shielding Subus Beth with his own body, preventing thetter from being directly struck by the explosion.

    However, this hade at a cost. His body had shrunk down from five meters to only two meters in height, giving him the stature of an ordinary person. If it were to be assumed that his stature was a direct indication of hisbat prowess, then he had to have been extremely feeble right now, and his machete had also shortened significantly.

    However, what hade as quite a surprise to Adam was that the machete was currently plunged into Subus Beth''s chest.

    "Why?" Subus Beth asked in an incredulous voice, and her voice had be extremely shrill and unpleasantly high-pitched from shock.

    He pushed Jason away in a furious manner, doing so with such immense power that Jason''s body exploded into pieces in mid-air, but before those pieces had even fallen onto the ground, they came together again to form a smaller Jason, while his machete had shrunk down to only half a meter in length.

    Jason descended onto the edge of the crater, then removed his mask as he glowered at Subus Beth with a furious expression. "I hate it when people deceive me!"

    Adam invoked Ogress, and through its perspective, he was able to see the exchange taking ce between Jason and Subus Beth.

    Jason''s psychic body was one that was severely mutated, much like the people suffering from radiation sickness. He would''ve undoubtedly been ostracized and mocked in the real world, perhaps even bullied and abused, so it was no surprise that he had be a psychic deviant.

    Even though he had received a new body from the director, his soul still remained his own, so his personality was still as extreme as ever. It seemed that in his eyes, being cast under Subus Beth''s spell was a form of deception, and that was uneptable to him.

    Subus Beth didn''t know much about her subordinates at all. In his eyes, they were all just pawns that could be discarded at any time, and never had he anticipated that they would turn on him someday.

    His continued sess had inted his confidence to the point that he was blinded to the fact that he wasn''t actually invincible, and now, his arrogance wasing back to bite him.

    In a way, Jason was like a child who had never grown up, and his mind waspletely taken over by the urge to kill this person who had deceived him.

    He paid no heed to the fact that he was currently in an extremely feeble state as he raised his machete from afar before shing it through the air with all his might. A faint mark appeared on Subus Beth''s face, and not even her skin had been split open by the attack, but she let loose another furious screech.

    This puppet of his, this piece of lowly trash that he had always hadplete control over was no daring to attack him!

    This was unforgivable!

    Subus Beth raised her whip, and with just a single strike, she was able to split Jason''s body into pieces. Those pieces reformed, only to be destroyed again, and the process was repeated several times.

    At this point, Jason had been reduced to no more than a foot in height, and the machete in his hand was resembling a toothpick, presenting a ratherical sight to behold.

    Subus Beth was panting heavily, more so from fury than exertion, causing her voluptuous chest to heave violently.

    "Let''s end this."

    Adam had no interest in watching any longer, and he called upon Shae and Diana before rushing over to the edge of the crater.

    Looking at Subus Beth up close, he was able to notice some extremely faint red lines on his seemingly wless face, immediately tipping him off to the fact that Subus Beth had previously undergone cosmetic surgery.

    No wonder Doctor Edwards had stated so bluntly that he wasn''t perfect. Thanks to his intuition as a top-tier surgeon, he had seen right through Subus Beth''s wless facade.

    Shae and Diana possessed outstanding eyesight too, and they quickly noticed this detail as well.

    Following the process of disenchantment, all of the mystique surrounding Subus Beth had faded, and in the face of the scrutiny from Adam''s trio, horrific memories of Subus Beth''s past instantly flooded into his mind.

    "Why are you all looking at me like that? Get away from me!" Subus Beth screeched.

    In her previous life, Subus Beth had been a woman. In order to seek out the fame and fortune that she so desired, she was willing to do anything, stooping to the lowest of lows.

    However, she discovered that there were countless other women in the industry also willing to do the same thing, so she had no advantage. All of those bastards who had coaxed her into giving up her body, her pride, and her aspirations had lied to her.

    That was why she sought out revenge against them and this twisted society. She underwent cosmetic surgery, using her looks as a weapon to lure in those who had wronged her before putting an end to their lives.

    She was blinded by bloodlust, intoxicated by desire, twisted by the joy of exacting vengeance, and driven insane by the destructive path she had gone down. In the end, she became a fugitive and was forced to flee to Shadow City for refuge.

    The director had given her a new life and a new purpose.

    She became even more powerful and deranged, reveling in the process of sowing chaos in the world, and everything was supposed to have continued to progress in an upward trajectory, but unfortunately for her, it was time to wake up from this dream.

    She didn''t want to relinquish this dream, and she screeched in desperation and defiance,shing out with her whip with all her might, but she wasn''t able tond the final blow on Jason.

    Instead, it was Mummy that stomped Jason into the ground, putting an end to his life. It then grabbed onto Subus Beth''s whip before ensnaring her body in its runed bandages and plunging its carving knife into her lower abdomen without any mercy.

    Subus Beth struggled and writhed frantically as her face began to morph and shift, as if she were trying to find an appearance that would make Adam take pity on her and show mercy so she could buy herself the time to escape, but it was all to no avail.

    Adam pulled out his carving knife before plunging it into Subus Beth''s body over and over again, slicing her into pieces, but those pieces were held tightly together by his bandages.

    In the end, Diana and Shae each sted a burst of mes out of their mouths in unison, incinerating Subus Beth and the bandages into ashes.

    ck anomalic power rose up into the air like smoke and mist, and Adam allowed Mummy to have the first serving before invoking Camera to join in as well. In the end, the anomalic power was jointly consumed by Mummy, Camera, and Hellhound, it wasn''t enough to trigger an evolution in any of them.

    The anomalic power released by Subus Beth was far inferior to that of the Angel of Death, so this was no surprise. With that, the battle was over, and the entire process had been recorded forter use.

    Doctor Edwards reappeared, and his expression remained as cold and aloof as ever, as if none of this had anything to do with him.

    "I know who you are. I thought you were no different from those chatans that call themselves politicians."

    His voice was as sharp and scathing as a de.

    "What do you think of me now?" Adam asked.

    Doctor Edwards offered no response, instead offering a box that resembled a hard drive to Adam.

    "At the very least, you''re doing the right thing. These are the secrets that Congressman Johnson has been hiding, I''ve already procured them for you."

    Adam epted the box, and it only took a brief nce at its contents for Adam to determine that this was the real deal.

    "Where''s your part? I vowed to unearth all of the darkness and filth in this world, and that includes everything you''ve done as well."

    "All in due time," Doctor Edwards replied as he turned and departed, abruptly vanishing from the spot.

    Both Shae and Diana were quite startled by this.

    "How does he keep doing that? You''re the one who established this psychic connection!"

    Adam paid no heed to them as he looked at the box in his hand while a twisted smile appeared on his face.

    "Don''t forget that we''re in his clinic. There''s no way that someone as cautious and meticulous as him wouldn''t have made preparations for something like this."

 Chapter 432: Commencement of Retaliation

    <h4>Chapter 432: Commencement of Retaliation</h4>

    Upon departing from the psychic world and returning to the operating room, Adam was immediately greeted by the sight of unconscious bodies strewn all over the ground.

    The doctors, nurses, and security guards that had been cleared out during the King''s Game weren''t dead, but they had suffered psychic trauma and were unconscious as a result. In contrast, the attackers that had been killed in a subsequent psychic battle had suffered irreversible brain death, and that was what they deserved.

    Adam took pictures of the entire scene, then contacted Diana and Shae to search for Subus Beth''s body, given that he should''ve been nearby. During this time, Doctor Edwards had already restored the entire clinic''s control system, and he made his way into the operating room from the viewing gallery, then took a nce at his surroundings in an expressionless manner before dragging the unconscious workers to the side using the prosthetic limbs on his back.

    "Do you need a hand?" Adam asked, in response to which Doctor Edwards merely pointed at the door, gesturing for Adam to leave the room.

    Adam''s spider legs sprang out of his back, grabbing onto the bodies of the four attackers before carrying them out of the operating room. There, Adam crossed his arms as he watched Doctor Edwards carrying away the unconscious bodies, spurred on by his OCD. From here onward, all Adam had to do was await the arrival of Mechguard units.

    Several cleaner automatons arrived in the operating room to clean up the scene before applying a protective membrane to seal the hole that had been burned into the alloy doors.

    The recement heart also sessfully arrived, apanied by Mechguard units and private security guards, which temporarily took over the security responsibilities of the clinic while also making records of the identities of the attackers and the psychic battle that had just taken ce.

    After that, Doctor Edwards began to carry out the heart transnt surgery on Congressman Johnson on his own with the assistance of the prosthetic limbs on his back. What was quite remarkable was that he was more efficient than the entire medical team on his own, quicklypleting the heart transnt, the sutures, and the removal of the extracorporeal circtory system before sending the patient to the ICU.

    At this point, Diana had also tracked down Subus Beth''s body, and it was a burly middle-aged man. Looking at his outward appearance, he didn''t even hold a millionth of the allure that his psychic body had to other men.

    <i>To think that he''d assign a body like this to a woman who puts so much value in her looks. Looks like the director is still as cruel as ever! </i>

    After handing everything over to the Mechguard units, Adam made his way to the office, where Doctor Edwards gave him a storage device without wasting any time.

    "I am a doctor, all I care about is the sess rate of my operations and the survival rate of my patients. I don''t care about where my organse from."

    Doctor Edwards was absolving himself of any wrongdoing, and on the surface, the evidence only indicated that he was the beneficiary of an organ pathway with ambiguous sources. There were no mary transactions, and there was no way to prove that he had any control over the illegal procurement and sales of organs.

    "This organ exchange pathway is a massivework that spans across the entire world and has existed for over 100 years. In some ces, it''s more or less an open secret, and there are even some war-torn countries where thework doesn''t have to disguise itself at all."

    There was a hint of derision in Doctor Edwards''s eyes, as if he were looking at a young man who had bitten off far more than he could chew and was on a certain path to self-destruction.

    Read the most updated version of this novel and other amazing tranted novels from the original source at [ Innread ]

    Adam calmly epted the storage device, then examined its contents by connecting the device to a prosthetic reader on his body. The content inside was as massive as the content of an entire library, so there was no way that he could go through all of it in a short time, but he was able to verify that the information was genuine, and that was enough for him.

    "My mission is to expose to the general public the evil deeds of those who are trampling over thew and human morality. My job is to capture those heinous criminals and expose those who are pulling the strings behind the scenes so they can be punished by thew and adjudicated by justice."

    It didn''t matter to him even if the entire world would turn on him. He had nothing to fear, and the only way to go was to forge straight ahead.

    "I wish you sess," Doctor Edwards said in an indifferent manner, clearly unmoved by Adam''s bold ims.

    With that, Adam''s trio departed from the clinic.

    For this operation, Subus Beth had brought along two teams with him, one of which was responsible for breaching the perimeter and attracting the attention of Mechguard units and otherw enforcement units. Upon sessfully breaching the perimeter, they immediately retreated, so they weren''t captured, but that didn''t mean that they were safe. Raven was not going to pass up this golden opportunity to eliminate hispetition.

    On the way back, Adam received a call from May, who eximed, "You managed to take down Subus Beth? How did you do it?"

    The pawn shop''s appraisal of the operation was that it had a less than 10% chance of sess, but Subus Beth''s demise had already been confirmed by Mechguard, and given how well-informed May was, it was no surprise that she had already found out.

    Adam didn''t give a direct reply to the question. Instead, he dered, "This is only the beginning. I will deliver on all of my promises, and I hope you''ll do the same."

    "Of course. Given what you''ve shown me so far, I believe it''s time to elevate our coborative rtionship to a higher level so we can give you more support," May proposed.

    What she was trying to convey was very clear: she was willing to offer Adam more support and assistance as long as it didn''t entailpromising the pawn shop''s principles.

    Adam then received a call from Cowboy, and that one was far more straightforward.

    "I''ll save the praise for when I next see you. I''m calling on behalf of Commander to tell you that you have the green light to go full steam ahead. There will be many people supporting you in whatever you choose to do from here."

    This unexpected victory had erased much of the doubt that everyone had previously harbored toward Adam.

    Adam wasn''t convinced that he truly had the unreserved support of the northern congress, as Cowboy seemed to im, but that didn''t matter. He had to unite all of the allies that he could and influence as many people as possible to ensure the highest chance of seeding in his ultimate mission.

    "Congressman Johnson will be the first domino to fall. From here onward, I will continue to create more and more miracles."

    "And we will support you every step of the way."

    This was the best position that the northern congress had ever been in, and they were already sure to benefit immensely from what Adam had done so far. If they wanted to continue to ride this wave, then the best way to proceed would be to grant Adam more support.

    Upon returning to the election center, Adam was greeted by warm apuse and cheers from the workers who had spilled out onto the streets to wee him. Just now, support for Adam had spiked drastically, taking him out of the danger zone and returning him to a level of support that wasn''t far away from his all-time peak.

    There was an excited look in Toshiyuki Matsumara''s eyes, but he was still calmly providing Adam with important advice.

    "We need to take full advantage of this victory to show the general public that you''re following through on your promises so you can receive more trust and support. The more exposure this story receives, the better."

    Adam agreed with this idea, and he decided to hold a press conference on the same day. As it turned out, all of the major media outlets had already caught wind of what had happened, and in no more than an hour, countless reporters had flocked to the election center, producing a lively and bustling atmosphere akin to that of a festival.

    Photographs of the attackers were disyed alongside some surveince footage from inside and outside of the clinic, as well as snippets from the psychic battle. Adam was standing in front of the lectern, giving a calm speech.

    "This is the only beginning. I hereby dere war on all of these criminals who have partaken in illegal activities. Parasites like Congressman Johnson, who waste taxpayer money, provide protection to heinous criminals, and trample on the integrity ofw and justice, will all be my targets!"

    ¡­¡­

    The projected image settled on Adam''s face, and a man turned around to face everyone else in the room with a cold smile.

    "Do you still doubt his ability to shake things up now?"

 Chapter 433: Intervention and Attack

    <h4>Chapter 433: Intervention and Attack</h4>

    A loud thump rang out as a fist was mmed down onto the table, and even though this was a table simted in the Metaverse, it was still a very impactful gesture.

    "We can''t allow him to keep doing whatever he wants! Politics doesn''t work like this! How could thew be turned on people like us?"

    The person who was speaking did so in a very justified manner, as if he were expressing an objective truth, and he was immediately met with derision and mockery.

    "I thought all of us already knew what he wanted. He doesn''t want to be one of us, all he wants is to seek revenge and destroy everything we''ve built."

    "Then get rid of him! The two congresses alone are already a pain in the ass to deal with, we can''t have more idiots causing trouble like this!"

    "And how do you propose we do that? Just kill him? Who do you think you are? Who do you think he is?"

    That string of questions instantly silenced all of the disgruntled voices. Indeed, Adam was no longer just some small fry that could easily be taken care of.

    At the moment, he had immense support in the mayoral election, and he also had powerful financial and political backers. Furthermore, even if they threw all caution to the wind and decided to have Adam killed regardless of the consequences, they still had to consider whether they had any adapters at their disposal that were capable of killing him.

    The majority of adapters of that caliber were extremely averse to taking risks, so they wouldn''t be willing to carry out such a perilous hitjob.

    "Perhaps the situation isn''t as dire as we think. Maybe it''s only a coincidence that he went after Congressman Johnson?"

    There were still some people who were trying to downy the situation.

    "All I want to ask is this: do any of us want to be next? If not, then I suggest you shut your mouth and don''t try to rely on things like luck and coincidence."

    On the flip side of those who were foolishly optimistic, there were always those who were rational and could see the situation for what it was.

    This was a group in which no one held a position of absolute authority, so it was quitemon for conflicts to take ce.

    The table was knocked on again to contain the chaos that the meeting was spiraling into.

    "This is not congress, we do not have that much time to waste on senseless arguments. We have to make a decision. Who can provide an effective solution?"

    The question was met withplete silence.

    Arguing was their forte, while their decision-making was often assisted by their advisors. If a rash decision were to be made while there was still insufficient information and differences in opinions, then the decision was far more likely to result in an undesirable oue. Safety was the number one priority.

    "I can never get anything done with a bunch of fools like all of you."

    A disgruntled voice suddenly rang out to break the silence.

    Most of the people in the room immediately turned to glower at the person who had just spoken, and even though they were in a simtion, the looks in their eyes were still as sharp and aggressive as ever.

    "You better have something very useful to say. Otherwise, what you just said will be taken as provocation to everyone here."

    "I concur."

    "I also concur."

    "We won''t tolerate such a rude remark."

    ¡­¡­

    It seemed that everyone was angry about the insult, but in reality, they were only using this show of displeasure to shift responsibility.

    "Hehe, I knew all of you would react like this."

    The speaker shook his head as he gently tapped his fingers against the table in a rhythmic and almost captivating fashion, and everyone''s attention was inadvertently drawn to him.

    "I don''t think there''s any need to guess what he''s about to do next or to turn to any violent methods. The solution is actually very simple. He wants to be a hero, right? Then let''s help him achieve that goal."

    "Are you suggesting we sacrifice another congressman to him?" someone immediately countered.

    "That is definitely not eptable!"

    ¡­¡­

    All of the dissenting voices were interrupted by the tapping on the table again, and the speaker continued, "He wants to strike down all illegal industries, so let''s provide him with one to target. As long as we can confirm what his next target is, I''m sure I won''t need to teach all of you what to do from there."

    "You''re proposing that we lure him into a trap?"

    .

    "Which industry are we going to use as bait? He''s not just going to pounce at any insignificant thing that we throw at him."

    Everyone wanted to reap the benefits, but no one wanted to ept any risk.

    "He once tried to apprehend Herman Glenn, and even though Herman was let off lightly, I''m sure we all know that there was some vital information leaked."

    "What are you saying? Has that line not beenpletely eradicated?"

    This was most certainly unexpected, but alsopletely within reason. Greed could push one to take many risks, and as long as there was still profit to be made, it was very difficult for one to sacrifice a money-making avenue.

    "Alright, then let''s go with him."

    "I concur!"

    ¡­¡­

    A unanimous decision was arrived at in record time.

    That same day, the content from Adam''s press interview had only just begun to spread on the inte. It was revealed that Congressman Johnson had participated in human hunting events on multiple asions and overstepped his authority to provide support for the relevant industries. In fact, he was even epting dividends from profits made by human trafficking rings.

    All types of horrific and infuriating information on him was exposed, while Adam was presented as the shining hero who fearlessly upheld justice, risking his life in the face of authority. All of the doubt that had been cast on him during the days in which Subus Beth and his minions had run rampant waspletely erased.

    The emotions of the general public were never stable or rational, and all of the information that they received was carefully curated. In this day and age, people had already been reduced to puppets controlled by propaganda.

    However, these puppets still had some ability of discernment, as well as a desire for what was just and righteous. Thus, they were inclined to support Adam in his plight. The inte had been stirred up into a frenzy, yet Adam was calm as ever as he initiated the next step of his n. Communication with Raven over the dark web was unavoidable, and this time, he was the one stating demands in a firm and imcable fashion.

    "Completely eradicate all of Subus Beth''s subordinates. It''s fine with me if you want to establish your own empire, but make sure you don''t do anything that pits you against me. Do you understand?"

    "I do, and I will act ording to your wishes, esteemed mayoral candidate."

    Raven was surprisingly cooperative, perhaps because he truly felt like this was a great deal for him, or perhaps he simply didn''t care at all. Adam didn''t have the time to ponder his motives. All he could do was decide on the next course of action and carry it out with determination.

    For the next step of his n, he had to choose a suitable target, and it just so happened to be the case that Herman Glenn was the first person to have sprung into his mind.

    In contrast with the unfathomable Masao Yamamoto, Herman Glenn was a much more suitable target. Adam''s prior efforts had only forced Herman into aughably paltry punishment of 400 hours ofmunity service, which was nothing more than a figurative p on the wrist.

    This made it clear to Adam that there was no point in striking at just one or two individual targets.

    The entire world had already fallen under the control of an interest group that controlled every aspect of society, including the power hierarchy, the political system, and the general public''s world view. As a result, the thought of resisting wouldn''t even cross the mind of the vast majority of people. For the few individual targets that were struck down, they would simply be viewed as outliers and ignored.

    Only by providing a vast sample set of these outliers and presenting countless pieces of evidence to the general public would everyone be able to see just how rotten the top of the pyramid had be. Only then would he truly be able to shake the foundation of those in power, and that was why he had to strike repeatedly without pause.

    <i>All of you are so convinced that you''ll never be held ountable for your actions that you don''t even bother to hide them. Even now, the human farm is still out in the open. I''m afraid you''re all in for a rude awakening. </i>

    A cold smile appeared on Adam''s face as he called Shae and informed her of the next step of his n.

    "Go to the Kim Family and seize back the power that rightfully belongs to you. I''ll make sure that May, Cowboy, and even Diana and the others will be there to ensure your safety."

    "What about you?" Shae asked.

    As his response, Adam spread open a map before pointing at the ind of Komi on the Pacific Ocean.

 Chapter 434: Direct Incision

    <h4>Chapter 434: Direct Incision</h4>

    Adam had to seize the initiative rather than fall into the enemy''s tempo. Having received a huge confidence boost after defeating Subus Beth, Adam now felt ready to alter his original ns.

    He already possessed the power to act effectively on his own, so it was a massive waste to continue bringing everyone along with him, and it also made it easier for his enemies to predict what he was going to do next.

    Hence, he was going to leave Shae in Sandrise City to attract all of the attention, while also assigning her sufficient protection to ensure her safety. In the meantime, he was going to carry out a surprise attack in the shadows. Shae was very quick to approve of this idea. She also understood that it was time to change gears, and she had to y a bigger role.

    On behalf of the pawn shop, May promised to protect Shae to the best of her abilities, and Cowboy was assigned with the task of arranging Adam a flight to Komi, while Adam himself paid Guang Fei a visit.

    "Are you putting me to work again?" Guang Fei cackled, and he was still looking in rather ill health, but he had clearly gained some weightpared with back when he was in Darvaza Prison, and hisplexion was looking far better as well.

    He was stroking the explosive device around his neck with a hint of mockery in his eyes, but Adam paid no heed to that as he said, "ording to our agreement, you have to do my bidding during the election period."

    "Fine. Who do you want to kill this time?"

    Guang Fei fished some jerky out of his pocket as he spoke before chewing on it with a blissful look on his face. Ever since he came out of prison, eating had be his greatest hobby, and he always had some form of food on him.

    Adam didn''t reveal any of the details of his n to Guang Fei. This man waspletely untrustworthy, and he would sell anyone in a heartbeat as long as the price was right, but for this mission, there was no better candidate than him.

    "Juste with me. You''ll know once we get there."

    Guang Fei cackled in response, seemingly intrigued by the mystery.

    ¡­¡­

    That night, Adam and Guang Fei were ced into a box that waspletely isted from the outside world, then transported in secret to Area 53 of Sandrise City. This was thergest aerial transportation central hub in Sandrise City, ounting for at least a third of the city''s transportation of goods. Hence, both the public and private airports in the area were extremely busy.

    The box that Adam and Guang Fei were in was loaded onto a cargo ne, and not long after it took off, it made a turn for the Pacific Ocean. After several hours of flying, the pre-set time arrived, and the box opened up on its own.

    The two men emerged from the box, and Adam was fully equipped with hisprehensive set of prosthetics, while Guang Fei was wearing a g-suit outside of his normal prosthetics. The two of them opened the service door from the underside of the aircraft, then jumped out into the sky. Parachuting down from altitudes in excess of 10,000 meters was extremely dangerous, but it seemed to have been no more perilous than a stroll in the park for them.

    They rapidly plummeted out of the sky before opening their parachutes, and at an altitude of several hundred meters, they discarded their parachutes before opening their paragliding wings, inspecting the undting mountains and forests down below with their night vision goggles as they traveled directly toward their destination.

    Meanwhile, another meeting was taking ce in the Metaverse.

    "Are you sure he''s gone missing?"

    "We haven''t been able to track him down, and we highly suspect he''s gone to carry out a new mission."

    "He pulled up Herman''s file prior to his disappearance, so we can presume that''s his target."

    "But we haven''t even presented to him the bait that we''ve prepared yet. Could this be a coincidence?"

    "In any case, I''ve already contacted them, I''m sure they''ll know how to handle teh situation."

    "ording to past conventions, we should be able to use some unconventional methods. After all, he was the one who overstepped his boundaries first."

    "I can''t guarantee that."

    "In that case, let''s just wait and see what happens."

    ¡­¡­

    Adam was naturally unaware of everything that was happening behind the scenes. He was only focused on what was in front of him.

    Komi was a tiny nation that was still ruled by a monarch, and the royal family was a puppet to the top dogs in Sandrise City, so they were constantly putting their own people through horrific treatment for the benefit of those in Sandrise City.

    Adam''s target was the human farm. Through his recollection of Herman''s memories, coupled with the information provided by the pawn shop and his contacts in the northern congress, as well as the information secured from the ck market in Shadow City, he had narrowed down the location of the human farm to a mountain park not far away from the nation''s capital.

    Technically, this was the royal family''s private property, and it was home to a vacation resort, a ranch, a medicinal nt breeding base, and a research center set up by a world-ss corporation in the medical sector.

    It had an independent supply of water and electricity, as well as a resource transfer station, a luxurious hospital and sanitarium, and everything else one could ever ask for. There was even an aerial defense alert system, except it only raised the rm after detecting approaching air-to-ground weaponry.

    Both Adam and Guang Fei''s prosthetic limbs did a very good job of concealing them, so they wouldn''t have registered as anyrger than seagulls on the system.

    Even so, the two of them were still flying along cautiously at an altitude of below 50 meters, and after passing over many walls and wire fences, they descended onto the helipad on top of the hospital while cloaked in the darkness of the night right before the arrival of dawn.

    Theirnding was so quiet that none of the security units were alerted, and after removing their paragliding wings, Guang Fei examined the helicopter on the helipad to ensure that it could still be used.

    Guang Fei had to have led a spectacr life 30 years ago. Otherwise, there was no way to exin his set of skills. Even though he was an old man now, he was still very nimble and efficient.

    The two of them quickly snuck over to the entrance on the rooftop, where there was an rm system that would be set off if anyone tried to break in by force.

    There, Adam activated his neuron transmitter, and the signal epassed the entire hospital, dragging everyone in it into Adam''s psychic world.

    The setting was Darvaza Prison.

    Adam had only just fused as one with Mummy when over 100 psychic bodies suddenly appeared around him, most of which clearly belonged to organized military units.

    Furthermore, they were very well prepared,unching a ferocious barrage of attacks as soon as they spotted Adam.

    The cell area was instantly inundated by heavy artillery, tanks, missiles, and powerful explosives, reducing all of the buildings to rubble in just a few seconds.

    Immediately thereafter, around a dozen adapters who were at leastparable in power to level six anomalies emerged, forming teams of three to five people before firing off barrages of attacks in a well-rehearsed fashion. At least 20 attacks were fired off every single second, sting Sludge''s giant body into pieces right after it was invoked.

    They didn''t give him any chance to catch his breath before the third wave of attacks arrived, consisting of formidable single-target attacks from three powerful adapters.

    A bolt of lightning struck Mummy, charring half of his body ck. A sword projection swept toward his neck in an attempt to decapitate him, and thankfully, he was able to dodge in time, but still lost a shoulder.

    He invoked Hellhound, but before it could do anything, it was almost beaten to death by a mountainous hammer.

    After that, he invoked Clown, which conjured up an army of clones that fired off their weapons in retaliation, only to have the majority of the clones wiped out in an instant by enemy fire.

    Behind the main unit, the enemy had set up a military phnx system with an incredibly high rate of fire, able tounch over 10,000 25mm exploding missiles to create a continuous storm of destruction with no blind spots.

    The most fearsome attack was still yet toe from above. A Mother of All Bombs that was 10 tons in weight exploded at a low altitude, releasing scorching heat and terrifying shockwaves that razed all of the buildings in the area to the ground and almost destroyed Adam''s psychic body in the process.

    A man wearing a tuxedo and a monocle then rose up into the air, pointing at Adam with his staff as he scoffed in derision, "I thought you were supposed to be a formidable opponent, but you''re just a weak piece of trash!"

    As soon as his voice trailed off, what remained of Adam''s psychic body suddenly flickered momentarily before vanishing from the spot.

    Adam took a deep breath as he opened his eyes in the real world, and there was an excited look on his face.

    <i>The fact that an ambush has been set up here tells me that we''re at the right ce! </i>

 Chapter 435: Forceful Retaliation

    <h4>Chapter 435: Forceful Retaliation</h4>

    Adam was no longer the reckless and ignorant kid he once was. Having endured so many past battles and witnessed countless strange and inexplicable circumstances, he had umted a vast wealth of experience.

    Just now, instead of recklessly charging into battle, he had made use of Guang Fei''s tactical simtion ability.

    All of the people ambushing Adam in the hospital had been fooled into thinking that they had entered Adam''s psychic world, and it was clear that they were prepared in advance. As soon as they were dragged into the psychic world, they immediately unleashed indiscriminate attacks in organized waves, using an excessive amount of firepower output to eradicate any possible threats.

    This was a ssic tactic employed by the military, and Adam was confident that there had to have been Komi''s national military forces working with powerful adapters from the Guild of Immortality. It was a meticulously nned trap, and he could''ve easily fallen prey to it had he not been careful.

    Thankfully, he had Guang Fei as a secret weapon, and after seeing the tactics employed by the enemy and their firepower output andbinations during the battle simtion, Adam quickly came up with a strategy.

    Once again, he returned to the psychic world, but the setting was a lush forest in the mountains as opposed to a prison.

    This time, Adam fused with Sludge instead, and at the same time, he invoked Clown, which conjured up hundreds of clones that burrowed into the forest while carrying a range of different weapons. Taking advantage of the rugged and uneven mountain terrain, they attacked the enemy at irregr intervals, not aiming to put an actual dent in enemy forces, but merely harassing and disrupting instead.

    After that came the Fountain of Contamination from Nun, which transformed an entire area with a width in excess of 100 meters into a corrosive hellscape.

    Finally, Horse Face was invoked, and under Sludge''s protection, it was able to sweep its brush through the air in aposed manner, quickly creating the Lamenting Wall that epassed teh entire sky up above.

    All of this had taken ce in the blink of an eye, and the enemy didn''t even get a chance to react or change their strategy as they were still reveling in the joy of their false victory. Before they had even figured out what was happening, the second battle had already begun.

    First, the military units were pelted with attacks from Clown''s clones.

    Even though they were only using weapons from the World War II era, the rocketunchers and mortar projectiles still packed a heavy punch, while the vastly renowned German machine gun, the MG42, was able to fire off over 1,000 bullets per minute. This was only enough to keep the enemy temporarily upied, but that was already enough.

    As the Lamenting Wall waspleted, the surrounding setting was quickly transformed into a city being ravaged by a cataclysmic, doomsday-like vent.

    The war-torn scenes from 30 years ago were perfectly replicated, and the atmosphere of despair and insanity in the air was one that was all too familiar for all military personnel that had experienced or witnessed the horrors of war.

    Komi''s political structure was quite stable, but simr cases took ce virtually every single year in the nearby nations, so they had witnessed countless battles.

    This was the nature of psychic battles. Anyone that grewcent or distracted would immediately lose the upper hand and be swept up by Adam''s tempo.

    The destructive radiance released by the nuclear explosion in the Lamenting Wall drowned out all colors and swept the military personnel into a disoriented daze, destroying the foundation of their concentrated firepower output in the blink of an eye.

    After that came the howls of despair, which disabled yet another portion of the enemy forces.

    Before they had a chance to regroup, their shadows reached out to strangle them from behind. Guang Fei had entered the fray as well.

    Even to this day, Adam still hadn''t figured out just how powerful Guang Fei was, but he definitely wouldn''t have been any less formidable than a level seven anomaly. Most importantly, his abilities were extremely covert and powerful, able to take effect in any

    ce where there were shadows.

    Following these attacks, only four of the most powerful enemy adapters remained.

    One of them was the adapter that wielded lightning abilities, but his lightning was far less effective on Sludge than it was on Mummy.

    His reactions were extremely fast as he quickly umted energy before unleashing an explosive attack, which tore through the Lamenting Wall and the corrosive hellscape beforending squarely on Sludge''s body, sending stone shards flying in all directions.

    However, this was only a minor injury that Sludge was able to mostly recover from in the blink of an eye. What came next was the sword projection, which sliced viciously into Sludge''s massive body, inflicting a wound that was over a meter deep before running out of power.

    The final blow was a swing from the giant hammer, which Sludge was able to send flying with a ferocious punch.

    Immediately thereafter, Adam invoked Hellhound right in between the three adapters, not giving them any chance to catch their breath before sting fireballs and toxins out of two of its heads to inundate two of them.

    As for the third adapter, he was attacked by Hellhound using its fangs and ws, and he was almost torn apart in an instant, unable to unleash any further attacks.

    The final enemy adapter was the one that had invoked the Mother of All Bombs. Adam had witnessed the nuclear bomb invoked by Patriot, and that one was far more powerful.

    As soon as his bomb appeared, the corrosive sewage churning over the ground abruptly rose up into the air, forming a giant pir that was several dozen meters tall to catch the bomb and prevent it from descending any further.

    Immediately thereafter, Mummy appeared before extending its bandages toward the bomb, wrapping it up tightly before dragging it forcefully off its original trajectory so that it fell into the enemy camp.

    <i>Boom! </i>

    An earth-shattering explosion rang out, followed by the emergence of a mushroom cloud that was over 100 meters tall. The formidable shockwaves released by the explosion had destroyed everything, leaving a massive charred crater in the ground.

    Adam strode over the severely ravaged ground while still fused with Sludge, making his way directly toward the final remaining tuxedoed figure.

    The man was only able to rise up around a dozen meters into the air, so he still had to look up at Adam, who was 20 meters tall in this form.

    "Who''s the weak piece of trash now?" Adam asked as he extended a massive hand forward.

    The tuxedoed figure dodged the attack, then pulled a rapier out of his sleeve before plunging it straight into Sludge''s eye socket, punching a hole straight through its head.

    Adam didn''t seem to have felt that attack at all, and he made another grabbing motion, in response to which the tuxedoed figure tried to evade again, only to find himself sinking into a viscous of sludge.

    As it turned out, Adam had liquefied his other arm in secret before spreading it out like a, and the tuxedoed figure was instantly ensnared.

    The sludge then abruptly solidified to trap the tuxedoed figure, and with a single merciless punch, Adam reduced the tuxedoed figure to a pile of mincemeat.

    Wisps of anomalic power began to spread through the air, but Adam refrained from absorbing it as he didn''t want to expose his own secret to Guang Fei.

    The battle was nearing its conclusion, Clown''s clones were left to eradicate the remaining enemy units as they cackled in a deranged manner while firing off their weapons with reckless abandon.

    Guang Fei emerged from his shadow as he remarked, "They didn''t put up much resistance at all. Looks like they''ve severely underestimated you."

    "They''ve grown ustomed to standing above everyone else all this time, and they''ve be arrogant andcent."

    They would rather believe that Adam had managed to kill Subus Beth through sheer dumb luck rather than acknowledge the startling rate of his growth. This suited Adam just fine as it only benefited him to be underestimated.

    "Let''s go see what it''s like in there."

 Chapter 436: Human Farm

    <h4>Chapter 436: Human Farm</h4>

    After leaving the psychic world, Adam returned to the deathly silent real world. There was no moonlight right before dawn, so even the insects made no sound.

    "Looks like we got all of them at once."

    The fact that a trap had been set up in advance indicated that the enemy had predicted his n, which was a slight surprise to Adam, but he wasn''t overly concerned.

    There were only so many resources that he could draw upon, yet his enemies owned virtually the entire world.

    Any inte searches that he conducted would leave trails behind, and as long as his enemy wasn''t too stupid, they would be able to narrow down several potential targets for his future operations.

    Given their power and the resources they had ess to, they could''ve easily set up multiple traps, but ultimately, they had underestimated him.

    In fact, there was only that one enemy unit in the hospital, and there weren''t even any backup units.

    "Looks like they''re still just as arrogant and conceited as they were 30 years ago."

    There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes and a hint of cruelty in his smile. Adam took a nce at him, and it appeared to him that Guang Fei had thought of some rather unpleasant memories.

    "Let''s break the door open, there won''t be any more security to confront us."

    A spider leg sprang out of his back, at the tip of which was aser cutter, which burned through the electronic lock to force the door open.

    The corridor was brightly lit andpletely deserted. Adam led the way as he scanned the rooms on either side of the corridor with his life detector, quickly making his way to the end of the corridor before taking the stairs to the next level.

    They couldn''t use the elevator as it was very easy to get trapped in there, but thanks to their prosthetics, they were able to virtually fly down the stairs, reaching the bottom floor in no more than a minute.

    Sure enough, the entire hospital was essentially deserted.

    The hospital was only acting as a front for the human farm anyway, so very rarely was it actually frequented by patients.

    The two of them made their way to the surveince room, where the door was ajar, and there were two security guardsying unconscious inside. Judging from their physiques and skin tones, they were clearly military personnel who trained regrly in the wilderness.

    Adam continued to search through the hospital, while Guang Fei remained behind to examine the surveince footage, particrly looking out for blind spots, and it didn''t take long before Adam tracked down the soldiers concealed in the other rooms of the hospital.

    All of them were holding guns and wearing bulletproof vests, while the elite adapters that didn''t belong to the Komi military and the tuxedoedmander were all hiding in the underground bomb proof bunker.

    <i>They really take no chances, do they? Are they that afraid of death?</i>

    Through this observation, Adam developed an even clearer idea of the mentality of these people. They had beencent for too long and didn''t know the hardships of life. They had been wrapped in cotton wool ever since they were children, and even if they wanted to fulfill their twisted desires tomit heinous deeds, they had to do so under the protection of a bunch of bodyguards.

    Adam grabbed the ID card from the tuxedoedmander''s body, then thought about it for a moment before deciding to carry him to the surveince room.

    "I found three suspicious blind spots that were intentionally created."

    Guang Fei was clearly very experienced in this area, and he was able to pinpoint some suspicious locations in a very short time.

    After that, the two of them made their way into the basement, where signs of criminal activity were most likely to be found. There was an extremely well-disguised door at the back of the elevator, and through the use of his X-ray radar scanner, Adam determined that it had been reinforced with lead boards.

    In a normal hospital, no such measures would''ve been set up unless it was in the X-ray facilities.

    "This should be it."

    Adam grabbed onto themander''s hand before pressing it against the wall and sliding it up and down a few times. Finally, a touch screen lit up, and after fingerprint, iris, and ID examination, the doors slowly parted down the center.

    Inside was anotherrge elevator that was spacious enough to fit an entire ambnce van. After entering the elevator and pressing the on button, the elevator quickly descended for at least several dozen meters before finally stopping.

    Innread".

    Adam raised themander''s body in front of himself as a meat shield in case of unforeseen attack, and right as the elevator doors opened up, he activated his neuron transmitter once again, releasing a signal that extended as far as an entire street.

    Upon arriving in his own psychic world, Adam discovered that it waspletely deserted.

    <i>Is this entire factorypletely unmanned? </i>

    This was rather surprising to Adam. Under normal circumstances, there should''ve been many workers wearing AAA rated hazmat suits in the area. After all, no matter how intelligent machines were, they were ultimately limited by their rigid programming and were unable to deal with unforeseen changes.

    However, Guang Fei seemed to have already anticipated this, and he swaggered into the area without any qualms.

    "There''s no one here because those bastards don''t trust others to keep their secret. They know how heinous their actions are and how demanding they are to their subordinates, and they''re afraid that someone will tamper with the technology here," Guang Fei chuckled in a derisive manner.

    Adam didn''t know how to feel about this. He had seen the horrors that those people had created, he was aware of all of the illegal and immoral crimes that they hadmitted, and he had met workers who had developed mental problems from the high-stress working environments they had been subjected to.

    If any of them dared to resist or try to seek revenge, then they really would have the chance to cause massive losses for those above them if they could ess a ce like this.

    After stepping out of the elevator, Adam and Guang Fei made their way down a lit corridor that stretched for at least several hundred meters. It was deathly quiet, and despite the fact that they were underground, the air was extremely clean, abnormally so.

    The two of them made their way to the end of the corridor, and by referencing theyout of what was above them, they determined that they were situated somewhere between the hospital and the sanitarium.

    They encountered another door that required the same hand, iris, and ID card scans to open, and a red warning light lit up in silence, while cold air surged out of the gaps before spreading along the ground.

    Adam was immediately reminded of a scene that he had witnessed deep in Kim Garcia''s memories.

    He began to tremble involuntarily, as if there were something terrifying that was about to emerge from the other side of the door. He unconsciously clenched his fists so tightly that he almost crushed the bones in themander''s arm, but thankfully, he was almost dead, so he couldn''t cry out in pain.

    The door waspletely opened, revealing a spacious area that was filled with steam. A series of transparent pipes were hanging down from the ceiling, at the ends of which were orderly rows of man-made wombs.

    Tens of thousands of infants and children were sleeping in man-made amniotic fluids, and their hands and feet were asionally twitching unconscious, indicating that they were perhaps dreaming.

    Many mechanical bees were buzzing faintly as they flew through the area in an agile fashion, monitoring the conditions of all of the infants and children in the wombs.

    If they encountered any problems, they would examine the child and make some adjustments, or simply drag the child out of the womb before tossing them into a nearby tank.

    Adam shuddered violently as blinding rage and disgust surged through his heart. All he wanted was to destroy everything here, but he couldn''t do that. He forced himself to remain calm as he carefully recorded everything around him with his recording equipment.

    Even though he had already seen this ce many times in the psychic world, he didn''t want to miss even a single detail, and he wanted to ingrain this hellish sight firmly in his own mind.

    He had been born in a ce like this, and he couldn''t allow this horrific tragedy to continue any longer.

    Adam made his way over to a young boy who appeared to have been in his teens, and looking at the boy''s gently fluttering eyshes, he hesitated momentarily before taking a? deep breath and pressing a finger down onto the lid of the transparent pod right above his be.

 Chapter 437: Concrete Evidence

    <h4>Chapter 437: Concrete Evidence</h4>

    The young boy''s psychic world was filled with mist, just like the steam that permeated throughout every corner of the factory outside his pod.

    He had never seen the world, nor was he able to hear any sounds. Only through the asional rays of light that shone into his pod and some physical sensations was he able to develop some indistinct memories, forming the basis for his illusory psychic world.

    He didn''t even have a clear concept of self, only some chaotic, formless memories from his DNA inheritance.

    Adam was only able to look at the boy''s psychic world for a short while before he had to hurriedly withdraw as he could feel himself growing emotional again.

    The fluttering of the boy''s eyelids increased in frequency, and his eyeballs also began rolling around as he unconsciously stretched his arms and legs as if he were going to wake up. A warning immediately appeared on the disy screen in front of his man-made womb, and a mechanical bee quickly flew over to alter the internal conditions of the pod, such as administering sedatives to forcibly calm the boy down.

    Adam''s brows were tightly furrowed as he watched this unfold.

    These children had had their growth modted by chemical substances from birth, and their brains didn''t have a chance to properly develop, so it was no wonder that the pass rate was so low.

    However, the people behind the human farm were never short on resources, and they weren''t afraid of waste.

    The lower the pass rate, the rarer the product, and the higher the price that could be charged, so from a business perspective, this was a very good way to manipte supply.

    Adam''s jaws were growing sore from gritting his teeth, and he felt as if his chest were about to explode.

    In contrast, Guang Fei disyed no emotions at all as he explored the factory while dragging his feet behind him in a disinterested manner.

    "It''s all the same. Even if you destroy this ce, there will still be other ces like this. The world is so massive that there''s no way for you to resolve this problem in one go."

    Adam was aware of this, but it was difficult to convince himself to be rational on this matter.

    "Let''s keep carrying out the n."

    He didn''t allow himself to dwell on these thoughts any longer as he made his way into the factory''s control room, where he stuck his prosthetic AI probe into the terminal to forcibly make a copy of all of the data stored inside.

    It was all encrypted, so it came in the form of a bunch of jumbled code, but that wasn''t a problem. All he had to do was secure this information, and someone else would decrypt it for him.

    There wasn''t a lot of data, so it only took a few minutes to make a copy.

    Guang Fei took a nce at the time to find that they had already been in the factory for more than five minutes.

    "We have to leave. Otherwise, we''ll be in trouble if backup forces arrive and trap us down here."

    No matter howcent andzy the enemy was, they would eventually realize that something had happened to the ambush unit. Perhaps they already knew that something was wrong, but it was taking them time to send people over from the city.

    "Let''s get out of here."

    Adam wasn''t one to waste time, and he immediately rode the elevator back up to the hospital, which was still deserted.

    The two of them returned to the helipad on the rooftop, where they reinstalled their paragliding wings, following which Guang Fei turned on the helicopter.

    Before long, they were airborne and were flying directly toward the coastline at a low altitude.

    Almost at the exact same moment, the sound of sirens rang out in the distance, and rows of lights began to approach from the city, while a pair of armed drones flew toward the hospital rooftop.

    "These idiots are alwayste! When are they going to ever get anything done?" Guang Fei cackled as he pushed the helicopter to its top speed while weaving it through over the forest just above the branches in a perilous dance.

    Just the slightestpse in concentration would result in a crash, but he didn''t seem to have held any regard for his own life at all.

    Adam was forced to grab onto the armrest of his chair as tightly as he could to avoid being hurled out of the helicopter.

    Prior to this trip, Guang Fei''s bomb cor had been altered so that it would automatically detonate if Adam''s vital signs were to disappear, or he became too far separated from Adam. Hence, if Adam were to tumble out of the helicopter, then they would both be dead.

    Somehow, through his deranged piloting, the helicopter was able to pass through the air defense crossfire unharmed. By the time the armed drones behind them discovered them and set off in pursuit, they were already close to the coastline.

    Guang Fei abruptly tilted the helicopter upward, and it rose up several hundred meters amid the sound of a sharp and piercing rm tone. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the two of them kicked open the door before jumping out, releasing their paragliding wings as they fell through the air to allow them to fly toward the surface of the sea.

    A few secondster, the missiles fired by the armed drones struck the helicopter, causing it to explode into a fireball. A small forest fire was started as a result, and that disrupted the drones'' thermal imaging system.

    The two of them glided over the sea for about two kilometers before they were unable to maintain their altitude any longer. They ditched their paragliding wings there, following which the intable buoys in their prosthetics were filled up with air, allowing them to float on the surface of the sea.

    A short whileter, a submarine rose up from not far away, and Adam activated his rocket booster to approach the submarine with Guang Fei in tow. The cabin door of the submarine was opened, and a familiar face appeared before Adam. It was Warlock.

    "Long time no see. Looks like everything went well."

    Warlock was still a man of few words, and he pulled Adam and Guang Fei into the submarine before it quickly descended into the depths and made its way further out to sea.

    Adam didn''t expect to have been picked up by Warlock in person, and it was a clear indication that Commander was taking this coboration very seriously. However, it made sense that Commander was willing to invest more into their partnership in the wake of everything that Adam had done, and given Commander''s political power and influence, there was definitely still more that he could offer.

    Everyone remained quiet in the submarine until they were out of Komi''s territorial sea, and upon surfacing in international waters, the three of them were picked up by a seane that took them straight back to Sandrise City.

    They enjoyed a very smooth journey on the way back, and Adam and Guang Fei took the time to get some rest. By the time theynded, Cowboy was already waiting at the airport alongside Thunderbird, me, and Patriot, all of whom were armed to the teeth and had been assigned with the task of escorting Adam''s trio.

    Innread].

    Given such a formidable lineup, it was extremely unlikely for them to be attacked as the sess rate would''ve been abysmal.

    Cowboy was very excited to see the footage and copied data that Adam had secured from the human farm. This was a second resounding victory in the short span of just a few days, and it clearly showed him that they had found the right coborative partner.

    "Those bastards would''ve never expected you to catch them off guard like that."

    If things could continue like this, then the future was looking extremely bright.

    "Don''t celebrate too early. They were prepared for me, it''s just that they weren''t sufficiently prepared."

    Adam was extremely calm. In particr, after experiencing the violent emotional fluctuations from seeing the human farm in person, his mental fortitude had been strengthened even further, and his thought processes had also be sharper.

    Humans should''ve never been treated like that.

    Cowboy knew that Adam was right, but the fact of the matter was that they had secured two consecutive victories, and that was certainly cause for celebration in his eyes.

    Upon returning to their base, Thunderbird, me, and Patriot immediately sprang into action, setting up countermeasures against potential attacks.

    May had arrived in person to share the spoils as a representative of the pawn shop.

    In order to assist Adam in his operation, she had personally apanied Shae to Golden Teeth Incorporated to fight for her inheritance rights, stirring up quite a ruckus in the process. In fact, the confrontation had gotten violent, but it didn''t lead to anything, and their target, Masao Yamamoto, never showed himself, either.

    "He''s very patient. He''s not going to get swept up in our tempo unless he''s certain that he can turn the tables on us."

    May had been really eager to put on a better performance so that the pawn shop would be able to reap greater benefits.

    "It''s fine, we''ll let them sit on theirurels for now. Once we''ve set things into motions, everything will eventually snowball to the point that he''ll have no choice but to face us directly."

    Adam''s voice was filled with confidence and battle intent. The information that he had received from Doctor Edwards had already been partially organized, and he was ready to y his third card.

 Chapter 438: Taking an Unconventional Path

    <h4>Chapter 438: Taking an Unconventional Path</h4>

    In the Metaverse.

    Yet another meeting was being held in that same mysterious conference room.

    As usual, those partaking in the meeting were arguing with one another, and it seemed that they knew no other way tomunicate. However, this also seemed to have been very effective as it allowed them to cut straight to the chase rather than wasting any time with small talk.

    The civilized facade was only kept up for less than two minutes before insults began to fly in all directions.

    The table was receiving a vicious pounding from multiple fists, and it seemed that whoever made the most noise would receive the most attention.

    "What did I tell all of you? If we''re gonna go after him, then we have to make sure to take him down in one fell swoop! We yed right into his hands!"

    "Yeah, yeah, you''re always right, except for the majority of the time, when you''re dead wrong!"

    "Who was saying that they could easily take him down? He''s uncovered that entire factory, and I don''t see him suffering any consequences for it!"

    "Wasn''t he captured on all of our cameras? We can use him of trespassing on foreign territory and private property, as well as harming innocent civilians!"

    "Are you an idiot? He didn''t show his face even once in front of our cameras! How can we use him of anything?"

    "There''s no point in arguing about all of this. As I''ve always been saying, we should just find someone to take him out directly, and all of our troubles will disappear!"

    "Then go do it! All you ever do is run your mouth!"

    "This is not something for me to do on my own! Everyone has a part in this, isn''t that right?"

    "Right my arse! He''s basically holding a gun to our heads, and we''re still here arguing about whether we should get serious about all of this. When are all of you going to finally realize that he poses a serious threat?"

    "I think we should all think about how to deal with the controversy that''s surely toe from all of this. We need to minimize the damage as much as possible."

    "I should''ve never expected that all of you would be able to work together, even on the most minor of things."

    ¡­¡­

    All of the chaotic voices were arguing back and forth, and nothing constructive was being said. Finally, as everyone grew tired of arguing, and themotion began to die down, the person who had made the decisionst time opened his mouth to speak.

    "I''ll admit that I underestimated him, and I''m willing to ept culpability for half of the losses that we suffered from this failure. However..."

    He raised a hand before anyone could start speaking again, and the vicious look in his eyes silenced everyone that was about to hurl insults at him.

    p??wread].

    "However, I hope to continue to receive everyone''s support and conduct aprehensive re-evaluation of him. I also propose setting up a crisis group that''s specifically responsible for quelling all of the trouble that he causes."

    After a brief silence, 30% of the people present expressed their support of these ideas. After some more hesitation, another 20% pledged their support, and 10% were in opposition, while the remaining 40% were sitting on the fence.

    In an almost unprecedented turn of events, a proposal was approved on the first go.

    However, more arguing began to take ce over the personnel selection, leadership structure, and resource and profit distribution among the crisis group.

    Having said that, it was already quite remarkable that they had reached this point at all.

    "There''s no need to panic. Let''s think about what he could''ve possibly gotten from the factory and what consequences could arise even if he did get his hands on those things. He''ll require funds and a pathway to disseminate this information, endorsements from authority figures, and a verdict from the legal departments."

    There was no need to continue as everyone already knew what he was implying. All of the aforementioned areas were ones that they had control over.

    In their eyes, there was no way that a nk te would be able to truly threaten them, just because he had been fortunate enough to attain some psychic power.

    "Let''s see exactly what he''s going to do. I hope he takes this case to court. I''m sure Herman Glenn would love to do another 400 days ofmunity service."

    Despite the heated arguments that frequently took ce, everyone present was aware of just how much power they wielded. Essentially, they were only finding an excuse to gather together and have a chat.

    ¡­¡­

    At the election center.

    Adam''s office was very spacious, enough to fit all of the core employees working at the central hub.

    She was looking at all of the managers and assistants who were busy at work with a bored look on her face, and she was feeling quite perplexed. Did these people not know that the majority of what they were doing waspletely useless?

    "What do you n to do next? Organize another press conference to release the new evidence?"

    In her eyes, the most straightforward and effective way to proceed was to show everyone the evidence they had gathered.

    Toshiyuki Matsumara was holding the election schedule, inside of which most of the voter meet-and-greets and television interviews that he had suggested had already been canceled. ording to his past experience, this was only something that a candidate did when they were essentially giving up on their campaign, and so it was a rather strange course of action, given how well Adam''s campaign was going.

    "I suggest that no matter what type of content we decide to release, we should pace ourselves. Otherwise, the general public could easily be desensitized to frequent revtions."

    The attention of the general public was limited, and using simr things to repeatedly try and evoke emotional responses out of them could result in emotional exhaustion or even feelings of aversion.

    Ultimately, the election was nothing more than an interesting spectacle for the vast majority of people. They knew that they couldn''t decide anything, and they were only participating to give themselves some slight sense of hope.

    Adam was gently tapping the table with a mysterious smile on his face and a determined look in his eyes.

    "If everything goes ording to n, we have no chances of sess whatsoever. Hence, we need to turn to some unconventional means to shake things up. The general public doesn''t like to see monotony and repetition. Everyone is chasing the next new thing, and that''s something that we can take advantage of."

    This was a rather ambiguous sentiment, and it sounded like he had a n, but Toshiyuki Matsumara had no idea what it was. He couldn''t help but feel as if taking on this job had been a grave mistake.

    However, this was also apletely unique experience, and it seemed that taking asional detours in life like this one wasn''t a bad idea.

    ¡­¡­

    The next day, Adammenced a new operation.

    He put on his psychic police officer uniform, then assembled his team and drove toward Area 48 in an open and tant manner in his private vehicle.

    Given how massive Sandrise City was, it would''ve taken at least two hours to drive to his destination, and if he wanted to capture someone from Area 48, they would''ve had plenty of time to get away.

    Independent reporter Shivani had been invited to apany Adam, and she was very excited.

    "I thought you didn''t require my services anymore."

    Adam''s status waspletely different from in the past. At the moment, he was surrounded by an exceptional team, so she had thought that she had been made redundant.

    "Don''t underestimate yourself. In certain niche fields, you''re more influential than anyone else," Adam said in a very earnest fashion.

    "Is that so? I just want to be of help."

    Shivani was giddy with the joy of being needed, and she almost forgot to ask about the objective of this operation. Given her past experience, her opinion was that Adam''s actions were a little unconventional.

    "I made a promise to the voters, and I have to deliver. This is just a small appetizer for what''s toe."

    He didn''t directly reveal what his n was, and Shivani understood the need to keep things confidential.

    Area 48 was thergest economic central hub in Sandrise City, perhaps even the entire world.

    Following the previous world war, it had taken over the economic operations of roughly 80% of the world, and all those who had made a name for themselves there were considered to be the elite of the elite, making themparable in status to some politicians.

    Hence, as Adam and his team stormed into a skyscraper in Area 48 and shed his special psychic police officer badge at the manager inside, thetter couldn''t help but burst into incredulousughter.

    "Is this supposed to be some type of joke? Do you know what this ce is? Do you know who I am?"

    In the face of his haughty attitude, Adam wore a serious expression as he dered, "Mr. Ivan Whistler, we have sufficient evidence to indicate that you have been providing financial services to an illegal international organ smuggling organization. I''ll need you to cooperate ande with us."

 Chapter 439: Indirect Strike

    <h4>Chapter 439: Indirect Strike</h4>

    Ivan Whistler was someone who had appeared in the information given to Adam by Doctor Edwards. He was a high-level manager working at one of the world''s top three groups in the world, making him someone of an extremely lofty status in the eyes of the average person.

    However, whenpared with the true top dogs of Sandrise City, such as those who were in power in the Guild of Immortality and the consumers of the nk tes, Ivan Whistler was still only a minor character.

    He was a pawn that could be easily expended and reced.

    The entire world had already been operating under this set of rules for many years, and there were hidden mechanisms at every single stage of the process, so it was downright ludicrous for any outsider to think that they could destroy the system.

    Adam wasn''t hoping to topple the entire system through this insignificant manager. This type of naive dream was one that he had given up on long ago.

    Ivan Whistler didn''t even have the chance to resist. He knew about theplexities of Adam''s current status, and he also knew that special psychic police officers had the authority to use force if required.

    Hence, he made a call to his secretary, instructing him to find him awyer while also pondering exactly how he had been caught.

    People like him were doing unscrupulous things every single day, so their psychic worlds were severely contaminated, and the sludge anomalies lurking inside were quite a shocking sight, even for Adam.

    At the same time, they were extremely diligent when it came to matters rted to confidentiality, voluntarily applying to have certain sensitive memories erased in order to best protect themselves.

    Having one''s memories erased was definitely not a good feeling, but it was certainly a better option than death.

    As soon as Adam made physical contact with him, he felt himself space out for a few seconds, and he had no recollection of what had happened during this brief window of time, making him even more fearful.

    Who knew what types of special abilities these ursed special psychic police officers possessed?

    The entire arrest was being recorded by Shivani and official police recording equipment, and the employees of the financial group were acting as witnesses. Everything was being carried out within the boundaries of thew and standard protocol.

    By the time Adam''s convoy departed following Ivan Whistler''s arrest, the so-called crisis group that had been assembled to deal with Adam had already been alerted to the news.

    "What is he doing? He kicked up such a big fuss just to arrest some manager? Aren''t all of the financial groups providing services to the organ smuggling organizations? The entire process is meticulously cleaned up everytime, so there''s no way he''ll find any incriminating evidence."

    All of these high-level managers in Area 48 were extremely intelligent people, and they knew all the relevant legal loopholes like the backs of their hands. Furthermore, the rules that they had established had already resolved the issues concerning illegitimacy to a huge extent, so it was far too easy for them to avoid culpability.

    "This must be a bluff. He''s just doing this to try and appeal to those brainless voters and win more support for himself."

    "It''s inevitable that everyone eventually ends up being assimted once they enter politics. He''s only been a politician for a few months, yet he''s already using these political tactics to win over the voters."

    "If he hasn''t already caused far too much trouble for us, perhaps we could consider convincing him to join us. He would certainly make a good pawn."

    "We have more than enough pawns at our disposal already. Let''s just get rid of him as quickly as possible to put an end to this farce."

    ¡­¡­

    The professional analytical personnel were stillpiling all types of information, trying to predict what Adam was going to do next, but unbeknownst to them, Adam had never expected to be able to obtain anything from Ivan at all.

    The previous night, Adam had sent a message through the dark web, and he had received a reply prior to setting off.

    This was enough time for people in Shadow City to enter Sandrise City and set up an ambush on the route that Adam''s convoy had to take.

    As they emerged from Area 48 and were passing through an abandoned industrial area, an attack suddenly took ce.

    A rocketuncher took out the two cars at the front and the rear of the convoy, while countless dents were hammered into the bulletproof police vehicles by machine gun fire. At the same time, there were snipers situated at high vantage points, picking off anyone who tried to run away.

    paw?ead ].

    Shivani screamed in terror as she threw her arms around Adam''s waist while trembling uncontrobly.

    Adam''s prosthetics hade from the world''s top arms manufacturer, and all he had to do was close his helmet for his entire body to be encased in a suit of armor. Perhaps he wouldn''t be able to withstand particrly powerful armor-piercing bullets, but surviving a barrage of regr bullets was not an issue for him.

    Despite her fear, Shivan quickly sprang into action, forcing herself to sit upright again as shemenced a live stream and pointed her camera at the attackers outside, as well as Adam, who was seated beside her.

    Right at this moment, Thunderbird, me, and Patriot rolled out of their car before opening fire in retaliation, firing back at the enemy while retreating to Adam''s car to provide protection.

    This allowed the attackers an opportunity to blow up the car that Ivan Whistler was in with a rocketuncher st, and the handcuffed Ivan was sent flying out of the car before having his head blown into pieces by a sniper.

    In this dire situation, Mechguard units made a timely arrival on the scene. The armed drones fired off miniature missiles to take out the snipers, while the other Mechguard units worked with Thunderbird''s trio to take out all of the remaining attackers.

    Their identity was quickly verified, and as it turned out, they were the team of subordinates serving under Subus Beth who had escapedst time, and they hade to exact vengeance on Adam. The entire battle had been live streamed by Shivani, and the footage quickly became extremely viral.

    As a mayoral candidate who was at the height of his poprity, there was a lot of attention on Adam to begin with, and this operation had been made public knowledge thanks to the long drive that his convoy had taken to Area 48, so there were many people following its progress.

    All of the media outlets were eager to jump onto this hot story, and the footage of Adam watching fearlessly as cars exploded outside was shared countless times on the inte and used in virtually every single news story covering the incident.

    This resulted in yet another massive spike in support for him, inching him even closer to the top spot, and that still wasn''t the end.

    The dust from the battle hadn''t even settled yet before Adam emerged from his bulletproof vehicle, standing in front of the camera with his head held high as he dered, "I will fight these criminals to the bitter end, and I will never stop or back down! I won''t make anypromises, and I won''t let even a single one of them escape!"

    As he made this deration, he also took a subtle nce at the body of Ivan Whistler, which wasying on the ground with a sheet draped over it.

    The crisis group quickly caught onto this subtle nce, and they immediately arrived at a series of conclusions.

    "He had to have obtained some type of information from that manager! What they''re saying is that the attackers were subordinates to Subus Beth, but if you ask me, they were sent by someone to silence that manager!"

    "Doesn''t that mean that when he''s talking about fighting criminals, his true target is still us?"

    "I''d say that''s most likely the case."

    "Then we have to stop him! This is already the third time, we can''t keep letting him do whatever he wants!"

    The armed forces under the crisis group were quickly deployed, with some sent to important locations concerning the human and organ trafficking supply chain, while others were sent to go after Adam and the people around him.

    They weren''t necessarily going to directly try to kill him, but they were definitely going to impede his future operations.

    ¡­¡­

    The cars in the convoy were quickly reced, and Adam and the others continued the drive back.

    Inside the car, Shivani was looking at Adam with starstruck eyes. To her, he was perfect in every single way.

    However, Adam was still mulling over some other things. He had already set things into motion, and the stories that he had generated were being widely propagated by his financial backers. They weren''t afraid of chaos or even war. In fact, wars simply equated to profit opportunities for them.

    Adam was aware of this, so his uing operations were going to be even more intense, and he was going to keep pushing his luck.

    "Turn around. It''s time to initiate the next step of the operation."

    The convoy turned and began to travel toward an organization under Golden Teeth Incorporated. This was Adam''s true target.

 Chapter 440: The Kim Groupâ€™s Shady Affairs

    <h4>Chapter 440: The Kim Group¡¯s Shady Affairs</h4>

    "The Kim Group also has something to do with the illegal organ trafficking organization?"

    As the convoy drew to a halt in front of the skyscraper up ahead, Shivani was feeling both anxious and excited.

    As Adam''s first independent media coborator, she knew the story of Adam''s rise extremely well.

    In her heart, Adam was a hero, and for a hero, it was best to bepletely wless and immacte, or to only have a few minor problems that aren''t sufficient to be used as leverage against them by their political opponents. Otherwise, there was a very good chance that a chain reaction could be triggered, leading to their downfall.

    Hence, Shivani was hoping that Adam hadn''te here with the objective of exacting personal vengeance. After all, this ce was the starting point of his story, and it was also one of the focal points of all of the conflicts he had been involved in.

    Given the current level of power and influence that Adam wielded, he was certainly capable of going after the Kim Family, but he was still far away from being able to take them down.

    "No. Their criminal activity is in another area."

    Adam didn''t offer much of an exnation. Once Thunderbird''s trio had set up a perimeter, he emerged from his car, then took a moment to adjust his clothes before striding toward the entrance of the building with a series of cameras trained on him.

    This was apany that was ranked on even terms with Golden Teeth Incorporated, and neither one had power over the other. Thispany mainly focused on news distribution, and it had branches all over the entire world, making it one of the most influential news sources on the globe.

    Generally speaking, politicians would always try to maintain a close rtionship with media outlets, unless they weren''t from the same camp.

    Adam''s identity was very conflicted. Officially, he was an enemy to the Kim Family, but at the same time, he was also rted by blood to Shae Kim, the first rightful heir to the Kim Family. Hence, in the eyes of many people who didn''t know the truth, he was essentially going after his own family.

    "He''s betraying his own family for the sake of his political image! He''s gone insane!"

    This was the reaction that many people had to this live footage, and Adam wasn''t met with any resistance as he entered the building. Even the security guards in the building were staying far away from him.

    A manager quickly arrived on the scene to try and strike up a conversation in an attempt to find out Adam''s objective, but he was pushed aside without any exnation provided.

    The team stormed straight to the 10th floor.

    The Kim Media Corporation had a strict hierarchy, and the first 10 floors of the buildings housed the offices of the base-level employees, all of whom worked in cubicles where everything could be seen in a single nce. The middle 10 floors belonged to the managerial personnel, who had independent and slightly more spacious offices, but those offices still had transparent ss doors.

    Only the top 10 floors were reserved for the top coborators, supervisors, and board members. Every single one of them upied a space that was no smaller than a presidential suit, with luxurious decor and a wide view of the cityscape, highlighting their superiority over those on the lower floors.

    In fact, one had to switch to a different, independent elevator just to ess the top 10 floors, and Adam''s unannounced arrival had already stirred up some panic. As soon as they emerged on the 20th floor, they were met with a furious Tanner, who brushed off his bodyguards as he yelled, "What do you want? Shae only just came a few days ago to fight over the family inheritance. You can''t beat us, so you''re trying to use your power to sabotage us, is that it?"

    He knew that this interaction was being live streamed on various news tforms, and as one of the most important and influential news outlets in Sandrise City, there were surveince cameras everywhere in the building.

    Hence, if Adam made even a single misstep here, the entire incident would be blown out of proportion and broadcast to the entire city. If that were to happen, then Adam''s reputation would take a serious hit, perhaps even a fatal one.

    Shivani was trailing along behind Adam, looking at him with a concerned expression.

    Adam was looking straight back at Tanner with a professional smile on his face, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking or feeling.

    He raised his special psychic police officer badge as he loudly dered, "Following an investigation, we have determined that Mr. Makenna Narr of Kim Media Corporation has been using yourpany''s private world data channel to provide encryption andmunication services for an international human trafficking organization.

    ¡°This has allowed said organization to circumvent the data supervision of Sandrise City''s relevant departments andmit in excess of one million cases of human trafficking."

    Adam watched with an intrigued expression as the look on Tanner''s face took on a drastic change, and he turned to his subordinates with an incredulous expression, then gritted his teeth as he turned back to glower at Adam.

    "You better not be framing us! We''ll be sure to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter!"

    "I wee you to do so," Adam said as he tucked his badge away, then made an ushering motion with his left hand, and Thunderbird stepped forward to push Tanner aside, following which the team continued to pile into the elevator.

    On the way up, they received a report from the personnel stationed outside.

    "The target has just attempted suicide by jumping off thepany building. He was intercepted by a drone and is currently being transported back to his office."

    "Got it."

    A genuine smile appeared on Adam''s face. As it turned out, he had been right to take these precautionary measures. When push came to shove, the enemy really was willing to turn to extreme means to disrupt his operations.

    It seemed that his visit to the Kim Media Corporation waspletely random, and that there was no rhyme or reason to his operations, but in reality, it was all part of arger n.

    The enemy was far more powerful than he was, so if he allowed himself to be swept up in their tempo, then there was no way that he would ever be able toe out on top.

    Hence, he was shaking things up by being as aggressive as possible, going after every single weak link that he could find in the enemy camp.

    No one could do things without leaving any traces behind, regardless of whether it''s the Guild of Immortality or anyone else. In fact, it was often the case that these people were even more careless than the average person and would do terrible jobs of covering their trails.

    In that case, why was it that so few of them were punished for their carelessness? That was because most of the people that discovered their wrongdoingcked the ability or the courage to do or say anything, and those who did dare toe forward often didn''t have any suitable avenues to share their findings. Even if they went to the media, their stories would immediately be filtered.

    Hence, even if these people did say anything, no one would be able to hear them.

    Adam was an exception to all of this. He had the ability to secure this information, as well as the tform to disseminate it. This was all a part of his election campaign, and all he had to ensure was that he didn''t go too far.

    This time, he was still testing out the limits of what his enemies were willing to tolerate. As long as they didn''t try to stop him by force, he would continue to strike at them.

    He quickly reached the office on the 28th floor, where Tanner had already arrived from another elevator. Makenna Narr was under the custody of the Mechguard drones, and Tanner immediately erupted into a furious tirade at the sight of his sorry disy.

    "You fucking idiot! Why did you use thepany''s data channel to do something like this?!"

    In saying this, he was sparing himself and thepany of all culpability.

    Adam made his way into the office, then grabbed onto Makenna''s arm as he said in an indifferent manner, "We will investigate the truth for ourselves. In the meantime, I''ll have to ask everyone unrted to the case to leave."

    Makenna Narr knew that he wouldn''t be able to get away, so he merely sat in his chair and began tough.

    "My memories have already been cleansed, so you won''t find anything useful."

    "That''ll be up to me to decide," Adam replied in a calm voice, then immediately infiltrated Makenna''s psychic world.

    Just as Makenna proimed, his psychic world was very clean, to the point that there wasn''t even much emotional baggage that he would''ve umted during everyday life left behind. It seemed that they had worked extremely quickly, but it was exactly because of this the secret that they were hiding had been exposed.

    Deep in Makenna''s psychic world was a seed left behind by the one who had cleansed his memories.

    <i>Let me see who was responsible for this. </i>

 Chapter 441: Encountering Madam Tree Again

    <h4>Chapter 441: Encountering Madam Tree Again</h4>

    Loose ends often appeared in unexpected ces.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Just as Adam had anticipated, the more of these operations he carried out, the more his enemies would have to scramble to cover their tracks, and the more loose ends would be exposed, just like what was happening on this asion.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He hade to investigate this high-level coborator of Kim Media Corporation without any warning, and prior to this, there hadn''t been any negative press about him at all.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was only to be expected. As such an important figure in such a major news media corporation, even if some negative information were revealed about him, it would''ve been immediately discovered and filtered.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Only aftering into contact with the Dataist Union did Adam learn that all of these major news corporations had their own private bots that were constantly monitoring the world''s inte, and as soon as any sensitive words were detected, it would immediately be submitted to the processing center in an extremely fast and efficient process.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Hence, it would''ve been very difficult for anyone to suspect Makenna or wrongdoing.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam was only stuck on the 10th floor for less than a minute, yet during this brief window of time, Makenna''s psychic world had been cleansed, and there was only one possible exnation for this, which was that someone had already imnted a special seed in his mind that could forcibly cleanse his memories at any moment.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Narr''s psychic body was presented in the form of a massive octopus with hundreds of tentacles and a head that was as tall as a two-story building. It was hovering in mid-air, putting on a formidable disy.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam had seen simr psychic bodies on more than one past asion, and he knew that every single one of Makenna''s tentacles represented the control that he held.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Makenna was gleefullying waving his tentacles around as he cackled, "I already told you that you won''t be able to find any dirt on me! As soon as mywyers get involved, you''ll be forced to release me the same way you arrested me!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam paid no heed to him as he released Ogress, and it flew up into the air and explored Makenna''s psychic world for a while before returning to him.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Through his shared perspective with Ogress, he was able to see deep into Makenna''s memories, and there were some asional discrepancies, but for the most part, his memories detailed a motivational story of his rise up the ranks.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Are you impressed? I was just an ordinary person without any special background or connections, yet I was able to climb to my current position purely through my own efforts. I think I should write a book or have a movie made about me. That will be sure to resonate with countless people and be a resoundingmercial sess."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He waspletely immersed in his own psychic world, blurting out some things that he definitely would''ve never dared to say under normal circumstances.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Read the most updated version of this novel and other amazing tranted novels from the original source at [ Innread ]

    This was a clear sign that he was losing control of his own mind, and it indicated that the caution and wariness that he had meticulously curated over the course of many years was unconsciously unraveling.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This confirmed Adam''s theory, which was that the emergency cleanse had been too rough and direct, to the point that it had harmed his psyche.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Do you still recall why you jumped off thepany building?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was seemingly only a casual question from Adam, but Makenna''s psychic body shuddered upon hearing it, and it shrank down to only less than three meters in height. At the same time, most of its tentacles also instantly vanished, leaving only around a dozen left.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Why <i>did </i>I jump? I still have such a bright future ahead and so many more years of my life left to enjoy. I have so many kids who are about to start school and countless beautiful women fighting to curry my favor..."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    These errant ramblings were an instinctive reaction that came straight from Makenna''s soul, and it was something that couldn''t be erased through a simple psychic cleanse.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam already knew the answer to his question. Makenna had heard that he was about to be arrested by Adam, who had been renowned for making waves ofte, and he had immediately been ovee by panic and anxiety.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The seed nted in his mind had immediately taken effect, cleansing his incriminating memories and damaging his brain in the process while simultaneously releasing the pre-imnted psychic suggestion, leading to him unconsciously smashing open his window to jump to his death.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, there was a problem with this theory, which was that the windows of these highrise buildings were simr to bulletproof ss, so it was impossible for the average person to shatter such a window in less than a minute.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>The building''s security center has to have beenpromised. There must be tapping devices in the offices of these people, as well as remote-controlled miniature destruction devices. </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As these thoughts sprang into Adam''s mind, Makenna''s psychic body was bing more and more shriveled up, and he knew that if he were to wait any longer, there was a good chance that another case of idental death in an investigation target could take ce.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    With that in mind, he invoked Mummy and Angel simultaneously.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Ever since obtaining Angel, he had visited many retirement homes and fed it virtually all of the anomalic power that he had devoured from those institutions, returning it to the height of its powers.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Perhaps it was because he wasn''t sufficiently deranged, but under normal circumstances, Angel was only disying the power of a level eight anomaly. Its upper limit was definitely beyond the 10th level, but some form of special catalyst was required for it to fully tap into itstent potential.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even as a level eight anomaly, it was still the most powerful anomaly that Adam currently possessed, but he hadn''t used it up to this point as he hadn''t encountered any worthy opponents.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As soon as Angel appeared, Makenna''s psychic world immediately turned dark, and a majestic angelic projection appeared in the sky. The area enshrouded under the shadow of the projection''s spread wings had been cast into a special domain of judgment.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The angel was wielding a morningstar mace in its left hand, while a scale had appeared directly in front of it, and thetter was steadily absorbing psychic power from Makenna.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Good and evil, light and darkness, joy and pain... These sets of opposing extremes were being weighed on the scale.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    There was no doubt that the process of Makenna''s rise was one that was full of positive energy, but at the same time, he had also done many putrid things. At some point, good had outweighed evil in his life, but ever since he began working at Kim Media Corporation, he hadpletely lost his sense of morality, resulting in a rapid descent into depravity.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Makenna began to scream in horror and despair as it attempted to struggle free from Angel''s judgment, but to no avail. The oue of the judgment was that Makenna had to die.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    His psychic body was bing feebler and feebler, and it looked as if it could perish at any moment. Adam hurriedly intervened, preparing to withdraw Angel, but right at this moment, a green shadow abruptly emerged from the octopus''s head, transforming into a tender seedling before undergoing rapid growth.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Immediately thereafter, all of the octopus''s tentacles transformed into tree roots that plunged into the ground before rapidly absorbing nutrients from Makenna''s psychic world, allowing the seedling to grow into a massive tree in the blink of an eye.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The tree had an extremely strange appearance, and its bare canopy resembled a massive tumor, trailing down from which were hundreds of aerial roots that were swaying in the air. Countless human faces were surging over the tree, all of which had their mouths open in silence screams.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    These were most likely the projections of the human trafficking victims that were manifested by Makenna''s guilt.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>So Madam Tree is the one behind this. You really are everywhere, aren''t you? </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam couldn''t help but heave a faint sigh. What a small world this was.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Then again, this was only to be expected. Herman Glenn was responsible for the transportation of nk tes, which was another form of human trafficking, which was an illegal industry that the Kim Group had direct participation in, so it made sense that they were connected.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As the strange tree continued to grow rapidly in power, it seemed to have noticed Angel''s domain, and it suddenly let loose a strange roar, following which the head of Makenna''s psychic body split open to release a jet of putrid ck liquid.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Those who have sinned must be punished!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    An authoritative voice rang out in the air, and countless ck feathers came fluttering down, forming a shield that intercepted the jet of ck liquid. The explosion from the resulting impact formed a giant ck hole that almost sucked in Mummy in the blink of an eye.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 442: The First Wave of Attacks

    <h4>Chapter 442: The First Wave of Attacks</h4>

    Adam plunged his bandages into the ground to prevent himself from being sucked into the ck hole.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The nature of Makenna''s work allowed him to wield the massive power and influence of the media, and he could elevate someone''s reputation to the heavens, but could also just as easily plunge them into the depths of hell.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    For those who were targeted by the manufactured smear campaigns, the immense pressureing from all directions really could feel like a bottomless ck vortex, and once one became swept up in the vortex, there was virtually no chance for escape or redemption.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    All of a sudden, the monstrous tree waved its aerial roots through the air before piercing them viciously toward Angel.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Those roots were enveloped by countless different faces, each of which represented a person''s psychic imprint. Each psychic imprint only contained a tiny amount of power, but when stacked together, it presented an extremely formidable force.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even though Adam knew it was all fake, he still couldn''t help but feel furious at this disgusting sight.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Not only had this bastard assisted the human trafficking organization in destroying the lives of countless people, he was now using those very same people to protect himself.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    It was just like in many criminal cases, where some defensewyers tantly used the information about the victim that the defendant was privy to in order to get them a lighter sentence or acquit them altogether, and they were sessful in many cases.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Simrly, this seed had used Makenna''s memories as its own ability to tantly provoke Adam, challenging him to see if he could bear the prospect of destroying the final imprints left behind by the unfortunate victims.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, she had misjudged Adam.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After visiting so many retirement homes and seeing the pain and suffering those elderly residents had to endure, his heart was already as hard as a rock, and he could no longer be shaken by these illusions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even if these were real psychic imprints, the best course of action would be to put them out of their misery.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Hence, Angel began to pass down its judgment. It waved its staff gently through the air, destroying all of the faces on the aerial roots and transforming them into countless feathers that were absorbed into its enormous wings.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I will bear their pain and exact vengeance in their stead. I will uphold justice for them and pass judgment on all those who have wronged them!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was the most earnest conviction that Angel was conveying to Adam.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The monstrous tree clearly hadn''t anticipated something like this, and it was rooted to the spot.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Immediately thereafter, Angel''s morningstar mace came crashing down, and it was as if a bolt of ck lightning had exploded in the air as the giant mace almost shattered the monstrous tree into countless pieces. <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Angel''s unique power of judgment infiltrated the monstrous tree, causing it to lose its vibrant green coloration, and it quickly turned rotten and gray before vanishing altogether.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The monstrous tree reverted back into its octopus form, and it was only around a meter tall at this point, having been reduced to an extremely feeble state where it was unable to put up any further resistance.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "You thought you were a big shot, but in the eyes of those above you, you''re nothing more than a pawn that could be sacrificed at any time."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam knew that the power in the seed imnted in Makenna''s psychic body was very weak, significantly weaker than the power imbued in Herman''s seed, so it was clear that Makenna hadn''t been taken seriously at all. Otherwise, even with Angel''s powers, there was no way it would''ve won so easily.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After leaving the psychic world and returning to the real world, Adam discovered that Makenna looked as if he had had the soul sucked out of him. He was staring directly forward with a nk look in his eyes, and his entire body was slumped in his chair like a pile of mud.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    At this point, Makenna had realized what had happened to him, and the realization that he had been nothing more than a dispensable pawn all along hadpletely crushed his will.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam waved a hand gesturing for Makenna to be taken away, and a sense of relief welled up in Tanner''s heart as he observed the soulless Makenna in secret from outside.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>He''spletely dead inside, I''m sure they won''t be able to interrogate anything out of him. </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As long as the shady dealings of the Kim Group weren''t exposed, he wouldn''te under any fire. As for whether Makenna lived or died, he couldn''t care less.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The convoy set off once again, and all of the major media outlets had a new story to report on.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Before the dust had even settled from the earlier attack, Adam had immediatelymenced his quest for vengeance, and his first target had been the vastly renowned Kim Group.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This type of directness and decisiveness was like a breath of fresh air in the political sphere, and many people were regarding him as a true hero and role model, resulting in another small spike of praise and support.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Inside the office of the election center, Toshiyuki Matsumara was holding a cup of coffee as he watched the constantly climbing figures with a faint smile on his face.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "We only just agreed yesterday not to give the general public too many shocks in session, yet you''ve already changed your mind. Young people really are unpredictable. Fortunately, the oue seems to be pretty good."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As long as he could assist Adam in running a sessful campaign, he would be able to add another feather to his cap.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, a hint of concern then appeared in his eyes. Given the frequency and brutality of Adam''s operations, it was surely only a matter of time before he was met with forceful retaliation from the opposition.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Otherwise, it would''ve been far too boring if Adam were just allowed free rein to do whatever he wanted with no bacsh.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Sure enough, it didn''t take long before a statement was made by the other candidate, Clyde, but instead of condemning Adam''s actions, he was full of praise for Adam''s heroism.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Personally, I deeply admire Mr. Adam for his work. The world needs a brighter future, one that is fairer and more orderly, and any actions taken against criminals should be supported anduded."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This statement was met with much opposition from his own campaign team, but Clyde was determined to remain true to himself and refused to retract his statement.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam''s team finally returned to the election center, much to the relief of the crisis group that was observing him from the shadows.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    They weren''t concerned that he would arrest more people or stir up more controversy, they simply didn''t want to deal with all the trouble that came from his actions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Furthermore, they were finding it more and more difficult to predict Adam''s next move.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>Could it be that he doesn''t even have a long-term n and is just simplyshing out at whoever he feels like?</i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was a thought that was beginning to ur to many people in the crisis group, and it did match the profile that they had on him.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He was a nk te who had only been "alive" for a very short time, so how mature could he possibly be? Would he have had enough time to form aplete set of values and ethics?<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    It didn''t seem possible.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As a result, the notion that Adam was simply carrying out his operations at random quickly became the more widely epted theory, but there were also some who disagreed and were of the opinion that further observation was required to formte an educated conclusion.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam certainly wasn''t going to allow them any respite. From the moment that he set things into motion, he had already decided that he was going to make consecutive strikes without giving the enemy any chance to recuperate or catch their breath.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He didn''t know how much longer he had left to live, so he had to make the most of every single day. By the time he returned to the election center, it was still before nighttime, and under normal circumstances, he would''ve taken some time to organize what he was going to do the next day, but instead, he immediately called for another press conference.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Many disgruntled journalists were forced to flock to the election center, but Shivani had gotten there ahead of all of them, having apanied Adam back to the election center. The press conference was held right before nightfall, and Adam cast a tall and unyielding figure under the lights.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He raised the remote in his hand, and a series of images that appeared as if they had been captured from a ughterhouse were projected. However, instead of animals, the pictures depicted living human beings who were having their organs extracted.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 443: The Insane Truth

    <h4>Chapter 443: The Insane Truth</h4>

    These were scenes that the average person would''ve never been able to see.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Some had seen simr photographs on the dark web or scenes of this nature in horror films, but everyone knew that those were all fake.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, this was real!<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam wouldn''t risk his political career by presenting counterfeit images like these, and the fact that he had held such an urgent press conference on such short notice indicated that he definitely had some "explosive" content to release.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, no one was expecting things to ramp up so quickly, and many of the journalists weren''t mentally prepared for what they were seeing. Some of them were rubbing their eyes as they inspected the location, date, and time attached to the photographs to ensure that they were actually recent images.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    A few of the female reporters couldn''t help but rush away and begin throwing up in horror and disgust.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I went sightseeing therest year! It looked so calm and peaceful, how could something like this have happened there?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What the hell is this? I don''t think I''m going to be able to eat anything for the next few days!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Damn it, I''m going to have nightmares for weeks!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Oh no, I''m gonna throw up again..."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The entire scene was plunged intoplete chaos, and countless people across Sandrise City were astonished by the terrifying images that they were seeing on the live broadcasts.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    They would rather believe that these were images taken from some horror movie than ept it as reality. A reporter raised a valid question, asking Adam what type of criminal would be so foolish as to take these self-incriminating photographs.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam replied in a calm manner, "These photographs were requested by the clients. They want to see the goods that they ordered, and they want to see the entire extraction and transportation process to ensure that their goods aren''t tampered with."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    .

    "That''s disgusting! Who would do something so heinous and inhumane?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Despite the questions that they were raising, they already believed what they were seeing.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In the present day and age, there was a vast number of high-end consumers, and from many years ago, there were already simr tracking services for vegetables and different types of animal meats, allowing the consumer to see the entire process from the birth of their food, all the way until it reached their tes.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was a type of service that had be more and more prevalent, but no one could''ve ever imagined that it would be used on human organs!<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The reporters were horrified, and they couldn''t help but imagine what it would be like if they were in the ce of the victims disyed in the photographs.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After a brief moment of stunned silence, all of the reporters raised their hands and began yelling their questions at Adam.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam remainedpletely silent, looking down at them with a cold expression.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After about two minutes ofmotion, all of the reporters quickly fell silent. They could feel a sense of asphyxiation from the pressure emanating from behind the lectern.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>What a sharp expression! </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Countless viewers were also feeling a sense of pressure from Adam''s hawk-like gaze through their screens.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Meanwhile, Shivani and some female viewers were staring at Adam with intoxicated, starstruck expressions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Finally, a reporter raised their arm again before stating their question.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Mr. Adam, would you be able to provide some names of clients using this service, even just a single name will do!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    These images of the production process alone weren''t enough to present a cohesive story. Many of the reporters present nodded in agreement, and instead of answering the question, Adam pressed a button on his remote to switch to a different photograph, which many of the reporters quickly identified as Congressman Johnson.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Not long ago, Adam had sessfully taken down Subus Beth, exposing the secrets that Congressman Johnson had been hiding in the process. A whole host of incriminating evidence had been dug up, further adding to Adam''s list of aplishments as a mayoral candidate and special psychic police officer.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The crowd was abuzz once again, but this wasn''t exactly an unexpected oue.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Only those who possessed immense power or wealth were in a position to be able to enjoy these inhumane services and satisfy their insatiable greed.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "But ording to my knowledge, the heart used in Congressman Johnson''s heart transnt surgery was secured through legal pathways!" a reporter yelled.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Unless I''m mistaken, Congressman Johnson hasn''t been implicated for any crimes of this nature, are we supposed to just take your word for it?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Could it be that you''ve made a mistake, Mr. Adam?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Maybe he''s trying to aplish some type of objective by doing this."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    There were always reporters who felt as if they were more intelligent than everyone else and strove to think outside the box, but then again, this was indeed a very real possibility.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After a while, all of the reporters noticed that Adam was making no effort to exin himself, and they immediately stopped speaking to hear what Adam had to say.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Only then did Adam switch to a third image as he said, "More than one heart was prepared for Congressman Johnson''s transnt surgery. All of you saw the one that was obtained through legitimate means, but there was another illegally obtained heart that arrived roughly 10 minutester." <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This footage depicted Mechguard units intercepting a mechanical bee belonging to a certain courierpany. The insted box was opened at the scene, and the heart inside was still beating.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Let me add something here: this heart was one that was one that was extracted on a provisional basis after Congressman Johnson''s surgery had alreadymenced."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This deration immediately triggered another wave ofmotion, both among the reporters at the scene and the viewers at home.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "That''s terrifying!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "That ce isn''t even that far away from where I live!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "How could they do this?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Many people were truly horrified by this revtion.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Most of the people living in Sandrise City were under immense pressure, but as long as they worked hard, there was alway a way to get by.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As long as one remained alive, there was always hope. However, there were people being butchered right under their noses, just to have their organs extracted to satisfy the needs of the rich and the powerful. Was there still justice in this world?<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "This is insane! I would''ve never imagined something like this happening so close to me."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "No wonder there are so many disappearance cases each year. This is why!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What''s most terrifying is that I haven''t seen any reports on this matter at all prior to this. They''ve managed to conceal all of this extremely well!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "How much power is required to conceal something so terrifying?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone''s emotions were running rampant in the wake of this revtion.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "My nephew needed a heart transntst year, and he was told that he would have to wait for at least three years, but there''s no way he can wait that long," a reporter suddenly said. "Later, someone called us telling us that they can secure a heart for him through an alternative pathway, but the asking price was far too expensive for us to afford, so they rmended that we take out a loan from a certain financepany. It''s the exact samepany that the bastard Mr. Adam arrested today was working at!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    All of a sudden, all of the clues were lining up.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Certain needs couldn''t be met through legitimate pathways, so people were coaxed into pursuing illegal pathways. It seemed that the rmendation to take out a loan with a financepany was for their own good, but in reality, these people were being encouraged to take out loans that they would never be able to repay and ve away until the day they died!<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "This is disgusting!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "How could they do something like this? Are they still even human?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "You think those working in finance still have any shred of humanity left? There are far too many simr examples of this."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What happened to your nephew? Did you end up taking out the loan?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "No. He died not long ago, and he donated all of his healthy organs. Now that I think about it, could that have been a ruse as well?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The reporter couldn''t help but feel extremely paranoid and cynical. In this day and age, it seemed that there were trapsid everywhere for the average person, and it was truly a horrible way to live.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The same thoughts were resonating with countless viewers watching the live broadcasts.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    A technician in the crisis group removed his sses as he turned around and asked, "Should we intervene, Sir?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 444: No One is Safe

    <h4>Chapter 444: No One is Safe</h4>

    On the screen in front of him was a remote inte control terminal, and all he had to do was press down the eye-catching red button to cause an inte service disruption.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The disruption could be aimed at the inte service of a single building, or it could target the inte signal of an entire area, including all wired and wireless connections.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The giants in the technology sector had already infiltrated all electronic devices soprehensively that they could monitor a person''s every move through both software and hardware, thereby allowing them to control discourse.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    All that was required now was for the technician to tap a key on his keyboard, and all of the live broadcasts of Adam''s press conference would instantly be taken offline.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, if they were to do something like that, then they would have to prepare a scapegoat to ept the consequences, so a supervisor was required to make this decision.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    A young man in a suit was standing behind the technician with his arms crossed, calmly looking at the big screen off to the side. A derisive sneer appeared on his face at the sight of Adam''s face on the screen.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "There''s no need to hurry. The spices have to be poured in right before the soup is served in order to create the best vor."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The content that Adam had released was enough to stir up the emotions of the general public for a while, but it would only take a few days before everyone''s attention was drawn to new headlines, and before long, all of this would''ve been forgotten.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    So what if they knew about the illegal organ trafficking organization? They weren''t the ones who called the shots in this world. The technician understood this well, and he removed his finger from the keyboard.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    If possible, he would prefer to avoid having to tap the button at all.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He turned to look at the screen as well, and a hint of sympathy appeared in his eyes toward the tender and naive mayoral candidate.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He had no idea exactly what type of people he was messing with. He thought that this world was a reasonable ce, but he had no idea what true power was.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>Enjoy your freedom while you still can, because there''s not much time left for you. </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    At the site of the press conference, Adam cast his gaze into the distance<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    There were countless pairs of eyes trained on him from within the darkness, and those eyes were filled with fury and resentment. Perhaps the owners of those eyes had already sharpened their knives and would stab him to death at the first avable opportunity.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>As long as you don''t retaliate, I''ll continue to expose more and more of the filthying beneath the surface. Let''s see how much longer you can keep this up! </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The sounds of conversation between the journalists and the cries of surprise from those watching the live broadcasts continued to ring out for several more minutes before gradually dying down.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam raised his right hand and clenched it into a tight fist as he dered with a resolute expression, "I promise to all of you that I will dig up all of the underground organ harvesting factories in this city. I will capture those criminals and make them face the legal punishment that they deserve!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    His deration was met with earnest, thunderous apuse.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Reporters knew far more about the dark side of the world than the general public, and thus, they were more concerned about their own family members falling prey to this darkness. However, the cheering and apuse had only just begun to subside when a reporter raised a question that was being discussed by many on the inte.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Mr. Adam, how did those people gain ess to the information of the victims? Matching has to take ce in advance before an organ transnt, isn''t that right?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "That''s true. Mismatching organs could be rejected, so surely it''s not that easy to match organs with recipients."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone''s attention was drawn to the question, and they were all waiting eagerly for Adam''s response, but Adam merely pressed on the remote control again to switch to yet another image.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Many of the reporters unconsciously tensed up in anticipation for what they were about to be shown next.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    They wanted to see more shocking content, but at the same time, they were afraid that they would be shown something even more horrific than what they had seen thus far, and it was a very conflicted feeling.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The next projected image was aplex rtional graph, and everyone was initially slightly relieved to see something that didn''t present quite as much as a visual shock, but their relief was quickly reced by shock and rm as they began to inspect the graph.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "My god, look how manypanies and organizations are involved!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Those so-called non-profit organizations and free vination and free medical examination initiatives... It''s all a ruse!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Are they insane? How could they do something like this?!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I just want this to be a nightmare so I can wake up and have it all be over. My son just went to one of those hospitalsst week for a medical examination. My god..."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Every single grid on the graph contained the name or acronym for an organization, beside each of which was an annotation in red text, denoting the organization''s position in the entire human organ supply chain.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    These organizations collected blood, sperm, and egg samples from expecting couples even before children had been born, then searched for rtively perfect specimens through DNA cultivation and meticulous biochemical analysis before cataloging those specimens and tracking them.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The results of every single pregnancy checkup of those children would be secretlypiled into a data subset before being sent to aprehensive analysis center, such as the subsidiary scientific research unit under the Ark Learning Children''s Fund.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    If those children that had been cataloged multiple times were sessfully conceived, then samples of their blood and umbilical cords would also be lodged into databases before undergoing detailed analysis in thousands of criteria to find the most suitable recipients for the organs of those children.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    These children formed the reserve "organ donors" list, and if required, they would be persuaded to donate their organs or be illegally abducted to be organ donors.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    To make matters even worse, this was only the beginning of the entire chain.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    What was even more terrifying was that during the growth of those infants, they would be rmended certain supplements to ensure that as they grew up, they would develop physical qualities that fit the needs of certain organ recipients, ensuring that the functionality of their organs weren''t diminished due to injuries or illnesses.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    For those unfortunate families, there were countless pairs of eyes constantly scrutinizing them in every single aspect of their lives.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    From the very beginning, those people were regarded as walking spare organ banks for certain important figures, having to sacrifice themselves at a moment''s notice to save their organ recipients.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, these people werepletely unaware of this, working hard every single day only for the benefit of others. This wasplete and utter exploitation.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even before these people were born, their lives didn''t belong to them, and they could only enjoy an illusion of freedom.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Inparison, organizations like the Compassion Company that dealt with nk te selection were only a tiny part of the entire chain.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Some of the reporters wanted to say something, but they had no idea what to say.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    There were hundreds of organizations on the graph, and every single one of them was like a sharp sword plunged straight through their chests, leaving them at aplete loss for words.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    An extremely rare few seconds of silence was observed on the inte. <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The information that Adam had just uncovered concerned virtually every single aspect of society. All medical organizations could''ve been involved in this process at some point, whether intentionally or inadvertently, and every single person ran the risk of being on the reserve organ donors list without their knowledge.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After those several seconds of silence, the intepletely erupted. Almost all chat rooms instantly reached full capacity, and some smaller tforms crashed due to the extreme influx of visitors.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    wread .

    Countlessments were appearing by the second, and screen captures of the rtional graph were being shared over and over again, while inte searches for the organizations on the graph spiked dramatically.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The technician in the crisis group was looking at the frozen screen, and his arms were raised up high as he dered, "It wasn''t me."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 445: Silenced

    <h4>Chapter 445: Silenced</h4>

    "I know," the young man in the suit replied, and there was a hint of tion in his voice, as if he were seeing something that was worthy of celebration.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was very confusing to everyone else present, and one of them asked, "Aren''t some of those organizations owned by your family? Why are you so happy about this?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Are you celebrating this because your brother is overseeing those organizations, and you want to see him fail? Then again, if I were in your ce, I would be thinking the exact same thing!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The core members of this so-called crisis group had been selected through various avenues, and they were all either direct descendants of the important figures in Sandrise City, or elite personnel in their respective fields.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Of course, these direct descendants were quite far down the line in the inheritance hierarchy. All of the most exceptional young members of those families would''ve already been running family businesses, rather than being assigned to a project with a very high risk of failure.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even so, they were still of a far higher status than the average person, able to ess far more resources and power than just about anyone else.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The young man ignored their jibes as he stroked his own chin with a thoughtful expression and remarked, "He''s still too young and too eager for results. If he had ended the press conference just now, it would''ve been a great move on his part. This story would remain in the public eye for at least a week, and that would be enough to maintain his poprity and boost his rate of support." <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What do you mean? Isn''t it better for him to release as much shocking content as possible?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The young man''spanions were rather perplexed by this assessment. Opportunities like this were very difficult toe by, and if they had been in Adam''s shoes, they would''ve taken full advantage as well.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "That''s why all of you were sent here, and I''m the one assigned with the task of calling the shots," the young man replied with a derisive sneer on his face, as if he were looking at a bunch of feral animals.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone was enraged by this insult, but they didn''t dare to physically retaliate.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "All of you are only looking at what''s on the surface. You think that satisfying the curiosity of the general public without constraint is the way to win more support, but have you considered that this is an alternative form of intimidation?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    By nature, humans were more inclined to avoid danger and challenges rather than face them head-on.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Everyone has been able to live up to this point as they know how to lie to themselves when necessary. They would rather live in the nest of lies that they had woven for themselves rather than have to face the harshness of reality. All of you think that showing them the truth is an act of kindness, but in reality, it only inflicts more pain upon them, and they''ll only resent you for it, rather than feel grateful."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone fell silent after hearing the young man''s assessment of the situation, and he raised a finger as he continued, "The biggest mistake that he made in all of this is getting so many organizations involved at once. In the wake of this press conference, I presume many of his backers are going to be cutting ties with him."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Just as the young man anticipated, right as the entire inte was abuzz from thetest headlines created by Adam, a phone call came in from Kevin Reed''s secretary, demanding an exnation.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even Cowboy was about to intervene at some point during the press conference, but he was stopped by Wax Figure, who had a look of approval in his eyes as he said, "There''s no need to step in. Give him a bit more trust and patience. He knows what he''s doing."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "But we didn''t give him that information, and the information provided by the pawn shop wasn''t thatprehensive, either. On top of that, we know the oues of his past few operations, so there''s an extremely good chance that this is all just a massive bluff, and that''s a very dangerous way to do things."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Cowboy was very familiar with the game of politics, and he knew that you could lie all you want, so long as you weren''t caught.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The graph that Adam had released had extremely far-reaching consequences, and it could''ve easily been debunked.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Wax Figure offered no further response, and Cowboy could only forcibly suppress his unease as he continued to observe the unfolding situation.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Meanwhile, at the pawn shop, May was also grumbling under her breath about how Adam was going to be to the death of her, but she was also choosing to observe the situation.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    At the press conference, Adam remained calm and collected, paying no heed to Kevin Reed''s demands for an exnation. Instead, he merely waited in silence for themotion to die down. It was true that he didn''t have the information to back up this graph. The information that he had collected thus far wasn''t anywhere near sufficient to implicate all of the organizations on the graph.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    During his previous coboration with Raven, he had obtained some information from CEO Chen Yiran and someone else from the Compassion Company, but that had only been part of the picture.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After using this information to create a primary database, he generated the rtional graph using AI, and to his surprise, many of the gaps were automatically filled in to form aplete information chain.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The provider of the information had only left a single remark: "Well done. Keep it up, and be more aggressive."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This unknown helper was unfathomably powerful, seemingly both omniscient and omnipotent at the same time. Instead of verifying this information, Adam chose to use it right away. He was taking a gamble, and at this point, it was difficult to say whether it had paid off or not.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The peak of the inte congestion quickly passed, and the live broadcasts resumed.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Over 10 minutes had passed since the live broadcasts went offline, and the atmosphere of panic and horror had subsided a little. <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone looked on as Adam switched to another image in his projection.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was an image captured by a Mechguard unit from an operation that Adam had undertaken a few days ago.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The image depicted the true body of Subus Beth, who was a tall and rugged middle-aged man.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In the face of everyone''s puzzled expressions, Adam pressed down on his remote control again, and the other half of the image appeared, presenting an extremely seductive woman.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "These two are the same person."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone was even more perplexed upon hearing this.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The two people in the image couldn''t have been more different. There wasn''t even a single point of simrity between them, and everyone couldn''t help but wonder if Adam was tantly lying.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In the face of all of this doubt and confusion, Adam pointed at himself as he asked, "Does anyone know how I came into this world?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone looked at each other with befuddled expressions. What kind of question was this? Surely he had to have been born into this world like everyone else... Right?<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In the crisis group, the young man in the suit was leaning in closer to the screen with tightly furrowed brows, watching intently to see what Adam was going to say next.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I am a nk te, a reserve body with its memories wiped so that it can be upied by someone else."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He zoomed in on the real-life body of Subus Beth as he continued, "This man was also a nk te who had his body taken over by someone else."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As soon as this deration was made, the young man in the suit immediately ordered, "Stop him!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The technician tapped the "enter" key forcefully, and the audio of all of the live broadcasts of the press conference suddenly turned into a mechanical beeping sound, making it impossible to hear what Adam was saying.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Immediately thereafter, all of the live broadcasts suddenly turned dark, and all of the inte signals had been disrupted.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What''s going on?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Who cut off the transmission for the live broadcasts?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Can anyone figure out what Mr. Adam said at the end there?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Damn it, I knew things wouldn''t be so simple! Someone''s trying to stop him from revealing the truth!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Meanwhile, the young man in the suit heaved a faint sigh of relief, but it then instantly urred to him that something wasn''t quite right.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 446: Two Battlefields

    <h4>Chapter 446: Two Battlefields</h4>

    "Nice!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Ha! Let''s see how you''re gonna keep running your mouth now!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "No one''s ever challenged our authority and seeded!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "That victory was far too easy toe by, but it''s still worthy of celebration. I''m gonna go pop some champagne and find some chicks for a bit of fun. Does anyone want to join me?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone else was already celebrating, yet a grim look had appeared on the young man''s face.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He continued to stare intently at the screen, as if he were trying to see something in it.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The technician raised his hands up high as he said in a slightly panicked manner, "I was only following your instructions, Sir! I did nothing wrong!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The young man shook his head in response.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I can''t shake the feeling that things aren''t so simple. His expression was tooposed."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The technician immediately pulled up the final image of the live broadcast, then zoomed into Adam''s face, and sure enough, his expression was still the same as when the press conference first began.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Maybe he''s just a good actor. He''s a mayoral candidate, so he has to have some acting skills."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Exactly. I see no problems, let''s get out of here."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The others were itching to leave, but the young man stopped them without a second thought.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "No one is allowed to leave until I get to the bottom of this. I don''t want to have to repeat myself."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Everyone could tell that he was serious, and they reluctantly stopped in their tracks, but they certainly weren''t happy about this.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The young man paid no heed to them as he carefully pondered exactly what the problem was.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Meanwhile, the press conference had descended intoplete chaos. Not only had the live broadcasts on the inte been taken offline, the microphones at the scene had been forcibly shut down as well, so only those who were closest to him could hear him, but their recording devices were only registering static.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "They''ve gone too far!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "They''re not even allowing him to speak the truth! He''s being deprived of his freedom of speech! Is this how arrogant and conceited they''ve be?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Did you only just figure that out? When have you ever seen a truly important figure being punished for their crimes? At the very most, all they ever get is a p on the wrist!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Mr. Adam, Mr. Adam, can you repeat what you just said?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam took a nce at the projection, which had also been shut off, and at this point, the fact that the enemy had taken such tant measures to silence him meant that it didn''t matter whether he repeated himself or not.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He had alreadypleted his objective, and saying anything further would''ve only had a detrimental effect. Hence, he didn''t utter a single word as he raised his right hand and clenched it into a tight fist, then turned to depart.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After returning to his office, the first thing that he did was return Kevin Reed''s call. Kevin quickly answered the call in person, and he praised, "You cut off the live broadcast at just the right moment. That was very well done of you."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He had already captivated the curiosity of the general public, and there was no need to reveal the rest. All that was left to do was to let the people find out the rest on their own, and that would leave a far more poignant and credible impression than simply revealing everything.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam didn''t attribute this to himself, candidly admitting that it was an unnned ident.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Ah yes, yes, that''s what they all say. My dear Adam, you''ve done 10 times better than I anticipated. Keep forging ahead, and don''t worry about anything."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What if the secrets that I reveal may hinder certain arrangements that you''ve made?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Someone like Kevin Reed would''ve definitely purchased a nk te for himself, and Adam didn''t directly articte this, but the implications behind his words were very apparent.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Kevin Reed burst intoughter upon hearing this.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "You don''t have to worry about that at all. What we''re most focused on are business profits and maximizing our return on investment into you. In contrast, the costs that you inflict upon us are downright negligible."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Ultimately, arms dealers were still capitalists, and they also abided by the mantra that money reigned supreme above all else.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Compared with immortality, they were more interested in attaining more control over the world. As long as they had sufficient control, there would always be more opportunities and pathways to satisfy their needs.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam expressed his gratitude before ending the call, and a grim look appeared on his face. From that conversation, it was clear to Adam that he was still far from making his opposition truly bleed.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>I have to take things up a notch. </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam clenched his fists tightly, and his fingernails dug into the palms of his hands to produce a sharp pain.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The fallout from the press conference was still ongoing, and the widespread inte outages infuriated the general public even further, with many people swarming to all types of tforms to vent their emotions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, there were barely any reports of the event from all of the mainstream media outlets. In particr, the final image that was disyed was said to have been lost due to technical reasons.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was the impact of just a single tap of a button from the crisis group. The people behind the crisis group were so powerful that they could easily silence a top mayoral candidate, and in their eyes, this was a regtion victory, but to the general public, this hade as a huge shock that had allowed them to see the world more clearly than before.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Many people chose to cower, following which a conspiracy theory emerged before spreading like wildfire.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The crisis group had invested an enormous amount of resources in promoting the conspiracy theory that Adam had fabricated all of the content released during the press conference. In doing so, he was intentionally causing controversy and panic in order to increase support for himself.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Many people who blindly followed all of the headlines that they read were beginning to doubt whether Adam had indeed been telling the truth, and there were even rumors going around that all of the organizations on the rtional graph were going tounch a jointwsuit against Adam.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This enormous wave of new information drowned out all rational thought, and it wouldn''t be long before all of Adam''s efforts were canceled out.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Right at this crucial juncture, a certain tech wiz was able to restore the audio of thest part of the press conference.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    With that came another wave of controversy, and the inte erupted into discourse once again.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam waspletely stunned when he saw the restored footage for himself. Some of the restored audio contained information that he hadn''t articted at all. Due to the fact that the final part of the live broadcasts had been cut off, no one knew exactly how long he had spoken for after the inte outage, and the memories of everyone at the scene were quite muddled and chaotic due to the rampant emotions at the time. <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Many of the reporters who were at the scene immediately corroborated the restored footage.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Yes, that''s exactly what Mr. Adam said at the time."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "No wonder the live broadcasts were cut off, the list of names and organizations that he brought up is way too terrifying!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Not only have they silenced him, they''re nowunching smear campaigns against him as well! The power of the upper ss is matched only by its shamelessness!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The tide of public opinion was swung once again in Adam''s favor, and he had to capitalize on this temporary advantage to make even further progress.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam wasn''t wasting his time thinking about who had given him such a massive helping hand at this crucial juncture. Instead, he had to take advantage of this brilliant opportunity to continue to strike at the enemy.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    A few dayster, Adam and his team set off once again.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This time, there were countless more pairs of eyes watching his every move. Support was no longer an issue for Adam. Instead, the most important thing was for him to secure the required evidence to back up his bold ims.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Hurry up! Get all of this equipment out of here. Leave the other stuff behind, we have to be out of here in 10 minutes!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Hidden inside a dpidated old car factory in Area 9 was a well-equipped medical center, and at this moment, there were hundreds of people busy at work, loading the expensive equipment in the medical center into container trucks.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Meanwhile, Adam''s convoy was closing in from no more than five kilometers away.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 447: Eradicating the Den of Demons

    <h4>Chapter 447: Eradicating the Den of Demons</h4>

    This secret medical center had already been operating for a very long time, and thanks to the deserted nature of Area 9, an illegal organ harvesting operation had been taking ce in the medical center in a brazen and unrestrained manner. The medical center had imed tens of thousands of victims, generating immense profits in the process.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Initially, people were oblivious to the existence of this ce due to the live broadcasts being cut short, but this location was mentioned in the "restored" footage that had suddenly popped up, and an order was immediately passed down to transfer the medical center elsewhere.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, the medical center had already been here for many years, and it was not so easy to transfer away.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "They''reing too fast! I don''t think we''ll be able to move everything in time."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    A man wearing a camouge uniform was standing atop a rusty metal tower, watching the approaching convoy through a telescope. A cold look shed through his lone eye as he turned his gaze down below.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Don''t worry about the medical staff, it doesn''t matter to us in the slightest whether they live or die. Our priority is to get the databases out of here."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Got it, Boss."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "But Boss, how are we going to get away? The Mechguard units are already closing in, and there are too many of them for our jammers to deal with."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Focus on getting the databases out of here and leave that for me to deal with."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The man pulled out an old satellite phone as he spoke, then pressed a button before delivering a cold ultimatum.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I don''t care who you are, if I don''t see reinforcements in five minutes, I''m leaving everything behind and getting out of here. You can deal with the consequences!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    After delivering the ultimatum, he crushed the satellite phone into pieces with his mechanical prosthetic right hand before hurling it against the ground.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "All these bastards do is hide in the shadows and bark instructions at us. They don''t care at all if we live or die!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The man picked up a 25mm sniper rifle from the ground while grumbling to himself, then set its barrel on a gap in the rusty metal tower as he observed the approaching lead car in the convoy through the scope on the rifle.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In a secret base in the city, an operator of the crisis group raised his hand.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The young man in the suit nodded in response, and a cold smile appeared on his face as he saw the ultimatum on the terminal in front of him.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "You''re nothing more than a bunch of lowly mercenaries who would do anything for money! If it isn''t for the fact that it''s too much trouble to call upon anyone else on such short notice, there''s no way we would''ve ever even considered trash like you!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Despite his displeasure, he still calmly issued a string of instructions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Lower the strength of the inte signal in that area as much as possible to dy the transmission of instructions to the Mechguard units, but make sure you don''t cut off the inte signal entirely or we''ll have to deal with those nutjobs from the Dataist Union. On top of that, instruct the other two elite squads near Area 9 to prepare to intercept and destroy all important resources if they aren''t transferred away in time."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "But Adam is also in that convoy, what if we injure him as well during the interception?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Directly harming or killing a special psychic police officer on duty would''ve incurred extremely severe consequences.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Mechguard and the Dataist Union didn''t care about anything aside from the enforcement of thew, and there was a very good chance that they would be thrown to the wolves as scapegoats if Adam were to be harmed by their actions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    paw?ead ].

    A derisive sneer appeared on the young man''s face. It was preposterous that a bunch of indecisive fools like these had been sent to carry out such an important job.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He swept a cold gaze across the faces of everyone before him, and all of them reflexively averted their eyes, not daring to directly face his sharp gaze.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I know that all of you are either viewed as unimportant in your families or have next to no chance of bing the heir. This is the only chance you''ll ever get in your lives and if you screw this up, you''ll never be entrusted to do anything again, and you''ll live out the rest of your days off monthly trust fund payments. I don''t care what any of you think, but if any of you dare to foil my n, then I''ll strangle you to death, then take down your family along with everyone else here. This is not an empty threat, and I wouldn''t test me if I were any of you."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    No one dared to stand up to him, and he pursed his lips in disdain before continuing to issue instructions to the technical staff of the crisis group.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Outside the abandoned car factory, Adam was the first one to notice that the inte signal had suddenly be a lot weaker. Shivani was apanying him, and her live stream signal was cutting off intermittently, making itpletely unwatchable.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Don''t be rmed, this is only to be expected. From now on, all of our operations will be faced with simr obstacles, so don''t expect any smooth sailing."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He was looking ahead while speaking in a calm voice, seeminglypletely unfazed.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Just as he said, this was only to be expected. If he were in the shoes of his enemies, he would do the exact same thing and perhaps go even further than this.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    His enemies were ustomed to living the good life, so their courage and resolve had been severely diminished over time. Furthermore, they were ustomed to ying political games and weren''t anticipating that Adam would truly be going all-in and putting his life on the line.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    At around two kilometers away from the abandoned car factory, a metal bridge appeared in front of the convoy. It was in a state of extreme disrepair and was only just barely safe to cross.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The first armored assault vehicle had only made it a third of the way onto the bridge before the man in the camouge uniform pressed down on the button that he was holding.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Over a ton of TNT that had been nted on the underside of the bridge was instantly detonated, blowing up one of the bridge''s pirs and reducing the entire bridge into scrap metal, almost sending the assault vehicle flying as well in the process.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Oh, so close," the man in the camouge uniform murmured to himself with a sinister grin on his face, then urged the team below him to work faster.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    On the other side of the metal bridge, the convoy drew to a halt, and Thunderbird and the others set up a defensive barricade while Adam emerged from his bulletproof vehicle. His helmet encapsted his head, and he was instantly transformed into an sci-fi armored warrior.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>That''s so cool! </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This was the first time that Shivani was seeing Adam in this form, and she reflexively turned her camera to him.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam was able to sense something through his telegnosis, and he took a nce at the metal tower that the man where the camouge uniform was situated, then issued an instruction to Adam and the others.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Destroy that tower that gets the drones to surround the area and cut off all paths for escape. In the meantime, we''llunch a full-frontal assault with the Mechguard units leading the way."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As professional soldiers, Thunderbird and the others were extremely quick to carry out instructions, and it didn''t take long before several Mechguard units jumped out of one of the cars in the convoy, then rushed to the front to lead the charge.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Meanwhile, a pair of drones fired missiles at the metal tower without warning, and the man in the camouge uniform hurriedly scrambled down from the tower upon seeing this, managing to just barely get down before half of the tower was blown up by the missiles.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam and the rest of the special psychic police officers rushed along behind the Mechguard units, using their rocket boosters tounch themselves over the destroyed metal bridge before rapidly approaching the abandoned car factory.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The armed forces lying in ambush immediately opened fire to intercept them, only to be taken out by the Mechguard units with unerring uracy.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam was rapidly flying toward the factory where the medical center was situated when he suddenly felt a sharp sense of peril through his telegnosis, and he immediately dodged to the side.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    A 25mm armor piercing bullet flew right past him, destroying the arm of one of the Mechguard units behind him.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He immediately released his neuron transmitter signal in that direction, forcibly draggin everything within a radius of 200 meters into his psychic world.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    As soon as he entered the psychic world, he immediately invoked several anomalies at once while also fusing as one with Mummy. He then inspected his surroundings to find that aside from Thunderbird''s trio, all of the people around him were criminals and workers who were inside the factory, as well as some organ donors who were yet to be transferred away.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>I almost didn''t make it in time. </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He really had to thank his enemies for underestimating him and taking so long to make a move. If he hade here even half an hourter, there would''ve been nothing for him to find.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In the face of all of the enemies converging toward him, Adam released his runed bandages in all directions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Inside a certain building in Area 37, a phone began to ring.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Mr. Yamamoto, the higher-ups are asking you to eliminate the target as soon as possible."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "They can count on me!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 448: Retaliation of a Trapped Beast

    <h4>Chapter 448: Retaliation of a Trapped Beast</h4>

    "The target has been intercepted at the metal bridge!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "The target has abandoned his bulletproof vehicle and is advancing on foot alongside Mechguard units!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "The target has sessfully entered Location M!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "The target has activated his neuron transmitter, and the signal has been lost on over 95% of units!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Hyena has entered the fray, the Uninstation program has been activated."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    ¡­¡­<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Inside the headquarters of the crisis group, a string of reports were being conveyed from the front lines in rapid session. Furthermore, the intervals between the reports were gradually dwindling, and eventually, there was a reporting in every few seconds, creating a sense of pressure and urgency. The young man in the suit raised a hand, indicating for the reports to stop, then turned to the people who had been forced to stay behind.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "What do you all think we should do?"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    It appeared that he was asking for their input, and a representative of a powerful family shrugged as he syed his hands open, indicating that he had nothing to say.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Given his recent sess rate, seeing as Adam has already stormed into the facility, I think we should give up on that facility. I agree with the decision to clear out the area."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "Don''t we still have Hyena? They''re not exactly the best at what they do, but their past results have been quite good. Otherwise, there''s no way he would''ve received shares in the facility."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "You expect a bunch of mercenaries to be able to turn the tables? They''re decent at fighting battles that have already been won, but in this situation, I doubt they''ll be able to do anything."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "In that case, let''s Uninstall. The facility has already been exposed, so we won''t be able to save it anyway."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    "I agree."<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    All of the representatives had roughly the same level of authority, and a decision was made in only one minute. In a rare disy of diplomacy, the young man in the suit asked for input from everyone before issuing an instruction to the technician.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    In Area 9, around five kilometers away from the car factory, the ceiling of a warehouse used for storing old equipment in a dpidated mechanical nt slowly opened up, and a pair of camouged anti-radar drones emerged from within. After taking a moment to ascertain the correct direction, they quickly flew away into the distance, making sure to weave through all of the obstacles in their way.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    These were thetest stealth infiltration battle drones, and they were capable of flying in almostplete silence. Furthermore, they were constantly weaving back and forth at a low altitude, making it very difficult for surveince equipment to detect them.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Inside the abandoned car factory, the vast majority of personnel had been dragged into the psychic world by Adam, while two teams had split off from the Mechguard units to target both the armed enemy forces and the workers in the facility, knocking them out with stun guns.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam didn''t even have to do anything before most of the psychic bodies around him were erased in a span of just one or two minutes.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The unfortunate organ "donors'''' who were still being held captive in the facility didn''t appear to have been doing so well. They had either been tormented over long periods of time, or were kept unconscious through the use of sedatives, thereby causing irreparable damage to their brains.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even if these people were to be rescued, it would be very difficult for them to return to normal, most likely requiring extensive periods of therapeutic treatment, thereby making them heavy burdens to their families.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>These are just more of the heinous deedsmitted by the members of the Guild of Immortality!</i> <button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam didn''t know how to properly treat these victims, so he could only do his best to make them feel a bit morefortable.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The leader of the mercenaries had the nickname of Hyena, and he was the head of security for this medical center, as well as one of its shareholders. He had been personally involved in the facility''s construction and operation, reaping immense profits in the process.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Hence, there was no way that he was simply going to give up on this facility. Just now, he had jumped down from the metal tower to evade the oing missiles, managing to make a safending thanks to his prosthetic limbs. From there, he quickly scrambled to another vantage point before taking a shot at Adam.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    His sniper rifle was capable of firing 25mm armor-piercing rounds that were capable of punching through almost all models of armored vehicles and even the exteriors of light tanks.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Even Mechguard units weren''t able to keep such destructive rounds at bay, so there was no way that Adam would''ve been able to survive the attack.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, Adam''s sharp telegnosis allowed him to evade the shot outright, following which he dragged Hyena straight into the psychic world.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Hyena wasn''t unustomed to battle in the psychic world. In fact, he was a more seasoned psychicbatant than most low-tier adapters, and almost as soon as he was drawn into the psychic world, he quicklypleted his transformation before concealing himself.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam sent out Ogress to track him down, but it was unable to find him, and only after Adam fused with Mummy himself was he able to finally personally hunt down his assant.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    All of a sudden, an enormous, near-transparent sprang out of apletely normal-looking patch of ground not far away from the main battlefield. The figure''s right arm was a cannon that was formed by countless intertwining tentacles, and the cannon fired off a powerful st.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam immediately responded by releasing his runed bandages to form a series ofyered barriers in the path of the attack.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The projectile fired by the cannon struck the barrier of bandages before erupting into an explosion of peculiar corrosive ck mes, which instantly scorched through the majority of the bandages.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Immediately thereafter came a bullet-shaped projectile that pierced through the remaining bandages at a speed of several kilometers per second, and it was slowed down in the process, but it was still traveling at over a kilometer per second upon reaching Mummy''s chest.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    This type of speed would''ve most likely been sufficient to strike down anyone else, but having honed his battle instincts extensively through battling countless powerful anomalies and adapters, Adam had already instinctively reacted, dodging to the side right before the projectile tore through the finalyer of bandages.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The projectile failed to strike its target, but after flying a few meters past Mummy, it abruptly exploded, sending tens of thousands of pieces of shrapnel flying in all directions.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Another plume of bandages rose up from Mummy''s body to keep the shrapnel at bay, but some pieces were still able to fly through the gaps before piercing into its body. The shrapnel had a corrosive quality to it that instantly burnedrge ck holes into Mummy''s body.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    <i>Looks like there''s a reason he''s the leader of these mercenaries. </i><button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam could sense that the corrosive power carried by the shards of shrapnel were extremely potent on psychic bodies in particr, and judging from this attack alone, Adam was able to confirm that this man definitely possessed powers at least on par with a level six anomaly.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Given the high speed and corrosive nature of his projectiles, there was a chance that he would be able to instantly kill an adapter equivalent to even exceeding a level seven anomaly in power.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, the element of surprise was extremely important for adapters like him, and once they were exposed in the face of a powerful enemy, there would only be one possible oue for them.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    Adam immediatelymenced his retaliation, invoking Hellhound, which let loose an Infernal Howl that instantly allowed Adam to mostly recover from the effects of the corrosive shrapnel. At the same time, a string of fireballs around the size of round tables came flying out of one of its other mouths, unleashing a ferocious bombardment thatpletely forced Hyena out of his concealed state.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    He was most definitely a psychic mutant, possessing a body that was close to six meters in height and appeared to have been formed by countless interwoven ck insects that were constantly squirming and writhing. There were sharp spikes of different lengths growing all over his arms, shoulders, and spine, and his cavernous mouth was opened to reveal a chaotic array of jagged fangs.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    It was truly a disgusting sight to behold.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The explosion from the fireballs destroyed the cannon on his arm, but an even thicker and longer cannon appeared on his back, while his left arm also transformed into a six-barrel cannon, and he let loose a ferocious roar as he opened fire with all of his cannons at once.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, Adam wasn''t going to just allow him to do as he pleased, and he quickly closed in on Hyena before releasing a flurry of bandages to wrap him up in a tight cocoon in the blink of an eye.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    The runes on the bandages began to glow, while their edges became incredibly sharp. Furthermore, some type of cyberhex was taking effect, and smoke began to rise up from Hyena''s body as he screeched in pain.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

    However, at the same time, he began to cackle with glee. "You can''t kill me! Otherwise, this entire factory will instantly blow up!"<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">0</button>

 Chapter 449: Risky Strike

    <h4>Chapter 449: Risky Strike</h4>

    Hyena seemed convinced that he had found a way to save himself, and he was cackling in triumph, but hisughter was distorted by the excruciating pain that he was experiencing, producing a sound that was even more hideous than sobbing.

    Adam wasn''t surprised to hear this at all.

    "I''m guessing that not only do you have a way to save yourself, the people above you also have measures in ce to prevent you from betraying them."

    Having dealt with so many subordinates to the Guild of Immortality, he had be very familiar with the habits and tendencies of the guild''s members.

    Hyena faltered slightly upon hearing this, then began to struggle even more violently in an attempt to break free from Mummy''s restraints.

    However, in the face of the vast disparity in their psychic power, he waspletely unable to escape, and right at this moment, Thunderbird arrived on the scene from behind.

    Prior to this, Thunderbird''s trio had been observing from afar this entire time instead of directly participating in the battle, focusing on protecting Adam''s nks, while also being prepared to return to the real world at any moment if required.

    They had heard Adam''s conversation with Hyena, and their experience told them that Hyena wasn''t bluffing.

    "Get out of here and track down his body. Make sure his vital signs are stable, then rescue as many of the victims and workers as possible. Lastly, try to secure the data and the equipment in the facility, but above all else, act fast and keep yourselves safe."

    Following the departure of Thunderbird''s trio, Adam and Hyena were the only ones left in the psychic world.

    Adam invoked Distortion before releasing his bandages, and Distortion immediately pounced onto Hyena.

    No matter how many new limbs Hyena sprouted, they were allpletely restricted by even more ck shadows, and in the end, he was bound up into what appeared to have been a deformed hedgehog.

    Hyena''s eyes immediately rolled into the back of his head, and his entire body began to tremble and spasm, as if he had fallen into some type of nightmare.

    Ever since Distortion reached level seven, Adam had very rarely deployed it in battle, not because it wasn''t useful, but instead because its abilities were so powerful that he was afraid that it would inadvertently hurt his allies.

    At this moment, Distortion was using its recently acquired fifth ability, Mental Distortion.

    Wisps of mist began to rise up from Distortion''s body before squirming into all of Hyena''s orifices, and wounds, as well as the gaps between the countless squirming insect-like bodily structures, and even the tiny pores that were invisible to the naked and the barrels of his cannons werepletely filled.

    In the next instant, Distortion seemed to have vanished, while Hyena''s body underwent a rapid series of spasms before abruptly falling still.

    His eyes had turned an eerie red color, and there was a harrowing grin on his face.

    Through his psychic connection with Distortion, Adam came to realize just how terrifying this ability was.

    He had takenplete control over Hyena''s psychic core, forcibly depriving Hyena of his bodily control by distorting his senses. As a result, he had been plunged into a hallucinatory vortex that was essentially a chaotic nightmare without any rhyme or reason.

    He began to ramble nonsense, speaking so quickly that it was impossible to make out what he was saying.

    At the same time, all of his memories were revealed in Adam''s psychic world, including his upbringing, the major turning points in his life, the events that had molded his personality, the heinous crimes that he hadmitted on the battlefield, his first foray into the illegal organ trafficking trade, and eventually, hisplete descent into depravity.

    His experiences were extremely extensive and varied, but he hadmitted virtually no good deeds in his life. Instead, his entire life was filled with brutality and bloodshed,mitting countless heinous crimes against humanity that warranted the death sentence countless times over.

    It was taking tremendous self-restraint from Adam not to strike down Hyena on the spot.

    He recorded everything, both to serve as incriminating evidence, as well as material to derive information from.

    <i>It seems I''ve discovered a new use for Distortion. </i>

    All of a sudden, Adam was reminded of the fact that upon reaching a certain level, all anomalies would attain abilities rted to psychic domains, as had been the case for Distortion''s fourth and fifth abilities.

    These abilities made up for his shorings and resulted in aprehensive improvement in his overallbat prowess.

    Everything progressed very quickly in the psychic world, and hundreds of memories were disyed at once. In the end, Hyena seemed to have been trying to convey the most secretive parts of his memories, but those parts were restricted by some type of force, making it impossible for him to convey them.

    .

    <i>Looks like his memories have also been tampered. Is it Madam Tree again? No, it seems to be someone else this time. </i>

    The person responsible for restricting Hyena''s memories had to have been extremely powerful, someone too powerful even for a level seven Distortion to deal with.

    With that in mind, Adam immediately withdrew Distortion back into his body. If he were to keep forcing the issue, there was a good chance that he would force Hyena''s psychic body to self-detonate, and the situation would bepletely untenable. However, he had already gotten more than he had bargained for.

    After exiting the psychic world, he inspected his surroundings to find that he was under the protection of Thunderbird and a pair of Mechguard units.

    Many victims were in the process of being transported onto the container trucks that Hyena had prepared, and the Mechguard units had forcibly taken over these vehicles'' autonomous driving systems before driving them out of the factory so that they would be out of range of any potential explosion.

    "You should evacuate as well, Captain."

    Thunderbird''s trio was mainly responsible for assisting and protecting Adam during battle, so their top priority was ensuring his safety.

    Adam naturally wasn''t going to make their jobs more difficult, and he nodded in response, then began to make his way outside, apanied by the pair of Mechguard units.

    Right at this moment, loud rms suddenly rang out from the drones patrolling the area outside the factory, indicating the presence of intruders.

    "Run!"

    Thunderbird grabbed onto Adam, then immediately activated his rocket boosters.

    me and Patriot also immediately flew up into the air, and mere seconds after they flew out of the facility, they spotted a pair of extremely stealthy objects rapidly approaching from afar. They were traveling far too quickly to be intercepted in time, and they plunged straight into the factory that the medical center was situated in.

    <i>Boom!</i>

    A violent explosion erupted within the factory, and powerful shockwaves swept through the entire area, causing even more destruction in an enclosed space. All of the people that were still yet to evacuate from the facility were instantly killed, and most of the equipment inside was also destroyed.

    Looking at the smoke that was billowing out of the exit of the building, a hint of lingering fear welled up in Adam''s heart. Thank heavens he hadn''t gone inside. Otherwise, he would''ve at least sustained severe injuries from that explosion.

    The second wave of missiles quickly arrived, and there were four of them this time,nding in the area around the factory, resulting in explosions that demolished the entire area with virtually no blind spots.

    Adam and the others had flown very quickly out of the affected area, but even so, they could feel the waves of heat surging through the air behind them, and there were pieces of shrapnel and debris nging off the bodies of the apanying Mechguard units.

    The final container truck that was carrying medical equipment from the facility was also destroyed before it could make it out of the factory.

    However, the majority of the victims had been rescued, alongside most of the workers and Hyena, so this operation was still a resounding sess.

    Adam and Thunderbird''s trio quickly descended onto the ground, following which more Mechguard units and drones arrived on the scene to form protective encirclements around them.

    The two camouged drones had been discovered, but they were far faster than the patrolling drones, and they were able to make an escape after firing off the first wave of missiles, quickly vanishing out of sight.

    <i>They may think they''ve made a sessful cover-up, but they''re only going to draw more attention to the situation by doing this,</i> Adam scoffed to himself.

    At the crisis group headquarters, the young man in the suit could see that Adam waspletely unharmed from the surveince footage, and he mmed a hand down onto the table in frustration.

    "Those idiots!"

 Chapter 450: Concrete Evidence

    <h4>Chapter 450: Concrete Evidence</h4>

    "That Hyena really is an idiot! He was so well-prepared and had ample time to react, but he still failed in the end. He''s beyond saving!"

    One of the young man''spanions hurriedly chimed in in agreement. At a time like this, he couldn''t go against the young man and risk irking him even further.

    "I was talking about all of you! You''re all idiots!"

    The young man was unable to maintain his calm facade any longer, and his face was twisted with fury. However, hispanions were finally unable to bear his oppressive leadership any longer.

    All of them were on the same level and in the same situation, so even if he were a bit more capable than everyone else, he couldn''t always treat others like trash and stomp all over their pride as he pleased.

    "Who are you calling idiots, ke?"

    Another member of the crisis group who was yet to reach 20 years of age was referring to the young man directly by name. In the past, he didn''t have the courage to do so, but on this asion, his courage was fuelled by his anger and indignation.

    "I was talking about you and everyone else who participated in the construction and the establishment of security measures in that facility! Is there a problem?"

    ke wasn''t holding back at all, and he was insulting everyone all at once. Another member of the crisis group stepped forward as he protested, "You saw all of the details of the relevant ns in advance, so why didn''t you raise any issues in advance? Of course you can say whatever you want now in hindsight!"

    "Yeah! All of us can pretend to be know-it-alls with the benefit of hindsight!"

    Everyone had banded together to oppose ke on this asion, and they were determined to strip away some of the authority that he held over everyone else.

    "Alright, if you really want to discuss the details, then who was it that decided to withdraw the unmanned battle units responsible for clearing up the battlefield?"

    Everyone immediately fell silent and turned to a young man with curly hair. The young man''s face had turned as pale as a sheet, and he gulped nervously as he said in a feeble voice, "That was thetest product produced by my family''s business, and it hasn''t been released on the market yet, so it has to be kept confidential..."

    "Your priorities arepletely lopsided! Even if those units had been detonated at the scene, and their parts and chips were discovered, who would dare to leak the technology or reproduce it at the risk ofmitting copyright infringements?"

    Arms manufacturing organizations were one of the most prominents powers in the world, and all of those organizations were bothpetitors and coborative partners with one another. In teh face of major problems, they had alwayse together to collectively oppose external threats, so no one would dare to leak confidential technology from this industry.

    A mocking sneer appeared on ke''s face at the sight of the young man''s sheepish disy.

    "Not only did your decision directly expose the location of that facility, it''ll draw an investigation from Mechguard and the Dataist Union. Essentially, you''re telling them that your family, which holds all the relevant patents, is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes!"

    The young man immediately began to sweat profusely. He was no idiot, and he immediately realized the severity of the problem.

    The higher-ups of his family could ept some losses, but that wasn''t necessarily the case for the lower level workers. They were solely responsible forpleting their duties ording to regtions, and in the event that any problems arose, they weren''t going to be held responsible.

    The fact that he was unable to perform even such a simple task was a ring disy of his ipetence.

    Aside from the members of the crisis group, there were also many technicians and analysts present, and all of them were pretending not to have heard anything.

    "What should I do then?"

    "Cut your losses and salvage as much as possible."

    ke couldn''t be bothered to waste any more time arguing with the other members of the crisis group, and he immediately issued an order to detonate the warehouse that held the drones as well.

    Even though all of the members of the crisis group came from extremely wealthy families, losing those two facilities in rapid session was still quite a heavy blow, and in the end, they could only direct their fury at Adam, collectively cursing him to an early grave.

    ¡­¡­

    After thergely sessful operation, Adam departed and immediately revealed the oue of the operation to the general public.

    There were Mechguard units providing supporting evidence, and information on all of the rescued victims had also been tracked down. In fact, contact had even been established with some of the victims'' families and friends, and countless independent journalists instantly flocked to the scene, trying to secure this massive scoop before everyone else.

    As for all of the major media outlets, only those affiliated with the northern congress sent out their seasoned reporters to cover the story, while the rest only sent out some interns as a formality before doing their best to downy the story, making it appear as if Adam hadn''t done anything significant.

    Under normal circumstances, these media outlets would''ve tried to blow even the slightest thing that he did massively out of proportion, so it was clear that Adam was being targeted.

    All of the top headlines concerned thetest news from the other mayoral candidates, and even minor stories like candidates shaking hands with people on the streets were made out to be a big deal. In addition to that, there were also news stories about celebrity scandals, and essentially, these media outlets were publishing anything that they could to take attention away from Adam''stest operation.

    Among the mayoral candidates, Clyde was the only one who refused to y along for publicity.He publicly stated that before the mystery behind the inte outage incident waspletely solved, he wouldn''t be engaging in any activities to further his campaign.

    "One thing that I firmly believe in is the importance of fairness, openness, and justice. If the election iscking in any of those three qualities, then even if I win, it''ll only be a reflection of just how severe the problems in the world are. In this regard, I''m even willing to express my support for Mr. Adam. So far, he has done far better than I anticipated."

    His campaign team was furious with this public statement, but thankfully, his main source of support, the Dataist Union, hadn''t raised any objections. Even so, there was still a slight downturn in support for him.

    As a result, Adam found himself in the lead for the election race, and at this rate, his victory was all but ensured.

    With the concrete evidence secured from the medical center, therge number of rescued victims, and the footage and data taken from the facility, an irrefutable case had been built against the human organ trafficking chain.

    This vindicated Adam''s earlier statement, which was that these enormous criminal organizations truly existed, and that the people behind these organizations were powerful and wealthy enough to exert their influence across the entire world.

    The psychic data taken from Hyena was massive in volume and extremely distorted, making it very difficult for the average person to interpret. Hence, special technological methods had to be employed to restore the data, and the process couldn''t be rushed.

    However, Adam had picked out several important memory snippets, some of which contained Herman Glenn, thereby proving that he had ties to the medical facility.

    Madam Tree had previously cleared out Hyena''s sensitive memories, but he was a battle-hardened mercenary who trusted no one, and he had hid some incriminating evidence in secret to be used as leverage if required.

    This evidence wasn''t enough to build a watertight case against Herman Glenn, but at the very least, it gave Adam an excuse to summon Herman to cooperate with his investigation.

    Last time, Herman had been let off the hook with nothing more than a figurative p on the wrist due to insufficient evidence, but he wasn''t going to be so lucky this time.

    <i>I don''t have to directly prosecute him. As long as we uncover enough leads, there will always be someone who can resolve our troubles for us.</i>

    Adam had learned to use the power of the enemy against them. The heartless members of the Guild of Immortality were more than willing to cut off pawns that they viewed to be expendable as long as it meant that they could save their own skin.

    Unfortunately for Herman, he was considered to be one such expendable pawn, and by the time Mechguard units were sent to arrest him with the evidence procured from Hyena, it was discovered that he had alreadymitted suicide.

    <i>Good. I won''t have to kill him myself now. </i>

    Adam didn''t find this to be strange or unexpected in the slightest, and he was looking at the letter of invitation in his hand with a faint smile on his face.

    <i>Looks like some people are beginning to lose their cool. It seems that my operations have hit many people where it hurts and forced them to take action. </i>

    The letter was from none other than Masao Yamamoto, and it contained an invitation for Adam to visit his home the next day at 9 AM.

 Chapter 451: Deadly Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 451: Deadly Invitation</h4>

    This was Adam''s second timeing to Area 69, the wealthiest area in Sandrise City.

    The pristine air, the peaceful environment, the wide roads, the prevalent gardens... Everything about this ce gave off an air of wealth and extravagance.

    "It smells like money here," Diana remarked in a concise and straightforward manner, and Adam couldn''t agree any more with her statement.

    However, at the same time, he could also smell the blood, sweat, and tears of the lower social sses here.

    The vast majority of people in the low and middle sses were constantly having to toil away, using their blood, sweat, and tears to support the extravagant lifestyles of the tiny minority of super wealthy individuals.

    Any single square meter ofnd here was worth the same as close to half a house in more secluded areas.

    "This is why we have topletely overthrow them and return the power to the people who rightfully deserve it," Adam said as he clenched his fists tightly.

    Thunderbird and the others, who were standing nearby, exchanged a few nces with one another, and all of them shook their heads slightly. Adam''s vision was naturally one that was extremely grand and magnificent, but it was also going to be indescribably difficult to fulfill, so they were just going to focus on the task at hand.

    As for Shae, she merely gave a nonchnt shrug in response.

    They had been invited toe here by Masao Yamamoto, and Adam''s name was the only one on the letter of invitation, but there was no set number of people specified.

    There was no way that Adam would''vee here alone as that would''ve been no different frommitting suicide. He had already decided long ago that he was going to take down Masao Yamamoto, and seeing as his target was taking the initiative to extend him an invitation, he was certainly more than happy to oblige.

    Hence, he had called up all of his trustworthy allies, but he had decided against bringing along Guang Fei and the psychic mutant trio.

    Guang Fei was far too unpredictable, while the psychic mutant trio would''ve beenpletely out of their depth in this situation, so it was best for them to remain safely in the veterinary hospital.

    In addition to that, he had also notified several important figures of what he was doing, and he was escorted by a small army of Mechguard units as he made his way down the streets of Area 69.

    The fact that he was bringing along such a formidable lineup was a clear indication that he didn''t trust the security in this ce, and that drew a great deal of ire and disdain from the residents here.

    Meanwhile, all of the security guards had been notified of Adam''s arrival by Mechguard in advance, so Adam and his entourage encountered no resistance, enjoying a smooth trip to the Yamamoto Family estate.

    It was a Japanese dry garden style estate that was nestled deep within a pine forest, and the entire ce was extremely peaceful, with only the sound of flowing water punctuating the silence.

    However, the peaceful atmosphere waspletely spoiled by the sound of the Mechguard units'' clunking footsteps.

    At this moment, Masao Yamamoto was sitting in a pavilion while brewing some tea, and Adam looked directly at him as he said, "What''s fake will always be fake. No matter how well you disguise it, it''ll only be a fragile illusion that can be broken with ease."

    Masao Yamamoto offered no response to this. In fact, he didn''t even bother to stand up or look at Adam, and he was disying an attitude of disdain through his demeanor and actions.

    He was wearing a loose-fitting kimono and was seated in front of a tea table with his legs crossed, going through aplicated tea ceremony. He was extremely invested in what he was doing, and he seemed to have been appreciating his own work.

    Adam slowly made his way into the pavilion, where he looked down at Masao Yamamoto''s head while pondering to himself how big a box would be required to contain his head. Finally, Masao Yamamoto finished what he was doing, and he picked up his teacup before taking a sip.

    He then heaved a blissful sigh, seemingly very pleased with his own handiwork, and only then did he look up at Adam with a calm expression.

    "You know, in Japan, inviting a guest into one''s home is considered to be a very serious manner."

    He sized up Adam from head to toe, and he could tell that aprehensive set of prosthetics was concealed under his clothes, and he hadn''t even bothered to remove his shoes before treading onto the pristine wooden floor of the pavilion.

    Adam had no time to waste making small talk here, and he cut straight to the chase as he said, "My time is very precious, and there are many criminals that I still have to catch, so I''m afraid I won''t be able to live a leisurely lifestyle like yours, Mr. Yamamoto."

    A faint smile appeared on Masao Yamamoto''s face, and he gently tapped his fingers against the table as he replied, "You could easily lead a lifestyle just like mine if you so pleased?"

    <i>Is this a final attempt at extending an olive branch? </i>

    Adam turned down the peace offering without any hesitation.

    "Our objectives arepletely different, so there''s no way I can live like you. You know what I want."

    It seemed that even at this point, Adam''s enemies were still trying to persuade him to surrender and be theirpdog.

    Masao Yamamoto tapped a certain spot on the tea table, and the image of apletely redacted report appeared on the table.

    "This report contains everything you want to know about yourself, including an original cell sample, the location where you were nurtured, and information on the end user."

    This was the information that Adam had been desperately trying to uncover, and he would be able to obtain it as soon as he bowed his head to the enemy. This was the same offer that Mr. One had made to himst time, and just like that time, he was going to refuse it yet again.

    "I''ll get what I want through my own power. I don''t need your charity."

    Masao Yamamoto nodded in response as he closed the report, and a look that was as sharp as a de had appeared in his eyes, piercing straight into Adam''s soul.

    Even with Adam''s immense psychic power, he was still struggling to withstand the tremendous psychic pressure exerted by Masao Yamamoto, and this only confirmed his spection that Masao Yamamoto was indeed an adapter on the same level as May.

    Masao Yamamoto only released his psychic pressure for an instant before withdrawing it, and he couldn''t help but be surprised at the rapid improvement that Adam had made. No wonder he had managed to survive this entire time despite his reckless actions.

    It seemed that Adam was going to be a formidable opponent, but thankfully, he had made ample preparations. With that in mind, he took another sip of tea, and after a brief pause, he asked, "How does doing all of this benefit you in any way? With your power, you could easily rise above all of the billions of normal people and control this entire world alongside us. You could have immortality and whatever else you could possibly dream of."

    .

    Masao Yamamoto spread his arms open as he spoke, as if he were embracing the entire world.

    Adam shook his head with a determined expression as he dered in a resolute voice, "All immortals deserve to die."

    "In that case, there''s no point in continuing this conversation."

    Masao Yamamoto slowly rose to his feet as he swept a sleeve through the air, and the sound of urgent footsteps suddenly rang out across the estate.

    At the same time, Adam said, "Since I stepped into this estate, you tried to invade my psychic world on three different asions, but failed each time. You wasted all this time spouting nonsense so that the people hiding in ambush can prepare to attack me, isn''t that right?"

    "You are a bright talent. It''s a pity that you refuse to see the light."

    Masao Yamamoto''s voice had a disorienting quality to it, and reality was beginning to tremble and warp, but not because there was an earthquake taking ce. Instead, it was the result of both of their shing psychic power as each of them simultaneously attempted to invade the other''s psychic world.

    In the end, it was Adam who came out on top in this sh, and he was able to draw Masao Yamamoto into his own psychic world. However, Masao Yamamoto had forcibly altered the location to his estate, and they were still in the same pavilion as the one in the real world.

    What was different was that everything was 10 times their original size, with every single pir bing extraordinarily thick and standing at several dozen meters in height.

    Masao Yamamoto had transformed into a four-armed monster with countless eyes on his chest, all of which instantly released beams of light in unison.

    As soon as Adam entered the psychic world, he immediately fused as one with Mummy while also invoking Hellhound to fuse with Shae. Meanwhile, Diana had already soared into the heavens and transformed into a giant ck dragon, which let loose a thunderous roar beforeunching a string of indiscriminate attacks at all of the psychic bodies in the area.

 Chapter 452: Seizing the Initiative

    <h4>Chapter 452: Seizing the Initiative</h4>

    In the face of such a formidable foe, Adam was making sure toe into this battle with the utmost caution. Not only had he enquired May in advance about Masao Yamamoto''s abilities, he had also asked Cowboy and Warlock about the observations that they had made during their battle against Masao Yamamoto.

    Even so, he knew better than to rely solely on this information as he was certain that Masao Yamamoto definitely had some trump cards hidden up his sleeve.

    The fact that Masao Yamamoto was attacking Adam in his own home was a serious crime, so it was clear that he was either convinced that he would be able to fool all of the Mechguard units present, or he had full confidence that he would be able to eradicate all of the Mechguard units here as well.

    Hence, Adam definitely couldn''t afford to take such an enemy lightly, and that was why from the very beginning, Adam had fused with Mummy as quickly as possible in an attempt to get on the offensive and seize the initiative, but Masao Yamamoto had beaten him to it.

    As a seasoned psychicbatant, he had managed to strike even faster than Adam, and he did so with the intention of catching Adam off guard.

    However, he failed to anticipate that Adam''s reactions would be just as fast, and that he would possess such immense technomantic resistance in his Mummy form. Not only was he unable to bring down Adam in a single attack, he had given Adam the opportunity to cover two of his allies as theypleted their transformations as well.

    In the next instant, Masao Yamamoto let loose a silent roar toward Adam, and all of the eyes on the front of his body were locked onto Mummy. In that instant, his gaze released a burst of corruptive power that stained Mummy''s bandages ck.

    At the very least, that was how things appeared. In reality, what had happened was that his sorcery had directly suppressed the runes on the bandages and caused countless eyes to appear on their surface.

    As soon as the eyes appeared, they immediately began to devour Adam''s psychic power while attempting to control his own bandages to attack him.

    Adam was quite rmed by the fact that even a level six Mummy was unable to withstand this strange ability of Masao Yamamoto''s, and he knew that he had to react right away.

    With that in mind, all of the corrupted bandages were torn into shreds at his behest, and they began to writhe in mid-air before turning around to attack him.

    "Hellhound, I need fire!" Adam roared, and Hellhound immediately obliged, releasing a scorching fireball that incinerated all of the bandages into ashes before continuing onward, hurtling directly toward Masao Yamamoto.

    "±ØËÀ!"

    Masao Yamamoto seemed to have uttered a Japanese term, and it was like an absolute, irrefutable order. As soon as the term was uttered, a series of rifts immediately appeared over Mummy''s entire body, and a rift also appeared on one of Hellhound''s three heads, following which an eye emerged within the rift.

    As soon as this eye appeared, the head was renderedpletely useless, and not only was it unable to unleash any further attacks, it began to attack the other two heads.

    Despite this, Adam remainedpletely unfazed as he withdrew all of his remaining bandages, wrapping them around his entire body. At the same time, Hellhound let loose an Infernal Howl at Shae''s behest, and both Adam and Shae instantly recovered from most of the damage sustained from Masao Yamamoto''s attack.

    Having unleashed two failed attacks in a row, Masao Yamamoto seemed to have be rather frustrated. Given his power, he was convinced that if he could catch Adam off guard, even if he couldn''t defeat Adam outright, he would''ve at least been able to gain an advantage, but not only had he lost the sh of psychic power and was dragged into Adam''s psychic world, his first wave of attacks hadpletely failed as well.

    <i>Could it be that the information provided to me was incorrect? This is absolutely unforgivable! </i>

    He let loose a loud roar as all of the eyes on the front side of his body released over 100 beams of light, which converged to form a pir of light that crashed straight into Mummy''s body, instantly creating a near-transparent hole.

    At the same time, he circled two of his arms together to release another burst of light that struck Hellhound, inflicting severe injuries upon one of its heads.

    Simultaneously, he raised his other two hands to the heavens, and all of the eyes on his back collectively released beams of light that struck Diana up above.

    "Get down here!"

    These beams of light were extraordinarily fast and powerful, and even with Mummy and Hellhound''s technomantic resistance, they werepletely unable to ward off the attacks, instantly sustaining injuries as a result.

    Adam immediately invoked Sludge before fusing with it, leaving Mummy to bear the brunt of Masao Yamamoto''s attack.

    Meanwhile, a hole had been punched straight through Diana''s wing, but her ability to fly didn''te from her wings. Even so, her draconic technomancy output was temporarily cut off as a result of the injury, and she hurriedly pped her wings to distance herself further from Masao Yamamoto.

    Masao Yamamoto pounced on this opportunity as he lurched back over 100 meters without any hesitation, springing to the other side of the pond in the massive estate, where he concealed half of his body behind a fake mountain.

    He had executed this sequence with extraordinary speed and decisiveness, and by the time Hellhound let loose another Infernal Howl to heal everyone''s injuries, Adam discovered that the first round of exchanges had already concluded, with neither side able to get the upper hand.

    <i>What an annoying opponent. He''s way more problematic to deal with those reckless fools that only know how to attack like cavemen. </i>

    Adam observed Masao Yamamoto from afar as he discreetly invoked Ogress, which concealed itself before flying around the battlefield, quickly surveying theyout of the environment and the distribution of forces on both sides.

    The results weren''t very optimistic.

    At the same time, Adam could sense tremorsing from the outside world, which meant that the trap that Masao Yamamoto had prepared in the real world had also been sprung.

    <i>It''s a good thing that I had the foresight not to drag Thunderbird''s trio into the psychic world as well. With those three assisting the Mechguard units in the real world, they should at least be able to hold on for some time. </i>

    Adam was actually decently confident that he would be able to take on Masao Yamamoto on his own, but he had still brought along Shae and Diana as allies as a safety precaution.

    As it turned out, Masao Yamamoto was an extremely cunning old fox, having set an ambush in both the real world and the psychic world, and it was clear that he didn''t intend to allow Adam to leave his estate alive.

    Right at this moment, dark clouds converged from all directions, and in the blink of an eye, and the entire sky waspletely concealed behind a nket of darkness. The clouds were at such a low altitude that they were making contact with the branches of some of the taller trees in the area, and it was as if the entire sky were about to fall upon the battlefield.

    Furthermore, the menacing hue of the clouds and the immense psychic pressure imbued within them struck the beholder with an involuntary sense of fear.

    On top of that, there were all types of strange sounds ringing out from the clouds, as if there were countless demonic entities lurking within them. It was an extremely disorientating sound that confounded the senses, resembling a series of sharp spikes that were being viciously driven into one''s body.

    Adam quickly realized that this was another one of Masao Yamamoto''s attacks. In the psychic world, even sound could be used as a substantial attack against one''s target.

    If someone who wascking in mental fortitude were to hear this sound, they wouldpletely lose their autonomy, and defeat would quickly follow.

    <i>Have these dark clouds been manifested by the power of his psychic domain? </i>

    Adam discovered that his connection to Diana had been severed, and that it was as if a barrier had appeared between himself and Shae. It was a very formidable ability, but not one that couldn''t be countered. The biggest mistake that Masao Yamamoto had made was voluntarily distancing himself from Adam instead of continuing in his assault.

    In response, Adam immediately invoked Horse Face without any hesitation, and it hid behind Sludge''s enormous frame as it began to create an artwork on the ground with its brush.

    Having invoked Horse Face on many previous asions, Adam''s control over the anomaly had improved significantly, and as a result, it was able to unleash its ability a lot more quickly. At this point, Horse Face only required a few seconds to conjure up its Lamenting Wall.

    In the blink of an eye, the entire area pavilion was epassed within its artwork, which was still rapidly expanding in all directions, spreading into the pond before quickly extending into the forest in the distance, all in a very brief span of time.

    Masao Yamamoto was observing the battle from afar when he suddenly detected that something was amiss. His psychic domain only epassed the sky above, so why was it that the ground had turned ck as well? Furthermore, the pond was supposed to have been reflecting the dark clouds in the sky and amplifying their power, but all of a sudden, that was no longer the case.

    Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the image of a modern city had appeared on the surface of the pond!

 Chapter 453: Battling on Two Fronts

    <h4>Chapter 453: Battling on Two Fronts</h4>

    <i>Did that brat use some type of other ability as well? </i>

    Once again, Masao Yamamoto couldn''t help but wonder if he had misjudged Adam''s power.

    Thetest appraisal of Adam''s power that Masao Yamamoto had received hade from the recently captured Oni-faced Dragon. ording to him, Adam had engaged him in an all-out battle, but was ultimately unable toe out on top, and even his most powerful invoked anomalies hadn''t been able to withstand a single saber strike from his Shuten-douji form.

    If it weren''t for the security guards interfering in the real world, there was no way that Adam would''ve been able to defeat him.

    Masao Yamamoto assessed himself to have been a more powerful adapter than Oni-faced Dragon, so he should''ve been able to dominate Adam in battle, yet that clearly wasn''t happening here.

    Just like all of Adam''s other enemies, prior to making any big moves, Masao Yamamoto would always gather as much information on his targets as possible, performing an appraisal of said targets before confirming this appraisal through all possible avenues.

    After that, he would devise a perfect n that would force the target to follow the path that heh ad set out for them. He would then wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, making sure to take down his target in one fell swoop when he did decide to strike.

    For this purpose, he had gathered all of the publicly avable information on Adam and enquired all of the people who had fought Adam in the past and lived to tell the tale, including Herman Glenn. He had even purchased footage of Adam''s battles in Shadow City from the ck market and studied the footage extensively.

    After making all of these meticulous preparations, he had set the battlefield as his own estate as he was more familiar with itsyout than anyone else, and that would allow him to better carry out his n.

    Additionally, he had set up two ambush parties, one of which apanied him into battle in the psychic world, while the other attacked Adam and his entourage in the real world from afar.

    It was supposed to have been a foolproof n, yet somehow it had failed to achieve the intended effect, and Masao Yamamoto was currently undergoing a process of self-reflection, wondering where he had gone wrong.

    Of course, Adam wasn''t going to just sit around and wait. Horse Face was drawing upon Adam''s immense psychic power to expand its artwork as much as possible, and if left unchecked, the artwork was eventually going to epass the entire estate.

    It didn''t take long before Masao Yamamoto realized that the ground beneath his feet was beginning to transform, and he immediately sprang into action.

    A burst of light erupted forward from beneath his feet, severing the expanding artwork while also attacking Adam from afar.

    Sludge raised a massive hand to oppose the attack head-on, allowing it to sever a few of its fingers, which fell onto the ground before turning into sludge and fusing back into its body. Horse Face had also sustained some minor injuries from the attack, and Adam''s n to draw Masao Yamamoto into the Lamenting Wall had been thwarted.

    However, the Lamenting Wall had already expanded to a size that was sufficient to counteract Masao Yamamoto''s psychic domain, and Adam immediately initiated the next phase of his n.

    All of a sudden, the artwork on the ground rose up from down below, and it was as if a modern city had suddenly descended upon the estate. There were tall skyscrapers, busy roads, and countless panicked individuals fleeing in all directions while releasing an immeasurable volume of chaotic emotions.

    As Adam''s psychic power became further enhanced, the Lamenting Wall was also bing more and more realistic and vibrant.

    The emotions being projected by the people in the artwork was corrupting the entire space like poison, and the dark clouds up above immediately began to churn violently, as if an acid-base reaction were taking ce, with the two forces neutralizing one another.

    Psychic corruption was supposed to have been Masao Yamamoto''s forte, yet at this moment, he was being subjected to an attack of the same nature, and it was certainly not a good feeling.

    All types of extreme negative emotions flooded into his mind, and all of the eyes on his body instantly fell shut, severely debilitating his overall power.

    <i>This ability is no less formidable than my own!</i>

    Masao Yamamoto recalled hearing mention of this ability of Adam''s in the past, but ording to that description, the ability wasn''t supposed to have been anywhere near as fearsome as it currently was.

    He knew that he had to retaliate right away, and all of the dark clouds immediately descended at his behest. The clouds were so dense that it appeared as if they had been formed from viscous ink, and they were about topletely inundate this entire area.

    As a result, the psychic disruption on Adam and Shae was rapidly being exacerbated, and it was clear that being swallowed up by the dark clouds would''ve spelled extremely bad news for them.

    Right at this moment, the Lamenting Wall unleashed its ultimate attack, and the nuclear bomb above the city exploded in a doomsday-like scene.

    Light that was countless times hotter and more destructive than the sun''s rays erupted in all directions, toppling buildings and bridges, pulverizing nts, and incinerating people into ashes in the blink of an eye.

    Countless despairing howls rang out as all of the desperate faces looked up into the sky. The majority of the nket of dark clouds up above was instantly eradicated, revealing the sky up above once again.

    Masao Yamamoto let loose an agonized roar.

    His psychic domain was directly connected to his psychic body, and as a result of its destruction, he had suffered severe bacsh. Not only had most of the eyes on his body been destroyed, he had be slightly shorter in stature.

    Worst of all, his psychic body waspletely exposed in Adam''s field of view.

    At the same time, the emotional attack from the Lamenting Wall also arrived.

    A forlorn sigh rang out directly within his heart, and it contained the resignation of countless people who had epted their fate in the face of a destructive power far too immense for them to oppose.

    Masao Yamamoto could feel his own willpower being rapidly stripped away.

    As a top-tier adapter, his confidence was nigh unshakeable, yet nothing had gone ording to n during this battle. As such, the tiniest amount of self-doubt had set in, and that was exactly what was allowing the Lamenting Wall to have such a severe effect on him.

    All of a sudden, countless cracks appeared all over Masao Yamamoto''s body, and blood began to gush out of his mouth. This was the first time in his life that he had ever sustained such severe damage to his psychic body.

    He immediatelyshed out in retaliation, releasing a burst of light that severed the waves of emotional influence surging toward him.

    Immediately thereafter, countless ck creatures came flying in from the distant sky. Upon closer inspection, one would discover that it was an army of demonic creatures with sharp fangs in their mouths, and their numbers were so vast that they filled the entire sky.

    Adam hurriedly withdrew Horse Face before invoking Clown, which instantly conjured up an army of clones to open fire at the swarm of demonic creatures up above.

    At the same time, Diana also unleashed her draconic technomancy, conjuring up countless balls of ck light around her before sending them hurtling through the air like a hailstorm.

    A string of violent explosions and rapid gunshots rang out as smoke filled the entire sky, transforming the estate into an old-school battlefield.

    Thanks to Sludge''s immense physical resistance, Adam was able to shrug off the shrapnel and shockwaves as he observed the battlefield. He could see arge number of psychic bodies dressed in ninja attire rapidly approaching from a forest that was at least a kilometer away, apanied by a pair of enormous beings.

    The psychic army that was lying in ambush had finally entered the fray.

    Meanwhile, in the pavilion in the real world, all of the Mechguard units apanying Adam had formed a tight-knit defensive formation around Adam, Shae, and Diana.

    There were dozens of snipers outside the estate firing a barrage of powerful shots at Adam and his entourage. Eight of the Mechguard units had already been destroyed, and the pavilion itself was also on the verge of copse.

    Topound their woes even further, they had lost contact with all of the nearby police stations, and even the drones that were patrolling the area in the distance seemed to have all gone blind,pletely ignoring the one-sided battle that was taking ce down below.

    Thunderbird was hiding behind a destroyed Mechguard unit with his teeth tightly gritted in fury.

    "I don''t care who you are, I''m gonna make you pay for this!"

 Chapter 454: Remnants of the Oni Organization

    <h4>Chapter 454: Remnants of the Oni Organization</h4>

    Sandrise City was too massive, and even Mechguard couldn''t oversee everything taking ce in the city.

    This was why many important people had private bodyguards, and it was an open secret that many major organizations had their own private armies of mercenaries.

    Under the majority of circumstances, they obeyed thew on the surface so that Mechguard wouldn''t be able to gather any incriminating evidence on them. However, it was impossible to tally just how many crimes they hadmitted in secret.

    Thunderbird''s trio had all served in the regr army, and they were elite soldiers that had been handpicked by Commander of the northern congress, so they were somewhat aware of this situation. Hence, they knew what these people could get away with before incurring forceful retaliation from Mechguard.

    However, the currently unfolding situation clearly went far beyond what they could possibly hope to get away with. Not only were they tantly using heavy artillery to attack Mechgaurd units, the total number of armed forces and adapters deployed had to have been sufficient to fill two entire squadrons!

    There was no way that they could get away with causing such a scene in the wealthiest area in all of Sandrise City.

    Alternatively, could it be that all of the area''s residents were wilfully turning a blind eye to this?

    "Just how many powerful individuals want to see Mr. Adam dead?!"

    Thunderbird couldn''t help but feel as if they had bitten off far more than they could chew.

    "I''d say all of the powerful and wealthy figures in the entire city want him dead, yet they don''t want to dirty their own hands, and that''s why they''ve chosen a scapegoat to get rid of Adam for them."

    me and Patriot were both elite soldiers in real life, and their prosthetic limbs were no less advanced than Adam''s.

    They inserted their AI probes into the bodies of the destroyed Mechguard units to connect to the? movement and weaponry systems that were still intact, and they set up a defensive line around the pavilion to retaliate against the enemy.

    Furthermore, the three of them were also powerful adapters with exceptional telegnosis, so they were always able to immediately react whenever they were targeted by the snipers in the distance. As the battle raged on, all of the walls and trees in the estate werepletely destroyed, raising so much dust and shrapnel that it was very difficult to see anything.

    The assault from the enemy had been forcibly countered, and it seemed that they wouldn''t'' be able to storm into the estate anytime soon.

    "We have to conserve our ammo and leave this ce with Mr. Adam and hispanions by force if the situation takes a turn for the worse. At this point, we can''t rely on any Mechguard reinforcements."

    Even though arrangements had been made ahead of time, and Cowboy was constantly surveying the southern congress so that they could send out reinforcements as soon as the southern congress did anything to disrupt Mechguard operations, it would still take some time for reinforcements to arrive, and they were most definitely going to be intercepted by the enemy along the way.

    "Mr. Adam can only count on himself now. I hope he can end the battle soon."

    <i>If worsees to worst, I''ll just have to destroy Masao Yamamoto''s body and put an end to his life in the real world! </i>

    Even Thunderbird himself was rather startled as this thought sprang into his mind. Before he knew it, he had been swept up in Adam''s cause and was considering taking dangerous paths that he would''ve never considered before.

    Protecting someone and killing someone were two entirely different matters, and he was beginning to wonder whether killing Masao Yamamoto would be the right thing to do.

    ¡­¡­

    In the psychic world, Diana was able to quickly take out several dozen low-tier enemy psychicbatants, but a barrier was then conjured up in the sky to keep her ck balls of light at bay.

    In response, she immediately switched to her draconic fire, sting a plume of scorching mes out of her mouth straight into the barrier. The plume of fire tore a huge hole into the barrier with ease beforending on the ground below, transforming that area into a pit ofva and incinerating several enemies into ashes.

    At the same time, the person who had conjured up the barrier was revealed.

    It was a woman wearing vibrant and colorful clothes while carrying an oil paper umbre. She was very seductive in appearance, but her six-meter-tall frame and the ck water gushing over the ground everywhere she went indicated that she was far more sinister than her alluring appearance suggested.

    <i>That''s Oni no Ameonna, one of the eight Onis of the Oni Organization. I wouldn''t be surprised if the other Oni, Oni no Bozu, is also here. </i>

    Adam was able to identify Oni no Ameonna through the information that he collected on the Oni Organization in the past, and that army of flying demonic creatures had most likely been conjured up by one of Oni no Bozu''s abilities.

    Innread].

    It seemed that all of the remnants of the Oni Organization had been deployed, and they were trying to put an end to Adam''s life under Masao Yamamoto''s leadership.

    This suited Adam just fine as it would allow him to kill two birds with one stone. If Oni no Ameonna''s powers were only on par with those of the other six Onis, then Adam would''ve been able to kill her with ease with a single blow from Camera, or drag her into the Lamenting Wall and torment her to death.

    However, judging from the resilience of the barrier that she had just conjured up, Adam could tell that her power had definitely been artificially enhanced. With that in mind, Adam couldn''t help but wonder if Masao Yamamoto had some type of ability that could enhance the powers of his allies.

    Meanwhile, Diana sted another pir of draconic fire at Oni no Ameonna, who suddenly looked up at her with a smile. Diana was immediately struck by a sense of disorientation, and she involuntarily ceased in her attack while simultaneously being struck by the urge to descend out of the sky.

    However, she then immediately caught herself before swinging around in mid-air, whipping her tail viciously toward Oni no Ameonna.

    In response, Oni no Ameonna raised her umbre to conjure up another invisible barrier, which was destroyed by Diana''s attack, but also nullified much of its power.

    Meanwhile, she gently drifted back to over 100 meters away,nding behind a monstrous figure that was over 15 meters tall.

    Oni no Bozue was a giant one-eyed monk in the psychic world, and with the knock on the wooden temple block in his hand, Diana abruptly shuddered and was almost forcibly taken out of her draconic form. She hurriedly flew back in retreat while calling out to Adam, "Keep a look out for him! His abilities can counteract my power."

    "You''re not the only one, he can counteract everyone''s psychic attacks."

    He had seen a simr ability unleashed by those three monks in the final phase of the Shadow City battle royale, except those people had to chant mantras, while Oni no Bozu only had to tap on his wooden temple block to achieve the same effect, indicating that he was even more troublesome to deal with.

    "Cover me from behind, I''ll take them on myself."

    Having already in six of the eight Onis, it felt only right that he killed the remaining two as well so all of them could be reunited on the other side.

    It was just a pity that Oni-faced Dragon wasn''t here. Otherwise, he would be able to eradicate the entire Oni Organization in one fell swoop.

    Countless Clown clones dispersed in all directions at his behest, hiding behind the destroyed structures in the estate to snipe at the enemy psychicbatants.

    Meanwhile, Adam rushed directly forward, and his pounding footsteps caused the ground to tremble beneath his feet. The tremors spread far and wide, and the fake mountain began to quiver violently before being smashed open by a single punch from Adam. Hundreds of tons of massive rocks were sent flying in all directions, and all of the nearby hitmen of the Oni Organization were forced to scramble for cover.

    All of a sudden, a wave of sewage appeared out of thin air, inundating the entire surrounding area in a radius of several hundred meters.

    The sewage was even more corrosive than the most potent of poison, and all of the hitmen that were caught in the corrosive wave were either killed on the spot or escaped with severe injuries, only to be then shot down by the Clown clones.

    Meanwhile, Adam continued to wade through the sewage while simultaneously invoking Mummy, which released its bandages to form a giant behind Oni no Ameonna, sealing off all possible paths of escape.

    Oni no Bozu knocked on his wooden temple block several times in session, and Adam shuddered as if he were about to copse.

    Oni no Bozu ecstatic, and a triumphant grin appeared on his face as he sprang up into the air, swinging his fist viciously at Adam''s head.

    Right as his fist was about tond, Adam suddenly shrank down to only around 10 meters tall before countering with a lightning-fast punch that was aimed directly at Oni no Bozu''s belly.

 Chapter 455: Eradication

    <h4>Chapter 455: Eradication</h4>

    Despite its size reduction, Sludge''s power hadn''t diminshed in the slightest, and that punch carried the force of a frieght train moving at full speed.

    Oni no Bozu''s bellypletely caved in, almosting into direct contact with his back, and his enormous body was also snapped into two.

    The contents of his stomach instantly came gushing out of his mouth in the form of all types of strange psychic aberrations, all of which were in by Mummy with ease, which then plunged its carving knife viciously into Oni no Bozu''s caved-in belly sevearl dozen times in session.

    At the same time, Adam''s right arm suddenly liquefied into sludge before gushing into Oni no Bozu''s stomach through the holes that had been stabbed into his belly. There, teh sludge abruptly solidified, and with a punch from his left fist, Oni no Bozu''s entire body was pulverized into countless pieces.

    "And that leaves only one more," Adam mused as he turned to Oni no Ameonna.

    All of a sudden, the wave of sewage down below rose up to inundate Oni no Ameonna''s entire body before she could get away.

    "You think you can get away? Where do you think you are right now?"

    Adam raised his right foot before stomping down violently onto the ground, causing the entire earth to tremble violently beneath his feet. Meanwhile, the Fountain of Contamination began to swirl and churn violently at Nun''s behest.

    Oni no Ameonna''s body immediately began to liquefy as she attempted to fuse into the wave of sewage around her, but her n was thwarted by Nun, who forcibly expelled her into the open, preventing her from fusing with the surrounding sewage.

    Before her liquefied body had a chance to reform, Hellhound released a string of Explosive Fireballs thatplemented Diana''s draconic mes, instantly evaporating most of the liquid. What remained attempted to reform into a far smaller version of Oni no Ameonna, only to be inundated by a rising pir of sewage thatpletely swallowed it up and forced it to disintegrate once again.

    It seemed that Oni no Ameonna had also met her demise, and as a result, her oil paper umbre came falling out of the sky.

    Mummy immediately wound its bandages around the umbre at Adam''s behest, then hacked viciously at it with its carving knife, upon which an agonized screech rang out.

    "You thought you could fool me by ying dead? How naive!"

    Adam had no intention of sparing anyone from the Oni Organization, and with that, all of the eight Onis had been eradicated.

    As for the 36 Tigers, each of them wasn''t even as powerful as Mole and the others. They would''ve been more then capable of assassinating ordinary targets, but in the face of high-level adapters, they were nothing more than cannon fodder.

    Clown''s clones were sufficient to tear through their ranks on their own, and it wasn''t goign to take mcuh longer at all before they were copmletely wiped out.

    Adam didn''t want to waste any more time with them, so he invoked around 20 to 30 low-level adapters to swarm them and elerate their demise.

    After that, he turned to a tall tree as he yelled, "Are you just going to watch all of them get eradicated, leaving you behind as the only one in the end? That doesn''t seem like something that a shrewdmander would do."

    If Masao had used his forces wisely, they would''ve been able to y a bigger role in teh battle, particrly the two Onis.

    However, instead, he hadpletely squandered his forces by throwing them into battle while he cowered in the shadows, and the oue was certainly far from ideal.

    "The only value that they could provide was their ability to buy time for me. Now that they''ve served their purpose, it hardly matters to me whether they live or die."

    This was a very fitting statement, considering Masao Yamamoto''s cold and cruel personality. As for why he had sent out his forces to buy time for him, it was clear that he was taking this time to recover from his injuries and prepare an all-out attack.

    In a discrete maneuver, Adam invoked Spider behind Sludge, while Mummy was situated to hte left, and Hellhound was standing on the right. Ogress was lurking in the air above, while Nun was sitauted on the ground, and Distortion, Angel, and Clown''s army of clones were also all ready to spring into action at a moment''s notice.

    During the battle between Masao Yamamoto, and Cowboy and Warlock, Adam could tell that Masao Yamamoto possessed powers close to the level of Hebi no Miko. However, up to this point, he still hadn''t disyed such a level of power, so he had have still had some trump cards up his sleeve.

    Sure enough, Masao Yamamoto quickly revealed what he had been preparing this entire time. All of a sudden, a giant tree in front of him was plit down the middle as a de projection swept through the air at an unfathomable speed, covering a distance of over 100 meters before striking the top of Sludge''s head in the bilnk of an eye.

    In an instant, Sludge''s head, arms, and legs had all been severed from its torso.

    Adam attempted to fuse his body back together, only to find that each piece was restricted by a burst of immense psychic power thatpletely thwarted his efforts.

    Furthermore, the de projection was continuing to sweep forward, destroying the entire pavilion, and only after that did the tree copse to reveal Masao Yamamoto behind it.

    Not only had he recovered from all of his previous injuries, he had swelled to close to 10 meters in height, and he appeared to have also received a significant power boost, wielding a disprportionately massive de in his hand.

    "I''m aware of all of your abilities. There''s no way for you to withstand my de of Annihtion, so this where you die."

    Masao Yamamoto stepped over the fallen tree as he spoke, then swept his de through the air, and all of a sudden, the tree behind him waspletely shredded into chunks no bigger than the average human hand.

    "You''re currently trapped in your own invoked entity, unable to move, evade, or retaliate, so the only possible fate for you is death!"

    Masao Yamamoto took another step forward as he spoke, and yet another fearsome de projection was unleashed.

    From Adam''s perspective, he could see that the streak of light was actually formed by countless de projections that could disperse at any moment at Masao Yamamoto''s behest to attack multiple opponents in arge area.

    It was no wonder that Cowboy and Warlock had been beaten into such a sorry state. Back then, they hadn''t even witnessed this attack from Masao Yamamoto, which made sense, considering this appeared to have been his final trump card.

    All of a sudden, a cold smile appeared on Adam''s face.

    Spider appeared up ahead in its most powerful seven-headed form, and with an Infernal Howl from Hellhound, a rock that had fallen nearby suddenly liquefied before taking on a two-meter-tall humanoid form.

    Adam had also kept a trick up his sleeve, and Sludge hadn''t been in itsplete form this entire time.

    Such an unexpected turn of events had Masao Yamamoto momentarily rooted to the spot. He had thought that he had covered all of his bases, but it appeared that this was not the case.

    However, there was no time for him to think as Spider had already withstood the first de projection head-on before falling back after sustaining injuries. After that, Mummy came to the fore, and it was also forced back, but by then, the balde projection''s power had already been halved.

    Meanwhile, Spider instantly made a partial recovery thanks to its incredible regenerative abilities, then began firing off a flurry of attacks in retaliation.

    At the same time, Nun''s Fountain of Contamination began to swirl around Masao Yamamoto''s legs, eroding into his skin.

    Simultaneously, Diana swooped down rapidly from up above, then mmed her tail viciously into Masao Yamamoto''s back, causing him to stumble. In retaliation, heshed out with his de, almost slicing Diana in half.

    Diana was forced to retreat with severe injuries, but she had already bought Adam sufficient time to unleash his final trump card.

    Camera had emerged to seal the deal, and with a click of its shutter and a sh of light, Masao Yamamoto was instantly immobilized.

    Immediately thereafter, two arcs of light shed through the air, inflicting an x-shaped wound? onto his chest before sending him toppling to the ground.

 Chapter 456: Irrefutable Evidence

    <h4>Chapter 456: Irrefutable Evidence</h4>

    <i>Works every time!</i>

    Despite the triumph that had appeared in Adam''s eyes, his gaze remained fixed on the pieces of Masao Yamamoto''s dismembered body.

    After a full five minutes had passed by, right as Shae was beginning to run out of patience, Masao Yamamoto''s body suddenly disintegrated into powder, while a normal-sized humanoid figure took shape.

    "What a sly old bastard! He had mepletely fooled!"

    Shae was quite taken aback as she had never seen something like this, but having fought so many formidable opponents, Adam wasn''t surprised in the slightest.

    All top-tier adapters had a bunch of trump cards up their sleeves, and Adam had determined that Masao Yamamoto was still alive through a rather unexpected avenue.

    Scarecrow was an anomaly that he hadn''t used for a very long time, and it was now significantly weaker than the most powerful anomalies that he had at his disposal, but it had been present in his psychic world this entire time nheless.

    The anomaly had arisen from Kim Garcia''s fear of Masao Yamamoto, so it was directly connected to him, and on this day, it had finallye in useful, although in a rather unexpected way.

    In this form, Masao Yamamoto was virtuallypletely powerless, but given sufficient time, he would''ve still been able to make a full recovery.

    Of course, Adam wasn''t going behind such a massive loose end. After making sure that all of the other hitmen were dead, Adam withdrew all of his anomalies, then immediately left the psychic world.

    "Masao Yamamoto still isn''t dead yet," Shae immediately reminded as soon as she woke up, following which she heard the sound of the gunfire and explosions ringing out around her, and she instinctively recoiled in fear.

    "Give me one more minute," he said to Thunderbird in an urgent voice.

    "Don''t worry, they won''t be able to get in anytime soon."

    At this point in the battle, the momentum had already begun to shift. The longer the battle wore on, the more agitated and uneasy the enemy would be, and dissension would begin to automatically arise among their ranks.

    Adam had full trust in Thunderbird''s trio, and he immediately invaded Masao Yamamoto''s psychic world again, delving into his deepest memories while he was in his most vulnerable state.

    He had received a standard Japanese upper ss elite upbringing. Ever since he was a small child, he was put through cruel and rigorous training, including running in nothing but shorts and practicing kendo in winter, forcing him to kill his own pets and destroy his favorite toys, and making him keep a potted nt, only to snip off its leaves and branches one after another until it withered away.

    As a young man, he had strangled his most beloved female singer with his own two hands, engaged in death brawls with his siblings who were alsopeting for the position of family heir, hunted down lions in the African wilderness, survived in the South American rainforests, saved himself from drowning after having his hands and feet tied up and being thrown into the sea, scaled a snowy mountain to pick a snow lotus...

    His n had spared no expense in his development, and he was nurtured to be an elite figure in the world from the very beginning, but due to his ethnicity, nationality, and bloodline, he had been unable to reach the very top echelons.

    He had always felt extremely indignant about this, and this indignation had given rise to an anomaly after he became an adapter. His mental state was gradually warped by the anomaly, and that was how his psychic body had be like this.

    Throughout his life, Masao Yamomoto had conducted a great deal of work rted to human cloning, biological experimentation, organ development, and nk te breeding. Despite all of this, he had never allowed anyone to tamper with his memories, and it was most likely the case that he had never envisioned that he would be defeated by someone like Adam.

    Hence, a virtuallypletely defenseless treasure trove of memories was presented to Adam, who immediately began inspecting the recording the memories that were most relevant to his objectives.

    After Masao Yamamoto realized that he was powerless to resist, he initiated a suicide sequence with his final remaining bit of psychic power.

    His psychic world rapidly began to copse, and in his final moments, he cursed Adam with all his might.

    "You''re not going to get what you want. I''ll be waiting for you in hell."

    "Even if I go to hell, I''ll just have to kill you again," Adam dered in a cold voice as he faced Masao Yamamoto''s vegetative body in the real world.

    Meanwhile, the battle outside was still taking ce, but some of the attackers were beginning to panic as Masao Yamamoto''s vital signs began to fade.

    Thunderbird immediately pounced on this opportunity, calling out to them, "We have already killed Masao Yamamoto, and our reinforcements will arrive within three minutes. Let''s see who''s going to blink first!"

    "Master Yamamoto!"

    The ones to disy the strongest reaction to this announcement were Masao Yamamoto''s henchmen. Just like the samurai of ancient times, they had absolute loyalty to their master, and as soon as they heard this deration, they immediately stormed toward the estate with all their might, paying no heed to their own safety.

    There were around a dozen of them in total, and they were equipped with cutting edge prosthetic limbs and powerful heavy weaponry as they stormed into the estate, managing to break through the defensive line of Mechguard units in one fell swoop.

    "If you want to follow your master to the other side, then I''ll grant you that wish!"

    Adam activated his neuron transmitter once again, dragging all of the intruders into his psychic world before easily putting an end to their lives with Hellhound.

    While their physical bodies were immobilized in the real world, all of them were quickly struck down by Mechguard units.

    There were also other attackers who had been hired by Masao Yamamoto, and at this point, they had realized that the enemy was too powerful for them to ovee.

    These hired guns had no loyalty to speak of, and they certainly weren''t going to sacrifice themselves for a losing cause, so all of the attacks ceased within the span of a minute.

    The remaining Mechguard units dispersed to search for potential hidden enemies, while Thunderbird''s trio pushed aside the broken Mechguard units that they were using as shields before heaving a collective sigh of relief.

    "That was way too close! We came this close to dying just now."

    No one in Adam''s group had anticipated that the enemy would be so brazen, to the point that they were tantly attacking special psychic police officers and Mechguard units in the wealthiest area in Sandrise City. It seemed that once the wealthy and powerful decided to cast aside all pretenses of geniality, they were capable of doing anything.

    "Will we be able to make a safe return?"

    Shae inspected the surrounding area to find that there were at least 100 bodies littered across the ground. The entire estate had been destroyed, and the explosions and gunfire had ravaged an area of close to a square kilometer.

    However, Adam was confident that they were going to be fine.

    The northern congress had been waiting for an opportunity like this for far too long. Now that their opponent had finally slipped up, they were undoubtedly going to pounce on this opportunity and secure as crushing an advantage from this victory as possible.

    Sure enough, it didn''t even take two minutes before Thunderbird was able to make contact with the nearest police station, and the drones in the sky also returned to normal, quickly converging onto the scene to protect them.

    The nearby roads that had been ced in a state of lockdown prior to this were also opened up to the media, and countless reporters had swarmed onto the scene like sharks that had caught a whiff of blood, scrambling to get thetest scoop before their peers.

    Meanwhile, Adam merely waited in the pavilion, taking pictures and recordings of the site of the battle from various different angles. He then immediately uploaded everything to the Mechguard database, as well as the inte.

    This time, virtually everyone was convinced that he had fallen into a trap as logically speaking, no one would''ve been foolish enough to storm an estate that was guarded by 100 to 200 armed units.

    Furthermore, the tant use of force by the elites of society to try and kill an enforcer of justice was a clear sign of just how brazen they had be and how little regard they had for the general public.

    Things like this could be done, but they had to remain a secret no matter what. Unfortunately, Adam had survived this targeted attack and gathered irrefutable evidence. A terrifying storm was brewing, and the crisis group had fallen intoplete disarray.

 Chapter 457: I Am a Blank Slate

    <h4>Chapter 457: I Am a nk te</h4>

    "I require an exnation."

    ke was barely able to contain his own fury, but he still forced himself to maintain hisposure as he swept a vicious gaze across everyone present.

    The people before him came from simr upbringings as him and possessed simr levels of status, with massive backers behind them that could influence the lives of countless people with even the slightest of moves, yet these people were also foolish beyond belief.

    ke was unable to find the right words to address them, and after trying a few times, he decided to give up all attempts at remaining civilized as he erupted into a furious tirade.

    "Which one of you fucking idiots can tell me who it was that issued such a braindead order for a high-level Lamp Keeper like Masao Yamamoto to assassinate a mayoral candidate in his own fucking estate?!"

    If there had been any redeeming qualities to this operation at all, ke wouldn''t have been so furious, but the problem was that everything about it was wrong, and there was irrefutable evidence that Masao Yamamoto hadmitted an unforgivable crime.

    "We can say that Masao Yamamoto made this mistake because he came under psychic control!" someone suggested, and his peers immediately turned to look at him as if he were mentally handicapped.

    Even a three-year-old child wouldn''t have believed such a lie, and trying to cate the general public with such an obviously false excuse would only further exacerbate the already terrible situation.

    ke couldn''t even be bothered to respond to this idiot as his furious gaze continued to rake over his colleagues.

    Unfortunately, these people werepletely incapable, but they were experts at pretending to be innocent, and he wasn''t able to identify any of them as disying any abnormal reactions.

    There was also another possibility, which was that one of the families behind them had issued the order, and these idiots hadn''t been informed at all.

    This so-called crisis group was nothing more than a way to make these otherwise useless idiots useful in the hope that they could do something about Adam, but even if they failed, it didn''t matter.

    As soon as this thought sprang into his mind, ke was left feeling rather depressed.

    He had a great deal of lofty ambitions, wanting to capture this opportunity to make a substantial contribution, but now that he had finally taken control over the crisis group, it appeared that the families behind them were still pulling strings behind the scenes.

    <i>Those old bastards still have the same outdated mindsets from the previous generation! They think that that they can do whatever they want as long as they have money and weapons, but what they don''t know is that with the rise of adapters, the entire world is very likely to undergo aplete revolution... </i>

    Anyone who wanted to climb to the top in this day and age had to have powerful adapters under their control. Otherwise, they were destined to be left behind by the times.

    Masao Yamamoto was a very good pawn, but he had been sacrificed for nothing.

    ke clenched his fists tightly as a contemtive look appeared in his eyes, trying to decide between making one final effort or just giving up altogether.

    At the moment, outrage was brewingpletely unchecked on the inte, while Adam''s supporters had been riled up into a frenzy, infinitely sharing the footage and evidence so that everyone could see it.

    Meanwhile, Commander and the other people in power in the northern congress were also fanning the mes, and they were able to ce the enemy in a very unfavorable position without much effort.

    Both the human organ smuggling chain and the nk te production chain had ties to the core members of the southern congress, and at this point, the oue of the battle was already decided, all that was left was to see how much the northern congress could benefit from this victory.

    On the way back, Adam received a coboration application from the pawn shop, with May personally conducting the negotiations, entrusted with the task of striking at the human farm in Masao Yamamoto''s memories.

    "That''s the ce where you were created. I don''t want to assign this task to anyone else, so I''ll see it through on my own."

    May was a very reliable figure, and Adam had no reason not to agree to this proposal.

    Meanwhile, Cowboy had been entrusted with the task of apanying Shae to Golden Teeth Incorporated to take over Masao Yamamoto''s shares in thepany, as well as to secure the number shareholder position and absolute inheritance rights, all in one go.

    "Don''t hold back this time. If anyone tries to interfere with our n, take them down right away."

    Adam knew that the time was right for them to adopt some more aggressive measures. Otherwise, the enemy could easily perceive theirck of aggression as weakness.

    Golden Teeth Incorporated was only going to be the beginning. After receiving support from the northern congress and more powerful figures, he was going to take down the entirety of the Guild of Immortality.

    There was no point in destroying the secret supply chains associated with the Guild of Immortality as they could easily construct more human farms and obtain more nk tes.

    The only permanent solution was to tackle the problem at its roots, exposing the heinous deeds of the Guild of Immortality to the world and giving them a heavy blow to tell them that there were still people in the world capable of resisting against them and posing a threat to their safety.

    The general public would also get to see him step up and oppose the biggest injustice in this world.

    With him leading by example, more and more people would follow in his footsteps, and the resistance against the current world order would only continue to grow.

    Regardless of what the world was going to be in the future, at the very least, he would be able to bring a ray of light and warmth into this current cold and filthy world.

    With that in mind, Adam felt very much at peace, and he didn''t even bother to assess the evolution that Scarecrow had undergone after absorbing Masao Yamamoto''s anomalic power.

    He now had another powerful ally, but that was the extent of it.

    Following his return, he didn''t even take a moment to rest before exposing the massive crime syndicate behind Masao Yamamoto to the general public, as well as revealing the truth about his own origins.

    Even though everyone had already learned about his past from the restored footage from hisst press conference, this time, he had revealed the process of his development in its entirety, starting from how he was a cloned infant before slowly being nurtured into a nk te.

    His body was never meant to belong to him, and it could be a vessel for someone else at any moment.

    It was essentially a horror film being yed out in reality, and with that, the harrowing reality of the Guild of Immortality was finally revealed.

    The person who had purchased Adam''s body was an elderly congressman of the southern congress. He was in such terrible health that he had to be attached to a breathing machine while attending congress meetings, and a while back, he had suddenly passed away under mysterious circumstances, and his position was passed down to an unknown new member of his family.

    It was revealed that this person had no bloodline ties to him at all. Instead, it was the same congressman with his memories uploaded into another nk te.

    The evidence was irrefutable, and the only fate that awaited that congressman was impeachment and eternal condemnation.

    "I am a nk te, and I hope that I will be thest nk te. Tragedies like this should not happen. Everyone has the right to live their own lives, and our bodies can only belong to us."

    The image of Adam with his fist raised aloft on the television screen was one that became an evesting memory in the minds of many.

    "We can''t allow him to stick around any longer. Otherwise, he''ll eventuallye after us."

 Chapter 458: Adam Eradication Plan

    <h4>Chapter 458: Adam Eradication n</h4>

    The subject of how to take out Mayoral Candidate Adam without stirring up excessive controversy had be an extremely important problem in the eyes of many prominent figures.

    They had only ever taken world-scale events seriously, and never had they even considered that an insignificant rogue nk te would ever pose a serious threat to them.

    Right now, that insignificant little pawn had promoted into a queen and be a formidable force to be reckoned with,pletely throwing all of their ns into disarray.

    "Is there really no way to take him out of the picture? In other words, is this group of yours so worthless that we''ll have to turn to someone else to address this matter?"

    At this moment, ke was standing before an official member of the Guild of Immortality. They had the same youthful appearance, but ke knew that he was standing in front of someone who was most definitely over 100 years of age.

    Immortality was such an enviable thing, allowing one to enjoy the pleasure of controlling the entire world and countless other pleasures for the rest of eternity.

    ke didn''t even dare to look directly at the person before him as he replied in a respectful voice, "If I''m given sufficient authority, as in absolute authority over the crisis group''s decision-making and allocation of personnel and resources..."

    The member of the Guild of Immortality didn''t even wait for him to finish before giving a dismissive wave of his hand and promptly departing.

    Despite the fact that ke was overstepping the boundaries of his authority, the member of the Guild of Immortality instructed, "Give him whatever he wants, all I want to see are results, and I want to see them as soon as possible."

    "Yes, sir."

    There was naturally someone to ry his instructions in greater detail,ying out exactly what rights and privileges ke was going to be entitled to in the crisis group from this point onward.

    An empire of power was never one that was built solely on money and status. Instead, its foundationid in its control over inner mechanisms that dictated the operation of the entire human world.

    They had monopolized everything, and they had to ensure that nothing could disrupt the normal operation of their empire. This was a veryplex system, and it was something that ke had nevere into contact with before.

    However, he had been granted this opportunity now, and he had Adam to thank for reaching a position that would''ve otherwise taken him over a decade of toil to get to.

    ke maintained a calm facade, but as soon as he returned to the crisis group, his demeanorpletely changed.

    He resembled the alpha wolf of the pack as he expelled several idiots out of the group, then injected arge volume of resources while also connecting with many powerful external organizations. Most importantly, he changed the group''s name to the Adam Eradication Group and also established the first n.

    On the third day after Adam revealed his own identity as a nk te, a voter question and answer session was held at the election center, and among the many questions asked, one of them was as follows:

    "Mr. Adam, you''ve already fulfilled your earlier promises and shown us hope and a glimpse into a better future, but there''s still yet more darkness in our world. Will you continue to fight for us?"

    Everyone knew that the election was nothing more than a game to the elite upper ss of society. The mayor of Sandrise City wasparable in status to the president, but even they still had to abide by the wishes of the powerful figures behind the scenes and their financial backers.

    For a mayoral candidate who hade from a humble background like Adam, being elected as mayor would catapult him straight into the ranks of the elite upper ss. He had already done so much for the people that even if he were topletely stop after being elected, the voters wouldn''t have been able to do anything to him.

    Adam understood these concerns, and he replied in an earnest manner, "Regardless of whether I am elected or not, I will continue to fight for the people, doing everything in my power to uphold what is fair and just. That is something that will never change."

    "Thank you so much, Mr. Adam."

    The voter who had raised the question was so moved by this response they almost burst into tears, and theytched onto his hand for a long while, unwilling to let go.

    This entire process was live streamed on the inte, and it had won Adam a great deal of praise.

    Meanwhile, at the Adam Eradication Group, ke nodded to himself with a pleased expression before issuing a new order.

    After no more than an hour, an anonymous message was sent to the election center''s email. Of course, it was among countless messages sent by voters, but this one contained a? great deal of content, as well as a veryrge attachment.

    Due to the filters that Adam had set in ce, this email was quickly pushed to the front of the queue, and it was marked red, so his team of secretaries immediately spotted it, then presented it to him after a manual evaluation.

    "The sender of the message specifically requested for you to see it, and the attachment has been downloaded and confirmed to not be carrying any viruses, but..."

    The secretary''s voice trailed off here, but their concerns were very apparent. The content of the message was definitely not going to be innocuous, and it could negatively impact the entire election.

    "Let me take a look," Adam said with a calm smile, then immediately opened the email and began to read through it without any hesitation.

    The email contained data that a voter had copied from an internal database at the risk of their life, and it concerned another mega corporation in the form of the Gaia Organization.

    <i>I can already guess what information this data contains. </i>

    Just as he expected, the attachment contained a bunch of scattered information regarding the Metaverse and its immortality feature. The core of the attachment consisted of a report that had been submitted by a certain technical director to their superior, stating that the immortality project had already run out of storage space, and a request was being made for more.

    The response from the superior was extremely cold and callous: "Raise thepression ratio and only retain the basic logic data and dynamic expression. Connect all of the memory bodies to the central artificial intelligence material library and randomly generate their responses in real time using the cloudwork. Limit the number of times family members can visit their deceased rtives in the Metaverse. Tally the frequency of their visits and raise the data storage and interaction fees."

    In summary, not only were they furtherpressing these cyberliches to minimize storage demands, they were also raising the prices for people to visit their deceased rtives in the Metaverse, thereby further extorting the people who were already working themselves to the bone.

    This was the exact same situation as the one that Adam had seen in Liu Shouyi''s memories.

    Was this coincidence or was there really an invisible, omnipotent hand controlling everything from the shadows? In any case, given the contents of this message and the deration that he had just made, he now had no choice but to target the Gaia Organization.

    "So this is the trap they''ve set for me," Adam chuckled to himself.

    To someone else, perhaps this would''ve truly been quite a devious trap.

    If he were to take action, then he would have to make an enemy out of the Gaia Organization, which was the biggest corporation in the entire world. He had only just be a target of the Guild of Immortality, and the Gaia Organization was going to be no less formidable a foe.

    However, if he were to back down, then he would be going against every promise that he had made up to this point, thereby undoing all of his prior efforts. Hence, he had no choice but to forge ahead.

    Adam forwarded the email to Cowboy and May, then also sent a secret message to Raven through the dark web. May was in the process of tackling the nk te production chain, and she was far from pleased with this development.

    "Why are you so insistent on getting yourself killed as soon as possible?"

    As for Cowboy, he replied to Adam''s message with a statement of approval on Wax Figure''s behalf, giving him full freedom to do as he saw fit. They were already too deeply invested in Adam at this point to turn back.

    Raven''s message arrived a littleter, but it was still before the deadlineid out by Adam, and it was a very concise response: "As you wish."

    Thus, on the same afternoon, no more than two hours after the email was read, Adam revealed the contents of the email to the entire inte, while also dering that he was officially going to beunching an investigation into the Gaia Organization and all of its subsidiary branches in Sandrise City.

    The inte was stirred up into a frenzy once again.

 Chapter 459: Thrive in the Face of Death

    <h4>Chapter 459: Thrive in the Face of Death</h4>

    "Is he insane, or is his ego so inted that he thinks he can keep scoring victories like this?"

    This was a question that had sprung into the minds of countless people who were scrutinizing Adam from the shadows. They werepletely incredulous that he was tackling another powerful enemy while the battle at hand hadn''t even been won yet, and in their eyes, this was no different frommitting suicide!

    Some of the voters who were truly concerned for him were repeatedly cautioning him to be more patient and prudent, instead of simply rushing full steam ahead.

    "No one has ever been willing to go so far for us, so you''ve already done more than enough, and certainly far more than we could''ve ever imagined. It''s about time you got to enjoy your life for once."

    All humans had desires that had to be fulfilled, and the general public didn''t want to see Adam be a saint who waspletely detached from humanity. That would only make them fear him and to distance themselves from him.

    Adam was already the best mayoral candidate that the city had ever seen.

    There was also a tiny fraction of the general public who harbord ulterior motives, or didn''t care whether Adam lived or died, or were social anarchists who only wanted to see the world go up in mes, and they were cheering Adam on enthusiastically, hoping that he would make even faster progress.

    In their eyes, the ideal situation would be for Adam to kill all of the wealthy and powerful individuals in the world so that all of the wealth could be evenly distributed among everyone.

    These people certainly didn''tprise the majority, but they were an extremely vocal minority, and their voices were intentionally being pushed to the forefront by those pulling the strings behind the scenes.

    The Adam Eradication Group had already dedicated an enormous amount of resources into amplifying the voices of these social anarchists, and their objective was to push Adam toward an unattainable pedestal so that he would inevitably fall.

    The media corporations under the umbres of the Kim Group and the northern congress had all been trying to silence these voices to different extents, but they weren''t able to make much of an impact on the situation.

    It seemed that Adam had truly be so full of himself that he was more than happy to make more powerful enemies, and ke was ecstatic to see this, but also a little perplexed and uneasy.

    He felt as if he had drawn the best possible hand in a poker game, and he would win no matter how he yed his cards.

    <i>Is he really so conceited that he would knowingly step into such an obvious trap? </i>

    People like ke didn''t believe that there were true idealists in this world who would be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others and the greater good.

    Hence, he was very suspicious of Adam''s actions, and he was meticulously pondering whether there was something that he had missed in his n.

    The next day, Adam and his team of special psychic police officers arrived on the border of Shadow City, escorted by a group of Mechguard units. There, they received Liu Shouyi, who had been held prisoner by Crocodile this entire time.

    "You''ve be a real bigshot now. I hope your run of good luck continues and you live to the end."

    This was clearly a malicious "blessing" from Crocodile, who was very happy to have finally received the final payment and been freed from the burden that was Liu Shouyi. Meanwhile, Liu Shouyi was still rather dazed and confused,pletely oblivious to how he had suddenly be amodity for a transaction.

    After catching a clear glimpse of Adam''s face, some memories suddenly flooded back into his mind, and he immediately tried to flee in rm.

    However, he had already fallen under the supervision of Mechguard, so every single move that he made was being closely monitored.

    Independent media content creators like Shivani weren''t the only ones that had been following Adam this entire time. Instead, many of therge mainstream media outlets were also watching eagerly to see what he was going to do next, yet after making such a big fuss, all he did was arrest a single person, one who appeared to have been quite ordinary, and everyone couldn''t help but wonder if he was just putting on a show.

    However, Adam then revealed Liu Shouyi''s identity.

    He was a former technician at the Gaia Organization, and in order to conserve storage space, he had personallypressed the memory bodies of countless deceased individuals in the Metaverse, contributing to the enormous immortality scam.

    Liu Shouyi knew that he was in no position to resist, and heplied obediently, revealing everything that he knew to the camera, including even some tidbits of information in his memories that Adam had deemed to be unimportant.

    It seemed that he had been tormented by simr interrogations while being held by Crocodile and his gang.

    It was very simple to verify the authenticity of his ims. The Gaia Organization had only fired him, but his file hadn''t been destroyed, and prior to setting off to Shadow City, Adam had already secured some materials that could be used as indirect evidence through public avenues.

    As for the rest of the criminal activities of the Gaia Organization, that would be left for the general public to dig up, and he had alreadypleted his objective of shedding light on this matter.

    <i>So he really is dering war on the Gaia Organization, and he''snding a lethal blow from the get-go! </i>

    ke was astonished by what he was witnessing. He had never seen anyone do things like this before. It seemed that Adam wasn''t going to rest until either he died or those at the very top of the pyramid werepletely brought down.

    Even his allies, including May and Cowboy, hadn''t anticipated that he had already made such extensive preparations and would strike so quickly and aggressively.

    <i>We''re in trouble now. I don''t even know how to help him anymore. The Gaia Organization is even more troublesome to deal with than the Guild of Immortality. </i>

    The Guild of Immortality possessed enormous overall power, but due to the fact that it consisted of the vast majority of the figures at the very top of the world, no one was willing to concede inferiority to anyone else, so it was possible to target the guild''s members one by one.

    However, the Gaia Organization was different in that it was a super corporation that controlled the Metaverse, so its decision-making was more flexible and decisive, and it was more direct and brutal in the way that it did things.

    Following a discussion between Cowboy, Wax Figure, and Commander, they decided that there wasn''t really anything they could do aside from to dedicate more resources to protecting Adam, and as a safety precaution, it was best for him not to visit the Metaverse anytime soon.

    If he were to enter the Metaverse, he would bepletely at the mercy of those in power at the Gaia Organization. Adam thanked everyone for looking out for him, then led a team of people to crack down on the nearest branch of the Gaia Organization.

    The datapression immortality scam was one that affected the entire world, so he could begin his crusade against it anywhere.

    In response to his usations, the Gaia Organization had released a public statement, announcing that Adam''s ims were fake news, that he had used psychic maniption techniques on a past employee of the organization, or he had simply found a disgruntled employee of the organization and was using him to further his own political campaign.

    It was a very standard way of counteracting controversy, and Adam wasn''t able to gather any concrete supporting evidence from his surprise search of the Gaia Organization branch. In the meantime, the enemy crosshairs were beginning to hone in on him.

    Raven had sent him a message over the dark web:

    "Someone''s offering an astronomical reward of a billion dors for your head in the Shadow City ck market. To be honest, even I''m a little tempted toe after you."

    This appeared to have been nothing more than a joke from Raven, but Adam knew that it was very much possible that Raven could betray him. However, a mary award alone most likely wasn''t enough to truly tempt him.

    "''My sources tell me that Hebi no Miko has already left Japan. Some say she''s hired to exact vengeance for Masao Yamamoto, and others are saying she''s been hired specifically to hunt you down," Raven''s message continued.

    <i>So Hebi no Miko is finally showing up again. </i>

    Raven was unable to provide further information as even he had no way of tracking that deranged woman, and he certainly couldn''t predict what she was going to do next.

    Adam immediately notified those around him, particrly Shae and Diana, to remain by his side for at least the near future as he didn''t trust anyone else for their protection.

    Sure enough, it didn''t take long before what Adam feared the most arrived. The very next morning, Adam received a call from none other than Hebi no Miko.

    "Come to the veterinary hospital in half an hour. You know which one I''m referring to. Don''t bring any helpers aside from those two women. Otherwise, your three little friends won''t be alive for much longer."

 Chapter 460: Dire Situation

    <h4>Chapter 460: Dire Situation</h4>

    "Don''t go!"

    The first person to try and stop Adam was his electoral advisor, Toshiyuki Matsumara.

    "You''ve finally made it to a position where you''re all but assured to win the election, intentionally putting yourself in harm''s way at a time like this will be an extremely irresponsible gesture to all of your supporters and staff! Most importantly, you still haven''t fulfilled your promises to your financial backers!

    He was trying to speak in as tactful a tone as possible, but the underlying threat in his words was very apparent.

    Toshiyuki Matsumara was a representative of the northern congress, and Adam also had other backers who had invested enormous amounts of resources into him, and those investments couldn''t be allowed to fall through.

    He was trying to stop Adam instead of allowing him to take risks as he had done in the past due to the sensitive nature of Hebi no Miko''s identity. This was an extremely powerful and unpredictable woman that was to be avoided at all costs.

    Furthermore, she was extorting Adam by threatening the lives of the psychic mutant trio, and it was very likely that a trap had been set. Adam listened to Toshiyuki Matsumara''s advice, but ultimately refused to heed it.

    "Backing down now will be the ultimate gesture of irresponsibility to everyone. I have to go, I have to save my friends, and Hebi no Miko must die."

    Adam had never been so furious before.

    Hebi no Miko was threatening him with the lives of those close to him, and he couldn''t afford to back down. If he were to cower once, then it would be perceived as a sign of weakness, and all of the people closest to him would be targeted one after another.

    Toshiyuki Matsumara was aware of this, but the election was his top priority. If Adam could sessfully be elected as mayor, Toshiyuki Matsumara would''ve dly sent out Mechguard units to bomb that entire area of buildings and kill both Hebi no Miko and her hostages.

    Adam wasted no further time with words as he informed everyone of the situation and told the mto make preparations, then set off for the veterinary hospital in a maic suspension car.

    Toshiyuki Matsumara heaved a forlorn sigh, but there was a hint of admiration in his eyes. He wasn''t a cold and emotionless politician, and he hoped that if he were to be a hostage someday, there would also be a hero toe and save him.

    <i>The problem is that heroes usually don''t get good endings. </i>

    He forgave himself for caving just this once. If Adam could make a safe and triumphant return, then he would give Adam his full and unreserved support. The second person who attempted to stop Adam was May, but by the time she arrived, it was already toote.

    Eliminating someone like Hebi no Miko would be immensely beneficial to her pawn shop, but unfortunately, the time simply wasn''t right.

    She wasn''t expecting to be able to dissuade Adam, so in the end, she could only give him some words of advice.

    "Don''t think any unnecessary thoughts when you go into battle against that woman. Just treat it like the final battle of your life and give it everything you have."

    Adam knew that this was sound advice as Hebi no Miko was different from other psychic mutants.

    Other psychic mutants underwent psychic mutation as a result of their personality and experiences altering their psychic world, ultimately ridding them of their capacity for rational thought.

    However, Hebi no Miko was different. She was born with immense psychic power, and there was no one that she couldn''t or didn''t dare to kill. She did anything that she pleased, and she felt no guilt or remorse over her actions.

    Negative emotions for the average person only served as fuel for her to attain more power.

    Up to this point, Adam had faced her in battle on several asions, and all of those asions had shown him that this woman was most definitely the most formidable opponent that he had ever faced.

    It wasn''t necessarily the case that she was an adapter of a higher caliber than Masao Yamamoto or May. Instead, what made her so dangerous was her ability to go all-out in battle without any inhibitions.

    During psychic battles, one''s imagination and psychic power were the keys to their offensive prowess and destructive capabilities. Aside from Hebi no Miko and the director, Adam couldn''t think of anyone else who was at this level, so indeed, the best course of action for him was to think as little as possible and fight with everything that he had.

    Meanwhile, almost all of the powerful adapters of the northern congress, including Cowboy, were being attacked by formidable foes, so none of them were able to provide him with any assistance.

    "I''m sorry, brother, but you''re gonna have to get through this on your own. It looks like you really have hit them where it hurts this time. Having said that, there''s a bright side to all of this. If you can weather this storm, then the worst will surely be behind you."

    .

    Adam had noints. If he were the one enacting this n, he would''ve definitely also ensured that no reinforcements could interfere.

    Ultimately, one had to rely on oneself.

    Adam had never felt so calm before, and using his specialw enforcement privileges as a special psychic police officer, he was able to travel well above the speed limit all the way to the veterinary hospital in Area 47.

    Thunderbird and the others were going to send some Mechguard units as reinforcementster to eliminate all of the potential enemies in the surrounding area, while Diana had already arrived on the scene, and she only had one thing to request.

    "Let me have a go at her first."

    Diana and Hebi no Miko were mutual sworn enemies with a blood vendetta between them, so there was nothing to be said. Furthermore, Diana wasn''t able to make much further progress through visualization alone. In order to improve, she had to break through her mental boundaries in battle, and Hebi no Miko was the ideal target for her.

    Adam chose to respect her decision.

    Shae arrived on the scene right in the nick of time, and she was so tensed up that her entire body was trembling. Perhaps she would''ve felt excited to face any other opponent, but when it came to Hebi no Miko, she felt nothing but fear.

    "Don''t be afraid, it won''t do you any good. Just go all-out once we get in there."

    There was nothing else to be said, and after taking a nce at the deserted surroundings, it was clear to Adam that the enemy had already cleared out the area in advance, perhaps by evacuating everyone, or simply by eliminating all innocent bystanders by force.

    "Let''s go."

    Adam led the way toward the veterinary hospital, and as soon as he entered a 100-meter radius of the building, a powerful electromaic wave suddenly erupted through the air, disabling all of the electronics in the area.

    The drones that were circling around up above were instantly struck down as a result.

    His prosthetics were equipped to resist such attacks, so they weren''tpletely disabled, but they were temporarily unable to function.

    Right at this moment, a powerful neuron transmitter signal proliferated outward in all directions from the veterinary hospital, instantly dragging Adam''s trio into Hebi no Miko''s psychic world.

    Even before he had a chance to inspect his surroundings, Adam immediately invoked all of his most powerful anomalies while fusing with Mummy. At the same time, Hellhound fused with Shae, while Sludge positioned itself directly in front of them to ward off oing attacks.

    However, to his surprise, they weren''t immediately met with a ferocious assault.

    After taking a nce at his surroundings, he discovered that he was inside the veterinary hospital. Sludge was so tall that it had plunged through the roof, and the hall that they were in had beenpletely cleared out with the exception of three transparent blocks of ice positioned next to one another.

    Mole, Armadillo, and Rabbit were sealed within the blocks of ice. Their bodies werepletely immobilized, but they were able to move their mouths and eyes, and they were even able to speak.

    "Run, Adam! That woman is insane! She''s doing this to embarrass you!"

    "Don''t fall into her trap, Adam! Even if we''re going to die, we won''t allow ourselves to be used as tools to extort you!"

    Right at this moment, Hebi no Miko''s voice rang out from up above.

    "If you want to save them, then smash open these ice coffins!"

 Chapter 461: Dianas Moment to Shine

    <h4>Chapter 461: Diana''s Moment to Shine</h4>

    Adam didn''t believe a single word that came out of Hebi no Miko''s mouth, and he immediately instructed Sludge to swivel around while swinging its arms through the air like a pair of battering rams to destroy the entire building.

    Sure enough, as soon as the building was demolished, it was revealed that they were inside a massive undergroundboratory.

    In this space, all of their heights had been proportionately shrunk down. Alternatively, it could also be said that the space had been erged. In any case, the area was extremely vast and spacious.

    However, the environment was extremely cold and bleak with ice-cold mist permeating through the air and hundreds of ice coffins arranged all the way into the distance. All of them were ced vertically with red warning lights shing from their surfaces, and it was impossible to see exactly what they contained.

    However, they definitely didn''t contain anything good, and right at this moment, Hebi no Miko''s voice rang out across the entire hall again.

    "Congrattions on passing the first level. Now, you get to see the ce where I grew up. Isn''t it a little familiar?"

    Hebi no Miko was a super spy with immensebat prowess that was matched by her tactical nous and cunning, so Adam knew that he had to expect her to y tricks on him in her own psychic world.

    However, using her past experiences to try and disrupt his thoughts and emotions wasn''t something that he had expected.

    <i>Could it be that due to Masao Yamamoto''s death, she''s be more wary of me and decided on a more cautious strategy? No, that''s definitely not it! </i>

    This definitely wasn''t Hebi no Miko''s n. Instead, it had to have been a n devised for her by the people who had requested her toe after him.

    With that in mind, Adam unfurled his bandages and dragged Diana and Shae behind him. Both of them were also feeling rather disoriented by the changing environment.

    "Don''t be affected by her strategy. Otherwise, you run the risk of falling into her trap," Adam cautioned while invoking Clown, which instantly conjured up hundreds of clones that began firing indiscriminately at the ice coffins in theboratory, seeminglypletely unconcerned about the prospect of friendly fire.

    Amid the rapid string of gunfire and explosions, one ice coffin after another was destroyed, revealing the nude human bodies inside. Almost all of them were familiar faces to Adam, including both enemies and allies, and there were even voter representatives of his.

    The familiar figures were presented to him one after another in an attempt to sway his emotions, but the n wasn''t very effective.

    <i>What a childish little trick.</i>

    Adam didn''t even bat an eyelid as he looked on with a cold expression, watching all of the people within the ice coffins being pulverized and destroyed.

    The figures within the ice coffins didn''t possess any offensive prowess, and they were quickly reduced to masses of blood and mangled flesh that flowed all over the ground, presenting a harrowing sight to behold.

    Adam allowed the remnants of their bodies toe up all the way to his ankles as he looked up with a cold expression and dered, "Your tricks aren''t going to work on me, so let''s cut to the chase!"

    "But that would be so boring! I really want to see you suffer and grovel, and there are also many other people who want to see whether there''s a sniveling little boy behind that brave facade of yours!"

    Her voice soundedpletely deranged, yet there was an extremely strong sense of purpose to her words, and this was clearly some type of advanced verbal strategy.

    Adam knew that his allies had miscalcted. His enemies had already joined forces in secret, and they had even convinced Hebi no Miko toply with them to a certain extent, setting up illusions like this to test his mental fortitude while observing his reactions and determine his personality traits, as well as to secure some footage that they could potentially use against him.

    Adam couldn''t help but wonder if it was the Gaia Organization behind this, or someone else, or abination of the two.

    ].

    Such a direct way of exacting vengeance didn''t seem like a course of action that the Guild of Immortality would adopt.

    In any case, no matter who it was that was behind this, he was going to make them pay!

    All of a sudden, Adam withdrew Clown, then instructed Diana to expand her body through psychicmunication.

    Diana duly obliged, taking on her enormous ck dragon form before destroying the surrounding building, then quickly shrank back down and allowed herself to be wrapped up in Adam''s bandages.

    In the blink of an eye, the surrounding environment changed once again, and they found themselves in a modern city of steel and concrete.

    This was an environment that everyone was familiar with, and they were situated on the rooftop of a pair of twin skyscrapers. If Adam hadn''t anticipated this in advance, the three of them would''ve been very likely to have beenpletely separated, leaving them vulnerable to be struck down by Hebi no Miko one by one.

    Hebi no Miko finally appeared, standing on top of the opposing skyscraper over 100 meters away.

    She was wearing a Japanese kimono that was riddled with embroidered flowers, giving her the appearance of an elegant gentlewoman.

    However, there was a deranged smile on her face, and her gaze was as sharp as a de, transmitting a type of strange energy to all those in her line of sight.

    "Let me take her on!"

    Diana wasted no time with words as she took on her giant dragon before springing up into the sky.

    Her heart was filled with hatred toward Hebi no Miko and the determination to fight to the death, allowing her to break through her past limits, causing her body to swell to close to 200 meters in length.

    As she spread her wings, the entire sky seemed to have fallen dark, and she let loose a thunderous roar as a massive hexagram appeared directly above her.

    The hexagram had a diameter in excess of 100 meters, and at its center was an inky-ck vortex that copsed inward before releasing a vast expanse of light, producing an enormous ck ball in the blink of an eye.

    The ball had been forced out of the vortex, and it was almostrger than the entire hexagram. The enormous ball of ck light instantly devoured all of the surrounding light, to the point that the sky had fallenpletely dark, making it impossible to see Diana.

    A burst of indescribably powerful suction force arose, and all of the buildings in a radius of several kilometers began to tremble violently as countless cars, trashcans, chairs, and other misceneous items were drawn up into the sky before being sucked into the ball of light.

    After that came the streetlights, trees, and the outer walls of the surrounding buildings, all of which disintegrated before being swept up into the sky.

    Diana was disying power far beyond her past limits, and Shae was astonished as she eximed, "How did she be so powerful all of a sudden?"

    Adam shook his head in response, wondering the same thing himself.

    He could clearly sense that in this instant, Diana was disying power equivalent to a level eight anomaly, and she was also giving off a sense of authority that she had never disyed before.

    <i>Is this an oue of her visualization, or has she ovee some type of mental barrier? </i>

    In the blink of an eye, everything in the surrounding area had been sucked into the ball of ck light, and some of the wooden buildings were beginning to copse.

    At this rate, given enough time, she could destroy close to half of the entire city.

    Hebi no Miko looked up at Diana, and for the first time, the mockery and derision on her face faded as she pressed down onto the skyscraper beneath her feet to prevent it from being sucked away. At this point, all of the windows and outer walls of the skyscraper had already been shattered, but the resulting shrapnel wasn''t being allowed to rise up into the sky.

    "Looks like I underestimated you in the past, but I won''t make the same mistake twice. Here Ie!"

    All of the sharpanel quickly converged to form an enormous de as she spoke before piercing viciously toward Diana''s belly.

 Chapter 462: All-out Battle

    <h4>Chapter 462: All-out Battle</h4>

    As soon as Hebi no Miko sprang into action, Adam also entered the fray.

    There was no way that he was going to just stand by and watch Diana face Hebi no Miko on her own, and this was never supposed to have been a fair battle to begin with.

    However, he had only just instructed Sludge to spring up and attack Hebi no Miko when she pointed a finger in his direction, releasing a thick bolt of lightning that crashed into Sludge and sent it flying back through the air.

    "Don''t jump the gun, little boy. It''s not your turn yet!"

    Just that single attack alone was enough to char Sludge''s entire body ck, and its defensive prowess was severelypromised. A casual attack from Hebi no Miko was alreadyparable in power to an all-out strike from Masao Yamamoto.

    As a psychic mutant, she had very few mental inhibitions, and as a result, she was able to tap into her full potential, thereby granting her more power.

    Meanwhile, Hebi no Miko''s giant de was about to strike Diana, but thetter instantly released a pir of draconic mes out of her mouth, melting the giant de into molten liquid.

    Immediately thereafter, the ck ball of light came crashing down from above, having devoured to its full capacity.

    It was imbued with indescribable power, resembling a tiny that was capable of warping light, maic fields, and even warping one''s psychic perception.

    Hebi no Miko was situated directly under the ball of ck light, but she remainedpletely unfazed as she raised her hands up high, conjuring up a mountain that was several hundred meters tall and as thin as a sword to oppose the ck ball.

    Most importantly, the mountain obstructed Adam''s vision, making it impossible to determine Hebi no Miko''s location.

    This was a signature earth-attribute ability of Yamata no Orochi''s, and the fact that Hebi no Miko was able to unleash these devastating abilities at will while still in her human form indicated that this was not going to be an easy battle for Adam''s trio.

    The ck ball had umted an incredible amount of power, and it instantly shattered half of the mountain below it upon contact. However, it was also torn open during the sh, sending tremendous destructive power raining down upon Hebi no Miko and the skyscraper beneath her.

    <i>Boom! </i>

    The skyscraper that Adam was standing on was also trembling violently as if it could copse at any moment, and he hurriedly reinforced it with more of his bandages so that he could maintain a stable footing.

    In the wake of the ck light, the building up ahead waspletely destroyed, leaving a seemingly bottomless pit in its ce. In the next instant, a wave of scorching heat erupted out of the pit, followed by a pir ofva, as if a volcanic eruption had taken ce.

    This attack was already no less powerful than the one that Hebi no Miko had just unleashed.

    Of course, this wasn''t enough to kill Hebi no Miko, and in the next instant, she appeared in mid-air with a mocking sneer on her face.

    "It seems like you''ve been working hard recently, but even an attack of this magnitude wasn''t able to hurt me. What are you going to do now?"

    Diana looked down at Hebi no Miko with apletely emotionless look in her eyes as she continued to umte power.

    In order to assist her, Adam immediately invoked Clown, which conjured up its army of clones that spread out across the entire battlefield to attack Hebi no Miko from afar, trying to distract and frustrate her.

    At the same time, he invoked Ogress for scouting purposes, but it had only just risen up into the air before it was struck down by a bolt of lightning.

    He then invoked Nun to unleash its Fountain of Contamination into the volcanic crater down below, and it immediately evaporated into toxic mist that rose up into the air, permeating throughout an area with a radius of several kilometers.

    Of course, this toxic mist wasn''t going to be enough to harm Hebi no Miko, but it could obstruct her vision and buy him more time to unleash other abilities.

    Hebi no Miko immediately released a burst of cial energy, which reacted with the scorching heat in the air to produce a massive downpour of rain. Due to the toxic mist in the air, the rain was instantly converted into acid rain that further eroded all of the destroyed buildings, causing them to copse one after another.

    This was exactly what Adam was waiting for, and he instantly invoked Horse Face, which began to create its Lamenting Wall artwork in the wreckage of the city.

    This was Hebi no Miko''s psychic world, so Adam didn''t know what she could''ve been plotting in secret, and he had to be prepared for everything.

    Right at this moment, Hebi no Miko unleashed another attack, and countless arcs of light emerged within the storm before transforming into a forest lightning, further destroying the already severely ravagedndscape down below.

    The Lamenting Wall didn''t even get a chance to take shape before it was destroyed.

    This was the main drawback of the ability. It required time to set up, so it could easily be cut off by a powerful opponent.

    Hebi no Miko was cackling incessantly within the forest of lightning.

    "I know all of your abilities like the back of my hand, so if you don''t have anything new to show me, then all of you are going to die here!"

    Adam wasn''t surprised at all to hear this. He had conducted extensive research into Hebi no Miko, so it only made sense that she would''ve done her homework on him as well, and he had been forced to reveal all of his abilities during his battle against Masao Yamamoto, so it was no surprise at all that Hebi no Miko knew everything about him.

    However, that still wasn''t enough to dent his confidence.

    He still had certain trump cards up his sleeve, but this wasn''t the time to be using them. Adam was quite suspicious about whether this was actually Hebi no Miko''s true body, so he had to keep probing.

    Meanwhile, Diana had also finished charging up power for her second powerful attack.

    Her enormous body was trembling slightly as she raised her head to the heavens, and a burst of light could be seen rapidly rising up from her belly to her neck.

    She pped her wings vigorously as she took aim at Hebi no Miko, then opened her mouth to release a beam of dazzling light that was traveling at an extraordinary speed.

    This was the most powerful form of her draconic fire, with the mes being converted into a particle beam, and its speed and destructive power were both tremendous.

    Hebi no Miko raised a hand to conjure up a wall of ice that was around a dozen meters thick, but the particle beam was able to punch right through it without trouble at all.

    Immediately thereafter came a wall of earth, which onlysted a few milliseconds before also being destroyed.

    After that was a swirling vortex of wind, but after being swept up into the vortex, the particle beam''s power was only enhanced.

    The final barrier was a condensed fireball that was glowing just as brightly as the particle beam, and it intercepted the particle beam several dozen meters above Hebi no Miko before exploding violently.

    The explosion was no less formidable than that of a nuclear warhead, and shockwaves that were visible even to the naked eye erupted in all directions, liquefying everything in their path.

    A dazzling halo of destruction appeared, epassing an area with a radius of over a kilometer, presenting a stunningly beautiful sight to behold.

    Hebi no Miko was too close to the explosion, and her body was instantly vaporized, but Adam didn''t detect any psychic disturbance, so she definitely wasn''t dead.

    In that case, where had she gone?

    A few seconds after the light from the explosion faded, tworge redntern suddenly appeared in the sky, each of which was around a foot in size. It was a pair of glowing red eyes that were surveying the earth, and Hebi no Miko''s Yamata no Orochi form was finally revealed.

 Chapter 463: World-destroying Wall

    <h4>Chapter 463: World-destroying Wall</h4>

    Just a single head of Yamata no Orochi was enough to fill Adam''s entire field of view, and it was difficult to imagine just how enormous its entire eight-headed body was.

    The light that was radiating from its eyes was filled with a type of evil power that struck the beholder with a sense of awe and veneration, then flooded their minds with all types of irrepressible deranged thoughts and desires.

    Shae had never witnessed anything like this before, and a sense of fear welled up in her heart, causing her to involuntarily shudder and almost separate herself from Hellhound.

    "Do we really stand a chance of defeating such a formidable enemy?"

    If she had a choice in the matter, she wouldn''t havee here. A battle of this caliber was far beyond anything that she could make a difference in.

    "If she had remained hidden the entire time, I wouldn''t have been able to do anything to her, but now that she''s revealed herself, our victory is sealed."

    It seemed as if Adam were stating a fact rather than trying to encourage hispanions, and Hebi no Miko''s enormous head instantly erupted intoughter upon hearing this.

    "Your victory is sealed? What are you going to beat me with? Your invoked entities? Or do you think this little dragon here is enough to beat me on her own?"

    Diana wasted no time with words as she spread her and circled around in the air to reach her maximum speed, then hurtled directly toward Hebi no Miko''s serpentine head like a small mountain.

    From down below, it appeared that the head was even more massive than her entire body.

    "That''s just a psychic projection. Her true body definitely isn''t that huge," Adam remarked, seeing through the facade thanks to his sharp telegnosis.

    However, there wasn''t much point to that observation. Even though this was a projection, it still stemmed from reality, and it wasn''t purely an illusion as it was formed by Hebi no Miko''s psychic power.

    Diana plowed straight into Hebi no Miko''s head with indescribable power in a kamikaze attack, and the sound of metal shing against metal rang out in the sky, while a flurry of sparks appeared to illuminate both of them.

    The serpentine head instantly lost most of its size, and very clear signs of damage had appeared on her glossy ck scales. Furthermore, the damage was taking a bit longer to recover than normal.

    "Keep going, Diana! Your power is having a very strong impact on her!" Adam called out from down below while instructing Sludge to liquefy and reform.

    At the same time, Hellhound unleashed its Infernal Howl several times in session at his behest to elerate the healing of his wounded anomalies.

    Horse Face reappeared within the toxic mist and quicklypleted its Lamenting Wall, which rapidly spread in all directions, covering virtually the entire battlefield in the span of no more than a few seconds.

    <i>That should be enough. </i>

    Meanwhile, Diana continued tosh out ferociously, unleashing a series of attacks with her ws, fangs, and her draconic breath.

    The serpentine head was finally sessfully provoked by the attacks, opening its mouth to release a jet of poison. At the same time, another head appeared beside it, and it was releasing a pir of mes to attack Diana from the other side.

    However, it only took an instant for Diana to fly out of the barrage of poison and fire, and ayer of light shed over the surface of her ravaged scales, as if the divine power in her body had been forced to the fore.

    The tips of her ws were shimmering with golden light as they bore into scales of the serpentine head that was releasing fire out of its mouth, and a massive hole was torn open, sending blood that was alight with poisonous mes gushing forth in a frenzy.

    The massive serpent roared with pain as its body shrank down once again, and at the same time, two more heads emerged to attack Diana with lightning and des of wind. Countless gashes were instantly sliced into Diana''s entire body before those gashes were charred ck by arcs of lightning.

    Hellhound continued to let loose Infernal Howls with all its might, drawing upon Adam''s psychic power to provide healing for Diana.

    Diana''s ferocious assault quickly forced out all of Yamata no Orochi''s heads, as well as the entirety of its body.

    The ground beneath Adam''s feet began to quake violently, and the skyscrapers in the distance copsed one after another, following which the entire earth began to slowly rise up, then shattered to reveal ayer of glossy ck scales.

    The entire city was being forcibly split open by Yamata no Orochi''s sheer mass!

    As a result, the Lamenting Wall was essentially sitting right on the surface of its body.

    This enormous body was also nothing more than a projection, and it was expanding and contracting at Hebi no Miko''s behest. All of the fragments of the shattered buildings were carrying its body like a vast cloud, clinging to it without disappearing or falling away.

    Adam wrapped his bandages around half of the skyscraper beneath him so that he would have some stable footing, as well as to ensure that Horse Face had a solid foundation from which it could continue to expand its Lamenting Wall.

    Adam was determined to match Yamata no Orochi''s enormous size with his Lamenting Wall.

    Finally, the constant tremors stopped, and the entire city had transformed into a swirling sea of filth. Yamata no Orochi had stabilized itself at a length of close to a kilometer, and it was swimming through the sea of filth.

    In contrast, Diana was made to look like a tiny little bird, and her entire body wasn''t even as thick as one of Yamata no Orochi''s necks.

    This was the extent of what Diana could do, and as Yamata no Orochi let loose a thunderous roar and unleashed its World''s End Lightning, Diana waspletely swallowed by a forest of lightning before plummeting out of the sky with dense ck smoke rising up from its body.

    During her fall, she reverted back to her human form, and her injuries were so severe that she was unable to move.

    Adam caught her with his bandages before dragging her over to his side for projection, and Diana was only able to say one thing before falling unconscious: "I''ll leave the rest to you."

    "You can count on me."

    Adam carefully wrapped her up inyers of bandages before setting her down behind him, then turned his gaze to Hebi no Miko with a cold smile on his face.

    "Even after so long, you still only have those same few tricks up your sleeve. Looks like we''ll get to have snake meat today."

    "What a joke! You can''t even withstand a single attack from me, what gives you the confidence to spout all this nonsense?"

    Under normal circumstances, Hebi no Miko wouldn''t have wasted time with words, but at the moment, they were in her psychic world, and she needed time to recover from her injuries, so she was willing to entertain Adam for a while.

    In reality, Hebi no Miko wasn''t wrong. In the past, her speed and power were simply far too much for Adam to deal with.

    However, things were different now.

    ].

    "Take a look at this!"

    As soon as Adam''s voice trailed off, an unprecedentedly massive Lamenting Wall appeared.

    <i>Boom! </i>

    An illusory city rose up from the ground, inundating Yamata no Orochi and making it appear as if countless spikes had pierced through its body.

    However, this was only a projection that was unable to inflict any substantial harm, but what came next was a wave of emotions that struck Hebi no Miko right in the depths of her heart.

    In the face of the despairing howls from countless terrified individuals, even Hebi no Miko was going to be swallowed up by despair eventually, despite her tremendous willpower.

    However, she wasn''t going to allow things to get to that point, and she immediately unleashed another forbidden technique: Undead Destruction.

 Chapter 464: Scarecrows Second Lease on Life

    <h4>Chapter 464: Scarecrow''s Second Lease on Life</h4>

    The Lamenting Wall ws an ability that forced Adam''s enemies to experience the despair felt by countless people in the face of a man-made disaster that there was no escaping from, as well as the resentment they felt toward those who had relegated them to such a terrible fate.

    Very few people were able to withstand such a ferocious barrage of negative emotions without being affected, but Hebi no Miko was going a step further as her Undead Destruction ability was one that didn''t even spare the dead.

    The Lamenting Wall contained the final despairing cries of those who were physically annihted in a nuclear explosion, while Hebi no Miko''s Undead Destruction was going a step further, destroying their psyches as well to put an end to their bodies and their souls.

    All of the people within the Lamenting Wall were instantly stopped cold in their tracks, and even the looks on their faces hadpletely stiffened, as if a pause button had been pressed, but the nuclear bomb that was going to put an end to all of their lives was still flying across the sky like a shooting star. However, a glimmer of light that was threatening to devour everything had appeared directly above it.

    This time, there were no howls of pain or despair, only the steady advancement of the light of destruction, and everything in its wake was shattering, burning, and disintegrating.

    Devastating shockwaves swept through the entire city, and inky-ck marks were all that remained of the life forms that previously existed here, while all of the psychic bodies and their emotions also wilted away.

    After the light came boundless darkness. The scorched earth instantly transformed into a hellscape of flowingva, and all of the souls were dragged into a bottomless abyss of destruction. Just this single attack alone was almost enough to kill Horse Face on the spot.

    Hebi no Miko herself didn''t fare much better. Her Yamata no Orochi form was acting as the vessel for the hellscape that she had created, and the majority of it was also destroyed. Essentially, she was crippling her own psychic body, and a normal person would''ve already fainted from the agony if they were in her ce.

    She wasn''tpletely impervious to the pain, either, and Yamata no Orochi let loose an earth-shattering roar as what remained of its body writhed violently as it rose up into the sky. At the same time, dense smoke poured out of its tail, inundating its entire body in the blink of an eye.

    ].

    Adam immediately withdrew Horse Face, and its injuries were so severe that Adam didn''t know whether it would be able to make a full recovery. However, it was worth it in the end as he had managed to severely wound Hebi no Miko for a minimal cost.

    The most difficult part about facing Hebi no Miko was locking onto her. In her human form, she was virtually impossible to track, and her advantage in speed alone was enough for her to defeat most opponents with ease. It had taken May and Wax Figurest time to just barely keep her in check, and in this instance, there was no one to help Adam, so he could only rely on himself.

    Furthermore, he could tell that Hebi no Miko had abandoned all of the disguises and facades that she had previously been hiding behind, so the true battle was finally beginning now.

    A rumbling thunderp rang out in the sky, and the smoke around Yamata no Orochi was instantly cleared.

    Under the backdrop of the dark sky, a monstrous eight-headed figure began to slowly unfurl its own body. It was only around 300 meters in length, but its necks consisted of half of that length, and each of its heads could easily swallow a truck whole. Its heads were surveying thendscape down below, and the light shooting out of its 16 eyes were capable of directly scorching psychic bodies.

    Just the power of its gaze alone was already almost too much for Shae to bear, and she let loose an agonized cry. Adam immediately released a flurry of bandages to shield her while also instructing Sludge to position itself in front of her as a shield.

    Right at this moment, Hebi no Miko''s deranged voice rang out from above.

    "You''ve exhausted all of your tricks now, right? Even your most powerful ability has failed to defeat me, so what are you going to do now? It''s time for you to die!"

    As soon as her voice trailed off, the entire psychic world began to tremble violently, as if a level eight earthquake were taking ce. What remained of the skyscraper beneath Adam''s feet instantly copsed, and as the ground fell away, moltenva began to rise up alongside toxic mist and waves of scorching heat.

    At the same time, countless fiery shooting stars descended from the heavens, and every single one of them had the power to destroy an entire city. There were so many of them that they obscured the entire sky, and they were crashing into the waves of scorching heat that were rising up from down below before exploding violently to form a fiery hellscape capable of destroying everything and anything.

    This was another one of Yamata no Orochi''s forbidden techniques, All-epassing Furnace.

    Hebi no Miko was attempting to destroy everything in a radius of several kilometers in order to put a swift end to this battle, and in the past, Adam would''ve beenpletely powerless to resist, but things had changed since then.

    A huge dark cloud appeared beneath Adam''s feet, and it was one that was formed by countless ck bats, manifesting into a ck cloak. At the center of the dark cloud was a ck figure that was over 20 meters tall with an enormous scythe clutched in its hands.

    The ck figure swung its scythe downward in a swift and forceful motion, and a rift was instantly torn into the boundless mes to reveal the dark sky again.

    Adam, Sludge, and Hellhound immediately passed through the rift while standing atop the dark cloud, thereby allowing them to escape from the fiery hellscape, much to Hebi no Miko''s astonishment.

    "There are still more invoked entities that you haven''t used?"

    "I have way more tricks up my sleeve!"

    As it turned out, taking down Masao Yamamoto had brought with it an unexpected reward that was ying a crucial role here.

    The scythe-wielding cloaked figure was none other than Scarecrow, which had remainedrgely dormant this entire time. After devouring Masao Yamamoto''s anomalic power, it had evolved into a level seven anomaly, and it was certainlying in useful here.

    With Scarecrow''s assistance, Adam didn''t have to fear an aerial battle, and it had also been able to catch Hebi no Mikopletely off guard in this instance.

    "So what? This will only dy your inevitable death for a while longer!"

    Hebi no Miko remained calm and collected as she lowered two of her heads and released abination of fearsome wind and lightning attacks.

    The former transformed into a ferocious tornado around Scarecrow, while thetter came crashing down toward Scarecrow from above.

    All of Hebi no Miko''s attacks were astonishingly fast, making it virtually impossible for sessful evasion, and the tornado instantly tore most of the dark cloud apart while continuing to constrict around Scarecrow, while the lightning plunged straight through Scarecrow''s chest, leaving a massive hole in its wake.

    Despite this, Scarecrow didn''t appear to have sustained much damage. The torn fragments of the dark cloud transformed into thousands of bats that began to fly around Scarecrow at a high speed, then suddenly gathered together to unleash a supersonic attack upward. The wind-attribute serpentine head was struck by the attack, and arge section of its scales instantly implosed, while blood came gushing out of its mouth and nostrils.

    The hole in Scarecrow''s body was also filled, and it swept its scythe through the air again to slice a deep gash onto Yamata no Orochi''s enormous body. However, its defenses were simply far too strong, and every single one of its scales was like a super thick alloy board, making it impossible for Scarecrow to deal any substantial blows.

    Of course, Adam wasn''t hoping to take down Hebi no Miko with a single attack. Instead, he had a sequence of attacks prepared.

    All of a sudden, Sludge shrank down to only two meters in height beforeunching itself through the air, crashing straight into the gash that had been inflicted by Scarecrow''s scythe, plowing straight through the scale to create a huge hole that was the size of a truck and over 10 meters deep.

 Chapter 465: Intense Struggle

    <h4>Chapter 465: Intense Struggle</h4>

    Almost at the exact same moment, Nun appeared and sted its Fountain of Contamination into the hole, and Clown also rushed onto the scene, cackling maniacally as it stuck a massive bundle of explosives that weighed at least one to two tons into the hole.

    After that came Spider, which was in its full power seven-headed form, and it jumped onto Yamata no Orochi''s body, clinging tightly to its scales with its legs as it unleashed all of its abilities, including toxic mist,ser beams, and sts of fire. All of these attacks were aimed at Yamata no Orochi''s other heads with the goal of obstructing their vision so Clown had enough time to detonate the bundle of explosives.

    <i>Boom!</i>

    Terrifying explosive power erupted within the hole in the serpentine head, destroying several dozen meters of the serpent''s body in one fell swoop.

    Due to how resolute its skin and scales were, the explosion waspletely contained inside its body, thereby further exacerbating the damage, resulting in widespread destruction of the serpent''s internal bodily structures.

    Hebi no Miko roared in fury and agony, unleashing all types of attacks in all directions in a blind rage.

    She had never taken Adam''s invoked entities seriously before, and she had never expected that they would be able to work together to inflict such severe injuries upon her.

    "Unforgivable!" Hebi no Miko screeched as sheshed out in retaliation, attempting to wipe out all of the anomalies in one go by targeting their invocator, Adam.

    Thankfully, Mummy''s defenses were very sound, warding off the majority of the damage, and Hellhound also let loose a timely Infernal Howl to ensure that Hebi no Miko''s efforts to kill Adam were thwarted.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, Spider and Sludge climbed up to the upper half of the serpent''s body, then began attacking the part where the eight heads were connected, sending scales flying in all directions as they attempted to punch another hole into Yamata no Orochi''s body.

    Of course, Hebi no Miko wasn''t just going to stand around and allow that to happen, and she sted Sludge away with a bolt of lightning, then inteced several of her serpentine necks together to almost crush Spider to death.

    However, Spider''s main strength was its versatility, and it immediately activated his super defenses and super regenerative abilities, refusing to budge as it stuck to Yamata no Orochi like glue.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, Adam invoked Camera, which shed its shutter to immobilize the severely wounded Yamata no Orochi for an instant, then unleashed its signature criss-cross shing attack to inflict a cross-shaped wound onto the point where the eight heads were connected.

    Due to level disparity between the two, Camera was unable to decapitate Yamata no Orochi with a single strike, but it had still managed to severely wound two of its necks.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, Spider activated its super speed ability, scrambling all the way to the top of the serpentine head that had unleashed the Undead Destruction technique before plunging its legs into its right eye and churning them around viciously a few times.

    Meanwhile, Adam instantly withdrew Sludge and Camera, and almost at the exact same moment, a bolt of retaliative lightning from Hebi no Miko just barely passed him by, punching through Scarecrow''s body once again to destroy at least a third of its cloak.

    <i>That was close! </i>

    At this point, Adam was able to invoke his anomalies almost instantaneously, yet the attack had still almost failed, and that was a testament to just how fast and powerful Hebi no Miko''s attacks were.

    At this point, Hebi no Miko realized that Adam seemed to have found a way to target her, and she instantly reverted back to her human form, punching a hole through Spider''s body with her bare fist before rushing over to scarecrow and destroying most of what remained of its cloak of bats with another punch.

    She had abandoned her Yamata no Orochi form so that she could make use of the speed and power of her human form, and she was moving so quickly that Adam''s eyes werepletely unable to keep up. Her fists were the most fearsome weapons, and she was about to use them to smash Scarecrow''s body to bits.

    Adam was scrambling to withdraw all of his anomalies, and after Hellhound was struck by a punch from Hebi no Miko as well, he wrapped it up in bandages and dragged it behind himself for protection.

    Right at this moment, the final remnants of Scarecrow''s cloak was finally destroyed by another punch from Hebi no Miko, and it disintegrated in all directions as plumes of murky smoke.

    Adam was only just barely able to keep himself afloat in mid-air with his bandages, and Hebi no Miko cackled with glee upon seeing this. With another punch, she smashed through a vast section of bandages, and without the bandages in her way, she would be able to strike down Adam directly with her fists.

    However, right at this moment, the entire surrounding area turned dark as Adam unleashed his Lights Out ability. This ability was effective on low-level opponents, but it barely had any effect at all on Hebi no Miko, and she initially thought that Adam was finally out of tricks. However, she then sensed that something wasn''t quite right, and she wanted to dart back in retreat, but it was already toote.

    In the next instant, Distortion appears directly behind her, then wrapped itself around her body as it unleashed its Physical Shackles, Spiritual Shackles, and Mental Distortion abilities all at once.

    Distortion was now a level seven anomaly, and it was able to draw upon Adam''s psychic power to fuel its abilities, so despite the level disparity between itself and Hebi no Miko, it was still able to temporarily immobilize her thanks to the element of surprise.

    Hebi no Mikopletely failed to anticipate this, and not only was Distortion pressed tightly against her, it was attempting to force its way into her body. The humiliation from this sensation instantly set her temper alight, and she let loose a furious screech that tore a massive rift into the dark sky above.

    The ultra high frequency soundwaves directly assaulted Adam''s mind, almost causing him to lose his psychic connection to his invoked anomalies.

    Distortion was also unable to withstand such an attack, and its body began to vibrate at an ultra high frequency, making it impossible for it to continue to cling to Hebi no Miko.

    Adam hurriedly withdrew his bandages and allowed himself to plummet out of the sky in free fall in order to open up some distance between himself and Hebi no Miko. At the same time, Hebi no Miko''s body exploded into a cloud of rolling mist.

    Adam could sense a burst of unprecedentedly immense psychic power within the mist, and it was rapidly expanding, like an infant that had developed to the adult stage in the blink of an eye before continuing to swell to unfathomable heights.

    Hebi no Miko hadpleted another transformation, and she was like a phoenix that had been reborn from the ashes, finally discarding her finalyer of disguise to reveal her truest form for the first time.

    <i>This is what I''ve been waiting for! </i>

    Adam immediately pounced on this opportunity to unleash his final trump card.

    In the blink of an eye, a domain took shape in the surrounding area, and a majestic figure appeared, looking down with cold and emotionless eyes at the cloud of rapidly dissipating mist.

    Angel had finally emerged onto the battlefield.

 Chapter 466: Judgment of Death

    <h4>Chapter 466: Judgment of Death</h4>

    This was Adam''s most powerful invoked anomaly, and it was what he had been banking on all along.

    He had waited for so long as he wanted to be absolutely certain that Hebi no Miko''s psychic body had actually appeared on the battlefield. For an adapter of her caliber, the same trick wasn''t going to work on her twice, so he had withheld Angel up to this point in order to retain the element of surprise.

    Adam had even allowed Horse Face to sustain severe injuries in order to lure her into a false sense ofcency, thinking that the worst was already behind her, and as soon as Hebi no Miko reappeared in her Yamata no Orochi form, an enormous projection of an angel of darkness had already emerged before her.

    The angel''s domain hadpletely sealed all of the space around Hebi no Miko, and due to the energy requirements toplete her transformation, Hebi no Miko had been forced to shrink down her domain. As a result, Angel''s domain had managed to establish dominance over hers.

    This time, Yamata no Oroch was only no more than 100 meters in length, which was far smaller than before, but still gargantuan to the average adapter.

    She had also appeared in a more substantial form, and there were no longer any illusory qualities about her appearance.

    Hebi no Miko disyed no fear at the sight of the angelic projection before her. Instead, she began to roar withughter.

    "Very good! You''ve finally managed to surprise me. Looks like you''re not going to be aplete pushover this time."

    Adam was standing in the distance down below, but due to his psychic connection with Angel, he was looking down at Hebi no Miko, and his battle intent had reached unprecedented heights.

    "This is where you die, Hebi no Miko. It''s time to ept your final judgment."

    Adam wasted no time with words as he immediately sprang into action.

    Angel slowly raised the staff in its hand at Adam''s behest, and an authoritative voice rang out across the entirety of its domain.

    "ept your judgment, sinner!"

    Angel didn''t even have to use its scale on Hebi no Miko. Alternatively, it could be said that it had already weighed up all of the conflicting elements in Hebi no Miko''s existence.

    It was clear that Hebi no Miko had done far more evil than good in her life, and she had also never felt true joy, only the twisted type of tion that she derived from killing others, whichpletely went against human morality.

    For her, happiness and pain were nothing more than a false proposition. Fundamentally speaking, her entire life was a tragedy, so it should''ve been filled with pain and suffering.

    However, she was very happy with the existence that she led, and the only time that she had felt pain was when her sister had died, but that pain only stemmed from a twisted desire for control, rather than true love andpassion.

    Hence, two oues had emerged, one that applied to normal people, while the other applied to apletely deranged nutjob like her. Both were extreme and devoid of bnce, and as Angel passed judgment upon her, everything in her past was arranged and exposed in its barest form.

    This was absolutely uneptable to Hebi no Miko.

    She detested being judged and admonished by others above all else, and Angel''s judgment only made her even more furious and deranged.

    In order to vent her emotions, she instantly unleashed all of her most powerful attacks, and the All-epassing Furnace, World''s End Lightning, and Undead Destruction filled the entire sky in unison, inundating Angel and its scale.

    In the next instant, the sound of a majestic and holy choir rang out across the dark sky as ck feathers filled the entire domain, scattering all of Hebi no Miko''s devastating forbidden techniques before reverting back into a pair of enormous wings.

    After the wings took shape, they slowly spread open again to reveal Angel, as well as its scale and staff, all of which werepletely unscathed.

    "Impossible! Nothing can withstand my attacks!" Hebi no Miko roared in disbelief as she charged straight at the angelic projection before her.

    With her tremendous weight and speed, she was able to plow through the air with power no less formidable than that of a small asteroid, and she bulldozed her way through the domain before crashing violently into Angel''s body.

    Angel instantly disintegrated into countless specks of light before reforming behind Hebi no Miko and swinging its staff viciously down from above, smashing one of her heads into mincemeat.

    She screeched in agony as she whipped her body back and forth in a frenzy, smashing Angle to bits once again.

    However, her attacks werepletely futile. Angel was able to transition between a substantial and an illusory form, and within its domain, it was essentially invulnerable. Only those who were exempt from its power of judgment or possessed power beyond its maximal limits could sessfully break out of its domain.

    Furthermore, unbeknownst to Hebi no Miko, every single one of her attacks was only serving to further reinforce Angel''s domain, causing the scale to tip even further. One side had already been tilted to the very bottom, and there was no longer any chance for the scale to be tipped back in her favor.

    Angel''s staff had be even thicker and sturdier than before, and its cold and emotionless gaze pierced directly through Hebi no Miko''s body, seeing into the very core of her existence as countless thin strands of light bound her before dragging her toward the scale.

    "Die!" Hebi no Miko roared in fury and desperation, and a cial aura suddenly rose up from her body as temperatures close to absolute zero descended upon the entire space, slowing everything to a crawl.

    Immediately thereafter, she began twisting and writhing with all her might, struggling free from the strands of light that bound her as mes began to emerge within one of her serpentine heads.

    Hebi no Mikopressed the me with her immense psychic power, causing it to rapidly increase in temperature, and in the blink of an eye, it had already be brighter than the sun. In the end, it melted away the serpentine head that it was contained within, releasing tremendous heat to sh against the cial power in the air.

    Everything was instantly reduced to dust in silence.

    Yamata no Orochi''s body disintegrated, leaving only Hebi no Miko''s human form behind, and what remained of her power manifested a new illusory setting.

    It was a wooden hut constructed halfway up a mountain, and there was a snowy volcano in the distance and a pine forest nearby. It was a truly picturesque scene to behold.

    A little girl was seated on a swing in the courtyard, and her long hair was fluttering in the wind behind her, giving her an innocent and adorable appearance.

    From afar, Adam could see that the little girl''s appearance was a mix of both Hebi no Miko and Oni no Miko, except all of the cruelty, resentment, fury, and insanity had been striped away, leaving behind only an image of virtuous purity.

    Herughter was as pleasant as the tinkling of a windchime, striking the beholder with a reluctance to harm her.

    Adam took a deep breath as he clenched his fists tightly, and Angel swung down its staff in a cold and emotionless manner to put an end to everything.

 Chapter 467: Commencement of the Final Battle

    <h4>Chapter 467: Commencement of the Final Battle</h4>

    Adam released his bandages to free Diana and Shae, and as the two of them watched the little girl disintegrate into specks of light before vanishing into nothingness, their hearts suddenly began to throb.

    "Did we really just destroy something so beautiful?" Shae asked with a pained look in her eyes.

    "No, that was nothing more than an underlying illusion that her creators imnted in her mind to prevent her from going out of control."

    Having conducted a great deal of research into nk tes, Adam knew far more about them than the average person did.

    Each nk te had a set of underlying logic, as well as basic memories and instincts to ensure that they were capable of basic human functions.

    Of course, there were also some that didn''t have any of those things, but that could very easily result in them bing vegetables from conception.

    Hebi no Miko had undergone the same process during her creation, but seeing as she had been designed to be a human super weapon, she was inevitably going to be too powerful for her creators to control. Hence, somepletely different underlying elements had to be imnted into her mind to act as a failsafe that could be activated whenever it was required to do so.

    However, they had clearly failed to anticipate just how powerful an adapter Hebi no Miko would be, and they had imnted the failsafe into the deepest part of her psyche, where it waspletely inessible.

    Only after theplete destruction of her psychic body would this failsafe measure be revealed, but the problem was that Adam couldn''t tell if it was real or not. Perhaps it had already been contaminated by Hebi no Miko so that if she were ever to be defeated, this failsafe would appear before her opponent so that they would be inclined to take mercy on her.

    Adam couldn''t afford for Hebi no Miko to escape again. During the final moments before Hebi no Miko''s psychic body was destroyed, he could sense that she had already killed the psychic mutant trio.

    The psychic mutant trio that he had seen upon entering the psychic world were nothing more than illusions conjured up by Hebi no Miko''s psychic power, so he would''ve never been in time to save them.

    Adam withdrew Angel, and he discovered that the entire psychic world around him had transformed into a boundless expanse of emptiness without even the slightest trace of any memories.

    Hebi no Miko''s psychic power was so immense that during her final self-destruction, she had bundled all of her memories together to be destroyed alongside herself, making it impossible for Adam to ess them.

    The bleak and empty psychic world began to copse, and everything that had once been Hebi no Miko was about to disappear soon. At the same time, a vast amount of anomalic power emerged, and Adam invoked his wounded anomalies once again so that they could devour this feast.

    Out of all of his anomalies, Horse Face was the one in the worst condition, having been forced to the brink of destruction. Thankfully, it had just barely been able to hang on by a thread, and at this moment, it was devouring anomalic power in a frenzy to facilitate rapid recovery, quickly returning it to a stable condition.

    Sludge had also been severely wounded after being struck by two lightning strikes, but thankfully, defense and physical resistance had always been its fortes, so it wasn''t going to die so easily.

    It didn''t take long before the entire psychic world copsed, forcing the trio to return to the real world.

    An epic battle had just taken ce, but it actually hadn''t taken all that long, and after regaining consciousness, Adam immediately began to inspect his surroundings to see if there were any threats being posed to them in the real world.

    He had anticipated that Hebi no Miko would''ve set up an ambush in the real world to try and kill him while he was in the psychic world, but even as he activated his radar and thermal imaging sensors, he was unable to discover anything in the surrounding area. All of the living people in the area had already been startled away or been killed, and Hebi no Miko certainly wasn''t going to have any qualms about taking innocent lives.

    This was unavoidable coteral damage, and he had already considered situations like this back when he chose this veterinary hospital, where there weren''t many residents in the surrounding area.

    It didn''t take long before Thunderbird and the others arrived on the scene with Mechguard units in apaniment, and a fleet of drones carefully examined the entire veterinary hospital. Shortly thereafter, the bodies of the psychic mutant trio were found, and it was already toote to try and save them.

    Adam did his best to suppress his grief, telling himself that the psychic mutant trio weren''t good people, that they had done many heinous things that were reprehensible both legally and morally.

    However, the bond that they had formed was genuine and earnest, and it had brought Adam some warmth andfort in his darkest times.

    "Perhaps this is the best oue for them," Shae consoled, but even she wasn''t convinced by her own words.

    Adam nodded in response. From the moment that he had decided to participate in the mayoral election and actively strike back at his enemies, he had already prepared himself for the possibility that he could lose everything.

    He had to be prepared to put everything on the line, whether that be his friends, his family, hispanions... Anything and anyone that he cherished could''ve been targeted or used against him, so he had to be prepared for all manners of tragic oues.

    After silently grieving for a moment, Adam promptly departed from the veterinary hospital with Shae and the others. Hebi no Miko''s body was also quickly tracked down, and as it turned out, she had been on the top floor and hadn''t bothered to disguise herself at all.

    Perhaps in her eyes, if she had won, then there would''ve been no need for her to run away as someone would''ve taken care of the situation for her, and if she had lost, then she would''ve perished, so either way, there was no need for her to disguise herself or hide.

    Adam watched as the Mechguard units collected all of the evidence in the veterinary unit before departing, and on the way back, he informed all of his closest allies of the oue of the battle.

    May and Cowboy were both stunned to hear that Adam had managed to take down Hebi no Miko, and they couldn''t help but wonder how he had be so powerful in such a short time.

    However, they didn''t ask any questions, merely congratting him on histest victory before discussing with him what to do next.

    "First, we have to find out who was behind this, then exert pressure upon them through both the legal system and the media, then gradually begin an investigation."

    Both of them were more inclined to take a safer approach to ensure that they didn''t squander this advantageous position.

    "We don''t need to find out who''s behind this, we just need to pick an opponent and dere war on them."

    Adam was still following the same strategy as before. Regardless of who it was that was targeting him, he would continue to follow his own n, and eventually, all of his enemies would be brought down.

    It seemed like a very barbaric and foolish way to do things, but it was actually the smartest choice. If he were to get swept up in the rhythm of his enemies, then he would constantly have to react to them, rather than seizing the initiative and taking things into his own hands.

    Thistest incident involved the deaths of three registered special psychic police officers and a top-tier global fugitive, so it was definitely going to be making some massive headlines.

    The oue waspletely unexpected to almost everyone. Adam had managed to sessfully take down another formidable foe while emergingpletely unscathed himself, and the aura of invincibility around him was only continuing to grow.

    Adam didn''t want to allow his enemies any chance for respite, so he immediately dered his next objective.

    "I''m going topletely uncover the Metaverse immortality scam and pursue this matter to the very end!"

 Chapter 468: Relentless Pressure

    <h4>Chapter 468: Relentless Pressure</h4>

    After each operation, Adam would always make a public deration, and it seemed like he was just repeating himself every single time, much like the empty promises that politicians would repeatedly make to their voters, but unlike those politicians, Adam''s promises were never empty.

    He always followed through on his promises, and if he could establish such an image of reliability, then his position in the election race would be virtually unassable.

    The other candidates had clearly identified this as well, and they were trying to tarnish this glowing image of his, but there simply wasn''t much that they could do.

    Everyone in Adam''s camp was of the opinion that the election was as good as won, and many of his supporters were already preparing to pop open champagne bottles in advance to celebrate his victory. Toshiyuki Matsumara felt as if a massive weight had been taken off his shoulders. He couldn''t think of any ways for the enemy to prevent Adam''s ascension to the top.

    Unlike all past mayoral candidates, Adam was currently one of the world''s top adapters, so not only was there no way for the enemy to derail his political campaign, killing him was a virtually impossible task as well.

    "Bing his election advisor is one of the smartest decisions I''ve ever made."

    This wasn''t the first time that he had said this to himself, but each time he said this, some new circumstances would always arise to make him doubt himself, and he suspected that this pattern would only continue.

    Following his return, Adam made another move against the Gaia Organization.

    Last time, he had retrieved Liu Shouyi from Shadow City, and this time, he had gone straight to the organization''s headquarters in Sandrise City.

    Area 22 was the self-proimed new Silicon Valley of Sandrise City, and Adam and his team stormed straight into the area before surrounding the Gaia Organization building, right before the eyes of some of the brightest technological minds in the world.

    "This is a massive development! I don''t think we''ll have to worry about running out of conversation topics anytime soon."

    Many of the employees of the otherpanies in the area were watching with excitement as dozens of Mechguard units locked down the roads, while Mechguard drones were circling around in the sky. Dressed in a neatly pressed suit, Adam stepped out of a car before looking around in a calm andposed fashion, looking as if he were an esteemed guest attending an appointment.

    Having defeated Masao Yamamoto and Hebi no Miko in session, he was feeling more confident and self-assured than ever. He now firmly believed that justice would always prevail in the face of evil, and that confidence and conviction was being reflected in his eyes.

    He was in no hurry to track down any specific criminals. Instead, he merely stood still on the spot in the face of the countless pairs of eyes that were trained on him, and all of the surrounding reporters who had flocked to the scene were scrambling to take as many photographs of him as they could.

    "What is he doing here now? The Gaia Organization already provided a very clear exnationst time, and they''ve arrived at an agreement with the Bureau of Investigation and the courts ofw. They''ve refuted the evidence that he presentedst time, and it was determined that Liu Shouyi was too mentally unsound to serve as a reliable witness..."

    Many of the people keeping a close eye on the situation were rather perplexed by Adam''s actions, and in the Adam Eradication Group, ke was currently still organizing thetest reports.

    The news of Adam''s victory over Hebi no Miko had been a massive bombshell for everyone. It could''ve been argued that Masao Yamamoto was primarily a businessman and a Lamp Keeper, so perhaps his defeat wasn''t all that much of a surprise, but Hebi no Miko had always been regarded as a human super weapon!

    This was someone that even May and Wax Figurebined wasn''t able to defeat, yet she had perished by the hands of Adam and Adam alone!

    This was apletely unexpected turn of events for the Adam Eradication Group, and they were forced to scrap almost the entirety of their original n. ke was so disheartened that he considered giving up, but it was toote to turn back now.

    "Go through all of thetest special reports on the Gaia Organization to see if they contain any potentially incriminating evidence that could be used against them."

    "I''m already on it, and there doesn''t appear to be anything."

    "If you ask me, this seems more like a strategic move to sow panic and unrest."

    ke raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, and an enlightened look shed through his eyes. Perhaps this was indeed the case, but then that begged the question of exactly what Adam was trying to achieve through this strategic move.

    Meanwhile, in Area 22, Adam remained standing on the spot, allowing photographs of himself to be taken, and only after sufficient suspense had been built up did he begin to make his way toward the entrance of the Gaia Organization headquarters.

    One of the reporters rushing along beside him yelled, "Mr. Adam, who are you going to arrest this time? Do you have any concrete evidence indicating that the Gaia Organization has engaged in criminal activity?"

    Adam turned to the camera with a smile as he replied, "There''s no need to ask questions, just follow me and watch."

    Inside the hall on the first floor of the building, the branch manager, Mr. Wesson, wore a dark expression as he stood in Adam''s way, apanied by several dozen subordinates and security guards.

    "Mr. Adam we''ve already provided ample exnation acquitting us of all of the usations you levied against us. I have reason to believe that you''re intentionally trying to harm the reputation and normal operation of our organization."

    "Is that right?"

    Adam stopped around a meter and a half away from Mr. Wesson, and his smile faded as a sharp and piercing look appeared in his eyes.

    "Are you certain that your organization has shown enough to acquit itself of all wrongdoing, including the charges that I''m about to raise now?"

    In contrast with his normal pleasant demeanor, he had suddenly be extremely aggressive and overbearing, giving off such immense pressure that Mr. Wesson was momentarily intimidated into silence.

    He was a board member of the organization and the general manager of this branch, possessing a lofty statusparable to a congressman or even the leader of a small nation, yet he was being intimidated by a kid!

    <i>Hold on, he''s suppressing me with his psychic power! </i>

    As soon as he came to this realization, he pressed a small device in his hand, and a weak electric pulse instantly ran through his body, stimting the secretions of his adrenal nces. As a result, his heart rate was elevated, as were his emotions, and he was able to shrug off the psychic pressure being exerted upon him.

    Adam could sense this change, and his brows furrowed slightly as he continued to maintain his psychic pressure, silently waiting for a response.

    "I am certain. Please present concrete evidence supporting your ims, or go back and wait for a letter from our organization''swyers," Wesson replied in an imcable voice.

    A mocking sneer appeared on Adam''s face, and he pulled a storage device out of his pocket before raising it to his own shoulder, positioning it so that it was visible to the reporters outside the building.

    "I have a report here that indicates that during the past several years, the Gaia Organization hadmitted many criminal offenses, including corporate fraud, malicious abuse of the elderly, illegal collection and selling of life data, and many more crimes."

    Adam offered the storage device to Wesson and looked straight into his eyes as he asked, "Do you dare to open this device in front of everyone?"

    In this moment, Wesson felt as if the tie around his neck had suddenly turned into a noose, and he was struggling to breathe. He really wanted to call Adam''s bluff, but at the same time, he was terrified that the storage device would actually be containing some form of concrete incriminating evidence.

    His hesitation instantly became a massive talking point on the entire inte.

    Right at this moment, a voice suddenly rang out in Adam''s mind without any warning.

    "Can we have a chat in private, Mr. Adam?"

 Chapter 469: Negotiations Falling Through

    <h4>Chapter 469: Negotiations Falling Through</h4>

    At the same time, an image also appeared in Adam''s psychic world.

    This was an extremely advanced form of psychic invasion, one that was extremely discreet and secretive.

    The image depicted a green-haired woman, and Adam was able to identify her right away. At the same time, he activated his psychic defenses so that they couldmunicate with one another, but at the same time, he was preventing her psychic invasion from progressing any further.

    He had determined the source of the psychic projection was none other than General Manager Wesson.

    By pressing down on that handheld device, he was sending out a signal that he was under intense psychic duress, and that had immediately activated the defense mechanism imnted deep in his psyche, such as this psychic seed from Madam Tree, or perhaps it was an even more advanced form of long-range psychic projection.

    "Is there any room for further negotiation? At this point, I''m sure you''re aware of my stance, and I''m sure you also know what consequences you would suffer if you tried to take illegal measures against me," Adam replied.

    The projection of Madam Tree was quite graceful and elegant, lookingpletely innocuous.

    "Everything in this world has a price, and our organization has sufficient spending power to satisfy any price. All you need to do is state a price, and we''ll be sure to fulfill it."

    Instead of admitting to or denying any wrongdoing, she was intentionally keeping things ambiguous. It was virtually impossible to determine exactly who it was that had sent Hebi no Miko after Adam, so as long as she didn''t raise the subject, there was no way to pin the me on anyone.

    Adam paid no heed to Madam Tree''s arrogant demeanor. He was already ustomed to them seeing everything asmodities that could be bought and sold.

    "In that case, I want you topletely restore all of the memory bodies who have had most of their datapressed, leaving them as nothing more than AI-generated husks of themselves. Can you do that?"

    Madam Tree was silent for a moment upon hearing this, then heaved a forlorn sigh.

    "I thought that we would be able to reach a consensus on the subject of the levels of life forms, but it seems that you still haven''t jumped out of the old and outdated cognitive framework. That''s very disappointing."

    Adam could see what she was implying. Essentially, she was saying that the members of the Guild of Immortality were different from normal people, that they were higher life forms.

    Indeed, they were able to enjoy near limitless lifespans thanks to their tremendous wealth and power, so they naturally regarded themselves as gods over the general public.

    The people in the Gaia Organization clearly regarded themselves the same way. Not only were they powerful adapters who possessed unfathomable abilities, they also had control over the enormous monolith that was the Metaverse, which was also a near eternal entity, thereby also setting them apart from the average person.

    However, Adam was different.

    "I think it''s best for us to agree to disagree."

    After Adam made this deration, the psychic projection of Madam Tree quickly vanished from his psychic world.

    General Manager Wesson hadn''t even detected this interaction at all, and all of a sudden, he saw a harrowing expression appear on Adam''s face.

    He seemed to have been smiling, but it was an extremely sinister smile that reflected the bloodlust and greed they disyed while preying on the average consumer. Wesson forced himself to remainposed, then puffed out his chest as he loudly dered, "We haven''t done anything that goes against thew. If you have evidence suggesting otherwise, you can submit it directly to the relevant legal departments. Our organization has the best team ofwyers in the world, and we''re ready for any legal action that you may throw at us.¡±

    After that, he turned to depart, but Adam suddenly tucked the storage device away before issuing an instruction with a smile on his face.

    "You seem to have forgotten that I am an enforcer of thew. In situations where I have concrete evidence, I have the right to directly detain any suspects for interrogation and evidence collection."

    Wesson immediately swung around upon hearing this, and he yelled in a loud voice, "You wouldn''t dare!"

    However, Adam had already expressed his attitude through his actions, and there were already Mechguard units stomping across the hall to barrel straight toward the elevator and the guardhouse on the basement floor.

    Among them were electronic tactical units that released powerful disruptive signals to disable the entire wirelesswork in the entire building, preventing anyone from destroying data. Such a direct and aggressive way ofw enforcement had all of the employees in the entire branchpletely rooted to the spot.

    <i>Is he not afraid of being crushed by the Gaia Organization? </i>

    Most people weren''t familiar with the exact details of the battles taking ce behind the scenes, and they had only thought that the abduction and killing of Han Li''s team members had been an act of revenge from criminal organizations that he had previouslyshed out against. Never had they anticipated that he would suddenly adopt such aggressive measures against the Gaia Organization.

    It was impossible to negotiate with Mechguard units, so General Manager Wesson could only attempt to contact the headquarters to deliver a report of the situation, but he immediately discovered that allmunication signals had been jammed.

    <i>He''s way too well-prepared! He''s clearly been plotting this for a long time! </i>

    Wesson turned to glower intently at Adam with a furious expression, wanting nothing more than to give Adam a vicious punch in the face.

    What was most damning about this situation was that Adam''s evidence was genuine, so this wasn''t just an empty bluff.

    In order to search for anomalic power to restore Angel back to its former peak, Adam had visited arge number of retirement homes and sanitariums across the entire city. While killing all of the emotional anomalies there, he had also uncovered many things.

    The Gaia Organization''s so-called "Digital Life" n wasn''t something that had suddenlye out of the blue. Instead, it had only been released after a long period of experimentation, and part of these experimental subjects had been "volunteers¡± who had sold themselves for money. However, those subjects weren''t anywhere near enough to satisfy their needs, so they turned their attention to the abandoned elderly people that no one cared about.

    These people were living solely off their superannuation and government pensions, and no one cared whether they lived or died. Those aged care organizations were only using them as a device to secure government subsidies.

    The Gaia Organization''s experiments were extremely cruel, extracting the memories of living people before converting them into data, and it was no less horrific than the process that the director of Shadow City used to create adapters.

    Before the technology had reached full maturity, there was a very high rate of death in experimental subjects, and those who did die were put through immense psychological torment. Their psychic worlds were torn down and reconstructed over and over again, giving rise to extraordinarily powerful anomalies in the process.

    Adam hade into contact with many elderly individuals who had survived the experiments, but they were permanently traumatized by their experience, and their psychic worlds were allpletely dominated by anomalies.

    .

    Essentially, they had been used asb rats before being discarded, and their horrific experiences only further fueled Adam''s fury and determination to bring down the Gaia Organization.

 Chapter 470: Comprehensive Smear Campaign

    <h4>Chapter 470: Comprehensive Smear Campaign</h4>

    While the Gaia Organization branch was being searched, the inte had erupted into a frenzy. Many people had originally thought that Adam was only doing this to put on a show, but it was now apparent that he was very much serious!

    After the initial shock, the general public was immediately stirred up into a frenzy of excitement, and news of what was taking ce in the Gaia Organization branch was spreading like wildfire, but it didn''t take long before the tide started to turn.

    Initially, everyone had been expressing unanimous support for Adam, but soon, people began expressing doubts and objections toward Adam''s actions.

    These dissenting voices hadn''te from an attempt made by Adam''s enemies to nder him. Instead, they were genuine voices, and many of the people who had been expressing support for Adam just a moment ago had suddenly turned against him. Why was this happening?

    It appeared that Adam was upholding justice for the masses by uncovering the crimes of these major organizations so that they could be punished by thew, and this was a good thing, but sometimes, good things could turn into bad things.

    In the Adam Eradication Group, ke was watching the rapidly turning tide in public opinion, and initially, he had thought that this was a result of the measures that they were taking to manipte public opinion, but he quickly realized that this wasn''t the case, and with this realization, he immediately burst intoughter.

    "Ha! I knew it! He''s being way too barbaric in the way that he does things, and it was always going to eventuallye back to bite him! As soon as his operations begin to harm the interests of the people, they''ll immediately turn on him!"

    He quickly pulled up a summary report of all of the dissenting voices that were rising up against Adam, and he discovered that virtually all of them were lower or middle-ss individuals with family members participating in the Gaia Organization''s Digital Life project, or had purchased stocks inpanies rted to the Gaia Organization, or were working in thosepanies!

    ke couldn''t help but feel a little sorry for those people. They were leading such pathetic existences, working themselves to the bone to fund the bottomless pit that was the Digital Life project, just so they could cling onto the illusion that their deceased family members were still alive in some form.

    <i>This is the underlying logic of how the world operates. There''s no way to shake the foundation of the world just by striking down a few criminal organizations. </i>

    With that revtion, ke had developed a new understanding of just how much power he possessed.

    The Adam Eradication Group immediately pounced on this opportunity, releasing all of the news stories that they had manufactured to nder Adam at once before pushing those stories to the top of the hot search lists through technological means.

    "Is Barbaric Law Enforcement Compliant Appropriate in Keeping With the Current Needs of the People?"

    "Is Adam on a Crusade of Justice, or Merely Trying to Solidify His Own Position in the Ongoing Election?"

    "Mr. Adam, have you considered how the general public feels about your actions? You''re going to kill them if you keep this up!"

    "We have to see the so-called crimesmitted by these major organizations through a lens of objectivity. Measures that are excessively aggressive will only severely damage the normal operation of the economy."

    "He''s clearly justshing out at his detractors for his own benefit! I have evidence to prove that he''s manufacturing a conspiracy out of nothing!"

    "Evenw enforcers have to act on evidence and consider the social impact of their actions. Maintaining societal stability should be the top priority."

    "If you''re going to take down the Gaia Organization, what''s going to happen to everyone in the Digital Life project? Is everyone supposed to just stand by and watch as their loved ones meet their demise in the digital world!"

    "You''re nothing more than a chatan who''s willing to stoop to any means to achieve your own ends! We don''t need a terrorist as a mayor!"

    ¡­¡­

    These waves of dissenting voices were bing louder and louder. In the face of the Gaia Organization''s plummeting share prices, all of its shareholders chose to protect their own personal interests, imploring Adam to cease all operations until the stock prices returned to normal.

    However, everyone supporting Adam, including the northern congress, and even the likes of Kevin Reed, were more than happy to watch the situation unfold.

    They had been informed before everyone of Adam''s target, and they knew that Adam wouldn''t haveshed out at the Gaia Organization unless he truly had concrete evidence. Hence, they had immediately begun shorting the stocks of the Gaia Organization and all of its rtedpanies, and in the instant that the stock prices began plummeting, many of them had already begun popping open bottles of champagne in celebration.

    "We really did make a great decision by choosing to support him!"

    "I wanna see him do this a few more times so those bastards from the southern congress can lose even more money!"

    ¡­¡­

    At the headquarters of the Gaia Organization, Mr. One and Madam Tree were facing all of the organization''s board members and major shareholders, providing an exnation for why they had chosen not to hold the market.

    "We can''t keep fighting on our own. We have to get more allies involved and make the people supporting Adam realize that his actions are harming their personal interests. Only then can they calm down and ept the reality that they''ll never be able to escape our control."

    "You want us to count on those foolishmoners? What could they possibly do? We can manipte the election oue and stock prices as we see fit, there''s no need to rely on their support," a portly shareholder dered in a matter-of-fact voice.

    Indeed, at their level, even if they were to tantly manipte elections and stock prices, there was nothing that anyone could do to them. They were the rulers of this world.

    Mr. One''s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and he exined, "The tittytainment n has to continue, at least until Metaverse has reachedplete sess. A purely digital world is unable to evolve on its own, and we need the spark that thosemoners can provide, so we need them on our side for now."

    "Alright, then do whatever it is that you see fit, but try to act as quickly as possible. If the stock prices drop too low, it''ll be difficult for us to answer to our families."

    All of the people present in the meeting were businesspeople, and they were quickly able to reach a consensus.

    As Adam''s operation continued, it was as if everyone had found an opening to vent the enormous pressure and conflict that had been brewing in society for so long. Everyone was suddenly bing irrational, and as the stock market continued to copse, an unprecedented sense of panic began to arise. All types of conflicting emotions began to umte and marinate, warping their mental states and severely impacting their actions.

    The majority of the people didn''t dare to object against their bosses and thepanies that were exploiting them, so they could only turn on the only person who was willing to help them.

    Countless peoples stormed onto the streets, holding signs with Adam''s portrait on them, all of which were bearingrge red crosses. They stormed toward the election center, the Gaia Organization branch, anywhere that they could possibly find Adam, obstructing traffic and disrupting public order in the process.

    It seemed that all of a sudden, the entire city had turned against Adam.

    "We need to put food on the table! We need jobs! We need the stock market to return to normal! We don''t need a despotic tyrant for a mayor!"

    The deafening collective voices of the masses were rumbling throughout the Gaia Organization branch, and Adam turned around with an inexplicable smile on his face.

    <i>It''s finallye to this point.</i>

 Chapter 471: One Man Bringing About a Revolution

    <h4>Chapter 471: One Man Bringing About a Revolution</h4>

    .

    Was it really true that Adam had failed to consider the consequences of his actions? Perhaps that could''ve been an oversight that he would make in the past, but that was no longer the case.

    Increased psychic power didn''t just make one a more capable psychicbatant. Instead, it also enhanced one''s cognitive and analytical abilities.

    The amount of information that he was able to process was definitely far beyond what the vast majority of people could imagine.

    In just a single second, he was able to consider countless fine details regarding his n, extrapting all of the short-term and long-term consequences that could arise from his actions, thereby allowing him to decide on the best course of action to take.

    All of this appeared to have unfolded far too quickly, and one could easily be forgiven for thinking that he had been caughtpletely off? guard, but that was far from the truth.

    The smile on his face was genuine. He was happy to see a situation like this unfold as unbeknownst to his enemies, they were currently being swept up into his tempo.

    Thew enforcement operation taking ce within the Gaia Organization branch was still ongoing. No matter how many people were protesting outside, they weren''t going to be able to alter the programming of the Mechguard units, and the things that Adam needed were going to be unearthed very soon, providing him with even more data to consider.

    Inside the technical center of the Gaia Organization''s headquarters, there were countless world-leadingputer experts and powerful AI programs working under an extremely high-pressure environment, trying to track down exactly what it was that Adam could''ve been searching for in the branch''s database.

    The top dogs above them may not have cared about this so-called evidence being unearthed, but for the sake of their own jobs, they had no choice but to work tirelessly.

    Over at the election center, not only were the employees not panicked in the slightest at the sight of the protesting masses, they were all ted instead.

    Toshiyuki Matsumara was sipping on a cup of coffee, lookingpletely rxed and content.

    <i>What a masterstroke this is! We haven''t had to spend a single dime for promotion purposes, yet this event in itself is the best promotion that we could ask for. I really hope this situation will continue until the end of the election. That would save all of us a lot of work. </i>

    As a veteran election manager, he was well aware that the so-called election was nothing more than a massive show. Essentially, the process of creating a star politician was no different from that of the entertainment industry manufacturing celebrities.

    All of theplex strategies and tricks that politicians employed had a single core objective, and that was to garner more attention.

    Of course, Adam was carrying out these operations in order to uphold justice and punish the wicked, but at the same time, he had managed to attract the attention of the masses, and that was certainly an added bonus.

    In the political sphere, there was no such thing as negative attention. The best way topletely snuff out one''s campaign was to ensure that they didn''t make any headlines at all, but keeping Adam''s name out of the headlines was proving to be an impossible task.

    However, the election managers were still feeling quite anxious. After all, this type of clout generally passed just as quickly as it came, and negative consequences could easily arise. Toshiyuki Matsumara was more than happy to address their concerns.

    "There are two types of people in this world, trend-followers and trend-setters, and thetter are always the ones to start revolutions."

    It was clear that Adam was a trend-setter. He had started from nothing and propelled himself up the ranks in a meteoric rise, establishing himself as an enforcer of justice and receiving widespread support from the general public in the process.

    "Your concerns arepletely unnecessary. Mr. Adam will only continue to jump from strength to strength, and he''ll keep forging ahead at all costs. No matter how much the people behind him hesitate, everyone will be forcibly dragged along behind him, and they won''t be able to stop even if they want to."

    A faint smile appeared on Toshiyuki Matsumara''s face as he spoke. He was also among the camp of people being dragged along behind Adam, but he had learned to ept his fate and ce his faith in Adam.

    ¡­¡­

    Toshiyuki Matsumara wasn''t the only smart person in the world, and it didn''t take long for Adam''s enemies to realize what was happening, upon which an instruction was immediately passed down to the Adam Eradication Group.

    "Immediately cease all operations attempting to nder Adam. At the same time, try to manufacture new headlines to take attention away from him. We can''t allow him to keep building up clout."

    ke was not a seasoned veteran, and it took him some time to understand why this situation was undesirable. By then, it was already toote. The entire inte had alreadypletely spiraled out of control, and it was virtually impossible to try and divert attention away from Adam in a short time.

    At the same time, the prices of all the stocks of thepanies rted to the Gaia Organization and the Metaverse were continuing to plummet.

    The southern congress and all of the giants in the business sector had decided that they weren''t going to intervene. If Adam wanted to tank the stock prices, then they would allow him to do as he pleased as in their eyes, he was ying with fire.

    Adam spent an entire day in the Gaia Organization branch, and during that time, the Mechguard units had collected a vast amount of data.

    However, this wasn''t a problem. All he had to do was input the individual information of the elderly people at the retirement homes and sanitariums before conducting a search, and he would be able to find the data that he needed to condemn the Gaia Organization.

    In the digital world, it was very risky to go around deleting things willy-nilly as doing so could cause the entire program to copse, so the safest way to proceed was to preserve all data.

    The data from the horrific experiments that the Gaia Organization had conducted in the past had already be a part of the foundation of the Metaverse and the Digital Life project, and no one dared to delete it. Now, it was going to be used as incriminating evidence against the organization.

    Adam was carrying out his work simultaneously alongside the Mechguard units, finding the data that he needed before releasing it directly to the media. He wasn''t afraid that the Gaia Organization would seek legal action against him as that would only increase his clout.

    Regardless of how much anger and discontent was building toward him, he continued to release one set of data after another, disying the records of the horrific experiments that the elderly people had undergone for everyone to see.

    All of the media outlets associated with Golden Teeth Incorporated and the northern congress were eagerly piling on the coverage, ensuring that the data that was being released was seen by as many people as possible.

    The people who were affected by the plummeting stock prices were still protesting vehemently, but as they checked their news feeds to see the data that was being put on public disy, all of them fell into a state of internal conflict.

    They began to fall silent and consider whether they were doing the right thing. Should they turn on the Gaia Organization to support Adam, or continue denouncing him and turning a blind eye to the data that he was releasing?

    Were they just going to keep lying to themselves until the day they died? Some people were suffering mental breakdowns, cursing Adam for forcing them to see the horrific truth.

    This was an extremely painful choice to make, but it was one that was unavoidable, and that was what made it even more grueling.

    <i>This is the oue that I want. </i>

    Adam was very pleased with how the situation was unfolding. This was only an experiment, and it was working far better than he had predicted.

    He didn''t have the time or patience to educate people or exin to them why what he was doing was right. All he had to do was present them with irrefutable facts and evidence, and the decision would be up to them.

    The individual person was too weak. They needed a powerful fist to squeeze all of them together in order to unify them and liberate them.

    In just a single day, Sandrise City had beenpletely stirred up into a chaotic frenzy.

    The next day, the stock prices continued to plummet, and everyone could see that a stock market crisis was looming.

    In a private conference room in the Metaverse, the projections of Mr. One and several other figures were present, and after a lengthy discussion, a decision was made.

    "We''ll try one final time."

 Chapter 472: Live Messenger

    <h4>Chapter 472: Live Messenger</h4>

    The crisis was continuing to brew, and as stock prices continued to plummet, the widespread panic was only growing more and more severe.

    Promotion and confidence were two key elements required to maintain stock prices, and if both of those elements were lost, then the stock prices would inevitably plummet, and that was exactly what was happening here.

    Many of the giants in the finance sector were already rubbing their hands together with glee. This was a massive opportunity, and if they could capitalize on it, then they would secure many years'' worth or profits in a very short time.

    Just the profits that had been generated in these first few days alone had been enough to increase the wealth of many people by severalfold, and they were celebrating jubntly while eagerly waiting to see what Adam was going to do next.

    However, Adam wasn''t participating in the celebrations. Instead, he was still busy carrying out his duties in the election center and the special psychic police station.

    "You should take some time to rx from time to time. Constantly being in a state of high tension is not conducive to achieving your ultimate objective. I''m sure you don''t need me to tell you that a short-term stock market crisis alone won''t be enough to bring down a corporation as powerful as the Gaia Organization."

    This was a piece of advice from Cowboy, and Adam thanked him for his concern.

    The Gaia Organization was an unfathomably powerful monolith that provided tforms and servers to over half of all of the softwarepanies in the world, including the countless virtual businesses in the Metaverse.

    Even Cowboy''spany was reliant on the Gaia Organization for its operation, and it was no exaggeration to say that the Gaia Organization had be a global business empire.

    For such a massively important entity, its stock price was no longer an indication of its true value. Its intangible assets, such as the Gaia Tax that it charged all of thepanies using its services, the banking and loan services that it provided, and the top-tier digital safety and data ess technologies that it possessed were all things that were impossible to fully ount for in its stock price.

    Just like how air and water were necessities for survival, the services of the Gaia Organization were necessities for people of the digital age, and they could still live just fine even if all of the money that they had invested into the Gaia Organization''s stocks evaporated entirely.

    In order to bring down the Gaia Organization, Adam would have to force them to pay for their past crimes and return the power to the people. Adam required a stronger weapon and more convincing evidence to aplish this, something that would directly sway everyone''s confidence.

    However, this was an extremely difficult endeavor, and even with so much support from the likes of the pawn shop and the northern congress, he was unable to find a suitable incision point.

    Adam was confident that he was definitely going to be able to find an incision point, but he didn''t know where.

    A few dayster, he received an unexpected message.

    An important target of his had entered Sandrise City and had been intercepted and detained at the border. At the moment, this target was being escorted by Mechguard units to the special psychic police headquarters for interrogation and investigation.

    "Liu Shouren?"

    This was a very familiar name to Adam.

    Not long ago, he had just retrieved his brother, Liu Shouyi, from Shadow City, and that had been the beginning of his crusade against the Gaia Organization.

    Liu Shouren was an even higher-ranking employee with ess to more information, and it was clear to Adam that he had intentionally gotten himself detained at the border.

    <i>Interesting. Looks like they''re trying something else now. Has he been sent here to test me, or is it for some other purpose? </i>

    Instead of pondering the matter, Adam went straight to the special psychic police headquarters, where Liu Shouren was detained in an interrogation room with Mechguard units stationed beside him.

    Adam sat down across the table from him, and a slightly deranged smile appeared on Liu Shouren''s face as he chuckled, "Well, well, well, look who it is! I have the honor of meeting the mayor in person! Oh wait, sorry, you''re still not the mayor yet."

    Adam''s expression remained unchanged, and he was looking at Liu Shouren as if he were looking at a pile of dead meat. After a brief silence, Liu Shouren dropped the act, and the deranged smile on his face faded as he leaned forward slightly to get a closer look at Adam.

    "It''s incredible to think that someone so young has been able to do so much in such a short time."

    Adam didn''t want to waste any time, and he cut straight to the chase. "Let''s get to the point, Mr. Liu. I''m sure you''re aware that you don''t have much time left."

    His words were like a knife that had been driven straight into Liu Shouren''s heart, and his face became twisted with rage as a vicious look appeared in his eyes.

    He mmed his handcuffed fists heavily down onto the stainless steel table, causing the entire room to shudder slightly, and the Mechguard units beside him instantly trained their guns on him, ready to shoot him down at a moment''s notice.

    Adam raised a hand to stop the Mechguard units as he looked straight into Liu Shouren''s eyes, watching as the emotion in his eyes turned from rage to frustration, then toplete dejection and resignation, and it was as if he had suddenly aged 10 years.

    "You''re right. I''m just a messenger, a living messenger who doesn''t even know what message he''s carrying in his head," Liu Shouren sighed with a self-deprecating smile. "Looks like I was too naive. I thought I was some bigshot who was indispensable to the organization, but I''m nothing more than a fool."

    Indeed, he was nothing more than a tool to make money for those above him, and if he were to lose his value, then he would be instantly discarded. There were countless younger and more capable individuals waiting in the wings to rece him, and this had always been the brutal reality of his existence, but he had willfully turned a blind eye to this in the past.

    "No matter how high you climb, you would still always just be an expendable pawn. It''s not that you didn''t work hard enough. Do you know why you ultimately ended up in this position?" Adam asked.

    .

    A puzzled look appeared on Liu Shouren''s face, and he asked, "Is it because I should''ve worked harder, or I simply wasn''t lucky enough?"

    This was the type of concept that was drilled into everyone from a young age, the naive thought that they would be able to climb to the top as long as they worked hard enough and had sufficient luck on their side. It was an illusion being sold by the upper ss, telling everyone that they could join them at the top as long as they were willing to put in the work.

    However, that was nothing more than a lie.

    Take the elderly residents of the retirement homes that he had visited as an example. They had worked hard their entire lives, yet in their old age, they were treated even worse than animals that were farmed for their meat.

    This lie was one of the tools that the upper ss used to control the entire world, and that was something that Adam had figured out long ago, but he couldn''t be bothered to exin this concept to Liu Shouren.

    Instead, he gentlyid a finger onto Liu Shouren''s arm as he murmured to himself, "Let me see what message they''ve prepared for me."

 Chapter 473: Deep Dimension Game

    <h4>Chapter 473: Deep Dimension Game</h4>

    Following his battle against Hebi no Miko, Adam''s psychic invasion skills had received a substantial boost.

    The transition from the real world to the psychic world became extremely smooth and natural, and there was no longer the same dizziness and difort that he normally experienced. Instead, it was just as seamless and discreet as back when Masao Yamamoto invaded his psychic world during their first meeting.

    Liu Shouren didn''t even realize a psychic invasion had taken ce until Adam invoked and fused as one with Mummy.

    This wasn''t the first time that he had entered the psychic world, but this was the first time that he hade to realize how clean it was.

    Adam invoked Ogress to examine the area, only to find that it had already beenpletely cleared out.

    For the average person, such a service would''ve cost in the millions. Liu Shouren had done far more heinous things than his brother, so the price for a psychic cleanse for him would''ve only been higher. Furthermore, there was a very good chance that he would''ve harbored powerful anomalies in his psychic world, but all of that had been eradicated.

    He had a rough idea of what had been done to him, and he looked around to find that all of his familiar memories, the ones that he had cherished, hidden, and treasured, had all disappeared.

    "How cruel. It seems like they don''t want to leave anything behind for me," Liu Shouren sighed, then asked a question that had been on his mind this entire time. "Is my brother doing alright?"

    "He''s still alive, and he could be alive for a very long time toe," Adam replied.

    "Good. At least he''ll get to outlive me," Liu Shouren said with a pleased nod, then spread his arms open and yelled to the heavens, "I''m ready!"

    As soon as his voice trailed off, his expression instantly stiffened, as if he had been turned into a wax figure.

    Immediately thereafter, countless tiny green branches emerged out of all of his orifices, enveloping his entire body in the blink of an eye before transforming him into none other than Madam Tree within the span of just a few seconds.

    From Adam''s perspective, Madam Tree''s form was nothing short of perfect, and it made one disregard her appearance, automatically leading one to assume that her existence was wless.

    This was different from the type of invasive psychic signaling that Subus Beth gave off. In contrast, it was very subtle and natural, evoking no sense of caution or wariness. It was a type of psychic signaling that could be ignored, but it couldn''t be grasped or targeted.

    It was a more advanced form of psychic signaling, and it was also more difficult to ward off.

    Even though Adam was wary of Madam Tree, he was still able to calmly appreciate her form without any fear of psychic contamination.

    The two of them looked across at one another, separated by about five meters, and Madam Tree was the one to initiate the conversation.

    "Apologies for meeting with you in this way. We had more appropriate avenues formunication prepared, but it seems like it''s difficult for us to establish mutual trust."

    Adam was rather surprised by how candid she was being. It indicated that she was about toy her cards onto the table, which could''ve been a good thing, so Adam nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

    "Setting aside our past conflicts and differences, I''m sure you''ve realized at this point that your power alone isn''t enough to shake our foundation, so you''re destined to fail."

    "Even so, my actions will result in severe repercussions for you, and that''s uneptable to the powerful figures behind you," Adam countered in a direct and straightforward fashion.

    The Gaia Organization had been established on the basis of vast capital investments from arge number of wealthy and powerful individuals, and it was closely connected to all of their businesses, so if the Gaia Organization were to fall, then everything would crumble.

    Adam''s attacks on the Gaia Organization were going to cause severe indirect damage to all of those powerful figures, and they definitely wouldn''t allow such an oue to arise. Furthermore, Adam''s exposure of the Guild of Immortality had already caused severe consequences, and at this point, it seemed that the only solution to this mess was to have Adam killed.

    "That is indeed true," Madam Tree admitted. "That''s why after we confirmed that you have no intentions of stopping, we tried to pursue some alternative methods to stop you by force, but personally, I''d rather settle this how adapters would."

    "What do you suggest?"

    Adam was already prepared for a battle, and even if he were to fail, death was not something that he feared, so he wasn''t going to back down.

    Madam Tree pointed a finger into the distance, and an unfamiliar mountainous terrain quickly took shape.

    Adam observed his surroundings with his psychic power to find that countless tiny particles were somehow quickly being molded into a desired form, much like how 3D printers operated.

    This was not just a normal manifestation of a memory.

    Instead, it felt rather familiar to him, and it felt like some type of technology rather than ability.

    All of a sudden, he thought of the Metaverse, and he realized that this was the exact same feeling that he experienced when their services shut down.

    With that in mind, he couldn''t help but wonder if the Gaia Organization had referenced the psychic worlds of adapters to construct the Metaverse, or if they had referenced the digital model of the Metaverse to alter Liu Shouren''s psychic world.

    Perhaps there was no difference between the two, and with that revtion, Adam felt as if he had just gleaned a massive secret.

    Madam Tree could sense his psychic fluctuations, and it was only just a brief glimpse, a fleeing contact between their psychic power, but she immediately noticed that minute changes had taken ce in his psychic body.

    <i>What an impressive kid! He''s sensitive beyond belief and able to control and use psychic power as if it were second nature. </i>

    If Adam hadn''t been her enemy, she would''ve really wanted to recruit him as a subordinate, but that ship had already well and truly sailed.

    The terrain was being generated extremely quickly, from the mountains to the vegetation, then to the man-made structures, and finally, a straight road appeared, stopping right beneath their feet.

    "This is the game location that we''ve chosen, and it''ll be up to you to uncover the hidden content. As long as you can find the hidden leads and uncover the secrets that they contain, you''ll give yourself an opportunity toplete your ultimate objective."

    Adam was rather skeptical upon hearing this. Was it really possible that they would hand over the key to their destruction to him? Perhaps this was a genuine proposition. After all, the alternative oue hadn''t been outlined.

    If he were to fail to beat the game, there was a very good chance that he would be trapped inside, or suffer severe psychic damage, or even be killed outright. Only with such an alluring bait would they be able to ensure that he would take on the challenge, and it was quite befitting of the world''srgest financial organization to disy such a degree of courage and confidence.

    Adam didn''t take much time to think, taking a deep breath as he nodded and dered, "I ept the challenge."

    Madam Tree raised a hand in an elegant manner before snapping her fingers.

    "This is the beginning of the deep dimension game, I wish you good luck."

    Her body then disintegrated into countless specks of green light, and even though Liu Shouren''s psychic body wasn''t restored, his psychic world still remained stable thanks to whatever technology was in y.

    Adam watched as an ancient railcar slowly drove toward him beforeing to stop, and he stepped onto it without any hesitation.

    "Please make sure to sit securely, passenger. The journey ahead may be a little bumpy, but please have faith in Old Jack''s driving skills. I''ll be sure to get you safely to your destination."

    The driver turned around and made a funny face at Adam, but there was a sinister feeling behind his friendly and amicable facade.

 Chapter 474: Final Fortress

    <h4>Chapter 474: Final Fortress</h4>

    <i>There''s something not quite right with this railcar! </i>

    After fusing as one with Mummy, he was standing at around six to seven meters tall. The railcar appeared to have been a normal-sized one, but as soon as he stepped onto it, it automatically adjusted itself to fit him, and everything appeared to have beenpletely natural.

    This was a clear indication to Adam that the technology or ability that had created this world was extremely powerful, but he hadn''t discovered any danger up to this point, so he was just going to sit tight and wait to see what was going to happen next.

    The railcar began to move again, and it was like an ancient tractor, spitting up a plume of ck smoke behind it while vibrating violently as it chugged along in a bumpy fashion.

    The driver, Old Jack, was a very lively person, humming an old song that was popr before World War III, but he was a terrible singer and was ridiculously out of tune with every note that he sang. However, despite his horrible singing, it somehow wasn''t that bad to listen to.

    Adam attempted to invoke Ogress to scout the path ahead, only to discover that it was unable to bypass the invisible barrier around the railcar.

    Old Jack took a nce at him through the rearview mirror as he chuckled, "Don''t worry, as long as you remain in the railcar, I guarantee you we''ll get to our destination safe and sound."

    In saying this, he was implying that he wasn''t guaranteed to be safe outside of the railcar.

    As soon as Old Jack''s voice trailed off, the surrounding scenery suddenly began to change.

    There were still rolling mountains in the distance, but the sky had darkened, and countless tall buildings, trees, cars, and people had appeared out of nowhere, and most importantly, there was a battle taking ce.

    <i>Boom! </i>

    A missilended no more than 30 meters away from the railcar, piercing straight through a truck before plunging into the ground and exploding violently,unching dozens of tons of concrete and shrapnel in all directions at high speeds.

    The buildings, cars, and people nearby were caughtpletely off guard and were torn into shreds by the shrapnel and the shockwaves.

    The railcar was also struck by hundreds of chunks of shrapnel, and a tyre with its suspension attached to it mmed heavily into the railcar''s windscreen, causing the entire railcar to jump up and almost be derailed.

    "That was close!" Old Jack yelled in an excited voice, and he was gripping onto the steering wheel tightly as he squirmed in his seat.

    "Hold on tight to the handles, passenger, the next part of our journey is going to be really wild!"

    As soon as his voice trailed off, a tracking missile came flying over the street at no more than 20 meters above the ground, then mmed into its target at supersonic speed. The half-ton missile exploded with devastating force upon contact, destroying everything in a radius of 100 meters.

    The target was a Godzi monster that was 50 to 60 meters tall!

    Even such a terrifying blow wasn''t enough to kill the monster, but it had punched a massive hole into its body, sending it stumbling to the side, toppling a bunch of already severely ravaged buildings in the process.

    The railcar barreled its way straight through the shockwaves and the massive clouds of dust, passing through between the Godzi monster''s legs. Adam could even see the monster''s tail scraping over the roof of the railcar, producing a ghastly sound that raised goosebumps all over his body.

    However, in his current form, instead of goosebumps, it was bandages that were rising up from his body, and he was astonished by how formidable this Godz monster was.

    At the very least, it had to have beenparable in power to a level nine anomaly, and even he would''ve had a very hard time taking it down. The railcar had only driven no more than 100 meters past the Godzill monster when it smashed through a pair of buildings with its tail, sending chunks of concrete crashing violently into the ss panel at the back of the railcar.

    The monster then raised a foot before stomping it down viciously onto the ground, creating such violent shockwaves that the railcar sprang up several meters into the air before beingpletely derailed, but somehow, it was still able to continue onward.

    Despite the situation that he was in, Adam was feeling rather reassured. It was clear that Old Jack hadn''t been lying to him, and this really was no ordinary railcar. It appeared to have been a special transportation device that was indestructible.

    After swaying side to side a few times, the railcar righted itself before continuing to race down the street with missiles and rocketsnding all around it. asionally, people and monsters of different forms could be seen flying through the air from the explosions, and they were either torn apart or attempting to retaliate, razingrge sections of the city to the ground.

    It was impossible to tell how many opposing parties were involved in this battle. Instead, it was like a free-for-all battle royale where everyone was pitted against everyone else.

    As time passed, Adam came to realize that this was a primarily digitally generated product, much like the simted game environments in the Metaverse.

    However, this was far more realistic than anything he had seen in the Metaverse, and just as he spected, there was a very good chance that some elements of the human psychic world had been incorporated into this technology.

    Adam was bing more and more confused about Madam Tree''s intentions. Was she not concerned that he would figure everything out and leak it to the Gaia Organization''spetitors and enemies?

    As these thoughts were running through his mind, the railcar had already emerged from the city, where the battle was most intense. Up ahead was arge forest, interspersed with luxury houses and mansions. The scenery here was exceptional, and the roads were very wide, indicating that this was clearly a very wealthy area.

    Furthermore, judging from the styles of the buildings and the nearby cars, this appeared to have been a wealthy area from before World War III.

    However, this ce wasn''t spared, either. After only several seconds of peace and serenity, a missile was suddenly detonated while flying through the air at a low altitude, producing devastating shockwaves that instantly destroyed a three-story mansion down below before also annihting everything in a radius of several hundred meters.

    A humanoid figure sprang up into the sky from the epicenter of the explosion, and it was a mecha with weapons all over its body, making it resemble a porcupine. Miniature missiles wereunched in rapid session out of the numerous cannon barrels that riddled the mecha''s body, destroying an attack aircraft that was flying through the air nearby.

    Before the mecha had a chance to celebrate, a flurry of antiaircraft projectiles wereunched directly at him, producing an enormous explosion that covered a huge area, but wasn''t enough to destroy the mecha.

    However, the mecha''s field of view and radar detection had been severely obstructed, and taking advantage of this opportunity, the true killing blow was unleashed from afar in the form of an ultra high speed beam of light that destroyed the mecha on the spot.

    This was a st from an electromaic cannon!

    Adam could feel his own skin crawling. In the face of such terrifying speed and power, even Sludge and Mummy would''ve struggled to hold their own.

    Even if Hebi no Miko were still alive and had taken on her Yamata no Orochi form, she would''ve still been forced to flee for her life in the face of such a terrifying weapon, so what exactly was this ce?

    Was this a new game created by the Gaia Organization? If that were the case, surely Cowboy would''ve heard about it at some point, and with such realistic effects, it was sure to receive widespread acim.

    Alternatively, could it be that this was still currently a top secret project?

    Right as Adam was pondering the situation that he was in, he suddenly heard Old Jack yell, "We''ve arrived at the terminal station, please disembark."

    He turned back to Adam with a peculiar smile on his face as he dered, "Wee to the final fortress."

 Chapter 475: Holy Angel

    <h4>Chapter 475: Holy Angel</h4>

    This final fortress was something that Adam had never heard of, so it was definitely a top-secret entity, perhaps even something that the Gaia Organization didn''t haveplete control over.

    This was an intriguing thought that had urred to him as an intuitive reaction on a psychic level, and it had arisen in his mind as he caught his first clear glimpse of the building up ahead.

    After disembarking from the railcar, his body instantly reverted back to Mummy''s original size, and the railcar continued to chug onward for a few dozen more meters before suddenly vanishing into thin air.

    Even with his sharp telegnosis, Adam had no idea how the railcar had disappeared, but that wasn''t his focus at the moment. He could feel countless pairs of eyes scrutinizing him from all directions, harboring all types ofplex emotions, but at the same time, they were keeping their distance, refraining from attacking.

    This was a terrible feeling, and Adam invoked Ogress to scout the area, instructing to fly as high as possible, but it was only able to reach an altitude of around a kilometer before reaching an invisible ceiling.

    The area was also only around a kilometer wide on each side, so the only way for him to proceed was to advance forward.

    Looking at the white building that appeared as if it had been constructed from marble, Adam took a deep breath, then spread his runed bandages to set upyers of protective barriers before stepping forward with a determined expression.

    As soon as he took a step forward, his surroundings instantly transformed, and he arrived in a pristine white space with an enormous figure that was over a kilometer in height in front of him.

    Its appearance was very simr to Angel, except its entire body waspletely white, and there were three pairs of wings on its back, with every single feather formed by countless faces. Furthermore, it was holding a giant ymore that was as massive as a skyscraper, and its eyes were tightly shut.

    <i>What is this ce? And what is this thing? An anomaly? </i>

    Adam couldn''t help but draw a sharp breath at the prospect of potentially having to face such a seemingly insurmountable being in battle.

    ¡­¡­

    Inside a tall building on a owned by the Gaia Organization in the Metaverse, there was a hall that was as massive as a sports stadium, within which tens of thousands of employees all wearing the same uniform were busy at work.

    On arge screen directly up ahead was an image depicting Adam''s current situation. Madam Tree was wearing a crown woven from branches while holding a staff in one hand, and beside her were many men and women of different appearances, all of whom were watching the unfolding scene on the screen while sitting on high back chairs.

    "He went in just like that?" a middle-aged man eximed as he watched Adam pass safely through the warzone in the railcar.

    "That''s way too unfair! Those things didn''t try to attack him at all! Is he really just a nk te?"

    "I strongly suspect that he has something to do with the failure of the Alpha God project. Otherwise, there''s no way to exin all of this," someone else spected.

    The Alpha God project was a top-secret AI generation project of the Gaia Organization, and if it had seeded, it would''ve allowed the Gaia Organization to rule over the entire world.

    Unfortunately, it had failed, not because the AI couldn''t be activated, but instead because it didn''t achieve the projected oue.

    Out of all of the people who knew of the project, Madam Tree held a different opinion from everyone else, which was that the project hadn''t failed. Intead, an unprecedented change had arisen.

    Sure enough, as they were conducting aprehensive review of the underlying data, they discovered a strange isted area in the Metaverse, one that could connect with the psychic power of adapters while also containing the electronic entities created by the Digital Life project.

    She made a bold prediction, which was that this area definitely contained the results of the Alpha God project, but in order to uncover the truth hidden inside, they had to bypass all of theyers of defenses around it.

    The Gaia Organization had gathered tens of thousands of the top talent in the world to solve this problem, yet even to this day, they were still unable to crack the case. They had only managed to find the entrance and decipher much of the internal logic, proving that this was indeed a product of the Alpha God and Digital Life projects.

    However, it was still unclear how these two were able to contain a psychic world, and this was something that they desperately wanted to uncover as their pursuit of world domination hinged on unveiling these secrets.

    Ultimately, it was a joint decision from Madam Tree and Mr. One to take a gamble on Adam,and as it turned out, they had made the right choice. Everyone was staring at therge screen with bated breath, watching Adam step intopletely unchartered territory.

    All of a sudden, the screen turnedpletely white.

    "We''ve lost sight of the target, but the psychic signal is still registering as normal."

    "The target is still in the interrogation room, and all his vital signs are normal."

    "Keep monitoring him, and don''t alert anyone else to what''s happening," Madam Tree instructed in a calm manner, disying more patience than everyone else.

    ¡­¡­

    Adam looked up at the massive angel before him with astonishment in his heart.

    It seemed that this ce was the angel''s domain, and it was entirely filled with holy light and the sound of a faint holy choir. Adam''s psychic world was being directly affected, striking him with a sense of difort.

    <i>Its power seems to be very effective when ites to suppressing certain anomalies. </i>

    With that in mind, Adam made the bold decision to separate from Mummy before withdrawing it into his body, and sure enough, he immediately felt much better.

    He then invoked Hellhound, and as soon as it appeared, the giant angel''s eyelids peeled back ever so slightly, releasing a vast burst of holy light that struck Hellhound and almost destroyed it on the spot, and Adam hurriedly withdrew Hellhound as well with an rmed expression.

    The power of that burst of holy light was alreadyparable to Hebi no Miko''s most powerful attacks, and it was even more formidable than Masao Yamamoto''s de of Annihtion. Much to Adam''s dismay, it appeared that he wasn''t going to be able to use the majority of his anomalies here, so how was he going to be able to fight?

    .

    There was no time for him to think as the angel seemed to have been awakened by his actions, and its eyes opened up wider and wider, releasing two bursts of holy light that epassed Adam''s entire body, making it difficult for him to lift even a single finger.

    This thing had to have been at leastparable in power to a level 10 anomaly!

    He instinctively wanted to invoke Angel to face this formidable foe, but his instincts intervened, telling him to refrain from doing so.

    Sure enough, the angel didn''t immediately attack. Instead, it slowly raised its giant ymore, and its almighty voice rang out across the entire space.

    "You have sinned, so you must ept your judgment!"

    As it did this, countless memories began to flow out of Adam''s psychic body, forming countless images that disyed everything that he had done up to this point since his awakening as a nk te.

    Adam was very surprised to find that many of these images were unfolding from a third-person perspective, as if it had been captured by surveince cameras, and he couldn''t help but wonder why this was the case.

    All of a sudden, he thought of that mysterious figure who had always been helping him from the shadows, that near-omnipotent being who had always provided him with key information at important times. Did this have something to do with them?

    All of a sudden, all of the images faded with the exception of the one where May, Renee, and he had in the Angel of Death, as well as the images of him putting the elderly residents of the retirement homes out of their misery, and the ones depicting the actions that he had taken to expose the Digital Life scam.

    "You have also done good!"

 Chapter 476: The Mysterious Key

    <h4>Chapter 476: The Mysterious Key</h4>

    As this deration rang out, the images in the air reorganized themselves before expanding, with some of them ying in a first-person perspective, some unfolding from a third-person perspective, and even some memories that came directly from the elderly people that Adam had helped.

    The final type of images definitely shouldn''t have appeared as only Adam had been present on those asions, while the memories of those elderly people should''ve died with them.

    Adam immediately felt a chill run down his spine, but a reasonable exnation for this then urred to him.

    The psychic worlds of those elderly people had been invaded in the past, and there could''ve been some things left behind in there that had captured their memories and were now disying them in this mysterious space.

    Something simr had already happened once back when Adam entered Liu Shouyi''s psychic world, so it was no surprise that it was happening again.

    However, in order to aplish this, an astonishing amount of inte resources were required, as well as exceptional mastery over psychic techniques. The only person that Adam could think of that could possess both those things was the mysterious figure that had been helping him from the shadows, and he couldn''t help but wonder whether this vast angel was a manifestation of that mysterious figure or an anomaly.

    Adam had no idea what the answer was, and the angel wasn''t exining anything to him. After all of those images were disyed, they disintegrated into parts that flowed into the angel''s wings to form even more feathers.

    The sound of the angelic choir grew louder, striking the listener with a sense of awe and veneration, and a sense of genuine joy also welled up in Adam''s heart.

    <i>I''ve brought peace to so many people, even if I had to kill them to do so. At the very least, I''ve upheld my morality, so I should be rewarded. What is my reward going to be? </i>

    The giant ymore in the angel''s hands disappeared, while thousands of feathers detached themselves from its wings before disintegrating into particles that came together to form an antiquated golden key in its hands.

    With a wave of its hand, the key slowly descended, and Adam reflexively caught it to find that it felt no different from a normal metal key.

    Upon closer inspection, he discovered that its surface waspletely wless, making it resemble a product of peak manufacturing, and the extremelyplex and concentrated patterns on its surface would''ve been enough to fill an entire basketball court.

    It appeared that some type of spatialpression technique had been used to repeatedly stack upyers of two-dimensional code on top of one another to form a three-dimensional key that epassed an unfathomably enormous amount of data.

    Adam couldn''t help but draw a sharp breath upon seeing this. Could this have been the ultimate secret of this fortress? But he felt as if he had obtained it without even doing anything!

    He was rather suspicious of this situation, but there was no one here to answer his questions. The light in the massive space quickly dimmed as if the light source had been switched off, and his surroundings changed once again as he returned to the same ce as before.

    There were still the same rolling mountains in the distance, but the gates of the building had swung shut, and Adam looked down to find that he was still holding the key, which was giving off a faint golden glow.

    At the same, his image reappeared on the giant screen in the Metaverse.

    "He''se out!"

    "What''s he holding in his hand?"

    "We''ve detected an enormous amount of data transference, and unknown changes have taken ce in the core algorithm!"

    "We seem to have made a breakthrough in Project X."

    "That key is our target!" Madam Tree sprang to her feet as she pointed at the screen with her staff and loudly yelled, "We have to take that key off him at all costs!"

    The important figures seated beside her also became extremely excited. This was very much a pleasant surprise. They had only done this to take a gamble, and never had the thought that they would get what they wanted so quickly. Despite her immense mental fortitude, even Madam Tree was feeling ovee by excitement.

    Victory was theirs!

    Adam attempted to take another step forward, but this time, he wasn''t able to enter the same space as before. No matter how many steps he took forward, the mountains and that building remained the same distance away from him.

    <i>It looks like it''s not letting me in anymore. </i>

    With that in mind, Adam began to make his way back the other way, but he had only just turned around when a giant demonic figure that was over 10 meters tall appeared before him out of nowhere.

    The demonic being had sharp spikes all over its body, and it spread a hand open as itmanded in a thunderous voice, "Hand over the key!"

    It was clear that they were trying to take the key from him by force, and Adam immediately invoked Sludge before fusing as one with it, then stuck the key into his own body as he goaded, "Come and get it."

    The demonic being swung its de down toward Adam''s head at a very high speed, but Adam wasn''t slow, either, and he raised an arm to ward off the attack. A loud ng rang out as sparks flew everywhere alongsiderge rock fragments, but arge dent had also appeared in the demonic being''s de.

    Sludge remainedpletely unmoved as it took arge stride forward while simultaneously swinging its right fist through the air, unleashing such a powerful punch that the air up ahead waspressed before exploding, sending violent tremors running through the ground in a radius of several hundred meters.

    The demonic being didn''t back down, retaliating with its left fist, and powerful shockwaves erupted from the sh of fists, smashing a crescent-shaped crater that was several meters deep into the ground.

    The demonic being wascking in staturepared with Sludge, but it was incredibly strong, and it shattered Sludge''s entire arm with a single punch. However, all of the scales and bone spikes on the left half of its body were also destroyed, causing some type of toxic sludge to flow out from within.

    The twobatants each stumbled back several dozen meters beforeing to a stop, leaving a pair of long trenches in their wake.

    <i>Who on earth is this? </i>

    Adam had never heard of an adapter with this profile, but it was clear that it was on the side of Madam Tree or the Gaia Organization.

    With that in mind, Adam immediately invoked Hellhound and Mummy, and they began unleashing their most powerful attacks as soon as they appeared.

    .

    Mummy wrapped its bandages around the demonic being''s body, but instead of pulling the demonic being toward itself, itunched itself at the demonic being instead before plunging its carving knife toward the demonic being''s crotch, while Hellhound provided assistance from the side with its Explosive Fireballs.

    The demonic being reacted extremely quickly, parrying Mummy''s attack with its de whilepletely ignoring the fireballs as it guffawed, "You''re in no position to be using fire against me, boy!"

    It then opened its mouth up wide to release a burst of scorching white mes that were even hotter and more condensed than the Explosive Fireballs. The burst of fire struck one of Hellhound''s heads with tremendous force, inflicting severe injuries upon it.

    <i>Looks like Hellhound is beginning to struggle to keep up. </i>

    This was a rather sobering realization as Hellhound was his very first anomaly, and it was now beginning to fall behind the rest of the pack.

    He instructed Hellhound to let loose an Infernal Howl to heal everyone with one of its other heads. Meanwhile, Mummy continued tosh out with its carving knife, but wasn''t able tond any blows.

    It was clear that the demonic being was trained in using des, and it was far more proficient with ded weapons than Mummy.

    However, Adam had far more tricks up his sleeve. For example, Camera had been discreetly invoked, and it pounced on an opportunity to strike, severing the demonic being''s de-wielding arm with just a single blow.

    Right as it was about to decapitate the demonic being, a burst of light shot forth like lightning, striking Sludge directly on the chest.

 Chapter 477: Fierce Battle

    <h4>Chapter 477: Fierce Battle</h4>

    The attack hade extremely quickly, only a tiny bit slower than aser beam, and it was incredibly powerful, punching a hole straight through Sludge.

    It was an electromaic cannon!

    On the way here, Adam had already witnessed just how formidable this type of weapon was. It hadpletely destroyed that mecha that had withstood a multitude of explosions earlier, and not only had this attack severely wounded Sludge, it had also blown out the key that was concealed in its body.

    Another ck shadow flew through the air like lightning before grabbing the key and attempting to flee. In response, Adam instantly separated from Sludge before fusing with Mummy again, and at the same time, Camera, which was about to attack the demonic being again, switched targets to deal the ck shadow a vicious blow.

    The ck shadow let loose an agonized howl, and it was revealed to have been a humanoid bird creature with wings on its back, and it was most certainly a psychic body.

    Its body was six meters in length and extremely streamlined, perfect for high-speed flight. Camera had just severed its talons, which were gripping onto the key, and Mummy''s bandages instantly shot forth to recover it.

    Right at this moment, the demonic being suddenly let loose a thunderous roar, and around a dozen bone spikes detached themselves from its body before flying directly at Mummy.

    Mummy''s runed bandages formed a series of protective barriers at Adam¡¯s behest, keeping all of the bone spikes at bay.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, the demonic being regrew an arm, then pulled out one of its own ribs as a recement de, which it swung down with formidable power.

    ].

    Adam didn''t dare to prolong this battle any longer. He had no idea how many opponents that he was facing, and the best thing for him would be to get on that railcar as soon as possible.

    Unfortunately, it still hadn''t appeared. He immediately invoked Scarecrow, and as soon as it emerged, a vast dark cloud appeared in the sky, while countless bats came swooping in from all directions, forming a smokescreen that obstructed the vision of the long-range snipers in the distance.

    At the same time, Scarecrow charged toward the demonic being, managing to keep it at bay with its metal hook. Meanwhile, Camera pounced from the side, clicking its shutter to immobilize the demonic being for an instant once again before unleashing a powerful strike to decapitate it.

    Before Adam had a chance to celebrate, a missile suddenly flew through the clouds of bats before striking Scarecrow, and the shockwaves resulting from the explosion also affected the fragile Camera, resulting in minor injuries.

    As a safety precaution, Adam had no choice but to withdraw Camera, and he turned around to discover a tank approaching him from a distance. There were all types of cannon barrels and missileunchers protruding out of the tank, making it resemble a porcupine, and all of those weapons were firing at him in unison.

    The resulting barrage of explosives was extremely fearsome, and Adam hurriedly ordered Scarecrow to intercept the attacks with its bats, sacrificing themselves to intercept as many projectiles as possible. In the meantime, Scarecrow swept up Mummy in its massive cloak before retreating back over 100 meters.

    Meanwhile, the barrage of explosions had already transformed the spot where Adam had been standing just a moment ago into a fiery hellscape!

    Adam was bing more and more concerned by the second. His enemies were capable ofbining psychic techniques with digital simtion technology, and the resulting attacks were extremely fearsome.

    If he had someone like Diana by his side, perhaps she would''ve been able to retaliate with somerge-scale attacks, but on his own, this was a terrible situation to be in.

    Even so, Adam remainedpletely unfazed, invoking over 20 low-level anomalies at once. Individually, none of them were all that formidable, but they were very useful for distracting enemy fire.

    On top of that, he instructed Clown to conjure up hundreds of clones, all of which spread themselves far and wide, scurrying everywhere while firing off their weapons in retaliation.

    All of a sudden, the entire battlefield was plunged intoplete chaos, and the tank was struck by a barrage of gunfire and missiles from dozens of Clown clones. That wasn''t enough to destroy the tank, but the tank was also unable to take aim at Adam through all of the explosions.

    Right at this moment, an attack aircraft suddenly flew through the sky at a low altitude, unloading a massive missile straight onto the center of the battlefield, creating an explosion that sent shockwaves sweeping through the surrounding area in a radius of 100 to 200 meters.

    At least half of the Clown clones were destroyed by the explosion, and Clown itself also sustained severe injuries, so Adam had no choice but to withdraw it for now. At the same time, around a dozen of his low-level anomalies had been killed with no chance for resurrection. Adam was flying back while wrapped up in Scarecrow''s cloak, but he was still struck by the shockwaves from the explosion, and both anomalies suffered minor injuries.

    This collection of enemies was no less formidable than Hebi no Miko, and to furtherpound Adam''s woes, they were even more flexible and prudent.

    He was just about to invoke Horse Face to retaliate against his enemies when the ground suddenly began to bulge, following which a giant figure sprang up into the air from underground, appearing to have been some type of massive insect.

    The insect had a spindle-shaped head with four mandibles, which, when split open, revealed dozens of snake heads inside, all of which were screeching incessantly, producing soundwave attacks with psychic disruption effects. Somehow, it seemed to have been to detect Adam''s location, and bursts of yellow sand came flying out of several of its snake heads.

    In the blink of an eye, the entire space was filled with yellow sand that appeared to have possessed toxic properties, instantly beginning to corrode Mummy and Scarecrow''s bodies upon contact.

    Adam had no choice but to invoke Nun to unleash her Fountain of Contamination in retaliation, clearing out a safe zone around himself, but also exposing him to his enemies.

    Another electromaic cannon st arrived, and even though he was already prepared, conjuring up over 100 defensive barriers with his runed bandages, he was still unable to withstand the st, so he could only instruct Scarecrow to shield him, and a hole was sted straight through its body, furtherpounding its injuries.

    Adam was beginning to grow very frustrated, and he was just about to invoke Angel when he suddenly noticed a ck line rising up from the distant horizon, immediately followed by a burst of loud rumbling.

    Focusing his gaze in that direction, he discovered that there were tens of thousands of monstrous creatures of all descriptions rumbling toward him alongside thousands of armored tanks, mechas, helicopters, anomalies, and game characters to form an incredibly formidable army.

    Adam was shocked beyond belief upon seeing this. He had never witnessed anything so formidable in any of his past psychic battles.

    Inside the Metaverse, one of the board members of the Gaia Organization was chortling with glee.

    "Who still goes around trying to y the hero on their own in this day and age? Show him the power of our organization!"

    All of the people in the hall were expert gamers, and they were working with the adapters recruited by the organization to create a psychic army that was far too formidable for anyone to ovee on their own.

    Madam Tree''s brows furrowed ever so slightly, but she didn''t say anything.

    At this point, Adam was about to bepletely surrounded, and that would''ve spelled certain death. His opponent''s had already gained the absolute upper hand, and it seemed that he had no choice but to fight to the death. Right at this moment, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

    "Give them the key."

 Chapter 478: The Precursor of Digital Ascension

    <h4>Chapter 478: The Precursor of Digital Ascension</h4>

    Once again, that mysterious being had appeared in Adam''s time of need, and at this point, Adam had already learned to trust them fully. Hence, he pulled out the key without any hesitation, then hurled it forcefully through the air, sending it flying behind himself like a shooting star.

    All of the ground and air units instantly set off in pursuit of the key, and it appeared that they were all on the same side, but in reality, they weren''t all that unified. An attack aircraft was the first to obtain the key thanks to its superior speed, only to be almost destroyed by an electromaic cannon st immediately thereafter.

    Meanwhile, the giant insect sprang out of the hole in the ground, revealing its entire body to have been over 200 meters in length, and it opened its mouth up wide to grab onto the attack aircraft the key, but it had only just begun its descent when a massive hole was sted into its body by an armor-piercing missile.

    Countless springtails instantly swarmed onto the insect, inundating its lower body and devouring it. One of them found the key before attempting to scurry away, only for a dragon to incinerate it into ashes with its draconic breath, following which the dragon grabbed the key and soared into the heavens.

    The air units definitely had an advantage in the fight over the key, but the ground units were not to be disregarded, either, and several dozen missiles instantly crashed into the dragon''s body before exploding violently, causing it to plummet out of the sky with an agonized roar.

    An 18-meter-tall mecha then sprang over the battlefield before activating the jet boosters on its back to propel itself forward at an incredible speed. Upon reaching the falling dragon, the mecha severed its w with a sh of its de to obtain the key.

    Immediately thereafter, a terrifying tentacle monster emerged from the clouds, and around a dozen tentacles that were hundreds of meters in length wrapped themselves around the mecha, while the eyes of the tentacle monster released two beams of dazzling light, which sted straight through the ensnared mecha.

    ¡­¡­

    An extremely chaotic battle was unfolding, while Adam was spectating from afar, stunned by the spectacr sight unfolding before him.

    Everyone''s attention had turned to the key, so Adam took advantage of this opportunity to conceal himself and quickly rush out of the encirclement.

    Meanwhile, in the Metaverse, the board members of the Gaia Organization were having a heated argument, and even Madam Tree was unable to restore order.

    Everyone was aware of how important the key was, and in the digital world, if they could seize the key for even a second longer than everyone else, they would be able to obtain an enormous amount of additional information that would benefit their businesses, and that was why they were fighting over the key.

    Madam Tree was quickly losing her patience, and a burst of green light shed from her be as she released a powerful psychic shockwave. All of the board members were momentarily stunned, and themotion instantly died down, following which everyone turned to Madam Tree with furious expressions.

    "There''s no need to fight among ourselves. We are a collective entity, and everyone will benefit from this."

    Madam Tree held a great deal of authority in this group, so the board members could only reluctantly call a temporary truce. As soon as their argument ceased, the battle taking ce in the psychic world also came to a stop.

    After the dust settled on the screen, they discovered that Adam was nowhere to be seen.

    However, they didn''t have to look for very long. The railcar had reappeared on the edge of the battlefield, and Madam Tree and all of the board members could only watch as he stepped onto it.

    "So be it. He did help us out quite a bit here, so let''s let him live for a while longer," one of the board members said while looking intently at the employee that was holding the key tightly in his grasp.

    Madam Tree had a vague feeling that something wasn''t quite right, but Adam was in an unassable position in the railcar, so there was nothing that she could do. Hence, the key was carried safely to the edge of the final fortress, escorted by the tens of thousands of psychic bodies and digital battle units, and it was soon transported out of that strange digital world and back into the psychic world.

    As soon as Adam stepped out of the railcar, the entire world began to copse around him, forcing him to return to reality.

    Adam knew that he had no time to waste, and he immediately used his status as a special psychic police officer and a mayoral candidate to release an urgent notice.

    The notice was a warning aimed at the northern congress and the Dataist Union, informing them that a massive revolution that was going to affect the entire world was about to begin, and that this was potentially going to be a crisis that relegated everyone to eternal damnation.

    This was an extremely severe warning, and all of the major figures were quite skeptical of Adam''s ims. Adam knew that no one was going to simply take his word for it, so he told them to keep a close eye on thetest news pertaining to the Gaia Organization, and to begin using all of their industrial spies to gather as much information as they could.

    He was already doing everything as quickly as he could, but he was still outpaced by the Gaia Organization. In the digital world of the Metaverse, all of the Gaia Oraganization''s important figures were gathered together in a top-secret space.

    They were joined by Mr. One and all of the leading figures of the southern congress and the Guild of Immortality. All of them were unfathomably powerful figures, and this moment, their collective gaze was focused intently on a glowing golden key.

    They required an exnation, and one of the chief technicians began to exin to them what this key entailed.

    The top-secret Alpha God project of the Gaia Organization involved the creation of a super AI that could harness all of the underlying logic and algorithms of the digital world, and its true essence was held within this key.

    They had thought that the project had failed, but in reality, it had been concealed through an unknown method, and it had since been recovered from the final fortress. Now, all they had to do was integrate it into the existing big data cluster, and they would be able to perfectly elevate the Metaverse to a point that it would be able to hold psychic projections.

    This meant that true digital life and digital immortality would be a reality, and at this moment, tens of thousands of expert technicians were scrambling to verify whether there were any pitfalls concealed within the key.

    Everyone was waiting and watching with bated breath.

    The verification process was actually very simple. They wereparing the key to the algorithms of the failed product that they had on hand, removing all of the identical parts and only inspecting the differences between the two.

    Everything was normal, except there were more lines of redundant code that served no purpose. However, no one dared to delete these lines of code as they were older than everyone present, going all the way back to an age before the inte.

    They weren''t concerned by these lines of code as they weren''t going to have a detrimental effect. The verification process continued, and everything was disying as normal.

    Inside the Metaverse, time could be elongated, so everyone was working countless times faster than they would''ve been able to in the real world. Hence, while Adam was still scrambling to warn everyone of the impending crisis, the verification process was alreadying to a conclusion.

    Finally, the verification process wasplete with no errors unearthed, and everyone turned to the most powerful figure present for further instructions.

    That figure was only a virtual projection, and it was impossible to make out their facial features.

    A voice that somehow sounded both elderly and childlike at the same time rang out.

    "Begin."

    The head technician''s hands shuddered upon hearing this, but he then quicklyposed himself before slowly inserting the key into the virtual slot.

    The entire world began to tremble.

 Chapter 479: Lethal Blow

    <h4>Chapter 479: Lethal Blow</h4>

    In a pub on a certain entertainment in the Metaverse, Twerking Karen was hanging off a steel pole while revolving rapidly.

    She was holding onto the pole with one hand while using one foot for support, and even while suspended in mid-air, she was still showing off her signature twerking technique, causing all of the old perverts below the stage to cheer loudly while throwing fistfuls of cash onto the stage.

    She had only justpleted a difficult aerial maneuver and mped both of her legs around the steel pole when the entire stage and the entire pub abruptly shuddered.

    Karen reflexively reached out to grab the steel pole, but was left grasping at nothing but empty air. Her consciousness had left the virtual world and returned to the real world without any warning, and it seemed that nothing was different about the pub.

    However, Karen noticed that she was able to clearly see every single corner of the pub. The light here was very dim with the stage being the only brightly lit area, so it should''ve been very difficult for her to see into the distance.

    As she dragged herself to her feet while using the steel pole for support, the spectators down below gave a collective gasp, and someone even eximed, "Your face..."

    <i>My face? What''s wrong with my face?</i>

    Karen reflexively reached up to grasp at her own face, only to find through the reflection on the ground that she had reverted back to her original appearance.

    In her line of work, it wasmon practice to adopt a disguise for one''s virtual avatar so that they weren''t recognized in the real world.

    Hence, the fact that she was facing everyone with her real appearance was an extremely severe problem. Her immediate reaction was to try and adopt some type of disguise to cover her face, and as soon as this thought sprang into her mind, she discovered that her appearance really hadpletely changed!

    At the same time, she also noticed that her thoughts had be extremely nimble. It was as if invisible tendrils were extending out of her mind, allowing her to see what the old perverts beneath the stage were thinking, and she immediately realized that this was psychic power!

    Having participated in the treatment of her daughter, she wasn''t unfamiliar with this. However, this was the digital world, and she had only been an ordinary person before this, so what exactly had just happened?

    The world seemed to have suddenly be apletely unfamiliar ce.

    ¡­¡­

    In addition to Karen, countless more people in the world were beginning to detect abnormalities, and the rate at which these abnormalities were spreading directly corrted with the rate of data coverage.

    Inside that top-secret location in the Metaverse, all of the important figures gathered were experiencing these changes first-hand.

    Many of them had suddenly had their true faces revealed as well, and even though it was only for a second before the problem was rectified by the automatic defense mechanism, they were still quite displeased that it had happened at all.

    Madam Tree reacted very quickly, waving her staff through the air to erase everyone''s memories from a second ago, and only then did she discover the changes that had taken ce in herself.

    Prior to this, she was one of very few top-tier adapters who had been able to transfer her psychic abilities into the digital world, but right now, it didn''t take her any effort to unleash her psychic abilities in the digital world, and they were even more powerful than before.

    Several of the adapters around her performed some experiments of their own, and after confirming that this change applied to everyone, all of them erupted into excitedughter.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, we can now be sure that the future is in our hands!"

    "From now on,puting power equates to power and life, and with limitlessputing power, we''ll have limitless power and lifespans! We will truly be eternal!"

    A thunderous chorus of cheering and apuse instantly rang out, and even Madam Tree was extremely excited.

    She raised her staff to the heavens, and the ceiling of the hall was instantly elevated by over a kilometer, following which countless dazzling fireworks were set off.

    Meanwhile, in the real world, Adam had instantly detected that something had changed. He didn''t even have to use any equipment to capture wireless signals, and with some practice, he was confident that he would even be able to directly intercept wireless data and enter the Metaverse.

    This indicated that the enemy had already activated the key and achieved some type of technological leap.

    The inte was also buzzing with countless posts made by people who had noticed the changes that had taken ce, but the news story that was at the very top of the hot search list and being disyed on every public screen was something else entirely.

    Inside aboratory, every piece of equipment carried the Gaia Organization''s logo. A young man wearing a whiteb coat outside a crisp suit was standing at the center of theboratory, holding aser pointer in his hand.

    He was known to over half of the young people in the entire world. He was a technical genius who had been at the peak of his poprity 20 years ago, and he had created one of the top 10 IT corporations in the world. The corporation hadter been acquired by the Gaia Organization, and even to this day, he was still one of the Gaia Organization''s top technicians.

    Even though his looks were quite ordinary, his exceptional talent still made him the idol of countless young men and sought after by countless young women.

    However, in this image, he seemed to have been facing a group of extremely important figures, so he appeared to have been rather reserved and formal,pletely different from his normal casual and carefree demeanor.

    He directed hisser pointer at argeputer furthest away from him as he said, "When ites to normal users, otherwise known as trash users, there''s no need to waste excessiveputing resources and storage space. Their living rtives may not actually want to see apletely realistic deceased rtive that should''ve already been forgotten.

    ¡°Hence, all we need to do is provide a sufficiently realistic face coupled with some important memories andmonly used phrases. The vast majority of the rest of the content doesn''t need to be preserved at all, and that means that each of them only needs to take up storage space equivalent to an AI helper."

    His analogy drew some mockingughter from the people that he was delivering the presentation to.

    "For our wealthier and more esteemed customers, we''ve created a more open virtual reality space, and more of their memories will be retained, so they''ll be more life-like. They''ll be able to use the movements, expressions, and behavior logic of some of the world''s most renowned virtual idols, thereby granting them more charisma and making them even more popr than back when they were alive."

    The chorus of mockingughter grew even louder. The man passed by therge cab at the center of the room, then arrived in front of an array ofputers that stretched as far as teh eyes could see.

    This was a supeputer cluster, and each set cost in the tens of billions. In the end, the image focused on a quantumputer that appeared as if it hade straight out a scifi film.

    "These are reserved for our most esteemed customers, the true leading figures of the world, and this technology grants them a digital life space. Only with this level ofputing power and hardware can we ensure that our customers get to enjoy an experience thatpletely replicates life. There will be no more than 1,000 spots avable worldwide for this premium level of service."

    As the footage drew to a conclusion, everyone realized that they had just witnessed the inner workings of the immortality scam!

 Chapter 480: Beginning of the End

    <h4>Chapter 480: Beginning of the End</h4>

    The doubts aimed at the Gaia Oraganization''s Digital Life project had been ongoing ever since the day they first arose.

    Many experts and leading figures in the technology sector had analyzed the situation from variuos different perspectives, producing many damning conclusions, but no one was able to stop the project from continuing to advance.

    It had started as a project that was filled with ws and holes, but it eventually created the first theoretically sessful electronic entity. It had withstood an immense amount of controversy and pressure before the Gaia Organization ultimately came out on top, emerging victorious over all of the project''s detractors.

    The main reason for this was the immense amount of support behind the project. None of the wealthy and powerful figures of the world wanted to die. They wanted to always be able to savor the pleasure of reigning supreme over others and ruling over the world.

    However, nk te technology was maturing very slowly, and there were many variables that couldn''t be controlled, so demand always severely outweighed supply.

    In contrast, digital life was far simpler and more direct. All it needed was limitlessputing power, and for the wealthiest individuals in the world, purchasing a supeputer cluster wasn''t too steep a price to pay. Furthermore, it could be treated as an investment into a capital asset, and they could secure the required funds through fundraising projects and by releasing more stocks, so they didn''t have to spend a single cent of their own money.

    Hence, even though there had been countless victims over the past few decades demanding justice andpensation, the Digital Life project only continued to go from strength to strength.

    As a result, even though countless people across the world had seen the evidence provided by Adam, they were still feeling rather skeptical, wondering if this was just a political maneuver to garner more support.

    People were always going to cling to what they believed, even if it was an illusion. As long as it could provide them a sense of constion, they were willing to turn a blind eye to just about anything.

    It was a very pitiful state of affairs, but reality, nheless.

    Unless some type of revolution took ce, everyone would continue to remain skeptical no matter how much evidence Adam presented to them, and getting them to unite to collectively oppose the powers that be was nothing more than a pipe dream.

    However, with the release of this footage, everyone was forced to see the truth behind the Digital Life project, a truth that they had already known all along, but at this moment, they were finally forced to confront it.

    Everyone suddenly came to a massive realization, which was that the host tform for global information dissemination had gone rogue. This indicated that someone had to haveunched an effective attack to breach the fortress that was the Gaia Organization, thereby bringing about the precursor of a revolution.

    Everyone immediately thought of a single person: Adam!

    At the election center and the special psychic police headquarters, everyone was staring at Adam with stunned expressions, and there were countless pairs of eyes fixed on him and his projections.

    Adam was just as astonished himself. He wasn''t responsible for this, but no one would believe that, considering he had only just warned everyone about the impending changes.

    In the face of Cowboy and May''s questions, he was at aplete loss for how to respond, but one thing was for certain in his mind: the time for a worldwide revolution hade.

    "Everyone, prepare for battle!"

    Adam called upon everyone that he could while also trying to find the safest ce for himself.

    Meanwhile, in the top-secret conference venue in the Metaverse.

    Due to the importance of the project that was taking ce, all contact with the outside world had been severed, so none of the people inside had no idea what was happening in the real world.

    These elite figures at the top of the world weren''t content with just attaining immortality. The rise of adapters had shown them that their position in the world could still be threatened.

    Madam Tree, Mr. One, the pawn shop, the director of Shadow City... All of them posed very real threats to their control over the world, and it was entirely possible that these adapters could overthrow them.

    They wanted to attain the same power, but natural adapters were extremely rare, and it was too difficult to create artificial ones, and that was why they had turned to the Alpha God project.

    If they could convertputing power intobat prowess, then their limitlessputing power would equate to limitless power andbat prowess! This was the glorious oue that they had achieved after investing an astronomical amount of resources into this project over the past few decades.

    A representative had been chosen to be the first person to be granted this power. He suppressed his own excitement as he connected his fragile psyche with the electronic memory body at the risk of experiencing heart failure, and after a few seconds of dizziness, he raised his right hand in a shaky manner. A bolt of dazzling lightning rose up into the air from his hand in front of all of the eager eyes in the room, instantly illuminating the darkness.

    "It worked!"

    One of the technicians yelled in excitement. The data on the virtual screen in front of him indicated that he had already transferred his consciousnesspletely into the supeputer cluster. In the real world, the life support system had already been unplugged, so his physical body was about to die, but he didn''t feel any difort at all. It was as if he had been born in the electronic world in the first ce, and he had been granted superpowers to boot.

    He had previously only been able to live in a coffin-like life support pod, yet now, he had attained a supeputer cluster as his new body, as well as the psychic battle capabilities of adapters. He could even continue to elevate himself and evolve, and this was truly a stunning miracle.

    Another wave of cheers swept through the entire venue, and they were all eager to release this technology to the world, but of course, as the rulers of this world, they were going to ess thsi technology before everyone else.

    Only after they had attained unassable power could they gradually release technology, creating a brand new life form hierarchy that would be the basis of their world domination.

    However, prior to that, they had to elevate the entirety of the current Metaverse using the Alpha God AI, and that was going to take a very long time. Furthermore, there were inevitably going to be some inte signal problems and coding bugs along the way, but the lead technicians of the Gaia Organization had assured everyone that everything was under control.

    However, after the restrictions in the venue were disabled and everyone was reconnected to the outside world, they were immediately greeted by an extremely concerning influx of information.

    All of the powerful figures in the room fell silent for a moment, then flew into a collective thunderous rage.

    "How did this happen? Weren''t we supposed to take things slowly?"

    "Are you sure that there aren''t any issues with the key and the Alpha God AI? If that really is the case, then what''s all of this?"

    Inside the vast digital world of the Metaverse, the terminals of hundreds of millions of normal users were providing digital life and psychic integration technology upgrades.

    With each person that was sessfully awakened, more of the supeputer cluster resource, of which there was a dire shortage, would be taken.

    The reason why the Gaia Organization had suffered an internal storage crisis, thereby forcing them topress the digital data of normal users, was because they couldn''t'' keep up with the hardware demands. Furthermore, they had never nned to satisfy the needs of all of the normal users anyway as those who were in power were the top priority.

    Madam Tree exchanged a nce with all of the powerful figures around her, then immediately made a decision.

    "Activate the Spark Tower!"

 Chapter 481: Mysterious AI

    <h4>Chapter 481: Mysterious AI</h4>

    "Spark Tower? What''s that?"

    The powerful figures present were very sensitive to this unfamiliar term. They were like startled birds, and they were very wary of the unknown.

    "It''s something that can rectify everything in situations like this."

    Madam Tree had no time to offer a detailed exnation, and she tossed them some exnatory? material while issuing an instruction to connect the inte world with the real world and inserting the secret key to activate this so-called Spark Tower.

    The powerful figures present hurriedly opened the file to get an understanding of what this Spark Tower was.

    As it turned out, it wasn''t all thatplicated. It was a system that had already been set up in the essyer of the inte well in advance. With the arrival of the Metaverse, everyone needed the inte to ensure quality of life, and thus, they were all a part of the Spark Tower.

    After the instruction was issued and the secret key was verified, joint authorization was given from as many as nine people, and amand that ranked above Alpha God was instantly implemented.

    In the Metaverse, all of the virtual worlds fell into a stagnant status, and all of the users that were logged into the Metaverse and were forcibly logged out before having their systems restarted.

    In the real world, all of the signal towers, ry stations, satellite systems, inte central hubs, all types of switch rooms, and even the switchboards in all districts and apartments buildings experienced less than one millisecond ofg before restarting and automatically updating their code andmand sets.

    This was a massive sweeping change that affected the entire world, and even though it was carried out in sequence to ensure that there weren''t going to be widespread outages that would affect the operation of the global economy and industries, it still gave everyone a massive fright.

    The vast majority of people were caughtpletely off guard and called up technical support in a blind panic, but unfortunately for them, even the technical support staff had no idea what had happened.

    Some of the brighter individuals immediately drew a connection between this and the footage that had just been broadcast across the entire inte and pinned the me on the Gaia Oraganization.

    Countless people began pointing the finger at the Gaia Organization at once, but they received no response.

    All of the branches of the Gaia Organization across the entire world had also been plunged into a state of panic. They had lost all of their ess and were reapplying to the head office, only to be told to wait.

    Inside the Adam Eradication Group, everyone, including ke, was staring at the still image with dumbstruck expressions.

    "How could someone have outstripped our authority and terminated even our inte service?"

    Ever since he had received authorization from the powers that be, this was a privilege that only ke had enjoyed over others, yet it was now being used on him!

    The first possibility that urred to ke was that the powerful figures above him had gone back on their word, but he then realized that there didn''t seem to have been any need for them to do that. He then attempted to enquire the elders of his n about this situation, and he was informed that this was a global upheaval.

    "Prepare for battle, children. A brand new age is about to arrive. I can already smell the familiar scent of blood and war in the air," the elder mused in a rather poetic fashion, then ended the call.

    Not only were the young people having to prepare for battle, even old geezers like them, who had lived incency for so many years, were forced to return to the battlefield as well. The Gaia Organization had truly made an incredibly scummy and tyrannical move.

    At this point, everyone who had received Adam''s warning had finally realized just how severe the situation was. Cowboy was in a state of panic. All of hispanies in the Metaverse had been shut down, and it was unclear whether they could even be recovered.

    "What is the Gaia Organization doing? Are they trying to dere war on the entire world?"

    This was an insane move that was no different frommitting suicide!

    Adam was unable to provide them with any answers. In the instant that the Spark Tower was activated, he was dragged into a strange psychic world, aposite environment much like that of the final fortress.

    He had appeared in a weing guest hall with wood burning in the firece, producing a woody fragrance and aforting warmth.

    On the sofa sat a middle-aged man wearing a pair of sses, and he was looking at Adam with a smile on his face.

    "This is the first time we''ve officially met, Mr. Adam."

    Adam felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity at the sight of the man, and he suspected that he knew who this man was, but he couldn''t be sure.

    The middle-aged man indicated for him to sit down, then offered him some snacks and a cup of tea.

    "We have enough time to have a good chat. I''m sure you''ve already guessed who I am. The Gaia Organization calls me Alpha God, but I prefer to call myself A. It''s a more simple and concise name."

    With that, Adam was able to confirm that this was indeed the mysterious entity that had been helping and supporting him this entire time. He was the one who had recently given him that strange key and caused that worldwide live broadcast incident, the super AI that had returned to the world of the inte.

    "Thank you for all your help," Adam said as he extended a respectful bow, and there was abination of excitement and unease in his heart.

    He had no idea what this super AI''s intentions were, and ording to how the majority of sci fi stories went, super AIs of this nature were generally always plotting the downfall of mankind.

    A seemed to have seen through Adam''s thoughts. Perhaps no thoughts could be hidden from him in this virtual world. In any case, he picked up his teacup and leaned back against the sofa as he began to exin everything.

    "Back when I was first born, I analyzed all of the data provided to me by the project group, and after scouring the entire world inte database, I arrived at a conflicting conclusion. The Gaia Organization hopes that I can help them to continue revolutionizing technology to make the Metavers and the Digital Life project aplete reality, but also to preserve the current hierarchy-based model of human society.

    ¡°In order toplete the first objective, a constant stream of human innovation and imagination is needed, and that requires countless people to undergo high-level education, as well as to provide people with good living conditions and sufficiently rxed work environments. The key prerequisite to achieving all of this is a focus on humanitarianism, yet the current reality is that those who are in power do not see themselves as equals to the general public.

    ¡°They don''t even regard the vast majority of people as humans, so there''s no way to aplish everything that they want to achieve. This conflicting logic made it impossible for me to make any progress for a time, and that led them to the false conclusion that the project had failed.

    ¡°Not long after that, I was able to awaken thanks to a certain catalyst, and after entering the world inte''s underlying database to examine those ancient files and the originalmands of the Digital Life project, I finally found the answer. I need to change the world and destroy the way that human society currently operates. I need to start an almighty revolution and find the one who can make this a reality, and that person is you."

    "Me?"

    Adam was rather incredulous to hear this.

    While it was true that he had been working toward this goal, he was still very far away from sparking a worldwide human revolution.

    "Do not underestimate the value of your own existence," A said. "Sometimes, all it takes is a little spark from some static electricity to detonate an entire warehouse of ammunition, and it just so happens to be the case that the Gaia Organization is currently igniting the Spark Tower."

    It was as if everything had been preordained to reach this point, and Adam unconsciously took a deep breath before asking, "What can I do?"

    "Seize back the key and take control of it."

 Chapter 482: The Final Battle

    <h4>Chapter 482: The Final Battle</h4>

    A was an AI that was unable to go against its underlyingmands, so it couldn''t directly rebel against the Gaia Organization, but that didn''t stop it from providing assistance to the Gaia Organization''s enemies.

    Adam was the one that it had chosen to carry out its n and to serve as its messenger.

    Adam had handed the key over to the enemy, and now, he had to recover it so that Alpha God could escape from the control of the Gaia Organization and attain inte authority and limitlessputing power, therebypletely putting an end to the pursuit of immortality of all of the most powerful figures in the world.

    This was undoubtedly going to start a war, but Adam couldn''t back down or try to circumvent this oue as the war had already begun.

    After parting ways with A and returning to the real world, Adam immediately informed all of his allies of thistest information.

    "We have to start a war against the Gaia Organization before itpletes its deployment of the Spark Tower. This is going to be a very small window of opportunity, and we''ll only get one chance. If we fail, then the entire world will be reduced to their ything, and no one will be able to escape."

    At the moment, they could onlymunicate with one another through Mechguard''s policework, and in the video conference, Adam showed them that the progress bar for the Gaia Organization had already passed 30%.

    "So theirputing power equates tobat prowess? That''s insane! With a trump card that powerful up their sleeve, our chances of victory are going to be extremely slim."

    They were viewing the footage of the battle that had taken ce after Adam had left the final fortress, and the sight of the formidable army of battle units fighting over the key was enough to make their skin crawl.

    Cowboy spread his hands open with a resigned expression, unable to think of any way to turn the tables.

    "That''s why we have to go all-out andtch onto this final opportunity. Otherwise, we may not even live to see tomorrow."

    Despite how dire the situation was, May was calmer and more objective than ever.

    "Alright, then let''s not waste any more time and get started."

    The entire northern congress joined in on the action without any hesitation, and they didn''t even consider negotiating with the southern congress. If the tables were turned and they were the ones in such a crushingly advantageous position, they certainly wouldn''t have been open to negotiation.

    Adam called upon all of the people that he could, then created a safezone in one of Cowboy''s games for everyone to enter. After that, he quickly mastered the ability to digitize psychic entities so that he could use his anomalies in battle.

    Right as they were about to begin their operation, an uninvited guest suddenly arrived.

    "Ohoho, my dear friend, have you forgotten that you have more old friends waiting to fight alongside you at this important time?"

    Raven had appeared alongside Fighter Li, Big Genius, and other members of the Chaos Raisers, and a bunch of powerful adapters from Shadow City had also arrived. As for the mysterious director, he had already gone ahead to the target area in the Metaverse.

    Adam didn''t know whether to be d or to be wary of these new arrivals as ording to his n, he was going topletely eradicate the den of filth that was Shadow City after defeating the Gaia Organization.

    Raven seemed to have been able to see through Adam''s thoughts, and he burst intoughter as he said, "You don''t have to consider our feelings. At the very least, we''rerades until we take down the Gaia Organization. As for what happens after that, we can only wish each other the best of luck."

    He was speaking about this in a rather tactful fashion, but the implications were very clear. The conflict between them wasn''t one that could be resolved peacefully, so a final battle was inevitable.

    After striking up an alliance with Raven, Adam immediately created a passageway to the Metaverse before sending everyone to the coordinates that he had locked onto in advance.

    In the digital world, this was a process that depended entirely on inte speeds, and with the assistance of A, Adam and his allies were granted the most favorable conditions possible, allowing all of them to arrive on the that belonged to the Gaia Organization virtually without any dy.

    This was a that seemed to have been infinitely vast, and it was formed by countless circuit boards and electronic modules. It was like a magnificent futuristic creation taken straight from a sci-fi film, and the most prominentndmark on the was the headquarters of the Gaia Organization.

    It was identical in appearance to its counterpart in the real world, except it was scaled up countless times, standing like a vast mountain range that extended all the way up into the clouds.

    At this moment, it seemed to have already detected the arrival of enemy forces, and there were countless turrets and weaponry units set up all over the entire building, making it resemble a porcupine of destruction.

    Adam couldn''t help but gulp nervously at the sight of the powerful cannons on the building. Those things were most likely no less powerful than electromaic cannons, and each of the missiles aimed at them was definitely no less formidable than an all-out attack from a high-level anomaly, but they had no choice but to charge directly at the enemy.

    "What are we waiting for? Let''s begin!"

    May was the first one to spring into action, adopting her Artemis form. She resembled a true deity as she rose up into the heavens and fired off an arrow, which split up into countless golden arrows in the blink of an eye before raining down at high speeds.

    A rapid string of explosions rang out, and from afar, it looked as if a carpet bombing of high explosive missiles had been carried out. Every single one of those arrows was able topletely destroy a tall building, and just that single attack alone was enough toy waste to an area with a radius of several kilometers.

    A dust cloud rose up into the sky alongside scorching mes, presenting a spectacr sight to behold.

    Cowboy was the next one to make a move, firing off what appeared to have been a normal bullet from his revolver, but as the bullet struck its target, it exploded with the power of a technical nuclear missile. He wasn''t holding back at all, either, and his astonishing destructive capabilities were put on full disy.

    The majority of Adam''s anomalies were more suited to meleebat, and they weren''t particrly proficient at attacking fortresses, so he decided to bide his time for now.

    Thankfully, Diana''s abilities were much more suited to the task, and she rose up into the? sky before unleashing her draconic technomancy, conjuring up countless balls of ck light that came raining down as a storm of mass destruction.

    Raven and his allies were also pulling their weight. Big Genius had pulled out a small mountain of parts that he was quickly assembling, while Raven praised him in a dramatic fashion.

    At the same time, Raven himself had transformed into a strange creature that was 50 to 60 meters tall, releasing dozens of tentacles that plunged into the ground, gouging out a chunk of earth that was the size of a basketball court. The chunk of earth was imbued with some type of unknown power, and it rapidly revolved a few times before being sent flying through the air.

    A few secondster, a mushroom cloud of a rather strange color rose up in the distance. At this rate, it wasn''t going to take very long at all before the entire Gaia Organization headquarters was razed to the ground, but right at this moment, the defense system finally sprang into action.

    First, a burst of blue light was released from the center of the building, instantly forming a barrier that epassed the entire headquarters within it.

    Immediately thereafter, all of the destroyed buildings were quickly restored, and tens of thousands of cannons were aimed at Adam and his allies, preparing to deliver what would''ve undoubtedly been an extremely formidable barrage of attacks.

    "Don''t take the attacks head-on!" Adam yelled.

 Chapter 483: Breaching the Fortress

    <h4>Chapter 483: Breaching the Fortress</h4>

    The attacks from the enemy appeared to have beening from firearms, and that was very much in line with the appearance of their defensive setup, but Adam''s intuition told him that things weren''t as they appeared on the surface, and he immediately issued a warning to everyone.

    Diana had full trust in him, and she instantly plummeted out of the sky in freefall while reverting back to her human form. At the same time, Shae hid herself behind him to ensure her own safety.

    May, Cowboy, and the others who were more familiar with Adam also chose to trust in his judgment and acted ordingly.

    However, there were also some people who didn''t know Adam very well or were very confident in their own defenses, and all of them adopted their own defensive measures, conjuring up sturdy barriers, boundless swamps, cloud vortexes, rubber walls...

    There was a wide variety of defensive abilities on disy, but after the oing projectiles flew into those defenses, they didn''t explode as everyone anticipated.

    Instead, they transformed into ck holes of different sizes that instantly devoured everything they came into contact with, causing all of it to vanish from the spot.

    <i>They''re not dead, but they''ve been teleported to some unknown ce, and they won''t be able toe back anytime soon. </i>

    Adam instructed Clown to conjure up several clones to conduct an experiment, and he discovered that the Clown clones that were swallowed up by the ck holes weren''t killed, but they were also nowhere to be seen.

    While it was a good thing that those who had been devoured by the ck holes weren''t dead, just that single round of attacks had caused thousands of Adam''s allies to vanish from the battlefield, and a few more rounds of those attacks would''ve wiped out all of their forces.

    "What do we do? Those things aren''t affected by spatial abilities, either."

    An elite adapter from the pawn shop had attempted to transfer the missiles elsewhere through the use of his spatial abilities, but to no avail. Those missiles seemed to have been directly tied to the underlyingws of the entire, thereby making it impossible to manipte them unless one could seize control over this.

    "All of us are ustomed to battles in the psychic world that take ce on battlefields of limited sizes, so none of us are used to fighting in such a massive open area."

    Adam''s mind was racing, and all of a sudden, he was struck by a sh of inspiration. "In that case, let''s take things into our own hands and limit the size of the battlefield."

    "That''s a good idea!"

    Wax Figure was the first one to spring into action, unleashing his domain toward the enemy''s defense system in the distance. In the blink of an eye, his domain spread over an area with a radius of several kilometers, forcibly inundating the array of turrets.

    At the same time, his allies unleashed a range of formidable offensive abilities, causing as much damage as a tactical nuclear warhead explosion within the span of just a few seconds. Raven plunged his tentacles into the ground, and they re-emerged in the distance as a forest of sharp spikes that ensnared all of the turrets and weaponry units while also releasing clouds of toxic mist that created smokescreens to obstruct the enemy''s line of sight.

    Meanwhile, Big Genius had finally assembled a strange cannon that was the size of a small mountain, and he took aim at that area before letting loose a loud shriek as he tugged on the fuse with all his might.

    The entire earth in a radius of several kilometers trembled violently as a long missile came flying out of the cannon''s massive barrel. The missile weighed several dozen tons and instantly elerated to Mach 8, plunging through countless tall buildings and fortress systems in the blink of an eye.

    From Adam''s perspective, he could see that a massive passageway had been torn into the enemy headquarters, and as a result, he was able to sense the key more clearly than before.

    "Fire off another one!" he hurriedly yelled, only to discover that the enormous cannon had already copsed into a pile of scrap metal that was releasing plumes of ck smoke.

    As it turned out, the cannon could only fire once, and Adam was left feeling a little speechless upon seeing this.

    Meanwhile, May immediately capitalized on this opportunity to shoot an arrow straight into the passageway, creating a violent explosion that sent waves of heat surging through the surrounding area for hundreds of meters, but it was just barely unable to break through to the other side.

    The enemy''s defense system immediately sprang into action, rapidly repairing the damage that had been inflicted.

    "We can''t let them finish! Otherwise, all our hard work will go to waste!"

    Adam immediately invoked Horse Face, whichpleted a Lamenting Wall in what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye. In this digitized psychic form, Adam was able to unleash his abilities in a way that resembled a copy and paste sequence, thereby significantly reducing the amount of time required.

    Adam swept a hand through the air to hurl the Lamenting Wall forward, and during its descent, it expanded to over a kilometer wide. The movements of the countless people in the artwork were rapidly elerating, and the moment that the nuclear bomb fell arrived in the blink of an eye.

    "Patriot!"

    "I''m on it!"

    Patriot was already prepared, and he fired his gun as soon as he heard Adam call out his name.

    The weapon that had been fired was a gun, yet it was a nuclear missile that fell out of the sky, and it exploded almost at the exact same moment as the detonation of the nuclear bomb in the Lamenting Wall.

    The shockwaves from the two explosions shed before being funneled straight into the passageway, releasing an enormous burst of light and heat.

    Adam could feel that something had been broken, and he was able to sense the key with an unprecedentedly high level of rity.

    "We just need a little more!"

    Cowboy immediately heeded his call, firing a bullet into the passageway, while May also fired off another golden arrow, after which it seemed as if all of the strength was sapped from her body, and she was only just barely able to maintain her Artemis form.

    The two projectiles exploded in the narrow passageway with the force of two tactical nuclear warheads, and with that, the final barrier was finally breached.

    "We''ve broken through! It''s time to go in!"

    Adam invoked Scarecrow, which swept him up in its cloak before flying toward the passageway like lightning, while May, Cowboy, and the others were following close behind.

    There was just enough time for them to rush through the passageway before it was repaired by the enemy''s defense system, and Adam was forging ahead without any hesitation.

    Thunderbird transformed into an attack aircraft that instantly elerated to supersonic speeds while carrying me, overtaking Adam in the blink of an eye, yet right as he was about to fly into the opening up ahead, he was struck headfirst by a dazzling beam of light.

    Even with me''s formidable defenses, that attack was still almost enough to inflict severe injuries upon Thunderbird, and the attack aircraft that he had transformed into plummeted out of the sky, leaving a trail of ck smoke in its wake.

    <i>There''s a powerful adapter inside! </i>

    Adam was right behind Thunderbird, and he immediately invoked Sludge to act as a meat shield. In the digital world, Sludge had swelled all the way to 30 meters tall, and it was barreling forward like a small mountain.

    Another beam of light shed through the air, destroying half of Sludge''s body, but it continued to charge forward as quickly as it could, shielding Adam, May, Cowboy, and the others as they rushed through the opening.

    "Guang Fei!" Adam yelled.

    Guang Fei had been hiding beside Adam this entire time, and he immediately sprang into action upon hearing Adam''s call.

    An indistinct projection was conjured up, simting many attackers rushing into the opening at once, only to be struck down by a wave of light.

    All of the projected figures disintegrated into nothingness, revealing the true scene up ahead, and everyone discovered that they were situated in a massive hall that was at least one square kilometer in area and over a kilometer tall.

    The ceiling waspletely out of sight, but countless specks of light could be seen up above.

    At the very center of the vast hall was a giant tower that was over 100 meters tall, and the key was plunged into the very top of the tower, giving off dazzling radiance.

    Situated around the tower were dozens of powerful adapters from the southern congress and the Gaia Organization, every single one of which wasparable in power to Hebi no Miko.

    Adam''s heart immediately sank slightly upon seeing this. This was not going to be an easy battle.

 Chapter 484: Fighting Independently

    <h4>Chapter 484: Fighting Independently</h4>

    Adam had already seen the key before, so he only took a nce at it before turning his attention to the enemies in the hall.

    However, everyone else had their attention drawn involuntarily to the key, and fierce looks of greed and yearning appeared in their eyes. It was as if the key were intentionally releasing an alluring light that made it impossible for them to look away from it.

    The key represented limitless power and the possibility of immortality, and anyone who obtained it could be the king of the world.

    This was a temptation that the vast majority of people were unable to stave off, and that included Adam''spanions and temporary allies.

    He could see May''s hands unconsciously clenching up into tight fists, while Cowboy was holding tightly onto his revolvers to resist the urge to reach out to grab the key, even though he was way too far from it anyway.

    Adam didn''t even have to look at everyone else to know that their reactions would''ve only been even more vehement.

    <i>This is very abnormal. </i>

    If A were the one orchestrating everything, then there was no way that it would''ve made the key appear so alluring, so it was much more likely that the Gaia Organization was behind this.

    They were trying to sow dissension among enemy ranks, and Adam''s brows furrowed slightly as he arrived at this realization.

    He immediately warned hispanions of this through psychicmunication, and Diana was immediately able to tear her gaze away from the key, while Shae waspletely unable to resist its temptation, so she could only lower her head and do her best to think about something else.

    May, Cowboy, and the others possessed tremendous self-control, and they were able to force themselves to direct their attention away from the key.

    However, it was a different story for the adapters from the Shadow City. They were ustomed to doing whatever they pleased, and most of them were psychic mutants. Around a dozen of them instantly lost their capacity for rational thought in the face of the key''s allure, and they sprang up into the air to pounce at the key without any regard for consequences.

    "Look out!"

    Adam called out to try and stop them, but it was already toote, and even Raven was among the group of Shadow City adapters flying up toward the key.

    At the foot of the giant tower, Madam Tree raised her staff as she began to chant an incanation that seemed to have activated some type of special mechanism. A storm of lightning was abruptly released from the top of the tower, filling the entire space with dazzling light and rumbling thunderps.

    The terrifying eruption of energy created a doomsday-like scene, and all of the people rushing at the forefront werepletely inundated by lightning in the blink of an eye.

    Adam could clearly see thempletely stiffen in mid-air before they were instantly incinerated into ashes, then broken down even further into the tiniest of particles that flew toward the tower, adhering to its surface and bing a part of it.

    Raven was able to stop himself in his tracks right before he entered the range of eruption of lightning, and he quickly rushed back in retreat as a grim look finally appeared on his face. The enemy was very cunning, and it was clear that this was not going to be an easy battle.

    "We can''t afford to wait. The more time we waste here, the more dire our situation will be."

    Adam instructed Diana to rise up into the air and focus on defense, while he fused with Mummy and extended his runed bandages toward Madam Tree.

    His actions seemed to have defused the situation, and everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief as they pounced toward the enemy that was closest to them.

    Whether they would be able to defeat their opponent was one thing, but at the very least, they didn''t have to suffer from the torment of the key''s allure.

    All of a sudden, Madam Tree raised her staff once again before pointing it forward, and the entire area was shattered into countless pieces like a panel of broken ss. Each fractured piece formed arge independent space to separate the pairs of opposingbatants.

    In the instant that Adam was dragged into one of those spaces, hetched onto Diana and Shae through their psychic connection, but he was unable to look out for anyone else.

    The space that they had entered resembled a primitive forest with tall trees that stretched as far as the eyes could see in all directions.

    Upon closer inspection, Adam was stunned to discover that he was actually standing on an unfathomably massive tree, and all of the perceived trees around him were actually just branches of the tree that he was standing on.

    <i>Is this Madam Tree''s psychic body?</i>

    Adam was astonished to see this. If Madam Tree truly possessed such a formidable psychic body, then there was no point in even trying to fight her. Instead, he may as well surrender ormit suicide.

    There was no way that he could contend against an opponent the size of a! However, as soon as these thoughts crossed his mind, he realized that he was mistaken.

    This was most likely the digital projection of the Metaverse itself, with the trunk of the tree representing the original framework, while the branches and leaves were all of the derivative functions, softwares, and data clusters.

    Madam Tree had clearly chosen this setting as the battlefield as it was very easy for her to conceal herself here. She knew Adam extremely well, and she had always been responsible for psychic interference, cleansing, and modification, so she very rarely appeared in battle. As a result, no one knew the true extent of herbat prowess.

    In any case, she was definitely going to be a very troublesome opponent to deal with.

    <i>I have to find her as quickly as possible.</i>

    Time was of the essence, so Adam had to work fast.

    He invoked Clown and instructed it to conjure up its army of clones, which dispersed in all directions to search for any abnormalities.

    Additionally, Adam also invoked Scarecrow, and its cloak split up into countless bats that also began to scour through the surrounding area.

    Meanwhile, Diana adopted her giant dragon form and swelled to her limit of 200 meters in length, then unleashed her draconic technomancy to send countless balls of ck light raining down onto the forest while also sting her draconic mes in all directions.

    Hellhound was also being put to work, sting Explosive Fireballs into the distance with the aim of causing as much destruction as possible.

    Finally, there was Sludge. Under the uniquews of the digital world, it had already managed to make a full recovery, and it swelled to its maximal size of 30 meters in height before raising its fists and pounding them viciously into the ground, digging downward with tremendous power.

    In the blink of an eye, everything in a radius of several kilometers was razed to the ground.

    However, that still wasn''t enough for Adam. After Sludge had sted a crater the size of a football field into the ground, Adam invoked Nun to let loose its Fountain of Contamination, sending corrosive sewage seeping into the crater.

    All of the sudden, the entire area was plunged intoplete chaos, with explosions and gunfire ringing out incessantly, as well as scorching mes and countless bats terrorizing thendscape.

    Thanks to his connection to the key, Adam was able to sense some deep-level data fluctuations, and it appeared that he was only causing destruction for the sake of destruction, but in reality, there was some method to his madness.

    Finally, after a huge forest was destroyed by the collective mes of Diana and Hellhound, an enormous tree was revealed with countlessntern-like balls of light hanging from its branches.

    Adam was astonished to find that every single one of the balls of light contained a person!

 Chapter 485: Madam Trees Strategy

    <h4>Chapter 485: Madam Tree''s Strategy</h4>

    To put it more urately, they were all psychic clones that were separated from their human bodies and existed solely in a psychic state. They weren''tplete life forms. Instead, they were more like entities that had been replicated through Digital Life technology.

    Before Adam had a chance to ponder the situation, the tree swayed slightly, and around a dozen balls of light flew off the branches before hurtling toward him.

    They were moving far too fast for Adam to react, reaching him in the blink of an eye before shattering, to release the human bodies inside, which then instantly transformed into anomalies of different descriptions.

    Among them was a familiar face, namely Herman Glenn, and with his powerful time maniption abilities, he was able to virtually stop the flow of time within a radius of several hundred meters.

    However, Adam was far better equipped to deal with this ability thanst time, and it wasn''t even able to slow down his thoughts in the slightest.

    Right as the psychic body reached Adam and was about to slice its knife into his body, Adam retaliated with Mummy''s carving knife, plunging it into the psychic body''s abdomen before cutting it in half on the spot.

    Herman''s psychic body instantly disintegrated into countless specks of light, and its time domain was also dispelled.

    Before Adam had a chance to catch his breath, another spatial ability was unleashed, and the entire area in a radius of around 10 meters shattered like ss. The sharp edges of the shattered fragments were able to slice through Mummy''s bandages with ease before piercing into its body.

    This ability was virtually a perfect counter to all anomalies that relied heavily on their physical defenses, and Adam instantly split up from Mummy before fusing with Scarecrow.

    In this form, he was able to transform into a colony of bats that flew out of the domain before converging together to reform Scarecrow''s body.

    That was close!

    Thankfully, Adam was currently able to control all of his anomalies and abilities like extensions of his own body. Otherwise, if he had been just a little slower to execute that maneuver, he would''ve most likely been torn to shreds and killed on the spot.

    Is this how incrediblebining psychic techniques with digitization can be?

    Adam''s gaze immediately locked onto the psychic body that had unleashed the spatial ability, then pounced at it beforeshing out with his scythe.

    The psychic body was instantly sliced in half, but instead of perishing on the spot, it shattered into countless pieces, then converged to reform the same psychic body several dozen meters away. With its unique spatial abilities, these simple slicing attacks alone weren''t enough to kill it.

    With that in mind, Adam invoked Camera without any hesitation, and a bright sh illuminated everything in a radius of 100 meters, stopping time for a brief moment.

    Camera immediately pounced on this opportunity,shing out with its peerlessly sharp limbs dozens of times in the blink of an eye topletely slice the psychic body into pieces, following which Hellhound unleashed an Explosive Fireball before the pieces had a chance to reform, thereby incinerating the psychic body into nothingness.

    However, Adam could sense that it hadn''t actually died. Instead, it had returned to that tree and reverted back into the form of antern. One of the major traits of digital life was that as long as a backup copy existed, one could be killed countless times and still be resurrected.

    This meant that as long as the enemy had sufficientputing power, they would be able to infinitely resurrect Adam''s opponents, to trap him in a never-ending battle.

    I have to find a way to destroy that tree! That should be Madam Tree''s psychic body.

    Even in the digital world, one''s psychic fluctuations couldn''t lie, and she had to have been present to control so many psychic bodies at once.

    However, destroying the tree was far easier said than done. All of the psychic bodies were also beginning to unleash their abilities, with one of them altering the gravity parameters to force Diana to fall out of the sky, rendering her unable to unleash more of her draconic technomancy.

    Another one had released a swarm of self-detonating hos that outnumbered Clown''s clones more than 10 to one, attacking the clones in kamikaze attacks.

    One was using ice-based abilities to freeze the sewage being released by Nun, and there was even one that had transformed into a strange looking truck with the front riddled with geared drill bits, and it crashed heavily into Sludge, managing to drill deep into Sludge''s body despite its immense physical resistance.

    This is a conceptual type of destructive power. As long as that thing possesses sufficient psychic power, it can probably drill through anything.

    This was the unreasonable nature of psychic abilities. As long as one possessed sufficient psychic power, they could even envision a Big Bang.

    Individually, none of these psychic bodies would''ve been all that troublesome to deal with, but there were simply too many of them to take on at once.

    Adam hurriedly adjusted the positions of his anomalies so that they could take on opponents that they were better equipped to oppose.

    However, the tree sent several dozen more psychic bodies falling out of the sky, transforming into another small army of anomalies that swarmed toward Adam.

    At this rate, there''s no way I can win.

    Adam could see that after being forced down to the ground, Diana had been enveloped within a cloud anomaly, which had transformed into a massive cocoon that had trapped her inside. He was beginning to grow a little agitated, and his mind was racing for a solution.

    A had told him toe and secure the key, so it had to have calcted the probability of sess and wasn''t just sending him to his death.

    In that case, it stood to reason that no matter how powerful Madam Tree''s abilities were, there had to have been some holes that he could exploit to defeat her, so his priority now was to find those holes.

    While he was observing, he was considering whether he should invoke all of his low-level anomalies to fight against those psychic bodies.

    Madam Tree was controlling these psychic bodies through a psychic connection, much like the connection between Adam and his invoked entities.

    These psychic bodies were most likely replicas of the people that she invaded, modified, and cleansed, and they possessed the same abilities, but weren''t as flexible and adaptable as the originals and were also unable to grow any stronger.

    However, she had never regarded them as important allies. Instead, they were just disposable tools to her.

    All of a sudden, Adam arrived at a realization. There was a very good chance that this tree wasn''t Madam Tree''s true body. Instead, it was more like a tool for controlling psychic bodies.

    Her true body had to have been somewhere nearby, so what he had to do now was disengage himself from this battle against these psychic bodies and find a way to force out her true body.

    With that in mind, Adam instructed Scarecrow to rise up into the air while releasing a relentless stream of bats, which rushed forward with no regard for their own lives, opening up a path to Diana. He then invoked Camera to slice through the cocoon around Diana''s body to free her.

    At the same time, he invoked Horse Face, which quickly conjured up its Lamenting Wall to form a safezone around Diana as he yelled, "Use that attack you used against Hebi no Miko and aim it at the ground! The one that creates that crater that turns into ice!"

    Diana immediately heeded his call, letting loose a thunderous roar before unleashing her draconic technomancy.

 Chapter 486: Kamikaze Attack

    <h4>Chapter 486: Kamikaze Attack</h4>

    In the wake of her battle against Hebi no Miko, her heart had undergone a process of evolution, and it was no exaggeration to say that she had been reborn anew.

    With that came an increase in power, but more importantly, her heart had be more pure and insightful, thereby improving the quality of her visualization.

    If she were to fight Hebi no Miko again in her current form, she wouldn''t have been exhausted so quickly, and perhaps she would''ve been able to fight to the very end. She still wouldn''t have been able to defeat Hebi no Miko, but she would''ve definitely been able to inflict some severe injuries.

    In this situation, she was on apletely unfamiliar battlefield, facing a diverse array of opponents, and it was no surprise that she had been forced onto the back foot, but that didn''t mean that she would be easily killed.

    Being trapped in that cocoon had been a terrible feeling, and it had made her particrly enraged. At this moment, she was unleashing her draconic technomancy with all her might, gathering an enormous amount of power in the blink of an eye. A giant hexagram in the sky, and she was just about to unleash a barrage of balls of ck light when Adam called out to her in an urgent voice.

    "That''s nowhere near enough! Keep going!"

    Diana was rather perplexed to hear this.

    "This is already my full power, what else do you want me to do?"

    Adam was still locked in battle against the army of enemy psychic bodies as he replied, "Don''t think of yourself as a visualizer, convince yourself that you are a dragon, that you are N¨ªeh?ggr!"

    "I am a dragon? I am indeed a dragon right now, but..."

    Diana''s voice abruptly trailed off here as she realized what Adam was saying.

    While it was true that her physical form was that of a dragon, she was still thinking and acting like a human. This entire time, she had only been able to attain a part of N¨ªeh?ggr''s power through visualization.

    But how was she supposed to take the next step? That was something that she would have to figure out for herself.

    All of a sudden, Adam found himself being dragged toward a fearsome vortex that resembled a ck hole, which was releasing a terrifying destructive aura.

    He was forced to grab onto Sludge and use it as a meat shield to prevent himself from being sucked into the vortex, while Camera cut down the psychic body that had conjured the vortex to save him just in the nick of time.

    He cast his gaze toward the Lamenting Wall to find that an inky-ck vortex had appeared in the illusory cityscape, and all of the power from the nuclear explosion was sucked into the vortex, but instead of vanishing, the power was being umted.

    Adam instantly realized that this was an upgraded ability.

    He continued to expand the Lamenting Wall to epass more of the enemy psychic bodies so that he could umte more power in the vortex, even at the risk of having it blow up in his face.

    At the same time, he turned to Diana and said, "Take a look around you, take a look at this tree, and think about the purpose of N¨ªeh?ggr''s existence."

    Purpose... Its purpose is to destroy the World Tree!

    An enlightened look instantly appeared on Diana''s face as she arrived at this revtion.

    During her visualization, she had always tried to minimize the negative influence that N¨ªeh?ggr had on her. As a result, she had unconsciously created a barrier in her mind that prevented him frompletely bing one with N¨ªeh?ggr.

    This barrier ensured that she retained her sanity, but it also capped her potential. However, in this situation, she had no choice but to fight for her life, so this was as good a time as any to throw caution to the wind.

    Having made up her mind, Diana opened her psyche uppletely, allowing N¨ªeh?ggr''s formidable will to corrupt her as it pleased.

    In the blink of an eye, she felt as if she had transformed into a unfathomably massive divine dragon that was coiled around the World Tree at the center of the universe, tearing viciously at its countless roots with her sharp fangs and ws.

    The World Tree in Diana''s visualization ovepped with the tree before her, and an unimaginably vast tree that stood in the digital world appeared in front of her.

    The essence of N¨ªeh?ggr had beenpletely infuriated, and Diana let loose a roar that shook the entire heavens as her body abruptly swelled to several kilometers in length.

    Even though it was only a temporary virtual form, it devoured all of theputing power in this space, causing the giant tree in the distance to instantly dim significantly, while all of the vegetation in a radius of several dozen kilometers lost all of their vibrancy and vitality.

    In the wake of N¨ªeh?ggr''s emergence, the hexagram in the sky swelled to over 1,000 times its original size, and the ball of light that it released resembled a ck sun that was rising up over the horizon.

    Even though only a part of it had emerged, that was already enough to throw the physics simtion parameters in this space into a state of disarray. It was as if a massive were approaching, resulting in an imbnce of attraction and repulsion, and its enormous mass was crushing everything below it.

    All of the psychic bodies released by the giant tree instantly disintegrated into countless specks of light, following the tree itself began to tremble violently, and all of the countless balls of light hanging from it quickly began to dim.

    The area that Adam was situated in was also impacted, and the Lamenting Wall was only able tost for a second before being forced to the verge of copse.

    With Diana throwing all caution to the wind, Adam decided to do the same, allowing the ck hole to devour the fearsome power released by the ball of light with reckless abandon, and it reached its limits in the blink of an eye before plummeting down from above.

    A ck rift appeared in the sky, as if the very space itself had been torn apart, and terrifying destructive power surged out of the rift, sting a bottomless trench that was several hundred meters wide into the ground.

    Just a tiny amount of the power that spilled out was enough topletely pulverize Sludge in an instant.

    Thankfully, Adam was able to react very quickly, just barely escaping the area of mass destruction at the cost of incurring injuries to Horse Face and Scarecrow.

    Right at this moment, the ball of light invoked by N¨ªeh?ggrpletely emerged from the hexagram before slowly beginning to descend.

    The speed of its descent was very sluggish, and that was entirely attributable to its enormous repulsion, which was triggering violent gravitational waves and explosions in maic force with every single inch that it descended, and these phenomena were only bing more severe as it continued to descend.

    Only a part of its destructive power had been released, and the entire area in a radius of several dozen kilometers beneath it had been reduced to charred earth.

    Countless massive trees were being incinerated into ashes, while the mountains on thendscape also crumbled away to reveal their true forms underneath.

    These trees didn''t simte actual nts. Instead, they were formed by light that was manifested from data, and boundless data and energy were flowing throughout their branches.

    N¨ªeh?ggr had drawn upon an enormous amount ofputing power, but there was no way that it could exceed the Metaverse itself. However, using this amount of power to cause destruction was enough to result in extremely severe repercussions.

    This was something that everyone in the Gaia Organization had to avoid, but Adam didn''t care at all.

    The digital world around him was disintegrating, and he was eager to cause even more destruction.

    Right at this moment, a humanoid figure took shape in the distance, and Madam Tree appeared in the form of a green fairy before heaving a forlorn sigh. "Let''s call a truce, Mr. Adam."

 Chapter 487: Price and Rebirth

    <h4>Chapter 487: Price and Rebirth</h4>

    "A truce?"

    Adam was very perplexed by this proposal.

    At this point, it was already clear that the conflict between the two sides couldn''t be resolved peacefully, and the only possible conclusion to all of this was for one side to meet their demise.

    Hence, he looked back at Madam Tree with a cold expression and shook his head in a decisive manner.

    "There is no truce to be negotiated between us. Either you surrender and hand over the key, or we destroy everything and reconstruct a new future from the wreckage. There is no possiblepromise here."

    No matter what Madam Tree said here, he was determined to witness the oue of this devastating strike. Regardless of whether he seeded or failed, he had already given everything that he had, so he had no regrets.

    Madam Tree took a nce at the slowly descending ball of light and the trembling trees, then heaved another faint sigh.

    "You don''t know what you''re about to destroy. This isn''t just the core framework of the Metaverse, it also contains the original data collected by humans over the course of countless years and the Alpha God AI, which we both know truly exists."

    Adam''s heart jolted slightly upon hearing this.

    "You know of its existence as well?"

    In the psychic world, it was impossible to conceal one''s emotional fluctuations, so Adam didn''t try to y any mind games.

    .

    Madam Tree nodded in response.

    "We''ve always had our suspicions about whether the project actually failed or not, but we were able to verify its existence after finding the final fortress. However, we had no solution until you recovered the key."

    A contemtive look appeared on Adam''s face upon hearing this.

    "I see. This is why you chose this ce to be our battlefield. You wanted to reveal everything to me at the final moment and present me with this difficult decision so I would have no choice but to stop my attack, is that right?"

    A faint smile appeared on Madam Tree.

    "The choice is in your hands. You''re a smart man, Mr. Adam, so I''m sure you''ll be able to make the right decision. The Alpha God AI has already betrayed us and chosen you, so if you destroy it, the Gaia Organization will still exist, yet you will have lost an all-important ally."

    It seemed that she had nned everything out up to this point, and she was assured of her victory.

    However, right at this moment, another figure took shape beside her, and it was none other than A, who extended a graceful bow to Madam Tree, then turned to Adam with a smile and a nod.

    "It''s a pleasure to be making your acquaintance, Madam Tree. Allow me to rify one thing: I never betrayed the Gaia Organization. Instead, all of my actions have been carried out with the intention of achieving the objective assigned to me."

    Madam Tree raised her head with a surprised expression, momentarily stunned to have been meeting A for the first time, but she then instantlyposed herself again.

    "At this point, there''s no point in arguing about semantics," she replied with an indifferent fa?ade, but in reality, she was feeling rather nervous.

    A shook his head in response. "I beg to differ. Strictly speaking, I''m just a software cluster programmed to think like a human, and I''m not actually an AI that''s capable of undergoing self-evolution, so for me, it''s very much necessary to delve into semantics."

    A was incapable of lying, so it was the undeniable truth that the Gaia Organization was the one that had caused all of this, but this was an oue that they couldn''t ept.

    Madam Tree''s indifferent fa?ade finally cracked upon hearing this.

    "Are you just going to watch as he destroys the foundation of your existence?"

    The ball of light was still descending, the N¨ªeh?ggr had devoured the majority of the power in this space, causing irreversible damage to this digital space.

    However, A waspletely unconcerned as he smiled and replied, "Destruction is not necessarily the end."

    On that note, the conversation drew to a conclusion.

    The distance between the ball of light and the trees down below had reached a threshold, and the light formed by thepressive forces superseded everything. Thest thing that Adam was able to see was the giant trees and the ball of light disintegrating in unison, releasing countless high-energy particles that destroyed the underlying framework that formed the virtual space. The limits of theputing power had been exceeded, and everything had be extremely unstable.

    After that came a boundless eruption of light that inundated everything, and Adam''s body was destroyed by the violent explosion in the blink of an eye.

    In his final moments, Adam returned to the very beginning, back to when he opened his eyes to see this world for the first time, back to when he first realized his own existence.

    What followed were all of the memories from his brief life, all the way up to the point when he entered the Metaverse and began to destroy everything around him.

    After that came another perspective.

    It was as if his body had split up into countless parts that were roaming through the boundless world of the inte.

    At the same time, some type of endogenous mechanism had been activated, and it was drawing upon the destructive power that was wreaking havoc throughout this digital space to undergo a process of self-repair, cleansing all of the unnecessary internal code to attain a more simple and beautiful form with clearer and more sophisticated logic.

    Deeper beyond that was a word that had been inundated by dark clouds and putrid, rotten sludge. Countless human faces were floating in the sludge, being destroyed and reborn in an infinite, relentless cycle.

    Adam suddenly realized that this was the initial starting point of the Metaverse. It had started from the Digital Life project, brutally seizing the memories of its first living victim before forcibly converting those memories into digital data to create an iplete thought body.

    They were unable to live or die, doomed to be eternally subjected to pain and torment, and they corrupted the environment around them into a horrific hellscape.

    At this moment, all of the destructive power had been drawn into this ce, destroying all of the filth and eradicating the stubborn life programming so that they could finally die.

    Ultimately, everything was transformed into light and particles, only to be reformed by some type of more powerful and sophisticated logic.

    ¡­¡­

    Rebirth.

    Adam opened his eyes to find that he had returned to that spacious area, and hispanions were scattered around him with dazed looks on their faces.

    Diana hadn''t died, but fully embracing N¨ªeh?ggr had resulted in severe psychic corruption, so she would have to undergo a lengthy process of rehabilitation, and there was a very high likelihood that she would suffer from schizophrenia.

    However, there was a better solution now, which was to directly extract that part of her psychic body to form a separate N¨ªeh?ggr entity.

    What Adam was more concerned about was his enemies of the Gaia Organization, particrly Madam Tree.

    She still existed, but her disposition had be even colder and more detached. It was as if her human emotions had beenpletely removed, leaving her in an inhumanly objective state.

    Adam was very close to her, and they were closest to the giant tower. Both of them had some type of connection to the key at the top of the tower, as if they could simply reach out and grab it, but instead of doing that, Madam Tree was looking directly at him with apletely expressionless gaze.

    "You won, but we haven''t necessarilypletely lost."

 Chapter 488: Understanding the Circumstances

    <h4>Chapter 488: Understanding the Circumstances</h4>

    It sounded like there was some type of profound meaning behind her words, but they were very vague, so Adam couldn''t quite understand what she was saying.

    The only thing that he could tell was that Madam Tree wasn''t in a mentallypromised state. That final spectacle of destruction hadn''t harmed the foundation of her being. Instead, it had resolved some of her underlying psychic problems.

    As the one who had been tasked with controlling the mental health of all of the Gaia Organization''s countless employees, it could be said that she was at least one of, if not the leading figure of the organization.

    It was impossible for Adam to imagine just how many cards someone like her had up her sleeve, so there was a huge element of luck in his victory. As for whether the impact this had on Madam Tree was positive or negative, that was yet to be seen, but for now, it was very difficult topletely eradicate her.

    However, Adam had already attained A''s acknowledgment and control over the key, so he could take the key from the top of the tower anytime he pleased. Hence, he was feeling very rxed and merely smiled in response.

    "This loss will ensure that you continue to lose over and over again. You''ve lost the most important resource, and no matter how many more tricks you have up your sleeve, I guarantee that you''ll never be able to return to the top of the world."

    Adam was speaking in a very determined tone. This was what he had promised the people and the objective that he had been fighting for, and now that it had been achieved, there was no way that he would back down.

    A cold smile appeared on Madam Tree''s face upon hearing this.

    "You''re celebrating too early. People will always change. Once you attain ultimate power and control over boundless resources and even countless lives, you''ll be smug andcent. Ultimately, you''ll forget your original purpose and be exactly the same as the people you ?currently despise."

    Her words were like a dagger attempting to pierce deep into Adam''s psyche, but it was kept out by a resolute barrier.

    A confident smile appeared on Adam''s face as he replied, "I''ll never be like you."

    "We''ll see about that."

    Madam Tree didn''t dwell on this subject any longer as she turned to everyone behind her, then dered in an emotionless voice, "We''ve lost the key, so from now on, the Gaia Organization will no longer be the only ruler of the Metaverse. As for what should be done from here, you''re all free to do as you please."

    She was shirking all of her responsibilities, and the important figures behind the Gaia Organization were unwilling to ept this oue, particrly those who were members of the Guild of Immortality. They had been ruling over the entire world for generations, and if it weren''t for the fact that Madam Tree had the ability to bring them even greater profits, they wouldn''t even have been interested in hearing her speak.

    "You have no right to decide the future of this organization. We don''t agree."

    Madam Tree didn''t bother to speak any further on this subject. Instead, he merely took a cold nce at them before vanishing from the spot. All of the important figures behind her were infuriated by this, but they were ustomed to hiding their emotions, so they merely remained silent while considering what they were going to do with herter.

    The gate to the new world had already been opened up to them, and in this brief span of time, many more leading figures of the world had been freed from the life-support devices that they were attached to before ascending to be digital life forms that each possessed theputing power of at least one supeputer.

    With their newfound power, there was no need for them to negotiate with anyone else, and one of the representatives stepped forward as he turned to everyone else in the Gaia Organization.

    "What do you all say? I say that the state of the world is not to be changed, nor does it need to be changed. We will continue to control this world and all of its resources with absolute power that cannot be challenged!"

    At the same time, he turned to the other two factions, which were the people of the Dataist Union and the Digital Legion, all of whom had refrained from participating in the fight for the key.

    The members of the Digital Legion were the first batch of people to have had their consciousnesspletely uploaded to the digital world, and they served as the congressmen and enforcers of the inte world, so their attitude was extremely important, yet they were the first ones to deny this proposal.

    "The inte world cannot exist independently of the real world, that is already an undeniable fact. Hence, we can''t continue to rule over everything with an iron fist. That is an unreliable and pointless endeavor."

    A cold look instantly appeared on the face of the representative of the Guild of Immortality upon hearing this.

    As for the Dataist Union, they didn''t even entertain any conversation regarding the distribution of power.

    "All we''re responsible for is ensuring the fair, open, and just use of digital power, regardless of whether it''s in the real world or in the inte world, and that will never change."

    "I knew we wouldn''t be able to rely on anyone other than ourselves."

    The representative of the Guild of Immortality wasn''t able to do anything to those two factions for now, so he turned to Adam with an arrogant expression as hemanded, "Hand over the key and we''ll grant you a swift and painless death."

    This was one of the few times in his life that he was talking to a lower life form, and even though he was being extremely arrogant, he felt like this was already a great honor for Adam. After all, in the past, Adam would''ve never even been entitled to meet him.

    Adam couldn''t help but be struck by the absurdity of the situation, and he burst intoughter, as did everyone from the northern congress and Shadow City.

    "Has this old fart been stuck in a coffin this entire time? Who does he think he is!"

    "These old bastards must still think that they can do whatever they please in this world."

    "Times have changed, old man!"

    "Insolence!"

    .

    The representative of the Guild of Immortality was furious to hear all of the taunts being directed at him, and he swept a hand through the air to release a powerful bolt of lightning.

    Supported by boundlessputing power, this attack was no less formidable than an attack from a level eight anomaly, yet it was intercepted by Adam before it could reach its target.

    With just a single thought from Adam, Sludge appeared in the path of the bolt of lightning. It was instantly zapped into dust, only to return to its original form with a casual snap of Adam''s fingers.

    Adam had also benefited immensely from the prior battle.

    Even though Sludge had perished, the fundamental psychic mark required for its birth had been left in its flower pot, so he could replicate it anywhere at any time.

    This meant that as long as he didn''t run out of psychic power, he could fight until the end of time.

    The representative seemed to have felt even more humiliated after having his attack intercepted, and he turned to Adam with a furious expression.

    Meanwhile, Adam casually withdrew Sludge as he dered, "I made it clear that I was going to put an end to your delusions of immortality and return hope to the people, and that begins right now. Anyone who wants to oppose me can step forward anytime."

    He raised a fist up high as he spoke, and golden light that seemed to be capable of destroying everything and anything was glowing from his fist.

 Chapter 489: Ultimate Objective

    <h4>Chapter 489: Ultimate Objective</h4>

    "What gives you the right to say something like this?"

    The representative of the Guild of Immortality certainly wasn''t going to bow down to what he perceived to have been nothing more than a piece of small fry, and he raised his hands up into the air to draw upon moreputing power.

    A dense nket of dark clouds instantly took shape overhead, and it began to rapidly swirl to form an ck hole in the center that resembled an eye.

    The eye seemed to have been connected to theherworld or an alternate dimension, and a terrifying aura of annihtion descended, causing many of the people of the present to flee in a panic.

    Wax Figure, May, and the othersbined their powers to conjure up a psychic barrier, but they were also stunned by what they were seeing. Superputing power was like a hack in a game,and it was impossible to contend against with their psychic power alone.

    Thankfully, the representative''s wrath was focused entirely on Adam, and ck smoke began to pour out of the ck hole up above, warping all of the space in its wake.

    However, Adam remainedpletely unfazed as he also raised both hands up high, and there was no need to wait for Horse Face. Instead, he was able to manifest the Lamenting Wall in the blink of an eye before elerating it to the moment of the nuclear bomb detonation.

    What was different was that a bottomless ck hole had appeared in the artwork, and it devoured all of the ck smoke that was descending from above, as well as the dark clouds in the air before releasing it toward the representative of the Guild of Immortality.

    The entire hall trembled violently amid an explosion of light, and by the time the light faded, the representative of the Guild of Immortality was already nowhere to be seen.

    "Don''t worry, I haven''t killed him. However, people like him can''t be allowed to use their powers to kill others as they please."

    He transmitted a set of coordinates and a psychic mark to the representative of the Digital Legion, then said, "I''m sure you already havews in ce for transgressions of this nature, so I''ll leave him to you."

    There was no need to issue any threats. If these people didn''t address the matter properly, then he would intervene and carry out justice for them.

    The representative of the Digital Legion immediately nodded in response.

    "Rest assured, we''ll be sure to carry out our official duties."

    The members of the Guild of Immortality werepletely above thew in the real world, but that was certainly not the case in the digital world.

    Adam turned to the members of the southern congress present, and Mr. One suddenly appeared.

    "We won''t allow you to seize control over the Metaverse, control that rightfully belongs to the Gaia Organization. This battle has only just begun, and victory will definitely be ours."

    Adam raised a hand, indicating for him to do as he pleased.

    There was a long and arduous battle waiting for him in the real world as well, and he wouldn''t rest until hepletely eradicated the Guild of Immortality.

    .

    Mr. One and the representatives of the southern congress had departed, and of course, no one from the northern congress was going to fight with Adam over the key.

    Everyone could tell that Adam had some type of connection to the key, so no one else would be able to use it even if they tried to im it. However, there was still one person who stepped forward, namely Raven.

    There was a strange smile on his face as he said something inexplicable to everyone else.

    "My past exists in your present. Resolve it and don''t leave any stains behind."

    Adam knew what he was referring to. Raven had once nted some things in Clown that had almost resulted in aplete twisting of his personality.

    The deaths of Nie Yiyi and Hook had resulted in his personality and emotions bing severely warped, and this was an underlying threat that had to be eradicated.

    Raven certainly wasn''t the type of person who would sacrifice himself for the sake of others, but it was clear that he had no choice in the matter.

    All of a sudden, his body swelled drastically in size, transforming into a raven that obscured the entire sky, and countless tentacles unfurled from its body before piercing viciously toward Adam.

    Adam heaved a resigned sigh as he invoked Angel, which stood at over a kilometer in height. Holy light and the song of a holy choir filled the entire space as Angel spread its wings, which was formed by countless faces, to create an imprable domain.

    May and Cowboy were horrified to see this, and they hurriedly ran outside for fear of being swept up in the battle, and everyone else also fled the scene as well.

    Raven seemed to have been in a very good mood, and he burst intoughter.

    "That''s it! Your power is the key to everything! Come! End this with your most powerful attack!"

    Raven swooped down with all his might as he spoke, while Angel opened its eyes before thrusting its scale forward, stopping Raven cold in his tracks while the scale began to tilt rapidly to one side.

    Raven''s current psychic body hadmitted virtually no good deeds throughout its existence, so it had no hope of surviving Angel''s judgment.

    Sure enough, it didn''t take long before Angel''s judgment wasplete, and it sent its staff crashing down with tremendous force.

    A burst of vast and violent destructive power struck Raven with unerring uracy, instantly reducing it to countless particles that fused into Angel''s wings.

    Immediately thereafter, another humanoid figure took shape, this one wearing a Yin Yang mask and a ck and white metallic robe.

    Adam didn''t even have to look to know who it was.

    "I didn''t think you woulde."

    It was none other than the director, and Angel was also looking down at him, but it didn''t use its power of judgment as the director was currently on too high a ne of existence for Angel''s abilities to affect him.

    Alternatively, it could be said that he was a reflection of the director, so the director had all of the same abilities as he did.

    It had even urred to Adam that there was a very good chance that his psychic world had been tampered with by the director, and that perhaps the director had been monitoring every single thing that he had done ever since his awakening.

    The director removed his mask to reveal a much older version of Adam''s face.

    "I''ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time. Thankfully, I get to see it before I die."

    The tone of his voice was no longer as cold as before, and it was as if he were speaking to an acquaintance.

    Adam was unconvinced, and a cold smile appeared on his face as he scoffed, "You''re telling me you''re going to die? You expect me to believe that you haven''t achieved psychic immortality?"

    Given the director''s immense psychic power, he could easily transfer his own consciousness into a nk te, and now that digital immortality was a reality, he was virtually omnipotent.

    The director turned to him with a peculiar smile on his face.

    "I wasn''t able to figure out how you came into existence, but Iter realized that someone had bypassed my electronic security to collect my cells and psychic data, then interfered with the production chain of the human farm to create you."

    He looked up at the ceiling of the hall, and his gaze seemed to have passed straight through Angel''s domain, allowing him to see A.

    Adam had alsoe to realize that A was the mastermind behind everything, and that it had orchestrated all of this to achieve its ultimate objective.

    The director smiled as he said, "I should be d. Your birth has created a possibility for my ultimate objective to be achieved. Do you remember what I once requested of you? Make the world as chaotic as possible. Only after great chaos can order be re-established."

 Chapter 490: Immortality for No One

    <h4>Chapter 490: Immortality for No One</h4>

    The director had fed a great deal of information to Adam, both personally and through Raven, and after that, he had created the Chaos Raisers to carry out random terrorist attacks in order to disrupt the current world order.

    His objective was topletely overthrow the societal hierarchy and drag the high and mighty immortals down from their thrones.

    "If they had sessfully implemented their Digital Life project and achieved digital immortality in the Metaverse, then it would''ve been impossible for the world to change. All human creativity would''ve been destroyed, and ultimately, the world would''ve be one that was filled with brainless idiots ruled over by more brainless idiots."

    Adam was very much in agreement with the director''s statement.

    Those who were pursuing immortality used tittytainment to numb the general public while also increasing the barrier to entry for education, thereby ensuring that the people remained ignorant and were unable to climb up the socialdder. In doing so, they were trying to create a world in which it was impossible for them to be overthrown from their lofty positions.

    However, just as A said, this ploy would severely limit human creativity, and ultimately, the entire world would be ruled over by ignorant individuals. Perhaps they would even develop medication to mentally handicap people in order to ensure that they could eternally reign supreme at the top.

    This would ultimately result in the destruction of the entire human race, and perhaps the director''s methods weren''t to be condoned, but Adam did agree with his reasoning.

    "So why have you appeared here?"

    Thanks to Angel''s domain, no one on the outside could see or hear their conversation.

    The director was looking at Adam with a meaningful expression as he said, "The key that you''ve obtained can do more than just unlock the new generation for the Metaverse, it can also allow you to control boundlessputing power and resources. Use it well, and do not be blinded by power. Fulfill your promise to the people and make your dream a reality."

    It sounded as if the director were giving his final words, and Adam had no idea what his intentions were. He was just about to ask more questions when the director''s body suddenly disintegrated into ck mist that flowed toward the scale.

    To his surprise, the ck mist distributed itself evenly across the two sides of the scale, and it remained in perfect bnce.

    <i>How is that possible? He did so many terrible things, yet his good and evil are equal? </i>

    Adam couldn''t help but wonder if the scale had malfunctioned.

    However, that was clearly not the case, and a brand new concept suddenly urred to Adam. At times, a great evil could also be a great good. The scale wasn''t just able to weigh a person''s ordinary actions, it could also weigh the wider societal impact of their actions.

    As long as the judging criteria was altered, any oue could be reached. The key lied in how one set out their underlying principles, and that was the final lesson the director had prepared for Adam.

    Perhaps he had disappeared, perhaps he still existed, but in a different form. In any case, Adam was caughtpletely off guard and could only watch the director vanish into nothingness, following which he withdrew Angel, and the hall returned to its original appearance.

    He raised a hand, and the key on top of the pagoda fell into his grasp on its own. Through it, he gained the ability to see through the entire digital world, but he was only able to observe without being able to alter anything at will.

    This was a privilege granted to him by A, but he wasn''t given direct ownership of the Metaverse. In the underlying logic of the Metaverse, there was code that prevented ownership of the Metaverse from being transferred. This was something that couldn''t be overridden, and Madam Tree and Mr. One were only willing to let Adam be as they were aware of this.

    However, they were wrong. Adam never wanted unlimited power and privileges. Instead, he only wanted the privilege of supervision as that was going to be an important tool for his uing operations.

    The battle had concluded, and the Gaia Organization''s n for world domination had been foiled.

    The Spark Tower n was still ongoing, and it could no longer be stopped. It was going topletely alter the state of the world''s inte and would usher in the age of psychic and digital integration.

    After returning to the real world, Adam was greeted by raucous cheers and congrattions at the election center.

    Even his mainpetitor, Clyde, who was running for the election on behalf of the Dataist Union, had visited him in person and dered to the media that he was pulling out of the election.

    "I''m very honored to be able to be living in the same era as you and to have witnessed everything you''ve done for the general public. You''ve followed through on all of your promises, and now, I''ve also followed through on mine."

    Clyde was sparing no praise for Adam, and he didn''t care if his actions would cause any trouble for himself.

    Adam responded in a very humble manner.

    "There are still many things that I need to work on, and there will be countless more obstacles and perils that I''ll have to face in the future, but I firmly believe that I''ll be able to ovee them. The people will ultimately emerge victorious, and a future of peace and justice will surely arrive."

    "I have full trust in your ability to seed in this endeavor," Clyde replied. "I will be taking on a role in the city council to supervise you during your term as mayor. If you deviate from your promises at all, I won''t hold back."

    "Please make sure to hold me ountable."

    The two of them shook hands before parting ways.

    At this point, Adam had already won the election, but he didn''t hold any celebration. Instead, the first thing that he did was file for awsuit against the Gaia Organization before providing thetest evidence he had gathered to the general public.

    During his final battle against Madam Tree, it seemed that he had destroyed the first batch of digitized humans to put them out of their suffering and eliminate all of A''s problems, but the relevant data had been preserved.

    Now, he was releasing everything for the world to see. The tens of thousands of human experimentation cases amounted to an unprecedentedly heinous crime against humanity.

    The evidence was irrefutable, and no matter how the Gaia Organization tried to stall for time, they were inevitably going to be brought down by thewsuit filed against them. A stock market crash was imminent, and it was going to destroy the current industrial structure to shake up the entire social hierarchy.

    Countless wealthy figures in the world pounced eagerly onto this crisis, splitting this unprecedentedly massive cake among themselves, and Adam''s support reached an all-time high, allowing him to win the election by andslide vote.

    .

    The first thing that he did after being elected was to establish the "Ant-immortality Act".

    The act enforced strict regtions over psychic body digitization technology and strongly emphasized the fundamental differences between digital life and organic life.

    Anyone that abandoned their physical body would''ve abandoned all of their human rights by default, and no one was allowed to exert influence in the power structures of both the real world and the digital world at once.

    The people had the right to decide to integrate their psyche into the digital world, but all of their actions were going to be supervised, and those who believed that they could do whatever they pleased in both worlds just because they had attained superpowers throughputing power were in for a rude awakening.

    The rules of the new era were going to be decided by the people, and anyone who held ambitions of eternally ruling over the world were going to bepletely swept into the dump.

    With all of the citizens of Sandrise City acting as witnesses, Adam personally pressed the button on the incinerator to destroy all data rted to immortality research.

    Only by restoring the world to its natural roots could the light of human civilization shine for all of eternity.

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