Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 21: Subsequent Events

Chapter 21: Subsequent Events

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 place 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 of laying 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 plausible.

If an adapter were to grow up before coming to the realization that they had come 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 blank slates, a human farm...

Adam suddenly realized that there was a very good chance that he was a product of this factory.

He was a blank slate, and he was related 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 place like this...

Looking at the grotesque meat sludge in the grinders and the infants that were being fed by robots, Adam was overcome 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 and completely 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 plans 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 blank slate 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's combined efforts. In addition to that, they had to exploit all of the resources and advantages available to them, including the debilitating effects of the safe zone, the weakening of the anomaly stemming from the consolation that Kim received, and the superhuman ally that was Deranged Pig.

Only with all of those factors playing 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 blasted 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 glass 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 flames and shockwaves swept over the scarecrow's head, it immediately launched a retaliation. Corrosive green laser beams shot out of its eyes, but as soon as the laser beams emerged, they were intercepted by an even larger figure.

The corrosive laser beams struck Mummy's body, but they failed to even corrode through Mummy's bandages, and even the parts of the laser 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 corrosive laser 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 flames erupting from the fangs were intertwining with the black 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 become many times faster than before.

Adam had only seen a streak of red light flash 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 very compromised 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, blasting its corrosive laser beams directly at Adam.

Of course, Adam was already prepared for something like this, and ever since the commencement of the battle, he had situated himself in a relatively safe position. He immediately dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, and as a result, the laser beams missed all of his vital regions. However, he was too slow in the end, and his calf was struck, charring a large 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 a completely one-sided affair.

After failing to land 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 black light around the scarecrow was completely 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 plagued 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 hyperventilation, were also somewhat alleviated.

Her complexion 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 overcome 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 three come 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 surveillants here, so you'll have to think about how to explain 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 flabby folds on his entire body were trembling slightly.