Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 315: Win-win-win Situation

Chapter 315: Win-win-win Situation

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 willingly laying 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, particularly 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 particular, 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 also come 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 become."

"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 far larger 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 platform 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 placed 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 placed, he aimed the revolver at the three people one by one before pulling the trigger to determine the outcome.

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 place?"

"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 accompany 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 accurate, 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 places 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 electronic networks and public surveillance cameras in this place are all severely compromised, 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 place 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 place 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 black 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 a lap around him, committing 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 villa 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 million last year.

“Even if we factor in all of the illicit income from drug dealing, it still only amounts to around 30 million. However, each child adapter that I send to my higher-ups nets me around 50 million, which is more than my entire business's annual income. This has become my primary source of income, 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 explanations 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?"