Chapter 397: A Chance

Chapter 397: A Chance

"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 internet before."

"Have you heard of blank slates?"

"No."

.

"I'm giving you an opportunity right now to become 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 to complete some missions every month to earn points, and you can do anything, as long as it creates chaos. You can kill an old lady 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."

According 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 particular, 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 accurate, 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 accomplish?

Right as Adam was mulling over these questions, everything suddenly began to collapse 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 the complete disintegration of their brain cells, and it was in those few minutes that one's psychic world would collapse.

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 had completely 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 happened last night. Some people have already posted footage of the incident onto the internet, 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 accustomed to facing large 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 occasions, but none of those occasions could compare 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 popular? -

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 that compared 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 the commotion completely 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 flattering light with these favorable titles before asking, "Are you aware of what happened at the Fujiwara Corporation last 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, the commotion lasted 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 place the night before, but of course, he made sure to place special emphasis on the role that he and his colleagues had played 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."