Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 125: Kant

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 declared 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 a common 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 accepting 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 to come 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 occupation 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 monetary compensation?"

"We have a superior source of income." Adam knew that if he couldn't convince these two that their collaborative partnership was logically sound, then there was a very good chance that the foundation of trust between them could be compromised. "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 accepted 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 their lackeys, 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 planted 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 place?" 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 black 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 immaculate manners.

"Please come 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'll come with you."

"Me too."

"Count me in."

"I'll sit this one out."

As usual, everyone aside from Hook was eager to accompany Adam.

The best thing about Shadow City was that it wasn't a very large place, only comparable 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 accordance 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 place in the stalls outside were extraneous matches, while the ones taking place inside the stadium were official tournament matches, and only the most spectacular tournament matches were shown on the large 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 accepted 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 account of his psychic body and his past match outcomes.

"Not necessarily. It's actually the contestants who are constantly stuck in the C and D tiers that are generally the weakest," Hailey explained, 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 occasionally some powerful combatants 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 glance at the file before entering the stadium with Hailey.