Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 143: Mysterious Individual

Adam gave Crocodile a subtle glance 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 contemplated 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 blank slate. I'm sure you've heard that term before, right?"

"I have. My brother told me that those who are wealthy enough can have blank slates arranged to achieve immortality."

"Who's arranging those blank slates? 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 interpersonal communication, 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 relaxed after exiting the psychic world. "You're a blank slate... 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 blank slates?"

"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.

“Occasionally, a senior leadership position in the corporation would suddenly be given to a completely fresh face, but they seem to know everything from day one on the job, including even many company secrets and complex 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 blank slates 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 was completely 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 to come to Shadow City?"

"Because the concept of immortality doesn't exist here. I've heard that this is a very chaotic place, but an internal network 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 place."

"This place 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 accept 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 three layers of security, and additionally, the power, influence, and control that the Gaia Corporation held over the information on the internet acted as a fourth safety net.

No one could find any negative press about them on the internet.

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 feels completely 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 the company 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 also completely in the dark. Adam was planning 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 the coming 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 displayed, 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 particular, on this day, he was fighting in a match for promotion to the A tier, and his opponent was also a B tier combatant with a spotless record.

This was a very heavily anticipated match. People enjoyed seeing powerful combatants 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 success being brutally cut short made for a brilliant narrative that was sure to draw in large 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.