Chapter 109: Manager

The first combatant immediately picked up a spanner as soon as he arrived in the warehouse, then rushed toward a certain direction.

The other combatant also rushed in the same direction, and through the image being displayed, Adam could see that there was a fire ax there.

It was clear that both of the combatants were very familiar with this setting, and they both wanted to claim that weapon.

The combatant who didn't waste time picking up the spanner was the first to arrive, but right as he was about to pick up the fire ax, a spanner flew through the air before striking him right on the forehead, inflicting a gruesome wound that immediately began to bleed profusely.

At the same time, in the real world, the emaciated body of the combatant who had been struck also spasmed violently.

However, despite the injury that he had sustained, the wounded combatant didn't back down, fighting through the pain as he grabbed the fire ax, then swung it at the enemy combatant.

The latter was able to evade the first attack, but what followed was a string of ax attacks that came his way.

While Adam was focused on watching the unfolding battle, Hailey gently nudged him with her elbow. "What do you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you think of them? Are they strong?"

"Not at all," Adam replied with a shake of his head. In fact, the two combatants could be described as downright atrocious fighters.

Previously, he had coined a classification system for his anomalies, consisting of infantile anomalies, level one anomalies, level two anomalies, level three anomalies, etc.

Among them, a level one anomaly was roughly comparable or slightly superior in power to a student adapter, while a level two anomaly represented the average power level for a mature adapter.

These two combatants were no match even for someone like Hook, and their psychic bodies weren't much more powerful than the phsycial bodies of the average human.

A fierce battle was taking place between the two, but it didn't take long for the ax-wielding combatant to capitalize on an opening in his opponent's defense, allowing him to swing him fire ax viciously down onto his opponent's shoulder to inflict a severe wound.

Even though his opponent was at a clear disadvantage, he showed no mercy, swinging down his ax several more times to inflict more injuries, causing his opponent to collapse to the ground.

At this point, it was clear beyond a doubt that one of the combatants was unfit to continue, and only then did the host sever the connection between the two combatants' psychic worlds, but even so, the severely wounded combatant was still unable to survive.

After the connection was severed, the physical body of the severely injured combatant began to spasm uncontrollably. The grievous wounds sustained by his psychic body had reduced in severe brain damage, and given his already terrible physical condition, he was unable to endure the trauma and fell dead on the spot as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"That's it? Of course you'd drop dead, you useless piece of trash!" The stall owner was very displeased to witness the demise of one of the combatants. "What a waste of money that was! Someone drag him out of here and feed him to the dogs!"

The stall owner was barking instructions at his workers, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the audience. The winners were exchanging their betting chips for money, while the losers were cursing loudly as they threw their chips down onto the ground.

"Was that combatant bought by the stall owner?"

"Technically, no, but he would've had to sign an indenture."

"Then why wasn't the fight stopped before it was too late? If you ask me, the outcome was already decided after the first ax blow landed." Adam's question completely betrayed his lack of understanding of the customs and traditions of Shadow City.

"How would they be able to attract spectators if they did that? Even back 100 years ago, movie actors were saying that sex and violence were the main driving forces behind movie ticket sales, and the same applies to these matches. According to the rules here, no one is allowed to end a match before an absolutely decisive outcome is reached." Even though Hailey was very young, she always spoke in a way that made her seem far older than she was.

"Also, this works to prevent match-fixing as much as possible."

Adam had come into contact with other girls of Hailey's age before, such as Kim Garcia and Chloe, but they were completely different from her.

The values of someone who had grown up in Shadow City were completely different from those of someone who had grown up in the civilized world.

Adam didn't approve of what he was seeing, but given his current situation, he hardly had the spare capacity to be concerning himself with things like this.

"If they're so weak, then whey don't you go and have a try?"

"How much money will I be able to earn?" The matches in the sports stadium were about to begin, and Adam wanted to go in and watch.

"That depends on who your opponent is. The more powerful your opponent, the higher the appearance fee will be. Of course, as a newbie, you won't be assigned ot anyone at the top of the pack." Hailey had already adopted the role of manager as she spoke. "Come on, I'll sign you up for a fight."

"Sure." Adam needed money anyway, so he didn't have much choice.

Hailey immediately jumped up with delight, then began to rush around, visiting the nearby combat stalls, and after about 15 minutes, she managed to arrange a fight for Adam.

"Hurry! I've found a good match for you. The match was already scheduled, but one of the combatants died on the way here, and you're replacing him. However, this is a higher-end fight, so the opponent is probably going to be quite tough. Are you confident that you'll be able to win?"

"Let's go there and take a look first," Adam replied before following Hailey to the combat stall.

This stall was indeed a bit more sophisticated than the previous one, with spectator stands that were constructed from steel and a much larger projection screen. Furthermore, with the stands in place, spectators were able to see the match even from further away, so the stall was able to attract a larger crowd as well.

Hailey led Adam to the back of the spectator stands, where they met a man with a large moustache.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"This is your combatant?" the stall owner asked as he sized up Adam. "That's a healthy-looking young man. He's an adapter?"

"I already told you he was, but you wouldn't believe me!"

"How was I supposed to believe you? No one would believe it if they heard a little pipsqueek like you talk about managing an adapter!" the man countered. "If you really are an adapter, how about you work with me instead?"

"Hey, you can't take my client!" Hailey immediately tried to assert her dominance, only to shoved aside by the man without even a glance directed her way.

Thankfully for her, Adam had no intention of jumping ship. Being managed by someone like her granted him a great deal of flexibility, and he could leave at anytime, but things most likely weren't going to be so simple if he joined a certain organization.

"It's alright, I'm only here for one match."

"You sure you don't want to reconsider?"

"I'm sure."

While the man was questioning Adam, the spectators were beginning to grow quite impatient, and they were yelling for the combatants to take the stage.

The spectators in Shadow City were an extremely aggressive bunch, and if the match didn't begin on time, they could easily erupt into a riot and demolish the entire arena.

With that in mind, the man didn't try to persuade Adam any further and led him out from behind the spectator stands.