Chapter 12: Anomaly of Fear

Crackle crackle crackle...

Even though the bodyguard had been sliced into two, he didn't die on the spot. One of the benefits of becoming a cyborg was increased vitality.

"You're still alive even after that? Looks like your money was well spent."

Adam quickly rushed over to the trench that had been sliced into the road while Nie Yiyi descended from above.

"What do we do with him from here?"

"Let's see if we can get some information out of him. This guy definitely isn't that anomaly, he's far too weak to fit the bill!" Following the bodyguard's defeat, Adam was able to confirm that he wasn't the anomaly they were looking for. "However, seeing as he harbors ill will toward Kim, he may have something to do with the anomaly. Oi, Hook, you're still alive, right? Can you get up?"

"Ugh..."

Hook was still in a semi-paralyzed state as he clambered shakily upon from the ground, then slowly made his way over to the two halves of the bodyguard's body. As he was walking along, he pulled out a small metal hammer with a trembling mechanical hand.

"What's that?"

"It's my hammer of interrogation, a tool that helps me get information out of psychic bodies."

"You really have a lot of tricks up your sleeve!" Not only was Adam impressed, even Nie Yiyi was rather surprised by how versatile Hook was. "If only you weren't so useless in battle."

"Ever heard of the concept of specialization? I can't just focus on everything!" By the time Hook arrived beside the bodyguard, the paralysis effect on his body had largely faded. However, right as he raised his hammer, Kim's voice suddenly rang out behind them. "Don't hurt Uncle Swift!"

"Hmm?" Hook lowered his hammer before turning to Adam. "What do we do?"

"I'll take care of this." As Kim was rushing over to them, Adam squatted down before asking in as gentle a voice as he could muster up, "Kim, can you tell me why you don't want us to hurt him?"

Through Hook's observation, it was determined that this bodyguard by the name of Swift harbored ill will toward Kim.

Furthermore, due to the fact that this was Kim's psychic world, this ill will wasn't objective ill will. Instead, it was ill will that was interpreted by Kim. She was under the impression that it existed, so it existed in her psychic world, even if it weren't actually present in the real world. Conversely, if she were convinced that something didn't exist, then it wouldn't exist in her psychic world, even if it did exist in reality. In contrast with the real world, the psychic world was an extremely subjective place.

"Don't you know that he wants to hurt you?"

"Uncle Swift wouldn't hurt me. He just wants to protect me, so he has no choice."

The tone of Kim's voice was very absolute, so it was clear that she was under the impression that Swift's intention was to protect her, and that whatever perceived ill will he harbored toward her was an unintentional result of that.

"Oh, I see now. I was wondering why he had both red and black lines on him. Everything makes sense now," Hook mused as he nodded. "What do we do now?"

"Swift, you've heard what Kim has to say. She clearly has a great deal of trust in you, and you are her guardian, so can you tell us what exactly is going on?" Adam didn't instruct Hook to continue with his interrogation. Instead, he squatted down next to the upper half of Swift's body and adopted a more reasonable approach. "You can choose to tell us who it is that's hurting Kim, or we'll have to make you tell us through alternate means, it's your choice."

"I... I..." At this point, Swift didn't have much choice, and after struggling briefly with an internal conflict, he chose the option that Kim expected him to choose. "I do know some things, but telling you what I know will most likely only cause greater harm to Kim."

"That's alright, just tell us what you know and leave the rest to us."

While Swift was still hesitating, the air above his head began to warp and twist, following which a pair of demonic arms reached out of the darkness before attempting to drag him into the void.

"I was waiting for you!"

After what happened last time, Adam was naturally already prepared for this, and right as he was about to lash out, a sharp blade got there before him.

Nie Yiyi's blade flashed past like a streak of light before crashing into the anomaly’s arm, creating a flurry of sparks in the process.

"Those are some seriously strong defenses!" Nie Yiyi exclaimed, then hurriedly gathered energy before striking again, and on this occasion, with the enhancements provided by the cyberglyphs, she was finally able to break through the enemy's defenses, slicing through its giant black hand to reveal a body of straw inside.

"Is this thing a scarecrow?"

Nie Yiyi's attack clearly enraged the anomaly that was hiding behind the twisted space, and instead of continuing to conceal itself, it slowly crawled out of the darkness.

As its massive body emerged, the sky over the entire world darkened even further, and dense, dark clouds gathered up above while all of the passersby on the streets fled in horror.

"She's so frightened that her entire psychic world is changing!" Hook was also quite alarmed to see this. "Adam, you have to calm her down! The more scared she is, the more powerful this anomaly will become!"

"It's alright, Kim, calm down!"

Adam was already attempting to console Kim even before that suggestion from Hook, but she was too terrified to hear what he was saying, and she was unable to even remain conscious as she screamed with all her might.

With no better alternatives available, Adam could only pick her up and carry her away from this place for now. This was both to prevent her from being captured by the anomaly again, as well as to instill a sense of security within her.

Right as he was carrying Kim away, the anomaly emerged in its full glory.

It was a huge scarecrow that was as tall as a two-story building, and black energy was swirling all around it. It was wearing a black glove on one hand, while its other hand had been replaced by a hook, much like the ones worn by pirates.

Not only was the scarecrow enormous in stature, its eyes were giving off a green light, and all living beings in its field of view would invariably feel a sense of fear rising up from the bottom of their hearts. In the face of this debilitating fear, the weak could only flee for their lives, while the strong were handicapped, unable to perform to the best of their abilities.

A hint of fear also appeared in Swift's eyes at the sight of the scarecrow, and right as he was about to say something, the scarecrow stomped onto the upper half of his body, shattering it and erasing it out of existence from the psychic world.

"This thing looks really strong! Can we beat it?" Hook hurriedly asked as he watched the scarecrow intently. "Actually, scratch that. Can?you?beat it?"

Now that he knew what they were dealing with, Hook made the executive decision to remove himself from the roster of fighters.

"I'm not sure, but it's definitely not going to be easy. We’ll see."

The perpetual confidence on Nie Yiyi's face had also faded, and it was clear that this was the most formidable opponent she had ever faced.

"Let's give it a try."

On this occasion, Nie Yiyi didn't dare to hold back, choosing to accumulate energy right away, manifesting a blade of wind that she launched toward the anomaly.

The blade of wind was still ridiculously fast, but it had a completely different effect on this occasion. This time, the scarecrow was able to raise the metal hook attached to the end of its left arm before shattering the blade of wind with a single swipe.

Black energy was swirling around the metal hook, and it remained completely unscathed, while the blade of wind was reduced to a harmless gale.

While Hook was still bewildered by the anomaly’s power, Nie Yiyi began to accumulate energy again as she let loose a loud roar.

A large number of cyberglyphs surfaced all over her body, and her aura began to climb rapidly as she accumulated energy. It was clear that she was about to go all-out against this opponent.