Chapter 120: Live Every Day as if It Were the Last

A short while later, Adam caught sight of a disheveled young girl, looking around while holding a communicator to her ear.

"Where are you, Sir?"

"I'm on your left with my arm raised."

"Ah, I see you!"

Hailey ended the call before rushing over to Adam, panting heavily as she said, "You... You've finally contacted me, Sir! I was worried sick that you wouldn't call me! What are we doing? Is my illustrious career as manager about to begin?"

"That's right," Adam replied with a nod. He was feeling rather embarrassed and apologetic. He had been so cold and aloof to her prior to this, yet now, he needed her help. "You can take a higher cut of the profits if you like."

"No, no, it's not about the money. There's no point in accumulating too much wealth in Shadow City anyway because you never know if you're going to suddenly drop dead someday. On top of that, I'm just a little girl, so having too much money will only send me to an early grave." Hailey wasn't bothered at all by Adam's previous cold attitude toward her. Instead, she turned to Nie Yiyi before asking, "Who's this?"

"A friend of mine."

"Is she also an adapter? Can I serve as manager for both of you?" Hailey was even more excited now.

"We want to participate in the battle royale. How do we get in?"

"You can only qualify on points or through a recommendation from a super team." As expected of someone whose dream was to become a manager. Adam had thought that there were many finer details pertaining to the tournament that she would have to do some research on or enquire the workers at the ticket booth about, but after asking a few questions, Adam began to grow a little suspicious.

For someone who wasn't even officially a manager, Hailey was a little too professional and knew a little bit too much.

"How do we earn points?"

"By taking on fights. The fights are split up into different levels, and the higher the level, the more points you'll earn, but newbie contestants can only start from low-level matches."

"If we begin right now, how long will it take for us to earn enough points to qualify for the battle royale?"

"That'll depend on the opponents that you choose and your win rate."

"What if we maintain a 100% win rate?"

"In that case, you'll earn enough points in no time, but that'll be very difficult," Hailey replied in a very professional manner. "To be frank, you do seem quite strong, but I would only rank you as a B tier combatant. For someone of your level, it's virtually impossible to maintain a 100% win rate over any extended period of time. Trust me on that, I have a very sharp eye when it comes to these things. Also, unless you're hiding some tricks up your sleeve, I'd advise against participating in the battle royale."

"How are you so sure?"

"The death rate is too high. At your level, your chances of survival are almost non-existent."

……

……

On this day, Adam spoke extensively with Hailey. Hailey was very direct and forthright with her words, and Adam didn't offer any explanations for his actions. All he did was sign a managerial contract with her, then asked her to arrange a match for him as soon as possible.

Hailey readily agreed, telling him that she was going to register him on the same day, and that she would be able to arrange an F tier ranked fight for him the very next day.

After the registration process was completed and everyone else had finished watching the matches in the stadium, all of them emerged from the venue with the bustling crowd. Shae and the others had all been thoroughly shaken by what they had seen. Never did they think that there would be "sporting events" like the ones they had just witnessed in this world.

"Even though these matches are extremely brutal, if they were allowed to be uploaded to the internet, I'm certain the views would be extremely high." That was Shota Sato's assessment of the matches. He was the one who had been most heavily impacted by what he had seen, and for a long time, he was unable to banish those brutal images from his mind.

For someone like him, who had always lived in an ivory tower, suddenly being dragged into the depths of hell naturally presented an extremely jarring contrast.

In contrast with Shota's reaction, Hook was already planning to back out.

"I heard just now that there are going to be artificial anomalies in the battle royale as well. That's way too dangerous! Can I sit this one out?" Hook's cowardly nature instantly came to the fore after he witnessed the brutality of the artificial anomalies. "Each team can only have four people, and I'm useless in battle anyway, so the four of you can enter without me. Isn't that ideal?"

"We'll see," Adam replied in an ambiguous manner.

In his eyes, Hook was the more suitable candidate to occupy the fourth spot in the team.

Shota Sato's combat prowess was far superior to Hook's, but his abilities were very far from diverse. Furthermore, his individual combat prowess wasn't sufficient to have a substantial impact on the rest of the team. Thus, he was in a very awkward position, with no special abilities to speak of, and even if he were to play a support role, he would be far inferior to either one of Hook or Shi Feng.

However, Hook was currently terrified, so Adam didn't press the issue.

"I'll fight some matches first to test the waters. Also, there's another problem." Adam turned to Hailey as he said, "All of my friends have enemies, so it would be very risky for them to show their psychic bodies. Is it possible for me to carry the entire team into the battle royale based solely on my own efforts?"

"It's definitely possible. The ones who manage to secure a spot in the highest tier will be able to choose their teammates. Some of the more powerful combatants will intentionally adopt this strategy to hide the powers of their teammates. However, I have to remind you once again that with your powers, it'll be very difficult to reach even the B tier, and it's virtually impossible for you to secure a rank higher than that."

"How powerful are the highest-ranked combatants?"

"They're roughly comparable or even superior to artificial anomalies."

"That does sound quite powerful. Let's focus on arranging tomorrow's match first."

"Alright."

……

On the way back, Adam and the others were discussing their agenda.

"My proposal is that I fight in these matches on my own first, and only if I get stuck and can't make any further progress will we consider exposing your psychic bodies. What do you all think?"

"I also want to fight." Nie Yiyi was extremely fixated on improving her own powers. "I'll contact the Green Gang over the next couple of days and see if they can give me an update on the situation. If circumstances permit, I also want to participate in the matches."

"You don't have any way to disguise your psychic body, so it's best that you refrain from participating in these matches."

"You can't make decisions for me, but I'll take your advice into your consideration." Nie Yiyi split off from the group and departed as she spoke.

As a morally ambiguous power in the east, the Green Gang had businesses and connections everywhere, primarily dealing in the retail and intelligence industries. The organization had convenience stores and supermarket branches all over many parts of the world, and of course, its influence extended into Shadow City as well.

There weren't many people in their group, but they had a very diverse range of affiliations, and the only one who had no powerful connections was Hook.

On the way back, everyone was walking along in silence, absorbed in their own thoughts. Adam didn't pay any heed to what everyone else was thinking. Instead, he was pondering ways to elevate his own powers in a short time.

The best way was naturally still to find suitable "patients".

He would've had to have been an idiot not to make use of such a broken shortcut. Even to this day, Adam still didn't know where his flowerpots and his ability to absorb anomalic power came from, but he had made use of these assets on many past occasions without any negative side effects.

Not only were there no negative side effects, he had managed to learn a great deal about the best way to utilize these assets.

For example, it was best for him not to challenge anomalies too much more powerful than himself. Not only was that a very dangerous endeavor, there was also too much residual anomalic power for him to digest, and most of it went to waste. The most powerful anomaly in his flowerpots was one that he was completely unable to control, so it was a huge waste.

On the flip side, it was also best not to challenge anomalies who were comparable in power to or weaker than himself as they didn't yield sufficient anomalic power to have much of a positive impact.

Thus, if he could choose the right opponents, he would be able to earn ranking points and elevate his own powers as quickly as possible while avoiding excessive waste.

Adam took a glance around him, and he had initially thought that it would've been a very simple task to find people displaying clear signs of mental health issues in a city like this, but even though everyone on the nearby streets appeared quite menacing and deranged, they also seemed to be very relaxed.

They were able to live every day as if it were their last, so there was no stress or pressure thinking about the future.

The people here didn't have goals or plans, nor were they slaving away for a chance at "immortality" after they passed away. No one knew if they were going to be suddenly killed under inexplicable circumstances one day for no reason, so they were able to live their lives with reckless abandon.