Chapter 149: Match Against Oni no Hanzou

Adam was unaware that he had caught the attention of all of the S tier combatants, but it wasn't like that mattered to him anyway.

As the days passed by one after another, he fought his way through several A tier matches, and his opponents were becoming more and more powerful, but he was still able to maintain his spotless record.

Generally speaking, Iron Man was a good standard to judge the strength of A tier combatants.

On average, A tier combatants were a little weaker than Iron Man, but those at the top of the A tier were slightly more powerful than him. However, it had been quite a smooth ride through the A tier thus far for Adam. His fusion with Mummy ensured that he was able to keep his win streak alive, and due to the boost in the points that he received as a result of his win streak, he had already earned the right to challenge high-ranking combatants in the A tier.

On this day, he ran into an unavoidable and familiar foe: Oni no Hanzou.

F tier combatants were a dime a dozen, but A tier combatants were far rarer, with only several dozen in total, and only three who had a spotless record.

They were Adam, Oni no Hanzou, and Oni no Miko.

Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko weren't going to fight one another, and if both of them avoided matches against each other, then it was inevitable that Adam would be arranged to face one of them.

"Someone's going to have to cop their first loss." Hailey had delivered the news of Adam's next opponent to him, and there was an eager smile of anticipation on her face. "Do you still have any other trump cards hidden up your sleeve, Mr. Killer?"

Adam had displayed several sudden boosts in power, making it impossible for her to accurately gauge his abilities.

As a result, she had developed a sense of blind faith in him. In her eyes, he always seemed to have more to give.

"On paper, Mr. Hanzou is far more powerful than you, but who knows? You definitely still have other trump cards, right?"

"How are you always able to make the wrong guess every single time? You're a good manager, but you're a terrible gambler!" Shae replied before Adam had a chance to say anything, but she was no longer as composed as she was while watching Adam's match against Iron Man. "He's no match for Oni no Hanzou. There's a huge gap between them!"

"Really?" Hailey could tell from Shae's grim expression that she wasn't lying, but she was still holding onto a shred of hope as she turned back to Adam. "Really?"

"It's true, I'm no match for him. I've already been defeated by him many times, and I've only survived those encounters due to various reasons. This time, he has no reason to spare my life."

Thinking back to his encounters with Oni no Hanzou, he was only able to survive the first time because Cowboy had stepped in to save him by offering Oni no Hanzou a huge sum of money, and in their most recent encounter, it was Sadou who had intervened to rescue him out of a dire situation, but they were still forced to hand over Hook's footage.

On both of occasions, powerful allies had stepped in, and concessions were made in exchange for Adam's life.

Both of those factors had played an integral part.

Otherwise, there was no way that Adam would've been able to survive those encounters with this top-tier assassin who had reigned supreme in the black market for several decades.

Adam knew very well that this was going to be a battle of life and death.

During the past few days, it had already become clear to Adam that the only reason why Oni no Hanzou had been so subdued and docile in Shadow City was because he was wary of the director.

Oni no Hanzou didn't dare to kill Adam elsewhere in Shadow City for fear of repercussions, but it was perfectly within the rules to kill someone in a match, and those rules had been set by the director himself. As long as the director didn't change those rules for some reason, Oni no Hanzou would be able to kill Adam in a match without any consequences.

"What are we going to do then? You're no match for him, and it sounds like there's bad blood between you two as well." Hailey's optimism had completely faded at this point. "This match is theoretically mandatory because you'll have your rank and points erased if you refuse to participate, but surely that's still better than losing your life!"

"No, I have to fight this battle."

Adam was doing this for the footage, and the same most likely applied to Oni no Hanzou as well.

If he couldn't earn enough points to qualify for participation in the battle royale, then the footage would fall into the hands of the Oni Organization, and he would be stuck in this godforsaken city for the rest of his life.

Perhaps anyone else could simply wait to participate in next year's battle royale, but that option wasn't open to him.

"Can't we use Nie Yiyi's points?"

Shae was also against the idea of allowing Adam to fight in this match. She knew that there was a huge gap in power between the two, and that a fight between the two could only end with one outcome.

"Nie Yiyi's already suffered quite a few defeats, so we can't count on her."

Nie Yiyi's powers were far inferior to Adam's to begin with, and she was only roughly on par with the average A tier combatant. After reaching the A tier, her win-loss record had been roughly even, and she was unable to earn any more points as a result.

"That's still better than having you rush to your death! You're no match for him!"

"I want to give it a try."

Adam didn't want to back down, not just because he didn't want to give up this opportunity to clear his name, but also because he didn't want to give in to fear.

After witnessing Iron Man's rapid decline, he had been reminded of another important source of power for all adapters.

Due to the spotless record that he had maintained thus far, not only had he become a far more technically proficient fighter, his confidence and mentality had also undergone a change, thereby leading to a significant boost in his powers.

This newfound confidence was not yet stable, and it could easily be shattered.

If he could step over this hurdle, then he would be able to reach a whole new level, whereas if he were to back down, he had a feeling that a mental block would form in his mind, one that he would never be able to get over.

In fact, he even had a feeling that if his mentality were too weak, then he wouldn't be able to control anomalies of a higher level.

"This is a battle that I have to fight, but I can't go into it blind. I have to be prepared!"

……

After making up his mind, Adam decided that it was time to make a move on Sithu.

Recently, the Green Gang, Crocodile, and Red Turtle had all been searching for suitable targets for him, and they had managed to bring him some people suffering from mental problems, but the majority of them had been small fry.

Some of them did have mental problems, but most of them only had minor problems, with even the severest cases only harboring level one or level two anomalies, which had a negligible effect on Adam's development at his current stage.

Feeding them to his higher-level anomalies wouldn't have much of an effect at all, so it was better to feed them to his lower-level anomalies. As such, out of lack of options more than anything else, Adam had evolved both Clown and Sludge into level two anomalies.

The overall improvement was far from significant, and if he wanted to make significant strides in power in a short time, then the only option would be to turn to Sithu.

He had been imprisoned by the Green Gang in an underground chamber this entire time, and he was provided with three meals a day to ensure his survival.

On this day, Adam called up all of his most trustworthy allies, namely Hook, Nie Yiyi, Shota Sato, Shae, and Fighter Li.

Even though Adam wasn't very familiar with Fighter Li, Nie Yiyi had grown quite close with him, and she had sworn on her integrity that he was worthy of trust.

Of course, due to his terrible physical condition, he had to be wheeled over to the Green Gang's headquarters on a metal bed by Nie Yiyi. There was a skull penetration device specifically designed for artificial adapters attached to the bed, and with such a gruesome device hanging over his emaciated body, it was quite a pitiable sight to behold.

However, any hint of pity or sympathy that one held for him would instantly disappear with one look into his eyes, which were reflecting nothing but determination and confidence. His confidence wasn't the type that was filled with empty bravado. Instead, it was strong and understated, and despite all of his physical shortcomings, anyone who looked into his eyes would instinctively feel as if they were the inferior party.

"This is the place that you told me about, where I can fight in a trial of life and death?" Fighter Li asked as he turned his head with great difficulty to look at the deathly pale man chained to the wall.

"That's right. There are multiple extremely powerful anomalies in his psychic world," Nie Yiyi said. "We already invaded his psychic world once, but we were forced to retreat. You have to be careful, his psychic world is more dangerous than any arena."

"That suits me just fine." Fighter Li's determination didn't waver in the slightest. "My only qualm is that an ordinary person like him may not be able to handle having so many of us invade his psychic world at once."