Chapter 16: Who's More Important?

If he had enough time, Adam would've stopped to eradicate every single bat that he encountered from here onward.

However, time was of the essence, and the anomaly of fear could arrive at Kim's home at any moment, so he didn't have time to waste on small fry. Thus, on the way to the company, he avoided all of the bats that he could, only engaging the ones that he was unable to avoid in battle.

After killing several more waves of bats, he finally arrived at his first destination, Deranged Pig's company.

Adam looked up at the neon signboard at the top of the giant skyscraper, and a series of mixed emotions appeared in his eyes.

Golden Teeth Incorporated had very strong ties to his past, so it was an added bonus that he was able to learn more about it through Kim's memories.

However, right as he was about to enter the building, he discovered that the security guards were also the same type of surveillant aberrations.

"I get it now. No wonder there are so many of these aberrations with large eyes at Kim's house. The aberration must be someone from the company!"

Thankfully, these surveillant aberrations in Kim's psychic world didn't display any open hostility, so Adam decided to step past them and enter the company.

"Stop! Who are you looking for?"

"You can speak?"

"Stop! Who are you looking for?" the surveillant aberration repeated in a wooden voice.

"I'm looking for Ben Garcia. I am a friend of his."

"You can't go in! No outsiders are allowed to enter the company!"

The surveillant aberration was wearing a security guard uniform and acting the way a security guard should, but it was different from normal security guards as it was displaying clear animosity toward Adam.

After attempting to enter the building a few more times to no avail, Adam decided to use brute force.

"You can't go in! No outsiders..." Right as the two surveillant aberrations were repeating the same two sentences over and over again, they were attacked by the two anomalies, and one of them was sliced in half at the waist, while the other was burned to a crisp.

After finishing off the two security guards, the anomalies didn't absorb their black energy. They were very picky and only absorbed the energy of the more powerful aberrations.

Having taken care of the two surveillant aberrations, Adam entered the building, and most of the people that he passed by were also surveillant aberrations. He hid where he could and fought where he couldn't, and only after making it all the way to the third floor did he finally see the first normal human in the building. From the looks of it, she appeared to be a female celebrity.

Having finally encountered a human, Adam hurriedly called out to her.

"Hello there, do you know Ben Garcia?"

The woman was holding a page of sheet music, and she looked up at Adam with a surprised expression.

"Who are you?"

"I'm a friend of Kim Garcia's. She's in a bit of trouble at the moment and needs her father's help."

"Ah, so you're Kim's friend." As expected, someone who had a human face in this company had to be a person that Kim was fond of, and upon hearing that Kim was in trouble, she immediately said, "Deranged Pig isn't at the company right now, he's preparing for his next concert. That guy's a workaholic who's completely self-absorbed in his music creation every day."

"Where is he right now?"

"He's at the Prosperity Sports Stadium, the largest sports stadium in District 12."

"Thank you."

Adam immediately turned to leave, but the woman called out to him.

"Do you need my help?"

"Hmm?" This was the first time that Adam had encountered an NPC in a psychic world who was actively offering their help, and an intrigued look appeared on his face as he asked, "Do you have any special skills?"

"I like playing with kids, and Kim has always enjoyed playing with me from a young age. If she's in a bad situation right now, perhaps my presence can be comforting to her."

This was actually quite an important piece of information. If she could console Kim, then her stress and fear would be somewhat alleviated, which meant that her frail psychic body would recover slightly, while her anomaly would be weakened.

"That sounds like a great idea! Please come with me."

Thus, the two of them left the Golden Teeth Incorporated building.

The information that he had gathered there was very limited. In fact, the only useful information that he had obtained was the internal construct of the building.

Kim's memory of this place was quite hazy. It was clear that she didn't like the company, and she hadn't visited it many times at all.

After leaving the company building, Adam stole a car and got into it along with the woman and his anomalies.

"What are those things? Are they your pets? They look really... strange."

In the psychic world, everyone was thinking with Kim's logic, so the woman didn't panic at the sight of the two anomalies.

"That's right, they're both my pets and my allies in battle. Sit tight now! I can only recall that I know how to drive a car, but I've never actually tried it!"

After extending that warning, he stepped onto the pedal, and the small car began to race along, propelled by enormous electric power.

……

Half an hour later.

Backstage at the Prosperity Sports Stadium, in a temporary dressing room.

"This is an extremely important concert. It's equivalent to the Super Bowl for me, do you understand?"

"Are you serious?"

Adam was staring at Deranged Pig with an appalled expression. He had thought that after telling Deranged Pig that his daughter was in danger, he would immediately drop everything to come to her aid, but that wasn't the case.

Adam couldn't help but wonder what he had done in the real world to make Kim have so little trust in him, to the extent that this was his reaction in the psychic world.

"Are you going or not? If we stay here any longer, your daughter could die!"

Adam wasn't holding back in the severity of his wording at all, but Deranged Pig was still rather hesitant.

……

"You're a real scumbag, you know that?" Red Spider glared at Deranged Pig in the real world. "What have you done to make her think like this?"

Deranged Pig's eyes were also full of remorse and frustration as he stared at "himself" in the projection.

"Almost every time I promised to go out on a trip or to the amusement park with her, I ended up failing to follow through. That must be why she has so little trust in me. In her eyes, perhaps she's not as important to me as my job."

……

"Ask yourself this: is your daughter more important or is your job more important?" Adam was raising the same question in the psychic world. "Have a good, hard think about this. Are those strangers outside more important to you than family? There's not much time left for you to think. It won't take long before that anomaly finds Kim, and once that happens, no one will be able to save her!"

In the real world, this question would be a no-brainer.

No matter how obsessed Deranged Pig was with his work, he knew that Kim was more important than anything.

However, everyone was waiting for Kim's answer. What mattered was that she had to believe that she was more important to her father than his job.

Deranged Pig was still hesitating and weighing up his options.

A raucous wave of voices could be heard coming from the sports stadium outside, and everyone was yelling his name, waiting for him to make his appearance.

On the other side, there was only a message from a stranger, telling him that his daughter was in danger.

……

"Hurry up, you fucking bastard!" In the real world, Deranged Pig was frantically screaming at "himself". "You have to believe in daddy, Kim! Nothing is more important to me than you!"

……

"I..."

Deranged Pig turned and opened the door before casting his gaze out at the sports stadium.

Meanwhile, Adam silently motioned for the Mummy to ready its blades.

Deranged Pig looked out at the sea of concert attendees outside, and he took a deep breath as an intoxicated look of satisfaction appeared on his face, but in the end, he said, "I'll go with you!"