Chapter 22: Undying Fascination with Manicures

Adam had no idea what was happening in the outside world, but seeing as the issue had been resolved and the final remnants of the scarecrow's anomalic power had been devoured by his two anomalies, he decided to forcibly sever the connection.

After that, all four of the people involved woke up. Indeed, aside from Adam, Nie Yiyi, and Hook, Kim had also awakened.

"Daddy... and everyone from my dreams..." After waking up, Kim seemed to be in a far more normal condition than before. She was no longer trying to avoid direct eye contact, and she had become a lot more spritely and energetic. "Thank you for helping me."

Having woken up, Kim had naturally recovered her perception of the real world.

She was still a child, but at her age, it didn't take her much thought to realize that these people were adapter psychotherapists, and that everything she had seen in her "dream" had been done to help her.

"There's no need to thank us, we're being paid to do this," Adam said. "You should be thanking your father for paying us."

"Let's exchange contact details, kid." Deranged Pig didn't want to continue discussing this subject for fear of potentially triggering traumatic memories in his daughter, so he dragged Adam to the side, then said in a quiet voice, "I know some things about you, and if you want to know about me, you can ask Red Spider. We are allies from now on, and I'll make sure to notify you right away if I manage to gather any information."

"I want to learn about Shae Kim. I want to know when she went to Golden Teeth Incorporated."

"Alright, I'll keep you updated," Deranged Pig replied with a nod, then returned to his daughter's side.

This was a very dark day for him, but also one that was worthy of celebration. He was furious at the dark truth that had been uncovered, but he was also ecstatic that his daughter had returned to normal.

Adam didn't care what mood Deranged Pig was in, he was still enraged. The more he knew, the more he wanted to learn the truth. He was like a man trudging through the desert. With no water, he was very thirsty, but after being teased with a few drops of water, his thirst had only been exacerbated.

"Alright, now that the job's done, we no longer have any reason to be here. Remember to transfer the final payment as soon as possible, and we look forward to working with you in the future," Red Spider said as she patted Adam on the head. "Let's get out of here!"

Thus, Adam and the others departed from Deranged Pig's mansion, and as soon as they got into the car, the process of splitting the spoils began.

"I've transfered your cut of 750,000 into your account. Oh, speaking of that, your identity information was registered for you by the pawn shop."

"You're only getting 750,000?" Hook was rather surprised to hear this number. "I'm getting 150,000, and Nie Yiyi is getting 500,000. Doesn't that mean you only get 100,000? That's terrible compensation!"

"Then how about you give up some of your share?"

Hook's demeanor immediately changed at the mention of money.

"No, that's not an option. You were the one who made this arrangement, so it's your problem. Come to think of it, you got out of this in the best condition out of the three of us, so it's only right that you receive the least amount of money as well."

Indeed, Adam was the one who had suffered the least damage out of the three. The severest injury that he had sustained was the ripple effect from Mummy being sliced into two prior to its evolution. After that, he had received immense replenishment from the scarecrow's anomalic power, and as a result, not only had his psychic body made a full recovery, it was even stronger than before.

Hence, Adam was looking full of energy and vigor, while the other two were looking rather weary and frail.

In particular, Nie Yiyi had sustained extremely severe injuries to her psychic body, and she was yawning incessantly with a terrible complexion to boot.

"Here's your money, I've transferred it to you just now."

"Thanks. Looks like I'm going to have to rest and recuperate for a while."

"And here's your share, Hook."

"Thanks, Boss."

"Where do you three want to go next? You've got money now, so it's time to enjoy yourselves. I know a lot of fun places to go," Red Spider said in a tempting voice, seducing the young trio toward the abyss of depravity.

However, Hook was the only one who took up the offer.

"Take me to a nice pub, I'll treat everyone to some drinks."

"I'll pass," Adam said with a shake of his head. "I want to pay the prosthetic limb retrofitting factories a visit."

Nie Yiyi also turned down the offer. "I have to go rest."

"It's my treat!"

"I'm still gonna pass."

Thus, the four went their separate ways.

After consulting a map, Adam took the void rail to an underground street in Area 36, Gundam Street.

This street also had an unofficial nickname, which was "Retrofit Street".

There were countless prosthetic limb retrofitting shops here, some of which offered high-end services, while others offered cheaper products. There were beautiful prosthetic limbs that were very popular among women, and also weaponry prosthetic limbs.

Of course, firearm retrofitting was against the law, so the only way to find such services was to turn to the black market.

After arriving on this street, Adam thought that he would be able to find a shop to his liking quite quickly, but after a lengthy period of exploration, he discovered that there were far more shops offering aesthetic mechanical prosthetics catered toward women and prosthetic limb beautifying services than there were shops that offered weaponry retrofitting.

In fact, even the shops that had neon signs advertising weaponry prosthetics retrofitting also offered prosthetic limb beautifying services on the side.

With no other alternatives, Adam was forced to settle for one of these shops.

"Yo, I could hear Deranged Pig's music blasting in your shop even from outside. Are you a fan of his as well?"

Adam had chosen this shop for no reason other than the fact that Deranged Pig's music was being played on a constant loop here. Seeing as he had ties with Deranged Pig, it would've been a waste not to use those connections.

The boss of the shop raised his head before giving Adam a look of approval, clearly very pleased with their shared taste in music.

"Hold on a minute, I'll be with you soon. There's free lemonade on the table."

The boss then lowered his head again and continued with his work.

At the moment, he was making laser engravings on a woman's mechanical fingers. It was already 2096, yet manicures were still extremely popular among women, despite the fact that this was something that had first begun trending over 100 years ago.

Adam couldn't understand what this fixation on manicures was all about, nor did he have any interest in trying to understand it.

He patiently waited until the boss was done with his work, remaining silent the entire time.

After finishing the job, the boss wiped his hands before making his way over to Adam.

"What kind of job do you want done?"

"I'm interested in weaponry prosthetics retrofitting."

"Alright, tell me what you need and the budget you're working with."

"I am an adapter. I need equipment that can save my life when I'm in danger, and my budget is 100,000."

"100,000?" The boss was rather surprised to hear this. "Under normal circumstances, 100,000 would be a lot of money for prosthetics, but you have to understand that prosthetics for adapters are all extremely expensive. I'm afraid you won't be able to get much done with 100,000."

"Can you elaborate on that?"

Adam's memories contained all of the general knowledge that he needed, but he was severely lacking when it came to professional knowledge.

"Are you a newbie adapter? You should already know all of this." The boss took a glance at Adam's tender features and quickly arrived at the conclusion that he was a newbie in this field. With that in mind, the boss explained, "Due to the fact that adapters often need to enter the psychic world of others, they put more of an emphasis on their psychic bodies. Hence, the prosthetic limbs that they require are primarily related to psychic connections."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Let me explain it this way. There are some people nowadays who feel like human hands and feet are too archaic and limited in their uses, and they want to undergo prosthetic limb retrofitting. The simplest and cheapest way to do that would be to amputate their hands and feet, then make some simple psychic connections between the sites of their severed limbs and prosthetic limbs, right?"

"That's right."

"This is a very cost-effective method, and even if really high-quality prosthetic limbs are used, it won't cost all that much. However, an adapter cannot do this. For adapters, the degree of acceptance of their limbs is a vital factor to consider, and this acceptance goes all the way down to their subconsciousness. If you sever your hands and feet, even if you replace them with prosthetics, your psychic body will still be missing those body parts when you enter the psychic world. This is because your subconsciousness knows that those prosthetics are foreign, mechanical objects that don't belong to your body. This is what I mean by degree of acceptance."