Chapter 226: Succumbing to Evil

Only now did Adam realize that his teammates had most likely already perished.

He had been so slow to arrive at this conclusion because his mental state had been severely affected by Clown prior to this.

As soon as he fused with Clown, he immediately entered a state of deep inebriation intermingled with some symptoms of schizophrenia. His mind was always filled with deranged voices, and his thoughts also became completely numb.

In this state, it was already extremely difficult for him to retain any semblance of sanity and control, and he had no spare capacity to consider the situation that his teammates were in.

However, now that he was safe and able to calm down a little, the grim realization finally dawned on him.

In this ruthless game, death could easily befall anyone, particularly those who didn't possess sufficient power to protect themselves. The final zone was the most perilous area in the entire battle royale, and the weak dropped like flies here.

.

This had always been a game that was rife with bloodshed, and this edition of the battle royale was even more perilous than previous ones due to the participation of Oni no Miko and the monk trio.

At this point, only the most powerful combatants remained, and unfortunately for Hook and Nie Yiyi, they didn't fall into that category.

Objectively speaking, it really shouldn't have come as any surprise that they would meet their demise at this stage of the battle royale, but Adam was unable to accept this harsh reality.

Adam had always been clinging to the optimistic hope that his entire team would survive until the very end. Perhaps he had considered the possibility that his friends would perish, but now that it had actually happened, the resulting psychological blow was more severe than any he had been dealt in the past, more so than the trauma of witnessing the human farm, or the revelation that he was a blank slate.

"Why? Why did this happen?"

Adam's emotional vulnerability made him lower his guard, and the number of tentacles on his body began to increase, while Raven's deranged will began to whittle away at his sense of reason.

"If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have brought you with me. We could've just not entered the battle royale. It's not like we can't survive in Shadow City... If it isn't for me, none of you would've gotten involved in this mess. You were all just normal students before you met me! This is all because I'm too weak. If only I had the power to protect all of you. Especially you, Hook, I forced you into this..."

All of these negative thoughts and emotions began to erode Adam's mind in the wake of this crushing revelation.

For a normal adapter, negative emotions would either make them weak, such as in the case of Iron Man, or they would make the adapter mutate, such as Diana.

However, Adam was different. Clown harbored psychic parasites from Raven, and Adam was currently in a very strange state, given that he was fused with Clown. In addition to that, Clown was far more powerful than him, even though it was his invoked entity.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Even a single one of these circumstances was extremely rare, and with all three of them acting upon Adam at once, he underwent a complete transformation.

His body began to slowly mutate, growing tentacles that began to absorb his body and Clown's power.

From a third-person perspective, this was just a normal mutation. It was a very common sight for top-tier adapters to mutate in the final zone.

All powerful adapters possessed exceptional mental fortitude, so even if they were to encounter insurmountable obstacles, they wouldn't have their confidence completely crushed like Iron Man did.

Instead, they would enter a state of self-torment, eventually leading to a mutation.

However, this wasn't what Adam was experiencing.

He could feel himself becoming connected with Clown. He had no idea what was happening himself, but it seemed that he was absorbing Clown. This strange feeling alerted him to the situation that he was in, and a hint of reason returned to his mind as a result, but it was already too late.

He could feel his mind becoming more and more chaotic, while his desire for slaughter and destruction became more and more powerful. In the end, he was overwhelmed by the crushing weight of all of his negative emotions, causing him to completely fuse with Clown.

Following the fusion, Adam began to cackle in a strange, inhuman voice, and all of the remorse, guilt, and dejection on his face was instantly wiped away. After completely fusing with Clown, Adam felt as if he were seeing the world through brand new eyes.

These experiences and interpersonal bonds were nothing more than fuel for growth, and all of a sudden, the demise of his friends became something that was worthy of celebration rather than mourning.

"If I had known that giving in would feel so good, I would've done so long ago!"

For the first time, Adam's voice carried a sense of pure, unadulterated evil, and the corners of his lips reached all the way to his ears as his face split open in a grotesque smile. His eyes darted around as he observed the entire battlefield through his newfound perspective.

"Now then, how do I win? That big snake will eventually run out of energy, so I don't have to worry about it, but I can use it to kill Eyeless! I just saved his life, and he's eager for a challenge anyway, so it'll be easy to goad the two of them into another battle. It would be great if they both end up killing each other!

“There's also those three monks. I definitely won't be able to beat them on my own... Hold on, I can just use those three idiots! They said that they were going to kill me last, so I'll just pit them against the three monks! My goodness, how was I so foolish in the past? I have all of these things working in my favor, why did I feel the need to put my own life on the line?"

With that, Adam began to enact his plan, and sure enough, it didn't take much to lure Eyeless and Yamata no Orochi into another battle. Having already been defeated by Yamata no Orochi once, Eyeless was eager to tackle this formidable opponent once again.

Adam then sought out Mole before informing the latter of his plan.

"Eyeless and Yamata no Orochi are fighting now, how about we take out those three monks in the meantime?"

Mole turned to Adam with a perplexed expression.

"Why do you seem a little different from before?"

"Don't worry about that. Eyeless looks to be having a hard time at the moment, but that big snake isn't going to last very long. It's just an invoked entity, so it'll dissipate on its own sooner or later, but it wouldn't be a surprise if it could take down Eyeless before it died. In the meantime, we should focus our efforts on those three monks. You promised to kill me last, and we've always had a good time together. What do you say?"

"He's right." Before Mole had a chance to say anything, Armadillo readily agreed to Adam's proposal. Adam had previously saved his life, so he had more trust in Adam than the other two psychic mutants. "Let's do it."

"You guys go first, I'll take care of everyone else."

Adam smiled as he vanished on the spot, then quickly reappeared beside Ikkaku.

Indeed, Ikkaku was still alive at this point.