Chapter 230: Victory for the Wicked

The anomalies were somewhat dispersed by the dozens of clones conjured up by Adam, but his situation wasn't looking much more optimistic.

He wasn't able to get very far at all before he was caught up to by an extremely fast anomaly that resembled the Skinned Anomaly that Adam had seen once before. The anomaly's speed was enhanced even further outside the zone, and Adam's shoulder was shattered by a vicious punch before he even had a chance to react.

"I've seen you in action before, you skinless bastard! I'm gonna cook you alive!"

Adam pulled out a flamethrower before blasting a jet of fire at the anomaly, and sure enough, its lack of skin really did seem to make it rather fearful of fire, as evidenced by the fact that it immediately sprang back in retreat, but it was quickly replaced by two more anomalies that Adam had never seen before.

At the same time, there was a pair of flying anomalies that were bombarding him with technomantic attacks.

After being struck by these attacks, the skin all over his entire body began to rot away, and it was as if he had been completely submerged in acid. Even breathing caused a burning sensation in his respiratory tract.

I'm not gonna be able to last very long like this. I have to find Eyeless...

With that in mind, Adam instructed his clones to search for Eyeless in the basin.

The basin wasn't very large, and Clown was very fast, so the search should've been completed very quickly, but the problem was that almost all of the clones were killed in less than 20 seconds of being dispersed through the area.

Adam was also struggling to keep himself alive, and he had no choice but to resort to self-concealment, but there were anomalies similar to the Thousand-eyed Anomaly among the enemy ranks, and they were able to immediately spot him, following which a burst of dazzling light swept through the area that he was in to completely expose him.

How is Eyeless still not dead?

Adam had no choice but to conjure up another batch of clones, but using abilities outside the zone was quite taxing on one's psychic power, and consecutive uses of such a high-level ability immediately exhausted all of his psychic power before he was even halfway through invoking this new batch of clones.

Adam hurriedly pulled out his only remaining psychic recovery card to replenish is psychic power.

This was a card that he had scavenged from the body of the healer of the gun-wielding team. He had conserved it all this time, and that decision was now proving to be an extremely shrewd one.

After activating the counter-cyberhex in the card, Adam could feel his psychic power recovering somewhat, and he hurriedly completed the invocation of his clones so that they could distract his pursuers and also help him search for Eyeless.

Thankfully, his efforts paid off, and right before he fell to his demise, he finally discovered something.

It was a rift in the ground that other zombies and anomalies were gathered around, and the sounds of a battle were ringing out from within.

There he is! Finally!

Upon discovering this, one of Adam's clones hurriedly rushed over to the rift before jumping in, upon which they immediately caught sight of Eyeless, who was in an even more terrible condition than Adam was.

Both of Eyeless's legs had been smashed into mincemeat by an anomaly, but he was still swinging his sword vigorously at his enemies with his upper body.

Thanks to the narrow terrain of the rift, he only had to deal with enemies from one side, and the number of anomalies that could enter the rift at a time was very limited. These factors were what had allowed him to survive to this point.

These artificial anomalies really are completely brainless! If the rift is too narrow, then just widen the damn thing! Looks like I'll have to give them a hand.

With that in mind, Adam's clones loaded and fired a few explosive projectiles with his rocket launchers in quick succession, blowing the rift wide open to completely alter the terrain. At the same time, he was luring a large number of anomalies into the rift.

After that, he ignored the fact that he was being attacked by anomalies himself as he began to help the anomalies' cause, gleefully firing long-range attacks at Eyeless from afar.

"I still have these clones to help me hold off the enemies, while you don't even have any legs left! You're always looking for a challenge, aren't you? What do you think about this challenge?"

Adam was being protected by three of his clones as he pulled out his gatling gun before firing a relentless barrage of bullets at Eyeless. The bullets were very limited in the amount of damage that they were able to inflict, but Adam was making sure to aim at Adam's sword-wielding arm with his firepower output.

"These artificial anomalies have no brains, but I do! You can only blame yourself for your own demise, Eyeless. You're always searching for hardships, and you've gone on one adventure too many!" Adam cackled gleefully as he instructed one of his clones to strap as many bombs to its own body as possible before charging at Eyeless in a suicide attack. "This is the end for you, my dear!"

The bombs strapped to the clone's body exploded violently to send Eyeless flying out of the rift before landing on the ground outside.

His arms had been blown to smithereens by the explosion, yet he still refused to give up, even as he felt the waves of anomalies and zombies rushing toward him. In the final moments of his life, he continued to face adversity head-on, facing straight ahead as he was inundated by the hordes of oncoming enemies.

Shortly thereafter, everything fell silent.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

All of a sudden, the surrounding scenery abruptly vanished, following which Adam was teleported into another psychic world.

From the darkness of the night, he found himself in an area that was illuminated by bright white light.

The zombies and anomalies around him had vanished, replaced by neon lights and white mist. Within the mist, Adam could see a podium beneath his feet.

"I won?" An elated grin appeared on Adam's face. "I won! Finally!"

While Adam was chortling with glee, the mist around him gradually faded, and he caught sight of a massive dragon that was covered in black scales.

"Diana? You're still alive as well?"

At this moment, Diana was in an absolutely horrific condition. All of her scales had been peeled back to reveal large chunks of mangled flesh all over her body. Her skull had been severely fractured, and her eyeballs had also been squeezed out of their sockets.

"How are you not dead? Also, why are you here?"

"Have you already forgotten that she's your teammate? You won, so she's naturally a winner as well. She represents the will of King Arthur."

The director's voice rang out to answer Adam's question. For the first time in the game, he cast a counter-cyberhex in person to treat Diana, who looked as if she could perish at any second.

The director's counter-cyberhex was even more effective than an advanced healing card, and Diana's severely ravaged body was rapidly healing as white light swirled all around her. Before long, she had already returned to full health and risen up from the ground.

"Wow, how mighty and majestic you are!" Adam immediately put on a fawning smile as he pretended to be overjoyed by this turn of events. "I'm so glad that you're still alive!"

Diana paid no heed to him, seemingly still basking in a series of complex emotions.

Meanwhile, Adam turned to the director as he asked, "I won, so I should get my reward, right?"

"Of course. What is it that you want?"