Chapter 231: The Reward and Two Secrets

"I had to work so hard and endure so many hardships to win this battle royale. So many people died in this game, including my friends, so the reward really should be increased. In past editions, someone as powerful as Diana would've definitely been able to become champion. This edition of the battle royale was way too rigorous compared with previous editions, so it's only fair that the reward is raised accordingly."

"Fair?" The director looked at Adam through his black and white mask. "Fairness is an arbitrary concept created by man. It doesn't exist in the natural world, and it certainly doesn't exist between humans. How could I possibly satisfy you when you're asking for something that doesn't exist."

"... As expected of a philosopher, I'm no match for you when it comes to these philosophical discussions. However, without those arbitrary and non-existent concepts, you wouldn't be able to fool people into playing this cruel game of yours, isn't that right?"

"I suppose there's some merit to your words. Tell me what you want first, and I'll tell you two additional secrets on top of that."

Adam was a little hesitant to reply.

"Don't worry, the spectators can't see us right now."

"I want the footage that was captured by my friend, Hook, the one that can clear our names. If you don't have it, then I want you to do everything in your power to clear our names through alternative means."

"I do have the footage," the director confirmed.

"Did you send people to intercept the footage? That delivery mechanical bee belonged to the Oni Organization, didn't it?" Adam asked.

This was a question that had always been on his mind.

"No, I had no part in this. Truth be told, I don't know how this happened, either. The mechanical bee came straight to Shadow City, after which it was captured by our recycled Mechguard units," the director explained. "After that, I got an engineer to look into its programming, and they discovered that the mechanical bee had been tampered with. A normal delivery mechanical bee wouldn't even have been able to leave Sandrise City, let alone come all the way here."

"You really had nothing to do with this?"

"I wouldn't stoop to lying about something like this. Lies are more often told for maintaining order, rather than sowing chaos. That is the first secret that I wanted to tell you."

"What's the second secret?"

"I'll tell you the second secret when you come to Shadow Fort to collect the footage. For now, go and savor your victory!"

The director swept a hand through the air as he spoke, ejecting Adam out of the psychic world.

As soon as Adam awakened in the real world, he immediately heard the sound of an altercation.

"We're not going anywhere before our brother wakes up!"

"That's right!"

"Don't tell me about your dumb rules! What're you gonna do? Get the director to kill us?"

"Hey, he's awake!"

Adam had only just gotten up into a sitting position when a strange-looking trio consisting of two men and a woman gathered around him. One of the men had a tapered face that resembled a mole's, while the other had an even pointier and longer face, much like the elongated mouth of an armadillo.

In addition to that, Armadillo seemed to have some burn scars on his head, giving the skin on his head a scaly appearance. As for the woman, she was decent in terms of physical appearance, but it seemed that she hadn't washed her hair for a very long time, and Adam was immediately assaulted by a strong stench as soon as she drew close.

However, instead of showing any disdain to the trio, a warm smile appeared on Adam's face, following which he threw himself into the embrace of one of the two men as he sobbed, "I'm so happy to see you! I almost died in there!"

"I'm surprised you could recognize us, Brother! If we hadn't come out first, we wouldn't have been able to tell which one you are. You don't look at all like how you do in the psychic world!"

"Yeah, you're pretty handsome in the real world."

"You were really ugly in there..."

"So how did you manage to recognize us?"

"I could tell because the three of you are radiating intelligence!" Adam explained while doing his best to keep a straight face. "I'm so glad all of us survived!"

"Not only did we all survive, we made an absolute killing! We'll never have to do this again! We managed to earn 200 million from this battle royale in total, and that's more than enough money to fulfill our goal. You should come with us!"

"What are you planning to do?"

"We're planning to buy a small island and raise a bunch of animals there. The only inhabitants of the island will be us and the animals, and we'll kill anyone who dares to set foot on the island! It'll be an animal paradise! What do you think?"

"That sounds fantastic!" Adam replied as he put on an intrigued expression. "However, I still have some things I need to do. I'll go find you once I'm finished with my own business."

"What do you need to do?"

"Truth be told, I was framed for a horrible crime, and even now, I'm still a wanted fugitive in the civilized world..."

Adam began to tell the trio the story of his tragic past, making sure to embellish some details to garner more sympathy, and it worked like a charm.

The psychic mutant trio was absolutely fuming after hearing Adam's story.

"How dare they do this to you? I'm gonna kill them!"

"These bastards don't deserve to live!"

"We'll find out who's responsible for this, then kill them all!"

"Wouldn't that delay your plan?" Adam asked with a feigned expression of concern. "I don't want to keep you from realizing your dream."

"That can wait! Now that we have the money, we can set up the animal paradise at any time! We'll avenge you first, then buy an island!"

.

"That's right!"

"We'll avenge you first!"

"Thank you so much!"

While Adam was spinning a sob story for the psychic mutant trio, the stadium employees and the host who had been arguing with the psychic mutant trio earlier approached them before quickly ushering the trio out of the area.

"The award ceremony is about to begin soon, so we have to begin constructing the podium You three can go and wait in the lobby in the meantime."

While the host was speaking, a series of automatons had already begun working, and the first thing that they did was clear out all of the bodies of the brain-dead participants.

Out of the original 136 participants, only 12 had managed to survive, amounting to a survival rate of lower than 10%.

The other 124 participants had all either been reduced to a vegetative state, or had suffered complete brain death.

Even though Adam's heart had been completely tainted by Raven's sinister influence, he still couldn't help but be overcome by a sense of sorrow as he made his way over to Nie Yiyi and Hook's lifeless bodies.

"What's wrong, Brother?"

"Why do you look so sad?"

"You're the champion, you should be happy!"

"These two were my friends, and I'm very sad to see them dead."

Adam reached out to touch Nie Yiyi's cheek, and he discovered that it was still warm, which meant that she was in a vegetative state. In contrast, Hook's body had already turned cold, which meant that he had suffered brain death.

In any case, both of them were essentially dead.

"I'm sorry..." Adam sighed as he watched their bodies being taken away by the automatons. "I'll make sure that the people who did this to us pay for what they've done!"