Chapter 246: Hebi no Miko

Recently, Adam's plan had been progressing very smoothly, but for some reason, he couldn't shake this lingering feeling of unease.

A normal person would've simply brushed off those unsubstantiated feelings and carried on with their life, but as a top-tier adapter with extremely potent telegnosis, Adam would've been very much remiss to ignore these subtle warning signs.

It had been proposed by the Psychic Church that all exchanges of information in the world were fundamentally electromagnetic interactions, so if one's synapses were sufficiently sensitive, they would be able to detect certain signals that the average person couldn't.

Back when Adam had learned this at the academy, he had still been a complete rookie, so he didn't think much of the statement and merely committed it to memory.

However, as he was now, he was able to develop a deeper understanding of this concept.

This is definitely not just me being overly sensitive... Is someone trying to target me? Is it the southern congress or the Oni Organization?

Adam had made quite a few enemies, and he had also become an extremely renowned figure of late, but these two powers were the only ones that he could think of that had the power to actually make a move on him.

He didn't fear the majority of the Oni Organization's members. Two of the eight Onis were already dead, and on average, the other six were only around the same level as Oni no Miko and Oni no Hanzou. Individually, it would be very difficult for them to take him down, and if they were to gang up on him, he had allies of his own to back him up.

The only cause for real concern was Oni-faced Dragon. He was significantly more powerful than the eight Onis, but Adam had no idea exactly how powerful he was. However, he had already placed Oni-faced Dragon into the same tier as Masao Yamamoto.

As for the southern congress, Adam was convinced that they had to have quite a large number of powerful adapters at their disposal as well. After all, they were the more powerful of the two congresses, and even the northern congress had been able to recruit Sadou's assistance, so the southern congress would've definitely also had some extremely powerful adapters at their beck and call.

However, there was no way that a national organization like the southern congress would spend so much time and effort focusing on affairs in Sandrise City, so after some careful consideration, Adam decided that it was far more likely that he was being targeted by the Oni Organization.

As it turned out, he was incorrect.

Upon returning to the veterinarian hospital, Adam was greeted by the sight of a familiar face.

"What are you doing here, Cowboy?"

Cowboy was playing with a dog as Adam returned to the hospital.

He was still in his usual careless and disheveled get-up, wearing a pair of jeans in a style that was popular a century ago. There was a cowboy hat sitting on his head, and an unkempt moustache on his face.

"I'm here to bring you a piece of information from the southern congress."

"They're giving you information?" Adam was rather perplexed to hear this. "Aren't you supposed to be enemies?"

"We work together occasionally, such as in this instance. There are some things that they can't communicate to you directly, and even if they did, you may not have believed them anyway. What they asked me to tell you is that someone's trying to kill you, so be on your guard."

"Who? The Oni Organization?"

"No, they can barely keep themselves safe. I've heard that they've all gone into hiding." Cowboy suddenly burst into laughter as he spoke. "I never thought I'd see a day where a bunch of high-level professional hitmen would go into hiding. You've really made a powerful enemy for yourself this time."

"Who is it?"

"It's Hebi no Miko, Oni no Miko's elder sister."

"Oni no Miko has a sister?"

Adam was oblivious to many of the secrets of the world. Even though he had matured significantly since his awakening, he only had a very small catalog of memories up to this point.

"That's right, and she's way more terrifying than Oni no Miko. As a child, she worked as a Japanese spy, but later on, it became impossible for the spy organization to contain her. I don't know what happened to her after that, but wherever she goes, she's considered to be a ticking time bomb," Cowboy said as he continued to play with the dog. "She's a psychic mutant. I'm sure you know what it's like to be a psychic mutant better than I do, right?"

Cowboy turned to Adam as he raised this question.

It was clear that he had seen footage of the battle royale and determined that Adam's deranged display at the end was a result of psychic mutation.

"Let's not get off topic."

Adam wasn't a complete psychic mutant, but he did indeed know how it felt to undergo psychic mutation.

"She's a psychic mutant among psychic mutants. Ever since she was a childhood, she had always been insane, and her personality became even more twisted as she grew up. Granted, there are plenty of nutjobs in the world, and the reason why she's attracted so much attention is because she's extremely powerful. I watched the battle royale that you took part in. It's quite a pity what happened to Eyeless, he was quite a talent.

“He chose the most arduous path possible, so I suppose it's only fitting that he fell on that path, but he really is an unfortunate case of wasted potential. Having said that, he was still nowhere near as powerful as Yamata no Orochi, right?"

"That's correct," Adam replied.

Eyeless was the most powerful combatant in the battle royale, but he had been severely outmatched by Yamata no Orochi.

Furthermore, by the time their final battle took place, Yamata no Orochi had already lost the support of Oni no Miko. In addition to that, Adam had a feeling that Yamata no Orochi had never gotten a chance to show off its full power as it had never received sufficient energy.

"Didn't you get the feeling that Oni no Miko shouldn't have been able to invoke such a powerful entity? That she didn't possess sufficient psychic power to do so?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"She invoked Yamata no Orochi from that pendant, and the creature was most likely placed into the pendant by her sister through some type of psychic deposit."

Adam couldn't help but think of Madam Tree upon hearing this.

"So what I'm saying is that the serpent actually came from her sister. I don't know exactly how powerful Hebi no Miko is, all I've heard is that she used to be extremely powerful. After watching the footage of the battle royale, it seems that I've underestimated her. If you don't want to die, then there are only two options that you can choose from, the first of which is to relinquish your status as a special psychic police officer and go into hiding so you can fade out of the public eye."

"I've already had enough of hiding," Adam declared with a shake of his head. "Tell me the second option."

"The second option would be to use your current identity as a special psychic police officer. Your current status allows you to protect yourself through the use of Mechguard units."

"Isn't she an adapter?"

"It's true that adapters don't really fear Mechguard, but all Mechguard units are programmed to make judgments on whether someone is being attacked by an adapter if they suddenly fall completely still for an extended period of time. As an enforcer, Mechguard units will be sure to come to your aid as long as you can survive against her for some time. Of course, for that to happen, you have to ensure that you can last the required duration of time."

"Alright, I know what I need to do now, but why is the southern congress helping me?"

"You're a smart man, I'm sure you can figure that out for yourself," Cowboy replied with a smile. "What you should be asking is how long they'll be willing to help you for."

"You're right. How long will they help me for?"

"After the recent controversy has blown over a little, they'll try to launch a smear campaign against you. This is a commonly employed strategy among politicians, and there are quite a few things that they can target about you, so smearing you won't be the most difficult thing in the world. As long as they can ruin your reputation, your death won't incur much backlash from the general public. That's all I can tell you, what you do next is up to you."

"Can you provide me with some help?"

"Of course I can, but only after you survive this ordeal." Cowboy made his way over to Adam before patting him on the shoulder. "We're on friendly terms with one another, but we're definitely not so close that I would be willing to die for you. Even Wax Figure definitely wouldn't want to face Hebi no Miko, so you're on your own here."

After that, Cowboy promptly departed without any hesitation.