Chapter 249: Virtual Arena

Everyone supported those who pursued justice, and that was why Adam had approached Shivani.

Not long after getting into contact with Shivani, Adam provided her with her first scoop.

"You see that man over there?"

The next day, Adam took Shivani to a high-end residential complex. Not only were the houses in the area very lavish, the residential complex had exceptional privacy and a whole host of nearby facilities. Most importantly, the area was constantly being patrolled by Mechguard units, and if an outsider wanted to get in, they would have to pass through multiple checkpoints.

Of course, none of this was an issue for Adam.

One of the privileges of serving as a special psychic police officer was that he could enter any area in Sandrise City.

On this day, Adam took his team to this wealthy residential area to track down one of the people in Zhou Tong's memories. Out of all of Zhou Tong's supervisors, he was the one who had the closest ties with Zhou Tong and knew the most secrets.

This man was one of the people in charge of the Compassion Company, and he specifically oversaw product distribution.

"I see him. Is he our target for today?"

"That's right. Do you know how to use the device I gave you?"

"The psychic world projection recorder? Of course I do. Don't underestimate the professional skill set of an experienced investigative journalist."

"Alright, then make sure to record the entire process of law enforcement. I won't have any input on how you write the story, I have faith in your sense of justice and professionalism."

Adam emerged from the corner as he spoke, then leaped up into the air before propelling him several dozen meters using his newly retrofitted rocket booster, allowing him to arrive directly in front of his target.

"Hello, Adebayor."

"Who are you? What do you want? Don't get any closer to me. Otherwise, I'm calling Mechguard!"

Adebayor pressed a button in his pocket as he spoke. One of the privileges of living in this high-end residential area was that the nearby patrolling Mechguard units could be summoned at the press of a button.

Normally, the flying Mechguard units would arrive on the scene in less than 20 seconds, and even the terrestrial Mechguard units would arrive within a minute, yet on this day, no matter how many times he pressed his button, no Mechguard units came to his aid.

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Adam was about to gloat at his target, but he quickly realized that he had to put on a professional facade, and he immediately adopted a serious expression as he declared, "I am the captain of the fourth team of the Sandrise City Special Psychic Police Force. My name is Adam, and here's my badge."

Adam pointed at the badge on his own chest as he spoke.

"You're suspected of illegally selling large quantities of drugs, so I'm here to conduct a psychic examination on you."

"I want my lawyer." This was the typical first reaction that all wealthy individuals displayed in response to situations like this. "Before my lawyer gets here, I'm not going to say anything."

"According to the newly passed psychic bill, in cases where evidence has already been obtained, I have the right to examine the parts of your psychic world relevant to the case."

Adam pulled out some pills and a recording of Zhou Tong's confession as he spoke.

Adebayor immediately grew a little flustered at the sight of the recording.

It had been several days since he had last seen Zhou Tong, but this was quite a common occurrence. After all, Zhou Tong was a salesperson, and it was often the case that he spent several days at a time selling the products assigned to him.

What he had completely failed to anticipate was that the reason why Zhou Tong hadn't shown up to the company in the past few days was because he had been detained.

"Why are you targeting me?" Adebayor took a quick glance at the surrounding Mechguard units, and upon discovering that they were quite far away, he approached Adam, then said in a voice audible only to the two of them, "If it's money that you want, I can..."

"Bribing an officer is a crime in itself," Adam declared with a serious expression, completely putting away Clown's signature sinister grin. "I'm now going to conduct an examination of your psychic world."

Adam switched on the psychic projection recorder as he spoke, then immediately invaded Adebayor's psychic world.

This time, Adam made sure to present himself as professionally and ethically as possible, exploring only the necessary psychic modules related to the Compassion Company and Adebayor's work while taking care to avoid everything else.

Soon, he had already seen a huge catalog of shady dealings.

The Compassion Company produced massive quantities of addictive painkillers through so-called official channels, then spread these painkillers into the market through all types of legally ambiguous sales avenues.

From production, to storage, to sale, the entire process was a textbook procedure for illegal drug dealing.

Even though Adebayor had made sure to cover his tracks extremely well in the real world, his memories couldn't lie, nor could his suspiciously high levels of wealth and the hidden warehouses full of painkillers.

After completing his investigation, Adam departed from Adebayor's psychic world, then informed Mechguard to seal up the hidden warehouses that he had seen in Adebayor's memories.

All of the Mechguard units across the entire city were interconnected with one another, and it only took a few minutes for the operation to be carried out.

"All of your illegal warehouses have been sealed up. I saw from your memories that a lot of your drugs were sold to minors. Now that we have both human testimony and material evidence, you won't be getting away with this," Adam said as he feigned a sympathetic expression toward the underage victims that the drugs had been sold to, then promptly departed.

……

Soon, a story was published on Shivani's Metaverse homepage.

"A Firsthand Look Into the Law Enforcement Process of the Special Psychic Police"

The story became a viral hit on the internet overnight.

Adapters were very far removed from the general public to begin with, and they were always operating in their own factions, so there was a great deal of curiosity when it came to adapters in the hearts of the average person.

On top of that, special psychic police officers had only been recently instated.

In addition to that, there was always an innate fear that law enforcers were going to abuse their power, so everyone was eager to see how these special psychic police officers carried out the law.

Given these factors, it was difficult for this story not to explode in popularity, and it didn't take long for Adam, Shivani, and the story to become hotly discussed topics on the internet.

In a certain chatroom in the Tor browser, a group of people was discussing this subject.

"Damn, I didn't know adapters could see people's memories!"

"That's completely unfair for normal people like us!"

"I hate to break it to ya, but this world isn't really fair."

"That Adam guy looks to be doing a good job though. He's been framed in the past and cleared his own name since then, so I'm sure he's a good guy."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. I've heard that he has an allegiance to the northern congress, and if you ask me, neither of the congresses can be trusted."

"Keep typing on your little keyboard! You wouldn't do anywhere near as good a job in his place!"

"Piss off!"

A conflict quickly broke out in the chat room, and as a result, it was decided that they would settle this in the arena.

The main selling point of this chatroom was that all disputes were settled with physical fights. 100 years ago, people often wanted to escalate internet disputes to fights in real life, but geographic distance regularly proved to be a challenge. However, that issue was resolved with the invention of virtual arenas.

The arenas had special pain-sensing programs, allowing virtual fights to feel just like in-person fights.