Chapter 251: Gathering Place for Artists

Inside a dark alley stood a strange group of people.

"When is... Oni no Miko's sister... coming?"

It had rained not long ago, so there was some rainwater accumulated in the alley, and a middle-aged woman in the group was stomping at the puddles like a little kid.

However, in contrast with children, who splashed around in puddles for fun, she seemed to be doing this as a means to vent the fury in her heart.

"Don't get so worked up, she'll definitely come for me soon."

Adam was making it sound like he was eager for the showdown to arrive, but in reality, he didn't want to face Hebi no Miko at all. During these past few days, his telegnosis had been becoming more and more uneasy, and he could only speculate that the main reason why Hebi no Miko still hadn't made a move on him yet was because he was constantly accompanied by Mechguard units.

If she were to rush in recklessly, only to find herself unable to kill Adam in a short time, then she ran the risk of being tracked down and killed by the Mechguard units in the real world.

Furthermore, Adam had a feeling that the southern congress had most likely sent people to impede Hebi no Miko, so Adam was safe for now, but that sense of safety was quickly wearing off.

"I can sense that she's growing more and more impatient. I'm sure she'll make her move soon." While Adam was speaking with Diana, a figure wearing an octopus mask emerged from the darkness. "Someone's coming. All of you stay quiet for now."

An octopus mask was a standard disguise worn by those working for a certain intelligence organization on the dark web.

Adam had gone to the pawn shop to try and gather leads for potential heinous criminals on the loose in Sandrise City, but the pawn shop had only provided him with some data that indicated a sharp spike in the number of missing children cases in Area 45, along with some related content on the dark web.

Some people had abducted those children, then filmed videos of those children being brutally tortured and killed to be sold for profit on the dark web.

However, that was the extent of the information that the pawn shop was willing to provide. May was trying to keep the pawn shop on the straight and narrow as much as possible, so she didn't want to deal in intelligence from the dark web, nor was she interested in getting the pawn shop involved in these shady matters.

.

However, Red Spider had provided Adam with a contact, and Adam had to pay a large deposit to facilitate that meeting.

On the dark web, there were people making money from committing heinous crimes, but there were also people making money from betraying those heinous criminals. In a world that was outside of the jurisdiction of the law, money was the only driving force.

"Here's the information that you asked for. I've included the address and photo of the suspect as you requested, but this information pertains only to the uploader of the videos. As for whether he was the one who actually committed the crimes, that's a question that I can't answer."

"Are you sure he was the original uploader? He's not just reuploading the footage?"

"I'm certain. Even if he didn't produce the footage, he definitely has something to do with the creator."

"Good."

After the final payment was issued, the informant in the octopus mask departed.

"You've been spending quite a bit of our money, Adam." Mole couldn't help but express his displeasure as he watched the transaction take place. "I know that we're really rich, and that it's not good to always talk about money, but we won't be able to support you much longer if you keep this up."

"Exactly!" Rabbit chimed in in agreement. "We paid for the prosthetics that you recently had retrofitted, and you've also been purchasing a ton of information and equipment. At this rate, we won't have any money left to buy an island!"

"You two need to shut up!" Among the three psychic mutants, Armadillo was always the one who stood up for Adam as Adam had previously saved his life. "If worse comes to worst, we'll just have to go back to Shadow City to earn some more money! Constantly fixating on money is not a sign of intelligence!"

Adam offered no response as the three of them began arguing with one another.

He had already grown accustomed to this. The combination of the three hare-brained psychic mutants and the perpetually angry Diana meant that arguments regularly broke out, and Adam was already used to the noise.

Fortunately, even though they were often very rowdy, the three psychic mutants were quite obedient, and not only had they not caused any trouble for him, they had proven to be a great help to him.

Thus, the five of them made their way to Area 45 according to the provided address, and they were protected by Mechguard units from afar during the entire duration of the trip.

This was a rather unique area of Sandrise City, and it was known as the Artists' Area.

Due to certain historical factors, a large number of creators had gathered here, including artists, novelists, directors, songwriters, sculptors, etc.

The area had a very open and liberal atmosphere, and the shops that lined the streets all had rather unique and outlandish decor. On top of that, most of them were shops that sold art supplies, musical instruments, or old DVDs.

With all these artists gathered in one place, not only could they share certain resources, they could also provide inspiration for one another.

However, there were always two sides to everything. Due to the fact that freedom of self-expression was heavily encouraged in the area, there were many individuals that were rather deranged or expressed eccentric behavior here.

As a result, the law and order in this place weren't much better than in the old industrial areas where all types of gangs and criminal organizations were gathered. Despite this, many renowned art academies had been founded here, ranging all the way from primary school to the college level.

"Fuck, I hate artists! These people are all insane!" Mole had a disdainful look on his face as he watched a drunkard throwing up on the side of the road. "I have no idea what these people are thinking! It's like their heads are filled with dog shit!"

"Exactly! All of them have something wrong with their heads!" Armadillo agreed.

Not only was there no sense of camaraderie or sympathy between fellow deranged individuals, the three psychic mutants displayed nothing but unadulterated distaste toward those around them.

The group made their way along a colorful street before stopping in front of an old apartment building, and after taking a moment to verify the number on the door, Adam knew that they had arrived at their destination.

In order to avoid raising the alarm, Adam released the mechanical bee on his back, which flew into the apartment building through the gas pipes. The mechanical bee then flew into the first basement floor, which was where the video uploader's room was situated.

After flying into the room, the image was received by Adam's mechanical arm, then transmitted directly to his brain through his nerves.

Inside the apartment was a person seated in front of a computer, and laid out all around him were a bunch of strange books and some albums containing gorey and violent pornographic images.

Those who dared to engage in transactions on the dark web were generally quite good with computers, thinking that they could keep themselves safe from being traced with their computer skills, but needless to say, it was an inherently dangerous endeavor akin to playing with fire, and many people ultimately found themselves burned.

That's him!

After receiving the image, Adam temporarily instructed the nearby Mechguard units to go somewhere further away as he was about to engage in some illegal activity.

Looks like these old apartment buildings don't have any electronic alert systems.

After examining the gate, Adam severed the lock with one of his spider legs, then casually made his way inside.

The apartment had dozens of floors, and most of the people living here were just normal residents. Adam and his group took care not to make too much sound, so no one was alerted to their intrusion.

Adam even warmly greeted one of the residents that he met along the way, and before long, he was on the first basement floor.

The room that the target was living in was very dark and damp, and it was normally only used for item storage, so the rent was quite cheap. Upon his arrival, Adam broke into the room before taking a deep breath, upon which he was greeted by the rank odor of mold and decay.

This is a great place for nurturing anomalies! Speaking of anomalies, it's been a very long time since I've last seen one. I wonder if there are any here for me!