Chapter 281: Waiting Game

There was a nice holiday resort around 300 kilometers away from Sandrise City.

It was a small town, but in contrast with the farming towns around Sandrise City, this was a town that was supported solely by tourism, and its name was Oasis Town.

Just as its name suggested, Oasis Town was a very scenic location, completely different from the barren desert environment around Sandrise City.

This was a very rare sight, particularly after the war, during which large sections of land had been reduced to scorched earth.

Oasis Town only had a resident population of fewer than 2,000 people, and most of them worked in the tourism industry, running hotels, holiday resorts, fishing ponds, boat rental services...

This was where the final two heads of the spider anomaly were hidden.

In the real world, the town was over 300 kilometers away from Sandrise City, but it wasn't that far in the psychic world, and everyone arrived in the town after passing through just a few psychic modules.

Inside one of the holiday resorts, the group was seated in front of a bartender, sipping on some beverages that they had just ordered.

"There were clearly some careful considerations behind Sima Kai's decision to make this place one of his hunting grounds. As a university professor, he's definitely a very intelligent man.

“Unlike Sandrise City, this place isn't full of Mechguard security cameras, and due to the fact that this is a tourist location, there are many tourists here with no local connections, so it's very difficult to search for them if they go missing, and it'll also be quite easy to dispose of their bodies."

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Mole had no interest in hearing Adam's analysis. "Shouldn't we be going after the anomaly? Surely you know where the heads are hidden in this town!"

"Alright, then tell me this: what's going to happen if we go after the anomaly now?"

"We'll fight it to the death! It doesn't matter if we win or lose. If we die, then so be it!"

Mole slammed down his glass violently as he spoke, splashing his beverage all over the counter.

"I understand your hatred for this man, but wouldn't it be better if we could increase our chances of victory before confronting the anomaly? In a battle where both sides are roughly evenly matched, what is going to have the most significant bearing on the outcome of the battle?"

"The environment?"

"Bingo! As expected, you're by far the smartest person that I know!" This was a problem that Adam had been mulling over the entire way here. "That anomaly is extremely fast, and none of us can keep up with it except for you. If we want to limit its speed, then we have to fight it in a confined environment."

"You're right! You're pretty smart yourself, Adam," Mole said with a pleased expression. "I'm sure you already have a plan, right?"

"It's not a perfect plan, but it is a plan. According to my past experience, all high-level anomalies like this one possess a certain level of intelligence."

Adam thought back to how he had been ambushed in Sithu's psychic world, and he was certain that Raven had orchestrated that trap.

Through his past experience in dealing with Sithu, Adam had come to realize that for true psychos, their personalities had already fused as one with their anomalies, so their anomalies were able to think just as normal humans did.

"Alright, so what?"

"We're talking about an intelligent being here, and we've invaded its world and almost killed it on two separate occasions. If you were in its place, what would you do?"

"I'd kill the intruders, of course!" Mole replied, following which an enlightened look appeared on his face. "I get it now! What you're saying is that we don't have to go after it. Instead, we just have to wait for it to come after us after it's found the final two heads!"

"That's exactly right! After collecting those final two heads, it'll undoubtedly become even more powerful. We were already almost no match for it with just five heads, I'm sure its confidence will be significantly boosted after it collects the final two heads. With that in mind, it'll definitely come after us, so all we have to do right now are two things: find a suitable battlefield, then lure it in."

"How do we do that?"

"We just have to raise a commotion and alert the people here to our presence. This is its psychic world, so it'll definitely be able to find us."

"That sounds great!"

After deciding on a plan, everyone sprang into action.

Due to the fact that this was a tourist town, there were many strange places that they could choose from.

After asking around for a while, Adam and the others decided to make a cavern their final battleground.

They had chosen such a location as it was a very enclosed and confined space, and the stalactites in the cavern would serve to further impede the anomaly's speed.

Additionally, this was a perfect environment for Armadillo to take advantage of his powers. His ability to traverse through the earth meant that he could use the terrain to his advantage against the anomaly.

"This is a good place." After arriving in a spacious area in the cavern, Shae was estimating the height of the cavern as she looked up at the stalactites. "I'd say it's about 10 meters tall here, which is perfect, and Sludge can fit in here as well. The only problem is that if the anomaly self-detonates again, all of us could end up being buried in here."

"It'll be even better if we get buried in there!" Armadillo said. "If it self-detonates again, its body will be blown into pieces, and once the mountain collapses, the entire cavern will become my territory, so I can ensure that it never recovers again. Just make sure you don't die in the explosion."

"Now that we know what to expect, that's much less of a threat. As soon as I see its body light up, I'll immediately get Sludge to pounce onto it."

While everyone was finalizing their strategy, Adam's clones were wandering around in a haphazard fashion outside the cavern.

Their purpose was to lure in the anomaly, and on the way here, everyone had intentionally behaved in a very over-the-top manner. Their group was already very conspicuous to begin with, and even in the psychic world, everyone followed basic behavioral logic, so their attention would naturally be drawn to such a peculiar group.

As such, Adam was confident that the anomaly was already aware of where they were.

What's taking it so long?

One of Adam's clones was pacing back and forth outside the cavern when it suddenly spotted something out of the corner of its eye, following which it was abruptly decapitated before it even had a chance to react.

Adam was able to see through the eyes of his clones, but he had no idea what type of attack the anomaly had just employed.

"It's here! Get ready!"

In the face of such a formidable enemy, Adam didn't dare to take any chances, and he immediately invoked Sludge.

At the same time, Armadillo burrowed his way into the ground, while Rabbit's body expanded drastically in size as she adopted her ultimate form.

In this form, her combat prowess was greatly enhanced, but it came at the cost of significantly heightened psychic power expenditure.

After everyone had gotten ready to confront the enemy, the spider anomaly slowly crawled into the cavern.

As expected, it had already collected all seven heads at this point, and as a result, not only had it become stronger and more imposing, the image of a hexagram had appeared on its body.

Each time the anomaly evolved from obtaining a new head, the enhancement that it received was clearly reflected in the transformation it underwent, and judging from its more physically imposing stature and the hexagram on its body, Adam was able to roughly gauge what enhancements it had received from the final two heads.

"It looks like one of the heads enhanced its strength, while the other one granted it certain technomantic powers."