Chapter 312: Hierarchical Isolation

Quinn immediately flew into a blind panic at the sound of the door-knocking, and he hurriedly rushed toward the transporter on his balcony.

However, the door-knocker clearly didn't have much patience, and it didn't take long before they forced their way into the apartment, just in time to see Quinn rushing out onto the balcony.

Quinn's speed and strength were no match for Adam's prosthetics, and he was overpowered and pinned down onto the floor before he had a chance to get into the transporter on the balcony.

"Hello."

"Don't kill me! Please, don't kill me!"

Quinn's immediate thought was that Adam was a hitman.

In his eyes, in the event that the orphan trafficking scheme was exposed, he would be far more likely to be paid a visit by a hitman than Mechguard or special psychic police officers.

After all, it was going to take a very long time for Mechguard to dig him up in their investigation, whereas the people at the Compassion Company knew exactly what he had done. He had already learned from the news that all of the higher-ups at the Compassion Company, including the CEO, had already been killed, so it would've only made sense that he would be killed as well.

Adam was rather taken aback by Quinn's assumption that he was a hitman, and he was just about to say something when Quinn continued, "I have cameras installed in my apartment, and they'll transmit footage of everything that happens here to the Mechguard database in real-time, so if you kill me, you'll be in huge trouble as well!"

"You're a smart cookie, aren't you?"

Adam turned to glance at the apartment, and even though he couldn't see any cameras, he believed what Quinn was saying.

These people were willing to do anything to save their own lives, and it certainly wasn't a stretch to think that he would install hidden cameras for this purpose.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Even though he was already in disguise, he was still feeling a little apprehensive, having just received a verbal warning from the Dataist Union earlier in the day. After considering the situation for a few seconds, Adam lifted Quinn up by his collar, then barged into the bathroom with him before asking in a low voice, "There aren't any cameras in here, right?"

"Y, you've already..."

"Answer my question, or I'll kill you!"

"No," Quinn hurriedly replied as he shuddered in fear.

He was an orphan trafficker, but he wasn't like those gangsters in Area 8 and Area 9, and he immediately crumbled in the face of a threat to his life.

After ensuring that there were no cameras in the bathroom, Adam wasted no time and immediately invaded Quinn's consciousness.

Quinn was an avid internet gamer.

He was among the first batch of test tube infants after World War III, and he had grown up in a non-profit organization. He had never lived in poverty, but his upbringing was far from privileged.

Ever since he first came into contact with internet games as a child, he had become infatuated with playing all types of games in the Metaverse, which still wasn't very refined at the time.

Unfortunately, the majority of games were pay-to-win, and he dedicated all of the little spending money that he had into his games. Even after reaching adulthood, this habit continued, and as a result, he was always on the verge of being broke, until he met a certain person one day...

……

Adam wasn't very interested in Quinn's life. His primary goal for invading Quinn's psychic world was to find some more leads pertaining to the orphan trafficking operation.

Quinn's memories related to the operation were very simple. All of the orphans that were brought into their shelter would undergo simple physical examinations, and he just so happened to be the one responsible for collecting and logging the data from those examinations.

His job was to pick out the children with abnormal brain CT scan statistics and send the list of names of those children to Chen Yanyan over at the Compassion Company.

Those children would generally be taken away by the Compassion Company for further examinations, citing reasons such as brain calcification, brain tumors, or problems with the blood vessels in their brains, and the majority of those children were then subsequently sent back.

Over the past few years, around 30,000 to 40,000 orphans had been sent to his shelter, and several hundred of them had been reported by him to the Compassion Company. Out of those hundreds of children, two of them ultimately weren't sent back.

Over the course of several years, only two out of tens of thousands of children had failed to return, and when it was declared that those two children had succumbed to their brain conditions, there was no reason for anyone to suspect any foul play.

Even in the welfare homes themselves, there were orphans dying every year, and the child mortality rate in society as a whole was higher than this.

No one had any reason to suspect anything, and no one looked into the matter.

If it weren't for Adam, Quinn would've been able to continue this line of work indefinitely.

There's no valuable information in there!

Adam was feeling rather frustrated following his exploration of Quinn's psychic world.

It had to be said that these people had executed immaculate hierarchical isolation. The people on each level of the hierarchy were only responsible for their direct duties, and they had no exposure to the things that took place on the hierarchical levels above them.

Perhaps Adam would be able to gather some useful information if he could capture someone like Chen Yiran, but the information that he could dig out of the likes of Chen Yanyan and Quinn was extremely limited, and there was no way that this information would be enough to further his investigation in any meaningful way.

Not long after Adam returned to the real world, Quinn's eyes also began to refocus, but he had no idea what had just happened.

"What..."

"Be quiet, I need to think."

Seeing as Quinn knew so little useful information, it was most likely the case that the other people on Adam's list were just as oblivious as Quinn was. Hence, if he wanted to further this investigation, then he needed more time.

"Alright, here's the deal Quinn. I'm sure you're aware that you've at least already developed an inkling of what your job entails. No matter how slow you may be, after working at the shelter for so long, you must be aware that you're assisting in child trafficking.

“This is a very serious crime in this country, and if you get locked up in prison, none of the inmates will take kindly to what you did. In fact, I suspect that once the other inmates learn the nature of your crimes, you won't be able to survive very long in there at all."

"Y, yes, I understand..."

As a homebody with a gaming addiction, Quinn wasn't a tough nut to crack at all, and he was so frightened by this grim future that Adam had mapped out for him that he was stuttering over his words.

"I can tell you right now that I'm not a hitman. Instead, I'm a special psychic police officer."

Adam pulled aside his disguise as he spoke so that he could show Quinn his face.

Quinn was immediately able to recognize him.

"You're the one from the internet!"

"That's right. Now that you know who I am, there are three options for you to choose from. The first option is that I simply leave you here, and an actual hitman will eventually be sent here to silence you. The second option is that I arrest you and send you to court. You've been doing this for quite a few years now, so I'm sure you've left some leads behind. If I hand you over to the authorities, you can expect to die in prison soon."

"What's the third option?"

Both of the first two options lead to inevitable death, so Quinn had no other choice.

"The third option is that you delete the footage on the surveillance camera outside, and don't forget to also delete the footage that's already been uploaded to Mechguard. I know that requires identity verification from you, so I can't do that myself. After that, I want you to help me gather evidence.

“I want a list of names of all of the children that have been trafficked under you, the relevant evidence, and a list of all of the people involved. On top of that, if you can help me track down the person above you that was responsible for sending those children to the Compassion Company, then I'll let you off the hook. On top of that, I'll give you a sum of money and arrange for you to be sent to Europe."

"I choose the third option!"

This was a multiple-choice question, but there really was only one correct answer.

"Very good. You're a smart man, Quinn. I'm sure someone as smart as you wouldn't do something like try to run away in secret, right? I have a very powerful intelligence network behind me.

“They've already forced the Compassion Company to kill off their boss, so they can certainly force you to your demise. Don't forget that I also have Mechguard on my side. All it'll take is one instruction from me, and you won't be able to go anywhere in this city, do you understand me?"

"Yes! I'll definitely cooperate!" Quinn hurriedly replied.