Chapter 316: The Luxury of Peace and Quiet

On this day, Adam had only just woken up when he noticed that there was a new message on his communicator, and the contents of the message resolved the biggest problem that he had been facing recently.

Attached to the message was a detailed computer-generated "photograph" of a person. The depicted person was wearing a mask, but his exposed features were presented with great clarity and detail.

In particular, his eyes and brow ridge were so clear that he would've been easily recognizable even in a mask.

His height and build were also annotated on the side.

Adam carefully scrutinized the image for a while, and only after he was certain that he would be able to recognize this man if he ever saw him did he turn his attention to the rest of the message, which contained an address, followed by a passage of text.

"Dear Adam, I'm sure you've hit a bit of a dead-end right about now. The people that you're looking for are extremely good at hiding, and all of the leads that you need are held in the hands of your enemies. If you don't know what direction to take in your investigation, I suggest you look into this person. According to a very reliable source, this is the person that you're looking for."

There was no name at the bottom of the message, but the small raven insignia immediately tipped off the identity of the sender to Adam.

The person that I'm looking for...

The person that Adam was currently looking for was naturally the high-ranking members in the child adapter trafficking ring. After some extensive consideration, he felt like there was no reason for Raven to lie to him.

It doesn't really seem to benefit him in any way just to swindle me once. However, there's still a possibility that he could ambush me with Hebi no Miko, so I should gather some allies first.

With that in mind, Adam decided to call up the three most powerful ally adapters that he knew.

The first person that he called was May, and the response was...

"Have you not screwed me over enough last time? How could you ask me to do something like this again? Have you no shame? Besides, I already told you that I'm not going to get involved in these political matters. In particular, getting involved in what you're doing is no different from playing with fire! Also, don't bother calling Wax Figure. He's a politician, do you think he'll be willing to make enemies out of all of the world's most powerful adapters just for your sake?"

The first call ended in failure, and the second call was made to Sadou, who flat-out refused to even answer.

Sadou was someone who tried to stay out of trouble at all costs, and in his mind, Adam was synonymous with trouble, so he had already completely blocked Adam's number.

Even though those three were all unwilling to help, Adam ultimately still decided to take a risk and go on his own.

If he were a normal person, perhaps he would've been content with waiting, but as a clone, time was of the essence for him. He didn't know when his body was suddenly going to give out on him, so waiting would've been a far bigger risk for him to take.

Furthermore, Adam had decided to leave the psychic mutants behind this time as well.

Given that none of the three aforementioned adapters were willing to accompany him, if this were indeed a trap set by Raven and Hebi no Miko, then there was no point in bringing them along.

Alternatively, if this weren't a trap, then Adam felt like he possessed sufficient power to handle everything on his own.

Adam certainly wasn't conceited enough to think that he could stand toe to toe against the likes of Hebi no Miko, but he felt like he was roughly on par with someone like Eyeless at this point, which made him an extremely formidable figure as long as he didn't have to face any of the world's top adapters.

No matter how he thought about it, going on his own seemed to be the best and most reasonable option. Hence, he snuck out of the veterinarian hospital while Shae was distracted by something else.

After leaving the hospital, he took the void rail to Area 69.

As soon as Adam arrived at his destination and got out of the railway capsule pod, he was immediately able to sense that this place was different from any other place he had been to.

Before he had even left the railway station, he was forced to undergo an extensive identity verification examination conducted by Mechguard officers, and this was something that he had never seen in any other area.

Every single one of the 100 areas in Sandrise City was a miniature city of its own, but due to the existence of void railway transportation, the massive metropolis was actually a very tightly knit place, and transport was very convenient regardless of whether one was traveling to the central areas or the outermost areas of the metropolis.

Following the identity verification examination, Adam made his way out into Area 69.

The first thing that Adam felt was just how quiet and peaceful this place was.

In a massive metropolis with a population numbering in the hundreds of millions, peace and quiet was quite the rare luxury.

Adam had gone to many of the areas in Sandrise City, including the crime hotspots, Areas 8 and 9, the artists' haven, Area 45, the infant-raising central hub, Area 66, and the shopping district, Area 36, and all of them had been very noisy and clamorous.

Those areas were all heavily populated, with a high prevalence of smart apartment complexes.

Places with high populations inevitably appeared to be noisy, and all of those chaotic sounds, coupled with the neon advertisements and colorful 3D projections overhead, made it impossible for one to have a moment of peace.

However, this place was very peaceful.

After exiting the railway station, there weren't many people around.

There were also very few smart apartment complexes. Instead, individual houses were very prevalent here, and all of the houses were separated by around a dozen, even dozens of meters. They were like buildings from 100 years ago, where space constraints hadn't been a concern at all.

Most importantly, the inescapable bright neon lights and advertisements in other areas were completely absent here.

In this area, the sky was clear.

Adam had visited the homes of many wealthy individuals, such as Deranged Pig, or the high-ranking officials of the Compassion Company, but nothing quite compared to what he was seeing here.

This place was more peaceful than almost anywhere else Adam had ever been.

He made his way along the street, and aside from the occasional groups of people out strolling with their children, the only other things that he could see roaming the streets were the patrolling Mechguard units.

There were very few surveillance cameras here, and even the Mechguard units refrained from barging into any of the residential areas. Everything was so peaceful and orderly.

Intrigued, Adam inspected his surroundings to find that even the cheapest houses here were worth tens of millions, while the mountaintop mansions were worth at least nine-figure sums, making this one of the most expensive areas to live in in the entirety of Sandrise City.

"Wow, trafficking adapters really is a lucrative job," Adam murmured to himself as he made his way up a hill, heading toward the address enclosed in the message he had received earlier in the morning.

At the moment, he was in a rather hilly area. The terrain here wasn't very flat, and the higher up the houses were situated, the more expensive they were.

Adam continued to make his way up the hill while checking the address, and finally, he was greeted by the sight of a mansion on the hill.

It was a very private and secretive mansion.

From the outside, it resembled a massive castle, or an ancient European fort.

It seemed that not only had this house been designed to be lived in, it also served as a fortress.

The handler could already be considered to be a very high-ranking member in the blank slate production ring, so Adam had reason to believe that there were armed forces guarding the mansion.

Looks like I'll have to recruit Mechguard's assistance again.

This time, Adam followed the correct procedure, making his way onto the street before displaying his identification documents to the Mechguard units there. After having his identity verified, he uploaded all of the evidence that he had collected prior to this.

After that, he received a search warrant from the internet, following which he gathered all of the 32 Mechguard units in the nearby area.

Among the 32 Mechguard units were 12 flying units and 20 heavily armed land-based units. He was confident that this would be a sufficient force to get the job done.