Chapter 354: The City from 30 Years Ago

The members of the Survival of the Fittest faction were already fighting with the members of the Desert Gang, and the conflict was quickly escalating.

Initially, it was only a brawl consisting of around a dozen combatants, but the number of people involved rapidly multiplied, and in the end, it turned into a large-scale melee with hundreds of combatants involved.

There were conflicts and battles in normal prisons as well, but in those prisons, the number of casualties generally far exceeded the number of deaths. However, the prison brawls here were different. All of the combatants here aimed for vital regions with every single one of their attacks, and even those without weapons who were beaten down would try to grab at the crotch region of members of the opposing faction.

"This is quite the brawl! I'm starting to get excited!"

Initially, Mole was able to hold back under Adam's persuasion, but his self-restraint quickly ran out, and before long, he had already picked up a weapon before rushing into the thick of the action.

Mole wasn't particularly strong or physically imposing, but he seemed to have received professional combat training and was very agile in battle. In addition to that, his telegnosis allowed him to sense danger in advance, so he was able to fight his way through the crowd with ease.

The brawl was becoming more and more brutal, and if this had been a brawl involving normal people, many of them would've already been backing out in fear at this point.

However, this was Darvaza Prison, and there were barely any normal people here.

Not only was all the bloodshed not striking fear into the hearts of the inmates, it was only serving to rile up the bloodlust in the hearts of many of the bystanders. Those with violent tendencies were beginning to succumb to their violent urges, those with panic disorders were being driven crazy from fear, while those who suffered from severe anxiety were completely losing their sense of reason in this chaotic atmosphere.

Right as things were about to completely spiral out of control, the doors of the factory were flung open, and a series of Mechguard units swarmed in, following which their arms opened up to release a barrage of smoke bombs.

Smoke that was carrying potent sedatives instantly permeated throughout the entire area, and it didn't take long before everyone fell unconscious.

In the face of these mechanical monsters, even the most violent and physically imposing human criminals stood no chance whatsoever.

It had only taken no more than five minutes for the scene to de-escalate from chaotic pandemonium to complete silence. However, the suppressed resentment and bad blood between the factions was only going to continue to ferment, and it was going to erupt sooner or later.

That was what Adam wanted to see, and it was also what Emmanuel wanted to see.

It was clear that a period of extreme strife and unrest, the likes of which had never been seen before, was about to fall upon the third area.

……

The day after the massive brawl was the first day that Adam was preparing to enact his plan.

There was a list of names that he committed to memory prior to entering Darvaza Prison.

Even inside Darvaza Prison, there were many inmates who weren't anywhere near demented enough to become psychic deviants. Granted, there was certainly a far higher percentage of psychic deviants in here than in the outside world, but Adam estimated that only less than 1% of the inmates were harboring anomalies above level five anomalies.

After comparing the information he had committed to memory with the corresponding inmates in reality, Adam had picked out some targets.

After dinner, he spotted one of his targets making his way toward the showers.

Adam tapped Armadillo on the shoulder, and the latter wasn't done eating yet, but he immediately stood up to follow Adam.

After that, Mole also quickly joined them.

They issued the labor points required to enter the showers, and Adam discovered that there weren't many other inmates there. This made sense, considering showering in Darvaza Prison was quite a luxury. The average inmate didn't even have enough labor points for food, so they naturally weren't going to waste those labor points.

Thus, the only ones who regularly visited the showers were faction members or artists.

Artists were essentially cash cows that were able to earn large amounts of labor points, so the factions generally wouldn't target them. In exchange, all they had to do was pay a cut of their income to the factions as a protection fee.

Even if they only had a third of their income remaining, that was still enough for them to live a far better life than the average inmate.

Out of all of the artists in the prison, the ones who were able to create the most violent and grotesque artworks were mostly true psychic deviants.

"He's gone in. How do we do this?"

"I'll corner him a cubicle. There are going to be faction members coming in as well, so turn on all of the showerheads around the cubicle to create a smokescreen and drown out all sounds. Also, take this." Adam pulled out the synapse transmission device before handing it to Mole as he spoke. "Use this if there are too many people to deal with at once."

"Will you be alright on your own? What's the guy's history like?" Armadillo asked in a concerned voice.

"He's a human skin artist, and he's 72 years old this year. During World War III, a small nuclear bomb was set off in the city that he was living in, but he was living on the outskirts of the city, which was outside of the direct radiation zone.

“However, he saw many people on the brink of death fleeing out of the city, and that gave him the inspiration to create a piece of taboo artwork that stunned the entire world. The artwork is called the Lamenting Wall, and apparently, it was an exceptional piece of artwork that perfectly encapsulated the despair of war and the horror of its victims.

“Many people found themselves completely overcome by negative emotions just from seeing photographs of the artwork online, and it's said that the original artwork is currently in the possession of a high-ranking member of the Psychic Church."

"Why is it a piece of taboo artwork?"

"Because it's said that the faces on the Lamenting Wall were the actual faces of the victims that he had surgically removed."

"Will you be able to take him down on your own?"

"I can give it a shot. I'm fairly confident in myself right now, but it'll probably take some time, so you have to make sure to keep a good lookout, that'll be the key to this plan. If I can't beat his anomaly, I'll just have to come out. With Sludge up my sleeve, I should be able to ensure self-preservation, at the very least."

"Alright, leave it to us."

"Cut the chit-chat! The old fart's gonna be done showering soon!"

Mole made his way into the shower area as he spoke.

The shower area had over 1,000 showerheads, and the deeper one went, the fewer people there were. Occasionally, there would be a cluster of around a dozen faction members showering together.

In the wake of the recent riot, all of the faction members were on high alert, and they would all turn to scrutinize Adam's trio with wary expressions as they passed by.

Adam paid no heed to them as he continued to make his way deeper into the shower area, and as he approached the cubicle that the human skin artist was in, he turned on all of the nearby showerheads, then arrived directly behind the old man.

The old man immediately swung around upon hearing the footsteps ringing out behind him, and his eyes widened with fear and alarm as he asked, "What do you want?"

"Shut the fuck up!"

Mole didn't waste any time as he knocked the old man out with a heavy punch, then situated himself right in front of the opening of the cubicle alongside Armadillo so no one could see what was happening inside.

Adam didn't waste any time, either, as he crouched down and pressed a finger against the old man's forehead.

A psychic connection was instantly established, and one moment, Adam was still in the prison showers, but in the next instant, he had already arrived in a city in the old man's psychic world.

This looks like a city from before World War III.

Adam had arrived on a street on the outskirts of a city, and as was the case with the psychic worlds of all psychic deviants, the environment here was extremely oppressive.

Adam had already grown accustomed to this feeling, and he was looking around with an intrigued expression, wondering how the world from 30 years ago was different from the present world.

He looked down at the grass on the ground, then directed his gaze toward the houses and shops in the area, and he could see that there was a clear difference in the style in which the buildings from 30 years ago had been constructed.

Following World War III, many super metropolises had arisen in order to conserve land and better allocate resources.

The vast majority of the human population resided in these metropolises, while the rest inhabited the still arable land, forming small towns that resembled massive farms.

However, this place clearly wasn't one of those farms, nor did it belong to a metropolis.