Chapter 367: Silver Ant

The reason why only two anomalies had reached the sixth level was because of something that Adam had already discovered in the past, which was that higher level anomalies experienced very little growth from devouring the anomalic power of lesser anomalies.

The anomalic power of a large number of lower level anomalies was required to fulfill the quota of anomalic power required to evolve a higher level anomaly, and the larger the gap, the lesser the effect.

For example, if a level six anomaly were to devour the anomalic power of a level four anomaly, the effects would be virtually negligible.

Hence, it was very difficult to use sheer quantity to make up for a lack of quality, and that was a conclusion that Adam had reached through past experimentation.

As opposed to wasting a large amount of anomalic power for very little effect on a few anomalies, it was much better to spread the love and develop more anomalies.

As a result of this philosophy, Adam had developed a small anomalic legion, and even Adam himself couldn't help but feel terrified by the overall power of this anomalic legion.

He was very much looking forward to the day where he would truly be able to test out the power of this formidable army.

On this day, he was once again abducting targets according to his list of names, but this time, he was stopped by someone.

He had only just approached one of his targets when a hand suddenly grabbed onto his arm, and he was rather taken aback by this. Given how potent his telegnosis currently was, it was very unusual for him to have failed to detect someone until they were close enough to grab him.

He turned to see who it was, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

"Boss Charlie! To what do I owe this honor?"

He had been approached by a man called Charlie Thompson, who was the head of the Desert Gang, and everyone in the third area knew his face.

Apparently, Charlie had been a dark web hitman prior to his incarceration, so just like Adam, he was also an adapter.

While it was true that adapters were extremely rare, each area in Darvaza Prison held thousands of inmates, many of whom couldn't be considered to be normal people, so it was no surprise to see several adapters among them.

Charlie was a ruthless adapter who had undergone professional training, and he was also quite an adept fighter in the real world, so it seemed reasonable that he would've eventually climbed to the top of the Desert Gang's pecking order.

Furthermore, it was clear that he had already been in here for quite a long time. Judging from his white facial hair, Adam estimated that he had to have at least been 50 years of age.

"Can I help you?" Adam asked as he looked into Charlie's eyes while also making a subtle hand gesture, indicating for Mole and Armadillo to remain put.

"I heard that someone's been killing a bunch of cash cows recently. That's quite selfish, wouldn't you agree?"

By cash cows, Charlie was referring to the truly twisted inmates in the prison. Due to how mentally disturbed they were, they were always able to complete some outstanding pieces of artwork and earn large quantities of labor points, which was why they were generally protected by the prison factions.

In order to ensure long-term prosperity, all factions had to protect these invaluable sources of labor points.

"Everyone is depending on these cash cows for our livelihoods, surely there's no reason for anyone to go after them, wouldn't you agree?"

Charlie glanced at Mole and Armadillo as he spoke, and he was making no attempt to disguise the threat in his voice.

A thought occurred to Adam as he gauged Charlie's attitude.

He had already been hunting the targets on his list for quite some time, yet the Desert Gang had never intervened. The fact that Charlie had suddenly approached him with a threat here indicated that the chief warden was losing his patience, and that was very bad news for Adam.

He had been safe up to this point not because all of the other inmates were afraid of him. Instead, it was because of the order from the chief warden for everyone to leave him alone.

The fact that Charlie was starting trouble here meant that the tide was beginning to shift against Adam's favor.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand," Adam replied with an innocent expression.

"I hear that you're a very renowned and formidable adapter in the outside world. I just so happen to be an adapter as well, and I would love to see how I match up against you."

Charlie extended a hand toward Adam as he spoke, offering a handshake.

This gesture held no significance in the eyes of the average person, but for adapters, this was an invitation for a spar.

Adam looked at the Desert Gang members that were gradually gathering behind him, then glanced at his own allies before finally accepting the handshake.

As soon as the handshake was established, Adam immediately commenced a psychic invasion, to which Charlie offered no resistance.

Upon regaining his vision, Adam found himself in a world from 30 years ago.

He was able to identify that this was a setting from 30 years ago because he had appeared on a battlefield in the wilderness. The sky was filled with unpiloted aircrafts, while the ground was riddled with powerful tanks and armored vehicles.

During World War III, mechanical units had been deployed alongside human troops, and on wilderness battlefields like this one, unpiloted aircrafts and mechanical crawlers formed the backbones of the opposing armies.

Adam had appeared right at the center of the battlefield, and as soon as he landed, a mechanical crawler immediately rushed rapidly toward him. The crawler had bombs installed on its body and heat sensors on its forehead. Furthermore, it was capable of rapid movement and burrowing into the earth, making it a nightmare for human troops on the battlefield.

As soon as the crawler detected Adam using its heat sensors, it immediately rushed at him before leaping up into the air and exploding violently.

The steel beads and shrapnel fragments within the explosive chamber were sent flying through the air in the wake of the crawler's self-detonation, transforming the entire surrounding area into a lethal zone. Adam was swept up in the attack, and the projectiles were able to draw some blood from his body.

Looks like my physical resistance in this new form is quite good.

Adam was very pleased to make this observation, and he quickly invoked Sludge before fusing as one with it.

As a 12-meter-tall stone giant, he instantly became the focal point of the entire battlefield.

Countless mechanical crawlers converged from all directions before self-detonating, while missiles were launched at him from the unpiloted aircrafts in the sky. As a result, countless explosions were ringing out all around him.

The explosions weren't able to break through Adam's defenses, but he was being knocked around incessantly, making it difficult for him to make any progress. Hence, he was forced to shrink his own body, and only then was his awkward situation alleviated.

This type of environment is quite disruptive in a battle, Adam remarked internally as he began to search for his opponent.

Seeing as his opponent had invited him to engage in this sparring match, he should've been somewhere nearby.

Adam had no idea how formidable an adapter Charlie was. He had read some information on Charlie, but none of that information had been particularly useful.

Charlie had already been locked up in Darvaza Prison for a very long time, and it was always easier for adapters to improve in painful and adverse environments. Hence, it was impossible to estimate how much more powerful he had become since his incarceration.

While Adam was searching for Charlie, he suddenly sensed the earth moving beneath his feet, and he immediately reacted, but he was still too late. A silver object flashed through the air, grinding along his back to raise a trail of sparks.

It was a silver ant, and both Adam and the silver ant were stunned by that initial clash.

Adam was astonished by the silver ant's speed, while the silver ant was shocked by Adam's physical resistance.

The ant landed on the ground roughly a dozen meters away from Adam, and the two combatants looked across at one another.

As expected, he's also a psychic mutant.

Having been in Darvaza Prison for so long, Charlie had already undergone psychic mutation, and he stood before Adam as a huge silver ant, a Saharan silver ant, to be precise.

Even though Adam's memories had been wiped as a blank slate, he retained a vast wealth of general knowledge, and there was some information pertaining to Saharan silver ants in his mind.

The Saharan silver ant was a type of desert-dwelling ant that was renowned for its speed, able to reach a maximum speed of around one meter per second. Essentially, it was able to cover a distance equivalent to 100 of its own body lengths in a second, which would've been the equivalent of a human running over 100 meters per second.

They were like arcs of silver lightning in the desert, but in Adam's eyes, a purely fast opponent posed no threat.

After a brief standoff, Adam took the initiative to go on the attack, expanding his own body once again to cover the distance between himself and Charlie in a single stride, then swung a massive palm through the air.

Of course, Charlie was able to dodge the attack with ease amid a flash of silver light.

However, at the same time, a streak of light flew out of Adam's body, and Clown emerged onto the battlefield. At this point, it had already evolved to become a level five anomaly, and it picked up its gatling gun before firing a barrage of bullets at the streak of silver light.

The silver ant was extremely fast, far too fast for the bullets to catch up to, and from Adam's perspective, all he could see was a thin silver line constantly flashing around him.

In fact, not only was the silver ant able to dodge all of Clown's bullets, it was even able to constantly attack Adam in the meantime.

In terms of pure physical offensive prowess, the silver ant was definitely worthy of being classified as a level six anomaly, and its speed far exceeded that of the average level six anomaly.

Adam could feel a large wound being sliced into his ankle each time the silver line flashed past.

The silver ant had even attempted to climb onto his body to tear him to shreds.

If a normal person had been in Adam's shoes, they would've been dismembered in an instant, but the attacks were futile against Adam.

Not only was he able to quickly heal from the inflicted wounds, his body was so enormous and thick that there was no way it could be dismembered. The silver ant's attacks didn't reach anywhere near deep enough to make significant inroads into Adam's body, and as a matter of fact, it was inflicting less damage onto Adam than the missiles being launched at him by the unpiloted aircrafts and tanks on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Clown had conjured up over 100 clones, a number that it had only been capable of reaching following its most recent evolution. At the same time, its arsenal of weapons had also become far more diverse, and its clones were attacking Adam from all directions.

Having evolved into a level five anomaly, the main improvement experienced by Clown hadn't come in the form of the increased number of clones it was capable of conjuring up. Instead, it was the improvement in its weaponry, particularly chemical weapons.

There were bullets tipped with lethal poison, smoke bombs that release noxious fumes, dirty bombs that were filled with contaminants, and even the projectiles fired by its rocket launchers were releasing corrosive chemicals into the air following their detonation.

Thus, countless chemical weapons were bombarding Adam from all directions, and Adam was completely impervious to these attacks, but the silver ant didn't possess anywhere near the same level of physical and chemical resistance.

It wanted to run away, but the entire area was basked in a toxic cloud, so it had no choice but to burrow into the earth.

"You're not getting away!"

The blue patterns on Adam's body extended onto the ground as he spoke, and the surrounding area instantly transformed into his domain.

At his behest, the previously soft and loamy ground suddenly became as hard as iron and steel.

He could sense exactly where the silver ant was within his domain, and he reached into the dirt to pull out the trapped silver hand before holding it in his grasp.

"This is it for you." A demonic smile appeared on Adam's massive face as he looked down at the silver ant in his grasp. "I can easily crush you into bits right now."

"I didn't think you would be this powerful. Are all of the people on the outside this powerful right now?" Charlie asked as he looked up at Adam with an astonished look in his eyes.

He had already been in Darvaza Prison for 20 years. Prior to his incarceration, he had already been an elite adapter, and during the past two decades, he had become significantly more powerful. He was already completely unmatched in the third area, yet Adam had been able to defeat him with ease.

"No, the people on the outside aren't that strong. With your powers, you would be one of the top hitmen in the world right now. I'm sure you've heard of the Oni Organization. I can tell you that even the eight Onis in there aren't as powerful as you."