Chapter 4: Origins

"It's you!" Adam felt as if he had been played for a fool upon learning that May was the mistress of the pawn shop. "You had your eyes set on me from the very beginning!"

"I did. I discovered you first, so I naturally couldn't let you fall into someone else's hands. Having said that, I've already saved you twice, so don't be so mad!" May was currently wearing a dark cheongsam, and she made her way toward Adam as she spoke. "I know that it's not a good feeling to be deceived and set up, so how about this? I'll tell you a secret to make it up to you!"

"What's the secret?"

"It's a secret that you can't buy with money. To be specific, it's part of your identity information. Aren't you curious about who you are, where you came from, and who your family members are?"

Indeed, for a lost amnesiac like Adam, there was nothing more tempting than this information, and in the face of this temptation, Adam was even willing to forget about how he had been deceived.

"Come with me, there are too many people around here."

Adam's trio entered the Fairness Pawn Shop through the front entrance with May leading the way.

"Welcome!"

They were greeted by two rows of receptionists as soon as they entered the pawn shop.

Not only was the Fairness Pawn Shop grand and stylish on the outside, it was also quite bustling and clamorous on the inside as all types of people were seeking help. In the brief amount of time that Adam?took to look around, the two rows of receptionists by the entrance were reduced by half. This was because each customer that walked into the pawn shop would take a receptionist with them before surreptitiously telling them something.

"There is no shortage of trouble in this world, and even more trouble-makers, but there are very few people who can resolve troubles, and that is our line of work."

The hall was quite noisy and chaotic.

The second floor was clearly more peaceful and quiet, but the attire worn by the people on this floor was even more lavish.

Upon reaching the third floor, there were only a series of hologram projection suites, and no one knew what was being discussed in those suites.

In the end, May led Adam into a room on the fourth floor, and it was finally safe to speak in there.

"Let's talk about your identity first. After you signed the contract with Red Spider, she sent me your genetic information, and I searched the gene database, but no result came up. This indicates that whoever purchased or modified you is extremely influential. Generally speaking, blank slates are all missing people, and their identity information will be available in the gene database. However, that doesn't apply to you, which means that they at least have co-conspirators in government organizations. After that, I used my connections in Mechguard to access some confidential information. The data there cannot be deleted, but even so, I only managed to find one piece of identity information pertaining to you."

"What is it?"

"You have a blood relative."

May knocked on the surface of the table as she spoke, and a metal ball on the ceiling automatically produced an extremely life-like humanoid projection, along with a string of identity information above the projection's head.

"Her name is Shae Kim, and she is your biological younger sister, but she is currently the first heir to Golden Teeth Incorporated. Both her parents are still alive, and legally speaking, she has nothing to do with you."

"Was she also sold as a blank slate?"

"I'm not sure, but according to the information I've gathered, she grew up her entire life at Golden Teeth Incorporated. The records of her upbringing are quite complete, and many people have seen her. Additionally, alternate personalities are generally only injected into blank slates after they reach adulthood. The bodies of adolescents aren't fully developed yet, so their brains are too fragile, which could result in synapse damage or even death during the injection of alternate personalities. Hence..."

"Hence, I was sold by this family?"

"I don't know. Golden Teeth Incorporated has always done quite well financially, so they shouldn't have to stoop to something like that. The information I'm able to provide isn't sufficient for any concrete conclusions to be drawn. If you want to know more about your past, then you should approach her in person."

May pulled out a letter of admission for a school as she spoke. "She is currently studying at Layton Academy, which is a subsidiary academy of the Psychic Church. I've already enrolled you into the academy, all that's left to do is for you to approach her yourself."

"......"

May had organized everything for him in an extremely thoughtful and comprehensive fashion, and Adam was at a loss for words.

This was such a ruthless organization, but at the same time, it really did seem like a family.

"Well don't just sit there! I know you're not used to it, but Boss May is really good to her staff. In her words, if you don't treat others well, how can you expect them to devote themselves to you? Isn't that right, Aunt May?"

Red Spider couldn't help but tease Adam as he sat in silence.

"Get out of here! This is just a standard arrangement. I don't have time to teach someone to learn the abilities of an adapter from scratch!"

May rolled her eyes at Red Spider as she spoke.

"Also, you'll be responsible for ensuring his safety from now on! If anything happens to him, the damages will come out of your paycheck!"

"Damn it! I knew you would say that!"

……

Thus, before he even knew what was going on, Adam was enrolled into Layton Academy by the pawn shop.

On the night before his first day of school, he did some research on Layton Academy and the Psychic Church on the internet.

The Psychic Church was founded not long after the emergence of adapters, and initially, it was an organization designed to facilitate communication between adapters. However, as the special uses of adapters were discovered later on, the church became an organization in which adapters sought mutual protection.

In order to recruit more members, the church founded some academies, through which they could teach other adapters the "skills" that they had developed, and Layton was naturally one of those academies. Due to its impact in bringing adapters together, the Psychic Church became one of the most influential organizations on the continent.

"This is Adam. He is a transfer student who will be joining our elementary third class today." On the lectern, Lecturer Lena was introducing Adam while casting a meaningful gaze toward the back row. "It looks like there's a vacant seat on the left side of the second-to-last row. Why don't you take a seat there?"

"Yes, Madam."

Adam nodded in response before making his way over to where Shae was sitting at the back of the classroom.

As he did so, he was looking directly at Shae the entire time, hoping to see some type of emotional shift in her eyes.

"What are you looking at, idiot? Why are you sitting beside me?"

Even as Adam took a seat, the only emotion that he could see in Shae's eyes was disgust, and there wasn't any astonishment or shock as he had anticipated.

"The lecturer told me to sit here."

"How dare you talk back to me?"

Shae was already quite displeased by how Adam was blatantly ogling her, and the confrontational tone of Adam's voice made her even more enraged. Thus, she grabbed onto Adam's arm, and he was overcome by that familiar rush of dizziness once again as he was dragged into the psychic world.

Adam's psychic world had been invaded, and as he opened his eyes, he discovered that the Shae in this world was slightly different from the one in the real world. She appeared to be physically stronger and her attire was more flashy, while her demeanor had also become more arrogant.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"So this is your psychic world. This is part of the pawn shop's territory, isn't it?"

Shae was inspecting Adam's psychic world as she pleased, and if she were to get a little further away from here, she would perhaps be able to see just how bleak and barren his psychic world was. It seemed that this place was the only setting in his memory, while everywhere else was completely empty like a sheet of blank paper.

However, she clearly wasn't in the mood to explore.

"You think I wouldn't beat your ass just because you're from the pawn shop?"

After taking a glance at her surroundings, Shae charged directly toward Adam as fast as the wind.

In the face of her aggression, Adam instinctively moved to protect himself, yet he had only just raised his arms before he was sent flying by her fist. A sharp pain speared through his head, and he wanted to retaliate, but he was significantly slower than Shae, and another punch landed on his face.

Just as Shae was preparing to continue her barrage of punches, an enraged chihuahua suddenly rushed out of an alley off to the side. The chihuahua chomped down onto her arm, causing sharp pain to shoot along her entire arm, and she immediately began swinging her arm vigorously in an attempt to hurl the disgusting thing aside.

Adam took advantage of this opportunity to retaliate, and after throwing a few punches of his own, he was finally able to clamber up from the ground.

It was only then that he identified the angry chihuahua to be the emotional aberration that had been born the first time he had met May. It was quite a surprise to him that it had come to help him in his time of need.