Chapter 406: Long Time No See

Area 8 still looked the same as during Adam's last visit.

There were electricity networks everywhere, some buried in the earth, some running along the ground, and some stretching between tall buildings.

All of them had been set up to impede Mechguard units.

Of course, there was also the matter of the surveillance cameras in the area, which were constantly being damaged. Criminals had already mastered ways to damage the cameras from blind spots, and whenever new cameras were installed, they would quickly be destroyed or have their lenses covered in viscous black substances.

Mechguard had cleaned up this area on multiple occasions, but to no avail.

If the concentration of experienced criminals reached a certain level in a place, then the effectiveness of Mechguard units would be rather lackluster, given their rigid programming.

After all, according to the law, as long as there was no evidence, it was impossible to convict someone.

Destroying surveillance cameras and setting up electricity networks were definitely both illegal activities, but as long as there was no footage captured of such activities, there was no incriminating evidence.

Of course, the root cause for the high crime rate in this area was poverty.

Sandrise City was a city that ran on money, and the same applied to the legal system.

Of course, there were cutting-edge products in Mechguard. For example, Adam had recently learned that there was a new type of Mechguard unit developed by Orto Technologies by the name of "Wraiths".

These Mechguard units specialized in reconnaissance, and they were extremely small and able to conceal themselves in the night. Furthermore, they were equipped with high-tech electronic compound eyes, and they also had heat vision and electric current detection abilities, so these old-school electricity networks would've been completely powerless to stop them.

However, it was very expensive to manufacture such Mechguard units, and there was no incentive to deploy them to the poverty-stricken Area 8.

Thus, due to a variety of factors, Area 8 had become paradise for criminals.

As soon as Adam arrived in the area, someone was immediately onto him.

At this point, Adam's telegnosis was extremely sharp, allowing him to easily detect any hint of danger in the air. He opened one of his prosthetic limbs, and a series of tiny drones flew out. It didn't take long before these detection drones transmitted real-time images back to him.

As it turned out, Adam was being targeted by a bunch of adolescents who appeared to have been around 15 years of age.

After determining this, Adam continued onward, not wanting to waste any time here, but he had only taken a few steps when he was abruptly struck by a sense of peril. He immediately took evasive measures, following which he spotted a bullet hole that had just appeared in the building beside him.

As he turned around to search for the source of the gunfire, another string of bullets was fired at him, only to be kept at bay by the spider legs on his back.

I forgot about these things. Looks like I don't need to dodge bullets from these old-school firearms.

The spider legs had been installed for him by Baldie Lin from Shadow City, so the craftsmanship was exceptional, as was the technology used. Overall, they were superior even to Red Spider's spider legs, so there was no way that a few adolescent thieves with guns could do anything to him.

However, these kids who had grown up their entire lives in this poverty-stricken area had no idea about such concepts.

Seeing as their sneak attack had failed, all of them rushed out into the open from dark alleys. There were dozens of them, and most of them were wearing strange attire that was a combination of cheap and old clothes coupled with luxury clothing.

Clearly, the cheap clothes belonged to them, while the luxury clothes had been robbed from others. In addition to that, some of them were wearing very overstated accessories, and it was certainly a unique feature of this area.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Hand over all of your money and valuables!"

Their leader was a slightly older child who appeared to have just reached adulthood or was close to that age. He had a decent physique, and he was also one of the few children fitted with prosthetic limbs.

"I don't want to waste time on kids like you," Adam said as his gaze roamed over the group of robbers, assessing how much of a threat they posed to him.

The leader of the group and a couple of other robbers were fitted with prosthetic limbs, but they were clearly all cheap products that had been installed by incapable retrofitters.

One of them was clearly suffering the effects of a retrofitting job gone wrong, as evidenced by the necrosed skin that covered half of his body.

Aside from them, the majority of the robbers were holding weapons like knives or baseball bats, and there were no more than five of them who were holding guns.

This group of robbers posed no threat to Adam at all.

They most likely spent all of their time targeting people around the void rail station, and Adam assumed that there had to have been quite a few of them in Area 8.

"I'll repeat myself: I don't want to waste time on kids like you, and I don't have anything valuable on me."

"Leave your prosthetics behind and we'll let you live."

The adolescent robbers clearly weren't going to back down, and Adam heaved a faint sigh. He touched his mask briefly to ensure that his disguise was still in place, then sighed, "This is why I don't like inexperienced criminals like you kids. More experienced criminals would immediately back down after seeing the quality of my prosthetic limbs. I'll give you all one final chance, are you going to let me through or not?"

"Get him!"

The leader of the robbers wasted no further time as he immediately fired his gun.

Adam heaved another exasperated sigh, then activated his neuron transmitter.

In the next instant, the group of robbers was transported into the exact same setting, except there were suddenly all types of demonic creatures towering over them, striking genuine fear straight into their hearts.

"Seeing as you like to play so much, why don't you play with these guys?"

As soon as Adam's voice trailed off, his army of terrifying anomalies pounced onto the group of robbers, and mere moments later, he returned to the real world.

As he had said, he didn't want to waste time on a bunch of kids, and it was also unsafe leaving his physical body exposed while he was in the psychic world.

"There are demons! Run!"

Not long after Adam returned to the real world, the robbers around him also returned to their senses before fleeing in all directions in a blind panic, unable to discern between the real world and the psychic world.

Adam hadn't killed them. Instead, he had only given them a hyper-realistic horror film experience.

This type of experience was far more realistic than virtual reality because it had truly taken place in the psychic world, and those anomalies were all embodiments of negative emotions, so they were able to strike debilitating fear into the heart of the average person.

"I don't want to die..."

Adam stepped over the leader of the robbers, who had collapsed to the ground in horror, then made his way deeper into Area 8.

After searching for a while, he arrived at the spot where he had last met Raven, and as soon as he arrived, he immediately detected a figure behind the wall through his telegnosis.

"Come out, Raven."

"I didn't think you'd be able to sense me from so far away. It looks like you've grown stronger since we last met."

Raven emerged from behind a dilapidated wall, walking elegantly toward Adam as he greeted, "Long time no see, old friend."