Chapter 407: News

"We're not friends, and it hasn't been that long since we last met." Adam inspected his surroundings as he spoke, but he didn't sense any danger in the air. "Did that insane woman not come with you?"

"Are you talking about Hebi no Miko? She went back to Japan," Raven revealed, dropping a massive piece of news onto Adam right away. "Given her personality, it's no surprise that she had many enemies back there, and if she's absent for too long, then things could go sour very quickly, so she has to go back and take care of some matters."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"To win your trust, of course," Raven admitted with a smile.

It had to be said that Raven had managed to instill a sense of reassurance into Adam very quickly, but that was immediately followed by a sense of intense alertness.

"I have to admit that you really do have some tricks up your sleeve. If I had your abilities, I'm sure it would be far easier for me to be elected as mayor."

.

"Is that right? In that case, if I ever manage to earn my freedom someday, perhaps I can run for mayor as well, but that's only something I'll need to think about far in the future. With an infinite life at my disposal, I can afford to take my time in many things, so let's resolve the matter at hand first," Raven chuckled.

"Tell me about Succubus Beth. How powerful is she?"

"I've brought some data for you," Raven replied as he pulled out a miniature projector, which contained some battle footage.

Judging from the angle and resolution of the footage, it was a projection of the psychic world, and the image depicted a battle between a group of psychic mutants and an anomaly.

The image didn't capture the whole scene, but even so, Adam could still see that there were at least seven psychic mutants attacking a single anomaly. The seven psychic mutants were all quite powerful, and outside the frame of the image, there were more allies providing them with technomantic support. In the beginning, the anomaly was only just barely able to hold its own, but after a while, the scene suddenly took a dramatic turn.

All of a sudden, the psychic mutants turned on their own allies, abandoning the anomaly to rush out of the frame to attack the very same allies that had been providing them with technomantic support.

"This is Succubus Beth."

Raven paused the footage, and Adam made his way to the projector to take a closer look.

Succubus Beth was an anomaly that was wearing a tight-fitting black jumpsuit with a pink love heart tattoo on her chest. She had a voluptuous chest coupled with a rotund bottom, and her facial features were rather blurry and indistinct, much like an image reflected in a pond of rippling water. Even so, Adam still couldn't help but be enamored by her.

This was the first time since his awakening that Adam was truly struck by the urge to enter a relationship.

For an instant, he was even tempted to give up his quest for revenge so that he could focus all of his time and energy on pursuing Beth.

Upon snapping back to his senses, Adam was so alarmed that sweat was running down his back, and he exclaimed, "She's able to affect the mental state of others just through an image?"

"That's right. She's an extremely troublesome opponent to deal with, and that's why I've come to you for help."

It was clear that this was an opponent that Raven couldn't defeat on his own.

"I'm no match for her," Adam conceded as he turned to Raven. "Can you beat her?"

"No," Raven replied. "But I know a weakness of hers."

"What is it?"

"In the psychic world, Succubus Beth possesses extremely potent seductive abilities that allow her to easily turn her opponents into her slaves, and her abilities are particularly effective against male adapters."

"So you're saying that adapters of other genders will be granted certain degrees of immunity to her seductive abilities? My apologies, but I have to ask: is your psychic body male or female? Ever since I first saw you, you've always been a raven."

"It's more inclined toward the male side of the spectrum."

"Is that one of the reasons why you can't beat her?"

"That's right."

"Let me have a think."

Adam's thoughts immediately went to Diana.

In her current state, Diana was close to Raven's level, and given her outstanding technomantic resistance and partial immunity to Succubus Beth's seductive abilities, there shouldn't have been much of a power gap between the two.

Objectively speaking, Diana was a good counter to Beth, but the problem was her instability.

From the information that he had been given, he knew that Beth was just like Raven in that she liked to recruit as many subordinates as she could, so she had no fewer subordinates than Raven, and if this were to turn into a battle of numbers, then Adam would have no advantage.

Beth's abilities were ideally suited to subjugating allies, so if she had all of her subordinates with her, there was no way that Diana could defeat her. Counterintuitively, if Diana had allies on her side, then she would've stood even less of a chance at beating Beth as there was a very good chance that Beth would be able to turn Diana's allies against her.

Aside from Diana, another top-tier female adapter had sprung into Adam's mind, namely May.

However, May was a pure businessperson who didn't want to get involved in the political battle between the two congresses, so it was very unlikely that she would agree to help him here.

Having said that, there was only one way to find out for sure whether she would be up to the task.

After considering some potential candidates that could take on Beth, Adam went through all of the data that Raven had gathered on Beth.

In some cases, developing an understanding of an enemy's abilities and weaknesses could drastically increase one's chance of victory.

For example, if Adam had been familiar with Guang Fei's abilities, then he wouldn't have been dominated so comprehensively.

"That's all I have. If you ever face her in battle, make sure you don't get complacent just because you think you know all of her abilities. She's capable of much more than what I've shown you here."

"I understand," Adam replied with a nod.

"I'll make sure to notify you right away if she makes a move. You should start preparing on your end as soon as possible. After all, we have no idea when her next move will be."

"You're not going to participate in the battle?"

"I won't for the majority of the time, unless I can be certain that I can kill everyone at the scene. If I can do that, then I won't have my body taken back by the organization."

"I see."

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Adam had seen all of the data provided by Raven, and it was time for him to leave.

Meeting Raven in private was very unsafe.

The southern congress had many informants, and if his meeting with Raven were to be exposed, then that would be a political blemish that was impossible to wipe away.

"I'm going now."

Adam and Raven were only in a collaborative relationship, so Adam didn't bother to make any small talk, immediately departing after obtaining what he required.

After leaving Area 8, Adam returned to the void rail station.

At this point, the group of adolescent robbers had already vanished, leaving behind only some bloodstains on the ground.

What happened here after I left? Did another brawl take place?

The bloodstains on the ground were still quite fresh, so it was clear that a scuffle had just broken out.

This was the reason why the average person wasn't able to live in Area 8.

There were fights taking place all the time, and even for a tiny area like this, there were countless people fighting over it.

Adam didn't linger there for much longer before getting into a void rail capsule and taking it to the pawn shop.

Soon, he arrived on the top floor and found himself face to face with May.

"You again?" May groaned as she rolled her eyes at Adam.

"I don't seem very welcome here."

"Of course not! Nothing good comes from your visits. Let me make this clear: I almost died last time trying to help you take down Hebi no Miko, so if I owed you anything before that, I've already repaid you in full.

“Also, don't even think about asking me to help you take on the southern congress. I'm just a businessperson, and the southern congress is way more powerful than the northern congress. If I get on their bad side, then my pawn shop will have to close down."