Chapter 469: Negotiations Falling Through

At the same time, an image also appeared in Adam's psychic world.

This was an extremely advanced form of psychic invasion, one that was extremely discreet and secretive.

The image depicted a green-haired woman, and Adam was able to identify her right away. At the same time, he activated his psychic defenses so that they could communicate with one another, but at the same time, he was preventing her psychic invasion from progressing any further.

He had determined the source of the psychic projection was none other than General Manager Wesson.

By pressing down on that handheld device, he was sending out a signal that he was under intense psychic duress, and that had immediately activated the defense mechanism implanted deep in his psyche, such as this psychic seed from Madam Tree, or perhaps it was an even more advanced form of long-range psychic projection.

"Is there any room for further negotiation? At this point, I'm sure you're aware of my stance, and I'm sure you also know what consequences you would suffer if you tried to take illegal measures against me," Adam replied.

The projection of Madam Tree was quite graceful and elegant, looking completely innocuous.

"Everything in this world has a price, and our organization has sufficient spending power to satisfy any price. All you need to do is state a price, and we'll be sure to fulfill it."

Instead of admitting to or denying any wrongdoing, she was intentionally keeping things ambiguous. It was virtually impossible to determine exactly who it was that had sent Hebi no Miko after Adam, so as long as she didn't raise the subject, there was no way to pin the blame on anyone.

Adam paid no heed to Madam Tree's arrogant demeanor. He was already accustomed to them seeing everything as commodities that could be bought and sold.

"In that case, I want you to completely restore all of the memory bodies who have had most of their data compressed, leaving them as nothing more than AI-generated husks of themselves. Can you do that?"

Madam Tree was silent for a moment upon hearing this, then heaved a forlorn sigh.

"I thought that we would be able to reach a consensus on the subject of the levels of life forms, but it seems that you still haven't jumped out of the old and outdated cognitive framework. That's very disappointing."

Adam could see what she was implying. Essentially, she was saying that the members of the Guild of Immortality were different from normal people, that they were higher life forms.

Indeed, they were able to enjoy near limitless lifespans thanks to their tremendous wealth and power, so they naturally regarded themselves as gods over the general public.

The people in the Gaia Organization clearly regarded themselves the same way. Not only were they powerful adapters who possessed unfathomable abilities, they also had control over the enormous monolith that was the Metaverse, which was also a near eternal entity, thereby also setting them apart from the average person.

However, Adam was different.

"I think it's best for us to agree to disagree."

After Adam made this declaration, the psychic projection of Madam Tree quickly vanished from his psychic world.

General Manager Wesson hadn't even detected this interaction at all, and all of a sudden, he saw a harrowing expression appear on Adam's face.

He seemed to have been smiling, but it was an extremely sinister smile that reflected the bloodlust and greed they displayed while preying on the average consumer. Wesson forced himself to remain composed, then puffed out his chest as he loudly declared, "We haven't done anything that goes against the law. If you have evidence suggesting otherwise, you can submit it directly to the relevant legal departments. Our organization has the best team of lawyers in the world, and we're ready for any legal action that you may throw at us.”

After that, he turned to depart, but Adam suddenly tucked the storage device away before issuing an instruction with a smile on his face.

"You seem to have forgotten that I am an enforcer of the law. In situations where I have concrete evidence, I have the right to directly detain any suspects for interrogation and evidence collection."

Wesson immediately swung around upon hearing this, and he yelled in a loud voice, "You wouldn't dare!"

However, Adam had already expressed his attitude through his actions, and there were already Mechguard units stomping across the hall to barrel straight toward the elevator and the guardhouse on the basement floor.

Among them were electronic tactical units that released powerful disruptive signals to disable the entire wireless network in the entire building, preventing anyone from destroying data. Such a direct and aggressive way of law enforcement had all of the employees in the entire branch completely rooted to the spot.

Is he not afraid of being crushed by the Gaia Organization?

Most people weren't familiar with the exact details of the battles taking place behind the scenes, and they had only thought that the abduction and killing of Han Li's team members had been an act of revenge from criminal organizations that he had previously lashed out against. Never had they anticipated that he would suddenly adopt such aggressive measures against the Gaia Organization.

It was impossible to negotiate with Mechguard units, so General Manager Wesson could only attempt to contact the headquarters to deliver a report of the situation, but he immediately discovered that all communication signals had been jammed.

He's way too well-prepared! He's clearly been plotting this for a long time!

Wesson turned to glower intently at Adam with a furious expression, wanting nothing more than to give Adam a vicious punch in the face.

What was most damning about this situation was that Adam's evidence was genuine, so this wasn't just an empty bluff.

In order to search for anomalic power to restore Angel back to its former peak, Adam had visited a large number of retirement homes and sanitariums across the entire city. While killing all of the emotional anomalies there, he had also uncovered many things.

The Gaia Organization's so-called "Digital Life" plan wasn't something that had suddenly come out of the blue. Instead, it had only been released after a long period of experimentation, and part of these experimental subjects had been "volunteers” who had sold themselves for money. However, those subjects weren't anywhere near enough to satisfy their needs, so they turned their attention to the abandoned elderly people that no one cared about.

These people were living solely off their superannuation and government pensions, and no one cared whether they lived or died. Those aged care organizations were only using them as a device to secure government subsidies.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The Gaia Organization's experiments were extremely cruel, extracting the memories of living people before converting them into data, and it was no less horrific than the process that the director of Shadow City used to create adapters.

Before the technology had reached full maturity, there was a very high rate of death in experimental subjects, and those who did die were put through immense psychological torment. Their psychic worlds were torn down and reconstructed over and over again, giving rise to extraordinarily powerful anomalies in the process.

Adam had come into contact with many elderly individuals who had survived the experiments, but they were permanently traumatized by their experience, and their psychic worlds were all completely dominated by anomalies.

.

Essentially, they had been used as lab rats before being discarded, and their horrific experiences only further fueled Adam's fury and determination to bring down the Gaia Organization.