Chapter 49: I Call the Shots

Anomalized aberrations were not good news for most people, but this was perfect for Adam. What he needed was exactly these low-grade anomalies, or half-anomaly creatures.

"We agreed in advance that I wouldn't be participating in battle, so I'll leave this to you. Those zombies that I took out were already outside of my job description."

Seeing the massive hordes of aberrations on the streets immediately made Hook revert back to his old cowardly self, and he instantly retreated back into the trading hall.

"Alright, look after yourself."

Adam wasted no time as he immediately summoned Hellhound and began to fuse with it.

.

If only Mummy was here.

Following the fusion, Adam swept his gaze over the hordes of aberrations down below, and he took a deep breath before jumping up from the staircase in front of the trading hall. He leaped straight onto the streets, then commenced his killing spree.

In his werewolf form, Adam was even more powerful than Hellhound on its own, and the average emotional aberration was no match for him. Flames reared up from his claws, and all of the aberrations that were struck by his swiping fiery claws were either wounded or killed on the spot.

He rushed through the street, killing as he went, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in his wake.

The emotional aberrations weren't as intelligent as the anomalies, and even though they knew that they were no match for Adam, they still rushed directly toward him like mindless zombies, saving him the trouble of having to chase them down.

After storming from one end of the street to the other, Adam finally arrived before the sludge aberrations. However, he didn't immediately rush into battle. Instead, he took a moment to recover his energy.

At this point, he was already panting heavily, and if it weren't for the energy that he had absorbed during the course of his killing spree, he would've most likely already reached his limits and been forced to withdraw for now.

"My child..."

"I loved you! Why did you abandon me? You clearly could've saved me..."

"My child..."

There were a total of three sludge aberrations, and they were standing not far away from Adam. All three of them were writhing incessantly as they approached Adam while yelling in broken voices.

Due to the fact that the oral cavities of these sludge monsters were also filled with sludge, Adam had to listen to what they were saying quite a few times before he finally understood the contents of their words.

What are these three? Are these his mother and his wives?

The more aberrations that Adam encountered, the more convinced he was that his client was an absolute scumbag.

Not only did he have a massive number of enemies, even the three escorts he had hired had transformed into anomalies, and what was most appalling of all was that the aberrations in his heart that were most difficult to eradicate were manifested from those closest to him.

His guilt toward his loved ones had given rise to these three sludge aberrations. Of course, Adam didn't know exactly what Peter had done, nor did he have any interest in finding out. His priority was to get this filthy job done as quickly as possible so he could leave this psychic world.

The sludge aberrations were enormous, and instead of approaching them, Adam chose to attack them from afar, blasting an Explosive Fireball at the closest of the three sludge aberrations.

The fireballs crashed into the aberration's body and instantly exploded. The combination of fire and explosive force blew a hole into its body, and it was clearly a very effective attack. This was where Hellhound excelled over Mummy.

If Hellhound had been the one that had perished instead of Mummy back when he was surrounded by the Golden Iron Triangle, then this situation would've been far more awkward.

The sludge monsters didn't fear attacks from bladed weapons, and they were most likely immune to poison as well, so Mummy wouldn't have been able to do anything to them.

Every single invoked entity has its own unique advantages. I have to find a way to revive Mummy.

These aberrations were quite easy to deal with, but that didn't mean that it would all be smooth sailing from here. While contemplating all of this, Adam blasted another Explosive Fireball out of his mouth.

The fireballs exploded one after another, and the sludge aberrations were finally driven into an enraged frenzy.

They began to attack Adam by rushing toward him, but they were far too slow to keep up with Adam in his werewolf form. After chasing Adam for some time to no avail, one of the sludge aberrations began to blast sludge at Adam, and the other two were also pulling putrid chunks out of their own bodies before hurling them at Adam.

Thump!

One of the large clumps of filth crashed into a small car off to the side, and the car was sent flying a long way, reflecting the immense power behind the attack.

In order to ensure his own safety, Adam hurriedly activated his Hyperspeed ability, increasing his speed even further to evade the sludge attacks while continuing to blast fire out of his mouths in retaliation.

This had become a war of attrition, and with his speed advantage, Adam was able to remain out of reach for the sludge aberrations while constantly wearing them down.

Each Explosive Fireball that he unleashed was able to blast away some parts of the sludge aberrations' bodies.

However, these sludge aberrations possessed outstanding regenerative abilities. Even after having chunks of their bodies blown off, those chunks of sludge would squirm back to them to become part of their bodies again. As such, Adam was forced to spend time to eradicate the masses of sludge that were blown off the aberrations.

This was like an archaic monster-hunting RPG, with the monsters controlled by low-level AI. The only thing about them that was difficult to deal with was their high HP stat, and even though there was no skill involved in killing them, it was a very time-consuming endeavor.

This battle raged on for a full three hours before the three sludge aberrations were finally eradicated.

During the course of the battle, Adam was able to absorb a large quantity of anomalic power.

After the third sludge aberration was slain, Adam instinctively began to absorb the black mist rising up from its body. With the influx of anomalic power, Adam could feel his own energy being replenished, and his power, field of view, and senses were being comprehensively elevated.

The most marked improvement came in his regenerative abilities.

He could clearly sense a burst of anomalic power with adhesive properties flowing erratically through his body. Having just undergone a round of evolution, there was still a large quantity of anomalic power in his body that he was unable to digest. However, right at this moment, an all-devouring force that resembled the power of a black hole suddenly appeared in his body, devouring all of the power that he was unable to process.

This is probably what happened last time.

Adam recalled that after defeating the scarecrow, there had been even more leftover anomalic power that he was unable to digest. In the end, the anomalic power was absorbed by his flowerpots, and another scarecrow manifested itself in his psychic world. Due to how similar this situation was to that occasion, he was guessing that the anomalic power that had just been sucked away had been planted into his psychic world as well.

"All done?"

While Adam was feeling the changes taking place in his own body, Hook approached him in a set of strange woman's attire while eating an ice cream.

"Where did you go just now?"

"I took a stroll in the nearby area. This guy's psychic world has a lot of recreational facilities, so he clearly knows how to enjoy himself," Hook replied. "That battle took way too long and was way too boring, so you can't blame me for having a wander. Of course, I didn't just walk around and do nothing. There are still some aberrations left in his psychic world, and I've marked all of them. Follow me."

Adam nodded in response.

Hook couldn't be relied on in battle, but he was a very thorough person with great attention to detail. With him leading the way, Adam was able to take care of all of the remaining aberrations and successfully complete the mission.

After that, the two of them left Peter's psychic world and roused him from his slumber.

"You did a decent job."

After getting up from the bed, Peter was in very high spirits, and his eyes were glowing with joy and tranquility. Having had all of his psychological baggage cleared away, he had essentially been reborn anew.

"Time to pay up." Kim Hee-cho also felt Peter to a be a despicable man, so he didn't bother with any pleasantries as he said, "We did a very thorough cleanse, so according to the contract, we'll be receiving 150,000."

"No, I'm only going to give you 120,000," Peter argued with a shake of his head. "Whether you did a good job or not is up to me to decide."