Chapter 53: Indiscriminate

In any case, this was definitely still an enhancement to his powers.

Distortion couldn't be controlled through fusion, nor could it understand instructions, but it was quite capable in battle. After some experimentation in the psychic world, Adam determined that this anomaly possessed outstanding individual prowess. As for exactly how powerful it was, that was something that he couldn't determine as there were no enemies here to test its powers on.

After completing those experiments, Adam left the psychic world. Hook had come out of the shower by now, so Adam also washed up and went to bed.

Beep beep beep…

In the middle of the night, Adam was woken up by a call from Karen on his communicator.

"We've caught him."

"Where are you right now?"

Adam massaged his own bleary eyes, and the pain from being forced to get out of bed was quickly absorbed by his psychic world, allowing him to remain calm and level-headed.

"I'm at the same pub from last time. We've detained him here."

"Alright, I'll be right there."

Adam hung up the communicator, then called Hook out of bed, and the two of them set off.

Hook was yawning incessantly on the way to the void rail station.

"These past few days have been exhausting! If we take on this many jobs in such a short span of time again, I'm gonna have to take a break. I'd rather not earn the extra money if I have to work myself to the bone like this."

Adam nodded in response. Hook wasn't in need of money as much as he was, nor was Hook under the same pressure that he was facing.

"The pod is coming now, so you can take a rest if you're tired. Let's focus on getting this job done before we worry about other things."

The void capsule pod arrived, and the two of them stepped in.

The capsule pod traveled extremely quickly, and it wasn't long before they disembarked. After that, they made their way to the pub, and after contacting Karen again to ascertain her location, they met the real-life version of the clown anomaly in the office area at the back of the pub.

In stark contrast with how he had been presented in Chloe's psychic world, the clown anomaly was quite handsome in the real world. He appeared to be around 28 to 29 years of age, and standing in front of him were Karen, Chloe, and the pub manager who had spoken with Karen during her previous visit with Adam.

"Isn't this illegal detainment?" Adam thought back to Red Spider's words of caution after taking a moment to assess the situation. "I'm not getting into anything illegal. If we draw the attention of Mechguard officers, they're not going to care if our actions are justified or not. According to standard procedure, perpetrators of illegal detainment will be arrested."

"No, this isn't illegal detainment, we've simply kept him here," Karen explained.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This pub is his hunting ground. I've gone through all of the surveillance footage in close detail, and I've managed to find some incriminating evidence on him. One time, the surveillance cameras caught him drugging someone's drink. Of course, no employee from the pub would go through the surveillance footage as carefully as I did, so no one noticed his wrongdoing..."

Karen was speaking very quickly, and it was clear that she was furious, but she forcibly suppressed her emotions for the sake of her daughter.

"We've kept him here so he can help with my daughter's treatment. If he cooperates well and resolves the issue, then we can negotiate giving the surveillance footage to him."

At this point, Adam had a rough grasp of the situation. The man in question had always been a regular at this pub, and on this day, he was caught red-handed by the manager during his visit.

The manager threatened him into remaining at the pub, and he had even told the man that he wasn't going to hand the evidence over to Mechguard. As for whether the man actually believed that or not, that wasn't something for Adam to worry about.

As long as this wasn't illegal detainment, he was forced to believe whatever the manager told him.

"You've done well." Adam made his way over to Chloe's side before commencing the process of implanting psychological impressions into her mind. "That's the man who deceived and assaulted you. He's got nowhere to run, so you don't have to be afraid of him. We're all here for you, and we'll make sure that he won't be able to do anything."

"I know. He's not going anywhere."

In this situation, Chloe was also displaying a courageous side to herself. She was surrounded by her mother and other people who were here to help her, and that instilled in her a great deal of courage.

Chloe's courage was very reassuring for Adam to see, and he exchanged a silent glance with Hook, following which the two of them immediately infiltrated her psychic world.

On this occasion, the setting that they appeared in was still a warehouse.

However, what was different from last time was that this warehouse didn't seem to have any doors or windows, and its walls were infinitely thick. The clown anomaly was also in this warehouse, which was essentially an inescapable prison.

"You got away last time, but there's nowhere for you to run this time!" Adam chuckled, feeling quite pleased to see the clown anomaly backed into a corner.

The clown anomaly wasn't very powerful, but its abilities were extremely annoying to deal with. What was most frustrating about it was that it would run away at the first sign of defeat, and with its ability to conjure up illusory clones, there was no way to track it down consistently through conventional means.

The scene in the real world was being reflected in the psychic world, resulting in the imprisonment of the clown anomaly, and it was looking very panicked.

"You were spouting a lot of cocky nonsense last time, why are you suddenly so quiet not? Has the cat got your tongue?"

Even though this was almost the most advantageous situation conceivable for Adam, he didn't grow complacent. He immediately summoned both of his anomalies, then fused with one of them.

"What's that black blob thing?" Hook asked in a curious voice as he saw Distortion for the first time. "I've never seen you use it before."

"It's a new ability," Adam replied in an absentminded manner, then issued an instruction for Distortion to attack.

The anomaly immediately pounced onto Hook without any hesitation, then twisted his arms and legs into pretzels.

"What the fuck?! What is it doing?! Stop! Ow!"

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Hook was rolling around in pain, and he had no choice but to leave Chloe's psychic world.

Adam knew that Distortion was only receptive to an instruction to attack, but he wasn't expecting it to be unable to discern between friend and foe.

With Hook's departure, there was only one target left at the scene, so there were no options for Distortion, and it pounced directly toward the clown anomaly.

The clown anomaly conjured up its illusions once again, but in this enclosed space, it had very limited room to maneuver. In addition to that, this was a two-on-one battle, and Adam had become even more powerful after the cleanse he had performed for Peter.

After the clown conjured up all of its clones, Adam began to blast fireballs across the entire warehouse. Inside this isolated space, the clown was instantly struck by the shockwaves from the resulting explosions. Before Adam even had a chance to pounce on it, Distortion beat him to the mark, arriving directly beside the clown's feet.

Tentacles extended out of the shadow before wrapping themselves around the clown, locking it firmly into place.

The clown struggled desperately to escape from the bindings, but Distortion was too powerful, and it was secreting viscous black liquid that completely enveloped the clown's entire body.

Even in a one-on-one battle, the clown wouldn't necessarily have been a match for Adam.

In this situation, not only was it a two-on-one affair, the enclosed nature of the space severely hampered the usefulness of its illusory abilities.

As a result, there was an insurmountable gap in power, making this battle a walk in the park for Adam.

Last time, I fought tooth and nail, and it still managed to escape, but this time, it was barely even a fight,?Adam thought to himself as he made his over to the bound clown anomaly, raising his claws as he did so.

"Any last words?"

The clown could only scream in horror and distress. Ultimately, it was only an emotional anomaly. It possessed sentience and was very cunning, but it didn't possess human emotions or deeper levels of intelligence.

Amid the clown's terrified screams, Adam used his claws to tear it into pieces.