Chapter 6: Anger and Pain

Psychological pain was the most extreme pain humans could experience. Upon exceeding a certain threshold of physical pain, one's brain would automatically switch off, which was essentially fainting. If it were impossible to maintain an unconscious state and the pain became too much to bear, the brain would even convert the pain into some type of pleasure.

Thus, there was an upper limit for physical pain, but the same didn't apply to psychological pain.

The best way to inflict psychological pain was confinement in a dark and isolated space, so confinement rooms were common developmental facilities in the Psychic Church.

Each confinement room was only half as tall as a human and three feet wide. Inside one of these rooms, one would have to curl up like a ball, and the space was too confined for one to be able to squat down on the spot, so one would have to remain conscious the entire time. No light could enter these rooms, and there were only simple oxygen provision units that ensured one didn't asphyxiate.

Inside confinement rooms like this, even the toughest of students couldn't voluntarily last over four hours.

This was because after being confined in a room like this for some time, one would lose all concept of time, and after that, every single second would be infinitely stretched out, until each passing second felt like an eternity.

However, Adam could stay in a confinement room for a very long time. In fact, he was able to endure this far longer than the average student was capable of. His tolerance for pain was very high, but most importantly, his psychic world seemed to be a little different from everyone else's.

On this day, he was in confinement again.

He had only been attending Layton Academy for less than two months, yet this was already his 17th time in confinement.

During the time he had spent at the academy, the first thing he did was study the foundation courses. After that, the academy arranged for two adapter devices to be installed into his brain and his arm.

What had been implanted into his brain was a body of spongiform. This was an artificially enlarged neuron that could improve synapse conductivity. The spongiform was connected to the transmitter in the arm, allowing him to invade the consciousness of others.

At this moment, Adam was physically situated inside the confinement room, but his consciousness was within his own psychic world.

"What exactly are these flowerpots?" Adam was squatted down beside the road, inspecting the two "anomalies" in the flowerpots.

One of the anomalies was called Anger. That was his first emotion, and it had planted itself in one of the flowerpots like a houseplant. In contrast with over a month ago, Anger had grown significantly larger. In the past, it had only been around the size of a chihuahua, but at this point, it had already become as large as a dog. Furthermore, its form had also undergone a change. Flames of fury were burning all over its body, giving it an appearance that was as frightening as a fiery hellhound.

"It looks like this flowerpot will expand in size as Anger grows bigger."

Adam stroked Anger, which was rather hot to the touch, then turned toward the other flowerpot.

This flowerpot currently had an even larger anomaly?by the name of Pain planted in it.

Every time Adam went into confinement, Pain would absorb his emotions of pain to fuel its rapid growth. At this moment, Pain was larger and stronger than Anger. It had already grown to the size of a human, and its entire body was covered in bandages like a mummy. There were countless blades protruding out of the gaps between its bandages, giving it a very painful appearance, much like its namesake.

However, Adam didn't detest these two hideous creatures as they were the foundation of his quest to become stronger.

From his battle against Shae last time, he knew that these two anomalies would help him, but he still hadn't figured out exactly how to use them.

"Let's put you guys in a secret place for now so you don't get exposed as soon as someone invades my psychic world," Adam murmured to himself as he carried the flowerpots to a secret base, which was the place where he had first been discovered following his awakening.

Aside from May and the officers of Mechguard, no one knew of this place.

At the moment, his psychic world was still very small, so he couldn't hide many things in here, and this was the only good hiding place.

After that, he turned off the insertion spongiform's transmit function, allowing his own consciousness to return to the real world.

The dark and isolated space was very uncomfortable, and curling into a fetal position for such a long time was hurting his spine, so he got out of the confinement room.

After emerging from the room, he checked the time on his communicator to find that it was already close to midnight. Just as he was about to return to his dorm room, he noticed a message left by Red Spider on his communicator.

He pressed his wristwatch, and a 3D projection of Red Spider was released from his wrist.

"Hey, it's been a month and 17 days since you started at the academy. We didn't arrange any work for you during the first month, so we've already lost a lot of money. I have a job for you now, so contact me when you get some spare time."

Before he had a chance to dial Red Spider's numbers, the notification that her message had been read had already activated her communicator. Her 3D projection immediately became more animated, and even her background setting was displayed.

"Why did you take so long to read my message? The client has grown really tired of waiting! Hurry up and go wait for me at the entrance of the academy, I'll be there soon." Red Spider was yelling over the loud music that was playing behind her, and she was making the situation sound quite urgent, but she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.

However, Adam didn't care about that. At the moment, he only had two objectives, the first of which was to uncover his own past, while the other was to avenge himself.

He needed power to complete both of these objectives, and thus, he desperately desired power. Having studied at the academy for one and a half months, it was time for him to test his own power, and a mission that was suited to an adapter was exactly what he was waiting for.

As he arrived at the entrance of the academy, Red Spider's car, which was traveling above the speed limit, just so happened to arrive at the same time.

"Get in the car, we'll talk on the way there," she said, and Adam did as he was told.

"What's the mission?"

"Wow, look at you! You've only been at school for less than two months and you already look terrible! I know all of the people in the Psychic Church are a bunch of freaks who encourage others to put themselves through as much suffering as possible, but you have to learn to have balance. It's not going to be pretty if you transform into a complete psychic mutant." Red Spider grabbed a large handful of soft candy as she spoke, then stuffed it into her mouth, chewing as she continued, "This mission is for treating psychological trauma. Generally speaking, it's not advised for newbies like you to take on missions like this, but..."

"Why is that?"

"Did the academy not teach you?"

"I've only learned the foundation courses, and I've been doing basic training the rest of the time."

"Alright, alright..." Red Spider smacked her lips as she pulled out a lipstick that was glowing with super luminescence before applying it to her own lips. She then made a popping sound with her lips to ensure even application before continuing, "It's because all sufferers of psychological trauma have anomalies in their heart. The stronger the fear, the more powerful the anomaly is, and the more things they fear, the more anomalies they have. Thus, treating psychological trauma is generally a very dangerous job."

Anomalies in the heart, eh?

Adam nodded with a contemplative expression upon hearing this.

"I'll take on this mission."

"Oho! I was prepared to have to do a lot of persuading to convince you, but you've made things very easy for me!"

.

"You didn't finish what you were saying earlier. 'It's not advised for newbies like you to take on missions like this, but...'?"

"Oh right, what I was saying was that you wouldn't have had to take on such a dangerous mission, but the person you're helping has something to do with your past, and May decided to assign you the mission after seeing the information." Red Spider sent a file to Adam as she spoke. "The name of the little girl that you'll be helping is Kim Garcia. Her father, Ben Garcia, is a rapper with the nickname of Deranged Pig. He's one of the most popular artists under Golden Teeth Incorporated, and he has a very open and expressive personality, as well as a very clear-cut approach when it comes to grudges and gratitude, so if you can get on his good side, you'll be able to find out a lot of things from him."