Chapter 61: Incident

Adam paced back and forth in his dorm room over and over again.

"What are you doing? You're like a cat on a hot tin roof! You're making me very anxious."

At the moment, Hook was shopping for a "full-body cabin" on his communicator. When used as a means to enter the Metaverse, a full body cabin would give one's body realistic tactile reciprocation, so the stimulation that one would receive on the Sex Planet wouldn't just be limited to the brain.

"I'm thinking about something."

"What is it?"

"Say you have a close relative, but it's unclear whether they're actually your relative or if they're being impersonated by someone else. This person is about to die. What would you do?"

"Well, the first thing I would do would be to go to her and clarify the situation. What kind of question is this? Does this have something to do with you?"

"If I tell you the story, you'll be in danger. Do you still want to hear it?"

"Nope. I don't know anything, and I won't tell anyone what you just said to me," Hook replied before turning his attention back to the online shop in which he was browsing for full-body cabins. "It looks like there are full-body suits that can be worn to produce a similar effect to full-body cabins. I've got some money now, so I can afford to give one of these a try next time..."

……

Adam paid no heed to Hook's errant rambling, and after pacing back and forth for a while longer, he departed from the dorm room.

After enquiring many sources in the academy about Shae's whereabouts, he encountered her just as she was coming out from the cafeteria. However, the relationship between the two was far from amicable, so he didn't know what to say.

"Hey."

"What do you want?" Shae asked as she looked up at Adam.

"Can we talk?"

"Piss off!"

"I'm serious! I really want to talk!"

"Well, I really want you to piss off!"

The conversation was very brief and hostile.

Shae had no interest in speaking with Adam, so he had no choice but to abandon this attempt at making conversation.

……

Three days later...

Shae finished her classes for the day, and the family's chauffeur/bodyguard was already waiting for her at the entrance of the academy. She entered a custom-made bulletproof vehicle, then laid down on the backseat.

The car drove along as normal for close to half an hour when all of a sudden, a pair of cross-country hovercycles sped onto the street. The hovercycles had been modified so that streamers of strange colors were blasting out of their rear-ends, and both of the drivers appeared to be boys who were in their teens. They were driving in an extremely reckless manner, drawing pictures in the air with their streamers one moment, then overtaking the car that Shae was in the next moment to chase one another as if they were playing a game of hovercycle tag.

"Those two are so annoying!" Shae had a very short temper, so she naturally couldn't bear such provocation. "Drive faster, Afu! Overtake them!"

"You got it, ma'am."

Afu floored the accelerator to overtake the two hovercycles, but that only seemed to ignite the competitive urge in the two young drivers.

As soon as the car accelerated to overtake them, the two hovercycles immediately pulled ahead once again, and one of the hovercycle drivers even flipped the bird at them as he was speeding past their car.

"Afu, teach them a lesson!"

"I'm on it."

Afu attempted to cut off the two hovercycles, but the pair of young men were very skilled drivers, and after a series of maneuvers, the car wasn't even able to graze either of the two hovercycles.

All the while, Shae was only getting more and more agitated.

"Stop the car! I'll teach them a lesson myself!"

"That's not a good idea, ma'am. Given what's recently happened at Carlin Asylum, the streets aren't safe right now."

As soon as Afu's voice trailed off, one of the young men sped over to Shae's side, then spat out a thick globule of phlegm straight into the window.

Shae was unable to rein in her temper any longer, and she rolled down the window as she yelled, "Don't run, you coward!"

"Come get me!" the young man taunted, and the two of them really did end up stopping by the side of the street.

They parked on the side of a main road, and even though there were many cars around, there were virtually no pedestrians.

After parking by the side of the road, the two men waited for Afu and Shae to come out. Afu duly obliged, parking the car and emerging from it. The retrofit metal prosthetic limbs on his body began to expand as he walked. Among cyborgs, he was a super bodyguard with high physical resistance and offensive capabilities.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

By the time his prosthetic limbs were fully activated, his arms and body had swelled to the point that he resembled a humanoid mecha, and he showed off his terrifying body while making his way toward the two young men.

The average person would've definitely been terrified at the sight of him in this form, and the two young men were no exception. They immediately began to backtrack while apologizing for their actions.

"Hey man, there's no need for that."

"Yeah, Brother, we were just having some fun!"

"Some fun can't be had without paying a price!" Afu said as he clenched his fists tightly. "I'm going to teach you two a lesson that you won't be forgetting anytime soon!"

"Is that right?"

The two young men took off their sunglasses before looking upward, and there was no fear in their eyes whatsoever.

Afu was instantly struck by a sense of foreboding upon seeing this. Immediately thereafter, immense wind pressure came sweeping toward him, and he had only just raised his head before his body was shattered into chunks of flesh and scrap metal by a heavy truck driving at well above the speed limit.

The impact from the massive truck completely destroyed his body before he even had a chance to react, and immediately thereafter, an explosion took place at the scene, sending dense smoke sweeping through the air in all directions for dozens of meters, making it impossible for the cameras in the sky to capture clear footage of the incident.

Amid the dense smoke, a figure arrived by Shae's side before knocking her out with a single strike.

……

By the time Shae regained consciousness, she had already been taken to somewhere that resembled an abandoned factory or an underground warehouse.

The place was dimly lit, and the air was filled with the smell of rot and decay. After opening her eyes, she reflexively tried to move her body, only to find that she had been tightly bound by an electrolock.

"Who are you?" Shae could see a pair of indistinct figures, and after thinking back to what had happened before she fell unconscious, she asked, "Have you kidnapped me? How much do you want for ransom?"

"We don't want ransom," one of the two figures replied.

"Why did you abduct me if you don't want ransom?"

"We want to ask you some questions. Truth be told, if we hadn't been explicitly instructed to spare your life, you would already be dead right now."

"Is that right? We'll see who's actually the one that's going to die here!"

.

Shae abruptly invaded the man's psychic world as she spoke.

She was able to complete the invasion very easily, indicating that the man had either put up no resistance at all or was simply an ordinary person incapable of resisting.

After entering the psychic world, she found herself situated in front of a winery, and the acidic fragrance of brewing wine was wafting all around her. As for the man in front of her, he was wearing a robe, and he resembled a warlock.

Shae didn't hold back, immediately raising her fists to attack as soon as she entered the psychic world.

However, her fist had only just struck the warlock when the two of them suddenly arrived in mid-air.

Suspended in mid-air, there was nothing that Shae could use as leverage to push off from, and her body also began to weaken as a peculiar type of energy surged all around her. In a matter of mere moments, she was reduced to a completely powerless lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Only now did she realize that she was dealing with an extremely advanced adapter. Not only had she never met an adapter of this caliber, even her family had never been able to employ the services of such a powerful adapter.

With that, Shae finally believed that she hadn't been captured for ransom, but it was exactly this realization that made her feel truly afraid.

What could they want aside from money? Do they want to kill me?

"Please don't kill me! I'll do anything you want!"