Chapter 64: Playing the Hero

In the past, Shae would've been able to casually walk away after delivering that beating.

This could be attributed not just to her formidable combat prowess, but most importantly, her background. The lofty status of her family made it so that none of the less privileged adapter students dared to do anything to her.

However, all schools were essentially microcosms of societies, especially schools for adapters, and these oppressed younger students certainly weren't going to pass up the opportunity to retaliate and strike back at their oppressor.

"Where do you think you're going? You think you can just walk away after being someone up?" After the first student was defeated, five or six lower-grade students immediately surrounded her. "The times have changed. I heard that the leadership group of your family business has already been restructured, so you no longer have the right of succession. That means we're all on equal footing now, so what makes you think you can just get away with this?"

Right as Shae was being surrounded, a voice suddenly rang out from the side.

"Isn't it a little unfair for all of you to be ganging up on her?"

"Adam?" The group of younger students turned to face him. "Why are you sticking your nose into this? Aren't you on bad terms with her as well? She bullied you on your very first day of school! What do you want? Are you trying to play the hero? Ha! Even if you are a hero, heroes only save beautiful damsels in distress, and she's way too hideous to play that role!"

I'll admit that her personality isn't that great, but she's decent looking. We're related by blood, so she looks a bit like me.

Adam shook his head as he declared, "I'm with her. If you want to gang up on her, then you'll have to deal with me as well."

"Fine! If you want to play the hero, then we'll let you have your fun!"

Thus, the two sides promptly entered the psychic world.

Everyone had arrived in an arena. This arena was an actual place in Layton Academy. This was a place that everyone in the academy knew of, thereby making it a neutral location that made it the customary go-to battleground for any students who had a score to settle with one another.

Furthermore, the academy had no explicit rules against sparring. After all, all of the academy's students were adapters, and that was already an extremely dangerous occupation. As long as there was no one being killed, the academy didn't care if some students wanted to accumulate some battle experience before stepping out into society.

After arriving in the arena, the group of junior students immediately surrounded Adam and Shae.

Everyone was already familiar with one another, so they skipped the formalities and dove headfirst into the action.

It was very clear who was the object of these students' resentment, and the first round of attacks was all directed at Shae. Even though Shae was above average among students in her grade, she was immediately forced onto the back foot in this five-on-one fight.

The junior students had all transformed into peculiar burly men, and they surrounded Shae's bipolar psychic body while aiming punches and kicks at her. Even though Shae possessed greater strength than them, it was very difficult for her to retaliate as she was too busy defending herself.

"Why are you just standing there? Help!" Shae exclaimed as she turned to Adam with an urgent expression.

"You bullied them so much in the past, it's only right that you allow them to use you as their punching bag for a while to vent some frustration," Adam said, refraining from immediately entering the fray.

However, as the battle became more and more intense, and Shae was struck by more and more blows, Adam finally intervened.

"That's enough."

"Shut up! We'll beat you up as well!"

The junior students were thoroughly enjoying themselves, and they were nowhere near done with Shae.

In response to Adam's intervention, two of the students immediately rushed toward him.

The two of them were both ordinary brawny fighters with no special traits to speak of, and after sparring with them for a short while, Adam discovered that they were pitifully weak, not even able to compare with Hook when it came to combat prowess.

Even without invoking any of his anomalies or transforming, he was able to just barely keep up with his two assailants.

It looks like there's a huge disparity between junior students and seasoned adapters in the outside world.

After gauging the strength of his opponent's, Adam invoked Hellhound before fusing as one with it, then sent his two opponents flying with a swat of his paws.

Adam had once invoked all of his anomalies and classified them one by one.

Infantile anomalies that were presented in the form of dolls possessed very little combat prowess, whereas adult anomalies such as the current Mummy, also known as level one anomalies, were comparable in combat prowess to the students of Layton Academy.

The standard being referred to here was the average combat prowess of all of the students of Layton Academy, regardless of what grade they were in. When it came to these junior students, they weren't even as powerful as Mummy in its current form.

Adam had only been attending Layton Academy for a very short time, and Shae was a junior student as well, so the majority of the students that they knew were also junior students.

Having fused with a level two anomaly in the form of Hellhound, Adam completely outmatched his assailants. After swatting his two opponents away, he blasted an Explosive Fireball onto the ground in the distance, causing an enormous explosion that shattered the ground with a resounding boom.

The students who were attacking Shae were instantly rooted to the spot upon seeing this, and their voices were even beginning to tremble as they turned o stare at the almighty werewolf behind them.

"What... You..."

"Who are you? Are you really Adam?"

They didn't dare to believe what they were seeing, but aside from them, no one else had entered the arena with the exceptions of Shae and Adam.

"How are you this strong? Even senior students... No, even the average academy graduate isn't this strong!"

"You could easily graduate right now!"

Shae was also astonished by the sight of Adam's current form. Even though she had already partially accepted her new identity, she had a very headstrong personality, so deep down, she still felt a little disdainful toward this brother of hers.

In her mind, Adam had only been able to reach this point solely because he was incredibly fortunate to have somehow been able to join a powerful organization.

However, it was clear from what she was seeing that she had been sorely mistaken.

"How did you get so strong? Were you always this strong or did you only become like this after entering the academy? I remember you knew nothing on your first day here..."

"Let's talk about that later. There are too many people here." Adam leaped straight onto the very center of the arena, then turned to the group of junior students as he said, "You've had a chance to get back at her, so let's just end things here for today."

"Y... You're not going to beat us up?"

These students had always been very timid and spineless. Otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed themselves to be subjected to Shae's bullying for so long.

"No. She bullied you so many times, so it's only right that take revenge by giving her a taste of her own medicine, but don't try this again. If I see you ganging up on her again, I won't be so lenient."

"Of course! We'll never do this again!"

It was clear to the group of junior students that Adam was not to be messed with, and they exchanged a glance with one another before immediately leaving the psychic world.

In the wake of this run-in, Adam gradually began to establish a reputation for himself in Layton Academy.

All of the students in the academy were adapters, so there weren't that many of them, and anyone who was deemed to be particularly powerful would quickly become widely renowned in the academy. An example of this was Nie Yiyi, who was a senior student, but the entire academy was aware of her powers.

In addition to the rumors detailing Adam's powers, there was another rumor going around that left Adam feeling both amused and exasperated. The rumor stated that he and Shae had entered a relationship.

"I can understand the speculation that we're in a relationship, but why is everyone saying that I was the one who pursued you? They're saying I swooped in while you were at your most vulnerable after what happened to your family!" Inside the dorm room, Adam was looking at Shae was an exasperated expression. "Then again, I suppose this is a good thing. From now on, we have a viable excuse to be frequently seen together."

"It's already been a day since that run-in with those guys, but you still haven't told me when you became so strong."

The day before, Shae had gone to an independent clinic with Adam to conduct a DNA relationship test, which confirmed to her that the two of them were indeed related by blood. As a result, the final traces of her doubt had been erased, and she had fully accepted the fact that she and Adam were on the same side.