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Chapter 14: The Safe Harbor Concept

Kim's psychic world was a very large place, but the clearest parts of it were mostly in this city, which was Sandrise City, and the two most memorable places for her in this city were her school and her home.

After shaking most of the bats off their trail, Adam and Hook arrived at Kim's home.

As soon as they entered the courtyard, the final few bats that were still pursuing the two of them were firmly kept out, too afraid to enter the courtyard.

"I recall from our lessons that home is considered to be a safe harbor in the hearts of most people, so in the psychic world, one's home will be something resembling a safe zone. Most of the weaker aberrations won't be able to enter this safe zone, and even the most powerful emotional anomalies will be severely debilitated if they barge into this area."

Adam hadn't been attending Layton Academy for very long, but he was extremely attentive and conscientious in his studies. In particular, he had a very good grasp on all basic concepts that had been taught to him.

In the psychic world, there were many external forces that could be used to one's advantage, and the safe harbor concept was one of them.

After arriving at Kim's home, Adam was finally able to leave that disgusting cabin of Hook's, and Hook also placed Kim down onto the lawn.

"Finally! Some fresh air!" As soon as Adam emerged from Hook's body, he frantically rushed over to the fountain to wash away the unidentifiable liquid that had covered his entire body. At the same time, he swore to never enter Hook's body again. "The smell inside you is unbearable!"

"Really? I never noticed! All I can feel is a sense of emptiness after you left my body."

Hook made his way over to Adam as he spoke, and it was clear that he had developed a deeper bond with Adam after fighting alongside him.

"Let's not talk about this anymore, I want to forget everything that just happened!" Adam inspected his surroundings in an attempt to take his mind off the traumatic experience he had just suffered through. "Why are there so many aberrations in this house? Are they not hostile? Kim, have they ever hurt you before?"

"No."

Kim also made her way over to them, and even though she was denying the notion that these aberrations were harmful, she was also looking at them with clear disdain in her eyes.

Inside the luxurious courtyard were countless strange-looking creatures. Some of them were somewhat humanoid in appearance, but most of them were presented in the form of symbols that couldn't be understood by children.

"I know what these things are now!" Hook reacted quite quickly and inspected these aberrations through his magnifying glass, upon which he was able to conclude, "These are the mansion's guests from the real world. Kim doesn't like them, and that's why they look like these strange symbols in her psychic world."

……

"Did you hear that? Your daughter doesn't like those shady friends of yours." In the real world, Red Spider prodded Deranged Pig with the spider legs on her back. "Did she ever tell you that?"

"No. We don't see each other very often. She's always been a shy and obedient girl."

Deranged Pig's face was a little flushed from shame and embarrassment. He suddenly realized that even though he claimed to love his own daughter, he gave her far more money than attention.

"I see." Red Spider nodded in response. She didn't want to judge the morality of Deranged Pig's actions. There were many insidious individuals in this world, and among all of the people she had come into contact with during her years working at the pawn shop, Deranged Pig could be counted as a good guy.

Deranged Pig seemed to have sensed a hint of criticism in Red Spider's silence, and he murmured, "I'll make sure to spend more time with her in the future."

However, he received no response, and the two of them could only continue watching the projection in an awkward atmosphere.

……

"What on earth is that?"

In contrast with most of the strange guests in the courtyard, the more Adam approached the mansion in the courtyard, the more he was introduced to a type of aberration that all had a certain shared feature. These aberrations were clearly different from those guests, with wide-open eyes that looked as if they were constantly surveying something.

"Hook, come and take a look at these things."

"Coming, Boss!" Hook rushed over before aiming his magnifying glass at these aberrations with large eyes, and as he observed them, he mused, "Hmm, these things are indeed different from the normal guests. All of them are giving off a very slight hint of hostility, but their hostility isn't directly harmful, and they won't attack us."

Hook put away his magnifying glass as he spoke, then walked a lap around the large-eyed aberrations. Wherever he went, the eyes of the aberrations would swivel around to follow him, and it was a rather unsettling sight to behold.

"What could these things possibly represent in the real world?"

Hook scratched his own head with a stumped expression.

"Let me think... If I recall correctly, these people seem to be the bodyguards and caretakers of the mansion, as well as some of the guests." Adam was doing his best to think back to what he had seen at the mansion the previous night. Due to his severe lack of memories, he currently possessed exceptional memory functions. "Why does Kim interpret these people to be hostile toward her? How does that make sense?"

"So these are the mansion's bodyguards and caretakers, as well as some of her father's friends, and all of them are somewhat hostile toward her. There's no way that all of them just so happen to dislike her. The only reasonable explanation is..." After considering all of the possibilities, Adam finally arrived at the only logically sound conclusion. "These people must all be familiar with the anomaly! In fact, there has to be a very close tie between the two parties!"

"That makes a lot of sense!" Hook agreed as he pointed at the large-eyed aberrations. "If we go along with your logic, all of these aberrations are like surveillants in Kim's eyes, and they could even be the anomaly’s minions! I feel like we're about to uncover the identity of the perpetrator!"

Hook was getting more and more excited as he spoke, and it seemed that this case was piquing his curiosity.

"That may be true, but our job isn't to find out who the perpetrator is," Adam said, effectively raining on Hook's parade. "We're being paid to cure her PTSD. As for who the perpetrator is, that's another matter entirely. We can find out the answer to that question, but after that, the best thing we can do would be to hand over the case to Mechguard."

Adam's thought process was very practical, and he was entirely dedicated to solving the problem at hand. Ever since he could remember... In fact, even before then, he had been deceived countless times. Even the people at the pawn shop, who were the ones he shared the closest ties with, had deceived him before. Looking at the world through the perspective of a blank slate, everything was always more drab and pessimistic. He understood that there were limitations to his own abilities, so in his mind, true justice was to hand over the problems that he couldn't resolve to those who were responsible for maintaining law and order.

"In any case, it's a good thing that Kim isn't so afraid anymore."

"That's true. Let's think of a way to defeat the anomaly. Speaking of which, Nie Yiyi still isn't here yet. I wonder what the situation on her end is like..."

With Red Spider overseeing proceedings in the real world, Nie Yiyi most likely wouldn't come under any life-threatening danger, but it was certainly taking her a very long time to arrive, and Adam couldn't help but feel concerned.

Thankfully, he didn't have to be concerned for long. Less than 20 minutes later, Nie Yiyi leaped over the wall into the courtyard, but her body was riddled with injuries.

"You look like you're in very bad shape!"

"These are just external injuries, so they won't affect my performance in battle. The problem is that I've expended a lot of energy, so I'll need some time to recuperate." Nie Yiyi sat down onto the ground with her legs crossed as she spoke, and a type of green cyberglyph that released life energy appeared on her body as she began the recovery process. Thankfully, her ability to communicate wasn't affected by this, and she said, "I led the scarecrow to the other side of this psychic world, but that thing's far from a mindless buffoon, so once it discovers that I'm not there, there's a very good chance it'll come here. I saw those bats that it released as I was coming in from outside."

"Then it looks like we have a solution now. If it comes here, then its power will be severely weakened, so the three of us..."

"We still won't be able to beat it. As I was escaping from it, I managed to make it reveal its full power, and trust me, it's not something we can deal with. We need reinforcements."

"Then let's leave this place and ask the pawn shop to send reinforcements."

"That won't work, either. Through fighting the anomaly, I've discovered that it's extremely cunning and possesses exceptional concealment abilities. If we call in powerful reinforcements, then it'll go into hiding and be too scared to come out. It looks like the pawn shop didn't just put you onto this case on a whim. Red Spider is a renowned wily customer in Sandrise City, so there's no way she'd do anything rash. There are some problems that even powerful adapters can't resolve, and Kim isn't going to be able to hold on for much longer."

Adam turned toward Kim to discover that the colors on her body were becoming more and more faded. Her body had become extremely frail, and her complexion was also deathly pale.

In light of this, Adam made a decision. Seeing as they couldn't rely on outside assistance, they would just have to find reinforcements inside this psychic world!

According to the teachings of the Psychic Church, there were many things that could be used in one's psychic world. The safe harbor concept was one of those things, and those who were close with the subject in the real world would also be manifested as avatars in their psychic world.

"Tell me about your dad, Kim. What kind of person is he to you?"

"My dad is a superhero who can do anything! I love my dad, he'll protect me from anything!" Kim replied in a feeble voice.

"That's it! That's what we need!"

Adam's eyes immediately lit up after hearing her reply.