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Chapter 73: Perpetrator of Matricide

Adam didn't know how people should've been living their lives. Perhaps people never had a choice to begin with. Perhaps rather than choosing one's lifestyle, one's lifestyle chose them. At the very least, the latter was the case for Adam.

He was very envious of the slow-paced lifestyle led by the people around him, but he was unable to stop and join them.

He wanted to know the truth, and he had already been swept up by the deluge, so he no longer had a choice in what future path he was going to take.

"We need to get going."

Shae also seemed to be experiencing the same emotions as Adam, and she shook her head wistfully as she looked at a man who was casually sitting in a long wooden corridor in front of the entrance of a vintage pub.

"We can grab a drink here after the job is done."

"Sure."

It was often the case that emotional bonds arose between people who went through similar experiences, and for some reason, in this instant, Adam felt as if he had suddenly become a lot closer with his newfound sister.

He turned his gaze toward Shae as he walked along, and the latter just so happened to be looking at him as well. Thus, their eyes met, and Shae immediately blushed as she snapped, "What the hell are you looking at?"

"Nothing."

The two of them then continued to make their way through the town, proceeding in silence in order to defuse the awkwardness.

The entire town only consisted of a few streets, so it didn't take long before they reached their destination, which was a school beside a Christian church, and the sign in front of the school read "Ark Learning School".

Upon arriving at the school, Adam contacted the number included in the mission description using his communicator, and shortly thereafter, a well-built middle-aged woman emerged from inside the school.

"Hi there, my name is Emma, and I'm an on-campus teacher here."

"My name is Adam, and I'm a psychotherapist. This is my assistant, Shae."

Adam also provided a self-introduction in response before shaking the woman's hand.

"Come with me. Your agent is already here, and he's a very friendly young lad."

Emma led Adam and Shae into the school as she spoke.

The entire town of Ash seemed to have quite a small population, so Adam had thought that there wouldn't have been many students at this school, but upon entering the schoolyard, he discovered that there were children running everywhere all over the fields and sandpits.

The eldest ones were teen adolescents, while the youngest ones appeared to have only been around three or four years old, only just at the age where they were beginning to play with the older kids.

"How does this school have so many students?"

"They're all here from the cities. The use of electronic drugs is rampant in the cities, and there are many children who are abandoned for various different reasons."

Emma didn't elaborate any further from here, but no further explanation was really required.

After passing through the schoolyard, they arrived in the school's office area, where Adam was greeted by the principal of the school, a very friendly and benevolent black man who appeared to be around 60 years of age.

As Adam entered the room, Kim Hee-cho was in the process of discussing the terms of the contract with the principal.

"Hello."

Adam knocked on the door to attract the attention of the two men as he was entering the room.

"Hi there." The principal was a friendly man, but he was also quite serious and sparing with his words. "He's already finalized the terms of the contract for you. Do you need to take a look?"

"No need," Adam replied with a smile, then turned to Kim Hee-cho. "How did you get here so fast?"

"I'm not fast, you're just too slow. As professionals, it's important for us to save time as much as possible when doing our job." Kim Hee-cho handed Adam a document as he spoke. "I gathered this information while you were still on your way here. Perhaps it can be of help to you."

Adam took the document from Kim Hee-cho to find that it contained information on the mission target.

The mission target was a little boy by the name of Li Qi, and he had previously lived in Sandrise City. His father abandoned him and his mother when he was still at a very young age, so he was brought up by a single mother.

Unfortunately, his mother was not an exceptional mother. In fact, she wasn't even a passable parent.

Even though she was far from an outstanding parent, she expected the best out of her child. From a young age, Li Qi was sent to all types of extracurricular classes, and his mother also demanded that he be at the top of his class for every test. If he couldn't fulfill all of the targets that his mother set for him, then he would be put into confinement.

The confinement room was very dark, and there was nothing but an oil painting of a nun inside.

It was this form of punishment that gave rise to the correlation between nuns, darkness, and fear in his mind.

Putting a child into solitary confinement is even more painful than physical abuse.

Adam was able to empathize with Li Qi's suffering as Layton Academy championed the concept of training through self-inflicted pain, which made places like solitary confinement chambers ideal training venues. In a completely dark room without any concept of time, even an adult would've been unable to bear the psychological suffering, let alone a child, yet Li Qi was forced to endure this for seven years.

From the age of 5 to the age of 12, he was put into confinement over 100 times, with the longest session lasting seven days.

.

Ultimately, he was the one who put an end to his own nightmare. After coming out from his final session of isolation, he killed his own mother.

After that, he was taken to court by Mechguard, and after a series of tests, it was concluded that he was suffering from severe mental problems due to the extreme abuse he had been subjected to from a very young age. Furthermore, he was clearly not in a clear state of mind during the time that he committed the crime. In addition to that, he was still very young and hadn't harmed anyone aside from his abuser, so in the end, the court exonerated him of all charges and released him.

At the time, this was a very contentious event that was featured on the news for a while.

The Ark Learning Children's Fund was able to contact the boy through the news before taking him to this school. Inside the school, not only would he be receiving an education, he was also fed and given a roof over his head, thereby saving him from the fate of becoming a homeless child.

After reading through the document, Adam turned to the principal before asking, "How long has he been here for?"

"Six months."

"Has he harmed anyone else during this time?"

"No, but he regularly displayed self-mutilative and suicidal tendencies. He's harming himself in all types of different ways almost every day, and during the six months that he's been here, he's already attempted suicide seven times. We've already sought therapy for him twice, and the first time, we approached a normal therapist. His condition improved slightly after some therapy sessions and the administration of medicine, and once we determined that his condition had taken a turn for the better, we employed the services of three adapter psychotherapists, but that didn't work out so well." The principal gave a forlorn shake of his head as he spoke. "One of the psychotherapists has already been put into a vegetative state, so if you're not sufficiently confident in your abilities, I would suggest that you proceed with caution."

Adam's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.

His condition's still that serious even after taking medication?

Generally speaking, there were certain components in these medications that could alleviate one's stress and anxiety, thereby having a debuff effect on the emotional anomaly. In addition to that, the therapy sessions should've weakened the anomaly even further, but despite all of this, the anomaly in the footage was still a level three menace.

"This is definitely not going to be an easy case, but we're willing to give it a try."

Adam had never faced a level three anomaly before, so he was feeling a little nervous.

Even though he had battled an even more powerful anomaly in the past, he hadn't been the backbone of the team. At the time, the superhuman Deranged Pig had led the charge, while Nie Yiyi was the team's secondary spearhead, and he was essentially just tagging along for the ride.

Furthermore, there weren't going to be any safe zones in Li Qi's psychic world. After all, his anomaly came from within his family, and in addition to that, he didn't have any powerful allies on his side.

The only ones that he could rely on were himself and Shae.

"Take us to see him first. We'll know whether we can complete the job once we give it a try. If we fail, then we won't charge any money."

After a brief discussion with Shae, Adam was prepared for action.