BXBX NOVEL Chapter 160: Decision
Chapter 160: Decision
An anomaly had just bestowed anomalic power upon him...
Adam was at a complete loss for what to do as he stared at the cloud of anomalic power before him.
This was a situation that he was completely unable to comprehend, and after some hesitation, he decided to communicate with the raven.
"What are you?"
This was the most important question to unraveling this entire mystery.
"I am one of Sithu's personalities."
Adam nodded in response. In essence, this anomaly was just like all of the other anomalies in Sithu's psychic world.
"Why haven't you appeared at all before this?"
"That's because I'm a recessive personality. I am unable to show myself while the other dominant personalities are around."
The concepts of recessive and dominant personalities were a blind spot in Adam's knowledge. As a blank slate who had only spent a very short time taking adapter lessons, there were far too many things that he didn't know.
Having said that, even though he didn't know the reasons why multiple personalities could arise in one's mind, the terms "recessive" and "dominant" made the concepts fairly self-explanatory.
"Did you kill all of the other personalities?"
"You were the one who killed them, I only gave you some help." As the raven spoke, it continued to flap its wings, and that was where the dark clouds were being released from. "Alternatively, it can be said that we helped each other."
The aura that the raven was giving off indicated that it was clearly extremely powerful. Adam had only witnessed this type of aura from Masao Yamamoto and Sadou. Beings of their caliber were able to alter the environment in a psychic world with each and every move that they made, and they were certainly far too powerful for Adam to contend with.
With that in mind, a thought suddenly occurred to Adam.
"Were you the one who created those vortexes?"
"That's right. We are one and the same, and I possess the ability to absorb power through them. I am giving you this power in exchange for my physical body to be set free. Is that possible? What I'm saying is that I would like you to release me from the underground chamber."
All of Sithu's personalities had been deranged, anxious, violent, or cowardly, but this recessive personality was exceptionally calm and collected and spoke with very clear logic and eloquence.
If it weren't for the fact that it had presented itself to Adam in the form of a giant raven, he could've easily mistaken it for a refined and well-mannered gentleman, rather than an anomaly that had arisen from negative emotions.
Adam didn't trust anomalies, and by extension, he didn't trust anything that they said.
However, he was at the raven's mercy at this moment. He was no match for the raven in this psychic world, and Li was on the verge of death, so he couldn't afford to delay any longer.
"So you'll let me leave after I accept your proposal? If I accept, I'm probably going to get turned into one of your puppets, just like that alien anomaly."
With that in mind, Adam became even more hesitant.
Even after the alien anomaly's death, its tentacles were still able to move. On top of that, it was the perpetrator behind the explosion, and all of these circumstances were extremely suspicious.
"You can choose to refuse. In that case, I'll just have to temporarily hypnotize you so that you'll release me. Make your choice..."
……
After emerging from Sithu's psychic world, Adam immediately wheeled Li's bed out of the underground chamber before calling for help.
At this point, Fighter Li was barely breathing, and after inspecting his condition, Jiang Junior immediately made a call to the doctor. Despite the late hour, the doctor arrived as quickly as he could, and after some fluid injections, it seemed that Fighter Li was temporarily in a stable condition.
Organic adapters were able to easily recover from any damage that they sustained to their psychic bodies. For example, even though Nie Yiyi had been severely wounded in the psychic world, she would be close to making a full recovery after a night's sleep.
However, the same didn't apply to Li. His adapter abilities had been bestowed upon him by the machine, which was forcing him beyond his limits to begin with. Any harm sustained by his psychic body would've only exacerbated his brain trauma, and given that his psychic body was almost killed, he could've easily ended up in a brain-dead state.
Following that battle, he was only just barely clinging onto life.
Adam stayed with him until he was in a stable condition, then looked after him for a night after he was delivered to the best nearby hospital. Only around noon the following day was he truly out of life-threatening danger, and even though he still hadn't woken up, he had managed to pull through.
At this point, Nie Yiyi and Shae had also arrived at the hospital.
After a night of rest, their complexions were still awful, but they were able to move around on their own now.
"This is worse than being hungover! I wanna throw up..." Shae complained as she approached Adam.
In contrast with her casual demeanor, Nie Yiyi was far more serious.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were unconscious at the time."
"You almost killed him."
.
Adam nodded in response, making no effort to deny the accusation.
The atmosphere in the room had suddenly gotten rather tense, and Shae hurriedly stepped in as a mediator.
"Don't blame him, he had no choice. What else could he have done with his match against Oni no Hanzou coming up so soon?"
Nie Yiyi's expression eased slightly upon hearing the mention of the upcoming match.
"How confident are you?"
"Not at all."
"Then don't show up. Worse comes to worst, we'll just have to stay here. I don't think living here is all that bad. It's hell anywhere we go anyway. Compared with how oppressive it is in Sandrise City and the civilized world, I feel more relaxed here."
"I feel the same," Shae immediately chimed in. "Even if you somehow manage to survive this ordeal, we'll be screwed once you make an enemy out of the entire Oni Organization. It's better to just pull out of the match and live here."
"I can't accept that." Adam shook his head in response. "There are so many questions that I haven't found out the answers to and so many people who've wronged me, yet haven't received just punishment. I have to fight in this match no matter what."
……
It was impossible to dissuade someone who had already made up their mind.
Even though everyone knew that he was going to get himself killed, no one could do anything.
Everyone arrived on the day of the match, including Nie Yiyi, Shae, Sato, Hook, Hailey... Even Baldie Lin, who had always been detached and uncaring, had made an appearance.
The pawn shop had tasked him with bringing Adam and his friends to Shadow City, so he felt obligated to witness what could quite possibly end up being Adam's final moments.
The match was an extremely grand event.
The stadium had been promoting the match many days in advance, and the degree of promotion and fanfare that this match received even exceeded that of the average S tier match.
This was a promotion match, and both combatants had maintained perfect records up to this point. Most importantly, judging from their past matches, both combatants possessed S tier power, with one of them tipped to make big waves even in the S tier.
Furthermore, this match was being held in the main stadium rather than the A tier arena.
Tens of thousands of spectators were in attendance to watch the match.
Hailey was sitting in the same seat that she had been in when she had watched her first match with Adam in the stadium, and for the first time, as she looked at the sea of rowdy spectators around her, she felt completely lost and jaded.
It had always been her dream to become a fight manager, but at this moment, she was feeling rather disillusioned.
She turned to Shae before asking, "Are these matches all just one massive farce?"
Shae remained silent for a long while, yet just when Hailey thought that perhaps her question had been drowned out by all of them yelling and cheering around them, she suddenly heard a response.
"I don't know... Perhaps my entire life is all just one massive farce..."