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Chapter 161: Stadium Director

While Hailey was still pondering the meaning behind Shae's words, a thunderous wave of cheers suddenly rang out as the host led the combatants into the stadium.

Instead of coming out one by one, both of the combatants had emerged together.

The host didn't give them much of an introduction as the majority of spectators present in the stadium were already familiar with the two combatants. There were only around a dozen people in the S tier, and as a pair of A tier combatants with S tier power and spotless records, they were even more renowned than the average S tier combatant.

Adam was standing on one side of the massive arena, wearing the lavish attire that had been prepared for him by the stadium, looking across at the masked figure on the other side.

His opponent was also looking back at him.

"Hello, we meet again," Oni no Hanzou greeted from afar, displaying the politeness typically associated with someone of Japanese descent.

He wasn't looking down on his opponent at all. Not only had Adam displayed astonishing potential for growth, Oni no Hanzou had paid the price for underestimating Adam in the past.

In his eyes, the fact that Adam dared to turn up for this match indicated that he had to have some tricks up his sleeve.

That scarecrow anomaly from their first encounter had already proven to be quite a formidable foe, and with that thing on his side, Adam could definitely put up a stern fight.

However, as a professional hitman, Oni no Hanzou naturally had some tricks up his sleeve as well, and he had absolute confidence in his abilities.

As the two of them were staring each other down, the host began to speak. "I'm sure all of you are familiar with these two combatants. They have their own monickers, but everyone likes to call them Shadow Ninja and Killing Machine! Both of these combatants possess S tier power, but it's not difficult to tell from their past matches that Shadow Ninja is the superior adapter.

“However, Lean Mean Killing Machine always likes to hide some tricks up his sleeve. In the match where he truly announced himself as a force to be reckoned with, he transformed into a mummy at the final moment, beating Iron Man at his own game and completely crushing his confidence, resulting in a severe decline in his combat prowess.

“Today, he's going up against his toughest opponent yet. Will he be able to pull something else out of the bag to score an unexpected victory? That'll be up to you to decide!"

With that final declaration, the host was telling everyone that they could begin to place their bets.

They were going to use their cash to decide whether they thought Adam still had more left to give.

Even though the host hadn't said much on this occasion, he left a very long interval for bets to be placed, and everyone in the stadium was discussing spiritedly among themselves as they chugged down alcoholic beverages while making their bets.

Surprisingly, many of their spectators decided to place their bets on Adam.

According to the real-time odds calculator, close to 40 of all betters had placed their money on Adam.

However...

"What the hell's wrong with you, Hook?" Shae immediately grabbed onto the back of Hook's collar as soon as she noticed the bet that he was preparing to place. "You wanna bet on Oni no Hanzou? Do you have a death wish?"

.

"I also want Adam to win, but he has no chance," Hook sighed with a shake of his head as he forcefully tugged his collar out of Shae's tight grip. "I've been working together with Adam even longer than you have, so I know how he stacks up against Oni no Hanzou better than you do. There's no chance that he's going to win, and he refuses to listen to reason. There's not much we can do if he's determined to throw his life away.

“We still have to live our own lives. After he loses this match, there's no chance for us to qualify for the battle royale, and we'll have to live out the rest of our lives here as fugitives. Everything requires money here, there's no compassion for those without money in this city. You guys should place down some bets as well. Especially you, Yiyi, you've earned quite a bit of money from your matches, haven't you?"

Nie Yiyi paid no heed to him, but Hailey responded in her stead.

Instead of saying anything, she suddenly turned to Hook before sinking her teeth into his cheek, biting down with so much force that she immediately drew blood. Hook howled in pain as he tried to push Hailey away, only to find that Shae had grabbed onto his arms to hold them into place.

……

The bets continued to be placed, and once everyone had a chance to place their bets, the host decided that it was time to commence the match. However, all of a sudden, a new wave of cheering rang out, this wave even louder than the one that had greeted the arrival of the two combatants, and everyone was chanting a single word.

"Director!"

"The director's here!"

"He very rarely shows up except for the most important matches!"

"Director!"

"Director, look over here!"

All of the cheering naturally drew Adam's attention as well, and he raised his head with an intrigued expression to find that several people had just entered the stadium through a special passageway. Setting aside the rest of the people who were clearly stadium employees, the one at the forefront of the group appeared to be the so-called director.

Adam was also very curious about this lord of Shadow City.

He had thought that such a powerful and influential figure would be just as serious as the politicians in the outside world, or be wearing a benevolent and relatable facade like the directors of large corporations, but as it turned out, the director had chosen to present himself in an extremely pompous and flamboyant fashion.

His entire body was clothed in a strange metallic robe, which seemed to have been woven out of thin metal threads.

Despite its metallic material, it appeared to be very soft. The colors of the robe were also very ostentatious, with a predominantly black and white color scheme, much like the yin-yang symbol that was popular in the east, where the black and white halves were distinctly separate, but also contained pieces of one another.

However, in addition to the black and white color scheme, there were also all types of vibrant colors on the robe, giving it the appearance of a kaleidoscope, and even looking at it from afar, Adam couldn't help but be struck by a rush of dizziness.

Hold on, there's no way those robes could create such a dizzying visual effect from so far away... Could it be that it's actually my psychic body that's being impacted?

As soon as this realization dawned on Adam, he was immediately struck by a sense of alarm and fear. He hadn't sensed any neuron transmitters being fired, so it was completely incomprehensible to him how the director was able to impact him on a psychic level from so far away.

As for Oni no Hanzou, he seemed to be even more fearful of the director than Adam.

His gaze was avoiding the director in an unnatural manner, and it seemed that some bad memories had just surfaced in his mind.

Not only could fear give rise to anomalies, it could also chip away at one's mental fortitude.

As long as an adapter hadn't mutated and been devoured by their anomaly, negative emotions like fear would have a detrimental effect on their combat prowess. Adam was well aware of this, so he knew that this was a brilliant opportunity to deal his opponent a psychological blow.

"I didn't think there would be someone even you're so afraid of." Adam began to approach his opponent while goading him with his words. "Have you met him before? What happened during your meeting?"

"You're 100 years too young to be playing mind games on me!"

Adam's words did seem to have successfully triggered some unsavory memories in Oni no Hanzou's mind, but he quickly regained his composure as he sat down with his legs crossed in a meditative state, ignoring everything that was going on around him.

As a powerful adapter, his mental fortitude was not so easily shaken.

Adam wasn't disheartened by this, and he continued to pester Oni no Hanzou with constant goading. He knew that this wouldn't be enough to crush Oni no Hanzou's mental fortitude, but if he could weaken his opponent even by a little bit, then he would have a slightly greater chance of survival.

In order to survive, he was willing to resort to these underhanded tactics.

Finally, it was about time to commence the match.

Under the director's instructions, the host cut short Oni no Hanzou's meditation, then instructed them to connect themselves to the projector before preparing for battle.