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Chapter 274: The Beauty of Human Heads

"Alright, final question: why is it that beyond a certain point, there seems to be a massive power gap between top-level adapters?"

This was the question that Adam was most interested in getting an answer to.

Compared with money and influence, power was what Adam desired the most. Only with sufficient power could he keep himself safe while doing many of the things that he wanted to do.

"It's just a matter of visualization. I get pissed off every time I think about this! There aren't any suitable deities for me to visualize based on my fighting style, so I'm stuck here making no progress!"

"What's visualization?"

"You don't know what visualization is? How do you not know this after staying in Shadow City for so long?" Cowboy was very much taken aback by this question. "Didn't you meet the director?"

"Er..." Adam thought back to his meeting with the director, where they hadn't discussed anything outside of their blood ties and the lost footage. "Why is this something that I should know about just because I met the director?"

"He's widely renowned as the most adept visualizer among all powerful adapters. How do you not know this?"

"I don't have very good information sources."

Adam had been alone ever since he first awakened, and out of all of the people that he had come into contact with, most of them had tried to use him rather than help him.

It had always been like this, from the pawn shop to the northern congress.

Out of the few friends that he had been able to make, most of them were dead.

"Anyway, can you explain what visualization is to me?"

"Sure..."

Thus, Cowboy gave Adam a brief summary of the concept of visualization, showing him the path to the top.

"The more powerful an adapter is, the more unchartered territory they find themselves in. They've already gone far beyond the beaten path, and every top-tier adapter is constantly searching for new paths forward. Some have tried to use technology to alter their brains, some employ other methods of enhancement... You'll find out more once you get to that level."

"Is visualization why Hebi no Miko is so powerful?"

"Hebi no Miko is a special case. Her neurons are naturally more developed than the average adapter, and her brain was altered in an illegal testing experimentation facility back when she was a child. I heard that all of the subjects participating in that experiment died, with her being the only exception, so she's a bit different from normal adapters."

"Who's the most powerful out of her, the director, Sadou, and Boss May from the pawn shop?"

"I don't know. None of those people have ever fought each other in a serious battle before," Cowboy replied, clearly not wanting to dwell on this subject any longer. "Let's get back on topic: I'll be your new collaborative partner for your gaming endeavor. Agreed?"

"Sure."

Adam was a complete novice when it came to business, and his power was limited, so it was definitely good news to have someone to work with.

At the very least, if he could fully capitalize on this opportunity, then he would never have to worry about money again.

After ending the call with Cowboy, Adam discussed the concept of visualization with Shae. At the same time, he searched up some different branches of mythology, but was unable to find any deity that was both extremely powerful and had a high level of compatibility with himself.

Now that he had fused as one with Clown, his most prominent traits were his abilities and his cunning personality. Based on that set of criteria, the most compatible deity that he found was the Norse God of Mischief, Loki.

"This guy doesn't seem very strong..."

One's visualization subject had a direct bearing on how powerful the visualizer could become, and the more advanced a visualizer was, the more their psychic body would come to resemble their visualization subject.

Unfortunately for Adam, Loki was a rather mediocre visualization subject when it came to power.

"Can't you make up a god of your own?"

"Cowboy told me that it's very difficult to visualize using a completely fictitious subject that doesn't have any cultural basis or foundation. It's very difficult to convince oneself to believe in such a subject, so the visualization will be virtually useless."

Even in this endeavor of self-hypnotism, there had to be some type of foundation. It was very difficult for one to commit themselves mentally to something that they had made up on their own.

"I'll think about this some other time. I have other ways to enhance my powers for now, anyway."

Compared with visualization, absorbing the anomalic power of others was clearly a faster route for improvement in Adam's eyes.

Ultimately, visualization could only be a supplementary training tool.

Shortly thereafter, the second inmate was brought into the interrogation room by Ryan.

In stark contrast with Dwight's imposing frame and violent demeanor upon arrival, Sima Kai was completely unremarkable in appearance and appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary, calm elderly man.

He was around 170 centimeters tall and was of Asian descent. He was wearing a pair of small old-school glasses, and his hair was immaculately combed.

He was the type of person that one would immediately forget after passing by on the street, but as soon as he entered the room, Adam was immediately struck by a sense of clear discomfort.

"What are you looking at?"

From the instant that the man entered the room, he immediately began inspecting Adam's head.

Unlike a normal person, who looked at the faces of others, his attention was focused on the head.

Furthermore, he was inspecting Adam's head as if he were examining a piece of artwork.

This behavior, combined with the knowledge that Sima Kai had a fetish for collecting human heads, was enough to make even Adam a little uncomfortable.

"Are you looking to see if my head is worth collecting?" Adam asked.

"That's right. Your skull is the best-looking one I've seen in a while!" Sima Kai readily admitted while continuing to stare at Adam's head. "The bones have beautiful lines and curves, and you also have the best skin out of anyone I've seen for quite some time. If I could preserve your skin along with your skull, that would be a brilliant addition to my collection."

Ryan was unable to suppress his disgust for Sima Kai upon hearing this, and he immediately zapped him so that he wouldn't be able to continue talking.

As the electric currents ran through Sima Kai's thin and frail body, he involuntarily curled up like a shrimp, but there was no pain etched on his face whatsoever, and not only was he still staring at Adam, he had developed an erection.

"What a fucking freak!"

Looking at the abhorrent man before him, Adam felt as if there were countless ants crawling all over his body at once. His rage was building by the second, and the brutal Clown facet of his personality made him want to stomp the man's head open like a watermelon.

"Keep your cool! Don't let him get to you!"

Shae could sense that Adam had entered an emotionally unstable state, and she hurriedly tugged on his clothes to snap him back to his senses.

"Let's get started! I don't want to spend any more time with this man than necessary!"

After Sima Kai was tied to his chair, Adam instructed Ryan to leave the room, then switched on the recorder before entering his psychic world with Shae.

Upon entering Sima Kai's psychic world, the two of them were immediately taken out of the interrogation room and arrived on a sports field.

This appears to be some university...

Adam was able to gauge the setting by inspecting the surrounding buildings.

As soon as Shae arrived, she immediately erupted into a violent coughing fit. There was a sharp scent of formaldehyde in the air, and it was making her extremely uncomfortable.

"The environment in here is terrible!"

"That means our opponent is going to be very strong."

The more hostile the environment in a psychic world, the more powerful the anomaly that it harbored.

Just the overwhelming smell of formaldehyde in the air here was enough to force out low-level adapters, and the environment in this psychic world was no less hostile than Sithu's.

However, Sithu was a schizophrenic, and he previously harbored a large number of anomalies, but none of them were particularly strong, with the exception of Raven.

In contrast, Sima Kai had never displayed any signs of schizophrenia, so it was most likely the case that there was only a single anomaly in his psychic world, one that was extremely formidable.