Chapter 289: Legendary Figure
Chapter 289: Legendary Figure
All powerful adapters carried a certain aura, which stemmed from their exceptional mental qualities.
Adapters who possessed immense courage, confidence, and conviction could invoke a sense of awe and veneration in the average person, while deranged and ruthless psychic mutants could also invoke some special emotions.
The average person would only be able to get a vague sense of this, but for adapters with potent telegnosis, the feeling was far more pronounced.
"You have quite a strong aura, even more powerful than Eyeless's aura. How do you stack up against Hebi no Miko?" Even though Adam could sense immense psychic pressure from Wax Figure, he wasn't backing down in the slightest. "If you're this strong, why don't you challenge Hebi no Miko to a one-on-one battle?
“If you can defeat an opponent of her caliber, that would for sure be a massive confidence boost, and you'll definitely grow even stronger as a result."
"You talk a lot, and I get the feeling that you're trying to provoke me."
"You're not wrong there."
Adam's objective was very simple. Even though Wax Figure was quite a powerful and intimidating character, he was still ultimately a politician.
As a politician, there was no way that Wax Figure would turn on Adam for minor transgressions as Adam was still quite useful to him.
As for why Adam was provoking Wax Figure, that was not without purpose.
"Do you want to spar with me?"
"That's right. I don't have much experience in battling opponents of Hebi no Miko's caliber, so you'd be the perfect training partner."
"Hold on a second," Ryan interjected right as Adam was staring down Wax Figure. "What is going on here?"
The northern congress's suggestion to Adam was to get rid of Ryan, but in the end, Adam's humanity had won out over Clown's cruelty. Hence, he didn't want to have to kill Ryan unless there was no other option.
Thankfully, when he raised the matter to Cowboy, he was informed that it was possible to have Ryan's memories altered.
However, memory alteration was an extremely meticulous and advanced procedure that only certain adapters were capable of performing, and Wax Figure was one of them.
As the second-in-command of the nothern congress, Wax Figure had control over all of the adapters in the northern congress, making him an extremely powerful figure, and Cowboy wasn't convinced that Adam would be able to recruit his help.
.
However, to Cowboy's surprise, Wax Figure had immediately replied to his request and expressed that he was willing to help.
"I came here primarily to see you. You've been developing a little too fast."
Despite Ryan's interjection, Wax Figure continued to ignore him. He merely took a glance at Ryan, and the young warden was completely rooted to the spot, as if he had been hypnotized.
"There's no need to explain the situation to him, I'll be altering the memory that he has of this meeting anyway. Seeing as he's going to forget everything anyway, what's the point in explaining? I've seen footage of your past battles, and I know your entire story since your awakening.
“I've never seen anyone develop at the rate that you have, and I want to see how far you've come up to this point. If I deem you to be at a satisfactory level, then I'll provide you with additional assistance. If not, then you'll have to fend for yourself."
"That sounds good to me! Does the additional assistance that you're referring to include helping me deal with Hebi no Miko?"
"It does, and it also includes this memory alteration procedure. There's almost no one more skilled in this procedure than me on this entire continent."
"What about Madam Tree?"
"Oh?" Wax Figure's face finally displayed a hint of emotion at the mention of this name. "You know about her?"
"I do, a little."
"I'd advise you not to ask too many questions about her."
Wax Figure clearly didn't feel the need to prolong the conversation any longer, and he immediately invaded Adam's consciousness.
In the blink of an eye, the entire surrounding environment had changed, and Adam felt like he had suddenly grown taller. He looked down to find that he had already transformed into Clown.
"I must admit, the speed and subtlety of your psychic invasion are incredible. Also, I notice that you've invaded my psychic world rather than dragged me into your psychic world. It seems that you're extremely confident."
"I don't think there's anything in your memories that can help you defeat me."
Wax Figure extended a palm directly toward Adam's chest as he spoke.
He didn't seem to be using much strength, but Adam's body was sent flying back, crashing through the wall before falling out of the motel.
He had only just landed on the ground from the fourth floor, only to find that Wax Figure was already standing right in front of him.
"Are you a ghost?"
"You're too slow! Given your current speed, if you don't conjure up your clones from the very beginning of the battle, there's a very good chance that you'll be killed right away if you encounter Hebi no Miko again."
"That's a good suggestion!"
Adam had challenged Wax Figure precisely to gain more combat experience against a high-level opponent.
An adapter of this caliber possessed far superior speed, power, and physical attributes to his, so he couldn't compete against them in those three areas.
Thus, Adam immediately heeded Wax Figure's advice, conjuring up his clones to assist him in battle, but the clones had only just appeared when the surrounding environment underwent a massive transformation. All of a sudden, the ground beneath Adam's feet had become as sticky as molten wax.
Immediately thereafter, he noticed that a layer of waxy substance had appeared over the bodies of all of his clones, following which they burst into flames in unison before being incinerated into nothingness in an instant.
Wax Figure's voice rang out once again.
"In the face of large-scale destructive attacks, your clones will only be able to last several seconds at most. If you go up against Hebi no Miko again, I suggest you pull out all of your trump cards from the very beginning of the battle."
"Got it!"
Adam invoked Sludge and Distortion as he spoke. These were the two most powerful anomalies at his disposal.
Wax Figure's eyes lit up slightly at the sight of Sludge, and he attempted to use the same attack, encasing Sluge in a layer of wax before setting it alight, but to virtually no effect. Sludge was able to completely disregard the attack as he raised a massive foot before stomping down upon Wax Figure.
Wax Figure immediately attempted to evade the attack, but another anomaly suddenly emerged from his shadow before exerting immense distortive force upon his body to snap all of his limbs.
In the next instant, Wax Figure was completely flattened under Sludge's enormous foot.
Of course, Adam wasn't naive enough to think that this was the end of the battle.
Wax Figure was a legendary adapter who had played a pivotal role in World War III, and he was also one of the top adapters in the world. There was no way that Adam at his current level would've been able to defeat an adapter of this caliber.
Sure enough, after closely inspecting Wax Figure's flattened body, he discovered that it was only a flattened pile of wax, rather than a body of flesh and bones.
Several seconds later, another Wax Figure emerged from the wax on the ground, completely unscathed.
A thought occurred to Adam as he looked at the wax-covered landscape around him, and he asked, "Are you essentially unkillable in this wax domain?"