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Chapter 325: Pressure and Notoriety

Following his battle against Herman, Adam had developed a clearer understanding of his own powers.

In his self-coined power hierarchy, there was a significant gap.

Following his awakening, he had come into contact with the most low-level adapters, namely the students of Layton Academy.

The average power level of those students was roughly on par with Shae's from back then, and their combat prowess was roughly comparable to that of a level one anomaly.

Following his graduation, he was able to determine that the majority of mature adapters were at around the same level of power as level two anomalies.

Above them were the elite adapters, who were comparable in power to level three anomalies and would be able to climb to the A tier in the Shadow City arenas.

Adapters who were comparable in power to level four anomalies were truly approaching the realm of top-tier adapters. In Shadow City, they would be S tier combatants, and outside of Shadow City, they would be elite hitmen.

Adam had encountered many adapters of this level in the past, including Medusa, Diamond, Oni no Hanzou, Oni no Miko, and Dead Wood, just to name a few. Even though there were disparities in power between them, overall, they were on a similar level.

The first four levels of Adam's self-coined power system were quite clear-cut, but beyond this, things started to get a little murky.

This was primarily because he always felt like there was an abrupt cut-off here. Beyond this level, everyone that he came into contact with seemed to have become unfathomably more powerful, with Eyeless being the only one acting as a bridge between them.

Aside from Eyeless, there seemed to be a massive, empty gulf.

After making that observation, Adam had dedicated the majority of his attention to uncovering the truth about his own past.

This was because he felt like it would take a very long time for him to get to Hebi no Miko's level, and he was still yet to find a suitable visualization subject. As a clone who was living on borrowed time, he had no choice but to be very prudent with his priorities.

Of course, there were also other factors that led to this shift in focus, such as his status as a special psychic police officer and the support that he was receiving from Shivani. As a result of these factors, everything had been progressing very smoothly for him from the outset, and not only was he able to bring down the Compassion Company without much trouble, he had also found many leads pertaining to the missing children.

However, ultimately, he had to face the brutal reality that he simply wasn't powerful enough to continue the investigation in a meaningful way.

He had once naively believed that the power gap in his self-coined power system existed primarily due to issues related to visualization, and that all adapters would experience a drastic increase in power after advancing beyond the caliber of level four anomalies.

However, it seemed that this wasn't actually the case.

Prior to activating the seed, Herman's powers were roughly comparable with those of a level six anomaly. In a one-on-one battle, he would've definitely been able to take down an anomaly of Sludge's caliber using his time-based abilities.

After activating the seed, his powers had elevated to around the same caliber as level seven anomalies.

He was still far from reaching the very top of the adapter pyramid, but he showed Adam that there wasn't just a vast gulf of emptiness beyond between the likes of Oni no Miko and the truly top-tier adapters of this world.

This indicated that this gulf didn't actually exist. Instead, it was just that adapters of this caliber were quite rare.

As it turned out, adapters who were above the caliber of level five anomalies, yet still weren't top-tier adapters, were extremely uncommon.

The cream of the crop in the adapter world were generally all extremely renowned.

Wax Figure was already a renowned figure as far back as 30 years ago, Hebi no Miko was on all national government wanted lists, May was the leader of the largest privately owned organization in Sandrise City, and the director was the ruler of a city.

The only top-tier adapter that Adam knew who wasn't all that renowned was Sadou, who was in semi-retirement. However, that only applied to the general public. In reality, he had a resounding reputation in all political circles, as well as hitmen organizations.

At that level, it was difficult not to become a renowned figure, unless one kept an extremely low profile.

As for those who were above the caliber of level five anomalies, yet still hadn't reached the top, it was impossible for them to be widely renowned, and many of them were still in the development stage, while even more of them were already working under certain massive organizations.

Examples of adapters at this level included the Lamp Keepers of the Guild of Immortality and the bishops of the Psychic Church.

When equipped with prosthetic limbs, adapters of this caliber were able to complete virtually any task assigned to them to a high level of proficiency, whether that be carrying out killings, collecting intelligence, or serving as bodyguards.

As for the adapters below this level, they were a lot less capable. In fact, even when entering the psychic worlds of ordinary people, adapters who fell into this category had to be wary of whether there were powerful anomalies or psychic guardians present in those psychic worlds.

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Adapters of this caliber were very likely to be absorbed into certain major organizations and corporations, and upon entering those organizations, the information on those adapters would become very murky, or simply concealed altogether.

Hence, prior to this, it had felt to Adam like there was a dearth of adapters of this level.

Looks like it's time to focus on getting stronger. Otherwise, I won't be able to make any meaningful progress.

If he wanted to truly uproot the major organizations that he was aiming for, he needed more power and more allies.

"We'll meet again someday."

While Adam was absorbed in his own thoughts, Herman had already been taken away by Mechguard units. This was because some Mechguard units had already discovered illegal weapons on his property during the few minutes in which the psychic battle had taken place.

Buried beneath the turf of his courtyard were all types of automatic heavy weaponry, transforming his entire property into a miniature military fortress.

It was no exaggeration to say that if Herman had chosen to activate all of the automatic weapons on his property, there was no guarantee that the Mechguard units that Adam had brought with him would've been able to come out on top.

If someone else had been in Herman's shoes, erecting a military fortress in a wealthy area in a major metropolis would've been a serious crime that was enough to get them thrown into jail for several decades. However, after making an inspection of Herman's courtyard, Adam wasn't able to find anything particularly egregious.

He wasn't able to find any evidence of human trafficking, and these weapons alone were nowhere near enough for him to build a sufficient case for Herman to be imprisoned.

With that in mind, he made a call to Shivani to tell her about the situation.

"Would it be possible for you to use your platform and your public influence to exert pressure on the government and make it difficult for Herman to get released on bail?"

"I can do that, but it's not going to be very effective, and it could also negatively impact our program."

As a seasoned journalist, Shivani was astute in her ability to predict the effects that certain news stories were going to have.

"How so?"

"The general public, including even myself, is simply not interested in a news story like this. A rich person installed excessive weaponry on his property. So what? Does that have anything to do with them? The story doesn't impact the immediate interests of the general public, nor is it very attention-grabbing, so it'll do nothing aside from negatively impacting the popularity of our program.

“Also, reporting on stories like this would make it seem like our program is meddling in trivial affairs, thereby calling our professionalism and journalistic integrity into question. If the story doesn't receive any attention or traction, there won't be any pressure generated, so your efforts to get the government to deny Herman bail would ultimately be futile anyway."

"That makes sense. As expected, it's important to consult professionals like yourself! I'll speak to you another time."

After hearing Shivani's advice on the matter, Adam ended the call.