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Chapter 326: Komi

From there, everything that happened was exactly as Adam anticipated.

Due to the fact that the Mechguard units had managed to record concrete evidence, Herman's case quickly reached the prosecution stage.

However, Herman wasn't struck with the lengthy prison sentence that would've befallen an ordinary person for a similar offense.

He had an apparently spotless criminal record, and it was discovered that the weapons on his property had never hurt anyone. Furthermore, he was deemed to be suffering from mild paranoia and mental impairment, thereby further justifying his actions on mental health grounds.

Of course, his status as a philanthropist was also factored into the ruling.

His defense essentially centered around the sentiment that everyone had self-preservation urges, except his were perhaps a little excessive.

In addition to that, he had a very capable team of lawyers and close ties with certain extremely powerful figures, so in the end, both the jury and judge decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, resulting in a very light sentence of 400 hours of community service.

"That seems to be about it for this case."

Shae was reading out the information regarding Herman's ruling to Adam, while he was looking at other pieces of news.

According to news reports, the number of homicides in Sandrise City and the other two metropolises on the North American continent was rapidly rising.

Even though all three of the major metropolises were home to countless criminals, most homicidal killers would make sure to clean up the crime scene and avoid all Mechguard units and public surveillance cameras. Ideally, their goal was to make the homicide seem like nothing more than a missing person case.

There were far too many people going missing every single day in this world, and even as far back as a century ago, each major country would have hundreds of thousands of people go missing each year.

No one cared about where they had gone. Perhaps they had voluntarily gone into hiding.

No one cared about problems that posed no threat to them.

Hence, missing person cases weren't a cause for panic, but homicides were an entirely different story, and the higher the status of the victims, the more panic and chaos that would ensue.

"These people are behaving in a very strange way. It's almost as if they're intentionally causing chaos," Adam said as he pointed at a news headline for Shae to see. "Not only do they not clean up the crime scenes after committing their killings, sometimes, they would even go out of their way to toss the bodies into crowds of people or directly under surveillance cameras."

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"I did. Herman's been sentenced to 400 hours of community service, right? In addition to that, he'll be dealing with increased scrutiny from Mechguard, so he won't be able to do anything out of line for a while," Adam replied. "To be honest, 400 hours of community service is already more than I anticipated."

"Why didn't you bring me with you last time?"

This was a question that Shae had constantly been hung up on over the past few days.

She had already raised this question to Adam many times. She had a very headstrong personality, and previously, she had been forced to stay out of Adam's affairs as she was too weak to keep herself safe. However, now that Hellhound had become a level four anomaly, she wanted to be a part of everything that Adam did.

"I've already apologized to you three times about this." Adam heaved a long sigh as he began his fourth apology. "Not bringing you last time was my fault. I was too arrogant and failed to assess the situation correctly. I thought that there was a dearth of powerful adapters beyond a certain point, but that actually wasn't the case.

“If I had brought you and the three brothers with me last time, things would've gone a lot more smoothly, and I wouldn't have come so close to being killed."

Adam had endured many grueling battles in the past, and Herman had been an opponent that Adam deemed to be quite evenly matched with himself.

If he had brought his allies along, things would've definitely been different.

"What are you going to do from here? Have you found out where the airport in Herman's memories is?"

"It's on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The nation was only founded 30 years ago, and it has a population of 19 million."

Adam had been searching for images of airports using a search engine to try and find a match to the one that he had seen, and with the help of AI technology, he was able to track down the airport that he was searching for.

The airport was situated in the city of Komi, which was the capital city of the island nation of the same name.

30 years ago marked the tail end of World War III, and a new government had arisen on that island, following which came a change in the nation's name.

Just like many island nations on the Pacific Ocean, this was a nation that specialized in mining and agriculture. Thanks to its various exports, including all types of ore, palm-based products, cocoa, and rubber, it was a relatively wealthy island nation.

However, that wealth wasn't enjoyed by the people of the nation.

The king and his noble subordinates had established all types of monopolistic corporations to claim the wealth of the people.

Adam had gathered this information from internet research, and the fact that Herman had such a poignant memory of this place in his psychic world indicated that it was definitely not just some ordinary transfer station. In fact, Adam suspected that the island of Komi was home to the human farm.

The fact that this was a small nation that was run by a monopolistic dictatorship meant that it would be very easy for the Guild of Immortality to control.

All the guild had to do was control the select group of people at the top, granting them sufficient benefits while also exerting some pressure on them through intimidation, and the island would be the perfect location for housing the human farm.

In the past, places like this were considered to be paradises for illegal drug plantations.

However, in this day and age, producing blank slates was far more lucrative than producing drugs.

"Unfortunately, we won't be able to go there for now," Adam sighed as he leaned back against his reclining chair to look up at the ceiling of the veterinarian hospital. "If we go there, we won't have the protection of Mechguard, and that would make us far too vulnerable."

"When will we be able to go then?"

"When we become powerful enough. If I had Hebi no Miko's power, I would sneak onto the island right now. With my telegnosis, I would be able to sense danger long before it gets to me. No automatons or adapters would be able to detect my presence, and I'll be able to go anywhere I please and take out anyone I want without being noticed."

"Hebi no Miko hasn't even been able to hunt you down after all this time. Are you sure getting to her level of power would be enough?"

"Hebi no Miko is arrogant and impulsive, acting like a deranged nutjob without any capacity for planning or prudence. Her weaknesses are far too severe. If I possessed her power, I would be able to do countless things that are impossible for her. Hence, I must become stronger! Improving through things like visualization is far too slow. I need to become stronger in my own way!"

Adam was naturally referring to the absorption of anomalic power here, and Shae was also aware of this.

However, at his current level, Adam no longer had any interest in the anomalies lurking in the psychic worlds of normal mental illness sufferers. After all, the majority of people suffering from mental illnesses only harbored level three or weaker anomalies.

Adam had previously determined that upon reaching level three on his self-coined power system, anomalies would begin to pose a threat to the lives of their hosts. An example of this was Li Qi, who had been goaded into attempting suicide on many occasions by the nun anomaly.

Anomalies of this caliber would constantly torment their host. In Li Qi's case, he was constantly being told how much his mother detested him, how he was a murderer, how no one liked him, how his very existence was a curse to all those around him, and that he was going to be forever alone.

As a result, Li Qi had almost been driven to suicide.

Similarly, Deranged Pig's daughter had also almost been tormented to death by her anomaly. Her situation had been even more dire. The PTSD that she had suffered from witnessing the human farm had triggered such a severe physical reaction in her that it had almost killed her.

Hence, generally speaking, there was an upper limit to how mentally ill the ordinary person could become. If they reached this upper limit and didn't receive effective treatment, then they weren't going to live for much longer.

What Adam needed right now were extremely high-level anomalies. At his current level, killing the average anomaly simply didn't help him improve in any meaningful way. At the moment, his ideal prey were level six anomalies, or even level seven anomalies.

For this purpose, he would need to come into contact with some truly sick and disturbed individuals, namely ones who weren't killed by their anomalies, but had fused with them instead, such as Sima Kai, the head collector.