Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 52: Dataist Union

After removing the helmet, Adam was too busy thinking about what had just happened to worry about the grease on the body.

A strange person had taken control of his consciousness data in the Metaverse to deliver a message to him. Altering one's consciousness in the Metaverse was not something that an adapter could accomplish. Instead, it was something that only programmers could do. In fact, there was a good chance that the programmer capable of infiltrating the Metaverse was an entire organization rather than just a single person.

"Oh? You came out as well?" While Adam was pondering the situation, Hook also removed his helmet and returned to the real world. "I'm going to take a shower."

"Hold on, I have something to ask you."

"Hurry up. This sticky feeling is terrible!"

"Is it possible to infiltrate the Metaverse before?"

"It can be done, but it's very difficult. Not only does the Metaverse hold a boundless wealth of data, it also concerns the lives of billions of people. If it were that easy to infiltrate, then it would've collapsed long ago."

"I know it's difficult, what I'm asking is whether it's possible for anyone to do it."

"I don't think so. If I had to pick someone capable of doing such a thing, then it can only be the Dataist Union. I can't stand this feeling anymore! I'm going to take a shower, I'll talk to you later."

Adam's memories contained information on the organization that was the Dataist Union, but the information wasn't very comprehensive. After an internet search, he discovered that this organization was even more of a behemoth than he imagined.

It was a global organization that was similar to the southern and northern congresses.

This organization was comprised of countless programmers, hackers, and internet workers, and their main purpose was to monitor data from all over the world, making it more open and transparent. Theoretically speaking, anyone could join this organization.

The organization had an enormous number of members due to the almost virtually non-existent barriers to entry, but it was also exactly because of it that its openness was ensured.

As an example, the programming for the Mechguard officers had always been monitored by the Dataist Union. It was completely open and transparent, thereby preventing it from being tampered with. If anyone were to alter the programming, the Dataist Union would be able to immediately find and correct the inappropriate alterations, allowing the Mechguard officers to carry out their work according to the most stringent legislation.

It was also because of this system that society was able to function as normal.

Mechguard officers were brutal and ruthless, but they weren't detested by the people. In fact, Adam was of the opinion that Mechguard was the only thing in this world that could be referred to as fair and just.

Furthermore, not only did the Dataist Union oversee the programming for Mechguard, it also monitored the data of the Metaverse. If anyone aside from the Metaverse parent company could alter the Metaverse's data, then it could only have been them.

So it's possible on a theoretical basis, but it's extremely difficult in practice.

After doing some research, Adam came to understand just how difficult it would be to infiltrate the Metaverse.

In order to break through the Metaverse's firewall, the collective efforts of countless people were required. However, as mentioned, the Dataist Union was an organization with an enormous number of members and extremely low barriers to entry. With such a gigantic network of members, there was no way that such a major operation would've been able to remain confidential, particularly when it required the participation of so many people. Once something like this was set into motion, the entire union would've been stirred into a frenzy.

Even if there were elite groups in the Dataist Union, there was no way that the people in those groups would be able to get everyone in the entire organization onto the same page.

In practice, this was a virtually impossible task, so it was no wonder that Hook had brushed it off as completely unfeasible.

If it's impossible, then who did it?

It simply didn't seem feasible, but the truth was undeniable. Adam ran through countless possible scenarios in his mind, but he was unable to think of any likely answers. After a moment of hesitation, he dialed Red Spider's number.

"Haha, let's go! Hey, Adam boy, what's up?"

Every time Adam contacted Red Spider, she always seemed to be seeking some type of thrill.

"Yeah, I'm at the casino. You wanted to ask me something? Alright, I'll speak with you after this game. Come on, high, high, high, high, high... It's high! I won!"

After that win, Red Spider was in a very good mood, and she took her chips before making her way to a quiet corner.

"What is it?"

"I wanted to ask you if the psychic mutants have recently made a move."

Instead of revealing everything that had happened to him, Adam asked a probing question instead.

Red Spider was normally never fazed by anything, but her expression changed drastically upon hearing this question.

"Where did you get that information from?"

"Looks like it's true then."

"It is, but that information can only be found in a top-tier confidential Mechguard document. How did you find that out? Have you come into contact with some other major organization?"

"I haven't. You've been spying on me every day, how could I have gone anywhere that you don't know about?"

"That's true." Red Spider was not embarrassed to admit her constant surveillance of Adam. "In that case, how did you..."

"That's a secret."

Adam hung up the call before Red Spider had a chance to finish her sentence. After getting hung up on by Red Spider so many times, he was finally able to exact some revenge.

"That felt good..."

Adam couldn't make sense of this situation for now, but he still decided to follow his original plan and treat everything as business as usual. The human farm, psychic mutants, the Dataist Union... All of this gave him a feeling that a storm was just around the corner.

It seemed that the world was on the cusp of a major revolution.

Adam was just a minor figure who didn't want to get swept up in the wave, but it seemed that the choice had been taken out of his hands. All he could do now was become more powerful to increase his chances of survival during the revolution. At the same time, he had to uncover the secrets surrounding his own identity.

With that in mind, he entered his psychic world and arrived at his secret base of flowerpots.

The anomaly of pain has already been regenerated!

Upon his arrival, Adam discovered, much to his surprise and elation, that Mummy had already begun to grow out of one of the flowerpots, but in contrast with the giant Mummy from before, this Mummy was as tiny as a doll.

It's so small that it looks a little cute.

This new anomaly of pain was still in the form of a mummy, but it was different from its predecessor. After all, that anomaly was already dead. There was no end to the pain that one could experience, but each time, the pain was different.

Due to the fact that this mummy had absorbed some of the power from the sludge aberrations, there was some type of viscous substance adhered to its bandages, but its body was no longer riddled with blades. From the looks of it, its regenerative abilities appeared to have improved, but that came at the expense of its offensive prowess.

What made Adam even more elated was that aside from the rebirth of the anomaly of pain, there was a new anomaly in another flowerpot. It was a creature with a completely twisted body that looked as if it had been formed by black holes. It had no face or legs, and its entire body was just a twisted blob. Its mere presence was causing even the air around it to warp and shimmer, much like the air above a pool of magma.

"I'll call you Distortion."

Adam attempted to fuse as one with the new anomaly as he spoke, intending to learn about its abilities and how powerful it was.

However, following the fusion, Adam found himself completely unable to control his own body as normal. He tried to raise a hand, but a leg suddenly sprouted out from under it. He wanted to go forth, but all it did was backtrack, and when he issued another instruction for it to advance, it performed a pirouette on the spot.

Distortion was completely chaotic, unable to enact any effective instructions within the realm of order, so Adam was completely powerless to control it.

The good news was that it possessed many distortion abilities, which were similar to cyberhex abilities. Furthermore, after splitting up from Distortion, Adam discovered that he was still able to remain connected to it. The connection was extremely strong, but the anomaly was unable to understand any of his instructions.

After some extensive experimentation, he concluded that the only instruction that the anomaly was receptive to pertained to attacking enemies. However, he couldn't instruct it to attack any particular target, nor could he control what ability it used. In other words, this anomaly could only interpret the simplest of instructions, which was to fight!