Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 58: Game of Cat and Mouse

Hook should be done in about 10 to 20 more minutes...

Adam had been constantly keeping tabs on the amount of time that had passed.

Following his return, he had worked together with Hook to break through the psychic boundaries of the world, and they had been able to make very fast progress together.

However, not long after that, Adam was forced to come out to deal with the infestations of mice. Then came the arrival of Mice King and the ensuing battle that followed.

At this point, almost enough time had already passed, and all he had to do was stall Mice King a short while longer. With that in mind, Adam took a glance at the group of people beside him, and a plan began to take shape in his mind.

He had two objectives for protecting this group of survivors, the first of which was that he really did want to save them. Circumstances permitting, he wanted to save as many people as possible. However, the second objective was rather utilitarian, perhaps even a little evil.

It was clear that Mice King was a serial murderer who took great joy in killing. It was very difficult for him to focus his attention on dealing with any particular person before all of the other people in the pub were killed. The one good thing about dealing with deranged people was that they were not very pragmatic, and they would often prioritize the fulfillment of their own urges over the objective best course of action.

"Rip 'em into two, rip 'em into two... Have a meat patty, have a meat patty..."

Mice King was humming a tune while killing off the final survivor on the dancefloor, so the only survivors left in the pub were the ones behind Adam.

"Looks like that's the last group. I'll kill all of you, then get back to the street outside."

His body began to mutate as he spoke, and his aura elevated rapidly. It still hadn't reached the same level as Oni no Hanzou, but it was certainly not far away.

Following his transformation, Mice King had taken on the form of a giant mouse with tumors growing all over its entire body, and Adam knew that there was no way that he could contend with it. In fact, he wouldn't even be able to stall it for 10 minutes.

If he were to try and fight fire with fire, everyone left in the pub would be dead in no more than five minutes.

"Isn't it far too boring for you to kill everyone like this?" Adam asked in a mocking voice. "Even a child wouldn't do something so boring."

Mice King had just spread open his claws, but he withdrew them upon hearing this.

"What do you suggest?"

"Why don't we play a game?"

"What game?"

"A game of cat and mouse."

"How is the game played?"

"Right now, there are still one, two, three, four..." Adam slowly counted the survivors behind him one by one. "12 people left behind me. How about we let them go? The elevator has already been destroyed, so these people wouldn't be able to escape anyway. After they're released, we'll go and recapture them, and if I manage to capture more than you, then you have to let them all go."

"What if I capture more than you?"

"Then I'll let you kill them all, and I'll tell you a secret regarding psychic mutants."

"What secret could you possibly know? That sounds like a lie."

"I can assure you it's not. It's a secret about that maggot-looking guy outside." Adam recalled that among all of the psychic mutants he had seen outside, the one that resembled a giant maggot seemed to be on the best terms with Mice King.

"You know a secret about Lilian?"

"That's right."

"You know her?"

"I don't, but I just so happened to run into her once in the past."

The more lies that he told, the greater the risk that he would be exposed. With that in mind, Adam immediately changed the subject.

"Do you want to play or not? Hurry up and make your choice!"

"Sure! Here I come!"

"Alright, then let's begin. You better try and get as far away from here as possible," Adam said as he turned to the people behind him.

The survivors required no further instructions, and they quickly rushed away in all directions.

Mice King immediately tried to set off to capture the fleeing survivors, but Adam stopped him in his tracks.

"Wait for them to hide first! Where's the fun in ending the game as soon as it begins? Did you not play games like this when you were a kid?"

Adam's question brought a series of childhood memories flooding into Mice King's mind. Back when he was a child, he had lived in a dried-up sewage system. The entire area was constantly shrouded in darkness, and it was inhabited by only by homeless people. There were very few people of the same age as him living there back then, so he had no one to play games with.

Adam could tell that Mice King seemed to be confused, so he asked, "Do you not know the rules of the game?"

"What are the rules?"

"The rules are that we have to count to 50 to give everyone time to hide, and only after that can we go after them."

"Of course I knew that! I didn't need you to tell me that!" Mice King yelled, then began to count, and as soon as he hit "50", he abruptly vanished on the spot.

Adam also hurriedly activated his Hyperspeed ability to begin his search.

The best thing about fusing as one with Hellhound was the incredible speed that the fusion granted him. In terms of speed, he wasn't inferior to Mice King by much. In addition to that, he had already visited this pub on several past occasions, so he was very familiar with its layout.

Most importantly, the survivors were readily cooperating with him.

Thus, it didn't take long before he captured eight people, while Mice King only managed to capture four, and that infuriated him to no end.

"This is not fair!"

"What's wrong?"

"My mice saw what happened! While you were looking for them, they didn't even try to hide and just allowed you to find them! There were even two that came out of the toilet after you called out to them!" Mice King was very displeased with the rules of the game. "We need to go another round, but this time, they have to be blindfolded, and you're not allowed to make any sound while searching for them. If I hear your voice, I'm going to kill you!"

"Alright, but you can use your mice to spy on me, either. That's cheating."

"Fine, then you have to withdraw your invoked entity."

"Sure."

After negotiating some terms, cloth strips were torn off a sofa to be used as blindfolds for everyone.

After that, Mice King counted to 50 to give all of the blindfolded survivors a chance to hide, and the second round of cat and mouse began.

As soon as the game began, Adam rushed toward the office.

This was a game of finding people, so he knew that if he were to go to a certain area first, Mice King would generally refrain from following him.

Sure enough, Mice King chose to begin his search in the restrooms, while Adam slowly opened the door of the office after Mice King had left the scene.

The people inside the office already had a rough idea of what was happening outside from what they had heard, and all of them were hiding in dark corners. The only one who stood out among them was Hook, who was still in the process of breaking through the psychic boundaries.

"We have to be quiet. How much longer do you need?" Adam asked as he brought a finger to his own lips in a quieting gesture.

He could see that a rift had already appeared in the air. The rift was completely detached from everything else in the room, resembling a dimensional wall that had been split open, and it was already large enough to just barely fit a person through.

"I still can't fit through it yet. It's going to take a few more minutes."

"Alright, then I'll play another round with him, and I'll bring everyone here when we're done."

Hook nodded in response, then returned to his work.

After leaving the office, Adam began to participate in the game himself.

Despite this brief delay and the fact that he wasn't allowed to make any sound, he was just barely able to pull another win out of the bag thanks to his familiarity with the layout of the pub.

This time, he only managed to capture two more people than Mice King.

However, while searching for the hiding survivors, he was able to deliver a message to everyone that he found.

"During the third game, find a way to get to the office, and make sure you don't make any sound during the process so you don't expose yourselves."

"Alright."

At this point, everyone was already feeling extremely anxious and fearful. However, their lives were at stake here, so they didn't dare to disregard Adam's instructions.

"Argh!"

Upon arriving at the realization that Adam had captured seven people, Mice King was so infuriated that he was about to lose his mind! Losing two games in a row had burned through all of his thin patience, and the tumors all over his body were squirming incessantly, while his eyes had also become bright red.

"This game doesn't count! We're going again, and this time, I'm going to kill all of you!"