Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 66: Right of Succession

Some thoughts would take root firmly in one's mind as soon as they were conceived, and the more insane these thoughts were, the more irrepressible they became.

While all of this was unfolding in Adam's mind, he was completely engrossed in his own thoughts, to the point that his name had to be called out before he finally returned to his senses.

"What are you thinking about? You suddenly started staring off into space! It's about time for us to get going, so make some preparations, and let's set off. This client seems to be more reliable than the last one. He's more honest, and the price for the treatment has already largely been decided, so we don't have to worry about getting swindled like we did last time."

As an agent, Kim Hee-cho was left feeling quite ashamed after being played for a fool by their previous client. This wasn't just a matter of money, it also concerned his pride as an agent.

It was like a basketball player getting posterized by a violent dunk. Even though the opposition only scored two points, the humiliation went far beyond those two points.

"Rest assured, when it comes to business, I never make the same mistake twice. There's a great deal of room for price negotiation in this job, and we'll determine the final price according to how powerful his emotional aberrations are. Make sure to set the price on the higher end as much as possible."

After a brief discussion, everyone logged out of the Metaverse.

When it came to hunting emotional aberrations, Adam always liked to bring Hook with him for his exceptional scouting abilities, which were extremely helpful under a variety of circumstances. However, Hook had recently gotten "hooked" on social media with the dream of becoming an internet celebrity, and he refused to participate in this mission, leaving Adam feeling quite disgruntled.

"I get that he doesn't like to take on jobs involving emotional anomalies, but this mission only involves the cleansing of emotional aberrations, yet he's still unwilling to come!" Adam complained.

The destination for this job was very close, so he and Shae chose to take a cab there. Traveling by car wasn't as fast as traveling by void rail, but it was more comfortable and allowed for more freedom in conversation.

"It's alright, you've got me this time. I've never been on a mission like this before."

Shae never had the need to take on jobs of this nature for income, and her family also prohibited her from engaging in such activities. Hence, it could be said that she was essentially a sheltered flower in a greenhouse, and that greenhouse had been intentionally isolated from the outside world.

Hence, she was very excited to be going on this mission.

"Are emotional aberrations difficult to eradicate?"

"Some of them are more powerful but most of them are pretty mediocre. However, there's usually a huge number of them..."

While Adam was answering Shae's question, he received a call on his communicator from an unknown number.

Adam presumed that the call was from someone from the pawn shop, but after accepting the call, he was greeted by the sight of a rigid face that looked as if it belonged to a wax statue.

"Mr. Second-in-command! To what do I owe this honor?"

The second-in-command nodded in response.

"Is Shae Kim still alive?"

“Yes.”

"Is she with you right now?"

"That's right."

"Get her on the call."

The tone of the second-in-command's voice was just as stiff and dead as his facial features, and Adam duly obliged, turning the camera to face Shae.

"Do you want the right to succession of Golden Teeth Incorporated?"

"The right to succession?" Shae shook her head in response. "I don't have the right to succession. I didn't have it even back when my parents were around, and now..."

"I'm not asking you if you want the right to succession," the second-in-command repeated in a rigid voice, and it was as if he hadn't heard what Shae had said at all.

Shae considered the notion for a moment before nodding in response.

"I do."

"Alright, then our organization will try to secure the right to succession for you," the second-in-command declared. It seemed that they had encountered some obstacles on their end that were impeding their progress. "Your parents have already been dealt with, but your uncle is trying to support one of your cousins to become the heir to the company. Right now, he's received the support of the major company shareholder, Masao Yamamoto, and he's also under intensive protection from the Oni Organization, so we're unable to take him out of the picture. Hence, we need you to step up and pursue the right to succession of the company."

Shae opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by the second-in-command.

"Seeing as you're willing to pursue the right to succession, we'll take care of the rest to help you inherit the company."

Shae opened her mouth once again to speak, but at that point, the second-in-command had already hung up.

"Jeez, he really doesn't like to waste time at all, does he?" Adam shook his head with a resigned expression, then took his communicator back from Shae. "What are your thoughts?"

"I basically want the same things that you want," Shae sighed. In the wake of the massive bombshell that had been dropped onto her life, her personality seemed to have undergone a change. "I want to learn about my past, and I also want revenge, but it's way too hard to do all of that on my own. Let's just start with doing what we can. I gotta stop talking now."

"What's wrong?"

"My headache's flaring up again."

Shae pulled out her painkillers and took one before leaning back against her backrest and closing her eyes.

……

Due to the close proximity of the destination, it didn't take long for the cab to arrive in front of a tall building.

The neon sign on the building displayed the words "Micrometa Corporation", and even though it was already late at night, many of the offices in the building were still brightly lit.

"It's already 9 PM. Even if he's following that 996 schedule, he should already be done with work."

As it turned out, after Kim Hee-cho arrived, the three of them had to wait another half an hour before they were finally contacted by the client, whose name was Wang Shuai.

As soon as Adam caught sight of the client, he immediately had his attention drawn to Wang Shuai's eyes. The dark circles around his eyes and the bags under them were extremely pronounced. Those massive eye bags looked as if they were about to droop down to his chin, as if he had a pair of kangaroo pouches hanging on his face.

The next thing that Adam noticed was his disposition. The anxiety radiating from Wang Shuai's body was virtually palpable, and he was like the walking embodiment of that feeling where one was clearly extremely sleepy and tired, but was unable to fall asleep no matter how hard they tried. In stark contrast with their previous client, who kept himself in great shape, just the mere sight of this client was enough to make the beholder feel very uncomfortable.

"Sorry for being late. There was a feature that I had to test, so I had to stay behind a little longer." Wang Shuai heaved an exhausted sigh upon meeting up with Adam's trio, and his breath reeked as a symptom of his stress and exhaustion.

"Alright, then let's begin." Kim Hee-cho paid no heed to the stench of Wang Shuai's breath. After all, money smelled much the same. He pulled out a more advanced projection device as he spoke. "This is a new piece of equipment that our company recently acquired. Not only is it able to project your psychic world, it's also capable of capturing video footage. We charge very fair and competitive rates, and we're going to first conduct an examination of the state of your psychic world, then determine the cost of the treatment according to our findings. Does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds fair," Wang Shuai replied with a nod. "Where are we doing the treatment?"

"Anywhere is fine as long as it's a quiet and isolated environment."

"Then let's go into the company. We get a free meal at 10 PM."

"Sure."

Thus, Wang Shuai led the group into the Micrometa Corporation building. There were still many people inside who were still working and debugging programs. Even though much of the process of writing programs was completed by artificial intelligence, there were some fundamental elements that humans still didn't dare to leave to machines, so there were still many job opportunities for programmers.

"It feels like everyone here is the same..."

Shae inspected the people around them as they were passing through the company, and she discovered that everyone shared the same pair of characteristics in their physical appearance: eye bags and bald spots.

What she was seeing was an atmosphere of anxiety, while Kim Hee-cho was seeing a wealth of business opportunities.

"I feel like everyone here requires psychotherapeutic treatment." He passed an electric business card to Wang Shuai as he spoke. "If you feel satisfied with our treatment, please recommend our services to your colleagues. Nowadays, everyone thinks adapter psychotherapy services are very expensive, but that's not necessarily the case. Our service specifically caters to people like yourself."