Chapter 351: Skunk
Chapter 351: Skunk
Adam heaved a long sigh of relief after Ross and the others had faded out of sight.
This battle hadn\'t been anywhere near as spectacular as his battles in the psychic world, but it hadn\'t been any less perilous, and even the slightest misstep would\'ve resulted in his death.
It seems like I\'ve been pretty lucky.
If even a single one of the three people who had perished here had harbored an anomaly that had been able to put up any resistance, then Adam would\'ve been well and truly screwed.
Thankfully, even in Darvaza Prison, there weren\'t many inmates like Sima Kai, whose psychic bodies were completely fused as one with their anomalies.
……
After weathering this storm, Adam wasn\'t going to be in any immediate danger in the near future.
This was because Thilan had been pulling some strings.
In the chief warden\'s office, Emmanuel had received a call from his father. As the disgrace of the Hosman Family, a fat pig with below-average intelligence, Emmanuel had always been looked down on by his father, and his father was also the person that he feared the most.
Ever since he was a child, Emmanuel had been abused extensively by his own father, both physically and mentally.
Hence, as soon as he heard his father\'s furious voice on the other end of the line, the vicious look on his face instantly turned into one of shock and horror.
"Yes, I understand... Rest assured, Father... Yes, I know it\'s very important. I know he\'s really popular in the outside world, and I know he has close ties with the northern congress... Yes, I\'ll make sure to do a clean job... Don\'t worry, Father, there\'s no way he would die so easily. I\'ll send someone to check on him right away... I understand, I\'ll wait until some time has passed before I target him again..."
……
After the call ended, Emmanuel immediately slumped back in his chair like a deflated balloon, and he looked up to see Thilan entering his office once again.
"Just you wait!"
He knew that it was Thilan who had reported his actions to his father, so in the instant that he caught sight of Thilan, he finally saw someone that he could vent his cowardice and fear on. Of course, those emotions were being expressed in the form of anger.
"Sooner or later, I\'m going to..."
"What\'re you going to do?" Thilan asked as he watched Emmanuel through narrowed eyes.
Throughout his investigation, he was constantly being impeded by incompetent figures, and that was one of the reasons why he had decided to betray the southern congress.
"There\'s a saying in the east that a dog that bites its owner will die sooner or later. You may not suffer the consequences right away, but at some point..."
Emmanuel\'s voice trailed off here as he pressed a button on the table, and it didn\'t take long before a pair of wardens made their way into the office.
"Go and check on Adam. If he\'s not dead, then tell the others not to touch him for now."
The two wardens immediately departed to carry out the instruction, and several minutes, they returned, bearing a piece of news that came as a massive relief to both Emmanuel and Thilan.
"Adam isn\'t dead, Mr. Chief Warden. Members of the Desert Gang in the third area tried to make a move on him, but he seems to be quite a capable fighter, and he was able to take out three of the gang members while emerging completely unscathed himself."
"Good. Tell all of the gang leaders that he\'s not to be killed within the next 10 days."
"Yes, Mr. Chief Warden."
After the pair of wardens departed, Thilan took a glance at Emmanuel, then departed in silence.
He had to make some preparations.
Adam\'s status as an internet celebrity would allow him to remain safe in the initial phase of his incarceration, but in this day and age, there was a constant stream of explosive news stories blasting the public consciousness.
Hence, it wasn\'t going to take long before Adam was forgotten, and that was going to place him in a very perilous situation.
During this period of respite, he had to use his connections to help Adam establish a firm foothold in the prison.
Thilan ignored Emmanuel\'s vicious gaze as he closed the door to his office.
Don\'t disappoint me, Adam. I\'m betting everything on you.
……
It had already been a week since Adam arrived in Darvaza Prison, and during this time, he had developed a good grasp of the prison\'s layout.
The prison was split up into several areas, namely the cell area, the factory, the cafeteria, the activity area, and the showers.
The safest of those areas was the activity area as it was situated outdoors and was overseen by a large number of Mechguard units, so none of the inmates dared to start any conflicts there.
The second-safest area was the cell area, which was patrolled by miniature flying Mechguard units and overseen by surveillance cameras.
Then came the cafeteria, where the situation was similar to that of the cell area, except there were fewer patrolling Mechguard units.
The most dangerous areas were the factory and the showers, and there were people dying in those two areas virtually every single day. Of course, in a prison with tens of thousands of inmates, a handful of people dying here and there wasn\'t enough to cause much of a stir.
Darvaza Prison had a terrible reputation in the outside world, and with the collapse of humanitarianism, all of the people on the outside were hoping that the inmates would die sooner so they wouldn\'t waste any more taxpayer dollars.
In terms of the daily schedule, it was much the same as working a job in the outside world. The only difference was that there was no hope for those who didn\'t work in the outside world, whereas those who didn\'t work in the prison were only given one meal a day and completely deprived of any time for recreation.
Inmates had to work during the day and received time to relax at night, while weekends meant additional time off.
However, even during those hours where inmates weren\'t working, the majority of them laid around and did nothing as the white energy bundles provided in the morning were only just enough to fulfill their basal metabolic needs.
Hence, even though there were inmates being killed almost every day, the number of inmate deaths wasn\'t very high. Without sufficient sustenance, inmates were far less aggressive than they otherwise would\'ve been.
After familiarizing himself with the different areas and daily schedules in the prison, Adam began to learn about the different powers here.
There were a total of three major factions in the three areas, and they were split up based on regions and ethnicities.
The Desert Gang was the faction that represented Sandrise City. Sandrise City was situated in a desert, so the Desert Gang was essentially the local faction.
The Asian Gang had fewer members, but it was a very tightly knit organization that didn\'t take in any members who weren\'t of Asian descent.
There were even fewer members in the Radiation Gang. These were people who came from the radiation zones, and virtually all of them were extremely abnormal, both physically and mentally. Many of them had physical mutations from radiation exposure, only to be turned into essentially humanoid monsters after receiving treatment from cutting-edge technology.
The Desert Gang had the most members out of the three factions, and its members were always going around charging protection fees, but they always made sure to stay out of the way of the monsters from the Radiation Gang.
The advantage that the locals from the Desert Gang had was that they all appeared to be relatively normal and were on good terms with the wardens. Hence, on the surface, the Desert Gang was the most powerful of the three major factions.
On this day, Adam was squatting in a corner during the allotted activity time, observing the inmates around him when he suddenly felt someone looking at him. He turned in that direction, and the person who was looking at him gave him a subtle hand signal, indicating for him to leave the area being overseen by surveillance cameras.
Adam had no idea who this person was. Then again, with several thousand inmates in the third area alone, he wasn\'t familiar with the vast majority of the inmates here.
The man was completely unremarkable in appearance, and Adam couldn\'t sense any animosity from him through his telegnosis.
Thus, Adam didn\'t hesitate before rising to his feet and following the man from a distance to a secluded corner.
"I was instructed by Wax Figure to give you this."
The man pulled a stinky object out of his pants, and Adam looked down to find that it was a tiny synapse transmission device.
"This was the biggest one we could smuggle in for you. Its effective range is 12 meters. My name is Skunk, you can come to me if you need anything."
With that, the young man promptly departed.
Adam took a sniff at the synapse transmission device, then tucked it under his own clothes with a rather disgusted look on his face.