Chapter 39: 80,000
Chapter 39: 80,000
After entering Karen's home, Adam made his way into the guest hall, where he saw a girl who was working on a piece of artwork.
She had a set of gentle and delicate features, but she was wearing heavy mascara, giving her an appearance that clearly didn't match her disposition. As soon as she saw Karen returning home with a group of men, a displeased look instantly appeared on her face.
"You're bringing men home again! Can you make sure I'm not around when you're doing something like this? And stop bringing random men home!"
The girl threw down her brush as she spoke.
In the face of her daughter, Karen clearly wasn't as calm and collected as she normally was, and she picked up the brush from the ground, then took a deep breath to muster up her patience as she said, "They're not here to see me, they're here to diagnose your condition. These two are psychotherapists. I asked them to come and..."
"I told you there's nothing wrong with me! You don't need to find therapists for me, and I don't need any help."
"They're adapters, so they were very expensive to hire. Do you know how much money I had to spend to get them to come here? I have to pay at least 80,000 just for this visit!"
"80,000?" The girl faltered slightly upon hearing this. "You're willing to spend that much money for me?"
Initially, the girl was a little skeptical, but after a brief moment of silence, she suddenly said, "Get them to refund your money! There's nothing wrong with me. I know myself better than anyone else, and I know that I'm fine! Rather than hiring these people, you should pay more attention to me and get a new job so I can stop getting mocked at school!"
It was clear that the girl was very opposed to receiving treatment, so Kim Hee-cho decided to intervene. "Your mother already issued the deposit to us. Even if you don't agree to accept our treatment, the deposit is non-refundable."
This was clearly a lie, but as the negotiator, his role was to act as the middleman and do everything in his power to strike a deal between the client and the service provider, as long as both sides were happy. Telling lies was a little underhanded, but which negotiator hadn't told a lie at some point or another?
A hesitant look appeared on the girl's face upon learning that the deposit was non-refundable.
As was the case in most normal families, children learned from a young age the value of money and how difficult it was to earn money.
Thus, even though she was opposed to accepting treatment, she was even more opposed to letting the money go to waste.
"Fine, you can do whatever you want then. Once you find out that there's nothing wrong with me, she'll realize how stupid she was to spend so much money to hire you."
The girl sat down onto the sofa as she spoke, remaining still as she waited for the treatment to commence.
Adam took a glance at Hook, and right when he was about to invade the girl's consciousness, he was interrupted by Kim Hee-cho.
"Hold on, don't forget this," he said as he fiddled with a device that he was clearly not very familiar with. Adam was immediately able to identify the object as a psychic world projection device, and he was surprised to see that Kim Hee-cho was so well prepared.
I suppose it's only fair that the client gets to see what we're doing.
Adam attached the device to his own arm, then reached out with a finger as he began to invade the girl's psychic world.
Due to the fact that the girl was opposed to all of this, Adam could clearly feel an invisible barrier standing in his way during the infiltration process. Thankfully, he was no longer the complete novice that he once was, and he had mastered many techniques under Sadou's tutelage. In addition to that, he also possessed sufficient ability to allow him to easily pierce through a normal person's psychic boundaries.
He turned his psychic body into a sharper form that allowed him to quickly pierce through the psychic boundaries, following which he blacked out and entered the girl's psychic world.
"Nice one!"
"Good shot!"
"Let's go, Dawn High!"
……
As soon as Adam entered the girl's psychic world, he found himself in a very loud and rowdy environment. He looked around to discover that he was in a basketball stadium, and there were two teams playing on the court, one of which was from Dawn High School, while the other team was from an unknown high school. The fact that the name was blurred out indicated that the girl didn't even bother to remember which school they were up against.
"Looks like we're in a school again." Hook had also arrived on the scene, looking much like a steam-powered automaton, and he turned his bulky body from side to side as he inspected his surroundings. His gaze settled on a certain spot in the distance, and he said, "There's the mission target. Should we approach her right away?"
"Let's wait and see how the situation plays out first."
Adam was carefully inspecting his surroundings.
He wasn't surprised that they had appeared in a school. After all, for the average high school student, the vast majority of their lives were spent at school and at home, so if something were to happen, there was a very high likelihood that it would be in one of those two places.
Adam was keeping tabs on two things, one of which was the atmosphere. In contrast with Kim's psychic world, the mission target's psychic world was clearly more harmonious and not as terrifying.
However, it was still quite oppressive, and it was as if they were in an environment with low atmospheric pressure, making it difficult to breathe.
"There's definitely something wrong here."
The environment of one's psychic world was a reflection of one's mood and emotions. Kim's psychic world resembled a scene straight out of a horror film, with ominous, chilly wind, and a depressingly gray color tone.
"I agree. Take a look at the mission target: she's watching the tallest player on the court." Hook's attention was elsewhere, and with the slightly sleazy personality he had developed as the successor of the Perspiration Pub, he was immediately able to make sense of the situation. "She likes that boy."
"It's normal for high school students her age to enter relationships."
Adam had never been in a relationship before, but he was speaking as if he had a vast wealth of worldly wisdom.
"Nonono, something's not right here. Have you forgotten what my specialty is?" Hook excelled in observation and attention to detail, and he pulled out his magnifying glass as he spoke. "There are more black lines than red ones, so her hatred for him outweighs her love."
"How does he feel toward the mission target?"
"It's all very blurry, which means that even the mission target herself doesn't know how he feels about her."
As the two of them were discussing the situation, the final whistle rang out, signaling the end of the game.
Dawn High School had come out on top.
While everyone was celebrating together in a huddle, the mission target approached the tallest boy on the team with a water bottle and a towel, and the two of them embraced.
"Looks like this is before whatever incident caused her condition, but things should be about to go wrong soon. We're currently in one of the most deeply engrained memories in her mind."
Hook began to pull out a variety of tools that he used to examine the psychic world around him, satisfying his strange fetish of curiosity.
"I feel like something's about to happen soon. Let's follow them."
The boisterous scenes of celebration quickly passed.
After all of the spectators in the stadium had departed, the players began to return to the changing rooms. The girl indicated to the boy that she would wait for him outside the stadium, and the boy gestured in response before catching up with his teammates on the way back to the changing rooms.
"I gotta get changed, Chloe. I'll see you soon."
"Sure."
Hook was listening from afar using an object that resembled a bugging device, and he said, "So the mission target's name is Chloe. She's just left the stadium... Oh wait, it seems like there's something important that she forgot to give to the boy. She's making her way back into the stadium now. Let's follow her!"
Thus, the two of them followed Chloe to the corner of the changing room, following which a series of voices rang out from within Hook's bugging device.
"I heard you've got that stripper's daughter eating out of the palm of your hand. Have you fucked her yet? Is her ass as hot as her mum's?"