Martial Era: Starting With The Strongest Talent-Chapter 79: Some Privacy

Adam looked at the manager with a faint frown when she repeated his question.

"Didn’t you check the arcade?" he asked, genuine confusion creeping into his voice.

Even with the veil obscuring most of her face, the manager’s bewilderment was obvious, "We have no records of Henry or any of his people visiting an arcade."

That answer only deepened Adam’s confusion.

Without wasting time, the manager quickly pulled up Henry’s movement logs. A holographic display bloomed above the table, listing every location Henry had visited during his stay in the sector, each one accompanied by timestamps and video surveillance.

The heirs leaned forward instinctively.

The coverage was... thorough.

Painfully so.

Every street, every building, every stop Henry had made was accounted for. Nothing was missing.

A few of the heirs shifted uncomfortably, clearly realizing that if the mission hall could monitor Henry this closely, the same level of scrutiny might have been applied to them as well. Still, no one voiced an objection. Now wasn’t the time.

Adam stepped closer to the table, eyes scanning the data again and again.

Nothing.

No arcade.

When he found nothing amiss, Adam didn’t question his memory. Instead, he looked up.

"Do you have records of my own movements?"

Vanessa nodded.

"We deliberately kept less surveillance on you compared to the others," she said evenly, "but yes, we still have some."

At this point, none of the heirs even bothered reacting to the blatant favoritism.

Adam didn’t care.

"Do you have video footage of me from yesterday afternoon?" he asked.

Vanessa nodded again.

"Let me check."

It didn’t take long.

With a flick of her fingers, the display shifted, and the footage began to play.

The footage showed Adam stepping out of the arcade. He had ended his game session early that day, deciding it was better to rest since the incursion exploration was scheduled for the next morning.

On the holographic screen, his figure emerged beneath the neon glow of the arcade sign, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed.

Adam leaned closer.

This was the moment.

The point where one of Henry’s men had blocked his path.

But as the video played, something felt... off.

A faint ripple of static flashed across the screen, so brief and subtle that anyone not actively searching for it would have missed it entirely.

In the very instant the static appeared, the footage skipped forward.

Adam was already walking down the arcade steps.

Adam’s eyes narrowed.

He rewound the footage.

Again.

And again.

Each time, the same thing happened: Adam exiting the arcade, the brief flicker of static, then him descending the steps uninterrupted, no altercation, no presence of anyone else. It was as if that moment had been cleanly carved out of reality itself.

The hall was silent.

The heirs, the Acolytes, even the manager stared at Adam as realization slowly settled in. The way Adam replayed the footage over and over wasn’t the behavior of a confused man, it was the behavior of someone confirming a certainty.

This time, he didn’t rewind it again.

He turned to the manager, his voice low and grim.

"The generator has to be in the arcade."

No one spoke.

"I’m sure of it," Adam added.

Vanessa’s hand slammed down on the table with a sharp crack.

"We’ve been played."

Now everything made sense.

Henry’s erratic movements. The seemingly random locations. The deliberate mess of false trails meant to convince the mission hall that chaos itself was the plan, when in truth, it had all been a smokescreen.

Humanity had created countless technologies in the five hundred years since the monster invasion.

A method to tamper with high-level surveillance so cleanly, so seamlessly, was not only possible, it was inevitable. Vanessa clicked her tongue, then turned to Adam.

"Thank you."

She straightened, as authority flooded back into her posture.

"This meeting is adjourned for the meantime."

They had a direction now.

If they could find and destroy the generator, the barrier would fall. The spread would halt. And all that would remain would be dealing with the mutant rift itself.

As the manager strode out, the heirs began leaving as well, their earlier arrogance replaced with urgency. Finding the generator didn’t stop the siren swamp from spilling monsters in the next thirty hours, preparations still had to be made.

Adam left the hall alongside them, his thoughts already elsewhere. As he stepped into the corridor, he murmured to himself,

"Time to begin the process."

Adam entered his room and immediately locked the door behind him. He didn’t stop there. One by one, he closed the windows, drew the curtains tight, and ensured not a sliver of the city lights slipped through.

He had learned enough by now.

The mission hall kept surveillance on everyone of interest. Even if they were lenient with him, that didn’t mean the eyes weren’t there. Adam had no intention of letting anyone find out his special talent [Equip].

But what he was about to do now didn’t involve his special talent so it didn’t truly matter.

The only real risk is my nudes getting leaked.

That didn’t bother him in the slightest.

Adam stripped without ceremony and stepped into the bathroom. The bathtub was still filled, the water untouched since he’d left for the meeting.

He lowered himself in, the cold biting into his skin at first before his body gradually adjusted.

This was it. The reason he had come to this sector in the first place.

To see if the soul pearls could do more than nourish, to see if they could change him. If it could increase his soul slots and lay the foundation for true growth.

"So much depends on this," Adam murmured, sinking deeper into the water. "And strength... is very much needed now."

That unease he’d felt earlier, the persistent sense of something looming, had never truly left. It sat in the back of his mind, quiet but constant. Paranoia, maybe. Instinct, more likely.

Either way, there was only one solution.

Get stronger.

Adam exhaled slowly and reached into his storage ring. The soul pearls emerged in his palm, smooth and faintly luminous. He didn’t hesitate. One by one, he dropped them into the bath.

The effect was immediate.

The water began to glow, first faintly, then brighter, until it was suffused with a serene, tranquil blue. The light wasn’t harsh; it was soothing, almost hypnotic.

Adam felt the change seep into him, not just his flesh but deeper, brushing against his very soul.

Calm washed over him.

Then the water rippled. The surface disturbed again, and a head broke through.

Black hair clung wetly to pale skin, draping over most of the face. Large, dark eyes emerged beneath the strands, wide and unblinking, innocent in a way that felt profoundly wrong.

Slowly, a body followed, it was slender, naked, and unmistakably feminine, and it rose from the glowing water as if it had always belonged there.

Adam didn’t flinch, shout or recoil.

He simply stared.

In the next instant, the woman lunged at him.

Cold arms wrapped around him with sudden force, dragging him down as the water surged violently. The glow fractured into ripples as Adam was pulled beneath the surface, the calm shattering in a single heartbeat, as the bath swallowed them both.