Chapter 55: Nothing Beats The Real Stuff

The clan heirs remained where they were, frozen in place, each wearing a different expression.

Henry of the Faraday clan stared at the open gate, as his jaw tightened.

What was that speed?

He had noticed Adam the moment the manager called him out earlier. Back then, Henry had dismissed it as favoritism, some quiet relationship, fostered from background connections. That explanation had been convenient.

Now, it was impossible.

Adam had been there one moment and gone the next. Not a blur. Not a trace. Just gone. And the most unsettling part was that Henry, a profound apprentice, hadn’t been able to see how he moved.

That made one thing painfully clear.

Adam wasn’t just close to the manager.

He was strong.

Nearby, Abigail was still staring at the spot Adam had vanished from. She turned her head slightly toward Dickson, who was standing beside her in a daze.

“What did you say his special and cultivation talent ranks were again?”

Dickson swallowed, eyes still fixed forward.

“A… G-rank cultivation talent. And a rankless special talent.”

Even as he said it, he struggled to believe his own words.

Abigail didn’t respond immediately. Her sunglasses hid her eyes, but her attention never left that empty space.

“A lot must have changed since you last saw him,” she said at last.

Movement began around them as the other clan heirs finally snapped out of their shock and started entering the incursion.

Abigail straightened.

“Let’s start moving as well.”

Dickson nodded, as did the rest of her followers, and they followed her through the gate into the Sirens’ Swamp.

Behind them, the manager remained where she was.

She watched the heirs rush into the incursion through her veiled gaze, expression unreadable.

Did he really have to show off?

She shook her head at the thought before she turned away; she headed toward the area prepared for her to stay in during the exploration.

Despite all her talk about not caring what happened to the clan heirs, she still had a duty to supervise the perimeter.

That, and one more reason.

They were more than strong enough for this incursion.

But Adam?

He was the real variable.

As she took her place, a faint smile tugged at her lips beneath the veil.

I wonder what surprises you have in store for us.

Adam finally came to a stop deep within the swamp.

The terrain felt familiar thanks to Essence Online, so navigating this kind of environment posed no problem at all.

Mud, stagnant water, uneven ground, obscured sightlines, he’d already dealt with all of it countless times in the game.

“At least this way, I won’t have some fools getting in my way.” Adam muttered quietly.

He hadn’t imagined it.

Back at the gate, when he’d activated [Connect] out of habit, he’d sensed it clearly, hostile intent. Quite a few clan heirs had been watching him with thoughts that weren’t exactly friendly.

Adam wasn’t worried about dealing with them.

But, instead of waiting to be jumped just to show off his strength later, showing it now was the smarter and less stressful option.

However, if anyone were to come after him despite that, Adam wouldn’t hold back from knocking some sense into them.

With that decision settled, Adam finally took in his surroundings properly.

Just like in Essence Online, the Sirens’ Swamp was dominated by large, stagnant bodies of water. Murky pools stretched between clusters of twisted trees, their roots jutting out at odd angles, some half-submerged, others clawing into the air.

Everything matched.

The details he’d memorized from the tablets.

The instincts he’d developed through countless virtual hunts.

Together, they made the terrain feel almost… readable.

This place wouldn’t slow him down.

Adam exhaled slowly.

“Let’s begin the hunt.”

And in the next moment.

He vanished from the spot.

Adam found the nearest Siren gathering almost immediately.

No difficulty at all.

More than a dozen Sirens surged toward him at once, water splashing violently as they emerged.

Their naked, feminine forms might have distracted weaker minds, but to Adam they were nothing more than moving targets. Their silent voices rose in unison, Lullaby G flooding the air, while their claws slashed forward, aiming to tear him apart.

However it was all useless.

By now, this had become instinct.

Adam knew their attack patterns. Their timing. Their weaknesses.

With the common knife gripped firmly in his hand, he charged straight at them, pushing through the waves of silence without slowing down.

The lullaby washed over his mind and broke apart like mist against stone.

He reached the first Siren.

The blade plunged into its chest.

The moment steel pierced flesh, a strange sensation coursed through him.

It wasn’t unpleasant.

If anything, it felt familiar.

Like an alcoholic who’d stayed sober for a week, only to finally take that first sip again. That rush. That warmth. That unmistakable sense of rightness.

Noth­ing beats the real stuff.

He ripped the knife free. Blood gushed as the Siren collapsed, lifeless, into the murky water, but Adam was already gone.

He flowed into the next one.

And the next.

Each kill came smoother than the last. Sirens fell before they could even process what was happening, their attacks missing empty air as Adam slipped through their ranks like a phantom.

The more he killed.

The wider his smile grew.

White motes of light didn’t rise into the swamp air this time; after all, this was the real deal.

Only the stench of blood and stagnant water remained as Adam carved his way forward, completely in his element.

Adam stood amid the scattered corpses of the Sirens.

Their bodies lay sprawled across the swamp floor, pale forms half-submerged in mud and stagnant water.

Despite the frenzy of the slaughter, and despite his own impulses, not a single drop of blood had touched his new armament.

That alone felt like a victory.

He’d already harvested the valuable organs with practiced efficiency. As for the granulite, he left it behind. Its only purpose was to serve as proof of a run in a rift, and this wasn’t a rift.

This was an incursion.

Granulite was worthless here.

Which meant there was only one thing left.

The Soul pearls.

Adam turned toward one of the stagnant pools nearby. The water was dark and opaque, its surface unnaturally still. As he watched, a single bubble swelled upward…

Pop!

It burst quietly.

Adam stared at the spot for a moment, his expression completely blank.

“Here goes nothing.”

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