Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 360: Pain and Joy

Adam had passed by the Green Heaven retirement home once in the real world, so he had some recollection of it.

In the real world, the retirement home wasn't as grand and luxurious as the one in Noah's psychic world.

Luxury retirement homes were a thing 100 years ago, but they had completely died out in this day and age.

The wealthiest people in the world were pursuing physical immortality through the use of blank slates, while those in the upper class sought out an eternal psychic lifetime of bliss in the Metaverse.

Even those in the middle class were working themselves to the bone so that they could live a bit longer in cyberspace.

Thus, only the least privileged members of society would go to retirement homes to await their death.

These elderly people generally had very low incomes and no savings or relatives willing to support them. They lived in the dark corners of Sandrise City, and no one paid any heed to them.

Even journalists had no interest in reporting their stories. No one wanted to see how these pitiful elderly people perished, particularly in an age where everyone was pursuing immortality.

In the real world, the Green Heaven retirement home was a dilapidated and depressing place. Aside from the occasional painful groan from the elderly sufferers of chronic diseases, the place was just as silent as a morgue.

However, in the psychic world, the retirement home was presented in a completely different light. Its entrance resembled the gates of heaven, and everything was glowing with holy light. In fact, Adam could even hear a chorus of singing angels as he made his way into the retirement home.

What the hell?

Adam was very perplexed, and he knew that the more abnormal something was in the psychic world, the more deranged and out of touch with reality the host had to be.

This meant that Noah was already so deranged that he was seeing the world completely differently from what it actually was.

Even though Adam had entered the psychic worlds of many insane and disturbed individuals, never had he seen anyone quite so out of touch with reality.

As he made his way into the retirement home, the first thing that Adam saw was a massive fountain. In a place like Sandrise City, where land was worth its weight in gold, there was no way that such a luxurious fountain would've been found in such a low-income area.

Even the water pouring out of the fountain was glowing with resplendent radiance.

Beside the fountain, some of the retirement home's patrons were exercising, some were watching the fountain, some were playing chess, some were chatting amicably with one another, and every single one of them had peaceful and blissful looks on their faces.

Adam tried to speak to one of the elderly patrons, but as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, the old man turned to him and said, "I'm living a very good life here. Thank you."

"That's fine, but I was asking what you're doing."

"I'm living a very good life here. Thank you."

The old man's smile remained completely unchanged, and even though his expression was one of bliss and contentment, it became more and more unnerving the longer one looked at him.

Adam could see this conversation wasn't going anywhere, so he approached a pair of old men who were playing chess instead. Adam observed them for a while to find that they were just playing the same couple of moves back and forth without making any progress.

He tried to communicate with them.

"Hello."

"I'm living a very good life here. Thank you."

The same response was delivered with the exact same expression, and it seemed that none of the elderly patrons here were capable of holding a normal conversation.

Before Adam had a chance to approach anyone else, he spotted a pair of employees in uniforms emerging from the radiant holy palace that was the retirement home, and the two men quickly made their way over to him.

"You're new here, right? Come with us."

That was all that the two men said before turning around to lead the way back to the retirement home.

Adam was very wary of the situation that he was in, but he still followed along.

The pair of employees led Adam into the retirement home, and after passing through an extremely grandiose corridor, they arrived in a massive hall, at the direct center of which was a throne. Atop the throne sat an angel with black wings with a regal crown on its head.

The angel had no face, and from a rough visual estimate, Adam could see that it had to have been close to 20 meters in height, far more massive than even Sludge. If it weren't for the enormous size of the hall, it wouldn't even have been able to contain the angel.

Adam had never seen such an enormous anomaly before, and he immediately prepared to fuse with Sludge, but before he could do so, the angel picked up a scale from beside the throne.

Due to how massive the scale was, the patterns and text on it were clearly visible.

Adam could see that the word "joy" was inscribed on one side of the scale, and the word "pain" on the other.

With a wave of the angel's hand, the massive scale flew over to Adam before slowly descending in front of him, following which it began to release some type of strange force that seemed to be absorbing Adam's emotions.

First, it sucked away all of his happy emotions, and soon, a layer of faint mist arose on the joy side of the scale.

However, it took far longer to suck away his painful emotions, and by the end, there was a dense cloud of black mist weighing on the other side of the scale.

"You have lived a painful life. Your pain far outweighs your happiness," the angel on the throne declared in a grand and implacable voice, as if it were passing judgment upon Adam on behalf of the heavens.

"You're right, I have experienced far more pain than joy in my life."

All anomalies had their own unique abilities, so it didn't surprise Adam that this was one that was capable of seeing into his heart, and he had no qualms in accepting the angel's judgment.

"Death can bring an end to all suffering and pain. Hence, for someone like you, death would be a blessing."

"That's true. I've seen far too much darkness and deception in my life. From the very moment I first awakened, I was destined to lead a tragic life. I have come here with my hands stained by blood and darkness, and death would indeed be a blessing for me, but that's not up ot you to decide."

Adam had already invoked Sludge as she was speaking.

At this point, he had a rough idea of this angel's origins.

Back when he was offering psychotherapeutic services, he had read some books to develop a general understanding of how different types of mental illnesses arose. In this case, he could tell that Noah was being controlled by a twisted desire for power and control.

There was a great deal of joy and gratification to be gained from controlling others, particularly when it came to controlling the life and death of other people.

In the case of a person with kindness in their heart, they would try to logically justify their actions.

Noah was of the opinion that ending the lives of elderly people suffering from chronic illnesses or emotional torment was a blessing and an act of kindness, and he was passing the same judgment upon Adam.

In his eyes, if someone experienced more pain than joy in their life, then they were better off dead.

"My apologies, but I have my reasons for why I must continue living!"

Adam fused as one with Sludge as he spoke, and a sense of tremendous power instantly swept through his entire body.

His enormous body, the power of a level six anomaly, and his newly developed domain instilled him with immense confidence."

"Those who are weak are always unwilling to embrace death. I will help you!"

The angel stood up from its throne, then spread a hand wide open to invoke a hammer-like staff, which it swung down upon Adam's head.

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