"Wow, she's far more powerful than I imagined. There are some veteran adapters who aren't even at her level," Red Spider exclaimed as she watched the unfolding projected image. "It's just a pity that the fear in your daughter's heart is too strong. Even for her, this will be a very difficult opponent to beat. By the way, does this anomaly seem familiar to you at all?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

Deranged Pig was staring at the image with an extremely tense expression, and he didn't know what to make of her question.

"Are you seriously that clueless? Can't you tell that someone you know is the perpetrator here?" Red Spider pointed at the anomaly in the image as she said, "This scarecrow anomaly who hurt your daughter and caused her psychological trauma is someone that Swift is familiar with, which means there's a very good chance that you also know them in the real world. Every emotional anomaly carries traits of the person that gave rise to them. Can't you examine the traits of this anomaly to figure out who it is?"

"You think I'm familiar with a black scarecrow?"

"I'm telling you to look at its demeanor and disposition! Forget it, you're hopeless. Looks like the fight's begun!"

……

Inside the psychic world, Nie Yiyi quickly completed her accumulation of energy, then launched herself at the scarecrow like a cannonball, traveling more than twice as fast as before.

As she unleashed her first attack, wind pressure automatically gathered in front of her blade, and the destructive power of the attack was also raised by over twofold.

On this occasion, the scarecrow blocked her attack, and the two were evenly matched for that exchange.

However, due to its superior size, the scarecrow was still able to send Nie Yiyi flying. As she flew back through the air, cyberglyphs were manifested beneath her feet, and she doubled back in mid-air before lashing out with her blades again.

Once again, she was sent flying through the air, but she refused to be discouraged and switched to a different angle in mid-air before trying again.

After several exchanges, Nie Yiyi was growing faster and faster, peppering the scarecrow with attacks from all types of different angles, seemingly trying to find a chink in the scarecrow's defenses with her superior speed.

Finally, as the wind pressure in the surrounding area mounted to a peak, Nie Yiyi found an opportunity to strike, darting around in mid-air so that she was behind the scarecrow before plunging her blade into the back of its neck.

The blade was imbued with all of the energy that she had accumulated, but she still found it extremely difficult to plunge it into her opponent's body. After driving her blade into the scarecrow's body with great difficulty, the scarecrow's head suddenly swiveled around 180 degrees so that its huge mouth was directly facing her.

The scarecrow's mouth gaped wide open, and it let loose a deafening screech that resembled the sound of an air raid siren. The ear-splitting sound threatened to shatter even the surrounding air, and Nie Yiyi was struck by it at point-blank range before flying back through the air with blood gushing out of her mouth.

However, the anomaly clearly didn't intend to let her off the hook after she had wounded it. It sped through the air in hot pursuit, swatting her down into the ground with its metal hook, following which beams of green light shot out of its eyes.

This is bad! 

In the instant that Nie Yiyi was slammed into the ground by the metal hook, she was immediately struck by the feeling that something was wrong. The hook was imbued with the power of fear, and after being struck by it, she was unable to muster up any strength to evade, nor accumulate any energy to defend herself.

Her psychic body's offensive prowess was far superior to its defensive capabilities, so it was imperative that she avoided direct, full-frontal clashes against opponents of the same level as herself. At the moment, she was facing an opponent that was even more powerful than her, and there was a very good chance that this attack would completely destroy her psychic body, thereby leaving her brain-dead. In this instant, she couldn't help but wonder why the people overseeing the situation in the real world hadn't severed the connection yet.

The answer to her question quickly arrived.

Right as the green laser beams were about to reach her, a mummy jumped up in front of her to shield her from the killing blow.

The green laser beams were like streams of corrosive acid, eating away a large section of Mummy's body.

Thankfully, Mummy was an anomaly of pain, so pain was equivalent to a stimulant for it. Furthermore, its defensive prowess was extremely impressive, so the laser beams wouldn't be able to kill it in a short time.

Taking advantage of this window of respite, Nie Yiyi quickly gathered energy to expel the power of fear that was debilitating her, then rushed away from the scene.

"Thanks!" 

Having just brushed shoulders with death, Nie Yiyi didn't notice Adam until now.

"We're all on this mission together, so I can't let you do all the work. What do we do now?"

"I'm no match for it. I think we should retreat for now."

"I was thinking the exact same thing!"

As the two were speaking with one another, Hook had already rushed over to where Kim was hiding and had grabbed her in preparation to flee the scene. It was clear that Adam had already arranged all of this in advance, which meant that he had made the right decision in a snap.

Even Nie Yiyi was a little impressed by his calmness and foresight.

However, she made no remark on this, and after ensuring that Kim was safe, she immediately fled in another direction.

"Let's split up for now and meet at Kim's house!"

"Alright," Adam replied before also fleeing the scene.

The scarecrow could see that Adam's trio was beginning to escape, and it let loose another piercing howl, following which a flock of black bats came fluttering out from its back.

Each of the bats was around half the size of a human with menacing features, and they were flying extremely fast.

"We're not going to be able to outrun those things, Boss!" 

As soon as the bats appeared, they began to quickly close down the distance between themselves and Adam's duo. After the span of just a few seconds, they had already arrived directly above Adam and Hook, and they were flapping around in the sky, searching for an opportunity to attack.

Whoosh! 

The first bat swooped down from above, and Adam managed to just barely evade it, but it still managed to tear off a chunk of flesh from his chest and belly.

My psychic body is too weak! 

More and more bats were gathering overhead, and with his frail psychic body, there was no way that Adam would be able to last very long. Thus, he could only invoke his two anomalies to protect him, but as a result, he was slowed down significantly.

Meanwhile, Hook was in an even worse situation. Not only did he not have any anomalies to support him, he had to protect Kim from the flock of bats, and his brass exterior was already riddled with bat claw marks.

"We're not going to be able to get away like this! Hurry up and get inside me!" 

After avoiding another round of attacks, Hook turned and threw himself at Adam. While launching himself through the air, the cabin door on his stomach sprang open.

Even though the cabin was still as greasy as ever, Adam didn't have any other choice in this urgent situation, and he leaped into Hook's body.

"Oh!" 

In the instant that Adam entered his body, a satisfied look appeared on Hook's face.

After the cabin door swung shut, Hook's body began to take on a red hue, and before long, the entirety of his brass exterior had turned a crimson color.

"What are you waiting for? Use me!"

"How do I do that?"

"Isn't there a joystick inside?"

"Ah, right!" 

Adam didn't have any experience in operating steam engines. In fact, there weren't many people left in the entire world in this day and age who still knew how to operate steam engines.

Adam directed his attention toward the antiquated joystick before him, then began tugging randomly on it in an experimental fashion.

As he did so, the blissful look on Hook's face became more and more pronounced, and white smoke rose up from the steam engine on his back before he charged forward at over thrice the speed he was capable of reaching without a pilot to operate him.

"I've really missed this feeling!" Even as Hook was galloping along at full speed, he still didn't forget about his allies. "What's going to happen to Nie Yiyi? Will she be alright?"

"Let's stop for a moment and take a look." 

After a brief familiarization process, Adam was now somewhat able to operate Hook. After performing a series of motions with the joystick, Hook swiveled around, and he was able to see what was happening in the distance through the glass cabin door.

The scarecrow had abandoned Adam's duo and was exclusively pursuing Nie Yiyi. It was clear that in its eyes, even Adam and Hook combined didn't pose as much of a threat as Nie Yiyi.

Fortunately, speed was one of Nie Yiyi's fortes, and she was clearly faster than the anomaly, so it didn't seem like she was in much danger.

As for Adam and Hook, as soon as they stopped, the bats came swarming toward them again.

"Looks like she'll be fine, but we're in some trouble! Let's retreat for now." 

After making his decision, Adam operated Hook to continue in their escape.