**Chapter: 124. Meeting Adam**
Time goes back a little earlier.
“There’s no need to disturb Mr. Adam; I’ll handle this here.”
A man dressed in a well-tailored dark suit with a stern expression stopped the female secretary who was knocking on the door. He was Adam’s secretary, who had just arrived late after talking with the president of the Infinite Academy.
“Tell him there are no high-ranking officials from Special Circumstances SEMA here.”
His voice was deep and powerful, causing the female secretary from Infinite Academy to nod obediently.
She then picked up the phone and relayed the message from Adam’s secretary to the receptionist downstairs without changes.
After a few seconds, the female secretary lifted her head and reported, “That student has left.”
Hearing this, Adam’s secretary nodded slightly, seemingly satisfied.
He then turned around, preparing to inform Adam in the office to get ready and leave Infinite Academy immediately—after all, according to the Book of the Future, it wouldn’t be good for Adam to meet that “candidate for the protagonist” right now.
But before he could raise his hand to knock on the door—
At this moment—
“According to… reports, that student is climbing up along the outer wall!” Suddenly, the female secretary’s urgent, panicked voice came from behind him.
“What!?” Adam’s secretary was taken aback, and he quickly turned around. Almost instinctively, he shouted, “Send out the ability users from the academy and stop him!”
“What? But he’s just a student—”
“Do as I say!” He interrupted her, his voice dark and displeased.
“I, I understand…”
As the secretary in front picked up the phone to notify the ability users inside the building, Adam’s secretary also took out his own phone and swiftly tapped the screen several times.
“What happened?” Adam’s voice came from the other side of the door.
Although the main door was tightly locked, Adam’s voice seemed to reach the secretary’s ears as if he were right in front of him.
“It’s an emergency. Please stay inside, Mr. Adam. I’ve contacted the helicopter that’s about to leave and arranged for the ability users from both Infinite Academy and Special Circumstances SEMA to intercept him,” the secretary replied softly.
Meanwhile, outside the administrative building.
Kou’s figure became a small dot as he moved along the silver glass outer wall.
Kou clenched his fists, black flames wrapping around them, extending into sharp beastly claws, which enabled him to climb on the smooth wall.
The principle was simple: the claws pierced into the wall, giving him a foothold.
The burning black flames transformed into beast claws that embedded deeply into the reinforced glass. With each leap, cracks resembling spider webs spread across the facade, with shards falling like stardust.
The rejection from Infinite Academy was within Kou’s expectations.
That had been his last attempt; if the high-ranking officials of Special Circumstances SEMA were willing to meet him, he could avoid taking more radical measures and turning everything into a violent confrontation.
To be enemies with the Artificial Academy Island and Special Circumstances SEMA was something Kou had never dared to imagine in the past.
But thinking of how all of this was for Nagi’s safety filled Kou with endless courage.
In less than ten seconds, Kou had already climbed several stories, still about twenty stories away from the top of the administrative building. If everything went smoothly, he could meet with the high-ranking “Mr. Adam” from Special Circumstances SEMA in half a minute.
This information came from Aiko, who had informed him that one of the board members visiting Infinite Academy—Adam—was one of the leaders of the Special Circumstances SEMA protagonist plan.
But clearly, everything would not go so smoothly.
At the moment Kou exerted himself to leap, a dark shadow rushed toward him, and although his animal instinct reacted at a critical moment, he couldn’t dodge in time while his body was suspended in midair and was slammed hard into the building by the impact.
The outer layer of reinforced glass shattered as Kou crashed through, and the immense impact along with inertia caused him to slide along the long corridor inside for about ten meters.
“Cough cough…” Kou staggered to his feet while propping himself up with his hands and gently shook his head, glass shards falling from his hair and making crisp sounds as they hit the ground.
“Kid, what are you doing?” another voice came from where the glass had shattered.
It was a tall man in a white uniform, stepping into the chaos around him.
Judging by the attire, he should be one of the ability users stationed at Infinite Academy.
Due to the glass shattering, an urgent alarm rang throughout the building, and the corridor was flashing with blinding red lights.
“Suddenly using abilities in public and climbing the outer wall of the building is not a fun behavior. If you admit your mistake now, the school will impose a suitable penalty without resorting to disciplinary action,” he continued to advise, sounding as if he considered Kou a troublesome delinquent.
“I’m sorry, but I have someone I absolutely need to meet upstairs,” Kou replied, observing his surroundings.
“Meet someone? If that’s the case, you could just talk to the receptionist downstairs—”
“—I’ve tried, so I have to take this route.” Kou interrupted him and moved again.
Just as he said, his goal wasn’t to fight with the ability users of Infinite Academy or Special Circumstances SEMA, but to see the high-ranking officials of Special Circumstances SEMA, so any fight along the way would be a waste of time, potentially giving the other party a chance to escape from Infinite Academy.
Thus, Kou ignored the ability user blocking the glass opening and dashed toward the escape route he had just spotted.
Kou’s fist, wrapped in black flames, extended into beast claws that easily sliced through the iron door of the fire escape.
At that moment, Kou felt like he had transformed into some superhero from a manga.
Clearly, the ability user had not anticipated this move from Kou, standing frozen for half a second.
Then, fearing it might be a trick to draw him away, he hesitated to pursue, and could only attack from a distance while reporting the intruder’s movements to other ability users through his communicator.
Inside the fire escape.
Kou swung the claw formed from black flames and hooked it onto the upper railing, launching himself upward like a tightly strung bow, while behind him, a light bullet made of magical power blasted a charred mark on the wall.
This gave Kou an experience similar to that of Spider-Man.
All these superhero-like skills were techniques Kou had learned over the past month from Nagi and others, significantly enhancing his mobility and offensive capability.
Just as Kou used this method to shorten the distance by about ten floors to the top floor—
His intuition once again warned him of danger.
He dodged an incoming attack by sidestepping, but the path upward was blocked by multiple intruders.
“Stop right there—”
“—I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry.”
Before the other party could finish a full sentence, Kou interrupted.
In the next second, a dazzling golden light erupted from Kou’s eyes.
————————————-
Top floor of the Infinite Academy administrative building.
This floor had been cleared, and the personnel of Infinite Academy had temporarily left to intercept the intruder downstairs.
Adam’s secretary was anxiously pacing back and forth, occasionally looking up at the floor-to-ceiling windows. Standing beside him were two A-grade ability users from Special Circumstances SEMA. Because Adam himself was quite powerful, he had sent the ACE-grade ability users he brought along to protect the students participating in the academy’s league.
This left him with only a few A-grade ability users.
Under the dim sky, the tail rotor lights of a helicopter flying from afar were exceedingly conspicuous.
This made the secretary reveal a delighted expression.
He immediately turned around, intending to ask Adam to go take the helicopter and leave.
However, at that moment—
A violent tremor suddenly erupted underfoot.
Before the secretary could react, the floor next to him cracked open, and a giant claw of black flames tore through the floor.
A battered black-haired boy leaped out from the crack, his golden-glowing eyes locking onto the secretary.
The latter instantly felt a pressure as if being targeted by some top predator, paralyzing him momentarily.
However, the A-grade ability users beside the secretary, clearly experienced in combat, immediately released their fantasy spirit armors and charged forward.
The claws formed from black flames collided with the glowing fantasy spirit armors, the powerful shock overturning all the furniture on the floor, and the reinforced glass of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows shattered.
“I’m here to see Mr. Adam,” the intruding black-haired boy said after avoiding an attack from one A-grade ability user, again turning his gaze to the secretary, speaking in a low and indifferent tone.
“There’s no Mr. Adam here!” The secretary managed to regain his composure from the earlier panic, squeezing out the words to shout.
“Then what are you doing here? You don’t look like personnel from Infinite Academy,” the black-haired boy retorted while dodging the combined assaults of several A-grade ability users.
After a round of exchanges, both sides quickly retreated to a safe distance.
At this time, the sound of the helicopter’s rotor blades coming through the already shattered floor-to-ceiling windows reached everyone’s ears, getting louder as it approached.
…
Kou felt he was only a step away from his goal.
“Step aside, I need to see Mr. Adam.”
“Stop him, take him out of here!” The secretary ordered with a twisted expression.
With his words, Kou could clearly sense the presence of several ability users in front of him starting to release stronger magical power. Not only that, but the Infinite Academy ability users he had just shaken off were quickly closing in on him as well.
Soon, he would face a critical situation with enemies on all sides.
With his current strength, he could not defeat so many ability users.
—Is this where it ends?
—If he failed here, he might never meet the high-ranking officials of Special Circumstances SEMA again, and wouldn’t learn the truth about the “Protagonist Plan” until he became the protagonist in their eyes…
No, I absolutely do not want to become the protagonist…
I must—
“Rewrites”
“Threat”☆
Kou summoned all his magical power, the black flames burning on him swelling instantly. Before the A-grade ability users on site could react, he unleashed his full power, transforming into a blurring shadow that dashed through the wall of A-grade ability users—
“Everyone, don’t move.” The pitch-black claws were pressed against the secretary’s neck.
As the A-grade ability users turned around quickly, they saw Kou holding the secretary hostage.
“If you want him to stay alive, don’t make any rash movements.” Kou lowered his voice, trying to sound as threatening as possible.
“Do you know what you’re doing, Kou Tsuki?” the secretary shouted in realization.
“Storming into the administrative building and taking high-ranking personnel from Special Circumstances SEMA as hostages is an entirely different level of crime!”
“Now you’re admitting that you’re high-ranking personnel from Special Circumstances SEMA?” Kou couldn’t help but retort, but he remained vigilant, keeping his eyes firmly on the A-grade ability users before him.
At that moment, the ability users from Infinite Academy also rushed to the top floor through the fire escape and the cracks in the floor, cornering Kou and the secretary against the wall on the top floor.
Kou could feel that the person he was looking for was right behind him, but even if he broke in, he wouldn’t be able to see him; the other party was not only a member of the board of Special Circumstances SEMA but also a powerful ACE-grade ability user.
The only way for him to meet him was to get the other side to agree to this meeting.
“Let me go and leave. We can pretend we didn’t see anything.” The secretary said harshly.
“Let me see Mr. Adam, and I will take responsibility for all of this.” Kou lowered his posture slightly and spoke sincerely, “I’m not a protagonist.”
“Impossible! There is no Mr. Adam here! Tsuki Kou, this is your last chance. I give you five seconds—”
Before the secretary could finish his sentence, Kou clenched his other empty hand into a fist, silently pressing it against his heart.
“I give you three seconds to let me see Mr. Adam.” Kou withdrew his pleading gaze and interrupt coldly, the black flames swirling around his fist, ready to extend sharp claws at any moment.
“…5.”
“3.”
“4!”
“2.”
“…3!!!”
“1.”
Kou’s eyes glowed with an intense golden light due to the surge of magical power, the ferocity in his gaze intensifying.
Kou had never killed anyone, but strangely, at that moment, he felt not a shred of hesitation or fear—if he killed a high-ranking official of Special Circumstances SEMA, could he still be regarded as the protagonist in your plans?
A slight grin appeared at the corner of Kou’s mouth, revealing a beastly grin.
“Enough.” A calm yet commanding voice interrupted the tense atmosphere from the door behind him.
The door slowly opened.
“Mr. Adam! You can’t—” the secretary shouted in horror, this being the most panicked moment of his life thus far.
Kou slightly turned his face, catching a glimpse of the figure walking out from behind the door—it was a burly and athletic Caucasian man with deep, striking features, dressed in a silver-gray suit, the muscle beneath the fabric stretching it tightly like a small mountain.
“I will take full responsibility for everything that follows,” Adam interrupted the secretary, then turned to Kou and said, “As per your request, I am willing to meet with you. Could you please release him first?”
“The others step back, and give me and Tsuki Kou some time alone.”
