Abyssal Wanderer

Jim had never liked his own abilities.

From a rational point of view, the identity of a high-risk upgrade path adjuster would bring danger to himself; from an emotional point of view, he hated the feeling of arbitrarily trampling on the free will of others from the bottom of his heart.

Ironically, however, this was exactly the reason why he stood out from more than 200 qualified candidates.

"Only those who hate this ability from the bottom of their hearts are qualified to use it."

Recalling the man's answer when he asked why it was him, Jim activated his ability.

The Nyx Factor spread around lit up the changes in brain potential of all the people around him. The biochip named "Lyre" implanted in his brain began to associate those changes with its own observation mapping of the enemy's representation topological structure, and finally constructed a model that described the functional relationship between these people's brain potential changes and body movements.

Even if this ability cannot reach the level of mind reading in fantasy novels, it will not make much difference in combat performance - not only those active and strong attack intentions, but even those decision clusters that have been encapsulated into instincts through long-term training cannot escape his perception.

For example, long before the burly man named Landa made his threats, Jim already knew clearly that the other party's next plan was to rely on his own and the power armor's excellent defense and momentum to directly crash into him - this guy's plan was as simple as his brain.

For adjusters like Ikaros or Perseus, the ability to "read minds" is enough to make them invincible in battles of the same level, but for adjusters of the Orpheus path, this is just the beginning.

According to legend, the poet Orpheus' lyre, like the sirens' song, can confuse other people's minds, and the depth 2 adjustment and transformation of the Orpheus path to the "lyre" also has a similar ability.

Using the spreading of the Nyx Factor as a medium, Jim's fingers gently plucked the invisible strings.

From the perspective of effectiveness, the Nyx Factor, especially the Nyx Factor that has not penetrated into the enemy's body, has a precise but limited effect on brain potential. At least it cannot do things like directly shutting down brain stem functions to kill, or triggering abnormal discharges to cause epilepsy - perhaps those at a higher level on the Orphic Path can do that - a more feasible approach is to use the evolutionary defects that already exist in the human brain to trigger various cognitive abnormalities.

Evolution is not pre-designed, but the product of adaptation and compromise. Therefore, many functional defects do exist, but are deliberately ignored by consciousness because they have little impact on current survival and reproduction - just like a person's eyes can actually see his nose, but no one usually notices it.

The Depth 2 Orphic Path Adjusters are best at inducing problems that already exist in people.

Blindsight, anosognosia, Capgras delusion, Cotard's syndrome, alien hand syndrome, Alice in Wonderland syndrome... By simply briefly inhibiting or enhancing the discharge state of specific nerve clusters, Orphic path adjusters can evoke various cognitive disorders in others without causing any organic damage.

Facing Randa who was rushing towards him like a dump truck with huge kinetic energy, Jim started with his most skilled method - Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

The light projected into Lan Dayi's eyes was not distorted, but after the light signal was converted into an electrical signal and input into his consciousness, the nerves in the parietal and occipital lobes suddenly discharged abnormally, causing subtle deviations in his understanding of the image he saw.

The target was clearly right in front of him and he could crush him by just crashing into him, but he subconsciously tilted to the left.

So, after watching the burly man knock himself unconscious against the lamppost, Jim turned his attention to the remaining three people.

Jim didn't feel any pressure in defeating a man who could easily kill him numerically.

For someone like Landa who was selected to join the Riot Control Team, the strength of his prosthetics has long surpassed that of ordinary people. Coupled with the blessing of the SIN series exoskeleton, even if he is not an adjuster on a specific upgrade path, just from the performance analysis, his combat power on paper may not be weaker than some weaker Depth 2 adjusters.

But after all, he is not a Path Adjuster. Although Sora has powerful prostheses, implants and exoskeletons, his brain is not adapted to these operating software that surpass human performance. The brain area that controls the movement of human arms is designed to exercise the weak and flexible native arms, not the gorilla mechanical arms with a maximum output of five tons and capable of firing grenade launchers.

Even if one is able to load and run programs through a brain-computer interface and adapt through a lot of exercise, these are ultimately acquired things, and no matter how hard one tries to use them, one cannot compete with those real adjusters.

For Jim, who has reached the depth 2 of the Orphic Path, he has another advantage in dealing with these simple cybernetic enhanced people - compared to the path adjusters whose brain structure has been changed, these guys are closer to native humans in thinking, and their cognition is too easy to influence and manipulate.

The model is summarized from samples of billions of people, relying on millions of dissections to clarify the structure, and the human brain has never evolved a response strategy due to the influence of complex electromagnetic environments in its evolutionary history.

Even though they have powers far beyond those of ordinary people, they are still just humans at heart...

Jiang Zhou thought so.

In myths and legends, only heroes have the ability to resist the magical sound of the lyre with their own will.

Thinking of this, Jim plucked his strings again towards the fire support and network support in the distance.

Considering that the other party was aiming a gun at him this time, he was plucking the other party's amygdala through the "piano sound", inhibiting certain potentials and causing them to break down, thereby stimulating Capgras delusion - a delusion that one believes that someone he knows has been replaced by someone else.

As for the hacker he was targeting, Jim chose to inhibit part of his insular cortex, severing the connection between his emotions and self-perception, making him extremely indifferent to death.

Cotard's syndrome, also known as the living dead syndrome, is a cognitive impairment in which a person believes himself to be dead even though he is still alive.

Since he thought he was dead, he naturally wouldn't have any emotional waves about the gun aimed at his head.

"I beg you not to aim for my head. After all, weren't your orders to bring me back?"

Jim, who was reluctant about killing people, said with some sadness as he looked at the scene in front of him.

And the result...

“Bang!”

"well."

He sighed and continued to play the lyre.

…

Twenty seconds later, Jim looked at the four members of the Riot Control Squad lying on the ground - two of them had fainted due to severe concussion, and the other two had their heads blown to pieces by large-caliber bullets.

With the support of their respective prosthetic modifications, SIN series exoskeleton armor, and tactical memory experience convolution, it can be said that the Riot Control Team is a force that can directly defeat a reconnaissance company in the 21st century, and he defeated them without even moving his feet the entire time.

It can be said that if a Depth 2 Adjuster of any other upgrade path were to be replaced, it would be impossible to accomplish a similar feat so easily. Even the Hercules path, which is known to have the strongest frontal combat power, at least has the process of "combat interaction".

But for Jim, or rather, for the Adjusters of the Orphic Path, the real battle never lies at the level of conventional knives, guns, explosions and projectiles.

After resolving the battle neatly, he ignored Ji Mu who was looking at him like a monster and slowly walked towards Landa who had knocked him unconscious earlier.

"You can hear me now, Commissioner."

He shouted to the unconscious Landa.

After a while, Landa, who was supposed to be unconscious for another hour, opened her eyes and looked at him.

"I can hear it all the time, Mr. Jim Ritter."

Although it was still Landa's voice, the tone of his voice was completely different this time.

"I think we should meet and talk alone." (End of this chapter)