Unholy Player

Adyr closed the tabs on his computer and stood up to answer the door, expecting someone from the department handling Spark research. But it didn’t take long for him to realize the visitor wasn’t who he had anticipated.

"Hello, Mr. Adyr. I’m Dr. Conrad Halberstam from the Psychology Department. If you’re available, I’d like to have a brief conversation," said the man in a calm, warm tone. He appeared elderly, with neatly trimmed white hair, a clean-shaven face, a slightly hunched posture, and wore a white lab coat over formal clothing. His glasses caught the hallway light as he looked at Adyr with composed professionalism.

"Hello. I wasn’t expecting you, Doctor," Adyr replied with a polite smile.

And he truly hadn’t been. But he could guess why the man was here.

If Neris had returned, then it meant the entire STF team sent on the mission had likely come back, and everything that happened out there had probably been reported in detail to headquarters.

So they want to be sure I’m not a psychopath, Adyr thought.

The entire STF unit had witnessed what he’d done to Cannibal. And that wasn’t the only incident.

A civilian from the village—Zelda’s father—was missing and never found. The only account in the report noted what Adyr had told the girl: that her father had left the village. Nothing more.

At Cannibal’s fortress, the condition of the outer guards had drawn attention. Each had died in ways that went beyond mere efficiency—torturous, drawn-out deaths that suggested cruelty rather than necessity.

And the events in the butchery room—those had crossed into a level of calculated horror that only the most disturbed minds could conceive.

Adyr had used the corpses of mutants, arranged them like lifelike mannequins, and turned them into bait. All without a flicker of hesitation.