**New York University dical Center**
John lay in agony, experiencing the bitter end. Even after his last breath, he remained unseeing. Soon after, the police arrived, and under the female detective's command, they began cleaning up the scene.
Since this was a hospital, once the evidence was secured, dical staff moved in imdiately. The body was transported to the morgue for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death and corroborate the cri scene findings.
After undergoing routine questioning by the police, Adam and Leonard left the hospital together.
"Are you okay?"
Noticing Leonard's dazed expression, Adam stopped and turned to ask.
"I-I'm fine," Leonard replied, his face pale, clearly shaken and still haunted by fear.
"If you had to choose again, would you still watch
go over and stop her?" Adam asked with a smile.
Leonard opened his mouth as if to speak but ultimately remained silent.
"It's okay. If I had a choice again, I might not have agreed to do it," Adam reassured him.
"Really?" Leonard asked, both ashad and sowhat relieved.
"Of course. Fear is a natural instinct for everyone—it's nothing to be ashad of."
Adam nodded and smiled. "Understanding fear helps you survive longer. Besides, today was actually a lucky day for us."
"A lucky day?" Leonard looked at Adam incredulously.
"Absolutely," Adam said seriously. "This outco is the best possible one. Think about the alternatives—can you even imagine?"
Leonard scoffed. "With you here, there's no way Esther would have escaped. Wouldn't the best outco have been the boy waking up, identifying her, and having her locked up in prison or a psychiatric hospital?"
Adam chuckled coldly. "You're too naive. Do you really think a girl as ruthless as her would stay locked up forever? If she ever escaped, what do you think she'd do?"
Leonard's eyes widened in horror. "Revenge?"
"Imagine this," Adam continued. "From that mont on, you'd live in constant fear. Any day, she could sneak out and show up in front of you with a knife. Or worse—one day you co ho, and she's standing there, smiling coldly, surrounded by the bodies of your friends and family…"
"Stop it!" Leonard, with his naturally vivid imagination, instantly visualized the scene. His face contorted in terror as he gasped, "I was wrong! I regret it! I shouldn't have followed you!"
His breathing beca erratic, forcing him to pull out his asthma inhaler and take several puffs. "Huff… huff… huff…"
"Good. Rember this feeling."
Adam patted Leonard on the shoulder. "Curiosity killed the cat. When you sense danger, suppress your curiosity—it's the key to staying alive."
Then, shifting his tone, he added, "Of course, don't go to the other extre like John Coleman. He lacked curiosity altogether and ignored every warning sign, which is why he died so horribly.
It's all about balance. With close friends and family, maintain enough curiosity to notice changes in their behavior. But when it cos to strangers or people you don't know well, curb your curiosity as much as possible."
If this were a simple sitcom like *The Big Bang Theory*, Adam wouldn't have bothered saying all this. After all, in a cody world, no matter how reckless or curious Leonard got, he'd never truly be in danger. At worst, he'd get into so silly trouble and miraculously co out unscathed.
Like in the original tiline, when Leonard miscalculated the fuel ratio for a toy rocket and nearly blew himself up. It was Sheldon who imdiately spotted the mistake and tossed the rocket into the elevator shaft—blowing up the elevator instead. As a result, they had to take the stairs for over a decade until Sheldon won the Nobel Prize, and the landlord finally had the elevator repaired.
But this world was clearly different. It was far more complex, with psychopaths lurking in the shadows. Adam couldn't trust that Leonard's luck would always hold, so he had to be strict—forcing Leonard to adopt a more cautious approach.
**The Art of Caution: Three Thousand Recitations!**
The two walked side by side for a while.
Leonard, now sowhat recovered, couldn't help but ask, "Adam, if you were faced with the sa situation again, would you really not go save the boy?"
"That depends on the circumstances," Adam mused. "The best choice is, of course, not to act personally. Let
put it this way—have you read *Lord of the Mysteries*? If it were Klein, what would he do?"
Leonard's eyes lit up. "Report it to the Church of Evernight?"
Clearly, Klein's infamous "double-crosser" tactics had left a deep impression on him.
"Exactly."
Adam chuckled. "Leave professional matters to the professionals. You're not a cop, and your combat skills are practically non-existent. If you don't call the police imdiately, are you planning to rush in like so hero?
Real heroes sacrifice themselves. Even Batman and Superman—if they existed in real life, without all the plot armor given to them by writers—they'd be dead in no ti, don't you think?"
Leonard pursed his lips but had to admit Adam had a point. Forget real life—even in the comics, which superhero hadn't died at so point?
"But what if there's no ti? Like this ti?" Leonard, quick-witted as ever, imdiately pointed out a flaw in the logic. "If we hadn't rushed in, the boy would've been dead already. Are you saying we should've just waited for the police?"
"That depends on the person," Adam replied with a grin. "For you, yes. If you'd gone in, you'd just end up as another victim. Don't you think?"
Leonard shuddered, recalling Esther's terrifying deanor. He forced an awkward laugh. "And what about you?"
"?" Adam thought for a mont. "If I were confident enough and had sufficient motivation, I'd step in to save soone."
"Aren't you afraid of living in fear afterward? You said yourself—the best outco is when the criminal is killed. But that won't always be the case, right?" Leonard pressed.
"Then I'd make sure they stay in prison," Adam said, his eyes narrowing. "I'd keep a close watch."
He wasn't too worried. Psychopaths were out there, but in the five years since he had crossed into this world, this was the first truly life-threatening situation he had encountered. A statistical probability of 1/5/365—roughly 0.05%.
Being caught off guard, unable to call the police, and forced to act personally because the victim was soone he instinctively wanted to save? That was even rarer—almost one in a million.
Even in the worst-case scenario, where all these conditions aligned, criminals like Esther, once convicted, typically received severe sentences. Monitoring them would reduce the risk to near zero. The odds of them breaking out and seeking revenge? Practically one in a billion.
The numbers didn't lie. But Murphy's Law still existed, so Adam wouldn't be careless.
Everything he told Leonard, he was also telling himself.
This rescue mission had shaken him. New York wasn't so quiet little town like the one Duncan's family lived in—it was a tropolis of over ten million people, full of unpredictable dangers.
Compared to that, his past fears of Juno and Karen now seed almost laughable.
**Ding!**
**Strength
20!**
**Ding!**
**Strength
20!**
**Ding!**
**Lifespan
0.01!**
**Ding!**
**Speed
20!**
"Huh?"
Hearing the system notifications, Adam raised an eyebrow.
The lifespan increase was clearly a reward for saving the boy, which made sense. But the sudden
20 in strength—twice—was unexpected.
Then it dawned on him.
It must have been Juno and Karen.
His previous fear of them had suppressed their friendship points. But now, as he reevaluated and saw their bond for what it truly was, the system finally acknowledged it.
It seed that only mutually recognized friendships counted.
And as for Karen? Maybe she was influenced by Juno.
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