They didn't waste any words, quickly scanning the surroundings and walking straight toward the man on the operating table.
"Stop."
Lu Yuan stood in front of the operating table, his gaze icy. "This is Nightwatchers' territory."
Lu Yuan didn't know who these people were, but he decisively used the Nightwatchers' name.
The leader of the grey-clothed men stopped, his eyes behind the goggles showing no emotional fluctuation.
He slowly raised that exaggeratedly styled steam short-guns, the dark barrel pointing directly at the center of Lu Yuan's forehead.
"Step aside."
The voice, filtered through the gas mask, became muffled. "Interfering with the Ascension Society's asset recovery is death."
There was no room for negotiation; the leather-gloved finger had already begun to pull the trigger.
At this distance, no one could dodge a bullet.
Click.
Expressionless, Lu Yuan's thumb moved with extreme speed to flick the pointer of the Timekeeper.
【Ability One: Retrograde · Acceleration (Activated)】
【Sanity deduction in progress... -1... -1...】
Sanity began to deplete, and the pointer on the pocket watch started to jump.
Color began to fade from Lu Yuan's vision as the world was gradually replaced by shades of grey and white.
Raindrops outside the room were suspended in mid-air.
The tongue of fire erupting from the gun barrel looked like an orange flower blooming extremely slowly.
The brass bullet rotating out of the chamber was clearly visible in Lu Yuan's eyes; he could even see the fire's glint reflected on the bullet head.
"Too slow."
Watching the world slow down before him, Lu Yuan moved one step to the left, dodging the incoming bullet.
At the same time, his peripheral vision caught movement outside the window.
Several dark shadows pierced through the rain curtain and shot into the room—they were alchemical crossbow bolts.
The arrowheads shimmered with the light of anti-magic runes, heading straight for the throats of the grey-clothed men.
That was support from the surrounding hidden sentries.
'Can I kill them? No...'
In this time slowed down several-fold, Lu Yuan keenly noticed a detail.
The grey-clothed men indeed hadn't reacted.
However, the muscles beneath their coats were bulging abnormally, and faint sparks even burst from their joints.
Their bodies were actually making countermeasures in the face of this 'certain death' situation.
'Click.'
To save Sanity, Lu Yuan decisively closed the watch cover the moment he dodged the bullet.
Bang!
The bullet that was originally aimed at his forehead shattered the medicine cabinet behind him, glass shards flying everywhere.
And the crossbow bolts that flew in through the broken window also slammed hard into the grey-clothed men.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
There was no muffled sound of flesh being pierced, but rather the crisp ring of metal hitting metal.
The alchemical crossbow bolts, which were powerful enough to penetrate rock, were actually bounced off.
The powerful impact only tore their coats, revealing the skin below that shimmered with a metallic luster.
"The use of weapons is prohibited in Nightwatchers territory!"
Although the two hidden sentries were shocked by the enemy's defense.
They still broke through the windows immediately. After a warning, their longswords slashed with a cold gleam toward the enemies' weak joint points.
"Full-body armor? They're all modified humans?!"
Lu Yuan frowned, but he didn't panic at all.
He immediately rolled behind the solid wood counter and fired two shots. The enchanted revolver spat out explosive flames, precisely hitting the leader's goggles.
Bang! Bang!
The goggles shattered upon impact, and the leader's head snapped back from the force.
But a moment later, he shook his head and looked toward Lu Yuan's location as if nothing had happened.
'Damn it, are these guys all tanks?'
Looking at the group of guys tanking bullets, Lu Yuan couldn't help but complain in his heart.
Then he glanced at the Sanity bar in the bottom right corner of his vision.
【Sanity: 68/73】
That last wave had only consumed 5 points.
He was still relatively well-off right now, but the revolver couldn't deal with these tin cans.
Defense wasn't as practical as speed, and he couldn't afford the offensive options.
He could only stall for now.
However, the battle within the clinic gave Lu Yuan no time to react; in just a few moments, the situation became completely one-sided.
Although the two hidden sentries were agile, in the small clinic, facing a group of modified humans built like tin cans, they had no room to maneuver.
"Ah!"
One hidden sentry let out a muffled groan as his abdomen was sliced open by a tactical short-blade, blood immediately spilling onto the floor.
Without the help of his teammate, the other Nightwatcher was also sent flying by a punch, smashing heavily against the wall.
He failed to stand up after several attempts.
The leader of the grey-clothed men had cold eyes, looking as if he were shooing away flies.
He then reloaded a red high-explosive round, the muzzle locking onto Lu Yuan behind the counter once more.
"Get out right now, or die!"
The leading man issued his final warning.
Lu Yuan's hand pressed onto the Timekeeper again, ready to flee at any moment.
Right then.
A slow set of footsteps suddenly rang out at the doorway.
The sound wasn't loud, but it carried a suffocating sense of pressure, causing the grey-clothed man who was about to pull the trigger to freeze for a split second.
"I believe I've said that firing weapons at will is prohibited on this street."
Accompanying that raspy, old voice, a slightly hunched figure blocked the wind and rain at the entrance.
Old Morgan was draped in an old black trench coat, a half-lit cigarette dangling from his mouth as he walked in with a dark expression.
He didn't even look at those dark muzzles. He glanced at the hidden sentries lying on the ground and at Lu Yuan hiding behind the counter.
A flicker of rage flashed in his cloudy eyes.
"Put down that piece of junk in your hand."
Old Morgan spat out the cigarette, his voice low and rumbling like thunder.
"Or else... leave your life behind."
The leader of the grey-clothed men clearly recognized this face, and a flicker of wariness flashed in the eyes behind the goggles.
But it was mostly replaced by an emboldened arrogance.
"Captain Morgan."
The grey-clothed man said coldly, "This is an internal matter of the Empire's Ascension Society."
"We are recovering an escaped asset. According to the Imperial Special Act, the Nightwatchers have no right to interfere."
He pointed at the man on the operating table, then at Lu Yuan.
"We are taking the person. And this meddling doctor, we're taking him back for interrogation as well; he saw things he shouldn't have."
Old Morgan glanced at the unconscious man on the operating table, then at the unharmed Lu Yuan, and flicked his fingers.
"The asset, you can take."
His tone carried a trace of indisputable authority. "But the doctor belongs to the Nightwatchers."
"So there's nothing to talk about?"
The grey-clothed man suddenly raised his muzzle, actually pointing it directly at Old Morgan. "Old man, the Empire isn't what it was twenty years ago. You dare to stop the Ascension Society? Calling you Captain is only out of respect for your age!"
Old Morgan laughed.
"You see I'm old, so every random mutt thinks they can step on my face?"
The moment the words fell.
On Old Morgan's exposed neck and the back of his hands, the originally shriveled skin suddenly shimmered with a layer of dark silver luster!
A terrifying, invisible pressure instantly swept through the entire clinic.
Rate on N.U.
