What was the mayor supposed to be?
Heh.
Besides, he was a mayor who was about to step down.
Lake had come fully prepared this time. Aside from the Special Operations Team outside, most of the officers Lake had brought were veterans who had carried out several missions with him before.
Especially the few officers inside the room.
Leaving everything else aside,
as far as these officers were concerned, with both the mayor and Lake giving orders, Lake was one hundred percent certain they would back him.
So.
The moment Lake finished speaking, the two officers who had prepared crowbars stepped forward, ready to tear the Textile Factory apart piece by piece.
But...
Almost at the exact moment Lake ordered them to act, someone else gave the same order.
Sloan!
Just as Lake had expected, Sloan could not bear to see the one and only Fate Textile Machine in the world dismantled. So even with the mayor there to lend his support, he still chose to act.
The moment the words fell,
Fire Fox, Butcher, Apothecary, and Rat People moved.
"Stop..."
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Take cover!"
The moment Fire Fox and the others moved, Lake shouted for everyone to take cover. He then drew his gun and fired, blasting Butcher's right hand as Butcher prepared to hijack an officer and seize his weapon.
A scream rang out.
Butcher's right palm was instantly pierced through.
The next second,
Fire Fox and the others, including Sloan, bolted away. Their weapons had been secretly put aside during the search, leaving them unarmed. Even top-tier assassins would be done for when faced with overwhelming firepower.
Not every assassin was called John Wick!
Lake did not stop Fire Fox and the others from fleeing either. The entire Textile Factory had already been surrounded by the Special Operations Team. Trying to fight back now would be nothing more than a trapped beast's final struggle.
Besides,
Lake looked at the mayor, who was trembling beneath his bodyguards, clearly never expecting such a turn of events. The corners of his mouth lifted. "Mr. Mayor, it seems I won the bet. You lost."
The mayor trembled, utterly devoid of dignity.
Lake tightened his earpiece. "Joe."
"Lake."
"Have Jack bring his team up and escort the mayor out. And remember, surround the entire factory. Anyone carrying a gun is to be killed on sight."
"...Yes!"
After ending his conversation with Joe, Lake turned and looked at the Fate Textile Machine behind him, then gave a cold laugh.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
After three shots, the Fate Textile Machine remained completely unharmed.
The corners of Lake's mouth lifted. "Let the bullets fly for a while!"
The moment he finished speaking,
Boom!
Three components flew off the enormous Fate Textile Machine in front of him. Then, with another tremendous boom, the entire Fate Textile Machine instantly disintegrated.
"You stay here and protect Mr. Mayor!"
"Yes, sir!"
Lake gave the few old comrades in the room their orders, then walked straight toward the door, stepping directly over Butcher, who was clutching his right hand as cold sweat poured down his face.
After all, they were veteran officers he trusted, and leaving them here was the right choice. These men could handle ordinary criminals, but against a group of assassins scattered and hiding throughout the building, sending them in would be no different from serving them up on a platter.
Soon,
the moment Lake stepped out of the room and into the corridor,
a gunshot rang out!
That single shot officially opened the curtain on the gunfight.
"Ah!"
A Special Operations officer's cry of pain came through the earpiece. Immediately afterward, a barrage of gunfire erupted, accompanied by countless screams and shouts.
It was coming from the Textile Factory's first-floor hall.
Lake chuckled, raised his head, and looked toward Sloan, who had already reached the third-floor corridor opposite him and was watching him from above.
"Hi!"
"..."
Lake smiled and waved at Sloan in the third-floor corridor across from him, silently mouthing, "I won!"
Sloan's face darkened. He snorted, gave Lake a deep look, then turned and disappeared from Lake's sight.
Was he planning to run?
"Jack!"
"Here."
"Did you arrange for Special Operations officers to stand by in the sewers?"
"Yes."
"Good!"
Lake licked his lips as he listened to the gunfire ringing out all around him.
The hunt had begun!
Inside the Textile Factory,
bullets flew incessantly. Apothecary and Rat People occupied the security room, firing fiercely down at the Special Operations officers in the hall below as they prepared to storm upstairs.
Countless disabled employees screamed in the hall, desperately trying to run outside.
Joe, wearing a bulletproof vest, leaned against the wall and watched the disabled employees emerge one after another.
Just then,
Joe's eyes lit up. He shouted at Sable, the female assassin mixed in among them, apart from Fire Fox. "Stop!"
Sable, a female assassin whose appearance was no less stunning than Fire Fox's, instantly opened fire.
"Bang!"
After raising her hand and firing once, Sable sent two bullets into the two officers who had noticed her. Then she ducked back into the Textile Factory.
"Ah!"
Joe got up from the floor, looked down at the bullet embedded in his bulletproof vest, and cursed. "Lake, a female assassin is heading your way."
Lake said, "Hold the entrance. I don't want even a fly getting out."
Joe pried the bullet out of his vest. "Understood!"
Lake also saw Sable, who had returned to the factory's interior.
They were face-to-face.
The corners of Lake's mouth lifted. "You're not as pretty as that Fire Fox."
It was mockery.
And the greatest possible mockery toward a woman!
Sable's pupils contracted sharply. Her powerful right leg shot straight toward Lake in a kick.
Bang!
Lake blocked with both hands, then tilted his head and looked at Sable. "Trying to throw yourself into my arms?"
Sable snorted and used the force of the exchange to leap into the air. She twisted violently in midair, trying to pull Lake off balance.
Unfortunately,
Lake was no pushover.
And besides...
He had no chivalrous sentiment about protecting beautiful women—at least not when it came to women who dared attack him or tried to kill him.
"Bang!"
Lake drew his gun with lightning speed and fired instantly.
Sable's eyes widened.
With a bang,
when Sable landed, a bullet had already pierced her forehead. She was dead beyond any doubt.
Heh.
Lake looked down at Sable's corpse and licked his lips.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Lake raised his head and flicked his wrist, shooting down the bullet flying toward him through the air. Then he flicked his wrist again, firing toward Tiger, another assassin who had appeared in the opposite corridor.
Tiger stared blankly at the bullet that had also curved toward him, but he quickly drew his gun and fired back.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
In an instant, the sounds of two bullets colliding and being knocked out of the air rang out one after another.
The corners of Lake's mouth lifted.
In movies, perhaps no one had to worry about a pistol's ammunition capacity. But this was reality, and that had to be taken into consideration.
Click!
A crisp sound rang out. Tiger's pupils contracted as he dodged yet another bullet from Lake and rapidly changed his magazine.
Unfortunately,
Lake did not need to reload.
Bang!
A bullet fired along the most perfect arc was released. It howled through the air, tracing a curved trajectory before entering the left side of Tiger's head with a bang and exiting through the right.
With a thud,
Tiger, who had been leaning behind a support pillar and had just finished reloading, fell to the side.
He was down in the most thorough sense of the word.
Before you continue