Uninvited Guest

They did not waste words. After swiftly scanning their surroundings, they headed straight for the man on the operating table.

"Stop."

Lu Yuan stood in front of the operating table, his gaze icy. "This is Night Watcher territory."

Lu Yuan did not know who these people were, but he decisively invoked the Night Watchers' name.

The leading Gray-robed Man stopped. Behind his goggles, his eyes showed no emotional fluctuation.

He slowly raised the outrageously shaped Steam Blunderbuss, its pitch-black muzzle aimed directly at Lu Yuan's brow.

"Move."

His voice was muffled through the Gas Mask. "Obstruct the Ascension Society's recovery of assets, die."

There was no room for negotiation. The gloved finger had already begun to squeeze the trigger.

At this distance, no one could dodge a bullet.

Click.

Expressionless, Lu Yuan flicked the hands of the Time Bestower with his thumb at lightning speed.

[Ability One: Reversal · Acceleration (Activated)]

[Sanity deduction in progress... -1... -1...]

His sanity began to drain, and the hands of the Pocket Watch began to tick.

The colors in Lu Yuan's vision began to fade, the world gradually replaced by grayish white.

Raindrops outside the room hung suspended in midair.

The muzzle flash was like an orange flower blooming with agonizing slowness.

The brass bullet spinning out of the barrel was crystal clear in Lu Yuan's eyes. He could even see the fiery gleam reflected from its surface.

"Too slow."

Watching the world slow before him, Lu Yuan stepped to the left and evaded the incoming bullet.

At the same time, something outside the window caught the corner of his eye.

Several pitch-black shadows pierced through the curtain of rain and shot into the room—Alchemical Crossbow Bolts.

Runes that broke magic gleamed on their arrowheads as they flew straight for the Gray-robed Men's throats.

It was support from the nearby Hidden Sentries.

Can they kill them? No...

Within this time slowed severalfold, Lu Yuan sharply noticed a detail.

Those Gray-robed Men truly had not reacted in time.

Yet the muscles beneath their coats bulged unnaturally, and faint sparks even burst from their joints.

Their bodies had actually taken countermeasures in the face of this "certain death."

Click.

To conserve sanity, Lu Yuan decisively snapped the watch cover shut the instant he dodged the bullet.

Bang!

The bullet that had been aimed at his brow smashed the medicine cabinet behind him, sending glass shards flying everywhere.

The crossbow bolts that had shot through the window also slammed viciously into the Gray-robed Men.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

There was no dull sound of flesh being pierced, only the sharp ring of metal striking metal.

The Alchemical Crossbow Bolts, powerful enough to pierce rock, were actually deflected.

The tremendous impacts only tore open their coats, exposing skin beneath that gleamed with a metallic sheen.

"Using weapons is forbidden in Night Watcher territory!"

Though the two Hidden Sentries were shocked by their opponents' defenses, they still crashed through the window at once. After issuing their warning, their longswords flashed with cold light as they slashed at the enemy's vulnerable joints.

"Full-body armor? They're all Augmented?!"

Lu Yuan frowned, but he did not panic in the slightest.

He immediately rolled behind the solid wood counter and fired twice. The Enchanted Revolver erupted with blazing fire, its shots striking the leader's goggles with precision.

Bang! Bang!

The goggles exploded on impact, and the leader's head snapped back from the blow.

Yet the next moment, he shook his head and looked toward Lu Yuan as if nothing had happened.

Damn it, are these guys all tanks?

Watching the group that had shrugged off bullets, Lu Yuan could not help complaining inwardly.

Then he glanced at the sanity bar in the lower-right corner of his vision.

[Sanity: 68/73 (Total)] (A note here: things like Sanity +III are experience. Values without levels are totals. The maximum experience value equals the maximum usable sanity.)

That last burst had only consumed 5 points.

He still had a decent amount left, but the Revolver could not handle this bunch of canned iron.

Defense was not as practical as acceleration, while he could not afford to use offense.

He could only stall for now.

But the battle in the clinic gave Lu Yuan no time to respond. In mere moments, the situation became utterly one-sided.

Though the two Hidden Sentries were nimble, they could not fully move in the cramped clinic against a group of can-like Augmented.

"Argh!"

One Hidden Sentry let out a muffled groan as a Tactical Knife sliced open his abdomen, blood immediately splashing across the floor.

With one teammate down, the other Night Watcher was also sent flying by a punch and crashed heavily into the wall.

After several attempts, he still could not get back to his feet.

The leading Gray-robed Man looked coldly indifferent, as though he were merely swatting flies away.

He then loaded another red High-Explosive Round and once more trained the muzzle on Lu Yuan behind the counter.

"Come out immediately, or die!"

The leading man issued his final warning.

Lu Yuan's hand pressed against the Time Bestower again, ready to flee at any moment.

Just then.

A set of slow footsteps abruptly sounded at the entrance.

The sound was not loud, yet it carried a suffocating pressure that made the Gray-robed Man preparing to pull the trigger stiffen for an instant.

"I seem to have said that this district forbids indiscriminate gunfire."

Along with that hoarse, aged voice, a somewhat hunched figure blocked out the wind and rain at the doorway.

Old Morgan, wearing a somewhat worn black trench coat and holding half an unlit cigarette in his mouth, walked in with a gloomy expression.

He did not even look at the pitch-black gun muzzles. He glanced at the Hidden Sentries lying on the floor, then at Lu Yuan behind the counter.

A trace of fury flashed through his clouded eyes.

"Put that piece of trash in your hand down."

Old Morgan spat out the cigarette, his voice low as thunder.

"Otherwise... leave your life here."

The leading Gray-robed Man clearly recognized that face. A trace of wariness flashed through his eyes behind the goggles.

But there was even more brazen arrogance, born of having something to rely on.

"Captain Morgan."

The Gray-robed Man said coldly, "This is an internal matter of the Empire's Ascension Society."

"We are recovering a runaway asset. Under the Imperial Special Act, the Night Watchers have no authority to interfere."

He pointed at the man on the operating table, then at Lu Yuan.

"We're taking the man. And this meddlesome Doctor—we'll take him back for questioning too. He saw things he should not have seen."

Old Morgan glanced at the unconscious man on the operating table, then at the completely unharmed Lu Yuan, and flicked his fingers.

"The asset, you can take."

His tone brooked no argument. "But the Doctor belongs to the Night Watchers."

"So there's no room for negotiation?"

The Gray-robed Man abruptly raised his gun and actually pointed it at Old Morgan. "Old man, the Empire isn't what it was twenty years ago. The Ascension Society is handling business, and you dare stand in the way? We call you Captain only because you've lived long enough!"

Old Morgan smiled.

"You see that I'm old, and now every stray cat and dog dares to climb onto my face?"

The instant his words fell.

The withered skin on Old Morgan's exposed neck and the backs of his hands suddenly took on a dark silver sheen!

A terrifying invisible pressure instantly swept through the entire clinic.