59: Chapter 59 Dawn of the Undead Knight

"Welcome to this World, sir."

Yan Zheng's voice was as raspy as if it had been polished by sandpaper, but the gentle solemnity in his tone was stronger than ever.

The new creation stood up from the assembly table slowly and fluidly, each joint movement emitting a faint click, like a precision instrument completing its first calibration.

Yan Zheng looked up at it.

Two point five meters.

A full head taller than the Stitched Brute, yet far more proportionate.

The black ritual reinforced bones formed the main frame, and the dark patterns unique to The Hand on the bone surface were visible under the flickering phosphorus fire.

Grey-white petrified scales covered the torso and limbs in irregular patches, the edges of each scale slightly raised, like armor pieced together from fossil fragments.

The Hands and head area emitted a faint golden halo, especially the palms and fingertips, where golden energy flowed like blood between the bone joints.

The face had no human features, only a smooth bone mask with sharp, distinct contours.

In the two eye sockets behind the mask, dark green phosphorus fire mixed with golden photon light burned fiercely, like two emeralds into which gold had been cast.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ✧ ω ✧ ˵ )

He wiped the nosebleed from his chin with the back of his hand and struggled to stand up from the floor. His legs were a bit weak, but his gaze never left the creation before him.

The system panel popped up an evaluation report automatically.

[Undead Knight Dawn (Rare). Combat assessment: Equivalent to the upper limit of a B-rank supercriminal.]

[Special Ability One: Petrified Scales. Immune to light and heavy firepower, can withstand some energy weapons, no time limit.]

[Special Ability Two: Photon Ray. Hands can accumulate and release medium-power Photon Rays, effective range fifty meters, cooldown twenty seconds.]

[Special Ability Three: Adaptive Regeneration. Inherited from the Stitched Brute's residual genes, effect reduced by about sixty percent, but can still repair light to medium structural damage.]

[Weakness: Defense of the scales decreases by about forty percent during Photon Ray charging, lasting three seconds.]

Yan Zheng read through it item by item, closed the system panel, and walked to the Undead Knight.

He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses to look directly into those green-gold phosphorus eyes.

"Can you hear me?"

The Undead Knight's head tilted slightly, and the phosphorus fire behind the mask flickered twice.

Yan Zheng: ( ˘ ω ˘ )

"Very good."

He stepped back two paces, pushed up his glasses, and switched his tone from gentle to professional.

"Raise your right hand."

The knight's right arm rose slowly, the movement ten times more precise than the Brute's, without any unnecessary shaking.

"Make a fist."

The black bone fingers curled, the petrified scales pressing against each other at the knuckles with a faint friction sound.

"Open it."

Five fingers spread, the golden halo in the palm noticeably intensifying for a moment during this action.

Yan Zheng stared at the glowing palm, his breathing quickening by half a beat.

"Good, now test the Photon Ray."

He glanced around the Underground Room and his gaze landed on the three-layer reinforced cement wall on the east side.

Behind the wall was an abandoned drainage pipe area; even if it punched through, it wouldn't affect the structure of the building above.

"Aim at that wall on the east side and release it once."

Yan Zheng retreated behind the workbench, his fingers gripping the edge of the table.

The Undead Knight turned to face the east wall, right hand raised slowly, five fingers spread.

The golden halo in the palm began to condense at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning from scattered fluorescence into a concentrated sphere of light, the temperature climbing sharply within three seconds.

Yan Zheng could feel a wave of heat hitting his face from five meters away.

Then the knight's fingers pushed forward an inch.

Yan Zheng: ( ꉺ ᗜ ꉺ )

A golden beam of light shot from the palm, about the thickness of a fist, moving so fast the eye could barely keep up.

First layer of reinforced wall, penetrated.

Second layer, penetrated.

Third layer, penetrated.

The light beam disappeared into the darkness behind the wall, followed immediately by the hissing sound of metal pipes being burned through in the distance.

Yan Zheng held onto the edge of the workbench, staring at the charred, circular hole that had pierced through all three layers of the east wall, the cement at the edges of the hole still emitting white smoke.

The hole was about fifteen centimeters in diameter, its edges as smooth as if treated with a laser cutter.

The Underground Room was filled with the smell of ozone and burnt concrete.

The corners of Yan Zheng's mouth began to turn up.

First a small arc, then larger and larger, and finally, it turned into a complete, heartfelt smile.

Not the gentle, polite social mask he usually wore.

It was the smile of a collector opening a safe to see a peerless treasure.

It was the smile of a painter completing their most satisfying work.

"You are truly beautiful."

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ✦ ᴗ ✦ ˵ )

He walked up to the Undead Knight, raised his hand, and his fingers gently touched the petrified scales on the knight's chest.

The sensation from his fingertips was cold and hard, with a strange warmth amidst the roughness—residual heat from the photon energy circulating in the skeleton.

"Fifty-meter effective range, penetrated three reinforced walls."

Yan Zheng withdrew his hand and sat down at the workbench; his legs were still a bit weak.

"This output capability is a dimensional strike in any conflict in Hell's Kitchen."

"Ordinary gang members wearing bulletproof vests? One shot and they're burned to ash along with their clothes."

"Armored vehicles? Two shots."

He glanced at the smoking hole in the east wall, then at the quietly standing Undead Knight.

"The only limitation is the twenty-second cooldown and the reduced defense during charging."

"But that's not a problem."

Yan Zheng stood up, walked to the knight, and knocked on the scales on its chest with his knuckles, producing a dull metallic sound.

"You are a moving wall yourself; you won't even lose paint if you take a few bullets."

"With the twenty-second cooldown, you have the Stitched Brute in front to hold the line while you charge up for output in the back—a perfect front-and-back-row combination."

He stepped back, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and looked at the knight as if admiring a piece of porcelain just taken from the kiln.

"Mr. Knight, from today on, you are the first Rare-grade creation in my legion."

"The first combat unit capable of ranged output."

"The first masterpiece."

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ˘ ꈊ ˘ ˵ )

The Undead Knight's green-gold phosphorus fire burned quietly behind the mask, as if responding to its Master's praise.

Yan Zheng turned to check the time on the system panel.

2:40 AM.

The gunfire outside had thinned out significantly; Kingpin's big raid should be entering the cleanup phase.

"Four hours and forty minutes, forty minutes longer than expected."

"Mental Power remaining..."

He brought up the Mental Power panel.

[Current Mental Power: 1.44 / 7.2 (20%). Recovering. Expected to recover to full in 48 hours.]

"Twenty points, sixteen percentage points more consumption than expected."

Yan Zheng wiped the dried nosebleed from his face, but the smile on his lips didn't fade at all.

"Worth it."

He walked over to the sink in the corner, turned on the faucet, and washed his face, the cold water rinsing away the nosebleed and sweat.

He looked up at himself in the mirror; there were faint dark circles under his eyes, and his lips were still a bit pale.

But the eyes in the mirror were excessively bright.

Yan Zheng dried his face, turned back to the Undead Knight, took the scalpel he carried with him out of his pocket, and pointed the tip at the hole in the east wall.

"I'll have to find cement to patch that hole tomorrow."

"Mr. Knight, next time you test, please wait until I take you to a more open place before firing."

The knight's phosphorus fire flickered.

Yan Zheng put the scalpel away, brushed the dust off his clothes, and looked up at this 2.5-meter masterpiece.

"Alright, you go into hibernation for today."

"When my Mental Power recovers, I'll take you to meet your colleagues."

"Mr. Brute has a bit of a bad temper, but he's strong and moves bricks fast; you two should get along."

Yan Zheng walked toward the stairs, took two steps, then stopped and looked back.

The Undead Knight stood quietly beside the assembly table, the golden halo pulsing slightly in the dim Underground Room, like a lamp that would never go out.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ꐦ ≖ ᗜ ≖ ˵ )

"By the way, Mr. Knight."

"That shot of yours punched through three walls and a drainage pipe."

"I'm deducting the repair costs from your salary."

The phosphorus fire burned quietly, without any response.

Yan Zheng shrugged, went upstairs, and turned off the lights.

When he lay on the bed, the final gunshots in the west district of Hell's Kitchen had also ceased.

It was quiet outside.

But Yan Zheng knew that from tonight on, there was something new underneath Hell's Kitchen.

Something that could shoot through three walls.

He closed his eyes and recited silently in his mouth.

"Undead Knight Dawn."

"Friends of E.S.S., my new colleague officially started work today."

"His welcome gift is the access control system of your outpost."