63: Chapter 63 The Night of the Surprise Attack and Lockdown

"After all, some collectibles only feel right when you fetch them yourself."

He repeated these words from July 23rd to July 26th. Over those three days, Yan Zheng turned them into an operational timetable precise to the second.

July 26th, 1:45 AM.

Hells Kitchen, three blocks south of West 45th Street, inside an abandoned main drainage pipe.

Yan Zheng squatted on the maintenance platform of the pipe wall, wearing a dark gray one-piece jumpsuit and rubber-soled non-slip boots. His waist tool bag contained three scalpels and a tube of epinephrine.

He had tucked his gold-rimmed glasses into a hard-shell case in his chest pocket and swapped them for a pair of industrial goggles.

In the pipe before him, Undead Knight Dawn knelt on one knee. His 2.5-meter frame was forced to compress itself inside the 1.8-meter-diameter pipe, his Petrified Scales scraping against the pipe wall with a soft rustling sound.

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ˘͈ω˘͈˵)

"Alright, one last confirmation."

He closed his eyes, his Mental Power radiating outward to touch the sensory links of each creation one by one.

"Skeleton Soldier No. 1, east pipe entrance, are you in position?"

A faint pulse came through the Mental Link, representing confirmation.

"Skeleton Soldier No. 2, south freight passage, in position?"

A pulse.

"No. 3 Skeleton Soldier, west ventilation duct support point, in position?"

A pulse.

"Skeleton Soldier No. 4, perimeter guard, monitoring living heat sources within a two-hundred-meter radius?"

A pulse.

"Skeleton Soldier No. 5, alley mouth opposite the Laundromat's front entrance, in position?"

A pulse.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘꒳˘)

"Stitched Brute, ceiling beam in the corridor behind the Laundromat, in position?"

A heavy pulse, like a hammer striking cotton.

"Very good."

Yan Zheng opened his eyes and glanced at the twenty-dollar digital watch on his wrist.

1:48 AM.

"Twelve minutes left."

He leaned against the pipe wall, his fingers sliding back and forth along the zipper of his tool bag. The feel of his fingertips rubbing against the metal teeth kept his heart rate at a stable frequency.

"Are you nervous, Mr. Knight?"

The Knight's greenish-gold phosphorus fire burned quietly in the darkness, without any fluctuation.

"True, you don't have adrenaline, so you can't get nervous."

Yan Zheng pulled a piece of compressed biscuit from the side pocket of his tool bag, tore open the packaging, and took a bite. Dry, hard crumbs fell onto the chest of his jumpsuit.

"I'm not nervous either."

He chewed the biscuit, his tone no different from when he usually flipped through magazines behind the counter.

"I'm just wondering if things go smoothly tonight, whether the inscription materials in the secret room will be enough for me to construct the Shielding Array for the entire Underground Room."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ✧ᴗ✧˵)

1:52 AM.

He stuffed the biscuit wrapper back into his pocket, patted the crumbs off his hands, and stood up from the maintenance platform.

"All units, pay attention."

The Mental Power commands spread out like ripples.

"No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, after I call start, you have ninety seconds to complete the lockdown deployment."

"No. 1 is responsible for piling up physical barriers in the east passage and locking the pipe gate with iron chains."

"No. 2 is responsible for tripping the pre-laid iron bucket tripwire alarm at the entrance of the south freight passage, then retreating behind the Brute to stand by."

"No. 3 is responsible for triggering the support collapse of the west ventilation duct, completely burying that path."

"No. 4 and No. 5 will maintain their perimeter guard unchanged."

"Mr. Brute, your mission begins the moment the ninjas rush out of the front entrance. Before that, you are just a flesh-colored concrete slab on the ceiling. Don't move."

The Brute's pulse gave a steady throb.

Yan Zheng looked down at the pipe wall above the Knight's head. There was a pre-marked weak area in the concrete, directly above which was the location of the stronghold's third-floor drainage interface.

"Mr. Knight, the first shot is yours."

He backed up three steps, squatted down against the pipe wall, and covered his ears with both hands.

1:59 AM.

2:00 AM sharp.

"Start."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈‸˘͈)

The Undead Knight's right hand rose. Within less than two seconds, the golden glow in his palm condensed into a fist-sized ball of light, causing the temperature inside the pipe to abruptly jump by over a dozen degrees.

Then, the Knight pushed his fingers upward by an inch.

A golden beam of light shot from his palm, blasting straight into the pre-marked concrete overhead.

Boom.

It wasn't the exaggerated explosion sound heard in movies, but a muffled boom, like a giant hammer breaking through a wall from the inside.

Concrete fragments, severed rebar, and dust all blasted upward.

A hole just over a meter in diameter appeared at the top of the pipe. The edges of the hole glowed orange-red, and the scorched cement was still sizzling with smoke.

Yan Zheng lowered his hands from his ears and looked up at the hole.

Above the hole, he could vaguely see a corner of the stronghold's third-floor metal floor had been blown open, and a draft of cold air poured down through the opening.

At the same moment, the sound of clashing metal came from the distance, dense and urgent.

That was Skeleton Soldier No. 1, Skeleton Soldier No. 2, and No. 3 Skeleton Soldier executing their lockdown missions. Chains rattled, iron buckets overturned, and pipes collapsed; the noise from three directions was like three hammers striking an iron pot at the same time.

Inside the stronghold, a piercing alarm began to blare.

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ≖ω≖˵)

"Hmm, this sound is quite refreshing."

He stood up, his Mental Power fully unleashed, spreading his sensory links across the entire perimeter of the stronghold.

A large number of rapidly moving heat sources began to appear inside the stronghold, converging from scattered sleeping locations toward several fixed assembly points.

One, two, five, eight, twelve.

Forty seconds.

In just forty seconds, the twelve heat sources moved from their respective positions to three preset combat nodes, completing their formation.

Yan Zheng's fingers stopped on the zipper of his tool bag.

"Completing combat formation in forty seconds."

He repeated the number in his mind.

"Old Tom said none of these guys in black clothes ever smile. I thought they were just acting cool."

"Looking at it now, the emergency response training of these ninjas is at least a level higher than I estimated."

Through the Mental Link, he could clearly perceive the movement patterns of those twelve heat sources. It wasn't a panicked run, but orderly tactical displacements.

In groups of three, they spread out back-to-back in a fan shape, each group covering one direction.

"Mr. Nogami, you've trained these people well."

Yan Zheng squatted back down by the pipe wall, looking up at the smoking hole. The corner of his mouth curved into an extremely faint smile under the shadow of his goggles.

"But no matter how well they're trained, it's useless."

"Because you trained them to deal with living people."

"Not a 2.5-meter-tall, glowing skeleton monster crawling up from the sewers."

He patted the Undead Knight's shin bone.

"Mr. Knight, go on up."

"The First-Floor Training Ground. Six people are waiting for you."

"Remember, don't shoot your rays at the ceiling. If you blast the floor down, I'll have to climb up myself."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ˘ꈊ˘˵)

The Undead Knight's phosphorus fire suddenly brightened. His 2.5-meter skeleton curled up slightly in the narrow pipe, then sprang up like a coiled spring. The fingertips of his Petrified Scales gripped the edge of the hole, and his entire body surged upward, disappearing into the cold, dark air.

Yan Zheng remained alone in the pipe, looking up at the hole.

Three seconds later, the first sound of clashing metal echoed from above.

Then came a brief, human scream, cut short by a humming sound.

That was the high-frequency vibration characteristic of the Photon Ray charging up.

Yan Zheng leaned against the pipe wall, closing his eyes as he 'watched' the battle above through the Mental Link.

"Six against one."

"What were the odds again?"

He chuckled, answering his own question.

"My apologies, I forgot to calculate them for the other side."