God Of Crafting

Ten minutes earlier

"Can't you go any faster?!"

This situation was… peculiar.

Despite being in a pretty much stand-off with the police just a few moments ago, ready to come to blows with freaking anti-terror units and spill loads upon loads of blood… mere moments later, I was stuck in a police car, speeding down the ringway while pressuring the cop behind the wheel to hurry the fuck up!

Even then, just by looking at the situation from my personal perspective, one wouldn't be able to fully grasp the scale of just what the hell was happening.

After all, as far as we could tell, the power was still on. Or, in other words, whatever it was that Cassandra's clan was trying to achieve there had yet to happen.

That's why, right now, we traveled in just two unmarked police cars. An absolute minimal company that all sides involved in the operation managed to agree upon after a short few moments of deliberation.

In one car were me, two police officers from the anti-terror unit, Dickins, and the driver who the policemen claimed to be one of the best drivers in their entire office.

In the other car was Cassandra, who rushed to tip everyone off about the situation and thus confirmed my visions, giving a proper and viable reason to get this party going. With her, a group of three more officers and one of her clan's cultivators, who she claimed to trust beyond any doubt.

A total of two cars, ten people, riding down the street as we chased the threat that we merely knew existed while having little to no clue what form it was supposed to take.

On the other hand, far away from the ring road, a whole column of police cars rode in their full force, picking whatever streets they deemed safer and less conspicuous to take. Obviously, by giving up on the benefits of the wide, straightforward, and relatively empty ring road, they would take quite a lot longer to arrive at the outskirts of the first industrial park, where the power plant was located…

But that was the plan.

The ten of us were to go in first, drawing as little attention as possible to avoid turning our arrival into an event that would push whatever plan Cassandra's former clan prepared into action.

If we could deal with whatever we would encounter inside, then all was good and great, and we could all happily go back to the factory where we would resume the status quo and patiently wait for Chihiro to finish his cultivation and then take the reins in resolving the whole problem.

If our intervention were to turn south in any way or form, however, the full force of the city's anti-terror unit would swoop in, ready to cover whatever force Cassandra's clan deployed with enough firepower to remove the aspect of cultivation from the equation.

A crude plan, for sure, but there simply wasn't enough time to make a more complicated one. As such, we had no other choice but to make do with what we had.

"We are about to arrive," the driver reported, pulling me out of my thoughts, just in time for me to see the armed police go through their routine check.

They didn't show any sign of hesitation, doubt, or anxiety as they moved in their seat and calmly inspected whatever parts of their own gear they could before turning to their companions to inspect the parts of their partner's gear that they themselves could not.

'Now I'm feeling quite… inadequate,' I thought, rolling my eyes as a small, self-reflecting smirk appeared on my lips.

"Making that kind of face isn't making it any easier to believe you're not the one behind it all, after all," Dickins muttered right as he pulled the top of his handgun to the back, inspecting the state of the pistol's chamber before carefully sliding the part back into its natural place… or rather, allowing the spring inside the gun to do it for him, while merely keeping the process slow enough to prevent any accidents.

The last thing we wanted, right on the last leg of our approach, was an accidental gun discharge that would not only pose a threat to the safety of everyone in the car but, worse and likely much more dangerous, would warn everyone in the huge area around of our approach.

A moment after taking the turn off the ringway, the car drastically slowed down, changing from a chase speed all the way down to the speed limit imposed on the ramp, only to then pick up speed again but only within the range of the limits imposed on the industrial park's main artery.

"Everyone, get ready," the driver commanded, only to then twist the steering wheel as he took the turn into the power plant's parking lot. Once the car came to a stop, he tugged on the edges of his coat, ensuring not a single piece of his combat equipment was left uncovered, before finally nodding his head, opening the doors, and moving outside.

"Remember, guys, civilian approach," Dickins commented as he joined the driver, leaving the edge seat and thus opening a way for me to follow him outside.

From there, we… casually walked down the lot's pedestrian paths, even going so far as to maintain a random conversation about the current policies of the city, all in a bid to appear as normal as possible.

It wasn't until we reached the power plant's gate that the situation took a sudden turn for the worse.

"State your names and purpose," the gate's guard lazily requested through the intercom, his voice ringing through the small speakers outside of his kiosk.

"We are just visiting," Dickins took it upon himself to approach, even going so far as to pull out some sort of papers before sliding them through the small gap in the kiosk's window, only to then pull the lid on it, allowing the guard inside to open it on his end and take the papers.