The Last Gentleman
Chapter 583: Old Friends Reunite

The teacher and student walked along the streets,

Even though Qian Bosen was only a third-tier Open Source, he still held the status of William’s teacher, and William maintained a posture of listening that a student should have throughout.

After quickly circumnavigating Flumouth, the organization’s current situation, the total sum of combat power, and the distribution of forces within the city were introduced to William with clarity.

Zede was sealed,

Spacy died in battle,

The First Gentleman, Insomniac Galon’s status was unclear,

Prophet Yuri lost an arm,

Beyond that, among the three Founders who had been with the organization since its establishment, Archbishop Yaleris Highton, who often received William in the Glory Hall, chose to stay during the Zion incident, turning himself into a Holy Light Barrier to protect the Holy Body Room.

First Knight - York de Moratti, died in battle.

Only First Doctor - Gregory Alaus survived, creating the Tree Realm Channel that allowed a large number of doctors to escape successfully.

Besides, William noticed another issue, "Teacher, there seems to be very few gentlemen who have not opened their Source... Did they fail to escape, or were they evacuated earlier to other regions, not participating in this retrieval plan?"

"Because Flumouth is used as a temporary, and even a long-term sanctuary, a significant amount of human resources are required. All the gentlemen have been gathered here.

The reason for the low number of lower-tier gentlemen is neither evacuation to other areas nor death, but ’desertion’.

Before the Zion incident occurred, ’Bloodstained Skins’ had already been circulating in the market for some time, and many lower-tier gentlemen had come into contact with them to varying extents.

When the incident happened and pulse radiation deprived us of our Skins citywide, those lower-tier gentlemen who had been in contact with the Bloodstained Skins were unaffected.

At the same time, swarms of bloodkin were disseminating ’recruitment information’.

As long as the gentlemen returned to them, underwent ’full-body Blood Transformation’ and regularly paid Blood Tax, they could receive direct guidance from the bloodkin, obtain suitable Relics without going to the Old World, and even had the chance to become Nobles amongst manors.

Therefore, during the emergency evacuation, many lower-tier gentlemen wavered in their hearts and chose to stay, as blood seeped out from their Skin.

But there were also those with firm resolve who forcibly tore off the clothing stuck to their skin and followed us to evacuate here."

"I see... Thank you for the explanation, teacher. I’ve got a rough understanding of the situation. You just go ahead with your work, I will take care of the retrieval plan."

Qian Bosen’s hand landed on William’s shoulder, "My current vision is no longer capable of assessing you accurately, nor can I give you effective combat advice, the only reminder I can offer is ’Heart Like a Mirror’."

"Understood."

After saying goodbye to Qian Bosen,

William prepared to head to the power station that was under construction to meet an old friend - Ludwig Reagan... a true genius in spiritual power that William conceded to among the gentlemen of his age.

However, one thing was strange,

Although Reagan had returned to Zion a month ahead, he had also stayed long enough in the Old World.

During all that time, William, who had visited many Source Epidemic Areas and Neutral Cities, had never heard any information related to Reagan, and the Old World organization Reagan was part of remained a secret.

Reagan had also once said that he had signed a Soul Contract when joining the Mysterious Organization, which was extremely secretive.

"I wonder what kind of path Reagan has realized, probably still focused on his spiritual power, let’s go see him."

The scale of the Power Station in Flumouth does not compare to Zion’s, and the equipment is relatively outdated.

A major upgrade is currently underway, with two streets between the Power Station, William could see huge steel columns wrapped in dense spiritual power, being rapidly erected and installed.

High above, one could faintly make out a familiar figure.

This figure was constantly exuding strong spiritual power, causing the surrounding space to distort and transform, without the assistance of little grapes, William was unable to make out the specific features.

When William got close to the jurisdiction of the power station, he was immediately stopped.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Workers in insulating clothing held conductive devices and stood guard at the entrance.

"I’m looking for Reagan, I’m his friend."

"Director Reagan is the main person in charge of the Power Station project, and he’s currently unavailable to meet anyone."

No sooner had he finished these words than a sweep of spiritual power came scanning over.

The figure suspended above the Power Station dove straight down, without wings or any floating devices, enveloped purely by spiritual power to achieve anti-gravity and swift flight, and landed steadily in front of William.

The pure white, long tubular clothing, its surface covered in a complex network of metallic circuitry, made with Old World fabrics combined with self-developed technology, served to harmonize the exterior flow of spiritual power.

The one who had arrived was none other than Reagan, who looked a bit thinner than before but was still somewhat chubby.

The most notable change was that he had aged significantly, a brown beard plastered across his face and deeper dark circles under his eyes, giving him the appearance of a European man in his thirties with an affinity for comfort.

However, as Reagan descended, William could distinctly feel the continuous waves of spiritual power washing over him like tides.

"William! You’re back!" Reagan’s already weary eyes instantly widened, his spirit redoubled.

"Jin and I are back... Reagan, you go ahead with your work. Anyway, I still need to head over to Cesimani, I’ll come back after you’re done."

"Today’s scheduled work is actually already completed, I was just hoping to finish this project ahead of time.

However, now that you’re back, the situation is different... I’ll go with you, with both of you returning, the organization’s combat power should be sufficient to execute the retaking plan.

I’ve been holding back for a month and have wanted to fight our way back for a long time."

"Alright."

As William and Reagan left, the gatekeeper was completely stunned and tried to dredge up the name William from his memory.

"Hmm! Could this be the teammate of Director Reagan from before, the young gentleman who once resolved the ’Nightmare Incident’... Why is there not a hint of aura about him, and he seems about the same age as me.

Damn, I really have no discernment at all."

...

After many days, friends reunited under the identity of a Completer, their perspectives were drastically different from before.

After all, both of their horizons had long since expanded beyond Zion and spanned the whole Old World; their social circles were utterly different due to illness and path, and their thought paradigms had already changed.

However, the one thing that had not changed was their fundamental nature as human beings.

"By the way, Reagan... I brought back the Death Plague sample you wanted."

"You really remembered~ It’s been a long time, just that right now, our equipment conditions aren’t suitable for effective research, hand it over to me now~ We will discuss it later."

When William handed over the vial containing the Death Plague, he intentionally touched Reagan’s fingers while holding the vial in the middle,

That touch was incredible, conveying a unique sensation, the texture of a soft metal.

Although he didn’t focus on perceiving it closely, William could roughly estimate that probably no more than 30% of Reagan’s body was flesh and blood.

"Reagan, your body?"

"Flesh is pain, Mechanical Ascension... The path I’ve taken is suited for such modifications, and the Old World organizations I’m involved with are very supportive of this, continuously providing me with ’metal’ and ancient technologies.

If it weren’t for the incident in Zion putting a halt to my research, I could have achieved true Ascension within a year.

Just thinking about those blood-soaked guys destroying my research, wrecking my painstakingly gathered documents, and ruining the equipment I personally designed makes me want to explode their heads.

Sigh~ Never mind... we should be able to retake our position soon anyway.

My current body is more suited to the conduction and transformation of electricity and spiritual power, and it can even create a ’family’ within itself."

As he spoke, strands of cable detached from Reagan’s back,

The tongue was stippled with earpiece-like pores, and Miss Faye, whose eye sockets were filled with cables, emerged, smiling and waving at William, her released aura proving to be even above that of Open Source.