About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

"Someone is approaching outside. It must be the doctor coming to change the medicine."

Orson sensed someone pushing a cart approaching in the corridor, so he made room for the nurse in advance.

But the next person who pushed the door open and entered the room, was not pushing a disposable syringe of iodine and an IV drip in his cart, but a crossbow covered with white cloth.

"Texas, go to hell."

"——!?"

brake!!

The other party picked up the crossbow and pulled the trigger towards Texas without any hesitation. The crossbow flew towards the Luper girl on the hospital bed at a speed no less than that of a bullet.

Orson's frequency detection could not directly identify the identity of unmarked people, and Texas had previously said "it's safe here", so he failed to detect the invasion of the abnormal person at the first time.

"pause"

Orson directly summoned the rest to wrap around Texas' legs and "pull" her into his arms in an extremely rough manner.

"Woo!"

Even though Orson reacted immediately, the second crossbow bolt still grazed Texas's calf. Her smooth black stockings were soaked with crimson blood, and Texas let out a short, low moan.

"Sorry, I'll stop the bleeding for you in a moment!"

Orson held Texas' thighs and waist with his hands respectively. He controlled the pause to become a "shield" shape to block the next attack, and then rushed out through the window without any hesitation.

Click! !

Orson was careful to prevent the glass fragments from scratching Texas, then used Pause to cling to the wall in mid-air, forcibly changing his trajectory and using his body to smash the corridor glass on the next floor.

"You hide here first, Texas. There seem to be three or four people here. I'll go take care of them first."

Orson kicked open a door beside him and settled Texas into the room. He then locked the door and used 'Tuning' to raise the temperature from the inside, causing it to melt and solidify into a lump.

"Orson, you—"

Texas wanted to say something, but Orson had already climbed out the window.

The aura of the young man in front of him had undergone an astonishing change. His previous slightly innocent and childish expression had long disappeared, replaced by a sense of coldness and cruelty that even he himself felt suffocated.

It is obvious that this young man has also experienced an indelible darkness, so this cold blood cannot be dispelled from his blood.

But unlike himself... Texas chose to integrate this darkness into his life, but that boy - it was as if he had always been guided by "someone" by his side. Even after witnessing death and despair, he still chose to live in the most optimistic and kind way.

Of course, this kindness is not shown to everyone——

"The assassination attempt failed? Damn it! Your target was a guy who had no way to escape and was lying in bed waiting to die. How could you fail?!"

In the corridor, a gangster wearing sunglasses and holding a crossbow was talking to the person on the other side of the walkie-talkie in a careless manner. At the same time, without even blinking, he raised the crossbow and pulled the trigger at the doctor who was trying to escape not far away.

"Forget it, there's another boy in the room? Then kill him too. Are you mentally retarded—Hey, hey!?"

A dull sound suddenly came from the other side of the intercom, and then it fell into silence.

The gangster frowned in confusion. He dialed another frequency, but just like the previous one, the other end became dead silent for some reason.

"..."

The gangster realized that something was wrong. He put down the walkie-talkie, held the crossbow with both hands, and observed his surroundings carefully.

There was a commotion in the room next door, and the thugs immediately kicked the door open.

“Get out!” “Don’t, don’t kill me—!!”

In the room was a man in a hospital gown. He was so frightened that he could only beg and wave his hands.

"Oh shit"

The gangster just cursed and then pulled the trigger without thinking -

The crossbow arrow was not fired. The man looked at his right hand holding the crossbow arrow in confusion. Only then did he realize that the fingers that were originally on the trigger had disappeared.

"Fuck-"

Boom! !

Before he could even yell, the man was knocked unconscious by a heavy blow to the back of his head.

--------

When the man regained consciousness, he was already in a biochemical waste treatment room. Beside him were two other "colleagues". Like him, they had just woken up not long ago.

"First, give me a reason not to kill you."

"——!?"

A slightly immature boy's voice came from the corner of the room, and the three of them tensed up instantly.

"You killed a doctor, right? So tell me, what reasons do you have for me to let you go?"

The owner of the voice slowly walked out from the shadows. He came in front of the three people and continued to ask questions in a voice without any emotion.

He was just a teenager, without fierce eyes, strong muscles, or weapons in his hands.

But even so, the mere sight of him standing in front of her made her body shiver uncontrollably.

"Who the hell are you? I...Pfft—?"

Before the first gangster could finish his words, a dark pause had already pierced his heart.

"What about you?"

The boy killed the first man with a nonchalant manner, then turned to look at the other man.

"Wait...wait! I didn't do this willingly! I've never killed anyone!"

The second man was obviously panicked. He never expected that the young man could kill a living person so easily.

"But you pulled the trigger on Texas, didn't you?"

"That girl? I...I don't know anything, I really don't-Aa ...

The pause pierced through the second man's thigh, and blood splattered out instantly.

"Change your profession. This line of work doesn't suit you, sir."

Orson tossed the man a bundle of first aid bandages and squatted in front of the third man.

"Who is your leader?"

This time, the boy did not ask the other party why he wanted to live, but instead questioned who his boss was.

"How could I possibly tell you, you little brat!"

The gang members who seemed to have higher status glared back fiercely, and it was obvious that they were not afraid of death.

"While I could extract information through torture... time is of the essence, and I don't like that approach. Your walkie-talkie has more frequency bands. If you're unwilling to tell me, I'll have to contact the person myself."

"what are you saying……?"

The man stared at Orson with wide eyes as the young man took the walkie-talkie off of him and gently placed his fingers on it.

Not long after, he easily "tested out" the frequency band that he thought was encrypted.

"Have you recovered the items?"

After the intercom was connected, a deep male voice came from the other end.

"What was your reason for attacking Texas?"

"..."

Orson's voice on the other side of the intercom sounded so unfamiliar that the man fell silent instantly.

"The blood of the Texas family still has value, so who are you, a nobody."

The man uttered the words 'Texas family'.

"Tuner, be silent—choose a name and listen to the music of your own death, sir."

"interesting."

The other end of the intercom turned into white noise. Orson tossed it aside and put his hand on the man's forehead.

When dealing with those spies with Junjun in Qie City before, Orson had learned the ability to quickly identify the status of these "chess pieces".

It was obvious that this assassination operation was not taken seriously. The intelligence that these people could squeeze out was pitifully little, and even if it was kept, it would not be of much use.

【Staccato】——

A faint white light emanated from Orson's hand. The man's eyes widened instantly, and then he fell straight to the ground and began to talk nonsense.

"Call me a hypocrite, but I don't want to take away any unnecessary lives. Don't bother that Luper girl anymore, understand?"

Orson spoke lightly, but in the small room there was only a corpse with a pierced heart, a man frantically wrapping bandages around his thigh, and a body lying on the ground, twitching unconsciously.

----------

"I'm back--Wow!?"

After dealing with several intruders, Orson cut open the melted door lock and was startled by the Originium sword in Texas' hand as soon as he entered the door.

"...Aren't you able to explore the surrounding environment?"

After discovering that it was Orson, Texas breathed a sigh of relief. She gritted her teeth and put down the Originium sword in her hand.

"But to reduce computational overhead, I'll ignore my companions' frequencies by default. I also grabbed some disinfectant and bandages. Have you contacted Exia and the others?"

Orson walked to Texas, took out medical bandages and disinfectant alcohol, and half-knelt in front of the bed to treat the wound on Texas' calf.

"Um, wait…what are you going to do?"

Texas noticed that Orson suddenly stretched out his hands towards the stockings on his legs, as if he wanted to touch them.

"Let me help you take care of your wound. It's a bit chaotic here right now. I don't think any regular doctors will come until the situation is under control."

"Well--"

Orson's fingers touched Texas's calves, and a subtle itching and tingling sensation came from the black stockings.

Texas wanted to pull her leg back, but she noticed Orson's expression. It was a serious expression without any strange thoughts, as if he was just helping himself disinfect and stop the bleeding.

"Okay, that should be fine for now."

Snapped!

“Uuuu!?”

After skillfully wrapping the bandage around Texas's wound, Orson patted Texas' thigh very naturally.

The latter was startled by this sudden action, and even his tail and ears almost stood up.

"Ugh, hug, hug, sorry! I studied emergency medicine with Gavial, and she always liked to pat me after treating wounds. I used to get patted every day, and then it became a habit..."

Orson apologized in a panic, and Texas couldn't help but feel angry at the other man's sincere expression.

"Just so-so."

Texas gently swung his calf, and his bandaging technique was no less skillful than that of the doctor. The only problem was that after part of his stockings was torn, the overall visual effect seemed a bit subtle and strange.

"I've dealt with the attackers for now, but I can't rule out further action. The Sicilian Gang seems to be targeting you. The leader said something like, 'The blood of the Texas family still has value.'"

“…It was indeed him.”

Texas erupted in intense anger and hatred upon hearing these words.

"Although I'm not quite sure about the specifics, it looks like they're making quite a big move. We might be in trouble later."

"We? This has nothing to do with you, Orson."

Texas looked at Orson. She didn't want to drag the boy into the mess she had caused.

"Why doesn't it matter? I've just been accepted by the boss, so now Texas's business is Penguin Logistics' business, and Penguin Logistics' business is my business."

Orson gave Texas a thumbs up, and the chilling murderous intent and death in his body had long disappeared.

"Your train of thought is even more outrageous than that of an Archangel..."

Texas sighed and thought for a moment.

After a brief silence, Texas seemed to have made up her mind. She looked at Orson and slowly opened her mouth.

"I was once the eldest daughter of a family in Syracuse."

Orson straightened his posture and listened carefully to Texas's past.