"Alright, we should have a nice, long talk."
The bearded man rubbed his hands, making a cracking sound, while the female assassin, with a scowl on her face, nodded in agreement.
No fighting was allowed inside the Continental Hotel, so they had originally planned to either threaten and con Morin out of his gold coins or wait for him to leave the hotel before making a move.
However, they didn't expect Morin to directly provoke them and then voluntarily suggest going outside to "talk."
Even though they knew Morin probably had some confidence in himself, they were two people, so why would they worry about not succeeding?
In their eyes, Morin was just an unknown kid who wasn't even an official assassin. Apart from being handsome, he was full of flaws like his relaxed posture and his casual use of gold coins.
The bearded man and the female assassin were already reckless in their actions; otherwise, they wouldn't have gone straight up to Morin to cause trouble without knowing his background.
Of course, they weren't particularly skilled either, or they wouldn't have set their sights on a mere four gold coins.
Morin led the way, with the bearded man and the female assassin following behind. The three of them walked outside.
As the three of them stepped out and the hotel door opened and then closed again, the elevator arrived with a crisp "ding" and opened its doors, ready to receive its guest.
However, the person who had summoned it, after taking a step inside, paused, withdrew his foot, and slowly walked away.
The elevator waited for a long time but couldn't get the person to come back. It closed its doors reluctantly, waiting for the next person to open up to.
The receptionist and the other assassins who were waiting to see how this drama would play out showed a rare expression of surprise.
The hotel door opened once more, and then slowly closed.
...
"Should we talk here, or find a more suitable place to finish things?"
Morin walked for a bit, then stopped, turned around, and asked the bearded man and the female assassin, who were carefully watching him to make sure he didn't run.
"That depends on where you want to end up as a corpse, kid," the bearded man sneered, stepping forward.
"If you don't want that, hand over your gold coins and let us have a nice talk about your options... Ah!"
The bearded man didn't even finish his sentence before a fist connected with his forehead, making a dull thud.
The immense force sent him flying backward about ten feet before he hit the ground and lay there completely motionless.
"For the record, I don't think I have anything to talk about with you," Morin said.
Bang! The female assassin, shocked, pulled out her pistol and fired instantly!
However, there was no sound of a bullet hitting flesh and a body falling, but a crisp...
"Clink!"
The sound of metal clashing was particularly clear in the slightly quiet night street.
"...Good shot."
Morin looked at the slightly deformed gold coin in his hand and sighed.
"Let me ask you a question, Mr. Wick. Can a deformed gold coin like this still be used?"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The female assassin completely ignored what Morin had said and fired continuously, trying to kill him.
She was terrified by Morin's actions.
"..." John Wick slowly walked out of the shadows. "It seems you don't need my help."
"What's even more intriguing to me," Morin said, giving a flick of his wrist. The deformed gold coin flew out, and the female assassin fell to the ground.
"Is that a person like you would want to help a... person you've never met, who's only just registered as a probationary assassin?"
"I wanted to try something new," Wick said, taking out his phone and making a call. "This is Wick. Order two dinners, three blocks left of the Continental Hotel."
"Something new?" Morin smiled.
"Yes," Wick nodded. "I was originally going to convince you to give up being an assassin, but now... it seems you don't need my advice."
"I appreciate the gesture," Morin said. "Can I ask why?"
"You talk too much," Wick said, looking at Morin with a slightly impatient and scolding tone.
"In this business, people who talk too much don't live long, no matter how strong you are."
"..." Morin's eye twitched.
Is he showing off?
Is he showing off to me?
"I never like to be indebted to anyone," Morin said, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen from the inner lining of his suit (which was actually a storage space).
After writing down his phone number and identity, he handed it to Wick.
"So, here's my business card. If you ever need help, you can call me anytime."
"A business card..."
Even the usually unemotional Wick was a little speechless when he heard Morin call this hastily written note a "business card."
But when he saw the other string of letters on the note besides the phone number, Wick's tone became puzzled: "Templar?"
"That will be my codename," Morin smiled. "And it will be an organization that stands against the Continental Hotel."
"...Against?" Wick repeated the word.
"I didn't join the Continental Hotel to be an assassin, but to understand it from the inside and then dismantle it," Morin said.
"I think you'll have a use for this number someday."
"...You have big ideas." Wick was silent for a moment before putting the note into his suit pocket.
If he hadn't seen Morin's actions just now, he probably wouldn't have even listened.
But now, after witnessing Morin's performance firsthand, he knew that as long as Morin didn't get careless or die prematurely, he was destined to become someone on par with him, or even stronger.
If that were the case, Morin's phone number was quite valuable.
Wick once killed three people with a pencil.
But just now, under his very eyes, Morin killed someone with a gold coin, and he did it with extreme, casual ease.
Wick didn't think he could do that, so even though Morin had no reputation and was just a newly registered probationary assassin, he already considered him an equal.
As for being superior... that was currently impossible.
After all, Wick had his own pride, the pride of the "Boogeyman."
Just a few seconds after Wick put the note away, a van pulled up. An old man wearing a top hat and several burly men got out and walked toward them.
"Your two 'dinners,' Mr. Wick," the old man said, coming up to Wick, taking off his hat, and bowing. "Charlie the Vulture is honored to serve you."
With that, the burly men Charlie had brought with him went to the corpses of the bearded man and the female assassin. With professional movements and swift efficiency, they searched their bodies, "packaged" them, and loaded them into the van.
In the distance, the sirens of a late-arriving police car wailed. But when they saw Charlie's van, they slammed on their brakes, stopped far away, and quickly turned around and left.
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