Chapter 1 A Vital Transport Hub

As a vital transport hub, the massive steel platform appeared busy and crowded, filled with all kinds of mechanical equipment and train heads and carriages waiting to be assembled. Even the crooked, makeshift iron shacks of the supervisors on the edge of the platform seemed as if they were about to be squeezed off. Busy workers scurried between the various pieces of equipment, preparing for the next departure or repairing the mechanical equipment ravaged by arcane radiation. Almost no one had the spare time to pay attention to the uninvited guests who suddenly appeared on the platform—because several burly foremen were standing on the tower, and any lazy behavior would not escape their eyes. Compared to the money earned after work for food, a group of strangely dressed people who suddenly appeared was nothing.

Led by Wendell, Hao Ren and his group passed through the busy and chaotic platform towards the nearby supervisor's iron shack. A boiler under repair rumbled not far away, and the pungent smell of machine oil, accompanied by the hiss of steam, filled the air, causing Lily to sneeze constantly along the way. The Twilight Capital left a very bad first impression on the husky girl. The pungent smell here was simply torture for her.

In the end, she had no choice but to put on her life-support collar again—she had taken it off after entering the Twilight Barrier.

"Every ten hours, two locomotives depart simultaneously from here to the wilderness mining fields," Wendell said, pointing to the rough steam locomotives. "They send a batch of numb miners and bring back a batch of exhausted miners and newly mined ore. Then, these ores are sent to the Great Forge to become the city's building and repair materials. There are also several such stations in the outer rim area, each connected to other mines in the dark wilderness. If you have the opportunity, you can go and see those mines. You have amazing ancient technology, and I really hope you are willing to share these techniques... Well, we'll talk about this later."

The supervisor's iron shack was as old and dirty as the rest of the platform. The only thing that distinguished it was the striking red paint on the roof of this black iron shack, which made it particularly bright among the dull station buildings. No one bothered them along the way. Wendell led the group directly to the iron shack and pushed open the rusty door.

A rough and angry voice immediately came from inside, a voice previously confined within the door: "...You bunch of idiots with oil in your brains! I want you to check every gear, every bolt, every single one, understand? Not just take a nap around the machine and then come back to write me a piece of 'everything is normal' garbage! Do you know what it means if a locomotive stalls in the dark area? It means it's almost going to stay there forever! Unless I kick you scum out of the barrier and make you fix those machines in the dark with blisters all over your bodies! You know there was a poor guy who actually did that once, and now his bones are still drying outside! A bunch of useless..."

A "smack" sound came from inside the room, as if something had been slammed heavily on the table, and then the rough voice roared again: "Now get out! Go check the machines, check the boilers, check every rivet and axle! Otherwise, one day I'll kick you all outside the barrier!"

A hurried and panicked footstep followed, and five or six people in rough work clothes ran out of the iron shack as if fleeing for their lives. One of them even almost bumped into Wendell. These locomotive technicians who had just been scolded (or whatever their position was) noticed the strangers standing at the door, but they hardly dared to stop and take a look. Before the voice in the room roared again, they scurried away.

Hao Ren and the others looked at each other for a moment, then followed Wendell into the room.

The iron shack contained a huge desk, piled with all sorts of messy things, and a burly, red-nosed man was "piled" together with the clutter. He sat sloppily curled up in a large armchair, his disheveled clothes almost as messy as his desk. The red-nosed man had his hands in his arms, chewing on a small stick in his mouth as if trying to vent his anger: "The new technicians are a bunch of good-for-nothings, completely irresponsible, not even close to... Who let you in? I didn't say... Wendell?!"

The red-nosed man finally noticed the group of people standing in front of him, and saw a familiar face among them. He jumped up almost as if startled, making a move that didn't match his appearance at all: he pinched his thigh hard, then winced in pain.

"Wendell! Old man! You're back alive?! Ancestors be praised, is this real? I haven't even started drinking today!"

Wendell greeted his old friend. Although the two of them looked more than a generation apart in age, they hugged each other tightly like longtime friends: "Boken, you loudmouth, I could hear you ranting outside the door!"

"Nonsense, the soundproofing of this door has always been good!" The red-nosed Boken retorted, pushing Wendell away and looking him up and down as if he were a rare creature. "You actually came back, you actually came back, and neither are you covered in sores nor is any part of you withered and necrotic... Old man, were you really blessed by the ancestors? You actually came back alive twice!"

"Blessed by the ancestors," Wendell smiled gently, forcefully prying open Boken's fingers grabbing his arm. "Be careful, I'm old enough as it is, I can't stand a few slaps from you."

Boken finally calmed down slightly from his excitement. He took a breath: "You're really a reckless old man, daring to participate in the Seekers of Light twice in a row. I'm not even that crazy when I'm drunk... Did you come back alone?"

Wendell's eyelids drooped, his face with a dark look: "Not many people ever return from the night."

"May they rest in the eternal kingdom," Boken made a few prayer gestures in front of his chest in a random way. His wrinkled and sloppy clothes and casual tone made the prayer sound insincere. Then, he finally turned his gaze to Hao Ren and the others, who had been standing there for a long time. "What's going on with these people... Judging by their clothes, are you all from the upper city?"

"No," Wendell suddenly smiled mysteriously. He tried to control his expression to appear serious and mysterious, but the excitement from his heart made his smile more and more obvious. "They're from outside."

"Oh, outside, that's very far..." Boken waved his hand casually, not reacting for a moment, but after a moment his movements suddenly froze. His eyes widened, he made a few strange noises in his throat, and suddenly jumped up. "From outside!"

His voice almost hurt people's ears.

Wendell grabbed Boken's shoulder and pressed him down: "Keep it down, you'll shake the entire station down. That's right, they're from outside, outside the Twilight Barrier, outside the Twilight Capital! They're from Asgard."

"Asgard, Asgard..." Boken repeated confusedly a few times. "Oh, I learned about it, the ancient kingdom, said that gods used to rule there in person... My god, old buddy, did you really go there?! No no, that can't be right, you're just here to tease me, aren't you... Your brain got burned out by the darkness outside, or I got infected by the toxins you're carrying..."

Wendell patted Boken's shoulder hard: "This isn't like you, when did you become so rigid?"

Boken's face drooped: "Is this real?"

"It's real, and not only is it real, but these envoys from Asgard also need your help," Wendell pointed to Hao Ren and the others. "I need to take these people to the Seekers of Light headquarters. They're in a hurry, and the most convenient means of transportation I can find is your locomotive."

Boken touched his nose: "A ride? That's no problem, but I can only take you to the upper city. The shafts from the upper city to the lower city aren't under my control. You have to deal with the people in the Steam Council, but if you get entangled with those bureaucrats, I estimate that you and your friends will have to go through a lot of procedures. Their identities are too... special."

Lily rolled her eyes when she heard this: "Don't tell me the people in the Steam Council aren't happy to see that there are other survivors in this world? Are they going to make trouble?"

"Not making trouble, the people in the Steam Council are people too, of course they're happy to know that there are other habitable areas outside the Twilight Capital," Boken spread his hands. "But bureaucrats are bureaucrats, and we people who live in the outer rim area have never gotten along well with them."

"Take us as far as you can," Galazriel waved her hand indifferently. "We'll see what happens."