Chapter 1 A Necessary Chaos

Regardless of the details, Hao Ren and his uninvited guests had caused a massive commotion in Dusk City—and sometimes, "commotion" was a necessary means of solving problems. To successfully reach the city's deepest point, verify one of Vivian's guesses, and understand Dusk City's operational mechanism, Hao Ren needed a disturbance to concentrate all the trouble on the upper district's grand platform.

The piercing whistle continued to sound incessantly, and more Dusk Guards responded to the call and arrived in the upper district. In the eyes of the defense force's leader, the incident had taken a bizarre and incomprehensible turn, and the entire situation was gradually spiraling out of control. The top commanders racked their brains, unable to understand why such a powerful force of unrest had suddenly emerged in the city, and that this force was entangled with a Light Seeker who had just returned from the Dark Wilderness.

For many years, the city had maintained a reasonably peaceful state, despite the problems here and there—resource shortages, equipment malfunctions, mine accidents, and even a localized fire in the Great Boiler at its worst. But no matter what the issue, it was always clear and straightforward, and experts and scholars could quickly find the root cause. This time, however, the force of unrest that had suddenly appeared in the city defied explanation.

They couldn't trace its origins, and the incident had no warning signs whatsoever.

Most of the upper district's rails and platforms were under martial law, and the two giant gear sets in the upper middle of Dusk City emitted a heavy rumble. Huge plumes of steam erupted from the gear sets, and the entire machine's operating speed gradually slowed. The Great Boiler was reducing its output to prevent the threat from spreading to the crucial central pressure pipeline: if the Great Boiler were attacked and exploded, the damage to the city would be immeasurable.

To avoid this danger, Dusk City had its emergency plan, and depressurizing the central pressure pipeline was one of its components.

Near the top platform, the fierce battle continued. Seventy percent of the reinforcements from all over the city had gathered there, but they still hadn't resolved the threat. Looking towards the Great Elevator, one could see clouds of smoke rising, and the roar of cannon fire echoed faintly.

Near the Great Boiler in the upper district, in a steel-cast square tower, the leader of the Steam Council and the senior commander of the Dusk Guards were studying intelligence from the "front lines." A bald, one-armed man with mechanical lenses embedded in his eye had just arrived, bringing the latest news: "The enemy's tactics are constantly changing, and they can shapeshift. The situation up there is chaotic, and it's impossible to count the exact number of opponents and their forms. Those guys probably have the power to summon phantoms, and there should be powerful mages among them: summoned creatures have been deployed in battle, making the intelligence even more confusing."

"Where did these guys come from?" asked the Speaker of the Steam Council, a middle-aged woman with a stern expression. "I've heard some bad rumors that they're connected to some ancient descendants."

In the shadows in the corner of the room sat a thin man, who had completely wrapped himself in a black robe, almost blending into the surrounding darkness. He said in a hoarse voice, "This isn't a rumor, it's the scholars' judgment. Basilisk, giant wolves, fire giants—their characteristics are essentially consistent with ancient legends. It seems that we weren't the only ones who survived Ragnarok—they survived as well, and have been hiding in our city all along."

Upon hearing this, the people in the room couldn't help but gasp, and various more negative speculations emerged one after another.

In this way, the chaotic battle on the elevator platform was transmitted to the city's administrators, and with a group of people's completely unfounded and wild guesses, it was gradually evolving into an even more bizarre appearance.

But the participants in this melee had no idea about this.

Lili was running and rolling around in front of the Dusk Guards' defenses with glee. After transforming, her fur could completely withstand the attacks of ordinary guns and cannons. Occasionally, when she was hurt by an overly powerful cannon, she would howl a couple of times and slink back to Nangong Wuyue's side for psychological and physiological treatment, before turning back into a fierce dog again. Izhaks was constantly throwing fireballs at the flanks of the elevator platform, making it look like he was preparing to force open a passage, and he had attracted almost sixty percent of the aggro. Anton was floating in the air, surrounded by arcane orbs that looked like stars, completely suppressing the Dusk City's most elite mage corps with his own power, and he hadn't even gotten serious yet...

Compared to these grandiose guys, the golden dragon, Galazur, was the most unmanageable. The Dragon Queen had already transformed into her original form. At first, she had competed with the Dusk Guards' anti-air firepower with great interest, but then she realized that flying in the sky and being a moving target was really stupid (the main reason was that the base of her wings was fragile, and anti-aircraft shells would cause damage!), so she simply flapped her wings and turned to sit on a black giant tower on the edge of the platform. This tower was clearly a crucial and fragile facility, and the Dusk Guards' heavy artillery was wary of attacking it. The soldiers could only use limited-power firearms to attack Galazur. The Dragon Queen saw this and felt relieved. She squatted there, using her wings to directly cover her head, focusing on her heart, and was about to fall asleep again...

Although this was very unseemly, it was the most effective defensive posture for the golden dragon. The Dragon Queen, squatting with her head in her hands, was almost an impenetrable fortress. She just settled herself in the most conspicuous position on the entire battlefield, and the Dusk reinforcements constantly arriving from other parts of the city would immediately have their attention diverted by this golden giant creature.

So no one realized that this line of defense had actually been breached.

In the ancient elevator shaft, Hao Ren, Vivian, and Wendell were quickly traveling to the lower district.

The sounds of battle from the upper part of the city had faded away, and the occasional faint explosions sounded as distant as if they were coming from another world.

To avoid alerting the city guards, Hao Ren and the others didn't activate the transportation equipment in the tunnel. Instead, they had the data terminal drill into the shaft through a ventilation hole, and then the three of them teleported in and flew straight down the shaft: with Vivian's help, this flight was simple.

They were "diving" in this incredibly old and complex city that resembled a three-dimensional labyrinth. The scenery along the way gave the feeling of traveling through a bizarre dream. As the years passed, the city continued to pile up, and the elevator passage connecting the upper and lower districts also piled up with the sun and moon. The former upper district became the lower district, and the former elevator platforms were dismantled and transformed into new channel supports, leaving behind distinct stacked belts: like fossil specimens between rock layers, the elevator passage preserved the city's historical trajectory.

The shaft was very wide, with an overall circular shape. The shaft wall was supported by steel—as they continued to move to the city's more ancient areas, the material gradually included rock and a kind of grayish-white artificial material. The entire shaft wall wasn't sealed. Instead, there were huge openings and gaps everywhere. Some were passages specifically for personnel access, and others were purely cracks caused by the building's structure. Thick black steel pipes crisscrossed the shaft wall, and safety valves on the pipes would occasionally spew out steam. In some areas of the shaft, this steam even formed persistent clouds—and even small-scale rainfall, a phenomenon that made Hao Ren marvel.

"Below the elevator passage is Milton Lake," Wendell introduced the secrets of the city's deepest part. "All the steam in the city condenses into water and eventually returns to Milton Lake."

Hao Ren nodded. At this point, Vivian slowed the descent, and he could see the surrounding situation more clearly. They should already be near the lower district, or have already entered the lower district: the shaft was in an extremely weathered state in this section. Through some large holes in the shaft wall, he saw a very large space outside. Huge gears were rumbling, steam pipes were winding around, and black viscous oil was flowing along the ground, some of which had flowed into the shaft through the holes in the shaft wall. He also saw people—or creatures similar to humans. These humanoid creatures were active between the steam pipes and bearing gears, pale, short, and agile, almost naked, and without hair on their heads. When they turned their faces, Hao Ren saw that they had unusually large eyes, which could almost be called terrifying.

"That's the race that lives in the engine room. They've been maintaining the pressure pipes and bearing sets below for generations. I don't know when they stopped leaving the engine room, and after many generations, they became like this," Wendell fulfilled his duty as a guide. "They used to be human, but scholars believe they are now..."

"They are still human," Vivian said. "You are all trapped in this little box, without distinction."

After continuing to descend for a while, Wendell broke the silence: "We're in the lower district."