'Wow, has the viewing experience of Prequel of the Stars Season 2 changed this much? The production team really has guts!'
'A human purgatory of rusty steel intertwined with steam; I can feel the despair just through the screen.'
'If Season 1, Ember, was about destruction and rebirth, could Season 2, Glimr, be about despair and hope?'
'Don't say it, the word "Glimr" actually does have a bit of a redemptive feel to it.'
Although it was just a simple bar opening, and the two nad characters who appeared were strangers who hadn't been seen before, the dinsion-hopping audience still caught a glimpse of the 'Lower City of Steam' from the intensely post-apocalyptic atmosphere. This place, referred to as 'hell,' was indeed despair-inducing enough.
"Hey, Bertrand, what are you dawdling for? You're not seriously going to make us 'help' you, are you?"
Seeing the fierce looks in his companions' eyes, Bertrand gritted his teeth, his fingers trembling as he picked up the five bullets on the table. He then dropped all of them into his beer.
Plop—
The mont the bullets fell into the 'Coal Ash Stout,' the dancing bubbles in the glass and the continuously rising black foam made Bertrand inexplicably think of boiling magma in hell.
Just die already!
Without any hesitation, he grabbed the glass and chugged it, swallowing all five bullets along with it.
"Burp—"
Bertrand let out a burp, thick black smoke billowing from his mouth, as if he hadn't drunk beer at all, but rather the 'despairing' air of the Lower City of Steam. This was a scene unique to 'hell.'
I... I'm still alive?
Bertrand touched his stomach. A look of joy imdiately appeared on his face when he confird that the five bullets he had swallowed had caused no accident.
But what he didn't notice was that as he celebrated his survival, the several gang mbers beside him exchanged glances and revealed eerie smiles. And these smiles were clearly the cruel smiles of hunters watching their prey fall into a trap.
"Woah, Bertrand, you're quite lucky, kid."
"You actually made it through the Five Gates of Hell."
"So now... it's your turn to spin the 'Wheel of Death.'"
"Hurry up, don't keep us waiting like a wimp."
Convinced that Lady Luck was favoring him, Bertrand imdiately picked up the revolver on the table and placed the gun to his temple.
However, before he could pull the trigger, a pristine white hand gripped the barrel of the revolver.
"Stop. They never intended for you to leave this table alive from the start."
Bertrand turned back in astonishnt. What t his eyes was a mysterious girl in a silver uniform. Although he didn't know who Vivian was, he recognized the clothes Vivian wore and the badge pinned to her chest.
"An Upper City Silver Knight?"
Hearing Bertrand's words, not only the gang mbers around him but even other patrons nearby fell silent, all looking towards Vivian's direction. This situation naturally caught the attention of Rust Nail Bar's owner.
Old Jack stopped wiping glasses, his sole eye looking towards the corner of the bar where Vivian was.
"Kong, co out for a mont."
"Coming!"
To the excited gaze of the dinsion-hopping audience, Chen Kong, who had been changing beer barrels, wiped his hands and erged from the bar's backroom. Sensing the strange atmosphere in the bar, Chen Kong first cast a curious glance towards Vivian's direction. Then he asked Old Jack, "What's wrong, boss?"
"Go help that white eagle from the Upper City. Don't let her ss up our business."
"After all, even if she's a guest from 'heaven,' she still has to obey the rules of 'hell'..."
"Otherwise... her 'wings' that can soar in the sky might just break here."
"Oh, understood."
Chen Kong untied his foam-stained apron, hung it on the nearby counter, then left the bar and walked towards Vivian.
anwhile, Vivian, whose identity had been exposed, was already in trouble.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's one thing for an Upper City Silver Knight to show up here, but how dare you slander our innocence out of nowhere?"
"Besides, we're just playing a fun little ga with Bertrand. Are you, this white eagle, so nosy that you have to interfere even with this?"
Several gang mbers imdiately stood up, glaring fiercely at Vivian, clearly ready to act at the slightest provocation. At the sa ti, the other patrons in the Rust Nail Bar not only didn't stop them, but instead showed expressions of watching a good show, clearly enjoying the drama.
Although she had sensed that sothing was slightly off, as a Silver Knight of the 'Gear Church,' Vivian did not take these 'lowly' Lower City rats seriously. She said expressionlessly, "I'm not interested in what you're doing. I only know that this Bertrand is the person I'm looking for... a living person."
With that, Vivian, regardless of what these gang mbers thought, directly grabbed Bertrand's collar, intending to take him out of the bar on the spot. And though Vivian looked frail, her grip was very strong. Even Bertrand, who had undergone cybernetic modifications, found it hard to resist and was forced to stand up.
But the gang mbers wouldn't let Vivian take Bertrand away so easily.
"Damn it, a re white eagle dares to boss around us sewer rats."
"You little bitch, don't you know where this is? This is the murky Rust Iron District, not your clear skies in the Upper City. Put away your damn arrogance!"
After cursing, the gang mber decisively pulled out a shotgun from his coat and aid it at Vivian. Seeing this, the other gang mbers around also pulled out their weapons. The situation instantly beca tense.
"Excuse , excuse ."
Just as Vivian and these gang mbers were about to co to blows, Chen Kong suddenly erged from the crowd and stepped between Vivian and the gang mbers. His gaze swept over the confronting parties. Then he paused for a mont on the 'pink children's watch' on Vivian's left wrist. Silently, he turned to face the ard gang mbers.
"Kevins, Hill, Filippo, daring to pull out weapons inside the Rust Nail Tavern? Don't think that just because you're mbers of the 'Grey Rat Gang,' the boss can't do anything to you."
"Don't forget, your boss, Grey Rat Ricardo, was practically raised by our boss."
Hearing Chen Kong's words, the expressions of the gang mbers he nad beca sowhat grim. However, considering the task given to them by that mysterious person, and the incredibly generous reward, these guys gritted their teeth and still stiffly said, "We were just playing a normal ga. This white eagle slandered us without distinguishing right from wrong and even tried to take Bertrand away right in front of us."
"Kong, even if you report this to our boss, we're in the right. After all, what we're doing now isn't breaking any rules."
"Tch, they really won't shed tears until they see the coffin."
Seeing these guys still trying to argue, Chen Kong simply stopped giving them face. He snatched the revolver from Bertrand's hand and openly unloaded the bullets one by one.
One, two, three...
Watching a full six bullets appear on the table, Bertrand was dumbfounded. Because if it hadn't been for Vivian just now, he would have been dead for sure if he had pulled the trigger! This was no 'ga'; this was clearly an attempt to kill him!
"How about it? Do you want to teach you what the rules of the Rust Iron District really are?"
Looking at the revolver with its open cylinder in Chen Kong's hand, and the increasingly dangerous gazes of the onlookers, the Grey Rat Gang mbers exchanged glances, then viciously said, "You just wait." With that, they left the Rust Nail Bar.
"You break the rules yourself and then don't let others talk about it. You're really too arrogant, Grey Rat Gang."
Chen Kong seed indifferent to the Grey Rat Gang mbers' threats. After all, he had encountered similar situations at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, tis in the City of Steam over the years. If such words could deal with him, then he wouldn't be a Child of the Stars. Instead, he'd be an unnad corpse in so foul ditch in the Rust Iron Hell of the City of Steam. To live well in hell, one needed so skill.
However, after dealing with these Grey Rat Gang mbers, Chen Kong then turned his attention to Vivian and Bertrand.
"Let's go. It's not convenient to talk here. Follow ."
Vivian thought for a mont, then finally, still holding Bertrand, she followed.
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