Chapter 121: Twenty-three, do you see that over there?
The gear train halted at a desolate and silent station platform.
The doors slowly opened.
And then noisy chatter spilled out from the carriage.
“Ah, my salary isn’t enough this month.”
“What do you want to swap for now?”
“I want a new chanical Shoulder, the one that ca out three days ago, you should know the model.”
“I think I should, but isn’t that model pretty much the sa as the one you have now? Other than glowing in the night, it doesn’t have any other effects, right?”
“What are you talking about? Isn’t glowing enough? Just think, in the streets without night illumination, by taking off your top, you can glow yourself.”
“Ah, well that’s true… Damn it, now you’ve got wanting to swap too, but I just replaced my leg parts last week…”
Gerard stepped out of the carriage, and the doors closed slowly behind him, shutting out most of the clamor; only a muffled noise still leaked through.
“You’re switching stuff out pretty fast…”
“There’s nothing I can do about it, and I’m nothing compared to so people, I heard that soone…”
As the gear car slowly started up and moved into the distance, it took the last vestiges of noise with it, returning the desolation to the uninhabited station platform.
Gerard looked at the station sign in front of him, it read “Rim Station.”
Bai Wei also glanced there for a mont, ordinarily, such a mundane station na wouldn’t deserve a second look from him, but he could see that this sign had been covered over, beneath it was another term, its old na. The title’s aning in this world was also very straightforward.
“Hero.”
This made Bai Wei realize where Gerard had co to.
“Looks like you’re returning to your old ho?” Bai Wei asked nonchalantly.
Gerard now couldn’t refuse to answer any of Bai Wei’s questions. He simply nodded and said “Yes,” then stopped looking at the sign and started walking inward.
Unlike other stations, all of the facilities here were very old, which of course was understandable, given that the maintenance schedule posted at the exit clearly recorded the last ti maintenance was conducted—236 years ago.
“I an, your place is being a little stingy, isn’t it?” Bai Wei’s voice rose again in Gerard’s mind, “Just because you once lived here and you’ve made mistakes, does everything about you need to be treated specially? I can overlook the previous stuff, but a huge station platform like this, not being maintained, isn’t that a bit odd?”
“It’s not just my old place.” Gerard started explaining again as he exited the platform and stood at the entrance of a street, pausing briefly to allow Bai Wei to see into the distance with his vision, “This is, the area where the entire first-generation Pioneer Force lived.”
It was a residential area.
But unlike the lively and fashionable steampunk vibe of other regions’ residential areas, this one looked very ordinary.
tal parts were far fewer here, and most of them were aged, rusted beyond use, just piled up carelessly here and there. And there were fewer people in this area, scarcely any figures walking around were visible at a glance, and those who were, were mainly children. They curiously cast their glances at Gerard, not understanding why this utterly strange man had co here.
Saying it was a residential area was more like calling it a cetery.
“The entire Pioneer Force, the Night Star Army you were part of, did their mbers and families all live here?” Bai Wei asked.
“Yes.” Gerard nodded and then stepped into this area he was once so familiar with.
Bai Wei also observed this desolate land that was incongruent with the rest of Lyra.
In the ga, the Lyra Map was one of the larger areas, with many places to run around. But the ga was just a ga after all, from what Bai Wei could see currently, the in-ga Lyra Map definitely did not even cover one-tenth of the real Lyra. At least Bai Wei had never been to this place before.
So this was a novelty for Bai Wei.
The place was desolate now, but that didn’t an it was desolate ten years ago. Unlike the “Devil” army, the first-generation Pioneer “Night Star” was regarded as Heroes in Lyra, which was evident from the previously covered station sign. Ten years ago, this place was certainly the most distinguished residential area in all of Lyra, that much could be told from the various dilapidated facilities on the streets.
Clearly, this had been Lyra’s benchmark.
But was the purpose of this benchmark rely to be admired?
Knowing the plot, Bai Wei had a deeper understanding. With a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, he said to Gerard, “Lyra brought the entire Pioneer Force together in one place, mainly because… they wanted to prevent possible contamination from spreading, right?”
Gerard’s body paused for a mont: “That is indeed part of the reason.”
“Heh… Just part of it? I think that should be the main reason,” Bai Wei said slowly, voicing his opinion, “The Pioneer Force had direct contact with the Pollution Zone, and to ordinary people, you were too ‘dangerous,’ so the best thing was to group you together and ‘watch over’ you. That way, if anything changed, they could react in ti. Like ten years ago, when you led the entire Night Star Army to extinction in the depths of the Pollution Zone, claiming to have orders but lacking any mory, so in their eyes, that was direct evidence of contamination.”
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