The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 190: Outlanders

Ashe pressed himself against the floor-to-ceiling glass, looking down at the sleepless city below. ”Have we somehow crossed into an incredible kingdom?”

A pale, dim moon hung in the night sky, starkly reminding them that they had already missed their chance to participate in the real-time adventure that was called the Blood Moon Tribunal.

Skyscrapers stretched in endless rows, bathed in neon light, while the automated vehicles on the roads, called as such due to Ashe’s limited sci-fi vocabulary, moved in seamless coordination. Each car maintained a precise distance from the next, traveling at nearly identical speeds. Whenever a car changed lanes, the one behind smoothly closed the gap. There were no traffic lights or crosswalks, yet the cars moved with near-perfect self-regulation.

Countless drones wove through the night sky, also tightly coordinated. They flew swiftly and efficiently, even capable of point-to-point delivery. Just moments ago, one had flown directly into their room, dropped off a few pairs of underwear, and left.

Harvey preferred briefs, Ashe liked boxers, while Iger didn’t wear underwear at all. Despite their varied preferences, however, the room only stocked briefs.

When the young butler Pankey heard their preferences, he promised, ”I’ll fulfill your needs as quickly as possible,” but none of them expected the delivery to arrive immediately after their bath.

It was at that moment that they noticed a small delivery hatch in the room for drones. The opening was just large enough for a drone to pass through, but too narrow to reach an arm inside.

Compared to the grandeur of the city below, it was these subtle, highly practical designs that impressed and unsettled Ashe and the others. The city’s productivity had reached a level where even the smallest tasks, like collecting a package, were optimized.

If Ashe could sum up the city in one word, that word would be ”alive.”

The city itself felt like a living machine, running with precise calculations and flawless efficiency. Everything moved quickly but in perfect order, like a master conductor leading a symphony. Each note was perfectly timed, every movement pleasing to the senses, with no extraneous noise.

Ashe had thought Caimon City was impressive, but compared to this place, it now seemed grim, coarse, and almost hellish.

Ashe felt as though he were looking down from a dizzying height, yet he wasn’t atop a skyscraper. He was in the building’s deepest basement, floor B51. Beneath his feet, there was no solid foundation of earth or stone. Instead, he looked down through the ”floor” only to see the rooftop of another building, and far below that, the sprawling ground level of a city stretched out into the distance.

Across from him, an eighty-storey skyscraper towered upward, its base aligned with his minus-fifty-one floor, less than a hundred meters away. From the car earlier, Ashe had watched the scene and felt as if droplets of stalactite and stalagmite hung frozen in midair, or as if heaven and earth were leaning in for a silent, impossible kiss.

This was a breathtakingly insane city. The ground level appeared normal, but the second layer was an inverted city, with every building built upside-down and the ”ground” above everything else.

”Hopefully their corpse management system is lenient,” Harvey said, swinging his freshly healed left arm.

A Moon Candy dangled from his mouth as he lounged in a soft chair. ”A civilization that knows how to utilize corpses is a good civilization.”

”No wonder those Red Hat security forces let us go so easily,” Iger muttered.

Watching the drones slice through the night sky, Iger added, ”Look at those machines, equipped with guns and cannons. They could wipe out an entire corps of ordinary sorcerers. The Blood Moon Kingdom is still researching an unmanned three-dimensional security system, but here...it’s already reality.”

”Unless a Level-Three or higher Virtual Channel is opened and a Sacred Realm sorcerer leads a hunting festival personally, nothing in this country can pose a real threat.”

”We, low-level soldiers coming from a Level-Two Virtual Channel, are seen as evil outlanders to be eliminated, but at best, we’re no more than cockroaches, not even centipedes,” Iger said, his voice carrying a hint of resentment.

”In a civilization with such perfect rules, if we hide for just three days until the countdown ends, we could find a way to become formal citizens, enjoy social welfare, and avoid being forced to serve that woman as slaves for a hundred days.”

Ashe suddenly said, ”The social welfare in the Blood Moon Kingdom is actually quite comprehensive. The only catch is that you need a chip implanted in the back of your neck. If the Blood Moon is willing to waive your penalties, but only on the condition that you get the chip implanted again, would you agree?”

”No,” Harvey replied, shrugging. ”The research institute monopolizes the corpse industry. A small-time operator like me wouldn’t survive. Even if it weren’t for the jailbreak, I’d leave the hyper-competitive Blood Moon red ocean sooner or later... Sigh. Where’s my blue ocean of corpse fields, anyway?”

”I don’t like answering hypothetical questions,” Iger said calmly.

Ashe reached for a sandwich cookie from the snack tray. ”I don’t have solid proof yet, but I get the feeling this country isn’t as perfect as it seems. If everyone here truly lived in peace and prosperity, then why is the Four Pillars Cult thriving even more here than in Caimon City?”

Iger scoffed. ”Have you considered that it might simply be because the leaders of the two organizations differ greatly in capability?”

Ashe added, ”Besides, being employed by Annan isn’t entirely bad. Being used isn’t frightening; what is frightening is being useless. Even if, as you said, we could slowly integrate into this world from the bottom up, how long would it take? What risks would we face? We, a group of outsiders with nothing, can we really survive in a fully structured, civilized nation? I wouldn’t be surprised if someone kicked us off a bridge for ’spoiling the scenery.’”

”There are advantages tied to our race that we don’t know about, but Annan does. She’s even willing to pay the cost just to exploit them... Iger, if I discovered a hidden talent in one of your sorcery classes, and the price was that you had to submit to me completely for the next hundred days, would you agree?”

Iger said coldly, ”I already told you, I don’t do hypotheticals. And there’s no way I could handle that. Three minutes in, I’d puke so hard I’d end up completely dehydrated and dead.”

Despite Iger’s response, everyone understood the meaning behind Ashe’s words. The next hundred days wouldn’t just be about Annan using them; they could also turn the situation to their own advantage.

With a local like Annan assisting them, Ashe and the others could not only integrate quickly into this world but also uncover abilities they hadn’t realized they possessed. Even if most or all of that value went to Annan, they would at least gain insight into their unique talents. It was like receiving vocational training, It was like receiving vocational training, only that it came at a steep cost, which was selling themselves.

Ashe added, ”But don’t forget, we were sold to the Four Pillars Cult as sacrifices.”

Harvey suddenly stretched his left arm. His bones snapped crisply. From the looks of it, it had fully healed. The dazed, sluggish look had vanished from his face. His eyes narrowed, and his dark-skinned visage now radiated the cold precision of Caimon City’s top assassin-controller.