Chương 15: Chapter 15 Cities

Pan and the other two were very familiar with the underground roads. They carried kerosene lamps, navigated the winding cave labyrinth, crossed several fissures, and encountered a few monster attacks along the way. Fortunately, these subterranean creatures were not very powerful, and the trio, working in perfect harmony, dealt with them easily.

After trekking for about an hour, they finally came to a wall.

It was a wall built of black square bricks that sealed off a natural cave. This not-so-thick barrier marked the division between the city and the wilderness.

There was a dog-sized hole in the bottom right corner of the wall. All three of them got down and crawled through it, immediately hit by a stench—the other side of the wall was the city's sewer, with wastewater drifting through the channel and detritus floating on the surface. Pan's beard twitched, and he frowned, saying, "Hurry up, I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."

"Coming, coming." Karlo also crawled through the dog hole and pulled Cherie after him. They quickly followed Pan, walking along the path beside the channel, and soon saw a ladder leading upward. Pan climbed the ladder first, carefully checking the scene above the manhole before cautiously pushing the cover open a crack to look outside.

The dwarf's body was solid, and he was much stronger than a human. A heavy iron manhole cover would be difficult for any adult to lift, but he pushed it aside with one hand.

Darkness enveloped the outside, with the sporadic light from streetlamps illuminating rows of low and cramped houses on both sides of the street. All was quiet except for the occasional sound of a car horn in the distance. Further away, in the center of the city, a red tower pierced the dark subterranean space.

Yes, the city was built inside the cavities of underground caves.

"No one's there."

Pan whispered, slowly pushing open the grate-like manhole cover, about to crawl out, when a sound drifted over. He looked back and quickly recoiled, hiding back inside: "Something's wrong!"

"Ouch!"

Karlo was halfway out when she was struck by Pan's rump, almost falling off the ladder. She stumbled, turning her head to dodge Pan and grumbled discontentedly, "What's that for, Uncle Pan!"

Pan closed the sewer manhole cover again: "Someone jumped from a building."

"What?"

Karlo was slightly surprised but not really shocked—it was nothing new. However, it was the first time someone had chosen the curfew to jump. This meant the streets would surely become busy.

Pan turned back and looked through the manhole cover's grid, which allowed a perfect view of the outside. On the streets, windows opened one by one, with people leaning out, all looking in the same direction—not far away, someone was standing on the top floor of a high-rise, bottle in hand, taking gulps of alcohol and shouting something. However, because the person was emotionally agitated and seemed to have been drinking, and because of the distance, it was unclear exactly what was being said.

Pan listened intently for a while but could only make out a few key words like "unemployed," "no money," and "wife ran off with someone."

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps and flashlight beams approached from a distance. Pan shrank back down to avoid being seen, and several Nightwatchmen ran past over the sewer manhole cover. Once they were gone, Pan mustered the courage to push the cover open a bit and peeked out with half his head, getting a clearer view.

Seeing the Nightwatchmen, the man on the high-rise became even more agitated and yelled with all his might, "Damn it, if you've got the guts, kill me—"

The Nightwatchmen had reached the scene of the attempted jump, and the leader drew a gun:

Bang!

A gunshot rang out and the man, like a kite with its string cut, plummeted to the ground, splattering blood as he landed.

The Nightwatchmen moved quickly to stuff the body into a body bag. Others brought out cleaning tools and washed away the bloodstains on the ground.

Extremely professional, swift, and efficient.

"Alright, disperse now!" a Nightwatchman shouted through a megaphone, "The suicide victim has been shot dead. There's nothing to see, so stop looking and go back to sleep! It's curfew time now!"

As soon as the word "curfew" was mentioned, everyone became silent as cicadas in winter and, sighing, closed their windows.

Pan ducked back into the sewer. He waited until the Nightwatchmen had left before muttering, "Their marksmanship is pretty damn good."

Prying the manhole cover open once more, this time without any mishaps, Pan was the first to emerge, followed closely by Karlo and Cherie. After the trio had surfaced, they quickly restored the manhole cover to its original position. Then, without daring to linger on the streets, they simply nodded to each other, extinguished their kerosene lamps, and swiftly vanished into the alleyways, making their way back home in the dark.

During curfew, if one was caught, they could face severe punishment.

Karlo and Cherie were sisters, living in a tube-shaped apartment at the end of Gray Mouse Alley. Since it was already late, the metal shutter door at the apartment's entrance had been closed, but the sisters, familiar with their terrain, circled to the back of the building. Cherie stuffed a thick book into her clothing for protection, and the two climbed up the pipes as nimbly as monkeys.

They lived on the third floor, and to facilitate their comings and goings, they had deliberately left the window unlocked. As Karlo reached the window and pushed it forcefully open, a loud rattle came from next door—the window there swung open first, and a middle-aged woman with a rather fierce appearance poked her head out. She had a hooked nose and small eyes; the wrinkles on her forehead resembled the character for "king" on a tiger's head.

She glared at them, agitated: "I thought it was a thief at this late hour, but it turns out to be you two again!"

"Landlady!" Cherie called out softly from below, "You scared the life out of me!"

"You two gave me the fright of my life!" The landlady, peering with her triangular eyes, complained irritably, "Climbing through windows every day! You two little brats, one of these days I'll have to kick you out!"

Karlo's gaze became sharp, glaring at her with a menacing look.

The landlady glared back immediately: "What are you looking at? Don't forget whose house you're living in!"

"Alright, alright," Cherie interjected softly, "Landlady, it was our fault. Everyone's asleep; let's not make any more noise. Karlo, you go in first."

"Hmph!" Karlo climbed through the window into their room. Just as Cherie was about to follow, the landlady called out to her again, "Hey, Cherie, do you really want to scavenge for a living forever?"

"What do you mean?"

The landlady jutted her chin out, "I inquired for you girls—a tavern called 'House of Joy' is hiring waitresses. You'd fit right in. Forget your sister, though, she's too fierce, clearly not cut out for customer service."

Karlo pulled Cherie into the room and glared at the landlady, retorting sharply, "Nice way to put it. So she's supposed to be a prostitute? My sister wouldn't consider such a sleazy job!"

"Sleazy?" The landlady laughed with annoyance: "That's a job with a stable work and steady income, unlike you two! Always engaging in illegal activities, you could lose your lives in an instant and still earn so little! I think you two must be sick to enjoy scavenging like this! Always complaining about this and that..."

Muttering under her breath, she rolled her eyes, "Don't accept kindness, so be it!"

Karlo, with a face of thunder, locked the window.

Once again, silence returned.

Outside the glass window, tall steam towers loomed, and the city disclosed a kind of unspeakable starkness amidst the quietness.

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