In Igwinte on a certain morning, within a dark, cold alley, sunlight filtered through a sliver of the sky between buildings, barely illuminating the dim environment. Ragged and filthy vagrants huddled against the walls and corners, some with eyes closed in sleep, while in a more remote and deserted corner, a figure in less tattered clothing lay sprawled.
This was a man in his thirties or forties, slightly short, with a full beard, a rugged face, and decent but dusty clothes. His eyes were tightly shut, and he was unconscious, leaning against the dark corner of the wall. He was Geffrey, who had recently arrived in Igwinte to perform a society mission with his companions. He was a Bonecrafter of the ""Stone"" path, a Black Earth Stage Extraordinary. Now, for some unknown reason, he had collapsed in this alley corner.
At this moment, Geffrey still lay unconscious in the corner. It was unknown how long he had been unconscious, yet there was still no sign of waking. Just as it seemed he would remain in this state indefinitely, a splash of cold water poured down from above, landing on him.
Suddenly drenched to the bone, Geffrey shivered violently and immediately woke up. He covered his still groggy head, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings before him.
"Hiss... Where is this... What happened to me?"
Geffrey muttered with a confused expression. In his memory, before he fell unconscious, he should have been carrying out Mr. Lu Ku's mission, fighting against Extraordinary individuals who were obstructing them from destroying the stone statues in the school.
Geffrey also remembered that at the end of that battle, he had used the Earth Listening Talisman to sense his surroundings. He was initially confident in dealing with all the enemies who were ambushing him in the dark, but he instinctively felt something was wrong when he sensed something land near his feet. During the process of escaping and dodging, he was knocked unconscious by a loud bang.
'That thing back then was indeed very dangerous. Fortunately, I escaped, otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable...'
Recalling this, Geffrey struggled to stand up and then looked around with even more confusion.
'The problem now is... how did I suddenly end up in a place like this? Where is Mr. Lu Ku? Where is Oswan? Was the mission ultimately successful or did it fail? If it failed and I fell unconscious, why didn't the enemy deal with me but instead left me here?'
Looking at the surroundings, Geffrey thought confusedly. Just as he was about to think further, he suddenly felt a pang of hunger in his abdomen and his mouth was exceptionally dry.
'So hungry... so thirsty... No, this is not the time to think about these things, I need to find something to eat and drink...'
Thinking this, Geffrey looked left and right, searching for food and water nearby. Of course, there was none in such a dark alley, unless he, an Extraordinary, wanted to rummage through trash cans and drink gutter water like the vagrants.
After looking around, Geffrey decided to walk out of this alley first. After glancing around, he found that he seemed to be at the end of the alley, and there was only one way out.
Without thinking too much, Geffrey took unsteady steps forward, walking along the only path. After turning a few corners, he finally saw the exit connecting the alley to the main road. More importantly, he saw a bar that was open for business beside the exit.
Seeing the bar, the hungry and thirsty Geffrey let out a long sigh of relief, and then walked towards it without a second thought.
...
Roughly speaking, the upper and lower districts of Igwinte are divided by the Iron Mud River, with the north bank being the upper and the south bank being the lower. However, this is not entirely accurate, as the lower district is much larger than the upper district. On the north bank of the lower reaches of the Iron Mud River, a considerable area is also designated as the lower district, where the boundary with the upper district is blurred and theft is rampant.
The Night Song Bar is located at this ambiguous boundary between the upper and lower districts, operating 24 hours a day, non-stop, so customers are constantly flowing in. During the day, it is mainly patronized by people from the upper district, while at night, people from the lower district frequent it. Many people also have dinner here around dusk.
If one were to ask when the bar is least crowded throughout the day, it would definitely be in the morning, but this doesn't mean there is no one here at this time. Some people just like to come here in the morning, for example, now.
In the early morning, in front of the cold counter inside the Night Song Bar, Grego, who had just finished overtime, was sitting on a stool, a glass of wine in front of him, a cigarette between his fingers, noticeable dark circles under his eyes, and a weary expression.
That's right, Grego is a regular at this bar. Whenever he finishes overtime and puts away his gear at the An Yin Bureau, he usually doesn't go straight home but comes to this bar for a couple of drinks and a smoke to relieve some stress before heading back.
When he first arrived in Igwinte, Grego was already a regular at this bar, even when he lived in the lower district on the south bank of the river and only earned a meager wage as a factory worker. This was because he could interact with residents of the upper district to some extent here. At that time, he liked to squeeze out a little leisure time from his nearly 12-hour workday to come here, order the cheapest wine, and drink it while wistfully watching the well-dressed, laughing Mr. and Misses on the street.
When he first arrived in Igwinte, Grego had hoped to live that kind of life through hard work, but after seeing too many veteran workers who had worked in the factory for five or ten years, still doing the same work as him with their sickly bodies, he felt increasingly desperate.
With a gradually despairing mindset and the heavy work that left him breathless, Grego spent his first year in Igwinte. During this time, he countless times wanted to escape this hellhole and just go back to the village, but then he thought about how most of the farmland in the village had been enclosed, leaving not much land for him to cultivate. The hunting forest his father used to rely on for a living had also been bought by nearby land merchants and developed into exclusive hunting grounds for the rich and nobles. If he went back, he wouldn't be able to do anything except add to the burden of Hannah Aunt's family, so he could only grit his teeth and keep going.
The turning point came two years ago, on a certain night. Grego finished his drink at this bar and was about to return to the large shared room where thirty people squeezed in to sleep, when he heard a sharp cry for help.
Then, following the cry for help, Grego arrived at an alley. There, he single-handedly knocked down three kidnappers and rescued two young girls. He initially thought they were just ordinary petty thugs, but who knew that after their leader was knocked down by him, he stuck a piece of paper on his head and then lunged at him like a madman.
The speed and madness of that thug were something Grego had never seen before. If an ordinary person encountered such a thing, they would likely be easily killed, but fortunately, Grego was not an ordinary person. He was naturally very agile, so agile that when he hunted with his father as a child, he could outmaneuver beasts, and so agile that when fighting with other children in the village, he could make five of them spin in circles. After paying the price of eight wounds, he used a broken bottle, found an opportunity, and stabbed that unusually crazy and incredibly strong guy to death.
Afterward, Grego witnessed an incredible scene. He saw the thug who had fallen to the ground turn into a withered corpse within seconds.
Then, in the hospital, still shaken, he met unexpected visitors, a group of men in black.
They claimed to be official, belonging to an organization Grego had never heard of, called the An Yin Bureau. They saw Grego's potential and invited him to join a Hunter Squad. He later learned that the three kidnappers were henchmen of an organization called the Red Communion Society, and the invitation to join the An Yin Bureau was also to protect him.
After joining the An Yin Bureau, Grego's life began to undergo earth-shattering changes. Not only was his workload significantly lighter than before, but he also received a salary he had never dared to imagine, 8 pound per month. Relying on this salary, he bid farewell to his previous pigsty-like living conditions and moved into a decent apartment in the lower district.
Subsequently, Grego thrived in the An Yin Bureau of Igwinte, becoming the Captain of one of the only four Hunter Squads in the entire Igwin County in just two years. Under the bureau's arrangements, he also became a true Extraordinary, and his monthly salary increased to 23 pound per month.
After achieving such a high income, Grego immediately changed houses again, moving from the rented apartment in the lower district to the upper district, which was larger, more spacious, and brighter. Then he realized his former dream and brought his only relative, his sister, from the countryside, giving her the best education the city had to offer, paving the way for her so she would never walk the dark and dismal path he had once experienced.
Grego knew very well that his escape from that path was entirely a chance result of a clever combination of his natural talent and subsequent luck, something not everyone could have. Moreover, during this process, he himself had nearly lost his life several times.
Therefore, Grego knew that his case was special and that his sister could not be like him. Thus, he prepared a more level and brighter path for her, a path called education.
Now Grego was very content. His sister Dorothy seemed to have embarked on the right track as he had envisioned. However, his recent work had encountered unexpected difficulties.
The continuous incidents and constant overtime had not actually had much impact on him. For Grego, it was just returning to his previous work schedule, and it wasn't going to last forever anyway.
But in a recent incident, Grego suffered a significant blow.
It was a guard mission on Knight Road in the upper district. His squad was attacked by an unexpected Extraordinary, resulting in three deaths and five injuries, including two seriously injured. More than half of the entire squad was killed or wounded. This was the first time Grego's squad had suffered such heavy losses since he became a Hunter Captain.
Although the post-incident investigation and analysis by the bureau concluded that the attacker was likely a Black Rank Extraordinary, due to the vast difference in strength, Grego was not held responsible despite the heavy losses. Instead, he was commended for forcing back the mysterious Black Rank Extraordinary with just a single Hunter Squad.
However, having more than half of his squad members, who he had spent time with day and night, injured and killed in one go, Grego, experiencing this for the first time as Captain, was temporarily unable to accept it. He began to blame himself and became depressed and despondent, visiting the bar more and more frequently.
Because of the Knight Road incident, Grego's mood had become somewhat unstable. Now, he almost had to come here for a couple of drinks to relieve stress before going home each time. This wasn't because he was giving up on himself, but because he was worried that if he went home in a bad mood, he might lose control and affect his sister Dorothy.
Sitting at the counter, Grego flicked the ash from the cigarette in his hand and drank another glass of wine with a solemn expression. At this moment, his mind was filled with the night of the Knight Road incident, and the scene of his bleeding and fallen comrades struggling was vivid in his memory. What he could not forget even more was the figure he had caught but who had successfully escaped, the Extraordinary who was the perpetrator.
That night, Grego had found him and memorized his face. Grego swore that he would definitely investigate the other party's background and catch him, even if the other party was a Black Rank.
Just as Grego was drinking in his sorrow, the bar door opened at this moment, and a man in his thirties or forties, short, with a full beard, and a rugged face, walked in.