"Someone fell into the water!"
"Don't look over there. That's a corpse that died on the street. The corpse collectors threw it in. It has nothing to do with us."
Gu Xi bobbed up and down in the pitch-black river water as faint whispers drifted over from afar.
Though the voices were quiet, Gu Xi heard them clearly. That told him he had escaped the prison buried who knew where.
"Good thing they didn't send me back to prison."
Gu Xi stretched his body, looked up to get his bearings, and began swimming toward the shore.
Along the way, Gu Xi found all sorts of things in the river.
There were rotting corpses, filth discharged from the Sewer, and wastewater released by all kinds of upstream factories.
In any case, the entire Isis River was black.
Gu Xi had no desire to soak in this river, so he swam even harder.
But before he could reach the shore, several beams of light struck his face.
Gu Xi turned his head and raised a hand to block the light shining directly into his eyes. Squinting, he finally made out the situation on the bank.
Three Patrol Officers stood on the shore, wearing black high-collared uniforms and black Helmets trimmed in silver. Each held a small spotlight the size of a human head, and all three stared directly at him.
Gu Xi noticed that all three had their hands on their waists, as though they would draw their weapons and attack the instant he made any unusual move.
Seeing that Gu Xi had no intention of charging at them, the leader finally shouted.
"Still alive?"
Wasn't that obvious?
Gu Xi rolled his eyes inwardly and raised both hands. "Alive. Still alive."
Gu Xi did not know that Abominations and undead would occasionally possess corpses thrown into the Isis River, hoping to slip into Victoria City using human bodies.
These Patrol Officers stationed along the riverbank had been assigned specifically to deal with those dead bodies possessed by Abominations or undead.
Usually, they only needed to shine their spotlights on them. If there was no reaction, they were living people and would generally be allowed ashore.
But the leader was somewhat bored today, so he asked a few extra questions.
"Brother, what happened? Got drunk, couldn't see the road, and fell into the river yourself?"
As he spoke, he directed his subordinates to use long wooden poles to drag Gu Xi ashore.
By the time Gu Xi left Aryadovi, he had already prepared a backstory for himself.
When he had first entered Victoria City, the system had arranged an identity for him.
Combined with the Land Purchase Order he had obtained from Joseph, Gu Xi had already thought up what to say.
"Don't mention it. I found a Land Purchase Order left behind by some Ancestors from who knows how many generations ago. It could be exchanged for a piece of land in the Camden District, but when I went to ask around about it, someone knocked me out and threw me into the river."
Gu Xi gripped the wooden pole as he climbed onto the shore.
These Patrol Officers were no fools. The moment they heard Gu Xi's explanation, all kinds of conspiracies filled their minds.
The lead patrol officer even laughed. "Brother, surviving means you're lucky. You dared to bring out something from over a hundred years ago, and it's for the Camden District, too."
"Don't you know that area is all Upper District now? It's where the rich live. Look at you—you're so skinny you're practically like coal slag from a factory. Even if you claimed that land, they'd find a way to snatch it back."
"I'd advise you to find an agent and sell that Land Purchase Order. You might even be able to trade it for a patch of land in the Camley District."
"Exactly. Camden and Camley sound pretty similar. Close enough. They're both in Victoria City anyway."
"That won't do. My Land Purchase Order was originally for a large farm near Camley. If I went there now, I definitely wouldn't get that much land. I can't take that kind of loss."
The moment Gu Xi heard that, he quickly began acting. He immediately established the persona of someone who valued money over his life.
The three Patrol Officers quickly filled in the gaps themselves and all believed Gu Xi's identity. They did not kill him as someone possessed by an Abomination.
With that assumption in place, the three Patrol Officers moved more quickly.
After Gu Xi was pulled ashore, the three Patrol Officers still verified his condition.
Because Gu Xi had spoken fairly appropriately earlier, they did not make things too difficult for him. They merely gave him a rough inspection before waving him off.
"Alright, don't linger by the Isis River if you've got nothing to do. If you don't want to get dragged into a black factory and turned into coal slag, don't wander around the Lower District at night either. A lot of people have gone missing from the Lower District lately."
"As for the Camden District, I won't try to persuade you anymore. Make your own choice."
After saying that, the patrol officer patted Gu Xi on the shoulder, lifted his brows, and gave him a look that said, Make your own choice.
Gu Xi thanked them. Then, despite being filthy and reeking, he quickly left the vicinity of the Isis River and walked onto the street.
Gu Xi's luck was fairly good this time. One look at him told people he had just crawled out of the Isis River, so no one noticed the traces left by his imprisonment in the dungeon.
On the street, Gu Xi looked around and helplessly discovered that Victoria City did not have any large bathhouses or Bath Centers.
And looking like this, he had no way of going to the Upper District or any other relatively cleaner area.
He could only follow the carriages along the main road. In an alley three blocks away from the Isis River, Gu Xi found a tavern with a somewhat aged storefront.
A wooden sign hung outside the tavern, painted with an enormous wineglass.
After all these years, the wooden sign had changed color, yet the owner had kept it hanging there.
Gu Xi chose this place not because the girls in red dresses soliciting customers by the roadside were prettier than those elsewhere, but because he had seen the same sign in Aryadovi City.
Gu Xi clearly remembered that beneath the wineglass, a tiny compass had been painted in a color ordinary people could not see.
The matching sign indicated that this shop had moved out from Victoria's Old City and was a centuries-old establishment.
Old shops that had lasted this long generally had things unknown to outsiders.
And safety was the most important thing in a hotel. Since he could find a centuries-old establishment, Gu Xi naturally would not choose some unreliable Black Shop.
The moment Gu Xi pushed open the tavern door, he heard a crisp voice.
"What does the guest need?"
"Give me a room. I need a bath and a change of clothes. Oh, do you have anything to eat? My stomach isn't very good, so I can't eat anything too hard."
Gu Xi spoke casually as he flicked a shilling onto the tavern counter.
"That's all?"
Huh? Gu Xi glanced at the pale deep trench exposed by the red dress and immediately understood. "Sorry, not now. I just fell into the Isis River. Right now, I only want to take a bath as soon as possible and change my clothes."
"Pah! Who was talking about that? What I meant was—"
"Shaya." At that moment, a waiter stepped forward to stop the conflict that was about to break out. "Sorry, she's new and doesn't understand anything. I'll take you upstairs right away."
Before you continue