Hot Continent, Hula City.
Many locals had no idea why the people from the East had given this newly established city such a strange name.
Gilmer was mixed-race, born to a Western Continent man and a local woman. He had entered the city to make a living during a recruitment drive.
Later, he learned why it was called Hula City. The reason was simple—four free bowls of hulatang were provided every day, two in the morning and two at night.
There was meat and peanuts, chili and spices, and the portions were generous. Drink four bowls a day, and you could lie down without doing anything else.
For that alone, many idle Hot Continent People who had a whole brood of children followed the scent into the city to settle down.
They never imagined, however, that this was absolutely not a place where they could simply mooch off others.
Every so often, Eastern Continent People took people away under the pretense of recruitment. Yet Gilmer had never seen any of those taken away return.
Later, some more familiar-looking Western Continent People arrived. They seemed to be in league with the Eastern Continent People, and Gilmer occasionally saw them coming and going together.
With his mixed-race appearance, he found work as a waiter in a bar. Aside from working each day, he spent his time listening to the idle chatter of the people passing through.
In a corner of the main hall, two Western Continent People were chatting.
"Have you heard? The Sole Supremacy Society has provoked the Patrol Division. The two sides are about to fight," said one of them, a man fat as a pig.
"How did you find out about such confidential news?" asked the other man, who had a normal build.
"Someone leaked it, of course. As