Six Months Later

Six months later.

Bumbus City, Bulgaria. The sky hung gray and heavy, shrouded in thick haze and a sour, acidic stink.

Nearby, countless chimneys stood like a forest, belching smoke day and night.

This was one of Bulgaria's major heavy-industrial hubs. The pollution was so severe that even the city walls had been blackened by soot.

It was night.

Beside a dim streetlamp, raucous music spilled from a tavern.

A scantily clad woman danced around a steel pole, striking sultry poses.

After a long shift, workers from the nearby steel mills liked to come here for a shot of hard liquor. They drank until they were pleasantly soused, went home, pulled the covers over their heads, and slept—only to face another grueling day's work.

Behind the counter, a burly, bear-like middle-aged man with a scar on his face briskly wiped down an immaculate table, set out glasses, and poured drinks for three new customers.

One was white, and the other two were Asian—a strange combination rarely seen in Bumbus City. They drew plenty of curious looks.

"Business is pretty good here!" The middle-aged Asian man at the head of the group glanced around and asked with a smile.

"Just a bunch of penniless laborers, barely scraping by. You must be from Great Xia, right?" The tavern owner forced a stiff smile.

The middle-aged Asian man looked surprised. "How could you tell?"

"Just a guess. It's something about your bearing—you're clearly not local." The owner gave a guileless smile and lowered his voice. "You should go somewhere more upscale. We don't have any grain-brewed liquor here, just swill cut with industrial alcohol!"

With the European Alliance facing a grain shortage, its ban on grain-based liquor had been in effect for over a year.

But where there was demand, there was a