When You Gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss Asks If You'd Like a Card

After Su Li finished feeling his face, his stomach let out a very cooperative growl.

Grrr.

It was quite loud.

Young bodies had fast metabolisms, and they got hungry fast too.

But Su Li did not rush off to find food.

He found a sheltered corner and plopped down.

The rotten mud beneath his butt was a little cold, but he did not care.

A problem even more pressing than hunger now lay before him.

He was undocumented.

In the Orenda Kingdom, especially in a border port under wartime conditions like this, someone without a Resident ID ranked lower than a stray dog.

Stray dogs were part of the ecosystem.

The undocumented were walking military achievements—or Gold Coins in the eyes of slave traders.

In his previous life, he had been arrested the moment he arrived in this world. If he had had one of these things, he probably would have been released right away.

Besides, whether he wanted a job or needed to get anything done, he would need this thing.

Getting identification through official channels?

Su Li ran through the process in his head.

Other than applying immediately at birth—

he would need three guarantors with noble titles.

A processing fee of five Gold Coins.

And he would have to queue at City Hall to fill out forms and endure questioning from that menopausal clerk.

Forget Gold Coins—he did not even have a copper coin in his pocket.

As for guarantors...

The only people at this dock wanted him dead. Where was he supposed to find noble lords?

That road was blocked.

That left only one path.

Dark Alley.

Su Li narrowed his eyes, his gaze passing over the bustling docks toward the darkest corner of the city.

Though he had lived miserably in his previous life, he had still scraped by for fifty years.

That was an experience pack accumulated through blood and tears.

Whenever those old beggars had nothing better to do, they loved bragging.

They said there was a place beneath Grey Gull Port called "Dark Alley."

As long as you paid, they could get anything done there.

Forget a Resident ID.

As long as the money was right, even if you wanted proof that you were a "prince lost among the people," they could stamp it with the king's private seal.

It was a little exaggerated, but getting a fake ID should not be a problem.

Su Li rose to his feet and brushed the mud from his backside.

Time to go.

But he did not head down the main road.

That guy from his previous life had said to take the sewers.

Su Li went around several cargo containers piled with dead fish and rotten shrimp, then slipped into a half-collapsed drain while no one was looking.

A powerful stench hit him head-on.

It was the fermented smell of rotten food, excrement, and dead rats.

Su Li did not even slightly furrow his brow.

This smell was pretty authentic.

Compared to the barracks where fifty people were crammed into one room, the air quality here was not bad at all.

The sewer was very dark.

The walls were covered in slick moss.

Black sewage covered the ground, and every now and then, he saw enormous rats staring at people with red eyes.

They were not afraid of humans, either.

Su Li ignored them.

Based on the descriptions those old beggars had given while bragging, he made his way through the maze-like pipes.

"Turn left at the entrance. That leads out to the sea, so don't go that way."

"Go straight for two hundred meters. When you see a fork marked with a red skull, turn right."

"Avoid anywhere with red moss on the walls."

Su Li muttered to himself.

These were all key points.

He used to think those old geezers were making things up as they went, but now it seemed they were all giving useful information.

After walking for about half an hour, the surroundings changed.

The moss on the walls had been cleared away.

The sewage flowed more slowly.

Most importantly, strange graffiti began appearing on the walls.

Crooked arrows, along with symbols he could not understand.

These were signs of human activity.

There was light ahead.

Not sunlight, but dim, flickering firelight.

Su Li quickened his pace.

After turning a corner, he saw a rusty iron ladder in front of him.

The ladder led upward to a manhole cover.

The cover was half open.

Faint voices drifted down from above.

He had arrived.

Su Li took a deep breath and climbed up with both hands and feet.

He pushed open the cover.

Then climbed out.

This was a narrow gap.

Illegal buildings towered on both sides, completely blocking out the sky, with only the faintest sliver of daylight leaking through.

There were more lamps hanging from the walls.

This was Dark Alley.

It was not as noisy as he had imagined.

Instead, it was very quiet.

But there was something deeply unsettling in that silence.

Quite a few people stood in the shadows along both sides of the street.

Some squatted on the ground, selling goods. Their stalls displayed unknown potions, bloodstained daggers, and even several things that looked like human organs.

Others leaned against the walls, their entire bodies hidden in oversized robes, revealing only wary eyes.

The moment Su Li emerged, he felt more than a dozen gazes stick to him.

His scalp tingled a little.

This place looked dangerous.

With his current build, if a fight broke out, he probably would not even be enough to fill someone's teeth.

He had to keep a low profile.

Su Li reacted immediately.

He reached out and tore a strip of cloth from his tattered sleeve.

He covered his face with it and tied a dead knot behind his head.

Only his eyes remained exposed.

He often used this trick at the docks.

First, to keep out dust. Second, to block the stench. Third, because he did not want people seeing how miserable he looked when he got beaten up.

This was called camouflage.

In a place with all sorts of shady characters, was it not perfectly normal to cover his face?

Just then, someone sneered from nearby.

"Look at that. Which young master snuck out to experience real life?"

"Covering his face? Is he afraid his family will recognize him and drag him home for a spanking?"

"Tsk, tsk. That face is so tender... What the hell can that scrap of cloth hide?"

Damn it.

He currently had the [Sword Brows Starry Eyes] tag over his head.

That aura, that feeling of seeming to glow just by standing there, was not something a scrap of cloth could conceal.

On the contrary, with his face covered and only those star-bright eyes exposed, he looked even more mysterious.

It was like a huge celebrity wearing sunglasses and a mask to buy groceries at a market.

It was incredibly awkward.

Su Li felt his face heat up.

Forget it. Even if he died, he could revive anyway.

He did not say anything.

He merely swept his gaze around with an expression that said, "I'm here on business. Don't mess with me."

Sure enough, [Sword Brows Starry Eyes] was actually somewhat useful.

When he looked at them like that, those who had initially wanted to pick a fight actually hesitated.

That kind of aura did not belong to an ordinary vagrant.

Maybe someone stood behind him.

People in Dark Alley were all suspicious.

No one was willing to be the first fool to test an unfamiliar person whose depth they could not see through.

Taking advantage of the opening, Su Li headed deeper in.

He needed to find the man who handled identification as quickly as possible.

According to the old beggars, there was a man here called Old Jack who specialized in this business.

He had one eye, and the left side of his face had been burned.

Su Li walked while observing with the corner of his eye.

The place was not large, only about a hundred meters long.

When he reached the end, he spotted his target in a corner.

It was a man sitting on a wooden crate.

He wore a gray cloak, with the hood pulled low.

Only half his face could be seen.

The skin on that half of his face was twisted together like melted wax. It was terrifying to look at.

Old Jack.

A battered table stood before him, with several empty liquor bottles on top.

Su Li took a deep breath and walked over.

He stopped in front of the table.

He had just been about to say some code phrase, such as "The moon is round tonight," or "I'd like to buy some special ink."

Those were the rules he had heard about in his previous life.

When dealing with people like this, one had to be cryptic and indirect.

But before he could open his mouth—

Old Jack, who had been fiddling with liquor bottles with his head lowered, suddenly looked up.

That cloudy single eye fixed itself on Su Li.

Old Jack did not speak either.

He stretched out a dry hand like a chicken claw, pointed at Su Li's face, then pointed at Su Li's tattered clothes.

Then a hoarse voice, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together, rang out.

"Take that scrap of cloth off your face."

"It's an eyesore."

Su Li hesitated for a moment.

But he still reached up and untied the dead knot.

Even with a little mud and dust on it, his face was still devastatingly handsome.

A flash of light swiftly passed through Old Jack's single eye.

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

The smile was hideous.

"Tsk."

He didn't ask who Su Li was or where he had come from.

He simply reached into his coat, pulled out a crumpled booklet, and tossed it onto the table. "You want to get a Resident ID?"

Su Li's heart skipped a beat. Wasn't that a little too direct?

What happened to testing each other out?

How had this old bastard seen through his intentions at a glance?

Did he have the words "I want to get ID" written on his face?

Su Li didn't move.

He looked at Old Jack, doing his best to keep his voice calm and cold. "How did you know?"

Old Jack gave a chuckle.

It sounded like the cry of a night owl.

"Kid."

"The smell of seawater is still clinging to you."

"You changed clothes, sure, but these clothes smell like they came from a garbage dump, not you."

"And these hands."

Old Jack pointed at Su Li's fair, slender hands.

"These hands have never done a day's work."

"A pretty face, soft hands, clothes picked out of a garbage heap, and fresh out of the sewers."

"Other than an illegal stowaway, I can't think of any other possibility."

As he spoke, Old Jack lightly tapped the table with a finger.

Tap.

Tap.

"And."

Old Jack leaned forward, that terrifying face drawing close to Su Li's.

"Someone like you probably won't survive the night in Dark Alley."

"Unless you have ID that lets you walk out of here openly and head to Golden Glow Avenue to find some rich woman to keep you."

"Am I right?"

Su Li looked at the old man.

Only a few words remained in his mind: This old bastard was fucking impressive.

This was professionalism.

This was the experience of an old hand.

His so-called cleverness was completely transparent in this man's eyes.

Since he'd been seen through, there was no need to pretend anymore.

Su Li dragged over a broken wooden stool beside him and plopped down.

The embarrassment of being exposed was gone instead.