Gilded Birdcage

After leaving the black market salvage shop, Li Wei did not rush to that so-called "Gilded Rose."

He was a modern man. He understood a basic truth: clothes made the man.

He glanced down at himself.

This military overcoat stripped from a corpse was warm, but the stench of death that could not be washed away, along with its stains and holes, were marks of "experience" in the Bottom Hive. In the upper noble districts, though, they made him a "moving target."

Before he even reached the club entrance, the automated turrets fitted with scent sensors would probably clean him up as mobile trash.

"Need to change skins." Li Wei touched the heavy money pouch in his pocket.

It was everything the black market shopkeeper owned, roughly two thousand coins.

In the Bottom Hive, that was enough to buy ten lives.

But in the Upper Hive, it might only be enough for a decent pair of underwear.

Li Wei spent an hour weaving through the Mid Hive's complicated commercial district.

He avoided the legitimate shops bearing the cogwheel emblem of the Adeptus Mechanicus and slipped into a gray district serving mercenaries and undocumented residents—Tailor's Alley.

The air here smelled slightly better. The harsh sulfur stench was gone, replaced by the scent of cheap synthetic perfume.

When he entered a shop called "Gentleman's Armor," he was greeted by a Servo-skull floating in midair.

It was a human skull fitted with mechanical eyes and a voice box, with several long measuring tapes dangling beneath it.

"Welcome, lowly... ah, no, esteemed guest." The Servo-skull spoke in a shrill synthetic voice. Its Logic circuitry clearly stalled while weighing Li Wei's clothes against the money pouch at his waist. "Do you require body armor? Or formalwear?"

"I need something that makes me look like I work for an important person."

Li Wei ignored the skull's slight. "Nothing too flashy, but not too shabby either. Preferably something that can conceal this gun." He patted the outline of the Autogun beneath his overcoat.

The red light in the Servo-skull's eye sockets flickered as it circled Li Wei once.

When it drew close, its flight engine suddenly emitted an unstable buzz, as though it had been interfered with. It wobbled backward by a meter.

"Unknown magnetic interference detected. You are advised to stay away from precision equipment." The Servo-skull swiftly floated toward the shelves, as if Li Wei were the source of a virus.

Ten minutes later, Li Wei walked out of the shop looking entirely different.

That tattered overcoat had been tossed into the Incinerator.

In its place was a dark gray high-collared trench coat made from a synthetic fabric called Plasteel Fiber. It was rainproof and abrasion-resistant, and could even withstand grazing hits from small-caliber stray rounds.

Underneath, he wore a crisp stand-collar shirt, while his feet were clad in a new pair of hard-soled tactical leather boots.

To hide his face, he had also bought a pair of broad sunglasses and an inconspicuous flat cap.

The outfit had cost him eight hundred coins.

Now, he no longer looked like a refugee, but like a "courier" or "private detective" operating in the gray zones.

Li Wei studied his reflection in a reflective metal display window by the roadside.

"Not bad." He laughed at himself.

Who would have thought that beneath this polished exterior was an "empty shell" without even an identity card—without even a soul?

With his outfit settled, the next issue was the journey.

The Sky Ladder leading to the Upper Hive was tightly controlled.

Every checkpoint was guarded by Adeptus Arbites officers or private security forces.

Li Wei did not go squeeze into the freight elevators used by civilians.

Instead, he went to a checkpoint marked "Commercial VIP Passage."

There were fewer people here, and... the guards here understood the "rules" better.

Two guards in dark blue uniforms leaned against the railing, chatting with shock batons in their hands.

When they saw Li Wei approaching, one of them lazily raised a hand.

"Stop. Show your pass or guild badge."

Li Wei stopped.

He removed his sunglasses and looked at the guard with cold, indifferent eyes.

As the distance closed, that familiar, nauseating Pariah aura silently spread outward.

The smiles on the two guards' faces froze.

They instinctively frowned, their stomachs churning.

"Damn... what's wrong with this guy?" The guard took half a step back, one hand resting on his shock baton. "Are you sick? Don't bring the plague upstairs."

"I'm running errands for Overseer Valorian." Li Wei lied without changing expression.

He mentioned the name he had pried from the black market owner.

As he lied, he naturally extended his hand. Two golden Throne Gelt coins flashed between his fingers before quietly slipping into the guard's breast pocket.

"Urgent business. If you spoil the overseer's pleasure, can you afford the consequences?"

The combination was precise.

First, the name of an important man—borrowing authority.

Second, the lubrication of money—a bribe.

Third, the physical revulsion—the guard instinctively wanted him gone as quickly as possible and had no desire to inspect his documents further.

The guard felt the coins in his pocket, glanced at Li Wei's outfit, which was not luxurious but looked professional, and was finally defeated by that sickening sensation.

"Get lost, get lost." The guard waved a hand and opened the gate. "Don't cause trouble up there. Lord Valorian's name won't work every time."

"Thanks." Li Wei put his sunglasses back on, strode through the gate, and entered the resplendent elevator car.

The elevator began to rise.

This time, there was none of that creaking that made it feel ready to collapse.

This elevator to the Upper Hive moved as smoothly as if it were gliding through the clouds.

The cabin was even perfumed with a faint incense, while soothing classical music played.

Through the transparent reinforced glass wall, Li Wei watched the world beneath him gradually shrink.

The crowded, filthy Mid Hive and Bottom Hive, choked with smoke and dust,

slowly became a gray-black backdrop.

And above him, that legendary pleasure district was revealing its true face.

It was another world.

Massive spires pierced the heavens, breaking through the industrial waste clouds blanketing the planet.

Here, one could see sunlight again after so long.

Golden sunlight spilled across palaces built from marble and crystal, refracting into dazzling brilliance.

Enormous Sky Gardens floated between the towers, while waterfalls poured down from a thousand meters in the air, becoming rainbow-like mist.

There was no black smoke, no noise—only silence taken to the height of luxury.

"Heaven." Li Wei stared out the window and murmured.

But he knew it was only an illusion.

When the elevator doors opened again, a cloying scent so sweet it was suffocating hit him head-on.

It was not floral perfume, but an expensive synthetic pheromone mixed with a certain... rotten sweetness.

Li Wei stepped out of the elevator station.

This was the edge of the pleasure district, where high-end clubs, casinos, and brothels gathered.

The streets were no longer rusted iron plates, but paved with pristine white tiles.

The streetlamps were exquisite angel statues, real flames burning in their eyes.

The pedestrians were no longer workers with misery written all over their faces.

Nobles in silk robes flirted with voluptuous augmented female companions in their arms; wealthy merchants studded head to toe with golden spikes swaggered through the streets with two-meter-tall Ogryn bodyguards; there were even several Tech-Priests in red robes, countless Mechanical Tentacles extending from their backs as they pointed at holographic dancers by the roadside.

This was a money pit.

It was also the filthiest place in the entire Hive City—only this filth was wrapped in gold and perfume.

Li Wei lowered the brim of his hat and moved through the crowd.

His Pariah constitution seemed even more out of place here.

The sharp-sensed nobles and genetically modified bodyguards all showed looks of disgust when he passed, quickly moving out of his way.

"Where did that sewer-rat stench come from?" one noble complained, covering his nose.

"Ignore him. Probably some mercenary who just finished dealing with a corpse."

Li Wei turned a deaf ear.

Following the black market owner's directions, he crossed two bustling streets and finally reached his destination.

The Gilded Rose club.

It was a massive Baroque-style building.

Its outer walls were decorated with countless golden rose reliefs. At the center of every rose was a real eyeball—a biological surveillance device—rolling about as it watched everyone who approached.

Two three-meter-tall Combat Servitors stood at the entrance.

Their arms had been modified into enormous power hammers, and they wore red velvet capes, making them look both absurd and terrifying.

Li Wei stood across the street, staring at the gilded doors that seemed to lead into another world.

He touched the Data-slate hidden against his chest.

It contained secrets that could make these pigs enjoying themselves in the clouds drop dead in an instant.

"Valorian..." Li Wei took a deep breath of that cloying air, his stomach churning.

"I hope you're as greedy as the rumors say. And I hope you're as afraid of death as the rumors say."

He adjusted his collar and walked toward the maw of that gold-devouring beast.