Gilded Rose

Before the doors of the Gilded Rose, the air seemed to freeze.

Two heavy Combat Servitors known as the Talos model stood like silent idols, guarding this gateway to paradise.

Their enormous modified bodies were wrapped in red velvet, exposing only a pair of lifeless electronic eyes and hydraulic power hammers capable of crushing tanks.

Li Wei stood at the foot of the steps without rushing forward.

He adjusted his collar and used the motion to check the items on him one last time: the USB drive was tucked close against his body, while the Las Pistol with only half a magazine's worth of charge was hidden at the small of his back.

As for the Autogun he had fought so hard to seize?

He had thrown it away.

Or, more accurately, he had hidden it in an inconspicuous trash bin before entering the district.

Bringing a long gun into a high-end place like this was the same as pasting "I'm here to wreck the place" on his forehead.

Right now, he was playing the role of "a messenger delivering important intelligence," not a thug breaking in to rob the place.

"Phew..." Li Wei adjusted his breathing and stepped up the stairs.

"Please wait, sir."

The one who stopped him was not either of the metal hulks, but a middle-aged attendant in a tailcoat with slicked-back hair.

Wearing white gloves, he bore the sort of perfectly trained smile that was impossible to fault, yet carried an aloof pride that kept everyone at arm's length.

"Tonight is a private banquet." The attendant looked Li Wei up and down.

Although Li Wei's outfit was expensive, the outsider aura ingrained in his bones, along with the inexplicably unsettling presence around him, still made the attendant frown.

"If you do not have a membership card or invitation, I am afraid I cannot allow you inside."

The attendant politely extended a hand, blocking his path.

But the instant he drew near Li Wei, that white-gloved hand stiffened.

The attendant's face paled slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed as though he were suppressing a sudden wave of nausea.

"I don't have an invitation." Li Wei removed his sunglasses, his cold eyes staring directly at the attendant.

Rather than retreating, he pressed forward a step, using his height and that damned aura to look down at the man.

"I'm here to see Chief Steward Valorian." Li Wei's voice was quiet, but every word was clear and forceful. "Tell him an old friend bearing 'greetings from the lower levels' has a major deal regarding 'family health' to discuss with him."

"Lord Valorian?" The attendant froze for a moment, trying to maintain his haughty manner. "The chief steward does not meet nameless nobodies. And your smell..." Unable to endure it any longer, the attendant covered his mouth and backed away half a step. "Did you just crawl out of a morgue? This is terribly improper."

Li Wei did not get angry.

He knew it was his Pariah physique at work.

From his coat pocket, he pulled out a gleaming gold coin—one of his last remaining large-denomination pieces of currency.

Rather than handing the money to the attendant, he pinched it between two fingers and waved it before the man's eyes.

"What would be improper is letting the chief steward's business slip away." Li Wei flicked the coin into the attendant's breast pocket. "Go inform him. Or should I shout for him myself? I'm sure the distinguished guests here would not appreciate such a scene."

The attendant touched the coin in his pocket, then looked again at Li Wei's utterly fearless expression.

That nauseating sense of oppression made him unwilling to remain for even one more second.

"...Please wait in the front hall." The attendant hurriedly turned away, all his previous arrogance gone as he only wanted to escape this plague bearer as quickly as possible. "I... I'll ask the security chief."

The doors slowly opened. An even richer, cloying fragrance washed over him.

Li Wei stepped inside.

The interior of the Gilded Rose was even more luxurious than it appeared from outside—and stranger.

The hall's domed ceiling rose twenty meters high, painted with an enormous mural of gods feasting in revelry.

But upon closer inspection, those "gods" did not look benevolent. Instead, their faces radiated manic ecstasy, their limbs tangled together so thoroughly that it was impossible to tell who was who.

A massive crystal chandelier cast an ambiguous, warm glow.

A pale violet haze known as Euphoria Dust drifted through the air.

It was an expensive hallucinogen, banned in the Mid Hive, yet here it was sprayed about as casually as air freshener.

Li Wei stood in the waiting area at the edge of the hall, doing his best to restrain his presence.

Yet he was still like a drop of cold water falling into hot oil.

The noble men and women around him, dressed in extravagant robes and delicate masks, instinctively halted their dances whenever they passed him and frowned in his direction.

"What is this feeling? It's so cold..."

"Who's that person standing in the shadows? Just looking at him makes my heart race."

"Don't look at him, darling. He might be some unlucky bodyguard."

Li Wei turned a deaf ear to their murmurs.

He found a velvet sofa and sat down, refusing the floating Servo-skull carrying a tray of hallucinogenic drinks in every color. He only asked for a glass of water.

Through his sunglasses, he carefully observed this "high society."

Slowly, he noticed that something was wrong.

The rhythm was too slow.

Everyone here spoke, raised their glasses, laughed, and moved with an eerie synchronicity.

It was as though invisible strings were controlling this group of puppets.

And the fashion here... was strange.

Li Wei saw quite a few nobles wearing heavy turbans or raising their collars high enough to hide the backs of their heads and their foreheads.

Some had a sickly pale violet tint to their skin. Though it was covered by thick foundation, it could still be seen from certain angles.

What made Li Wei's skin crawl most was their eyes.

When they conversed, their gazes were not focused on one another's faces, but carried a hollow fanaticism.

Are these the signs of Genestealer infiltration? Li Wei's fingers tightened slightly around his glass.

He remembered the warning on the shopkeeper's USB drive: Infection confirmed - upper noble district.

The most terrifying thing about Genestealer cults was not that they looked like monsters.

It was that through a psychic network known as the Broodmind, they could subtly control humans, make them worship xenos as gods, and even willingly breed with them.

This was no club.

It was a cult den.

Or perhaps the cult's "cafeteria."

"Sir."

A deep, emotionless voice sounded behind Li Wei.

Li Wei spun around sharply, his hand instinctively reaching for the gun at his lower back.

The man standing behind him was not the attendant from earlier.

It was a bald man in a black trench coat, so massive that his build was almost absurd.

The man was at least two meters and twenty centimeters tall, with shoulders too broad to belong to a normal human.

His skin was grayish white, he had no eyebrows, and within his deeply sunken eye sockets were pure black eyeballs without any whites.

Most importantly, a faint bony ridge rose from his forehead. Though it had been filed down, its outline could still be seen.

He was a third- or fourth-generation Hybrid.

Li Wei's heart skipped a beat.

Had he run straight into the real deal already?

"I'm the head of security here. You may call me Gore." The bald man looked down at Li Wei from above.

Strangely, this obvious xenos Hybrid did not look at Li Wei with the same disgust ordinary humans showed, but with... extreme confusion and vigilance.

To a Genestealer connected to the Broodmind, Li Wei the Soulless was not merely disgusting.

He was a signal jammer.

During the ten minutes Li Wei had sat here, Gore had felt the warm "voice of god" constantly echoing in his mind develop intermittent static.

"You are making our guests very uncomfortable." Gore's voice sounded like two stones grinding together. "What exactly are you?"

Li Wei forced himself to stay calm.

He slowly rose to his feet, doing his best not to show fear.

In a den full of monsters, fear was an invitation to death.

"What I am isn't important." Li Wei patted his chest, where the USB drive was hidden.

"What matters is that I have something Chief Steward Valorian is looking for. Or perhaps... something you are looking for."

He took a gamble.

He gambled that although this Hybrid guard was xenos, he still had to obey the human chief steward called Valorian.

Gore's pure black eyes stared fixedly at Li Wei, as though weighing whether to crush the source cutting off the signal right now or take him upstairs.

The air was thick with the scent of gunpowder.

Several nobles who had been dancing nearby also stopped and turned to stare in this direction with blank expressions.

That perfectly uniform gaze was more terrifying than any weapon.

At last, Gore seemed to receive some kind of instruction through his earpiece.

His tense muscles relaxed slightly.

"The chief steward is willing to see you." Gore stepped aside and made a gesture of invitation, though it looked more like he was escorting Li Wei to the execution block.

"Top-floor office. Don't try anything, Soulless. No one here will hear you scream."

Li Wei let out a breath, though cold sweat had already soaked through the shirt on his back.

He nodded and set down the glass of water from which he had taken only one sip.

"Lead the way." Li Wei adjusted his coat and followed the huge xenos Hybrid toward the private elevator leading to the top floor.

As the elevator doors closed, the suffocating sweetness and eerie music were shut outside.

But he knew he was leaving one wolf den only to enter a tiger's lair.