"It's here." Those words sparked tremendous panic among a very small number of people.
They were the behind-the-scenes leaders of the major financial consortiums that remained in the River Domain Alliance. Their cross-shareholdings still wove a vast defensive web.
Twenty years ago, if they had gathered and stamped their feet together, even the greatest military power would have trembled.
Ordinary people had no power to resist that enormous web. These leaders could use money to monopolize markets and manipulate the economy, enslave their fellow humans, and even decide their lives, deaths, honor, and disgrace. Those driven to jump from buildings were far from few.
But things were different now. Twenty years earlier, Star River Intelligence administration had risen abruptly during the war.
It had imposed strict oversight based directly on the national laws of the time, pursued accountability, and eliminated numerous corporations, financial consortiums, and individuals who had grown rich through cruelty.
Otherwise, even the Alliance, which governed billions of people, would have been a plaything caught in that economic web-a tool in these people's hands for enslaving countless others who were also called "human," merely a larger one.
Smog shrouded the night sky, leaving it murky and dim. Beneath it, the second district of the River Domain Alliance blazed with brilliant red lights.
This was a modern city with the fantastical appearance of an ancient capital. Enormous red buildings with distinctive Eastern architecture stood in dense clusters, forming a megacity that housed ten million people.
Red pillars rose along all four sides of every tower, adorned above with carved beams and painted rafters. Golden glazed-tile eaves extended from each floor, and beyond their four corners were red stone dragon heads holding bells in their mouths.
Wind swept between the towers, setting countless bells ringing in overlapping, unending chimes.
Under