The player followed the main road, drawing closer to Leyndell step by step.
The scenery on either side of the road changed before they knew it.
The avenue of withered yellow leaves gradually gave way to a gray-white paved road, and the dead trees along the roadside became neatly arranged streetlights. It was just a little desolate...
Most striking were the factories and workshops. They grew denser and denser. Chimneys crowded together, billowing black smoke that blotted out the sky and sun. This was probably why the sky was so murky and yellow...
Eventually, the player reached the gate in Leyndell's first outer wall.
The sight before the gate brought the player to a halt.
Countless things that had once been human stood in long lines, slowly entering the factories and slowly filing back out. Like the ebb and flow of the sea, it was ordinary and natural. Yet in a society like this, it seemed especially lifeless...
Their eyes were vacant, their expressions numb, their movements mechanical. Some still wore shabby noble attire, some wore the coarse cloth of commoners, and some wore work clothes whose original colors could no longer be discerned.
Their faces showed no expression at all, like empty shells stripped of their souls, living corpses devoid of humanity.
Beside the square stood an enormous statue.
It was a statue of a god. Which one did not matter. Golden inscriptions were carved into its base, prayers along the lines of "God loves all people."
Yet the devil lurked within.
The black smoke pouring from the factories gathered above the statue's head. The roar of machinery drowned out the sound of prayers, and the clink of gold coins replaced the bells of faith.
This was where so-called corruption lay!
Patrolling Inquisitor Knights marched past in formation, representing