Abyssal Rift and Inverted Rain

"Woo, woo, woo."

After a long whistle, the train slowly came to a stop.

At last, they had arrived at Sinless City.

Nothing unexpected had happened during the latter half of the journey.

Ji Xun found that perfectly reasonable.

After that vicious battle earlier, almost everyone probably thought he was in league with the wanted criminal, "Lone Wolf" Baron.

Now that the mastermind had jumped off the train and escaped, there was no point looking for a lackey like him.

Besides, they would not be able to find him anyway.

After that chaotic fight, the scents inside the carriage had become completely muddled. Even that scent-tracking Spell Card Master had failed to identify him before; now it would be even harder.

Most importantly, the train had arrived.

Once he got off and the Space Limitation was gone, the world would be his oyster.

The people in the carriage were already packing their luggage, eager expressions plastered across their faces.

"Old Meng, where are you going after we get off?"

"Of course, I'm going to spend half a month at the pleasure houses first!"

"Hahaha, that was exactly what I was thinking. I heard Ginza Tavern recently got a batch of new girls, and they're supposed to be incredible. Rumor has it they're nobles exiled from the royal capital."

"Pah, those madams and pimps are full of shit! Come on, let's go check them out together."

"..."

Having arrived at Sinless City, the hunters talked most about all sorts of pleasure venues.

When you gambled with your life on adventures, nothing relieved that pressure better than the pleasures of the flesh.

Over those ten hours, Ji Xun had heard the names of at least dozens of different taverns and pleasure houses. He already had a clear impression that Sinless City's entertainment industry had to be highly developed.

Only when everyone was preparing to disembark did he leisurely move away from the iron box used to store corpses.

Looking at the changes on his Attribute Panel, Ji Xun could not help sighing. "My Strength increased by 0.09 in just over three hours. Not bad."

It had risen from "0.76" before boarding to "0.85" now. He could clearly feel that his strength had grown considerably.

His Physique, Agility, Toughness, Elemental Affinity, and other attributes had all improved by a noticeable amount.

Though he still felt weak.

But he had to remember that he had achieved this without any strength training or potions.

It had taken only a few hours!

If there were more corpses, would he not be able to grow stronger while lying down?

If only there were more corpses.

Having tasted the benefits, Ji Xun murmured inwardly.

After the Demon Feast skill improved, perhaps it would gain even stronger effects.

Still, there was no rush.

He stood up and squeezed into the crowd.

He did not know whether anyone would notice something strange about the corpses whose Extraordinary Traits he had devoured. It was better to leave the train first.

The moment he left that sardine-can carriage, even the air felt fresher.

Though the air carried a heavy scent of coal ash, it was a hundred times better than the mixed stench inside the carriage.

Once the train stopped, workers in rough blue clothes operated all kinds of Steam Machinery arms to unload the cargo. Almost every piece of steam mechanical equipment was painted with the words "Gold Digging Dock No. XX."

A dock?

Not a station?

Ji Xun felt a little puzzled.

Wearing a half-face Gas Mask and keeping his deerstalker pulled low, he blended into the crowd and walked forward.

He glanced around from the corner of his eye but did not spot anyone suspicious.

Instead, a group of ragged little brats weaving through the crowd caught his attention. They were young, yet each was a remarkably skilled thief. Everyone knew the hunters returning from the caves were loaded with treasure, and those little dirty hands quietly reached out.

Ji Xun only had a tactical backpack, and he did not look like someone who had struck it rich and was overjoyed, so no thieves came to bother him.

The crowd was all moving in one direction, so he followed them out.

The buildings near the station looked much like those he had seen at the Demon Cross camp. Towering chimneys belching white smoke stood everywhere.

The surroundings were still lit by Gas Lamps. Ji Xun looked up and vaguely saw traces of rock, which made him wonder, Still underground?

He could understand Ancient Relics being underground, but why was it still underground after the train had traveled for ten hours?

Holding onto that doubt, he continued onward with the flow of people.

Before he had gone far, the view suddenly opened up.

In that instant, Ji Xun was utterly stunned by the sight before him.

Only then did he understand that this truly was a dock.

And the real Sinless City lay across the cliff!

"Wh-what is this?"

Looking at the enormous cliff before him, like the end of the world itself, Ji Xun did not know how to describe the shocking scene.

He had not even been this surprised when he discovered he had transmigrated.

Deep underground, there was an enormous fissure like a bottomless pit, with no bottom in sight and no ceiling above.

Only then did Ji Xun realize what the "Abyssal Rift" he had heard hunters mention actually was.

He had assumed it was merely a crack in the earth. He had never imagined it would be so exaggerated.

It was as though he had reached the end of the world. There was no road ahead, only endless nothingness.

And there was more!

Did this world not have a sky at all?

Ji Xun looked upward. Above the rift was likewise endless mist and darkness.

No wonder he had barely heard hunters mention the sun, moon, or stars.

To make passage easier, dozens of enormous Steam Boilers at Gold Digging Dock billowed thick white smoke. Massive cable cars, powered by steam, slowly hauled carriage after carriage through the rift.

Yet even Steam Boilers over a hundred meters tall looked like tiny grains of millet dropped into the dirt before this rift.

Ji Xun felt a deep awe for something colossal, rising from the depths of his heart.

Before this vast Abyssal Rift, humanity was like a speck of dust too small to notice.

And even more wondrously, there was rain in the abyss.

Within his field of vision, raindrops rustled down densely, like a curtain.

But the raindrops were not falling downward. They were falling toward the sky.

This was Inverted Rain.

Looking again, he saw that when those massive cable cars reached the cliff face, they suddenly flipped one hundred and eighty degrees before continuing onward.

Ji Xun truly could not understand it. "Is the gravity in the rift reversed?"

There were actually two directions of gravity in this underground world?

It felt as if the world were a mirror that had shattered, its crack splitting the entire world apart.

Below the cliff was a bottomless black hole. Falling into it gave him the feeling that one would be exiled into endless void.

Setting aside his thoughts, Ji Xun lined up, bought a ticket, and boarded a cable car.

Once the cable car traveled beyond the cliff, it suddenly flipped over. The hunters were long accustomed to it; like they were riding ordinary transportation, they simply shifted their footing onto the "roof" before the cable car shot into the sea of clouds.

Ji Xun also felt the sudden reversal of gravity and marveled at it inwardly.

As the cable car continued onward, the mist around them grew denser and denser, yet the road ahead remained invisible.

He looked out the window. Above his head was nothingness, beneath his feet was a bottomless abyss, and he could vaguely see enormous shadows of unknown creatures moving through the mist.

When one gazed into the abyss, the abyss seemed like the eye of the world, gazing back at passing travelers.

The cable car was like a lone boat sailing through endless void, surrounded by mist and clouds, vast enough to feel unreal.

Ji Xun was deeply drawn to that suffocating sense of mystery.

This rift seemed like a gateway to another world, a brand-new and unknown world beckoning to him.

After the cable car had traveled for more than half an hour, a hazy glow finally appeared at the edge of his vision.

Looking into the distance, Ji Xun finally recovered from the shock of facing something so immense.

He roughly estimated the distance. The rift was more than ten kilometers wide.

And on the rock wall opposite, lights and revelry filled the scene!

There stood rows of buildings like Stilted Buildings, hung with dazzling neon signs of every kind.

They had arrived at Sinless City!

With a loud clank, the cable car tipped upside down, and gravity reversed again.

The moment he stepped off, a group of tavern girls and pimps flocked around him.

"Oh, handsome, want a drink? The girls at our Catgirl Tavern are famous for being soft and sweet. We guarantee you'll be satisfied~"

"Our Train Tavern is holding a masked roleplay party tonight. You can do whatever you want~"

"Imperial Baths! Enjoy service fit for a king, with fully nude attendants for your bath. The second one is half price!"

"..."

Ji Xun ignored the pimps soliciting business and walked down the street.

This was the "Downing Street" the hunters had mentioned most often along the way.

Several short blocks were packed with hundreds of gambling dens, taverns, and establishments of every sort. This was Sinless City's sleepless district.

These intoxicating nightlife venues would drain returning hunters' wallets at the first opportunity.

Ji Xun walked into the city.

Sinless City was still an underground city. Its architectural style was distinctive, with steam and machinery as its central motifs.

The city covered a vast area and had an exceedingly complex layout.

The buildings rose high along the mountainside. Hundred-meter-tall structures stood packed together like a forest, linked by all sorts of pipes and elevated bridges. There were also many buildings made of hollow iron frames inlaid with glass, giving the place a dark, fantastical air.

The green glow drifting from deep within the city was the fluorescence of alchemical dust in the air.

Downing Street was the liveliest area. Much of the steel had been replaced with brass, adding a touch of bright, aristocratic splendor to the streets. The colored glass in the taverns also cast dazzling, decadent hues beneath the lights.

Ji Xun had already understood that Sinless City itself was an Ancient Relic.

The clothing on the streets was no longer limited to adventuring gear. There were punk youths in leather outfits studded with gleaming metal spikes, young women in Lolita dresses, composed middle-aged men in suits and leather shoes, linen-clad girls selling flowers, and boys in deerstalkers with cigarette boxes slung around their necks.

If nearly everyone had not been equipped with guns, blades, and Mechanical Equipment, this would have looked like a harmonious and bustling city street view.

Walking down the street, Ji Xun watched this completely novel world, the passing crowd reflected in his eyes.

At that moment, the door to a new world opened.

Before he knew it, he had reached a Y-shaped intersection. On a rusty sheet of iron by the roadside was graffiti reading, "Downing Street No. 13."

Here stood a huge locomotive-shaped building. Its lit sign displayed an enormous wineglass, beneath which hung the words "Old Gun Tavern."

Thinking he should find somewhere to sit first, Ji Xun walked inside.

He had heard hunters say that taverns were one of the best places in Sinless City to gather information.

For professional hunters, they spent even more time in taverns than at home.

The moment he entered, Ji Xun saw the walls covered in all sorts of recruitment notices.

A group of people stood around them, pointing and discussing.

"War Banner Hunter Group recruiting pioneering hunters, ¥1000 per day, paid daily! Major discoveries earn bonuses up to one million!"

"Lion Mercenary Group recruiting professional mercenaries, veterans preferred. Card Master Apprentices ¥13000 per month; formal Spell Card Masters negotiable. Generous benefits!"

"Hunter's Guild recruiting contract hunters for pioneering reconnaissance."

"..."

Ji Xun scanned them briefly. Hunters were generally paid well, and pioneering hunters paid by the day earned the most.

Then, looking at another recruitment board, he saw that ordinary people earned far less.

"Municipal government recruiting sewer maintenance workers, 1800 per month."

"Hessen Pharmaceutical Company recruiting alchemy apprentices, 4500 per month. Basic alchemical knowledge required."

"Green Machinery Factory apprentice positions, ¥2800 per month, room and board included."

"Gold Digging Dock boiler workers, ¥3000+ per month. More work, more pay."

"..."

After looking over them, Ji Xun roughly understood Sinless City's prices and wage levels.

The risks and rewards of a profession were clearly proportional.

He even suspected that the original owner of this body had been one of those so-called "pioneering hunters."

Put simply, cannon fodder gambling with their lives.

No strength, poor equipment, and broke.

Like Alternate Dimension 407, every time an unknown door was opened, it could lead to unknown dangers. That was when cannon fodder became useful.

Sacrificing one piece of cannon fodder could uncover unknown intelligence. For large mercenary groups, it was worth spending the money.

Ji Xun did not look any further and entered the tavern.

He wanted a drink to settle himself, learn more about this world, and gather some information.

For example, the "Thirteen Divine Pathways" and "Fifty-two Extraordinary Professional Sequences" he had heard about on the train.

As well as those miraculous cards, the Inverted Rain of the Abyssal Rift, and that astonishing steam-powered black technology...

This world held far too many secrets.

Mystery was right before him, within reach.

When the wind rose, he danced with it. When night fell, he traveled beneath a solitary lamp. Even if he plunged into the abyss, he could still smile brilliantly.

Ji Xun liked this new world.

Thanks to 'super Pineapple' for the 1000 donation and 'Mu Chenxi' for the 500 donation.