In the morning, in a dim and cold alley somewhere in Igwynt, sunlight filtered through the narrow gap between the buildings, barely illuminating the dark environment. Ragged and dirty vagrants huddled against the walls, some sleeping with their eyes closed. In a more remote and deserted corner of the alley, a figure dressed in relatively decent clothes lay slumped.
This was a man in his thirties or forties, slightly short, with a stubbled face and a rough appearance. His clothes were decent but covered in dust, and his eyes were tightly shut as he lay unconscious in the dark corner. This was Goffrey, a Bonesmith of the Stone path at the Black Earth rank, who had recently arrived in Igwynt with his companion to carry out a mission for their organization. For some reason, he had ended up unconscious in this alley.
At this moment, Goffrey remained unconscious in the corner. It was unclear how long he had been in this state, but there was no sign of him waking up. Just as it seemed he would remain comatose indefinitely, a splash of cold water poured down from above, drenching him.
The sudden shock of cold water jolted Goffrey awake. He shivered violently, clutching his still-dazed head as he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Ugh... where is this... what happened to me?"
Goffrey muttered in confusion. In his memory, he had been carrying out a mission for Mr. Deer Skull, tasked with destroying the stone statues in the school and fighting off the Beyonders who tried to stop them.
Goffrey remembered that during the final moments of the battle, he had used an Earth Listener Sigil to sense his surroundings, confident that he could handle any enemies trying to ambush him in the dark. However, he had sensed something falling near his feet and instinctively knew something was wrong. While trying to escape, he was knocked unconscious by a loud explosion.
"That thing back then was definitely dangerous. It’s a good thing I managed to dodge it, or the consequences would have been unthinkable..."
As he recalled these events, Goffrey struggled to his feet and looked around, even more bewildered.
"The question now is... how did I end up in a place like this? Where is Mr. Deer Skull? Where is Oswan? Did the mission succeed or fail? If it failed and I was knocked out, why didn’t the enemies deal with me and just left me here?" As he pondered these questions, Goffrey suddenly felt a sharp pang of hunger and intense thirst.
"I’m so hungry... so thirsty... No, I can’t think about this now. I need to find something to eat and drink..."
With this thought, Goffrey looked around, searching for any signs of food or water. Of course, in a dark alley like this, there was nothing of the sort—unless he, as a Beyonder, wanted to rummage through trash bins or drink from the gutters like the vagrants.
After a quick glance around, Goffrey decided to leave the alley. He looked around and realized that he was at the dead end of the alley, with only one path leading out.
Without much thought, Goffrey staggered forward, following the only path out of the alley. After turning a few corners, he finally saw the exit leading to the main road. More importantly, near the exit, he spotted a bar that was open for business.
Seeing the bar, Goffrey, who was both hungry and thirsty, let out a long sigh of relief and immediately headed toward it.
…
In Igwynt, the upper and lower cities were roughly divided by the Ironclay River, with the north bank being the upper city and the south bank being the lower city. However, the lower city was much larger than the upper city, and even parts of the north bank downstream of the Ironclay River were considered part of the lower city. The boundary between the upper and lower cities was blurry, and theft was rampant in these areas.
The Night Song Bar was located in this ambiguous boundary between the upper and lower cities. It operated 24 hours a day, so customers flowed in constantly. During the day, it was mostly frequented by people from the upper city, while at night, it was more popular with those from the lower city. At dusk, many people also came here for meals.
If there was a time when the bar was least crowded, it was definitely in the morning. However, this didn’t mean there were no customers at all. Some people preferred to visit in the morning, like the current patron.
In the early hours of the morning, at the cold counter of the Night Song Bar, Gregor, who had just finished working overtime, sat on a stool with a glass of alcohol in front of him, a cigarette in his hand, and dark circles under his eyes. He looked utterly exhausted.
Yes, Gregor was a regular at this bar. Whenever he finished overtime, after returning his equipment to the bureau, he wouldn’t go straight home. Instead, he would come here for a couple of drinks, smoke a cigarette, and relieve some stress before heading back.
When Gregor first arrived in Igwynt, he had become a regular at this bar. Even though he lived in the lower city on the south bank of the river and earned a meager wage working in a factory, he would still squeeze out a little time from his grueling 12-hour workdays to come here and order the cheapest drink. He would sip his drink while gazing longingly at the well-dressed men and women chatting and laughing on the streets.
Back then, Gregor had hoped that through hard work, he could one day live like them. But after seeing too many old workers in the factory who had been working for five or ten years, still dragging their sickly bodies to do the same work as him, he felt increasingly hopeless.
As despair set in and the crushing weight of his work suffocated him, Gregor spent his first year in Igwynt. During that time, he had thought countless times about escaping this hellhole and returning to his village. But when he remembered that most of the farmland in the village had been enclosed, leaving little for him to cultivate, and that the forest where his father used to hunt had been bought by a land developer and turned into an exclusive hunting ground for the wealthy, he realized that going back would only burden Aunt Hannah’s family. So, he gritted his teeth and endured.
The turning point came two years ago. One night, after finishing his drink at the bar and preparing to return to the crowded dormitory where thirty people slept in one room, Gregor heard a sharp cry for help.
Following the sound, Gregor arrived at a dark alley, where he single-handedly took down three kidnappers and rescued two young girls. At first, he thought they were just ordinary thugs, but one of them, after being knocked down by Gregor, stuck a piece of paper on his head and then lunged at Gregor like a madman.
The thug’s speed and ferocity were unlike anything Gregor had ever seen. An ordinary person would have been easily killed, but Gregor was no ordinary person. He had always been agile—agile enough to outmaneuver wild animals during hunts with his father as a child, and agile enough to outwit five other kids in a fight. After suffering eight wounds, Gregor managed to grab a broken bottle and stab the crazed, superhumanly strong attacker to death.
Afterward, Gregor witnessed something unbelievable. The thug’s body turned into a withered corpse within seconds.
Later, in the hospital, still shaken, Gregor was visited by an unexpected group of people—men in black.
They introduced themselves as officials from an organization Gregor had never heard of, called the Serenity Bureau. They had taken notice of Gregor’s potential and invited him to join the Hunter Squad. Only later did Gregor learn that the three kidnappers were minions of an organization called the Crimson Eucharist, and that the Bureau had recruited him to protect him.
After joining the Bureau, Gregor’s life underwent a dramatic change. Not only did his workload become lighter, but he also started earning a salary he had never dreamed of—8 pounds a month. With this income, he left behind his previous squalid living conditions and moved into a decent apartment in the lower city.
Later, Gregor thrived in the Serenity Bureau in Igwynt. In just two years, he became the captain of one of the only four Hunter Squads in the entire Igwynt County. With the Bureau’s support, he became a true Beyonder, and his monthly salary rose to 23 pounds.
With such a high income, Gregor immediately moved again, upgrading from the lower city to a larger, brighter apartment in the upper city. He fulfilled his long-held dream of bringing his only relative, his younger sister, from the countryside to the city. He provided her with the best education, paving the way for her so that she would never have to walk the dark, hopeless path he had once trodden.
Gregor knew very well that his escape from that path was a rare combination of his natural talent and sheer luck. Not everyone could have such an opportunity, and even he had nearly lost his life several times during the process.
Therefore, Gregor knew his case was special. His sister couldn’t follow the same path, so he prepared a smoother, brighter road for her—the road of education.
Now, Gregor was content. His sister, Dorothy, seemed to be on the right track as he had hoped. However, his work had recently hit an unexpected snag.
The constant incidents and overtime didn’t affect him much. For Gregor, it was just a return to his previous work routine, and he knew it wouldn’t last forever.
But in a recent incident, Gregor suffered a major blow.
During a guard mission on Knight Street in the upper city, his squad was attacked by an unexpected Beyonder. Three members died, five were injured, two of them gravely. The squad had suffered more than 50% casualties—the heaviest loss Gregor had experienced since becoming a Hunter Squad captain.
Although a subsequent investigation by the Bureau concluded that the attacker was likely a Black-rank Beyonder, and Gregor, despite the heavy losses, was not held responsible—in fact, he was commended for leading his squad to repel the mysterious Black-rank Beyonder—Gregor, as the captain, was deeply affected by the sudden loss of so many teammates he had worked closely with. He began to blame himself and fell into a depression, visiting the bar more frequently.
Because of the Knight Street incident, Gregor’s mood had become unstable. Now, he almost always had to come to the bar for a couple of drinks to relieve stress before going home. This wasn’t because he was giving up on himself, but because he was worried that if he went home in a bad mood, he might lose control and affect his sister, Dorothy.
Sitting at the counter, Gregor tapped the ash off his cigarette and took another sip of his drink, his expression grave. His mind was filled with scenes from that night on Knight’s Road—his comrades bleeding and struggling on the ground. What he couldn’t forget was the face of the Beyonder who had caused it all, the one he had caught but who had managed to escape.
That night, Gregor had found him and memorized his face. Gregor swore that he would uncover the man’s identity and capture him, even if he was a Black-rank.
Just as Gregor was drowning his sorrows in alcohol, the door of the bar opened, and a man in his thirties or forties, short, with a stubbled face and a rough appearance, walked in.