Mysteries: Arcana Wars

David Axus stood in front of an old door, hesitating for a long time.

Since escaping from the Earth Church Hospital, David did not sit and wait for death, but has been wandering in the slums and surrounding areas.

He needs money, lots of money.

Fast and in large quantities.

David had thought of many ways these days, but his rich experience as a police officer told him that none of them would work. Start-up capital, technical requirements, hardware equipment... He found that he had nothing at all and did not have any conditions for committing a crime.

What an irony...

After rejecting a lot of plans with Olga, David still thought of the place he least wanted to go: the underground black market.

As a former policeman, David had long heard of the notoriety of the underground city. It was a place that even the people of Sivellas Field did not dare to enter rashly. Many vicious cases and cases of illegal organizations were more or less related to the Backlund underground city, but many investigations and tracking also stopped abruptly here in the underground city.

Over the past 1,300 years of the "Bright Moon Era", human society has made unprecedented progress. With the great changes in science and technology in the Steam Age, the Electric Age, and the Information Age, as well as the great concessions made by the church to secular forces, humans have regained the desire and courage to explore the world in all directions. The most inspiring of these fantasies is the desire for underground space.

Therefore, in the explosion of steam technology initiated by the Mansteins, Loen, especially the Backlund region, began to expand the city space underground without any worries. Not only steam subways and basements, but also endless steam pipes and pedestrian passages.

Over a long period of time, people continued to build new pipes and machinery layer by layer, forming an intricate underground maze. As new technologies continued to emerge, new demands were made, and these underground facilities were replaced, improved, expanded, or destroyed over and over again to meet the needs of the times, until they formed the form that people use today in the information age.

However, some parts have been upgraded and used to this day, while others have been forgotten and discarded in the tide of the times. This part of the underground maze is a mixture of technologies from different eras, and it is forcibly operated in a chaotic way.

Refugees, illegal residents, fugitives, illegal organizations, criminals... The abandoned underground city gradually became a dangerous and sinful urban forbidden area, and also became a well-known ghost story holy land on the Backlund Internet.

Abandonment by the mainstream population, destruction caused by natural disasters, and disconnection from modern society have created the current chaotic and disordered underground city.

Therefore, as a policeman, David had never set foot in the dungeon, and he didn't even know which way to the dungeon.

But he still managed to stand here today, because he chased Olga's figure to this door and watched Olga's bright red skirt disappear into the half-open door.

Before the Harvest Church bombing, David could only hear Olga whispering in his ear, but one day after that, David was walking through the narrow streets, and among the crowds of people, he saw Olga in a red dress smiling at him from a distance.

His Olga once again returned to his world in this erratic way.

After running away from the Earth Church Hospital, David's mental condition deteriorated. He no longer wondered whether the young woman in the red dress in front of him was his own hallucination or Olga's homeless soul.

Anyway, he needs money, and then he goes to save Olga.

An inexplicable and powerful desire rose in David's heart, making him step over the broken door without hesitation.

Down, down.

Endless stairs, abandoned sewers, and an old-fashioned elevator that was still functioning for some reason. David opened the last door with trepidation and disgust, and a strange scene appeared before him.

Welcome to Backlund Dungeon.

David covered his face tightly with a hood and a mask, leaving only his eyes open to stare at the surrounding scene.

There is only eternal night in the dungeon. The old-fashioned gas on the ceiling forms the starry sky of the dungeon. Looking at the steam pipes that are coiled like tentacles and the layers of rubber wires of different colors, this is obviously a product of the late steam age, and has been "processed" again and again in a disorderly manner since then.

This is a small underground city area, with only a few streets. The "starry sky", street lamps and lights from residential facilities form the dim lighting system of this underground city area. The twisted colorful light boxes on the street add a bit of evil color to the chaotic streets.

The people passing by were dressed in gray, with layers of tattered cloth on their bodies, and more or less had scars and tattoos. There was also a strange man wrapped in a black robe, who walked past David in silence, and accidentally revealed his rotten face with prosthetics from the old and tattered cloth.

Stacks of files flashed through David's mind: Daye, smuggling, murder, brothel... David tried hard to control his behavior and not to think about how many dangers were hidden here.

Among the crowd, Olga's red dress was very eye-catching. The red hem of the skirt fluttered at the corner of the street and then disappeared immediately. The numb people around her continued to do their own things, as if they could not see Olga in the red dress at all.

Following Olga's instructions, David pushed aside the people staggering in front of the store and cleared a path for himself. He found that these people were either drunk or high on food. They had no reaction to any external stimulation.

"Welcome, sir."

The owner of the pawn shop stood behind the shabby counter. He was covered in a black robe, and his face was covered with a full-face display mask, with a few red blocks flashing enthusiastically, forming a simple smiling face.

"It looks like this is your first time in our Leeds Pawnshop... No, it's your first time in Leeds Street, or even your first time in the Underground City, right, Mr. Above Ground?"

This androgynous electronic sound made David's fragile nerves very uncomfortable, and he immediately hammered the old counter hard.

But the boss's tone didn't change at all, and even the emoticon on his mask didn't change. Instead, he grew two old-fashioned black mechanical hands that were shining brightly and started dancing.

"Ah...Sir, please don't lose your temper. The main thing is that you are too conspicuous in this underground city of Leeds Street."

"Look at the way you walk, the way you look around, and your... your anxious posture... You are on the ground, you should be working at the Sivella Square, right..."

"Or rather, once upon a time..."

"No, no, no! Sir, don't look at me like that. I understand, I understand! Everyone has sad times. After all, life is not always smooth sailing. Everyone will encounter some difficulties. It's just that you may have encountered difficulties beyond your ability. Your life has collapsed. You find that you have no way to go in the aboveground city of Backlund..."

"So, you came here, huh?"

The boss was responded by being grabbed by the collar and a series of roars.

"How did you know? You were following me? Why are you wearing this mask? Are you a cleric from the Church of Steam?"

"Calm down, sir, calm down. First of all, there are cameras at the door of our store. This technology has been developed for three or four hundred years in the Bright Moon Era. It's not just the people of the Steam Church who like cutting-edge technology."

"Masks, prosthetics, cameras, monitors... After all, everyone has the right to enjoy modern technology, right?"

"There are also electronic emoticons of this style... I think you must have heard of the urban legend of the cyber ghost Kowawu? This style has been very popular in the past few decades! I see that there are many such facial expression games about Kowawu that are popular on various platforms... Right, sir?"

"As for following you, that's really nonsense. I can only say that everyone has their own reasons for wanting to go to a dead end when they first step into Leeds Pawn Shop, and they really hope that our Leeds Pawn Shop can have a chance to change their fate..."

"...You said, right?"

David was a little annoyed by his boss who could only say "Really? Really?", but his precise and persuasive remarks gradually tore through David's psychological defenses, and he finally asked half-believingly.

"What can you... change here?"

"Money, jewelry, identity, intelligence, supplies... As long as we have it, as long as you can afford it. And... you may not be able to redeem the things you sell to us..."

"...I want money...a lot of money!"

"Yes, but sir..."

Before the boss could finish his words, two hands of different sizes grabbed the boss's mechanical hand held in the air, one on the left and one on the right.

"You mean, you can exchange anything for money here?"

The man on the left was tall, with a round face and big, bulging eyes; the man on the right was short, with a pointed nose and shifty eyes. They both grabbed the boss's hand and approached the boss's mask.

Both of them covered their noses and mouths with black cloth, but their four different eyes flashed with the same greedy light.

This made the boss a little confused. Although his electronic expression did not change, his movements were still stunned for a moment.

You two, you made me lose my composure all of a sudden...

"Uh... yes, the two gentlemen should want to come to our place to sell some things... right?"

"Yes! We are here to sell things!"

The pointy-nosed man shouted in a shrill voice, and together with the round-faced man, they threw their large sacks onto the counter, and a lot of things poured out with a ping-pong sound.

A large number of dazzling jewels caught the boss's sight.

These jewels are made of silver carvings coiled into an exquisite base, with countless sparkling gems inlaid on it, like the twinkling stars in the night sky and the swaying flowers in the grass.

Crowns, necklaces, scepters...under these dazzling jewels are miscellaneous items, clothes, electric mosquito swatters, folding chairs...it cannot be said to be of the same origin, it can only be said that they are completely unrelated.

There were also some unknown stones scattered on the counter, which seemed to be some rough gemstones. Obsidian, emerald, was that a moonstone? David didn't know much about gemstones, so he could only guess.

He picked up a few pieces of tattered paper from the pile of junk and vaguely saw that they were fragments of the express delivery slips that had not been thrown away.

...This group of people stole the express tricycle...or robbed it openly.

Obviously the boss also saw this, but he did not point out this somewhat degrading thing.

"...Wow...I never thought I would see the ritual vessels of the Church of the Goddess of Evernight here..."

The boss used his retro-style mechanical hands to feel around on the jewels.

"It's a very elegant style, and the workmanship is also very good. Unfortunately, these gems are fake... Did you get some fakes?"

"I think if it's a real ritual object, the people of the Church of Evernight would not trust it to rely solely on a logistics company for delivery, right?"