ALL NOVEL Chapter 10 – Crumbling Shores
Crumbling Shores, the fortress city at the western coast of Ur. A relatively peaceful place despite being located just above the main theaters locked in trench warfare. The city had basically ignored the ongoing war by being simultaneously too big and important, and too small and insignificant: the city was a sail trade hub between continents and thus valuable to both sides, but its strategic importance was low compared to the high cost of trying to conquer and then keep the city.
I was finally here. My clothes reeked of sweat, I had lacerations on the soles of my feet and I was a bit constipated, but that's all that needs to be said about that topic. I survived.
In the future, people will surely tell heroic tales about a amicably dressed Stray Dog City gangster who walked through the coastal ganglands like a boss. The bards will sing a legendary tale titled “Wait, What?! A Certain Underpowered Protagonist-Chan Who Wants To Finish As Fast As Possible Desu~!!”
The city of Crumbling Shores had two parts, the High City and the Low City.
High City was the semi-civilized area where you, a normal person, wanted to live in. It was the area where the middle-class citizens, nobles, high crime lords and merchants did their day-to-day business. The High City area had a classic, misty Victorian Era British feel to it – you could almost imagine Sherlock Holmes or Jack the Ripper strolling along the cobblestone streets.
Low City (also called Trash Venice or Dike Detroit by the fans), on the other hand, was an area of massive multi-story building ruins from Strangers Era. Sea water rushed the streets of Low City regularly every month, turning the place into a flood disaster area. This was where the poor people and slaves lived, using dinghies and rafts to move around on high tide and collecting trash thrown by waves on low tide.
Low City was one the platformer-focused areas in the game and navigating the building-to-building bridges above flooded streets required precisely timed bunnyhopping. Pretty enjoyable level in the game, but I had zero desire to visit Low City in real life.
Between High City and Low City, there was a steep cliff and a sturdy wall on top of the cliff. Without the cliff and the wall, the miserable citizens of the Low City would flood the High City and crash the property prices. The cliff wall was an unbreakable geographical barrier between underclasses and aristocracy.
Another barrier between the sides was an invisible one: a secret contract between Low City gang bosses and High City nobles who both had an incentive to keep up the status quo. It was an open secret that the soldiers who guarded all the city gates, and the gangs who guarded all the secret smuggling routes along the cliffs, ignored each other as long as money changed hands in a way that benefited both sides.
So, entering through the main city gates would cost me a big bribe and entering through a secret syndicate path on the south side would cost me even bigger bribe. In both cases, I might end up in a windowless room where rough men would ask difficult questions.
I'd rather bypass all that that and solve a High City Smuggler Puzzle instead.
Game knowledge to the rescue again! It was time to try a classic trick known as Speedkeying, named after fellow speedrunner Key_ES2.
The Low City gangsters guarding the cliffside route used passphrases based on stone patterns that were changed every day. You needed to both speak gangslang and know the meanings of the stone configurations on the wall on top of that. This was the so-called Smuggler Puzzle, which in casual play required talking to several people and collect a right set of answers for a specific day.
However, since a simple underlying grid was used to create the stone configurations in the first place, the fastest way to solve these puzzles was to memorize the initial pattern sequences like chess openings and deduce the keyphrases quickly from the patterns. When you knew the trick, it was trivial to interrupt the NPC dialogue with an answer before they even got to the end of the question.
Of course, interrupting the gangster called Quizmaster standing at the underground tunnel entrance didn't seem like a good idea in this world.
When I approached the secret route entrance and greeted them with signs that identified me as someone from Stray Dog City, the gangsters rustled around expecting trouble. There was no need to micro-optimize, so I could politely listen questions to the end before answering.
“Halt. Who has come on this hallowed year to disturb the horses?” (Quizmaster)
“This year, a whole king bird has come.”
The Quizmaster looked confused when I answered instantly. Usually people would probably hesitate and think a little. I threw the right hand signs again for a good measure.
The Quizmaster glanced at his gangster buddies, maybe suspecting that someone was helping me from behind his back, then asked the second and third questions.
“Bird rots into cubes.”
“East side is a privilege.”
I answered them immediately as well.
“All correct. Your name?” (Quizmaster)
“Rockman.”
“Who do you serve?” (Quizmaster)
“I'm delivering important information not meant for your eyes or ears.”
“...Open the path to brother Rockman.” (Quizmaster)
That's how the magic happens. All the gangsters at the tunnel entrance looked at me like: I know something weird is going on here, but since you did everything right and we don't want to bring trouble upon ourselves, we'll just follow our orders and let the guys inside take the heat for this.
The gangsters moved out of the way and I walked inside the old, unused sewer tunnel. I was pretty sure they would change the day's puzzle after me.
After moving through the dark sewer tunnel with a boy holding a candle lantern as my guide, I could finally climb up and open a drain cover.
A few more local gangsters waited in the backstreet alley, but they didn't seemed interested in checking my bags either. I thought about giving a tip to the boy who carried the lantern in front of me, but he already returned into the sewer tunnel.
I walked out of the alley and onto the bustling market district. I was finally in the High City.
My steps felt light on the familiar cobblestone streets and I had a nostalgic urge to climb up to the balconies and do some parkour. I saw familiar skips and shortcuts everywhere. Back when I started speedrunning Mu-Ur, I spent so much time messing with this split that I gilded the rooftops.
Game nostalgia aside, in this world I would probably slip and fall of a roof like an idiot. I did some freerunning and skateboarding in my youth before getting into heavy VR gaming and then into the neurospeedrunning scene, but my outside skills were just on the level of Lazy Vaults and No Comply's.
I wasn't playing with Ivorythief or Reavertooth now. I was in my own body. Even if I could do it somehow, people in this world would probably stare at me hopping around like a weirdo, ask questions like “where's the fire, son?” and then laugh at me.
“What are you looking at,mister?” (girl)
“I used to run on those roofs... in my youth.”
“Haha, are you a chimney sweep, mister?” (girl)
Hm? Is she dissing my outward appearance? Wait, why is this random young lady talking to me suddenly in the first place? Oh crap, tea house scammers. Where's her partner? Yep, there she is, standing in a street corner.
“Mister, would you like to come for a bath and a drin –“ (girl)
“I don't take baths. Bye.”
I clutched onto my messenger bags and briskly walked away.
I don't have the time to admire level architecture, I'm on a mission. Let's focus on planning instead of acrobatics.
In one of the anime flashbacks, Crystal Pencil and Dragon Kimono had a base of operations here in Crumbling Shores, but I can't locate their base based on that because only the interior was shown in the series.
Well, there was one exterior flashback scene where Crys talked with Test Subject near the cliff separating High City and Low City. The silliest and most time-consuming strat would be to find that exact part of the cliff and wait for them to appear. Hopefully this point in timeline is still before the exterior flashback scene because Test Subject left the city immediately after that.
Even if they haven't moved their base at Crumbling Shores yet, they might do business in the city occasionally.
If they have visited this place at all, I can find them. They are merchants of death, after all.
All I have to do is express my interest in buying some weapons.
I reserved a room from the same inn the main characters used in the game, a place called Warm Revenge Inn in the central High City.
Despite the off-putting name, it was a relatively safe and cozy place, and not surprisingly, it wasn't exactly swarmed by customers either. Safe, cozy and quiet – just what I wanted after an arduous journey.
The innkeeper wasn't the tall and bald guy from the game. This guy was an older gentleman with white hair. The bald guy probably takes over after this guy retires or dies in the coming years.
“Welcome to Warm Revenge Inn. What name should I add to the book?” (innkeeper)
“Timeboy is my push.”
“Timeboy, a fine name for a fine man. Coming from the north, huh?” (innkeeper)
“Stray Dog City represent.”
“Understood.” (innkeeper)
The innkeeper wrote my fake name in the guest book without further questions, taking my introduction as a hint that I belonged to a northern gang and wanted to lay low.
I took the cheapest room from the second floor for three nights. That should be enough for now.
In the safety of a private room, I could finally relax. I closed the curtains of the round-shaped window, took of my sneakers and socks, and dropped myself on the soft bed. At least I had a safe room, soft bed and enough money to survive for a while now.
I couldn't lie still for long. I was anxious about how much work there was ahead. I still needed to get ready for tomorrow.
I forced myself up and opened the two sealed letters I got from the dead messenger. As expected, they were written in military code. It was probably just idiot code, not rotor machine cipher or anything complicated like that, but I didn't care to figure it out now. In the anime, Caliph Tze used Rainbow Codes for all the Strangers-related projects, but since this was Suleiman's messenger and there were no keywords, I decided to put low priority on the letters.
Time for an inventory check:
- Revolver of Ranged Attacks (too afraid to use without proper training; need to level up first)
- Dagger of Piercing Damage (decorative thrusting weapon, slightly used)
- Belt of Measurement Cards (twelve cards of variable usefulness, rarity S+)
- Belt of Durable Leather (rare item) with Revolver Holster (common item)
- Brand Sneakers of Great Escape (parallel world legendary item, rarity SS+++)
- Cargo Pants of Cargo (black)
- T-Shirt of Obscure Electronic Artist (black)
- College Shirt of Destiny (dark gray)
- Underwear of Comfortable Movement (blue)
- Pouch of Local Currency x 2 (gold and silver krúricks)
- Shoulder Bag x 2 (common messenger item)
- Ink, Calligraphy Pencils and Sketching Paper (common item set)
- Food Pack x 1 (common military ration)
I decided to order hot water and soap to refresh my hero power and do some laundry. The innkeeper's wife brought the hot water into my room in a large carafe, placed an empty wooden bowl on the floor and handed me bar of brown soap wrapped in a towel.
“Is this fine?” (innkeeper's wife)
“Yes, thank you.”
“It's a hard life outside the walls.” (innkeeper's wife)
“Tell me about it.”
“Leave the carafe and soap outside the door when you're done, the bowl and towel can stay in the room.” (innkeeper's wife)
While hanging my hastily scrubbed wet T-shirt on the back of a chair, I suddenly thought about hiring a maid to do laundry and cook food. The innkeepers didn't have a cute daughter working the rooms, but maybe I could hire someone from outside. I had an important job as a world saviour, I didn't have time for mundane tasks like this.
Speaking of maids, should I visit the red lights district of Crumbling Shores? Mu-Ur Quincunx was a game For Mature Audiences Only, but there wasn't much actual action, even though... Nah, better to stay out of there. I'd probably contract a venereal disease or get mugged.
This transmigration is the worst. If I had known, I would have played some slice of life high fantasy harem game instead of Mu-Ur Quincunx.
Staring at the sliver of street lamp light hitting the ceiling from the gap of a curtain and listening the noisy night life of Crumbling Shores, I finally calmed down and slept.