Twelve hundred years ago, steam-mechanical technology was discovered by explorers amid the ruins of an ancient civilization, and from that point on, human civilization entered the Age of Steam Machinery.
With the protection of steel fortress-cities, humanity was no longer at the mercy of night and fear, and its population entered an era of explosive growth.
And from that point on, humankind rose from a weak race barely clinging to survival on this fog-shrouded continent, to a mighty people standing at the very top of the food chain.
The great scientist who built the very first steam-iron city was named Dorena Sprugrin — he would go on to become the very first emperor of the Ormar Empire.
It was also from that point that the ancient slave nation split into the two great empires that exist today — one continuing the old traditions, the "Sid Empire," and the other following the path of steam technology, the "Ormar Empire."
...
"Steam technology" was the founding principle of the Ormar Empire.
And the steel monster now slowly rising out of Storm Lake was, unmistakably, the crystallization of generations of effort by the scientists of the "Ormar Royal Academy of Sciences" — a mechanical city representing the very pinnacle of steam-technology craftsmanship: the [City of Ruin]!
This was a "Behemoth Lord-tier" ultimate war fortress — a purely military weapon.
Because it had no ordinary civilian architecture, its overall bulk wasn't as large as some lord-tier steel castles, but its firepower and mobility held an overwhelming advantage over any mechanical city of the same tier.
Every single design on this mechanical city existed for one purpose alone: war.
Its massive, exaggerated compound treads carried this conch-shaped steel behemoth forward, as indestructible as a giant tin can.
At first glance, one saw a defensive armor wall over two hundred meters tall, as solid as a dam. And looking upward, layer upon spiraling layer of floors bristled with cannon after terrifyingly large-caliber cannon, capable of tracking targets with a full 360-degree coverage...
The most advanced large steam boilers, steel-melting furnaces, city-breaching cutters, war-hammer arms, driver units, harpoon launchers...
This was an iron beast armed to the teeth.
The instant it broke the surface, its steam chambers — which had accumulated immense pressure — vented all at once, white vapor billowing up like some great beast risen from hell itself, radiating overwhelming menace.
Before this [City of Ruin], the "White Wolf Bandit Gang's" three main War Elephant-tier mechanical cities looked like nothing more than jackals trembling at the feet of a lion.
"This thing... is way too much!"
From a distance, Ryan stared at the steel city that had suddenly emerged from the lake, unable to help swallowing hard.
Witnessing this pinnacle of the world's technology in the flesh left him a hundred times more stunned than seeing an aircraft carrier back in his previous life. This world's tech tree had gone in a seriously terrifying direction...
...
This "black market auction" had drawn together the vast majority of bandit gangs from southern Ormar Empire.
Over a hundred bandit gangs' main mechanical cities, plus all the smaller supply and troop-transport mechanical cities, added up to a full thousand or more...
And in the span of his own moment of shock, the [City of Ruin] had already unleashed its first volley of dense cannon fire.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM...
The deafening roar of dense cannon fire shattered the sky.
In an instant, thousands of shells rained down like a downpour onto the bandit gangs' mechanical cities along the lakeshore, blasting up great sheets of fire.
But what left Ryan's jaw hanging open the most was...
At that moment, he watched with his own eyes as the slowly-advancing mechanical monster seemed to swallow a small steel city whole — like a whale gulping down its prey!
Yes — swallow it whole!
Once the steel city came ashore, that outrageous city wall cracked wide open, like a beast opening its jaws, revealing a smelting chamber as hot as a volcano's mouth within.
Then dozens of harpoons shot outward, easily piercing through the nearest small mechanical city. Like prey caught in a net, that mechanical city strained its engines to the limit but couldn't break free.
As the winch reeled back in, the bandits inside that steel city didn't even have time to escape before city and people alike were dragged into the furnace, instantly reduced to molten iron...
It surged into the battlefield with an air of absolute invincibility!
...
"Steam boilers to full pressure, boiler crews stoke the coal... stoke the coal!"
"Gunners, load ammunition and return fire..."
"Everyone stay calm, the big cannons take a long time to reload... everyone spread out and get clear while you can!"
"..."
The bandits' combat reflexes were razor-sharp as well — after being caught off guard by that first volley, the various gangs' commanders quickly snapped into action.
One steam-mechanical city after another surged to full power, scattering in every direction.
Though their cannons couldn't match the might of the top-tier [City of Ruin], the range was close enough to let them return fire in force, destroying part of its superstructure...
After all, no matter how powerful the enemy, it was still just a single mechanical city.
...
Chaos erupted along the shores of Storm Lake.
At that moment, [White Wolf] Basil finally understood where his bad feeling had come from.
He glared venomously at the Ormar group before him, killing intent bleeding into his voice. "You lot really think that setting up one Behemoth-tier mechanical city in advance would let you wipe out every one of our hundreds of bandit gangs in one go?"
Though the [City of Ruin] was unmatched, thinking that a single super mechanical city alone could annihilate over a hundred bandit gangs was pure wishful thinking!
As far as he was concerned, this attempted crackdown would end the same way countless ones before it had — in failure.
He paused, then added with a menacing expression, "The [City of Ruin] may be formidable... but before we make our escape, we'll still have time to leave your lives behind!"
"Oh? We'll see about that..."
The Ormar group stood there, expressions unchanged, as if utterly unconcerned by the threat.
"Hmph!"
Basil snorted coldly, and the silver wolf he'd transformed into no longer bothered with words, muscles coiling with power, on the verge of striking.
"Brothers, whoever kills this Ormar prince gets a hundred million bounty!"
All around, cutthroats who lived and died by the blade heard the bounty and let out an excited, howling cheer. The instant their leader made his move, they'd swarm forward and tear those few Ormar royals to shreds.
But just then, something unexpected happened.
...
Suddenly, the sky bloomed with clusters of blood-red fireworks.
PEW~BOOM!
PEW~BOOM!
PEW~BOOM!
...
A string of fireworks shot into the sky one after another, bursting into great clouds of blood-red dust. In just a few breaths, the air all along Storm Lake's shore was filled with a faint reddish haze.
"What are these people up to now?"
Basil's nose twitched, catching a faint medicinal scent, and a flicker of suspicion crossed his face.
What confused him was — this dust wasn't poison, and the explosions themselves couldn't harm anyone, so what was the point?
Faintly, he sensed something was wrong, and his wolf claws hesitated for an instant.
Just then, the black-robed aide beside First Prince Quentin swept his gaze over the assembled bandits and spoke again: "This humble one spent three whole years laying the groundwork for this very day... Did you all really think I'd let you escape so easily?"
Three years of planning?
A chill of dread ran through Basil.
Ever since being ambushed and schemed against, he'd sharply sensed that something about this whole affair was far too strange.
First — there hadn't been the slightest trace of a large mechanical city anywhere near Storm Lake, which meant the [City of Ruin] must have been lying hidden beneath the lake's waters for at least several months.
Second — the location for this "black market auction" had been chosen through discussion among himself and several other major bandit gang leaders, and now it had conveniently fallen right into the trap...
Which meant there was a mole among the decision-making ranks of the major bandit gangs!
Every sign pointed to the fact that this auction had already fallen into someone's careful scheme long, long before today.
Realizing that dragging this out any further would only invite disaster, Basil gave the order to strike at once.
"Move now — kill the Ormar First Prince!"
At that same moment, the Ormar group had already prepared themselves.
The fully armored knight-captain Rhein, his battle aura surging, didn't hesitate for a second to block the bandits' charge. As the court's foremost knight, he possessed defensive strength strong enough to withstand cannon fire head-on!
Meanwhile, the great magus [Yama] Helmos finished chanting his incantation, a six-pointed star of light flaring to life as he summoned four eight-meter-tall "Hellfire Demons" to shield First Prince Quentin within their ranks...
In an instant, the Hyacinth Tavern was plunged into all-out battle.
...
Meanwhile, having already run several kilometers away, Ryan of course also spotted the "red fireworks" bursting across the sky.
"This dust... it can't be some kind of graphite bomb or something, right? Come to think of it, is this world's tech really that advanced?"
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the dust settled and drifted in through the filter of his gas mask...
That scent hit him like a cat catching a whiff of catnip, sending a jolt through his whole body.
"Wait... no. This is a powdered serum?!"
Having spent a few days as a Serum Master's apprentice, Ryan was no longer unfamiliar with the scents of various materials.
The instant that red dust entered his airway, it was as if cold water had dripped into a pan of hot oil — his blood suddenly felt like it was boiling.
"No, something's wrong with this powder!"
The abnormal sensation in his body left Ryan utterly stunned.
His instincts screamed that disaster was upon him!
Just then, he suddenly felt a strange tingling, itchy sensation all over his skin, as if fine hairs were being blown by the wind, prickling and itching.
He raised his hand to look — on his bare skin, thin red lines were sprouting wildly like hair growing at impossible speed!
"What is happening?"
In the span of one or two breaths, nearly an inch of red fur had sprouted from every pore on his body, turning him into something like a red-furred baboon.
The red fur kept growing longer, accompanied by a sensation of intense dehydration and blood loss, a violent wave of dizziness surging up through Ryan's mind.
Glancing again at the status readout projected by his "AI Core," he suddenly understood.
[WARNING! Catalyst intrusion detected. 'Zombie Serum' activated. Host death expected in 30 seconds...]
[WARNING! Large quantity of unknown organisms detected intruding...]