Chapter 207 - 206: The Bar

Chapter 207: Chapter 206: The Bar

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The core city of DT-501 District, the Doomsday Ghost City.

From the outside, the city didn’t look much different from the Doomsday Plain. There were no skyscrapers; most of the buildings were only one or two stories high, crammed together in a dilapidated mess.

A never-setting sun hung eternally in the sky, its dim yellow light staining the entire city a rust-red, giving it a desolate appearance.

But once you actually walked inside, you’d discover that this desolation was just a facade.

Within those low-rise buildings were countless living quarters and entertainment facilities.

Bars, casinos, trading posts, mercenary halls, and all sorts of nameless storefronts were packed side-by-side. The streets bustled with people: shabbily dressed players, heavily armed mercenaries, and all kinds of bizarre Undead Creatures weaving through the crowd.

Gu Su was currently sitting in a bar enclosed by abandoned vehicles.

Calling it a bar was a stretch. It was really just a semi-enclosed space formed by a few scrapped trucks with a corrugated iron roof thrown up in the middle.

Beneath the roof were a few crooked tables and stools. Several dim oil lamps hung on the walls, their flickering flames causing the light in the space to jump and fade.

When he came in, Gu Su had also seen the sign outside: Traffic Road Tollbooth.

He didn’t know the significance of the name, but the sign certainly gave off an unprofessional vibe.

A glass of alcohol sat in front of him.

Its color... well, let’s just say it didn’t look drinkable.

It was a murky green liquid, tinged with black, and it glistened eerily under the oil lamps. A ring of fine bubbles clung to the rim of the glass, refusing to dissipate.

Yuan Guang stared at the drink for a long moment, then looked up at the bartender behind the counter, his tone filled with obvious suspicion:

"Peter, are you sure this is drinkable?"

Behind the bar stood a tall, thin man in a faded white shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a forearm tattooed with a Skeleton. He was holding a rag, nonchalantly wiping a glass, and replied without looking up:

"You brought me the ingredients. I just mixed them according to the ratio. What’s not to drink?"

Sitting behind them, Gu Su couldn’t help but twitch at those words.

’What’s not to drink? Just look at the color and you’ll know.’

He had watched Peter mix the drink with his own eyes. First, Peter cut off a small piece of the Dragon Blood Mushroom he’d brought and squeezed out a few drops of milky white juice that had faint, blood-colored streaks in it.

Then, he poured in a small cup of Dragon Blood-infused Pure Yang Chicken Blood. The chicken blood was golden-red and had a soft glow under the light.

Finally, he added a measure of Poisonous Honey. The honey was a transparent, pale yellow and carried a light, sweet fragrance.

’White, red, and yellow. No matter how you looked at it, those three things shouldn’t have produced this murky green concoction.’

But Peter had poured them into the glass, given it a few casual swirls, and like magic, the liquid had gone from clear to murky green, and finally, even darker, bordering on black.

’What the hell did he add to it?’

But Gu Su couldn’t say anything. After all, the man had mixed it himself, and he’d watched the whole process without seeing him add anything he shouldn’t have.

Yuan Guang, however, was bolder than him. He stared at the drink for a few seconds, then grit his teeth, picked it up, and downed a mouthful.

Then his eyes lit up.

It was a brightness Gu Su had never seen before.

Not just ordinary surprise, but a kind of tremor originating from the depths of his Soul.

He even saw white smoke rising from the top of Yuan Guang’s head—the kind you could see with the naked eye, puffing upward.

"Good stuff!"

Yuan Guang slammed the cup on the table and turned to leave. After two steps, he seemed to remember something and turned back to Peter.

"Peter, I’m going up to the second floor for a bit.

Take care of this kid for me, and make sure you treat him well.

Don’t let him leave. Have him wait for me for one... no, two hours."

With that, he snatched the half-full glass from the table and vanished in a flash.

"There’s a second floor here?"

Gu Su muttered.

"Of course. Isn’t that why they come here? To go to the second floor?

Just off the battlefield?"

Peter came out from behind the bar and sat down across from him, a faint, world-weary smile on his face.

Gu Su nodded.

"Want me to call a couple of people over to help you relax?" Peter asked, his tone as casual as if he were asking if Gu Su wanted a glass of water.

Gu Su froze for a second, then realized what he meant and quickly waved his hands. "Ah, not right now, no thanks."

Peter didn’t press the issue. He shrugged, stood up, poured Gu Su a drink, and slid it in front of him.

"Suit yourself. This one’s on me. If you need anything, just call me."

Gu Su looked down at the drink. Its color was much more normal—a pale, translucent gold with a faint, fruity aroma.

But he was in no mood to drink right now.

To be honest, if Yuan Guang hadn’t brought him here, he would never be sitting in a place like this.

This bar was too noisy. A few players at the next table were loudly bragging about something. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but their volume made his ears hurt.

In the corner, a few others were playing dice, each reveal of the cup accompanied by a cheer or a groan.

Over by the bar, a drunk player was slumped on the counter, muttering something unintelligible.

He wasn’t used to this kind of environment.

Gu Su had worked for a few years after graduating. While he wouldn’t call himself a perfectly upstanding citizen, he frequented respectable places: restaurants, foot-massage parlors, and massage clinics.

Those places could be lively too, but it was an orderly, rule-bound liveliness. Not like here, which was a chaotic mess where you had to guess what people were thinking and whether they were toxic.

But he couldn’t leave.

Yuan Guang had said his specialty goods would sell best here.

Dragon Blood Mushrooms, Pure Yang Poisonous Insects, Dragon Blood Chicken Blood—people in other places might not recognize these things, but here, you could probably sell them just by asking a random person on the street.

To sell his goods for a good price, he had no choice but to endure it.

Gu Su picked up the pale golden drink and took a small sip.

It tasted alright. A little sweet, a little tart, and a warmth spread through him after he swallowed.

’Looks like this Peter really knows his stuff.’

When his Graveyard Demon expanded, he would build a bar inside it too.

He could use any unsold mushrooms to brew alcohol. If the drinks could taste as good as this one, he felt it wouldn’t be a bad idea to brew more mushroom wine. ℴ

Just then, a girl holding a drink sat down next to Gu Su.

"Hey handsome, not going to buy me a drink?"

Gu Su looked up at the girl. She had facial piercings and a gem embedded in her tongue. Her hair was neon green, and her eyes were two different colors, one red and one purple—he couldn’t tell if she was wearing colored contacts or if they had been dyed directly.

Anyway, Gu Su felt his own Vampires looked more human than she did.

’I knew it. You won’t find any normal people in a bar like this.’