Knock knock knock...
The sudden knocking snapped Duke out of his trance. He looked up from his blueprints, glanced outside at the fading daylight, then checked his pocket watch.
"When did it get this late?"
It had been five hours since the lottery draw. Morning had quietly slipped into late afternoon.
He hadn't even had lunch.
"Tch, lost in it again without noticing." Rubbing his face, Duke called out without turning around, "Come in."
"Duke!!"
Neeko burst through the door. The little fishman wasn't with her, after dropping Duke and the others off last night, he had gone off to play with his dragon shark buddy and probably wouldn't be back until evening.
"Neeko is bored!"
She clung to Duke's arm and shook it back and forth, her wide eyes pleading. "Neeko wants to play games!"
"Nope. If I let you keep playing, you really will become a gaming addict."
Duke firmly rejected her request. Ever since he gave them the game console a few days ago, they'd been glued to it 24/7.
If he hadn't caught on in time, these supernatural beings might've ended up gaming until the next era.
Since then, Duke had set a strict rule: three hours of gameplay per day.
And today's three-hour limit had already passed.
If Neeko and the others wanted to keep playing?
They'd have to get Edith's permission. Duke had said three hours, and the moment that time was up, Edith pulled the plug on the network without hesitation.
"Then Neeko wants to go out. Lee will take Neeko, yes?"
"I..."
He glanced at the blueprints on his desk, then back at Neeko's eager, sparkling eyes.
"Sigh, fine. I've been sitting here nearly all day anyway. A walk might help clear my head."
He patted Neeko's little head and told her to wait outside while he tidied up his papers. The concept for the second Sin was already sketched out.
Now came the grunt work: endless calculations and verifications.
Luckily, he had Red Queen now. She and Edith together could probably crack this blueprint with time.
The expert-level bio-mechanical fusion tech he got from the lottery? Duke had already mastered it. He even tossed the manual onto the lab shelf as decoration.
This second Sin was unlike Pride. It was a hybrid of flesh and machine. In theory, once the simulations checked out, this Sin would have limitless evolutionary potential.
Of course, that was just theory. Duke wouldn't know for sure until it was actually built.
He grabbed a windbreaker, buttoned up, clipped and lit a cigar, then stepped out of the room.
"Let's go. Let's walk around the city."
Duke ruffled Neeko's hair and led her out of the suite, only to find Miss Fortune waiting outside the door.
"Well, well, the big shot finally decides to show his face."
Her words were sharp and dripping with sarcasm as she folded her arms, lifting her generous bust.
"Don't be so snide. What now?"
Duke scratched his nose. Miss Fortune rolled her eyes, snatched the cigar from his mouth, took a deep drag, and exhaled indigo smoke.
"There's chaos at the Butcher's Wharf market. It's getting out of hand, and I'm too tied up to deal with it. I need you to step in."
"Butcher's Wharf, huh?"
Duke raised a brow, scratching the back of his head. "That place reeks."
Seeing her look, he sighed, defeated. "Fine, I'll handle it. But I want some proper ingredients tonight. I'm craving a hometown dish."
"Sure. I'll have Raven get them for you."
After giving her a list of what he wanted, Duke set off with Neeko toward Butcher's Wharf, silently hoping she wouldn't throw up from the stench.
Butcher's Wharf
A ship hauling a giant sea beast had just docked. The crew, overwhelmed by days of fatigue, collapsed in exhaustion the moment they set foot on the bloodstained deck.
Trailing behind the vessel was a monstrous leviathan resembling a grotesquely enlarged worm, its body covered in scale-like plates the size of wagon wheels.
Its maw was ringed with rows of razor-sharp teeth. At full gape, it could probably swallow a carriage whole.
If someone had x-ray vision, they'd see a burly figure with a torch trudging through the beast's insides.
A massive man in a horned steel helm, his fiery orange hair and beard tangled together, strode through the creature's innards.
His frost-scale armor, smeared with gore and viscera, bore testament to his ferocity. In one hand he carried a frost-forged one-handed axe, in the other a torch.
Olaf grumbled as he hacked his way through the Sea Wyrm's belly.
"Survived again. This big bastard looked fierce, but it was all bark."
"Thought I could die gloriously... but nope, still alive. Dammit."
He sliced and dismantled organs and bones as he went.
Olaf and his crew had chased the Sea Wyrm from Freljord for over a month, finally killing it in a Bilgewater typhoon.
When the ship rolled from the waves and hurled Olaf straight into the beast's maw, he thought the prophecy, that he'd die old and weak in bed, was finally broken.
But no. He survived.
One more step toward that cursed fate.
After who knows how long, he finally reached the creature's throat.
Its gullet walls were ridged and lined with obsidian-like teeth.
"Perfect stove fuel for Windrider and that bone scholar."
He stabbed the torch handle into the flesh and got to work.
Only after a long bout of chopping and prying did he finally wrench out a single tooth.
Strapping his axe to his belt, Olaf hoisted the enormous fang over his shoulder. Its sheer weight made him grunt.
"Feels like I'm one of those frost giants hauling ice blocks again."
He slogged through knee-deep blood and digestive juices.
Finally, he emerged through a gaping wound in the Sea Wyrm's rear, stepping into a scene soaked in gore. Even the waves lapping at the dock were tinged red.
He took a deep breath to ease the tightness in his chest.
The stench made him wince.
"The sooner I get back north, the better."
Spitting phlegm, he cursed under his breath. Bilgewater air smelled like rotten milk and spoiled meat, not like Freljord's crisp, invigorating chill.
"What a dump."
Olaf scanned the area, spotting a young man in a slate-gray coat, standing out starkly against the filthy wharf.
Beside him was a little girl with blue-violet hair, also wearing a strange mask, her bright eyes curious.
Olaf squinted, then grinned broadly, making the girl giggle.
"Duke, Lee thinks that big dummy looks so silly when he smiles!"
"Anyone who just walked through a giant beast probably looks just as bad."
Duke ruffled Neeko's head, but his eyes stayed locked on Olaf. The orange hair, the frost-scale armor still gleaming beneath the gore, the frost-forged axe on his hip...
Duke frowned slightly. True Ice weapons were only usable by those with Iceborn blood. Others couldn't even touch them.
Wally's coolant system used a shard of True Ice, and its stability was top-tier.
"Wasn't Olaf supposed to arrive after Soul Erosion Night?"
"Why is he here now?"
That timeline discrepancy puzzled Duke. Olaf had shown up far earlier than in the original lore.
Same thing happened with Lucian. After meeting him once, he vanished completely, no trace to be found.
"Hey!!"
Olaf's shout snapped Duke out of his thoughts. The berserker waved from atop the Sea Wyrm's carcass.
"Want a fresh, still-warm beast tooth?"
Hunting the Sea Wyrm was thrilling, sure, but Olaf still needed to feed his crew and earn fare to get home.
"Come over here and we'll talk!"
Duke raised a megaphone and shouted back. Olaf stared at the odd gadget, confused.
"Alrighty then!"
Still, if the man wanted to talk business, Olaf wasn't going to overthink it.
First, he needed to sell this carcass and fund his journey home.
"He seeks a glorious death, even charging Sejuani's tribe alone to chase it. Letting a brute like that go would be a waste. I need to keep him around for Soul Erosion Night in seven days."
End of chapter...
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