Gun of Ashes

Slowly opening his eyes, he was greeted by the familiar ceiling, covered with all sorts of strange posters, some new, some old, some not quite stuck on, with a corner peeling off, stubbornly hanging above his head, gently swaying with his breath.

”Good morning.”

Lorenzo muttered to himself, not knowing who he was greeting.

He was already awake, lazily lying there for a few more minutes before slowly getting up, slipping into his slippers, walking to the table, picking up the leftover wine bottle from last night, and gulping down the remaining mouthful, but immediately after, Lorenzo started coughing loudly and threw the bottle onto the ground.

Dark wine stains covered his mouth, accompanied by clumps of ash.

Having drunk a bit too much yesterday, Lorenzo forgot he had used the wine bottle as an ashtray, the disgusting taste spreading in his mouth, he tried to rush to the bathroom to rinse out his mouth but ended up kicking the table corner.

”Damn it!”

The kick hurt so much that it made a tough guy shed tears, cursing as he approached the bathroom, and because of this kick, the table shook slightly, knocking the gun resting against it.

It toppled over, lying horizontal in front of Lorenzo, tripping him.

With a thud, Lorenzo hit the ground hard.

”Damn it! Damn it!”

The cursing continued.

It was like moving house, with constant noise erupting in Lorenzo’s room, clanging incessantly, only after a long while did it completely calm down, as he pushed the door open looking exhausted, while it had only been a few minutes since he got up.

Crappy few minutes were all it took to easily ruin a beautiful day.

Lorenzo walked down the dusty stairs to the living room on the first floor, which also served as his office.

The Silent Sea expedition had cost him several months, and during this time, although Eve had called someone in to help clean Lorenzo’s room, after Lorenzo returned, those people no longer came, hence the room was once again covered in dust.

Of course, Lorenzo was trying to change himself too, like when idling, he would sweep the floor, throw some trash to the door instead of piling it up inside the house.

But sometimes Lorenzo’s attention would be drawn away by other things, causing him to completely neglect these details of life.

The entire living room was roughly transformed by him, the sofa and chairs pushed to one side, a long table laid across the center, piled with blueprints and some mechanical parts, with a few unassembled weapons leaning on one side.

Lorenzo walked into the kitchen, searching for leftover sausage and bread from yesterday, picked up a plate, and walked to the long table.

It had been almost a month since Lorenzo returned from the Silent Sea and the global tensions had persisted for another month, with a sword drawn and ready to strike, no one knew how long this situation would last, perhaps another year or half a year, or maybe war would break out tomorrow.

Forking the cold sausage, Lorenzo ate while rummaging through the items on the long table, finally finding a newspaper from a few months ago when he was still at the Silent Sea.

”Armor of Original Sin...”

Mumbling with food in his mouth, Lorenzo’s voice was indistinct.

To intimidate various nations, and also to prolong the war, Ingwig exposed the Third Generation Armor of Original Sin to the public’s view, judging from this rough promotional method, this would be a revolutionary war machine for the world.

But Lorenzo was somewhat worried, he understood Ingwig’s intentions, yet still felt some unease.

This was a weapon against Demons, now appearing on the chessboard among humans.

However... it’s actually not much different, all of it is essentially human internal warfare, and human history is a history of warfare evolution.

Thinking this, Lorenzo saw ripples forming in the cup in front of him, and weak vibrations came over as he looked towards the window, where a tall shadow blocked the light.

Lorenzo ate the remaining sausage all in one bite, donned his grayish-white pajamas, and went out, steam diffusing around, with people’s exclamations echoing.

Before him unveiled cold machinery, its appearance design quite restrained, mostly to make it easier for the public to accept, the entire body is encased in arc-shaped armor protecting the compact machinery within, not carrying too many weapons, only a fixed blade on the elbow area, machine guns strapped on the back, with exposed ammo chains.

This was a Third Generation Armor, a new model ”Peacekeeper” developed by the Perpetual Motion Pump.

Rather than calling it a new model, it would be more appropriate to say it’s a castrated version of Sword Dancer, removing most of the external armor and fuel tanks, and the most lethal giant twin swords were also taken off, the weapon racks stripped away only retaining the minimum armament, the overall structure has been continuously weakened, with Demon flesh only concentrated in the core frame, fortunately, the used lacquered antimony compensated for the power issues enabling this big guy to move.

On its shoulder armor was grayish-white paint, with soldiers carrying weapons accompanying it.

To soothe the panicked citizens and also to showcase its military strength, after the exposure of the Third Generation Armor, the streets of Old Dunling became populated with these patrolling Third Generation Armors, they were few in number but with a strong deterrent force, and in this grim place of Old Dunling, they are quite easily accepted.

Thinking about it, the citizens of Old Dunling were somewhat more heartened than those in other places, giant Iron Whales floating in the sky, dense railways covered the ground, not to mention the steam rising from underground as night falls.