It was past noon the next day when Alexander finally got out of bed.
He rubbed his dark circles, splashed his face with recycled water from the pipe to refresh himself.
The gang fight last night had lasted until the latter half of the night, with shouts, gunshots, and wails echoing ceaselessly.
But in the end, only the low moans of the dying remained.
Alexander rubbed his temples, trying to clear his head a bit.
He stood behind the door, peering through the finger-wide window at the street.
Corpses, the entire street was littered with corpses. Some were local gang members, some belonged to the Ark Gang, and others were ordinary residents who hadn't made it home in time.
Alexander blinked.
He noticed a group of people dressed in linen-colored robes, with ink-drawn markings of a spaceship with a tail flame on their faces, moving the bodies of yesterday's dead on the street.
They were like a group of diligent worker bees.
"Ark Gang?"
Alexander frowned.
These people should be members of the Ark Gang. They were cleaning up corpses, which was quite public-spirited.
Did the Ark Gang win last night's battle?
He had just supplied the local gang with three hundred PDF automatic infantry rifles, and they were defeated like a collapsing mountain overnight?
This was a bit too pathetic.
He took out his Superpower Hat from his four-dimensional pocket and put it on his head.
Then he focused his attention on his eyes, looking at the Ark Gang members outside the door.
Their linen-colored robes, their skin and flesh, were all laid bare before Alexander's eyes.
"They are humans."
After confirming that these low-level Ark Gang members outside the door were all humans, Alexander breathed a slight sigh of relief.
He took off the Superpower Hat from his head, pushed open the door, and stepped out onto the street.
The Ark Gang members who were cleaning up the corpses didn't pay much attention to Alexander, simply treating him as one of the crowded masses.
Even after the battle last night, the hive city streets were still crowded.
Busy workers weaved through the narrow streets.
The remaining corpses on the ground were trodden over almost numbly by people.
Many bodies had already become half-embedded in the mud from a morning of trampling.
Death duels between gangs were commonplace; the workers were long used to it.
As long as one was alive, one had to go to the factory to work.
Sometimes, even death wasn't the end of work.
In the galaxy, only the Emperor and work were eternal.
Alexander noticed a gang member's head on the muddy ground not far away, facing him with its back of the head.
There was a gruesome bullet hole in the neck of that head, clearly broken by a bullet.
Its muscles were shriveled and gray, looking old, and a bit of exposed cheek faintly showed the local gang's symbol.
Under the trampling of passersby, this head was already half-sunk into the mud, like a protruding, stinking, hard rock.
"Come on, give me some space."
Alexander waved his arms, squeezing out a little space in the surrounding crowd.
He reached down and pulled the head from the ground.
Half of the head's face was crushed beyond recognition, half an eye dangled out of its socket, and white bones were exposed amidst the flesh and blood.
Looking at the ugly head, Alexander shook his head with a mix of regret and foreknowledge: "As expected, it's not that old fox Lager."
He glanced at the gruesome head in his hand.
"But he's even more handsome than Lager."
Then he casually tossed the head into the bag of the Ark Gang member who was cleaning up corpses by the roadside, to avoid tripping passersby.
The Ark Gang member looked at the head thrown into the bag and bowed politely to Alexander in thanks.
Alexander watched his actions, his eyes twitching slightly.
The more innocent these Ark Gang members were, the more he suspected them of being a Genestealer Cult.
He looked at the street before him, always feeling a strange atmosphere pervading it.
As if some non-real mist was invisibly drifting in the air.
"There are remnants of psychic energy on the street," the winged figure of Sanguinus suddenly said softly.
"Psychic energy…"
Alexander was stunned, his brows furrowing even more.
No wonder, no wonder the local gang was defeated overnight.
The Ark Gang actually had a psyker. It was getting more and more suspicious.
Alexander shook his head and walked west along the crowded street. After passing through the arch made of scrap metal, he saw the three-way intersection where a huge stone carving of Sanguinius stood.
Many passing residents were prostrating themselves at the feet of the Sanguinius statue, praying devoutly.
Alexander shook his head, looking in the direction pointed by Sanguinius' sharp spear.
One-Eye's pub was open for business.
Alexander pushed the door open and heard a noisy commotion inside the pub.
A half-drunk worker stood on a table, loudly recounting what had happened last night:
"The Ark Gang's leader, with his subordinates, only took half a night to reach the local gang's doorstep."
"But no one expected that our local gang boss actually had three hundred Agrippina automatic infantry rifles!"
The worker noticed the disbelief on the faces of those around him:
"Don't you disbelieve me, I saw it with my own eyes last night, exactly three hundred Agrippina Model 3 automatic infantry rifles. I was fortunate enough to see the PDF use them when I was young."
"After two or three rounds of firing, the Ark Gang suffered countless casualties, and for a time, they couldn't take this last stronghold."
He took a deep breath, and said in a low voice:
"But at that moment, the Ark Gang's leader, without a single weapon, walked out alone."
"She recited from the Holy Word Records, and those gang members holding automatic infantry rifles all stood frozen in place."
"The leader raised her hands, raised her voice, and shouted: 'Lay down your weapons!' Those gang members all put down their automatic infantry rifles in unison."
"The leader proclaimed: This is the God-Emperor's punishment for unbelievers. She is blessed by the Emperor and founded the Ark Gang to help all the people of Ashford gain salvation from the star Daemons…"
Listening to the worker's bragging, Alexander sat at the pub's bar and looked at One-Eye.
One-Eye wiped a glass and poured Alexander a glass of blood-red, bubbling liquor.
"Did you find that notebook?" One-Eye asked, handing the drink to Alexander.
Alexander took a sip of the drink, shook his head, and said, "How could it be that easy? I haven't even gotten into the Corpse Guild."
This was the absolute truth; he really hadn't gotten in.
One-Eye sighed: "If you can't find it, then you can't find it. It's truly not easy."
"Since you can't find it, it seems there's no hope for this job."
With that, One-Eye waved his hand, glancing at the worker who was bragging on the pub table.
"What do you think?" One-Eye asked Alexander.
"What do gang matters have to do with us?" Alexander said, taking a gulp of the liquor.
One-Eye grinned, cautiously glanced around, and leaned close to Alexander's ear, whispering:
"Don't be as ignorant as them."
"You heard it, right? Psychic power. That Ark Gang leader is actually an illegal psyker."