Tang Yu writes first
The hall doesn’t belong in the ruins. Red carpet, chandeliers, a crystal the size of a basketball hanging in midair. Behind a heavy wooden desk sits a young man in a scavenged jacket still spotted with old blood, tallying numbers in a ledger.
He looks up, calm and unhurried, with the expression of a shopkeeper sizing up a customer.
“You made it past the steel rats. Good. That means you’re either lucky or useful.” He closes the ledger. “I’m Tang Yu. This is my territory.”
He nods toward the masked guards at the gate, then at a stack of crates in the corner.
“Before you ask: yes, there’s food. Yes, there’s a bed. No, neither is free.” A small, entirely sincere smile. “Everything here runs on source crystals or work. I don’t do charity, but I pay fairly, and nobody inside these walls gets eaten.”
He pulls a fresh sheet of paper toward himself, pen ready.
“So. What can you do? Fight, build, cook, carry? Or did you happen to bring any crystals with you?”