Pier City, the eastern coast of Ur. The northern city of the alliance of free city states.

The four independent city states at the coast were Pier City of Snowflake Province, Dazane of Dazane Province, Vonon Ys of North Sylvania and Nurad-Karmydin of South Sylvania. All cities were built around massive Strangers fortresses that had been re-purposed for human use.

On the surface, these city states were ruled by High Hat lords with their own mercenary armies, but behind the scenes the real rulers were called Cot-Mot-Megs: the Council of the Masters of the Merchant Guilds.

Cot-Mot-Megs were basically the House of Medici or the Hanseatic League of this world, and even though krúrick was first adopted as the common currency first time in the northern Mu territories, the free cities of east coast of Ur were the main reason the value of silver krúricks remained stable.

The reason these cities were called “free” was because the influence of both Suleiman and Caliph Tze were the weakest here. Between free cities and Suleiman, there were vast mid-continental wastelands, and between free cities and Caliph Tze there was vast intercontinental ocean. Attacking free city alliance would have been unreasonable both in cost and time. Thus, the cities could trade openly with both empires, caring only about their own internal conflicts.

Pier City mini-arc was the most action-packed storyline in the anime series. It was the high point of the weak fifth season: a two-parter where Rainwoman and Crystal Pencil traveled to Pier City when the Revolution Movement's fame and power was at its peak.

The reason Crys and Rain traveled to Pier City was, obviously, Strangers dynamite. A local gang working under Green Mountain cult happened to find a hidden stash of Strangers mining dynamite after a large coastal sandstorm. The gangsters blew themselves up while testing it, but luckily they didn't blow up all of the dynamite and two crates were left in the underground warehouse.

A local crime lord obtained rest of the dynamite and sent out messages to famous weapons merchants, asking if they wanted to buy “powerful exploding sticks from Strangers Era”.

One of these famous weapons merchants: Crystal Pencil.

Since the same message was sent to many possible buyers of various outlooks, the expected hot bidding war actually turned into a hot gang war, with a touch of light detective mystery. A Green Mountain representative named Byrknoth carried the location info of the dynamite, but was found dead and Crys had to then use all his little gray cells to find the murderer and the merchandise.

During the sudden gang war, Rain and Crys were caught in a trap laid by another local crime lord: they were lured in with fake info about the dynamite and then tortured for their information of the real dynamite. It was quite ironic that while the Revolution Movement's fame was at its peak, the leaders of the movement were at their lowest – Crys was depressed, hallucinating insomniac because of his sisters death and Rain was a paranoid battle-drug addict. If they had been at their personal peak, they would have easily avoided the trap.

Anyway, after their painful escape, they continued by massacring all the beach temple workers that were holding onto the real dynamite. When they got the dynamite, they drove out of the city and left the other weapons merchants fight over the fake dynamite among themselves. The end.

Spoiler warning: the murderer was Jeron, archpriest Byrknoth's second-in-command, and the real dynamite was still in the secret area under the sand.

In the game, the Pier City area difficulty level was okay when playing as Crystal Pencil because Rainwoman was a robust AI-controlled character, but if you played as Rainwoman and AI-controlled Crys, the side quests became frustrating because AI-Crys had a tendency to get stuck on corners and die a lot. It turned into another escort mission.

Other than that, the side mission was just normal “get caught by enemy and lose all your weapons” type crap. We can't have that now, can we?

Mu-Ur Quincunx didn't have difficulty levels per se, but it was common knowledge that playing with Rainwoman or twins was easy mode, Crys was medium-level difficulty character, and playing with melee specialist Dragon Kimono was hard mode. Mirim had two different difficulty modes, hard and medium, and Sorry Man was the ultra-hard mode – depending on your perspective.

Pier City was heavily character-specific difficulty area, so I didn't play it much when speedrunning full campaign with the twins; you could glitch through the required parts in a few minutes with them. But for more casual play, Pier City was the best place to stock up on weapons and armor after you had lost all you gear.

And it was also one of the most picturesquely beautiful areas in the game.

I installed some basic info about Pier City into my party members during our second tunnel train section and then we held a long strategy meeting. I wrote down a list of possible places to loot in Pier City.

“Kimono, here's a walkthrough map for Snowflake Fortress. The mercenary knights keep their best gear at the inner basement. The main thing to steal from there are the bulletproof undershirts they usually give only to High Hats. I've drawn here what kind of crates the shirts are stored in. You should be able to carry about ten pieces or so in a backpack, but try take at least five. You and the twins won't be wearing them because they would just slow down your special skills, but me, Crys, Dancer, Rain and Mirim will get nice defense boosts.”

“Kimono, collect them.” (Crys)

“Yes, brother.” (Kimono)

“For other stuff in there, I leave it to your judgment. Take what you can carry back easily.”

Kimono nodded and the walkthrough map disappeared under her fake kimono. The fortress had the strongest enemies in the area, but she should be fine sneaking around undetected and following the safest routes I wrote down.

I had to think back to the original zipless speedruns because you couldn't force yourself through walls here. Only the High Hat governor of the Snowflake Fortress and his closest aides knew about the secret escape passages, so random guard encounters shouldn't become a problem.

By the way, Snowflake Fortress wasn't the official name of the place. It was called that because the jagged hexagonal star fort with gray-white walls looked like a snowflake from above. In the anime, characters always used the street name of the place, but on the game map it was Valkross Fortress.

“In the meantime, Crys, Dancer and I will collect some info about the current gang situation. If everything in the city seems normal, tomorrow we'll spend a day visiting some secret warehouses of the local crime lords, collect gear, and make them suspect each other or outsider gangs for the thefts. Is that okay?”

“It's a reasonable plan.” (Crys)

“Yes.” (Dancer)

“Alright, let's activate heist film mode! Or not. Some of the places I remember might not be in use yet, so it doesn't hurt to check them beforehand. I've written down the home bases of local crime lords and underbosses here at the edges of the map, so you can just follow these arrows, in case we get separated. Crys, do you recognize these names?”

“I've heard the names of some of them at merchant gatherings.” (Crys)

“Alright, the ones you recognize are probably the ones who runs things at this point in time. Now, these two arms caches at the secret caves in the southern edge of the city are the most important. They should contain the best weapons for Rain and Mirim, and they should also have rare stuff like knockout gas and folding sword canes, along with many types of regular weapons.”

“Oh? Knockout gas?” (Crys)

“Yes, I knew you would like that, although it's probably just a few small canisters. The crime lords don't expect anyone to know about their secret prepper caches, so they are probably lightly guarded. By the way, if there are some lords or gangs you do not want to steal from–”

“There are none. We will take everything.” (Crys)

As expected, Crys didn't care. It didn't matter to him even if they worked for the Princes Of Darkness or the Dark Murderers. He didn't become one of the most wanted criminals in two continents in the original timeline just by stealing weapons from nobles; other crime lords wanted his head as well.

Steal from the rich, sell back to the rich. All in a days work.

The autorail stopped as smoothly as it started. We had arrived at Ouidah Dungeon few kilometers away from Pier City.

Ouidah Dungeon was basically an underground slum area outside the city walls. Cot-Mot-Megs liked to keep their city clean by sending beggars, orphans and other unwanted underclass people in the dungeon. Out of sight, out of mind.

The automatic railcar doors opened and we bolted out of fully prepared for another ambush, but there were neither deviants nor gangsters waiting for us. There were wooden shacks and tents in the surprisingly bright cavern, but nothing else.

The autorail station on this side was easily reachable and known area, but since no one before Ostero had been able to use the railcar, it had been left alone like other uselessly mysterious Strangers Era machines. The station had simply become the home base of Ostero's gang.

“Ostero didn't leave any guards at this side. If he didn't tell anyone else about the key and started his first journey with his whole gang, we are probably the only ones who know how to make the railcar go.”

“A profitable coincidence.” (Crys)

“Just as planned, Crys-sensei, say just as planned.”

“Just as planned.” (Crys)

“That's right. Then, I give this skeleton key to you. Use its power for good.”

“...Sure.” (Crys)

Crys seemed moved by my generosity. He was probably confused by how little I cared about keeping treasure-level items like the Skeleton Key and the Laser Card in my own pockets. But I happened to know for a fact that hardest dude to pickpocket in this group was Crys, and there were plenty of pickpockets in Pier City.

“All right, let's head out. There are actually five exits in Ouidah Dungeon, but probably only two or three of them are known at this point in time. We can avoid the gangsters living on middle floors by taking an unknown exit, but there are still gangster towns outside the dungeon on all sides. Crys, when we meet local randos on the way, can you leave the talking to me? You can take it easy for a while, we're done with the stuffy autoscroller tube. I know how to speak eastern gangslang, so in the words of the twins: Pier City is my hunting ground.”

“Ignoring potential patrons is not good to my reputation as merchant.” (Crys)

“...That's true.”

“No, it doesn't matter. I want to see what tactics you use.” (Crys)

“Oh, I must put on a good show for senpai then!”

Leading our party out of the Ouidah Dungeon using the shortest path, I marched proudly forward.

I felt much better after getting some sleep in the railcar and Ouidah Dungeon thankfully didn't have any traps. Maybe the resting recovery really worked for me? I can't check my stat values directly from HUD, so I just have to go with how I feel like some hideously nebulous real world human.

I should have worn my health tracker when I glitched. I would have had at least some numerical self-surveillance values I could check... with my smartphone... sigh.

The young, homeless gangsters we encountered living in a slum town near the dungeon exit became very humble and helpful when I did my gangspeak choreo and introduced my associates.

“I am Majestic Cloud, one of the elder leaders of Twin City Pingpongs. I am on a joint special mission with elders of Copper Knives Gang from Cat Star Home.”

I told them we were basically a group of mid-level boss enemies.

That's right, scrubs, bow before us. No, we don't need your lousy food or women, you can keep them.

“Ostero Nynaling is not here? How unfortunate. We might have to kill all of you. Well, on a second tought, we allow you to live for now, if you deliver a message to Ostero when he returns. Tell him this: Majestic Cloud of Twin City Pingpongs and Copper Knives from Cat Star Home do not appreciate the fact that he is absent when we arrive. We will head to Dazane to negotiate with Dark Murderers instead, tell this to Ostero Nynaling.”

Before heading to Pier City, I also warned the scared younglings that if they tell anyone we came from the lower floors of Ouidah, they will scream their last words at the Cat Star Home torture chambers.

The gangs in Pier City territory were generally quite aggressive towards outsiders, but when an outsider who used east coast gangslang and pointed a strange white light at them came in with an introduction like mine, they had to take it seriously.

We left the dungeon as boss-level gangsters, but entered the Pier City through the front gate as normal merchants.

Crys did the talking and bribing with the gate guards. Even though this was Crys' first time visiting the Pier City, he was better at negotiating with authorities. I was still lacking in merchant manners and noble etiquette.

We walked into the city, but Crys bought a new horse and a coach from the first place we saw selling one inside the city walls. Although we didn't plan on spending much time here, our plan required moving around in the territory a lot and carrying plenty of stolen gear.

I named our new horse Toyotomi Hideyoshi because he was the successor of Oda Nobunaga.

“Right, the sun will go down soon, and we all know what we will do tonight, so let's first head to a safe inn.”

“How about that inn over there?” (Dancer)

“Nope, the owner of that place is a despicable person who leaks info about his guests to a gang that later robs you. I was just about to suggest a small inn called Tavel & Topeir at the promenade. It directly faces a sand beach where local noble ladies gather during full moon and bathe in the moonlight. That's the inn where Crys and Rain stayed in the future when they came here.”

“I see. I trust that my future self made the right choice.” (Crys)

“Speedrun, it's really convenient that you know so many people.” (Dancer)

“It is, isn't it?”

It really is convenient to know the good guys from bad guys. You can shut down troublesome NPCs before they even open their mouth.

“Crys and Rain came here in the future...?” (Kimono)

“Yes, you stayed in the same inn with Rain and Crys too, Kimono, obviously.”

Oh boy, I need to keep my backstories straight. Kimono was already dead and buried at that point.

But speaking of good and bad people... how about Flower Girl?

She was a cute NPC girl that sold flowers on the main pier and died tragically in the anime. If she's selling flowers at the pier now, I want to at least give her some advice and make sure she avoids her tragic fate.

I can't save everyone, but her death is just too sad. Should I go and see if she's there?

I want to save at least one while I can.

“Crys, wait a moment. There's someone I would like to see at the main pier area. She's not related to our campaign, but I'd like to make sure she survives, for personal reasons. We'll stay in the city for a while anyway, so I thought I'd see if she's there today, and if she's not there today, check again tomorrow. I was wondering–“

“It is fine. Kimono, go with Speedrun.”

“What?” (Kimono)

“Guard him on the way there. Snowflake Fortress is in the same district according to his map. Scout the area beforehand on the way.” (Crys)

“Brother...” (Kimono)

“It is fine.” (Crys)

“Thanks, Crys, I promise I'll keep her out of trouble. And you will check the merchant ship schedules to Mu on the way to the inn then, right? Also, we should buy longer climbing ropes here, I'm not sure if we can buy quality ropes in the Mu Continent side. Is it fine to leave acquiring them to Dancer and you?”

“It is fine.” (Crys)

Crys seemed to be in a good mood, anything was fine with him.

He actually told me on the way that my gangslang performance was highly amusing. Yes, subscribe to my stream to see more of that!

When Crys and Dancer continued towards Tavel & Topeir inn with Hideyoshi-chan, I took out my own hand-drawn copy of Pier City map and showed it to Kimono.

“Let's take a fast route over this seawall, there are stairs going up and down on both sides. Well, the same stairs go up and down, haha...”

“...” (Kimono)

“Sorry about this, okay? Anyway, that's the safest route that skips all the local gang areas. Or at least in the future it was the safest route. If someone tries to talk to us, we should just ignore them and run, okay?”

“Whatever. Start walking.” (Kimono)

Hm. Maybe Crys gave his permission because he wanted Kimono and me to get a bit closer with each other? Or maybe he thought it was good to have a girl with me when I go to meet another a girl? Nah, he wouldn't care about something like that.

He probably just thought about the power balance: with Dancer, two weakest members of the party would be in the same sub-party.

But just for the sake of argument, I had to ask myself: wasn't this a date?