Climbing the Ranks (Climbing the Ranks #1)

“Cendol! Best cendol in the city!”

It was always like this. Give Malaysians a big enough space in an event and, sooner or later, roadside hawkers would appear. A lot might have changed ever since the advent of the Towers, but the Malaysian love for food had not altered one iota. Even with the pagoda-like Tower looming over Merdeka Square, the hawkers were all out, offering easy-to-consume and all-too-tasty foodstuff.

Merdeka Square itself—once a giant square of concrete and grass with “the second tallest flagpole in the word!” its singular claim to fame—had changed significantly since the appearance of the Tower. Now, a wall blocked off access to the Tower itself, bisecting the square. Numerous guards with assault rifles stood on the wall and the guard towers, which were built to safeguard from within and without.

Ringing the walled-off Tower were the hawkers, who sold food to tourists, gawkers and Tower-climbing groupies, all of them doing a brisk business. The one-man hawker stalls were often backed up by additional moving vans which resupplied the busy carts, as they dispensed a variety of foods. In the small circle around Arthur Chua, he could spot cendol, fresh fruit, kuih, and goreng pisang sold as quick snacks and a char kway teow man further away with small tables and chairs set up for his customers.

The presence of so many people and food stalls made the air redolent with scents. Sweat, the smell of unwashed humanity, the omnipresent humidity, and the overwhelming heat pressed down upon everyone as sunshine warmed the concrete floor.

Arthur drew another breath, enjoying the smells—even the acrid burnt smell of electric vehicles passing by on too-hot rubber tires—and listened to the conversations that washed over him. The constant honking of electric motorcycles and self-driven cars driven to the extremes of their software combating the careless nature of Malaysian drivers . . . It was all a reminder of what he was about to leave behind and he wanted to enjoy it, just for a few seconds more.

Release Date: December 1, 2023

Pages: 748

Genre: Cultivation Fantasy

eBook ISBN: 9781778551352

Language: English

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