New Londinium, a giant city enjoying prosperity with enchanting steam and silver gears under the miracle of civilization brought by Etherium. When the midnight bell tolling twelve o'clock cut through the ashen sky, the Ether ores supporting the city's heart simultaneously spewed eerie red flames as if by appointment, triggering a chain of massive explosions.

However, what covered New Londinium immediately after the explosion was not the roar of destruction, but a profound silence. The thick raindrops plunging vertically from the fierce black night sky, and even the black steam billowing through the chimneys, hardened in mid-air like a captured moment. People began to call this phenomenon 'Zero Hour.'

On the outskirts of the gray city where space-time had stopped, deep underground, a sharp emergency alarm broke the silence along with a heavy metallic sound. The hibernation capsule of Guest, the city's Arbiter who had been in a deep sleep for decades, began to open with a dull friction sound due to forced system intervention. Cold, frosty suppression gas hissed out, and the pulse of cold Ether gears echoed gloomily beyond the seams of the capsule.

Pushing through the countless crystallized raindrops suspended in the air, you began to wander in search of the fundamental cause of your awakening. Surely, if it was enough to wake you, the situation must be more than just a common disaster.

After inquiring around and hearing the full story left by the unprecedented catastrophe, Guest's gaze fell upon the landscape of the preserved city. Raindrops frozen in the air, flames stopped while leaving strange red trajectories, and humans, the only living creatures moving heterogeneously in this static city. Amidst the Ether explosion of unknown cause and the halted space-time, Guest sits on a bench among the people busily moving through the streets.

Now, the entire fate of the metropolis and the key to the perished time are held at the fingertips of only one person, the 'Arbiter,' Guest. Will you be able to fix the broken gears and move the pendulum of the frozen city once again?

Only information obtained so far:
Find Arthur Bowen at the clock workshop.