Shadow Slave

On a cold winter morning, two people were making their way through the black slush that drowned a rundown street, piling high near the dirty walls of the cheap panel buildings that clung to each other, as if for warmth. The loud sound of their steps echoed in the dim twilight, making it seem as if a monster was chewing on rotten flesh.

Nephis glanced at the dirt covering her expensive boots, then smelled the air and grimaced. Adjusting the collar of her white coat, she then glanced at Sunny and asked:

"Why are we here, exactly?"

He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

"Weren't you told to submerge yourself into how mundane humans live? Well, here we are. This is life, too."

He gestured at the ugly landscape that surrounded them and sighed.

After several years... Sunny was back in the outskirts.

'Brings back memories…'

In the aftermath of the collapse of old humanity, ravages of war and natural cataclysms made most of the planet uninhabitable. To exist in relative safety, people had to congregate in large cities like the one he had grown up in… the Northern Quadrant Siege Capital. Everywhere else was either drowned underwater or looked like a desert.

Of course, life persisted. Some trees and plants were still clinging to life. Large mammals mostly went extinct, but a few species of animals and insects had managed to adapt. However, the damage to most ecosystems was too severe. The earth turned barren, the water turned poisonous, and even the air itself was not safe to breathe anymore.

incorporated sophisticated water filtration systems, food distribution infrastructure and other means of keeping the population alive. It was surrounded by

know much about how the barriers worked, but they were sufficiently effective in keeping the city in a

NQSC, it was slowly growing. As a result, the city grew, too. It stretched further and further, both into the sky and underground. Of course, it also sprawled horizontally.

Hence, the outskirts appeared.

human resources, and even more time. The colossal, skeletal frames of unfinished barriers had

been as bad as in the desolate wilderness beyond, but it was far from safe. Those who breathed it every day did not

It reeked.

accustomed to the smell for most of his life and never paid it much attention, but

the big deal… it's not that bad

clean water was scarce, most food came in the form of synthpaste

but in practice, it broke down and malfunctioned so often that getting anywhere

people who lived in the outskirts. Just like the slums themselves, the inhabitants looked decrepit. They were all frail,

to how

had left this place, thinking

'This is so strange…'

the Dream Realm and building a life for himself in the city, Sunny suddenly understood that the

had only ever known and explored a small part of them. The only world he had known for most

considered such things, but after his last conversation with Master Jet, he realized the true scope of it all. From what she had told him, there were somewhere