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.

keeping the population alive. It was surrounded by tall barrier walls that prevented excessive microdust, various

how the barriers worked, but they were sufficiently effective in keeping the city in a bubble of breathable air.

across the planet had dropped, but here in 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

Hence, the outskirts appeared.

frames of unfinished barriers had loomed above the outskirts for as long as

generations of people like him had already lived and died outside their protection. The air in the outskirts might not have been as bad as in the desolate wilderness beyond, but it was far from safe. Those who breathed it every day did not tend to enjoy good

It reeked.

of his life and never paid it much attention, but just a few years of sweet life in the Dream Realm and in the better parts

not that bad

like the air, all other facets of life in the outskirts were barely suited for human life, as well. The buildings were straining to keep themselves together, clean water was scarce, most

there was supposed to be a working transportation system with connections to the rest of the city, but in practice, it broke down and

were all frail, thin, and with unhealthy skin. The most striking difference was their height.

all looked similar to how Sunny had been

now, he couldn't help but think of his past. Only three years and a few months ago, he had left this place, thinking

'This is so strange…'

someone from the outskirts, but now, after traveling through several regions of the Dream Realm and building a life for himself in the city,

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

be so? Sunny had never 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 between sixty and seventy million people living in the outskirts. Twenty percent of the total population of the city existed in these unpleasant conditions, barely surviving as