In the unforgiving lands of the southernmost peninsula, life was always difficult. Due to dangerous environmental conditions and the sheer ferocity of the fauna and flora that make up the peninsula's environment the possibilities of death were endless.
The southernmost peninsula lay at the very edge of the supercontinent Amasia and was made up of tropical jungles and muddy marshlands, while the rest of the south, was mostly vast deserts and rocky wastelands.
Its jungles were saturated with a thick miasma of death and full of a variety of toxic plants and insects but this didn't stop people from wanting to colonize it.
However, their efforts were pretty much futile against the vicious carnivorous plants and animals that dominated the entirety of the baleful wilderness.
Its entire ecosystem comes across as consciously hostile to all foreign life. Each and every element of the native flora and fauna of the peninsula represents a real danger to any human.
Nonetheless, due to its valuable resources like precious herbs and rare ores, it still maintains a single human settlement near the northern boundary of the peninsula.
This settlement is supported by several nations who desire the land's unique natural treasures. Therefore the settlement is an independent city-state not governed by any kingdom or empire.
But to be more specific its name is the fortress city of Indoma named after the word indomitable which of course means impossible to subdue or defeat.
The people of this fortress city choose this not-so-clever name to prove to every one of their unwavering perseverance and their resolve to never be defeated.
On the outside, Indoma is a noble place full of hardy never give up people working their asses off to forge a path in a hellish land with death hanging around every corner of its jungles.
But you'd be wrong in thinking like that cause you see Indoma is corrupt as all hell.
There is the top 1% that live off the riches of the materials and ingredients they sell and then there are the 99.9% of the population who suffer and die just so that the top 1% can keep living in luxury.
The top 1 percenters live in the heavily protected and rather lavish inner city while the rest live out in the lesser protected outer city. Then again it's better than those who live in the completely unprotected slums outside the fortress's metallic walls.
Those unfortunate souls live in abject poverty worse than in any third-world country with absolutely no protection from the soldiers who guard the rest of the city.
They aren't considered citizens so they have no choice but to live out in those horrible slums where they die almost constantly from either disease or monster attacks.
The lives of the people of the slums are harsh and short but then again, such is the fate of those discarded by society.
...
My name is Roach as in a cockroach it's an insulting name I know it but it's the only thing I have other than the tattered rags on my back!
I was born in the slums of Indoma and raised by my whore mother until I learned how to walk and talk then I was abandoned.
My mother was a prostitute specifically a fourteen-year-old prostitute. At least that was how old she was by the time I was born.
She ditched me when I turned four last year so she was probably eighteen years old by then? Considering her age it would explain why she was such a horrible mother! Did you know the reason she called me Roach was because she couldn't kill me?!
I survived a lot of shit like when she tried to abort me several times I might add, deprive me of food or even beat me to death with rocks. But no matter how hard she or anyone else tried I just kept living and that's why I'm called Roach!
You should know that me living for so long was actually, a major accomplishment since 50% of all babies born in the slums don't live past the first day there born. In fact, even living until five years old was considered something remarkable.
However, regardless of how long I lived no one cared certainly not my mother. When I turned four she decided to just move to another crappy shack somewhere else without telling me but hey I'm not complaining I'm glad she's gone.
I had one less thing to worry about trying to kill me and really the only reason I stuck around for four years was that I was still too young to make it on my own.
It's been a year since then and I've been living just fine or more accurately living the best I can out in this miserable place called the slums.
Everyone here was either a gangster or a prostitute which made life even harder for me and it's not like it wasn't bad enough with the frequent monster attacks or the poisonous insects or all the diseases that plague the slums constantly.
If this world was a video game then it be on hell mode right now. When I'd dreamed of being reincarnated in my old life I didn't think it would ever be this hard!
Every second of my feeble existence is spent simply trying not to die, at this point surviving until the next day is all I dream of now.
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming," I mumble to myself while I scurry around for any bugs or vermin to eat.
The filth-covered streets of the slums were full of them and for me, they were my only food option. It was harder to find them than you think though. This was because of how the slums were designed.
The slums were made up of ramshackle shacks that circled around the outer city wall. They were made up of scrap metal or rotting wood and spaced together unevenly since they were built just about anywhere people wanted them.
The shacks in question would also get destroyed and rebuilt a lot because of attacking beasts so the slum structure was always changing in some way.
This was irritating, especially for me, the house my mom left behind when she moved out got destroyed in one such attack and since then I've had to live out in the streets which was even more dangerous for me than living in one of those crumbling huts.
Without a roof over my head, I get drenched in rain or bake in the hot humid jungle weather. Plus I have to worry about dying in my sleep from God knows what around here!
'I have so many problems but right now all that matters is filling my stomach!'
I crawled around the ground for a while until I finally found what I was looking for. A tiny little hole in the ground no bigger than a quarter. This would be where I find my meal.
"The burrow of an arrow-headed snake!" I exclaim in excitement.
The arrow-headed snake was tiny and non-venomous and only feed on small insects so it was perfect for me to eat.
To catch this bugger all I needed was a good stick and some elbow grease and you better believe I have both.
I took a moldy stick I found in the street somewhere and plunged it into the hole getting a furious hiss in response.
Once I was sure it bit down on the thin branch I pulled it out as quickly as I could and there it was my dinner.
It was a thin brown-colored snake with an arrow-tip-shaped head and was currently biting down on the moldy stick, the anger clearly visible in its bright yellow eyes.
"Time to chow down!" I yell before grabbing the snake and shoving it into my mouth and start chewing it while it still hissed and tried biting me.
It was pointless though cause I had more than half its body in my mouth and in just a few swift bites its entire body was in my mouth. Then in just a few more moments, it was in my stomach bones and all.
"Yummy, yummy!" I loudly proclaimed to no one. I then got up and began scurrying around for anything else to eat.
'Hopefully, I'll be able to find something else to eat today without getting into any trouble.' But as I thought about stuffing myself I failed to notice the burly old man walking towards me.
"Get out of my way you little piss ant!" roared the clearly inebriated man.
Oh shit, a gangster looks like things won't be going so well for me today go figure.
Why is life such a bitch to me!