"Puah! Thank you 'past' me for storing this liquor behind the drawer. The present you will be grateful for your thoughtfulness!"
The chicken tender had been fully secured. As always, they were the absolute best.
Licking my fingers after the liquid flushed them down, I sat myself comfortably on my old and scrappy chair before pulling out the precious firearm from my jacket pocket.
"For a low caliber Office like them, they sure have the funds to pay the tax for this."
Firearms were rarely used nowadays, the heavy tax on guns and ammo were enough of a deterrent. Not to mention, most of the Workshops were strictly restricted and needed a proper license to manufacture or even sell them.
That alone made this thing a hundred times pricier than its worth.
The taxes for these only made it worse. Heck, even getting an augmentation, magic scrolls, or even enhancement potions was cheaper than keeping these things around.
Still, this thing have a comfortably compact handle, and a sleek portable design. I'm no firearm connoisseur, but damn do they look fabulous and neat in my hand.
Clueless people might decide that this ranged killing weapon would be good for their everyday arsenal, until they realize the price for a single magazine could put an exoskeleton prosthetic to shame.
Well, there were still fifteen rounds in this single magazine. The rounds were also the most potent one to kill a mildly augmented human with a single shot. As for things that exist outside of this District like mages and oriental warriors? Not so much.
Today was the 10th of May, I have 21 days left.
"I probably need to use this by the end of the month and get rid of it. Probably sell it to the black market if I have the chance. Or else, the 'Ouranos' will send a Debt Collector to extort my ass."
The group that acts as the true government for the entirety of all 100 Districts, the Ouranos.
They might rarely meddle with the ferocity of their City, but they were sure to be quick and thorough when they do carry out something.
And one of them is making sure that everyone is paying their appropriate tax.
As for why they tax these things, knowing such things won't change anything.
Well, not like it was the only thing they tax.
"Aaaahaha, I really don't want to meet with those scary businessmen. The last time I met them, I needed to reattach my arm in a suspicious clinic within the Vascular…"
I checked my pocket watch.
It was 11:57 PM.
I closed every gap of the apartment door, and every possible crevice that I could find.
Rustling and rushed creaking could be heard from my neighbors, they were doing the same.
Every life within the Lowstreets waited patiently
As the clock hit 00:00 AM, a sizzling sound could be overheard beyond the wall of every shelter.
To those that were unlucky to find themselves outside of any haven, all they would hear was a screeching voice of the damned that slowly took tolls on their lives.
Neither the land nor the dusk could prevent this from happening daily.
When midnight occurs, the veins of the city will be enshrouded by dense fog for the next 90 minutes.
Any corpses that were left at that time will disappear along with any people that dared to wander within the world of total obscurity.
Numerous stories were spread amongst citizens of both the upper and lower world of the City, and thanks to the simplicity of the people within the veins, they dubbed this phenomenon as—
The Cleaning Mist.
It was actually a 'smoke', to be correct. Whoever named this phenomenon, definitely wasn't the brightest kind.
Occupying everything except for the Hives at every Districts, they swept and drained the streets of every flesh and blood that were captivated by the unknown cloudy world, both dead alive.
To those that never dared to know the truth, they would simply think that the Cleaning Mist were demons that came under the moonlight to purge the night's impurity. Other side of the spectrum speculated that it was one of the Tesseract of the Ouranos to prevent overpopulation.
Whether they were true or not, there was one thing for sure that has been proven.
The Cleaning Mist has a material form.
Ahaha, thankfully, the apartment and pretty much every building here was included within Prohibited Infrastructural Destruction area, meaning that any kind of harm to the walls, floors, and ceilings of these stories of apartments were forbidden by any kind.
Why? Because Law, of course. Everything within the City is the property of Ouranos, even though there might be some guy's name attached to the right of the property.
While the owner of these near-alley apartments have the right to claim monthly payments for all of its residents, Ouranos was still the rightful owner to everything within this sector.
Even the roads.
The Cleaning Mist strangely abides by this rule, so as long as you snuggle yourself inside one of the PID buildings, the demonic entity within the fog won't break through the walls, except for doors because they weren't actually within the property list of the PID for some reason.
This is also one of the reasons why guns were obsolete, they were restricted in their manufacturing so that their bullets won't be able to pass through steel.
Try messing with the martial law that was set by the Ouranos, 'bad things' will immediately befall upon the perpetrator.
"Yup." I brushed off the dust and residue from my palm. "Now I can safely assess my spoil of the day. Been living here for three months without any incident, time to rest assured~"
I went to snatch my jacket from one of the sofas, as almost every important and valuable thing was there after my job of the day.
A loud bang from behind my soul, along with some concrete and bits of the reinforced door that flew to the inside of my sight while some of them met with my back. I immediately shifted my gaze, only to see the fog creeping inside.
"Bruh!"
Closing my eyes and breath. I rushed toward the drawer with only memory and snatched up a gas mask I prepared for an abrupt chemical attack like this.
Yes, the mist was not only there to obscure the night and the monster within it, it also rendered all senses to null with prolonged exposure. This sensual depravity could last more than months if not treated.
As if I want that!