The outer region was packed with rankers. It was much cheaper to live there than the inner region of Ward. Making money in the outer region was also easier as there were jobs that you could take and complete without ever having to leave the confines of Ward. Those mostly included being an informant or assassination. But given the fact that millions of rankers lived in the outer region there was always someone willing to pay for another's life.
The inner region was walled off with staggeringly tall walls that were over 100 feet tall, but the outer region didn't have a border around it. At least not universally. If you wanted to put up some sort of security measures to prevent those from the danger zone attacking your business, then you would have to rent the land from those who owned it.
