You know what they say, another day another dollar. This doesn't apply to me though... or the fact of the matter is anybody living in this semblance of society. We are all too cool for normalcy, being hip and funky myself.

*Eeek*

Getting off of my worn-out mattress, the sound of the loosened spring chimed clearly. The sound was further emphasized by the grating of the frail bed frame. Ahhh, this was music to my ears.

After getting myself ready, I sauntered down the stairs and into the living room. Taking a swig of my fresh-brew coffee (institute provided of course), moaning in pleasure as I took a seat and ate my packet of rations.

A good sleep was always appreciated, much less one without any nightmares.

Down to business, eh.

Naturally, by this time the system had fully integrated into my lifestyle and habits. Now, willing the System> came with ease and there was no need to make a conscious effort for it to do my bidding.

Gulping down the remaining coffee and gobbling up the remaining content in my ration, the System's> UI appeared, giving a brief description of what could be done to earn more COR and/or to advance the social hierarchy in HIVE.

Scrolling through, there was a surprisingly abundant amount of regular jobs that were provided by the institute albeit low paying and had really bad prospects... as with what you would expect a governmental job would be.

The only plus side would be the job security, even that was pretty iffy, however... considering the fact that you may as well lose your life on the very same day. Living life like this was not an option for me. Scraping life like this was degrading and in my personal opinion a job for pussies and losers.

Other than regular jobs, there was a multitude of other jobs... mostly being requests, sort of like a mission. Being paid to do missions weren't so bad, the money earned was also good income. This type of easy money comes with a lot of risks though. This is really like a modern-day version of an adventurer's guild, huh. Them taking a percentage of the earnings was to be expected too, the reason being them guaranteeing that the request was valid and the earnings would be paid regardless upon completion.

After sifting through a generous amount of mission requests, I settled down with a hooligan subjugation quest.

yes... before you ask... hooligan subjugations are now a thing in this f*cked up society I'm supposed to be apart of now.

------------------------------------>

Mission: "Subjugate Nicholas the Barbaric>"

"Nicholas is an individual which has been deemed too dangerous to be left alone wandering the streets of HIVE. Most notable for his large stature and red dreadlocks, he has tribal tattoos from the waist up and is known to be of Slavic descent.

He has a highly destructive personality and has random anger flares, which results in unnecessary violence towards his peers. After multiple instances of such cases, the institute has deemed him as unproductive or "dysfunctional" towards the betterment of HIVE.

[Update: Last seen in the outer layer's dead zone]

Objective: To be dispatched immediately. Bring back evidence of such to receive rewards from one of the Institute's headquarters located at your local block. (+500 COR)

Bonus: Bring him back alive (+200 COR)

------------------------------------>

Very well. It's decided, this poor bastard would be my first victim. Sacrifices have to be made, and he would serve his purpose as my stepping stone in this godforsaken area. Doing the institute and the common "people" a damn good favor. Ridding the scums of society would be a pleasure, I'm such a good samaritan, am I?

Anyways, do not fret, as I am here to save the day!

Accepting this subjugation request, I set off my on my noble journey to rid this world of evil like them. Thanks to my System>, finding his tracks would not be much of an issue considering the fact that my radar was still in effect as of now.

As the system highlights multiple leads that were found through the multiple surveillance cameras that were placed along the borders of the safe zone and the outside, there was a disturbing amount of evidence which leads me to believe that he... was living in a rundown automobile at the "dead zone".

What is the dead zone? Well, I call it the dead zone because its a portion of the land where fucked up people reside, away from the institute's reach. If not for this cheat, how long would it take for me to find this fucker?

My delusions sure are handy.

---

After about an hour of jogging, there was a massive line drawn across... acting like some sort of a border. Assuming that was the end of the line, the disparity between both sides are pretty evident.. even from the sidelines here.

On the other side, the roads were (also) abandoned but not maintained, the land barren and somewhat unhabitable even to my incredibly low standards.

Glancing around, it had an archaic feel to it. There, the roads were not symmetrical either. Instead of concrete, there were paths made out of gravel and hardened earth... it was definitely worse than the low-end safe zones we were living in. Aside from the overgrowth on the pavements and roads, numerous dogs that were too large to be natural could be seen guarding some of the compounds.

Houses there were mostly abandoned with barred windows and high fences with home-made barbed wire. The surroundings here tells me all I need to know, it isn't a stretch of the imagination to understand how was able to thrive and fare inside such an area.

---