episode_0001

[“New Product: Synthetic Asparagus Flavored Kibble Released! Experience the healthy crunch of asparagus!”]

“They’re making something no one would eat even if it were free…”

The sofa was already over ten years old, worn out, its armrest dangling. As I sat on that shabby sofa, which occasionally creaked and groaned, watching the advertisement, my situation suddenly felt pathetic.

The refrigerator was empty, not even a bag of that trashy kibble. It was a struggle just to pay the electricity bill, so all the electronics in the house were turned off.

Bored of blankly watching the advertisement with a cigarette made from synthetic tobacco leaves, I looked up at the yellowed ceiling. The black mold growing there looked like a face.

Like the face of a grim reaper, that stain seemed to be staring down at me, waiting for my death. I let out a sigh.

‘Is it already ten years?’

Eclipse Point.

A free city that seceded from the Central Defense Alliance, which constantly advocated for total war, declaring free rule. It was a completely gray zone, belonging to no one, a city where countless mega-corporations and giant enterprises from around the world rushed in for a slice of the pie, and an endless swarm of moths [people drawn to false hope] gathered to pick up the crumbs.

A city of dreams where bumpkins, who had never experienced the world, rushed in, dreaming of the Eclipse Dream amidst the dazzling neon signs and the delusion of sweet success.

And a graveyard of dreams where 98.99% of people, far from achieving success, were trapped in old, box-shaped apartments like this, slowly withering away.

It was the day I had fallen into this hellish city ten years ago.

“Ugh. Fucking hell.”

With a heavy heart, I swore under my breath, deciding to escape this squalid home.

Though, in the end, I’d just have to come back and worry about paying rent.

Opening the front door, the street visible below the Mega Apartment’s railing was filled with air acridly seasoned by exhaust fumes. Life’s losers were strewn everywhere, littering the streets.

Watching augmented reality BDs while masturbating was commonplace. Homeless people moved strangely like zombies, high on drugs (legal if you paid taxes). Gangs brazenly laid their guns on tables, intimidating passersby, and even the police stood by and watched.

A place where there was no one to protect, no one to be protected by, and no one I wanted to protect.

The lower district of Eclipse Point was, to put it simply, a continuous slum with such sights.

I glanced at them once, then, accustomed to it, waited for the rusted elevator that looked so old it seemed about to crash.

I could take the stairs, but having signed a contract for the top floor to get slightly cheaper rent, the thought of walking down 67 flights was truly horrific.

“Oh. Where are you off to today, loser?”

“Hah…”

I was already in a bad mood, and of all times, I heard the voice of the person I least wanted to see.

“Haven’t seen you around lately. Thought you hung yourself like those other losers, but you look perfectly fine, don’t you?”

“I don’t care if you die or not, so don’t you care if I die or not.”

“Rough, aren’t we, kid.”

That jerk was Hawkins, the annoying guy who lived right next door.

He was some kind of corporate worker, and he’d strut around with his head held high, spewing insults, completely unaware of how detestable he was.

He used to boast that he started with nothing in a wasteland called Texas, and in just eight more years, he’d be able to buy a decent house in Japan Town.

And he’d spill these facts himself, even though no one ever asked.

“So what have you been doing that you’re only showing up now? If you’ve got a mouth, use it.”

“The elevator’s here, so shut your mouth.”

*Clank.*

A skeletal structure, which it was questionable to even call an elevator due to all safety features being removed for cost-cutting, arrived. Its nominal waist-high gate, made of iron pipes, slid open.

As Hawkins and I stepped into the elevator, an ominous creaking sound echoed.

“Every time I ride this elevator, I think the landlord actually wants it to crash. Because if it crashes, the corporation comes to do free repairs. Though, of course, it’s usually just rust removal.”

The elevator rattled and clanked its way down, filling up with people one by one. By the time it reached the 10th floor, it was so packed it was hard to breathe, but Hawkins’ mouth, as if lighter than hydrogen [meaning ceaselessly talkative], showed no sign of stopping.

*Clank.*

The elevator, having thankfully made it to the first floor today, opened its clumsily constructed iron-pipe gate wide, as if begging me to get out of its guts.

“Already the first floor? Time really flies these days. Of course, it doesn’t matter to me since I earn money, but it’s really pitiful for losers, isn’t it? Because rent payment time comes so quickly!”

“Get lost, you idiot.”

“Alright. I’m off to work, loser. Oh, and try that asparagus kibble. I tried it, and it was delicious.”

“I wouldn’t touch that garbage with a ten-foot pole.”

“Only your taste is high-class!”

Afterward, people poured out like a tide, from those near the entrance to Hawkins.

I remained until the very end, finally stepping out of the elevator last.

Every time I met that Hawkins jerk, I felt an ardent desire to smash his mouth with a hammer, but my life was too precious to waste time and credits on such a thing, so I quickly moved on.

Despite the huge decision I’d made to go outside, my destination wasn’t far from the Mega Apartment where I lived.

Just a bar located in the basement of the next block.

Descending the stairs, which were marked by a neon sign indicating a shop below, I reached the door after about twenty steps.

*Creak.*

“Welcome.”

For a bar in the lower district, the interior was surprisingly clean and exuded a decent atmosphere.

Behind the bar, a bartender with long black and gold two-toned hair tied in a ponytail was wiping a glass.

“It’s me, Luna.”

“Hmm? Look who it is! Has it been three months since I last saw you? Back then, you were busy spouting all sorts of complaints, but it looks like things are better now?”

“Haha… Sorry I couldn’t come often.”

Luna, visibly happy to see me, put down the glass she was wiping and pulled out a synthetic liquor that mimicked the bourbon whiskey I often drank.

Seeing her remember even the alcohol I liked, I gave an awkward laugh and sat down in front of her.

“What’s there to be sorry about not coming often? A bar is a place you come to when you have leisure. Though, I wonder how many people in this city truly have leisure.”

Her name was Luna Asher, the owner and bartender of the establishment.

She was my benefactor, helping me greatly during the time I first landed in this wretched city and couldn’t adapt.

If I hadn’t met Luna back then, I probably would have starved to death or hung myself a long time ago.

*Pour.*

Luna immediately stirred up a highball for me, heavily flavored with synthetic fruit essence to mask the distinctive scent of the synthetic liquor I always drank, and handed it over.

“I haven’t even ordered yet?”

“It’s always that one to start with, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

The cool, familiar synthetic peach scent of the highball, made without any special modifications, followed by its sweet and bitter taste, made me curl up the corners of my mouth.

“How have you been living lately? Tell me about it.”

“Isn’t it the bartender’s job to start the conversation so customers can enjoy their drinks?”

“Then pay up first, customer.”

“Where should I even begin, Your Majesty?”

If I reverted to being a mere customer, I’d have to empty my pockets down to the last pair of underwear to pay off my accumulated tab, so I promptly bowed down and treated her like royalty.

Luna looked bewildered for a moment, but then let out a small laugh, poured herself a glass of whiskey, and came out from behind the bar to sit on the chair next to me.

“Are you not bartending right now?”

“It’s an empty hour anyway. Any drunkard who comes into a bar this early in the morning doesn’t have enough money to buy drinks from the bar.”

“How ironic.”

It seemed like a rather philosophical topic, but neither she nor I had any intention of delving into it.

I took another sip of the highball she’d made and began to speak.

“I’m jobless.”

“What? You got fired? You said that company seemed good.”

“…I got tangled up with an industrial spy. The colleague I was close with happened to be a mercenary who came in as an industrial spy, so I was implicated when the company was raided, was investigated for being a spy myself, and then got fired.”

One might think I could just go work for another company, but these damn corporations are so paranoid that anyone with a history of being involved with an industrial spy is deemed a disqualifying factor, like a red mark on a record [indicating a disqualification], and rarely hired.

After all, there were plenty of people willing to be a cog in the corporate machine instead of an unreliable individual with a history of being tangled with an industrial spy.

Luna, perhaps knowing this fact, looked at me with a pained expression.

“Haa… This month’s rent is barely covered. If I don’t find a job within this week, I’ll definitely be evicted next month.”

“That’s a troubling situation…”

Even the police, those bastards, claimed public safety was a paid service and wouldn’t protect those without money. So, if you were homeless without a place to protect you, you usually died on the streets within two months.

The absurd thought that someone who had endured this hellhole for a full ten years might become homeless and die on the streets made me let out a hollow laugh.

“Right now, I just want to get drunk. I’ll give you all my credits. Pour me something expensive.”

“Can you pay off your tab with that?”

“…Soju then.”

Surprisingly, the green-bottled soju was the same here too.

Cheap, nasty, and tasteless.

Drinking a chemical spirit straight from the bottle, with a pungent industrial alcohol smell, after enjoying a delicious highball, made me feel utterly miserable, but for a brief moment, I could escape this rotten reality.

One bottle, two bottles… As the number of green bottles stacked on the bar table grew, a dizzying, tipsy sensation enveloped my body, as if I were submerged underwater.

“Ah! This goddamn world! These goddamn bastards! I wish they’d all just die…”

It took less than five minutes to empty a single bottle of soju.

Drunk in an instant, I loudly cursed the world from Luna’s bar, where I would have been kicked out if it hadn’t been so quiet.

“I didn’t want to live such a squalid life…”

I’d be thirty the day after tomorrow.

While youth might not exist in this world, my life, wasted by drifting from what little good times there were, now needed a cigarette.

“Do you need money?”

“Hmm..? I do.”

“If you want, I can introduce you to a job.”

Just then, Luna, who had been bringing me more alcohol whenever my glass was empty and offering words of comfort, suddenly spoke.

Fueled by alcohol, I rambled a reply without much thought.

“A job? What else is there to lose anyway, even if I fall further, it’s just death. If I can escape this kind of life, I’ll do anything.”

“Then, go to sleep.”

*Blink, blink.* The sleepiness brought on by the alcohol made my eyes close.

The last thing my eyes, drooping onto the bar table, saw was Luna’s scarred face, wearing a meaningful smile.

“Have a good dream.”