A DAY IN CHANGYE
Changye is a platformed city shaped like a bagua. The center of the city has a platform that rises above the city called Upper Changye. Upper Changye is above 50-floor story buildings. The platform holding Upper Changye is spread within the eight sectors where the giant pillars and struts are keeping the platform from tilting. Each pillar and struts have underground dampers that moves with the plates and made it durable against earthquake. Someone told me once that the platform was based on a genius idea from an architect named Hiroki Chen-Liu who designed the platform upon seeing a gizmo made with floating compression in mind.
Below the Upper City is Lower Changye. The Lower City is just the old city where most people live before they constructed the platform above it. Upper Changye is like a bird’s nest where a ferocious bird named the Otherside Bureau is protecting it.
Make no mistake though. The dual layers of Changye doesn’t mean that all of the important infrastructure is concentrated in the Upper. Most of it is still in Lower Changye. The buildings on the top are where the universities, the headquarters of the many branches of the Otherside Bureau is located.
Changye is composed of 8 Sectors and 6 districts.
As for me? I live in lotus lane, not far from Asobe Street. I moved here after getting my backpay from my previous employment. With my 15-month debt paid. I was able to use the pay from the previous agency to get a room in lotus lane. It is a 1DK apartment. With the entrance hall having a washing machine space by the entrance. One bedroom with a closet, one space for kitchen, and living/dining. On the side of the bedroom is a balcony with the view of lotus lane and its inhabitants. There is a plastic chair there and six pots of potatoes I am cultivating.
The building is called Toma Apartments, a 3-story building. I live in 304, on the last floor, next to the storage area, and the water filtering system. I got lucky since the last tenant didn't return so most of his stuff became mine.
Lotus Lane is busy. It is full of multinationals that have gathered all over the world to make a living in this city. These days everyone wants to be inside Changye now since there are only so little places outside of fortified cities that are still populated and as defended as Changye.
Oh, there is no wasteland outside. But it is rare to find anyone actively trying to stay outside of the cities when there are monsters roaming. It doesn’t help that CODE BLACK, a reality warper, appeared in Shanghai just a few years. It proceeded to move from China to Russia, and was finally defeated in Görlitz where the German Agents of the Fourth Reich managed to subdue it.
The containment status of the warper is unknown since after they defeated the warper, it vanished from the containment field where they locked it.
What happened next is that there are a lot of spawns happening in the area. The ripples created by that incident and you could say that the pits of flesh is one of them.
Changye has a population of 100 million. It is a very crowded city that is continuously expanding.
Every city now is like this. Maybe the Fourth Reich is slightly somewhat different since they rarely let any colored people enter the borders of their Reich and they are one of the few remnant countries in the world who were able to contain their monsters and cryptids.
Beyond the city there is a pale fog that confuses people. Nowadays, the only real way to travel to different cities is through the use of railways crossing oceans and planes flying in the stratosphere where commercial air flights are now flying. The troposphere is full of flying cryptids and most flying convoys are now guarded heavily because of this.
Trains have become a popular medium to get around because it has a destination you can be sure that it will arrive. Planes these days have the tendency to get lost and sometimes they just completely disappear.
I stop walking and take a look at the information board occupying an entire wall. Anomaly PSA’s. Advertisement approved by Changye’s Head of State and warnings from the OB, aka the Otherside Bureau about the recent sightings all over the city. From Monsters to Anomalies.
I noticed one of the job advertisements is about hiring flesh pits miners. The same flesh pit where my previous employers died and got swallowed and chewed whole. Flesh pits are strange meat that isn’t human or animal at all. It’s otherworldly flesh that usually spreads through tunnels and consumes everything it can.
Flesh Miners are popular to folks who are living in Destitute Depth’s misery lane who can’t afford long-term jobs or fight like Agents and Hunters do.
Food can be hard to find here in Changye if you don't have the money and many prefer buying artificial food than buying real produces that is priced highly and is double the amount of what an Artificial food can buy. Personally, I don’t buy artificial since I know where they are getting most of that meat is. I can eat it if I want to, but I’d rather not if I can.
I walk to the next tenement block of the Arcadia Towers. It is located in the transitional area between Upper Changye and Lower Changye. High-rise complexes housing a large number of residents in a densely populated neighborhood. Full of mix-incomed people that are irritatingly proud to be living here. It’s a mess honestly. Ill-maintained buildings with limited access to resources and services. The residents here are usually tribal, but they don’t give a shit as long as you buy their products.
I got into a noodle shop. I bought a bowl of noodles with pork broth and two meat buns. It is crowded as usual. My back is hitting another person's back and I have to be careful not to elbow the one on my right and left. After finishing my meal, I place cash on the tray. The waitress takes it, and place the bills in the box where they keep most of their cash. Going out of the noodle restaurant, breathing in the air that smells of acrid and car exhaust. I look at my databank wristwatch and see that it is nearing 12 PM.
I took the service train and commuted to Nyota Plaza where Asobe Street is located. I walked along the Plaza. A priest holding a worn out bible is preaching to a crowd. A group of Hunters are crowding around an info board, talking about hunting low-level monsters outside of the city to earn food for the day.
I stop next to a billboard that has a message from one of the many affiliates of the OB. It’s the usual public announcement message with their contact number on the center of the billboard. Telling you to fight for them and for the world.
"Conquer through perseverance!"
Is what these liars would usually say.
***
“I’m not going to chase after a draugr.”
“But Boss… I don’t have any money!”
“That’s not my problem, Eta.”
Eta’s food consumption seems to be higher because of how augmented her body is. She is tall and toned. I can tell she’s continuously training so that her physical body can keep up with the force that the augments provides, which is probably why she constantly needs food. Makes me wonder why she isn't going fully prosthetic.
I sit at my desk and prepare the documents they gave me for today. I enter the data that Eta handed over and compiled them into an external drive. I usually enter a lot of data in the rugged laptop they let me use. I usually don’t take it out of the office and just leave it on the desk despite Kei telling me it's okay. I look to the side.
Eta is sitting on the sofa where we usually converse with clients. She usually takes care of the work and bodyguard work. But with me around I can take care of the papers while she maintains the weapons and gadgets the office uses when we go out.
It is 2 PM. A client, a student named Kim, enters the office. Eta stands behind Kei and puts up a business smile while our Boss puts on her best business-dealing expression as well.
“You want us to find out what’s happening with your Aunt?”
“Yes!”
Kei checks the request again.
“It says here she lives in Samudra Street. Have you checked it yourself?”
The client is still in highschool. She wears a short skirt and stocking and her blazer uniform is far too clean to be just cosplay. On her back, she carries a katana from one of the workshops that sells them for quite a price..
I guess she is one of those students being groomed to be part of a university that trains women like her to be part of unit. I say this because I can’t smell the usual acrid smell of the city from and she even carries that weird sterilized scent from Upper Changye. How she didn't got robbed while coming here is a mystery itself.
“Okay. I will take note of it. May I ask who recommended my office?”
“I think it was a Von-Abel ad. Why?”
Kei thinks for a second.
“It’s nothing. I will contact you after the task is done.”
I showed the student out of the office. She leaves quietly. I notice the student left no trace or sound of her footsteps at all.
“Von-Abel?”
Kei growls. She crosses her legs and grits her teeth at the mention of that name.
“I should be happy they are doing this. But it’s tiresome.”
I have no clue who they are. I ask Eta who they are and she makes a tiny smile
“You can say that we have bad dealings with them along time ago.”
“Bad isn’t the right word. They almost gutted us because they think we have what they think they owned. After a tiresome process we manage to work it out and as compensation they would recommend my office in their catalog.”
I can tell that there is a personal issue there. But I kept my mouth shut and memorized the address instead.
“Address is Saras Street, building 5-103.”
Eta takes her weapons out of the storage closet. She brings her two-handed sword with hers and pockets it in her dimenbag.
“Oh, you can have this.”
She hands over a longsword with wiring on it that heats up the blade. I swung it around weigh it.
“I don’t really need it… but is it really okay to keep this spare?”
“You can!”
Eta thumps me on the shoulder. Kei shrugs lightly and gives advice.
“It's a one time thing. So don’t get used to it.”
“I won’t, Ma’am.”
“Just call me Kei, will you? I’m not that old.”
I tied the spare sword on my belt and kept it alongside my main sword and pistol. Unlike me, Eta keeps her weapons inside her dimenbag, a dimensional bag she carries around. It's probably the most pricy equipment that the office has to be honest. And it's something you don't usually buy, but pry from someone else's hands.
I walk along Saras street with the two. I feel my balance off with an extra sword dangling on my waist, but I got used to it after a while.
Samudra is a lively area. Like every other street in this city, it is quite populated. We shouldered through the crowd and found the house where the student’s Auntie is living. Kei led the way while Eta kept her hand on her two-hander’s hilt, preparing to block anything.
“Come in!”
It is a weak yet sweet voice. Kei got in first and greeted the woman who opened the door for us.
There’s a ticking in my head. Eta whispers in my ear.
“It’s weird isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my, you have such tall friends with you!”
Eta keeps a smile on her lips while I nod my head slightly at the Auntie. Kei takes her attention and they sit together. Eta stands behind Kei as usual while I stand on the corner.
“So what brings you to my house, if I may ask?”
“Your grandchild requested to check up on you in her behalf. She wanted to ask why you haven’t called lately.”
“Oh my, is that true?”
I noticed it. Eta’s smiling face turned serious at the sight of this visible darkness being pushed away in the corner. Kei subtly glances at the shade and keeps on talking with the Auntie. Keeping her focus at her while Eta takes slow steps to avoid it.
“I think you should give her a call right now, she’s very worried about you.”
“Oh really? I didn’t think that my grandchildren would be so thoughtful.”
She takes a ancient dial phone out. The darkness behind crawls forward and retreats every time her mood shifts. Is it even connected to a line at all?
“My grandchildren would love to have a word with you!”
She offers the dial phone's receiver to Kei.
“Then are you settled?”
“Please, I don’t mind the charges.”
“It’s alright, Madam. We are only here to check if you’re alright. It’s good that you are. We are quite busy, so we would like to leave now.”
“Please, I insist that you use this to call her. There is no need to be shy.”
“No, it’s alright.”
“I insist.”
The voice of Auntie echoed and bounced on the four corners of the room. Kei smiles amiably and takes the dial phone’s receiver.
“Ça va.”
She puts the phone down. Eta thanks the Auntie for her time and I follow them out of the house. After walking out of the house's sight, Kei vomits out a mouthful of blood and groans weakly on the pavement.
“A creeping darkness is in her house.”
“A-are you alright, Chief?”
Eta pats Kei’s back.
“Fine. We should have left after we saw she’s fine.”
I called the Bureau and informed them of the Creeping Darkness. We kept an eye on the house from afar. After a while, OB Agents came fully armed and went directly to the Auntie's house.
It seems like the creeping darkness had been around longer than we thought and had already become wary about Bureau Agents.
Four agents died. Two apartment buildings were swallowed near the house by the creeping darkness before a Graded Agent took it down. The Auntie's corpse was taken away by the Graded Agent and was probably studied and contained before it got totally neutralized.
The OB invited us for an interrogation about what happened and let us go after getting our first hand account.
We later got the pay from Kim. She visited us after hearing what happened to her Auntie. She was very happy hearing our story and her steps were light as feather as she left the apartment building.
I guess she wasn't exactly the caring grandchild Eta thought she was.
A DAY IN CHANGYE
Changye is a platformed city shaped like a bagua. The center of the city has a platform that rises above the city called Upper Changye. Upper Changye is above 50-floor story buildings. The platform holding Upper Changye is spread within the eight sectors where the giant pillars and struts are keeping the platform from tilting. Each pillar and struts have underground dampers that moves with the plates and made it durable against earthquake. Someone told me once that the platform was based on a genius idea from an architect named Hiroki Chen-Liu who designed the platform upon seeing a gizmo made with floating compression in mind.
Below the Upper City is Lower Changye. The Lower City is just the old city where most people live before they constructed the platform above it. Upper Changye is like a bird’s nest where a ferocious bird named the Otherside Bureau is protecting it.
Make no mistake though. The dual layers of Changye doesn’t mean that all of the important infrastructure is concentrated in the Upper. Most of it is still in Lower Changye. The buildings on the top are where the universities, the headquarters of the many branches of the Otherside Bureau is located.
Changye is composed of 8 Sectors and 6 districts.
As for me? I live in lotus lane, not far from Asobe Street. I moved here after getting my backpay from my previous employment. With my 15-month debt paid. I was able to use the pay from the previous agency to get a room in lotus lane. It is a 1DK apartment. With the entrance hall having a washing machine space by the entrance. One bedroom with a closet, one space for kitchen, and living/dining. On the side of the bedroom is a balcony with the view of lotus lane and its inhabitants. There is a plastic chair there and six pots of potatoes I am cultivating.
The building is called Toma Apartments, a 3-story building. I live in 304, on the last floor, next to the storage area, and the water filtering system. I got lucky since the last tenant didn't return so most of his stuff became mine.
Lotus Lane is busy. It is full of multinationals that have gathered all over the world to make a living in this city. These days everyone wants to be inside Changye now since there are only so little places outside of fortified cities that are still populated and as defended as Changye.
Oh, there is no wasteland outside. But it is rare to find anyone actively trying to stay outside of the cities when there are monsters roaming. It doesn’t help that CODE BLACK, a reality warper, appeared in Shanghai just a few years. It proceeded to move from China to Russia, and was finally defeated in Görlitz where the German Agents of the Fourth Reich managed to subdue it.
The containment status of the warper is unknown since after they defeated the warper, it vanished from the containment field where they locked it.
What happened next is that there are a lot of spawns happening in the area. The ripples created by that incident and you could say that the pits of flesh is one of them.
Changye has a population of 100 million. It is a very crowded city that is continuously expanding.
Every city now is like this. Maybe the Fourth Reich is slightly somewhat different since they rarely let any colored people enter the borders of their Reich and they are one of the few remnant countries in the world who were able to contain their monsters and cryptids.
Beyond the city there is a pale fog that confuses people. Nowadays, the only real way to travel to different cities is through the use of railways crossing oceans and planes flying in the stratosphere where commercial air flights are now flying. The troposphere is full of flying cryptids and most flying convoys are now guarded heavily because of this.
Trains have become a popular medium to get around because it has a destination you can be sure that it will arrive. Planes these days have the tendency to get lost and sometimes they just completely disappear.
I stop walking and take a look at the information board occupying an entire wall. Anomaly PSA’s. Advertisement approved by Changye’s Head of State and warnings from the OB, aka the Otherside Bureau about the recent sightings all over the city. From Monsters to Anomalies.
I noticed one of the job advertisements is about hiring flesh pits miners. The same flesh pit where my previous employers died and got swallowed and chewed whole. Flesh pits are strange meat that isn’t human or animal at all. It’s otherworldly flesh that usually spreads through tunnels and consumes everything it can.
Flesh Miners are popular to folks who are living in Destitute Depth’s misery lane who can’t afford long-term jobs or fight like Agents and Hunters do.
Food can be hard to find here in Changye if you don't have the money and many prefer buying artificial food than buying real produces that is priced highly and is double the amount of what an Artificial food can buy. Personally, I don’t buy artificial since I know where they are getting most of that meat is. I can eat it if I want to, but I’d rather not if I can.
I walk to the next tenement block of the Arcadia Towers. It is located in the transitional area between Upper Changye and Lower Changye. High-rise complexes housing a large number of residents in a densely populated neighborhood. Full of mix-incomed people that are irritatingly proud to be living here. It’s a mess honestly. Ill-maintained buildings with limited access to resources and services. The residents here are usually tribal, but they don’t give a shit as long as you buy their products.
I got into a noodle shop. I bought a bowl of noodles with pork broth and two meat buns. It is crowded as usual. My back is hitting another person's back and I have to be careful not to elbow the one on my right and left. After finishing my meal, I place cash on the tray. The waitress takes it, and place the bills in the box where they keep most of their cash. Going out of the noodle restaurant, breathing in the air that smells of acrid and car exhaust. I look at my databank wristwatch and see that it is nearing 12 PM.
I took the service train and commuted to Nyota Plaza where Asobe Street is located. I walked along the Plaza. A priest holding a worn out bible is preaching to a crowd. A group of Hunters are crowding around an info board, talking about hunting low-level monsters outside of the city to earn food for the day.
I stop next to a billboard that has a message from one of the many affiliates of the OB. It’s the usual public announcement message with their contact number on the center of the billboard. Telling you to fight for them and for the world.
"Conquer through perseverance!"
Is what these liars would usually say.
***
“I’m not going to chase after a draugr.”
“But Boss… I don’t have any money!”
“That’s not my problem, Eta.”
Eta’s food consumption seems to be higher because of how augmented her body is. She is tall and toned. I can tell she’s continuously training so that her physical body can keep up with the force that the augments provides, which is probably why she constantly needs food. Makes me wonder why she isn't going fully prosthetic.
I sit at my desk and prepare the documents they gave me for today. I enter the data that Eta handed over and compiled them into an external drive. I usually enter a lot of data in the rugged laptop they let me use. I usually don’t take it out of the office and just leave it on the desk despite Kei telling me it's okay. I look to the side.
Eta is sitting on the sofa where we usually converse with clients. She usually takes care of the work and bodyguard work. But with me around I can take care of the papers while she maintains the weapons and gadgets the office uses when we go out.
It is 2 PM. A client, a student named Kim, enters the office. Eta stands behind Kei and puts up a business smile while our Boss puts on her best business-dealing expression as well.
“You want us to find out what’s happening with your Aunt?”
“Yes!”
Kei checks the request again.
“It says here she lives in Samudra Street. Have you checked it yourself?”
The client is still in highschool. She wears a short skirt and stocking and her blazer uniform is far too clean to be just cosplay. On her back, she carries a katana from one of the workshops that sells them for quite a price..
I guess she is one of those students being groomed to be part of a university that trains women like her to be part of unit. I say this because I can’t smell the usual acrid smell of the city from and she even carries that weird sterilized scent from Upper Changye. How she didn't got robbed while coming here is a mystery itself.
“Okay. I will take note of it. May I ask who recommended my office?”
“I think it was a Von-Abel ad. Why?”
Kei thinks for a second.
“It’s nothing. I will contact you after the task is done.”
I showed the student out of the office. She leaves quietly. I notice the student left no trace or sound of her footsteps at all.
“Von-Abel?”
Kei growls. She crosses her legs and grits her teeth at the mention of that name.
“I should be happy they are doing this. But it’s tiresome.”
I have no clue who they are. I ask Eta who they are and she makes a tiny smile
“You can say that we have bad dealings with them along time ago.”
“Bad isn’t the right word. They almost gutted us because they think we have what they think they owned. After a tiresome process we manage to work it out and as compensation they would recommend my office in their catalog.”
I can tell that there is a personal issue there. But I kept my mouth shut and memorized the address instead.
“Address is Saras Street, building 5-103.”
Eta takes her weapons out of the storage closet. She brings her two-handed sword with hers and pockets it in her dimenbag.
“Oh, you can have this.”
She hands over a longsword with wiring on it that heats up the blade. I swung it around weigh it.
“I don’t really need it… but is it really okay to keep this spare?”
“You can!”
Eta thumps me on the shoulder. Kei shrugs lightly and gives advice.
“It's a one time thing. So don’t get used to it.”
“I won’t, Ma’am.”
“Just call me Kei, will you? I’m not that old.”
I tied the spare sword on my belt and kept it alongside my main sword and pistol. Unlike me, Eta keeps her weapons inside her dimenbag, a dimensional bag she carries around. It's probably the most pricy equipment that the office has to be honest. And it's something you don't usually buy, but pry from someone else's hands.
I walk along Saras street with the two. I feel my balance off with an extra sword dangling on my waist, but I got used to it after a while.
Samudra is a lively area. Like every other street in this city, it is quite populated. We shouldered through the crowd and found the house where the student’s Auntie is living. Kei led the way while Eta kept her hand on her two-hander’s hilt, preparing to block anything.
“Come in!”
It is a weak yet sweet voice. Kei got in first and greeted the woman who opened the door for us.
There’s a ticking in my head. Eta whispers in my ear.
“It’s weird isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my, you have such tall friends with you!”
Eta keeps a smile on her lips while I nod my head slightly at the Auntie. Kei takes her attention and they sit together. Eta stands behind Kei as usual while I stand on the corner.
“So what brings you to my house, if I may ask?”
“Your grandchild requested to check up on you in her behalf. She wanted to ask why you haven’t called lately.”
“Oh my, is that true?”
I noticed it. Eta’s smiling face turned serious at the sight of this visible darkness being pushed away in the corner. Kei subtly glances at the shade and keeps on talking with the Auntie. Keeping her focus at her while Eta takes slow steps to avoid it.
“I think you should give her a call right now, she’s very worried about you.”
“Oh really? I didn’t think that my grandchildren would be so thoughtful.”
She takes a ancient dial phone out. The darkness behind crawls forward and retreats every time her mood shifts. Is it even connected to a line at all?
“My grandchildren would love to have a word with you!”
She offers the dial phone's receiver to Kei.
“Then are you settled?”
“Please, I don’t mind the charges.”
“It’s alright, Madam. We are only here to check if you’re alright. It’s good that you are. We are quite busy, so we would like to leave now.”
“Please, I insist that you use this to call her. There is no need to be shy.”
“No, it’s alright.”
“I insist.”
The voice of Auntie echoed and bounced on the four corners of the room. Kei smiles amiably and takes the dial phone’s receiver.
“Ça va.”
She puts the phone down. Eta thanks the Auntie for her time and I follow them out of the house. After walking out of the house's sight, Kei vomits out a mouthful of blood and groans weakly on the pavement.
“A creeping darkness is in her house.”
“A-are you alright, Chief?”
Eta pats Kei’s back.
“Fine. We should have left after we saw she’s fine.”
I called the Bureau and informed them of the Creeping Darkness. We kept an eye on the house from afar. After a while, OB Agents came fully armed and went directly to the Auntie's house.
It seems like the creeping darkness had been around longer than we thought and had already become wary about Bureau Agents.
Four agents died. Two apartment buildings were swallowed near the house by the creeping darkness before a Graded Agent took it down. The Auntie's corpse was taken away by the Graded Agent and was probably studied and contained before it got totally neutralized.
The OB invited us for an interrogation about what happened and let us go after getting our first hand account.
We later got the pay from Kim. She visited us after hearing what happened to her Auntie. She was very happy hearing our story and her steps were light as feather as she left the apartment building.
I guess she wasn't exactly the caring grandchild Eta thought she was.
