The Fog
There’s a shitty time here in Changye where the fog is too thick. Visibility is so low you have to wear lights not to bump into anyone. I am looking at the sidewalk where people are walking from above. Despite the fog, the streets are dotted with lights, repelling this fog.
Up above Changye’s skies are searchlights piercing through the veil of fog. Crisscrossing, making this embroidery of illumination that seems to cover it all. On the platform, are giant lights creating this orb of light where the aerial vehicles use to orient themselves. A cold breeze in the air mixes with the acrid scent perpetual to Changye. Further down the street, displays a scene most common when a purge happens.
Dead monsters crucified and bled for people to see. It happened because the people got worried about what they read and saw. When we got the news out of the monsters using tools and them chewing on augments from humans they killed. People got angry. Violent and genocidal as they gathered in packs and went out. The orgs, companies, and offices who profit from monster-killing took this chance to profit from this. They started drawing up prizes like weapons and gear in exchange for a certain amount they can butcher and scavenge.
The monsters outside of Changye got killed and for a week there’s this festive mood where everyone decides it’s a happy week to kill off the monsters. Bleeding hearts might think it’s a cruel thing, genociding a race, but if there’s one thing humanity learned from all the shit it went through ever since we saw the creatures on the moon. It’s either us or them. You cannot simply sleep soundly next to a rabid dog. The issue itself is they are not human and thus aren’t our friends. Sure, there are sick bastards, degenerates who like to fornicate with monsters and mutants. But there’s no half-monsters, half-mutants are there. And even if there is, I'm sure we'll just kill them.
Changye’s not a kind place when it comes to any non-humans. After all, you can’t live with monsters and think they wouldn’t kill you. Most of humanity’s history of this era has been learning about the fact we can’t make peace with them.
I do find it barbaric. How we’d display them like this on the streets. I do not have the hobby of displaying the entrails of what I kill out in the open. I just don’t see the point of it. Besides, I can probably earn more if I just let some cheap scavenger buy the carcass who’d then sell it to the lanes for a price.
Still, the monster purging feast died early because of this fog appearing and making things hard for everyone. Going out while this fog is lowering visibility is asking for trouble. There might be people who’d thrive on this natural cover, but the advantage works on both sides. Some might get a thrill of it, but not everyone can be sane in this insane world we live in now.
I’m on a 2-story building following a lead with my Boss. Kei insisted on taking this lead. Fog didn’t set it when we started looking for clues though. The anom we’re trying to find seems to have been some kind of small creature with the head of a plant. We actually got the request from a student who thought it’s a monster. Student looked it up, didn’t find it in a database and instead gave us a message.
After receiving the message we visited the student’s apartment. It’s a common apartment with a veranda and a kitchen next to the entrance. Kei has sweetalked the student and the apartment owner about letting us search for this creature.
So when the fog rolled in. Kei stopped searching and joined the rest of the tenants to watch the fog. It’s common for apartment complexes to have this little night market on their rooftops. Even the apartment I live in Lotus Lane has one.
Roof stalls selling all kinds of street foods. We could have gone someplace warmer, but Kei didn’t want to join the crowd right now. Besides, after hours of searching the apartment with the permission of the owner. It was time for a break.
It’s hard to predict the fog. It just appears out of nowhere. To be precise, this kind of fog materializes out of thin air and covers everything. It seeps into the tiny gaps and only places like Bureau and Corpo-Mages companies don’t let the fog in.
This fog’s not the same as the one the Shanghai Risk Event released to the world. The SRE simply enchanted the fog, but it didn’t cause it. Even before the SRE, the fog has always materialized like this. It’s hard to find the source of the fog when it just appears out of thin air. We have many guesses on how the fog shows itself, but there is no definite answer everyone agrees on. But what we do agree on is how bothersome it is. It does cover Changye with this kind of surreal beauty, but no one wants to live in a fog that induces bad dreams and increases supernatural sightings. Ghosts seem to like this kind of fog and there’s a lot of Priests probably going around Changye offering their services.
I am indifferent to the fog, but I am annoyed by it. Changye’s not exactly a place with clean air and the smog can be irritating and if you add fog to that smog, then it gets worse. Not even this smog can erase the acrid breeze of Changye. If anything it just worsens the air. Makes it troublesome to even breathe it especially if you have natural lungs.
Thankfully, the warm drink and food seems to alleviate that. I took my eyes off the streets and placed it on my Boss who is eating her food diligently despite the fog. Meat buns, skewers, and even a bowl of hot noodles. I did get myself a bowl too to warm my stomach.
“What?”
“You think the anomaly is somewhere?”
“Maybe.”
She takes a bite of her meat bun. I think it’s a pork bun filled with carrots chopped into tiny pieces.
“Lots of food, Boss.”
“Got hungry looking for a tiny creature that might or might not exist.”
“Boss, you ever want to find something more dangerous?”
She raises her head and looks at me like I just said something dumb.
“Why would I want that? Why risk your life for that? We hired Aidan for that. Hells. Have you seen the recent monsters they’ve to bring down?”
“Haven’t.”
“Then you pay attention, Assistant. Look. I ain’t a coward. But if you are giving me a choice whether to risk my life or not. I will tell you how much and if it's worth the risk.”
Which is acceptable reasoning to me.
“So, what do you think is a reasonable risk?”
“Something that’ll make us richer.”
“Ain’t we financially stable?”
She clicks her tongue and raises a finger.
“My friend. You need to understand although we’re financially stable. All of this can crash. There is no such thing as stability in this world. The 7S can go down. The Bureau issues something. The Redmonds can be destroyed. We might lose allies suddenly without ever knowing why.”
“Kinda pessimistic.”
“Just stating realism.”
She shrugs. She takes a spoon and sips on the steaming broth of her noodles.
“Ain’t we wise?”
“Common sense. A. You don’t get to live this long without being battered by experience. Look at this world. Full of lights while covered in fog and you can’t help but say some odd things.”
“Just asking.”
I hear cheers. I can smell the food being cooked. The laughter across the rooftop as eat, and drink while covered in this fog.
“Us humans are monsters.”
“If you look at it that way.”
Her eyes went on the people who got metal on their bodies. Healthy people who shouldn’t have that. Maybe they needed the replacement, but you can tell who didn’t want it and who got it to show off. You can tell by the way they cover their arms.
I mean… What kind of species does this to themselves? Cut off their limbs for metal? Granted, we do it to give ourselves a chance of survival. A metal chest could save us from a stabbing. One metal arm can break through a skull without even putting an effort. I sometimes wonder how life would be without the dangers of the current era. No monsters. No anomalies who warped themselves and the reality around them. Just a boring life. Working the 9 to 5 grind in some white cubicle staring dully at a screen typing data from spreadsheets. A safer life, but would it be a good one?
“Well, you can still try that. Climb the corpo ladder. Get a job where you can be in a sanitized office until your corpo-masters allow you to retire and spend the last days of your life at some safe haven they use to drain all the money they paid you.”
“Sounds like you say it from experience.”
“Hey, I’m not that old. I just heard from folks who manage to grow old.”
“You did seem to hate Havens.”
“Hate? No, I don’t. But I think it’s the worst way to live. Shutting yourself away from the world so you can live in a delusional peace. Havens aren’t heaven, A. They are coffins where you are prematurely placed. A comfy coffin where you prepare yourself for death, not knowing what is happening around you. To have that kind of end seems… sad.”
“Peaceful though.”
“Yes, peaceful.”
She looks away for a second. Her mind elsewhere.
“But I’d rather be in this kind of fog. Maybe, I'll be begging for my life, screaming for mercy or gurgling my own blood. But… I’ll be able to decide when or where I’d die. Ain’t it exciting?”
I wanted to say no, but my mouth answered first.
“Yeah, it is.”
She raises a tiny smile.
“I don’t chase danger. One way or another, in this business of ours, it will find us. I think… when people find danger, they find it. And when they constantly search for it, thinking they won and triumph… at their weakest… when they are too tired to move. That’s when true danger appears. And when that happens you either die or survive.”
She chews on her skewer and takes her time to dip the sauce at her own pace. She didn’t notice the sauce staining the mole on her.
“So yeah, I’m not exactly gung-ho chasing after danger. I want to try and save my energy so that when something unreasonable happens, I still have strength.”
“Hard to take you seriously while your mouth’s full, Boss.”
She shrugs
“Not trying to. Just saying it as it is. We do our jobs and get paid one way or another. We are Anomaly Detectives who find anomalies and make a report of them so we can get paid. That’s all there is to it. We fight if there's a need to fight and we eat and drink when we can. Life doesn’t have to be continuous proactivity.”
I laughed and took a sip of my cooling broth.
“You say that right now, but you’re going to continue looking for the anomaly… if there is even one here.”
“Course’, it’s our job and we do it.”
Boss confuses me. She’s either too relaxed or too active. Then again, she has her shit together. Gains and her loss seems to be just something she considers and weighs. Not letting it affect her judgment and choices.
She’s quite a woman, truly.
When the fog somewhat faded, with our meals finished, we returned to search. We didn’t find any anomaly, just this drone of a character from some obscure TV show years ago. Knowing this, the student who reported this became too shy to meet us again, but she did leave an apology alongside her payment.
The Fog
There’s a shitty time here in Changye where the fog is too thick. Visibility is so low you have to wear lights not to bump into anyone. I am looking at the sidewalk where people are walking from above. Despite the fog, the streets are dotted with lights, repelling this fog.
Up above Changye’s skies are searchlights piercing through the veil of fog. Crisscrossing, making this embroidery of illumination that seems to cover it all. On the platform, are giant lights creating this orb of light where the aerial vehicles use to orient themselves. A cold breeze in the air mixes with the acrid scent perpetual to Changye. Further down the street, displays a scene most common when a purge happens.
Dead monsters crucified and bled for people to see. It happened because the people got worried about what they read and saw. When we got the news out of the monsters using tools and them chewing on augments from humans they killed. People got angry. Violent and genocidal as they gathered in packs and went out. The orgs, companies, and offices who profit from monster-killing took this chance to profit from this. They started drawing up prizes like weapons and gear in exchange for a certain amount they can butcher and scavenge.
The monsters outside of Changye got killed and for a week there’s this festive mood where everyone decides it’s a happy week to kill off the monsters. Bleeding hearts might think it’s a cruel thing, genociding a race, but if there’s one thing humanity learned from all the shit it went through ever since we saw the creatures on the moon. It’s either us or them. You cannot simply sleep soundly next to a rabid dog. The issue itself is they are not human and thus aren’t our friends. Sure, there are sick bastards, degenerates who like to fornicate with monsters and mutants. But there’s no half-monsters, half-mutants are there. And even if there is, I'm sure we'll just kill them.
Changye’s not a kind place when it comes to any non-humans. After all, you can’t live with monsters and think they wouldn’t kill you. Most of humanity’s history of this era has been learning about the fact we can’t make peace with them.
I do find it barbaric. How we’d display them like this on the streets. I do not have the hobby of displaying the entrails of what I kill out in the open. I just don’t see the point of it. Besides, I can probably earn more if I just let some cheap scavenger buy the carcass who’d then sell it to the lanes for a price.
Still, the monster purging feast died early because of this fog appearing and making things hard for everyone. Going out while this fog is lowering visibility is asking for trouble. There might be people who’d thrive on this natural cover, but the advantage works on both sides. Some might get a thrill of it, but not everyone can be sane in this insane world we live in now.
I’m on a 2-story building following a lead with my Boss. Kei insisted on taking this lead. Fog didn’t set it when we started looking for clues though. The anom we’re trying to find seems to have been some kind of small creature with the head of a plant. We actually got the request from a student who thought it’s a monster. Student looked it up, didn’t find it in a database and instead gave us a message.
After receiving the message we visited the student’s apartment. It’s a common apartment with a veranda and a kitchen next to the entrance. Kei has sweetalked the student and the apartment owner about letting us search for this creature.
So when the fog rolled in. Kei stopped searching and joined the rest of the tenants to watch the fog. It’s common for apartment complexes to have this little night market on their rooftops. Even the apartment I live in Lotus Lane has one.
Roof stalls selling all kinds of street foods. We could have gone someplace warmer, but Kei didn’t want to join the crowd right now. Besides, after hours of searching the apartment with the permission of the owner. It was time for a break.
It’s hard to predict the fog. It just appears out of nowhere. To be precise, this kind of fog materializes out of thin air and covers everything. It seeps into the tiny gaps and only places like Bureau and Corpo-Mages companies don’t let the fog in.
This fog’s not the same as the one the Shanghai Risk Event released to the world. The SRE simply enchanted the fog, but it didn’t cause it. Even before the SRE, the fog has always materialized like this. It’s hard to find the source of the fog when it just appears out of thin air. We have many guesses on how the fog shows itself, but there is no definite answer everyone agrees on. But what we do agree on is how bothersome it is. It does cover Changye with this kind of surreal beauty, but no one wants to live in a fog that induces bad dreams and increases supernatural sightings. Ghosts seem to like this kind of fog and there’s a lot of Priests probably going around Changye offering their services.
I am indifferent to the fog, but I am annoyed by it. Changye’s not exactly a place with clean air and the smog can be irritating and if you add fog to that smog, then it gets worse. Not even this smog can erase the acrid breeze of Changye. If anything it just worsens the air. Makes it troublesome to even breathe it especially if you have natural lungs.
Thankfully, the warm drink and food seems to alleviate that. I took my eyes off the streets and placed it on my Boss who is eating her food diligently despite the fog. Meat buns, skewers, and even a bowl of hot noodles. I did get myself a bowl too to warm my stomach.
“What?”
“You think the anomaly is somewhere?”
“Maybe.”
She takes a bite of her meat bun. I think it’s a pork bun filled with carrots chopped into tiny pieces.
“Lots of food, Boss.”
“Got hungry looking for a tiny creature that might or might not exist.”
“Boss, you ever want to find something more dangerous?”
She raises her head and looks at me like I just said something dumb.
“Why would I want that? Why risk your life for that? We hired Aidan for that. Hells. Have you seen the recent monsters they’ve to bring down?”
“Haven’t.”
“Then you pay attention, Assistant. Look. I ain’t a coward. But if you are giving me a choice whether to risk my life or not. I will tell you how much and if it's worth the risk.”
Which is acceptable reasoning to me.
“So, what do you think is a reasonable risk?”
“Something that’ll make us richer.”
“Ain’t we financially stable?”
She clicks her tongue and raises a finger.
“My friend. You need to understand although we’re financially stable. All of this can crash. There is no such thing as stability in this world. The 7S can go down. The Bureau issues something. The Redmonds can be destroyed. We might lose allies suddenly without ever knowing why.”
“Kinda pessimistic.”
“Just stating realism.”
She shrugs. She takes a spoon and sips on the steaming broth of her noodles.
“Ain’t we wise?”
“Common sense. A. You don’t get to live this long without being battered by experience. Look at this world. Full of lights while covered in fog and you can’t help but say some odd things.”
“Just asking.”
I hear cheers. I can smell the food being cooked. The laughter across the rooftop as eat, and drink while covered in this fog.
“Us humans are monsters.”
“If you look at it that way.”
Her eyes went on the people who got metal on their bodies. Healthy people who shouldn’t have that. Maybe they needed the replacement, but you can tell who didn’t want it and who got it to show off. You can tell by the way they cover their arms.
I mean… What kind of species does this to themselves? Cut off their limbs for metal? Granted, we do it to give ourselves a chance of survival. A metal chest could save us from a stabbing. One metal arm can break through a skull without even putting an effort. I sometimes wonder how life would be without the dangers of the current era. No monsters. No anomalies who warped themselves and the reality around them. Just a boring life. Working the 9 to 5 grind in some white cubicle staring dully at a screen typing data from spreadsheets. A safer life, but would it be a good one?
“Well, you can still try that. Climb the corpo ladder. Get a job where you can be in a sanitized office until your corpo-masters allow you to retire and spend the last days of your life at some safe haven they use to drain all the money they paid you.”
“Sounds like you say it from experience.”
“Hey, I’m not that old. I just heard from folks who manage to grow old.”
“You did seem to hate Havens.”
“Hate? No, I don’t. But I think it’s the worst way to live. Shutting yourself away from the world so you can live in a delusional peace. Havens aren’t heaven, A. They are coffins where you are prematurely placed. A comfy coffin where you prepare yourself for death, not knowing what is happening around you. To have that kind of end seems… sad.”
“Peaceful though.”
“Yes, peaceful.”
She looks away for a second. Her mind elsewhere.
“But I’d rather be in this kind of fog. Maybe, I'll be begging for my life, screaming for mercy or gurgling my own blood. But… I’ll be able to decide when or where I’d die. Ain’t it exciting?”
I wanted to say no, but my mouth answered first.
“Yeah, it is.”
She raises a tiny smile.
“I don’t chase danger. One way or another, in this business of ours, it will find us. I think… when people find danger, they find it. And when they constantly search for it, thinking they won and triumph… at their weakest… when they are too tired to move. That’s when true danger appears. And when that happens you either die or survive.”
She chews on her skewer and takes her time to dip the sauce at her own pace. She didn’t notice the sauce staining the mole on her.
“So yeah, I’m not exactly gung-ho chasing after danger. I want to try and save my energy so that when something unreasonable happens, I still have strength.”
“Hard to take you seriously while your mouth’s full, Boss.”
She shrugs
“Not trying to. Just saying it as it is. We do our jobs and get paid one way or another. We are Anomaly Detectives who find anomalies and make a report of them so we can get paid. That’s all there is to it. We fight if there's a need to fight and we eat and drink when we can. Life doesn’t have to be continuous proactivity.”
I laughed and took a sip of my cooling broth.
“You say that right now, but you’re going to continue looking for the anomaly… if there is even one here.”
“Course’, it’s our job and we do it.”
Boss confuses me. She’s either too relaxed or too active. Then again, she has her shit together. Gains and her loss seems to be just something she considers and weighs. Not letting it affect her judgment and choices.
She’s quite a woman, truly.
When the fog somewhat faded, with our meals finished, we returned to search. We didn’t find any anomaly, just this drone of a character from some obscure TV show years ago. Knowing this, the student who reported this became too shy to meet us again, but she did leave an apology alongside her payment.
