Prostitutes roamed the back alleys like the living dead with drug-hazed eyes and boils on their lips. City security didn’t like the less classy ones roaming the streets, so they were relegated to the dark alleys between buildings. They were the forgotten dregs of society, either thrown out or forgotten and doomed to live short, brutal lives. Women couldn’t become waifu tamers, and few were foolish enough to tame monsters in the wild. Tamers valued them only for producing heirs, something waifus couldn’t do. Girls born from powerful tamers were traded to other families for favors or to seal alliances. Until human skill seals became safe to use, women born out of tamer families had no prospects. Well, there was one other use.

Some girls weren’t quite as dead on the inside as they seemed. They covered up like leppers, but their eyes were sharp. Some pretended not to notice me, but I felt their eyes and the power within them. But, of course, that shouldn't be possible unless they had sex with a monster and survived the process. Except I was living proof, there were skills seals that could work on humans. But waifu skill seals in their early stages were extremely dangerous.

If I were to take a wild guess and put on my conspiracy theory hat, they were test subjects. The inventor of the human skill seal, or skill disk as it would later be known, had eyes in the back alleys. After he gave the girls a taste of power, he wrapped them up to hide any mutations and used them however he could. That’s why their eyes were too sharp and looking at me. I was someone who didn’t belong. They weren’t around before because no one had stolen from him before.

They could also be Professor Cacao’s hidden spy network and muscle if need be. I would know if they were Professor Cacao’s soon enough. When I crossed a line in the alley into another gang’s territory. The line was clear enough to see. A rotten corpse had been hung over a stairwell.

When I crossed the line, and none of the girls followed, that told me something.

Either Professor Cacao wanted them to remain in a certain area and only report who goes where, the skill seal maker didn’t want to challenge Tyrone’s gang, or they belonged to a rival gang and won’t step into hangmen territory.

At the time, I didn’t know much; it's only when I look back on my experiences do I notice things that I didn’t before. At the moment, I didn’t think about my surroundings or the greater impact my actions could have. On the second day of my journey, all I could think about was what I needed to move to the next city. Carthage waited with its knowledge of cultivation and powerful master of Water attribute waifus.

There wasn’t a camera on the street, but I felt eyes on me as I moved to my destination. In the shadow of ancient buildings connected by bridges so high up their users couldn’t see the alley below, I walked into the heart of hangmen territory. The alley reeked of the dead and dying. Corpses with needles in their arms slumped against walls while mutant children gnawed at the bodies.

“Fresh meat,” one of the children yelled and pointed at me. I drew my knife, and one of them threw a bottle at my face, and I leaned out of the way. One with fins instead of ears charged me with an insane look in his eyes. A few steps let me instantly cross the distance to burry my knee in the mutant’s face. I felt a crunch, and the mutant took a step back as green blood oozed from his wound.

I moved quickly and delivered a devastating uppercut while the other kids grabbed the corpse and took off. The kid gasped on the ground as blood seeped from his ruined face. Broken teeth littered the ground; soon, he would be just as dead as the corpse his fellow mutants were digging into.

The kid opened his ruined mouth and began to cry. Suddenly I felt bad, so I dug into my pack and found some first aid spray. A full bottle of the stuff was 1000 credits by itself. I pointed it at the kid's face and sprayed more than I wanted to.

As I sprayed him, he started jerking his head, but his wounds were already noticeably better. Even his teeth were regenerating. It was the wonder of the first aid spray. Heal nearly anyone to full health at a hefty price. There were some injuries it couldn’t restore, but a messed-up face wasn’t one of them. I leaned against the wall as the mutant slowly healed.

Slowly the kid got up and checked his teeth. They weren’t broken anymore; if he had any cavities, they were probably better too. Most damage, including old age, could be healed in this world with enough money, and new innovations were made daily.

“Why did you heal me?”

I rolled my eyes at the brat. “I don’t like seeing kids cry. Now go and find your friends. I’m busy.”

“How much do I owe you?” The kid asked.

If my eyes could roll any harder, they would. “Nothing; get out of here before I start thinking healing you was a bad idea.”

The kid turned his head to the side. “I don’t believe you, mister. No one does anything for free. Boss only lets us stay because we take care of the corpses.”

“Fine, what can you do for me?” I asked.

“I have a vagina, and you can use it; don’t boys like that.” She said.

That was a hard pass. She looked ten; that was an automatic no, and I thought she was a boy before. Even now that I knew she was a girl, there was nothing feminine about her. Especially after I saw her take a bite out of a corpse a little while ago.

“How old are you.” She started counting on her fingers, and my hard pass was all the surer. “It doesn’t matter we aren’t having sex. I’m going to hold onto that favor, and I might call on it someday or maybe not. So try to stay alive until I do.” I thought about it for a minute, then shrugged and tossed her Richard’s card.

It was a whim, but the look in her eyes had changed drastically. “There are 100 credits on it, and you can spend them however you want. Try and live until we meet again.” I said.

“My name is Mia; what’s your name, mister?” She asked.

“Zoran, now go and buy yourself something nice.” She turned around and ran off.

I found what I was looking for in the depths of hangmen territory. The hangmen sold guns to the rest of the gangs in the city. Most people considered them to be a protected group. No one wanted to mess with their bread and butter. Guns were an equalizer to a certain point; near Jackson city, where Professor Cacao and the Jackson City Army, or JCA for short, killed anything above a rank 3, guns were powerful tools. They were my ticket to moving through the forest quickly.

When I knew what I was looking for, it was easy to look at the forums in my memory and find locations, the best approaches to the situation, and the trip-ups. Unfortunately, the mutant children tripped me up; it must have been one of the mods; I don’t remember any mutant children in the early Geass region.

I walked over to the graffitied wall of the building depicting an image of the castle head and leader of the Jehova cult, Kristoff. He was popular in back allies; many wore necklaces with a rook chess piece attached to their ends. Kristoff and his teachings about the end of times were hopeful for people on the bottom. I pressed my hand against the castle and heard a click. The eyes fell off me as I knew they would. I had about 90 seconds before they were replaced.

A seam appeared in the side of the building, and I slid it open. I opened my backpack and tossed a belt of grenades inside, two 1.00 Cal pistols with ten clips and several boxes of ammunition, and a .75Cal scoped rifle with 6 15-round magazines and 10 boxes of ammunition. There were holsters, so I snatched some with good anti-theft designs so no one could snatch my guns while I wore them. My final grab was silencers for my weapons. All the equipment together was worth about 150k credits. So long as I was out of the city in two days, no one should know about the theft.

Once I joined the Carthage sect, Professor Cacao wouldn’t be able to do much about it. The other old monsters weakened Cacao’s control outside the forest. An assassin would probably get me if I was found out before my waifus reached rank 3. So, I couldn’t leave witnesses when I used these weapons until I had a good reason to have them.

I strapped my backpack securely and made my way out of the alley. Guns that could turn the tide in battle made me feel more secure. The 1.00Cal was built to kill rank 1 monsters without fail and wound rank 2. Against rank 3, it wouldn’t do much unless I hit them in the eyes or another soft spot.