1094 Ubiq
Ubiq, one of the trade hubs of Centaurus Duchy, a bustling city that screamed riches, prosperity, and a heaven on earth.
The bright half of Ubiq was glowing like a diamond under sunlight.
Varian was blown away by the dazzling beauty of this half. The floating oblique buildings, the glowing roads, the ever-busy streets, gorgeous flying vehicles, teleportation stops from one district to another and the insane variety of greenery growing everywhere.
But what struck him more was the other side. The side that didn't glow and was filled with congested housing, narrow streets, terrible atmosphere, a nasty crowd, a nastier crime scape, and horrible living standards.
As he walked through the dark side of Ubiq, he saw hordes of people on either side of the streets, standing, squatting, leaning, lying, all frozen in their position.
They were almost like zombies, except that they could breathe.
But their eyes…whether it's a unicorn race that seemed dominant in Centaurus with a horn on their head or some snake race, or a four-armed race, or anyone else, the eyes of people on the street were the same.
Dull, dead, and passive.
But that was a facade. Hiding behind those eyes was a madness that devoured their souls.
As he walked through the streets in shabby clothes under a black cloak with a hood, Varian felt his skin sting under the occasional gazes.
Unlike the other side of Ubiq which had excellent roads and footpaths, the ones here were old, cracked, and seemingly on the verge of breaking further any second.
On such a road, his footsteps were painfully noisy.
Even though his footsteps were drowned out by the steps of the dull crowd, Varian felt like he was being too loud, like he was sticking out. He deliberately adjusted his steps to match the crowd.
'This place sucks, no one would come here and that's precisely why I should stay here.' Varian rubbed his hands and followed the relatively normal crowd to check out the areas.
Ubiq wasn't a big planet in the first place. It housed only around a billion people. But only ten million of them lived in the bright half, the remaining nine hundred and ninety million lived in the dark half.
Even though both shared the same name and were on the same planet, one was a renewed trade hub in the entire duchy while the other was home to utterly destitute.
Ding! Dong!
A school's clock rang and students, apparently in high school ran in as the classes began.
But a few began fighting right outside the building.
Teenaged boys and girls were drawing sharp weapons and slashing at each other like they were bitter enemies. Blood flowed on the road for a while before it was flamed up by some weird chemical. The blue blood, unlike human red, burned under the green flame until it went out.
What was left behind was a small dark blue spot. And the school walls had zigzag dark blue lines all over them.
Varian kept walking down the crowded streets. Many were sleeping on the sides of the road.
The streets were anything but clean. Garbage was strewn all over, literal corpses were just thrown into the heaps and it stank worse than anything Varian ever knew. Creatures that resembled dogs were eating in from the trash and the corpses while fighting against each other.
Occasionally, a person or two would fight the dogs for the trash and the corpses. These people had blank eyes, drooled uncontrollably, and moved shakily.
They fought with beasts like beasts, biting them, scratching them and even tearing their flesh apart with their teeth and drinking their blood.
Varian saw a lot of suffering and suffered a lot himself. But this sight churned his stomach and almost made him wretch.
Yet everyone else seemed fine.
They walked with gazes that weren't focused, with steps that weren't steady, like a hoard of zombies moving in an apocalyptic city.
In this short duration of two hours, Varian found himself pickpocketed by fifteen times, witnessed at least ten people killing each other on the street, mostly for that colored powder, and saw hundreds of fights, big and small.
Occasionally, some were snorting some colored powder and collapsing on the floor, twitching like fish out of water.
'Even Valos was way better…' Varian never thought he'd have such a thought. But compared to this living hell, Valos was a much better place to live in.
"Mister, why are you walking around so aimlessly? Do you need some stuff?"
As Varian reached a rather deserted street, four teenagers, two ogre-like and two with large lizard-like tails, encircled him.
The people walking passed him by without sparing a glance.
"…Is this how it feels like?" Varian muttered, kicking the ground which blew up the thick dust into the air.
"Oye! You want some shots, right? Pay up!" The largest of the four, a brawny lizard-tailed teenager moved ahead and dangled a small tube with a pinch of colored powder in front of him.
'It's not even the real drug. These kids just want to rob.' Varian sighed and waved the dust away.
"You don't want to?" The brawny lizard youth leaned closer and bent down to match his eye level with Varian's.
"See those two?" He pointed to two curled-up men in the heap of trash. "They refused and had to taste the power of the Herculean gang!"
Varian noticed this young guy's face unclose. He couldn't assess the accurate age but it felt very juvenile. The human equivalent would be someone in perhaps grade ninth or tenth grade.
For someone so young, he had a big scar on his forehead, a few burnt marks on his right cheek, and a scab right under his eye.
He reeked of that drug smell and his clothes seemed to be last washed a month ago. And his fingers were shivering and twisting as if they wanted to hold something.
Varian looked into the boy's eyes and asked. "Shouldn't you be in school?"
"Pfft!" The brawny lizard guy clutched his stomach and started laughing. His three partners followed.
The laughter died out soon and they all took out a sword whose blade glittered with a dangerous purple light.
"You aren't a local, are you? Your face wasn't familiar, to begin with…" The brawny lizard guy gripped the sword harder and glared at Varian with an unspeakable hatred. "Those eyes…your damn fucking haughty eyes, they don't belong here! I knew it!
You fucker, did you come here to write a paper on our lifestyle or did you want to pity on us, huh? You filthy pigs treat us as beasts! Shove your sympathy up your ass! Just cough up the money and I'll let you off."
Varian looked at the reflection of his eyes on the blade. Indeed, even though he changed his dress and walking style to match them, his eyes remained as they were.
His eyes weren't dead like theirs.
"A great man once said, an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind." Varian smiled and four loud claps were heard.
The brawny lizard guy knelt on the ground clutching his stomach along with his three friends.
They couldn't even see Varian move but a harsh punch struck them right in the abdomen. They coughed up no blood but the punch drained them of all their strength.
"W-What the…" The brawny lizard guy stared at up Varian with shaking fear.
"But he's wrong, you know. The one who attacked first will have one eye left." Varian grinned.
"W-What are you talking about?"
"But I can regenerate my lost eye. So, I have no qualms about picking eye for an eye, arm for arm, and violence for violence."
Another four slaps were heard and the four young thugs flew into the garbage on the sides of the street and crashed hard on the ground.
The windows of the neighboring houses slammed shut and the crowd passing by avoided them.
For two full minutes, loud claps continued to ring.
"Alright. That should help you fight your drug addiction unless you intentionally make it worse." Varian clapped his hands and said.
"?" The four beaten teenage gangsters looked up at him with bruised faces.
Varian didn't reveal anything more.
During this two-minute education session, he had been very harsh on them. The injuries themselves weren't harmful but the pain was terrific. But he didn't do it out of sadism.
Rather, he used his Spirit powers to make their brains correlate the pain with drug use. If they try to take drugs again, they'd feel this pain. To stop these obvious addicts, he had to inflict enough pain.
Even then, Varian wasn't sure if it could stop them. Addictions could be pretty insane, after all.
If he went overboard and directly control their brain, they'd be at odds with themselves and they'd risk going crazy.
"Go to school, y'all. And if you don't, well…" Varian waved his hand dismissively.
But the four juveniles shivered and nodded profusely. Presumably, they would go to school even on holidays from now.
"I need a place to stay. The quality doesn't matter, as long as it's stable."
The three gangsters turned to the brawny guy, causing the latter to look at them in disbelief. "I-Wha…Fine."
Varian threw a bottle of healing potion over him and in just a dozen seconds, the lizard guy stood up, checking his arms and legs with a surprised expression.
Even the scars, scabs, and cuts on his face were all healed! Now, he looked less like a gangster and more like a student.
With a reluctant expression on his face, the brawny kid started leading him.
'Havoc pirates and Starsafe corps, both of them should be keeping an eye on me. So, this is the best place to stay.'
