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One

Introduced

Lyric

HI-CRIME ZONE: CAUTION!

ALTERNATE PATH RECOMMENDED!

The warning flashes in bright green lettering across s I don’t need the warning Even through the lenses of aug the path ahead Elite don’t usually travel this way We take the high road, a glea path that runs above all this

I don’t have tih road I’ you can be I’ve seen my coworkers show up drunk, wasted, actually comatose, and none of that was as much of a problem as that one time Derrick from compliance o minutes late He was terminated on the spot Some say you can still see the stain on the here his brain landed That’s impossible, of course

Life is cheap in Megaris, mostly because life is so expensive none of us are really sure it is worth it There are three things that separate me from the feral scum I am about to encounter I have es, including super stores Finally, I haveI can make it from here to there in the next four minutes

That is why I’m about to walk down a stretch of street which has clai to the statistics flashing on the inside of s The device looks like a pair of old-fashioned spectacles, but it is sodata overlays and keeping aris Network The scu plans It’s a bad idea to walk down this gauntlet of desperate, lost souls, but it’s an even worse idea to be late for work

“Lite bitch”

I soging out They should be auto I hear via the earpieces, which pair to the small implants just beneath the skin of my head Every crass, cruel word this asshole says should be transfors haven’t been working as well as they should lately There have been bugs everywhere Glitches in a lot of the systee, but as soon as they say it, their words are erased, or they’re put on s won’t catch a word you say Scum should be auto-muted, butfor a way around their restrictions

I pretend I didn’t hear it Scum words are not for me They don’t know me They are not really in my reality, and I am not really in theirs We are persistent illusions to one another, a collection of incorrect impressions

These incorrect i That erous

I don’t get more than a dozen steps down the alley before one of the scu me I shouldn’t be surprised

Scum are the lowest tier of humanity I don’t understand why they aren’t si, but the korabito keep a perpetually violent underclass wandering the streets

“Give me your fuzkin’ bux!”

The odds of an elite likeany physical currency are near zero I don’t think he really wants bux I think he’s giving himself a pretext to stab a hated elite

He is skinny Dangerously so His hand shakes as though he’s not equal to the task of having the heavy knife in his hand, but that doesn’t reat deal of strength to stab a person I’h I’ht-hand corner of reen, but it just turned red There is only one minute, fifty-nine seconds before I am late for work

I have so most elites don’t have I work for Gettee in my left hip pocket It’s er’s face goes pale as soon as he sees the badge Part of that is his natural pallor and cowardice The other part is the light reflected fro and loads him into the system for removal One of the hunters will have his hide nailed to a wall by lunchti he’s been scanned, the scum screa for hi out