Slum kid

O'ruma city is in the west part of the wasteland. It's a city that separates its people by walls called inner walls and outer walls. The people of the city are separated from one another. The Inner walls of people live in luxury and safety while the Outer wall act as another wall for protecting the city from monsters.

The slum takes up about 50% of the outer walls space. It's a place where the homeless and thugs gather. There are no police in this area. It's a battle royale to see who survives. In this environment, there's little to no mercy for someone who can't defend themself. No matter the age or gender, if you don't have the power, you don't deserve the food.

Velo is sleeping on the side road of the slum. He is a kid that was unfortunately abandoned in the slum by his parents. He doesn't know the reason. The next thing he knows is he and the other kid are stealing nutrients pack from each other to survive.

It's been like this for a few years. He's survived by stealing from outer people. Hoping they didn't notice him. Sometimes he got away with some money, other times he got beaten up.

Velo has been pretty lucky to survive this long. Because of his small body, he can't win any fight and every time cannot steal the food, his body got even weaker.

In the morning he woke up when the sun shines on his eyes. His daily routine consists of him looking for people to steal from. He has three rules.

First, he looks for people who look so dumb that they don't know their wallet is missing. He judges this by using his intuition. Some people might think it's unreliable, but it's working for him... most of the time.

Second, he looks for someone who doesn't carry a gun with them. He has to eliminate the chance that he got shots from stealing.

Third, it must be someone who doesn't work for any gangs. In the slum, they are often people that stick together for their benefit and form a gang. They usually have a symbol that shows they are in a gang.

People often avoid making trouble with them. Some of the bigger gangs even have a connection with inner walls. People don't like messing with them.

Velo has done a good job avoiding big trouble so far and he will continue doing that. He spotted a skinny man walking through. He looks drunk and doesn't have any symbol of a gang.

Velo bumps him and steals the man's wallet in one smooth motion. The man walks away without noticing it.

It's a success!! Velo walks into the alleyway and empties a ragged wallet. he got 900 tels from the dunk man.

"Sh*t why does he have to be so poor"

900 tels can get him one decent meal of a flavored nutrient pack. Velo calmed down and took the money to buy some cheap nutrient packs that cost 300 a pack.

"Hello."

"The usual?"

"yes please."

Velo, enter the shop to buy some nutrients pack. As the owner went to get the nutrient pack, he looks around the shop and sees a chocolate flavor toffee. It's a little singular brown toffee that has a diameter of 2 cm. Its price at 100,00 tels which Velo couldn't even think of having.

"Isn't this the covenant chocolate flavor toffee!?"

"It is that our best good. We manage to acquire it through the inner wall dump this morning"

"whoa..."

The inner wall dump is the name of a dump for inner wall people. It is a highly valuable spot to get high-quality food or furniture that can't be normally obtained on the Outer walls.

The dump is usually governed by a gang. They will procure some goods and distribute them to one of their shops and this hope is one of them.

"Why do I only get 2 this time!?"

"The price has gone up since the monster outbreak 2 days ago."

"tch"

Velo clicks his tough. The monster outbreaks that the shop owner talks about is a case where some monster or machine in the wasteland got past a defense line and terrorise the slum people. It's a gruesome sight that sometimes happens in the slum with no one to protect you.

Velo also got caught by the monster too but was saved by the hunter that got dispatched to kill it. He wishes that someday he could be like them.

"Look like you want to improve your living conditions right?"

"?"

"From the look of it you're pretty good at stealing am I right"

"How did you....."

"Even a blind person could guess from my position. You regularly come to this shop and buy nutrient packs. You don't seem to have a gang and don't look like a hunter or even someone who could win a fight. It's must be that you're a pretty good smuggler since your alive, right?"

"well yeah..."

"Why don't you join our gang? You really like that toffee right? you could get one of those if you work at our gangs."

Temp by the promise of free luxury Velo accepts the invitation. The shopkeeper leads him to a shabby building. In the shabby-looking office, a man looks displeased while his two bodyguards is sweating.

"Boss, Milo is here with a kid."

"Let him in."

"Boss I caught your wallet thief."

The boss's mood suddenly lifts up while Velo's face went pale.