Chapter 79: The Debt
Zeal walked out of the building and used a device to call a car. He waited a little on purpose, giving Leander enough time to get there first. Fifteen minutes later, he and Darian were already on their way to the central zone of the city.
That part of the city was reserved for the Empire. Since all High Humans were agents of the Empire, they had access to some special facilities.
Zeal made a light comment during the ride. The central zone was where all High Humans went when they wanted to talk with members of other clans, close safe deals, or even challenge each other.
Just training or resting during their free time was never enough for these people. Over time, with the constant pressure to grow stronger and survive, everyone ended up developing an extremely aggressive and competitive mindset.
Truth was, the strongest always became obsessed with constant improvement... those who didn't share that instinct died early.
If someone felt like training alone wasn't cutting it anymore, they'd start stirring up trouble with others, using conflict as pressure to break through.
Of course, there were really strict rules for High Humans, and since they were constantly monitored, breaking them without getting caught eventually was impossible.
Killing each other was forbidden—but what fun would a fight be without consequences?
That's why it was common for them to bet all the money they had, or something else of great and irreversible value. The goal was to do as much damage as possible, basically condemning the other person—even if they didn't kill them directly.
Darian sighed. High Humans really weren't easy people to be around. Other than the ones closest to them, everyone had to treat each other like potential enemies... but that wasn't a problem for him. He could tell from someone's karma whether they were dangerous, among other things.
He already understood that seeing people's dark pasts from other lives didn't mean much. Even though most had done some horrible things, the world wasn't just full of evil people. What really mattered was what someone was doing now—making mistakes and changing later was pretty common for some.