Kill the Sun

Nick looked at Wyntor and the grass with apprehension.

He really didn't want to touch it since it looked so unnatural.

Having little green living things growing from the ground sounded like some kind of nightmare somebody thought up.

However, Nick trusted Wyntor, and he eventually walked forward with apprehension.

He carefully touched the green things on the ground.

"It's soft?" Nick said with uncertainty.

That made it even worse!

It was like little hairs were growing out of the ground.

Nick felt like touching the grass was similar to petting some kind of huge and dangerous monster.

"Just sit down," Wyntor said with some annoyance.

Nick took a deep breath and eventually walked over to Wyntor.

And then, he carefully sat down.

"See? It's not that hard," Wyntor said with a smile.

Nick looked extremely uncomfortable.

He didn't like this sensation one bit.

Humans weren't supposed to touch grass.

They were supposed to be surrounded by metal and ground.

While Nick sat on the grass, he kept a lookout for the tree that was a couple of meters behind him.

He didn't feel safe with a tree so close to him.

What if the tree bent down and attacked him?

It was alive, after all.

For a while, Nick just looked at the lower layer of the Inner City.

He had been so overwhelmed with the grass, trees, and the river that he hadn't even looked at the people.

Nick saw several people with children sitting in different locations in the Inner City.

Almost all of them were dressed very nicely, and laughter filled the air.

It was so strange.

The people sounded… happy.

This was what Nick had always dreamed of.

A world where humans could be happy.

And it actually existed in the Inner City.

'But it's actually not that surprising,' he thought. 'After all, all of these people have a crazy amount of money. They can afford to be happy compared to the people in the Outer City.'

The people in the Outer City seemed more neutral.

They didn't seem happy but also not miserable.

They saw the Inner City and knew that they could do better, but they also saw the Dregs and knew that they could do worse.

Meanwhile, the people in the Dregs were miserable.

Laughter was rarely heard in the Dregs, and everyone looked like they were fighting for their lives.

Pressure and anxiety were constant companions in the Dregs.

And here?

People looked so peaceful.

Many people even sat on the grass while eating a couple of sandwiches, their kids playing in the grass just a bit of distance away from them.

It looked like a paradise.

It was like there was no danger.

It seemed like they felt safe.

After a while, Nick looked at the houses.

They were made of stone instead of metal.

Additionally, all the houses had windows made of actual glass on them.

These houses looked so very different from the houses in the Outer City.

Even more, almost all the houses had a little yard with grass on it.

After that, Nick noticed that every house had at least one weird contraption in front of it.

It was some kind of thing with two wheels and some pedals.

Nick looked around a bit, and he could finally find one of these contraptions in action.

Apparently, people pushed on the pedals, and the wheels moved forward, transporting the person on their back with quite some speed and ease.

'How are they not losing their balance?' Nick thought in wonder.

Then, Nick noticed the next thing.

It was bright everywhere.

It was almost like Nick was outside, even though he was inside a huge structure.

That was when Nick noticed that the glass windows of the huge structure were shining with gentle sunlight.

It was like the rays of the sun were reflected off the panes of glass and dispersed across the city.

Then, Nick noticed that the houses didn't have the light holes that every house in the Outer City had.

Instead, there were just a couple of tiny windows spread across the house.

The tiny windows captured the sunlight and moved it along a small shaft of mirrors that kept reflecting the light and distributing it across all the rooms.

All the rooms in the houses had a good amount of light spread throughout.

That was when Nick noticed that almost all the people were almost pale white.

In the Outer City and the Dregs, people were lightly browned due to the constant sunlight, but here, the people were almost pale.

'It's probably because of the lower amount of light in the Inner City,' Nick thought.

There was still light everywhere, but it was more subdued and gentler.

This made the people of the Inner City seem different from the people of the Outer City.

It was almost like they were of a different species.

It was such a different world.

Different people, different roads, different ground, different houses, different light…

It was so strange.

The people even acted differently.

Most of them acted like Nick didn't exist. After all, Zephyx Extractors were common in the Inner City.

However, the few who took note of Nick showed a gentle smile and nodded in greeting, which Nick returned awkwardly.

In the Outer City, everyone made way for Nick while seeming a bit scared and in awe.

Here, it was like Nick was just another person.

Suddenly, Nick felt something poke his shoulder, and he turned to Wyntor.

Wyntor just gestured up, and Nick looked up.

That was when Nick's eyes widened in shock.

Was this the middle layer of the Inner City?!

In the lower layer of the Inner City were several huge and gigantic pillars.

Some of them were even over a hundred meters wide!

These pillars stretched upwards into what seemed to be infinity.

And these pillars seemed to be the very foundation upon which the middle layer of the Inner City worked!

At least from what Nick could see.