Urban Legends

Crow: Ecumenopolis

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In URBAN, anything could be bought. Food, water, property, possessions, entertainment.. I kept this in mind as I traversed the alleys of the infamous redlight district in the lower levels of Megafort, the megacity to which our overlord Roose Goldenglow had proclaimed as his kingdom.

The redlight district was damp with the dripping rain from the upper floors of Megafort. Pillars of steam from sewage grates bellowed upward to the higher floors of Megafort, humidifing the air with the stench of piss and creating a vale of haze that separated the dark ravine of night life from the bright lights of the business district. However, even with a layer of smog and hundreds of meters separating the low class and elites of Megafort, the AI overlord of URBAN was present in even the darkest corners of his city.

Propaganda of both the paper and holographic variety infected every available inch of the side of most buildings. If it wasn't the paint of the bricks peeling off, then it was the century old adhesive from a poster of the face of Goldenglow.

Roose Goldenglow was a giant of a man, with golden blonde hair. The slits of his similarly colored hawk eyes were sharp enough to cut a man from his shadow, even through holograms I could feel the grace of the Almighty alienated from me while under Goldenglow's gaze. He dressed in a military style dress uniform bleached white and embroidered with golden highlights, a trophy case of phony medals gleamed on his chest and a golden cord hung from black shoulder pads-- that if anything, hid the broadness of Goldenglow's shoulders. The first day I'd seen the AI, he stood atop the Goldenglow Estate, a crimson pyramid at the center of Megafort, his palm cupped in a benevolent wave down at a city full of player characters that cheered his name as his security detail-- the Megafort Security Force (MSF), comprised of both NPCs and real flesh and blood people-- executed a player who'd failed an attempt on his life, thus losing his own.

The idea of escaping this reality and returning to the real world was a fleeting one for most players. People like myself, who sought to bring the AI to its knees, were the minority by a large margin. But of course I knew why, this place was paradise for the wicked. The topless girls walking the steaming streets under fluorescent buzzing of red lights attested to that.

I absorbed my surroundings as I walked, listening to the sound of idle chatter against the backdrop of techno music that every bar, club, or motel in the area seemed to play. The air in the red light was stale. The wind didn't blow down here. I hated places like this, under the guise of pleasure, fun, or stress relief, the night always bred the worst kinds of depravity.

I suppose I'm no better though. I think to myself, as I reach my destination.

I pull my cap lower, ducking my chin into the collar of my coat as I pushed my back against the metal door of Eden's Garden. A gentlemens club famed for it eroticism in all flavors of perversion.

Women glistened with beads of sweat as they clung to poles on the main stage. They stayed high above the reach of men, but their movements tempted nearly all of them to stretch out their arms regardless. To grab a feel, or pass the workers money.

I locked eyes with a dancer, her irises glowed a icy blue, seems in her synthetic face ran down her neck and outlined the curves of her nude body. Her lips parted in a smile, calling my eyes to follow her hands as she traced herself with them. From her colorful hair, to the edges of her soft face, down the curves of her shoulders and across the plains of her tight stomach. Just past her hips, cybernetic legs gleamed, bouncing the ambient lighting of the gentlemens bar off the slick metallic surface. She hopped off the stage, blue hair flowed through the ponytail on her back as she glided across the room to me. Her long elven ears perked as she closed the distance between us.