Bizarre Realm-Chapter 376 - 28: First Blood!

Ring City, Outer City District.

The layout of this city follows traditional fantasy urban planning, distinct from the customs and practices of the Dorne Region. Ring City is a massive city with a black tower at its center, spreading out in circular layers. The urban planning here isn’t very modern; it’s an outward expansion built layer by layer, typically divided into Inner City District and Outer City District. The innermost layer is the residence of the nobles, mostly consisting of row villas. The city hall is also located here, surrounded by green lawns, meticulously maintained gardens, and estates and villas equipped with all kinds of luxuries. Exquisite statues and lavish fountains are dotted along the streets or in private courtyards.

Further out is Elf Long Street, surrounded by high-end shops, parks, arenas, theaters, and other buildings.

The layout planning of Ring City is quite interesting; you can tell from the street names that quite a few streets are named after races. From inner to outer, they are Elf Long Street, Dwarf Avenue, Half-Elf Long Street, and so on. The city planning from the inside out is Academy District, Garrison District, Guild District, Market District, Cavalry District, Red-Light District, and Slum District.

Various types of buildings are firmly situated, distinctly dividing the city into impenetrable class barriers.

In Ring City, the slum area occupies the largest area, and this should be the biggest slum in the entire Dagon Region, where hundreds of thousands of people live in low shanties. The residents here are mostly the poorest of the poor; many can’t even afford a small room in a cheap inn. They huddle in the dilapidated structures, struggling to survive each day in the overly cramped and crowded spaces.

The residents are ragged, emaciated, and the streets, due to prolonged disrepair, have their sewers (more accurately drainage ditches) completely clogged with filth. The entire district is filled with a nauseating stench, even of rotten flesh, though it seems they have long become accustomed to it.

Because quite a few half-grown children are rummaging through the trash for food and other usable essentials.

"Sir, do you need service?" a timid girl’s voice rang out.

Shawn’s Imaginary Avatar walked through this filthy district, disguised as a small merchant, clad in a dusty robe, appearing not to be wealthy, but much better than those barely clad impoverished people. In the small alley across was a girl around sixteen, her worn long dress stained with filth, seemingly unwashed for a long time. Her hair was also dirty, but her face faintly showed traces of youthful beauty. She watched Shawn timidly, hesitated slightly, looked around, and gradually approached.

The young girl cautiously said, "Just 5 Seth. I can serve you, sir."

Seth.

In Dorne City, it could only buy a meat-filled roll, but here it can make a young girl sell her body.

Shawn looked down at the timid, dirty girl before him. He’s not a saint, but what he has seen on this journey truly made him feel compassion. The first big city he visited was Dorne City, and for a long time, he thought that even if other places weren’t as good as Dorne City, they shouldn’t be that far off, but now he’s completely overturned this belief.

This place is more like Hell than Abyss City, at least in Abyss City, you can eat your fill.

Near the city gate area of Ring City, it somewhat resembles the human world, but in this slum built upon trash heaps, Shawn genuinely saw countless apathetic living corpses.

He reached out and handed a denomination of 1 Dinari to the young girl in front of him.

A hint of delight appeared in the girl’s eyes. She carefully turned around and entered the small alley, lifting her skirt, saying, "Sir, I can serve you twice."

"Sir?"

When she turned back, there was already no one behind her.

Outside the slum is a large garbage mound, with many young children playing in the trash, most of them not even wearing a stitch of clothing, filthy, consorting with flies and maggots. If you give them a bit of money or food, you’ll soon be surrounded by them, hungry, expectant eyes watching you.

Further out is the Cavalry District and Warehouse District.

The caravans arriving in the city stow their mules and horses here, with animal droppings everywhere on the streets. Amidst the rising dust, you can see laborers on both sides of the road with apathetic, stiff expressions. The goods brought in are unloaded here, then sent to the Warehouse District, and transferred to the Market District the next day.

Amidst the swarming flies, those adult laborers from the slum show no expression on their faces. They rarely take the initiative to seek jobs, just lie there with stiff expressions, waiting for someone to come find them for work. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Sluggishness.

Or rather, they’re already completely numb, for no matter how hard they work, they cannot change their destiny. There is no place for them here; they are forever relegated to living in filthy slum hovels, never able to live with dignity like a person.

Because they see not a glimmer of hope to change their fate, their hearts are already shrouded in a gray haze, distorting their very selves.

They are like ostriches, burying their heads in the ground, eking out an existence with a body akin to a living corpse.

"The ritual just makes it more extreme."

"Without the ritual, under the survival instinct, they wouldn’t show such sluggishness, but the ritual slowly erodes their will to survive."