[ WP ] `` A glowing neon diamond from afar ; a rotting cesspool of vice and violence up close . I would n't have it any other way . Welcome to Earth , Gentlemen . '' NSFW

The most profitable thing anyone ever invented is denial. Find a fact people do n't like, show them the evidence, then sell them an excuse to pretend it's fine. Society's leaders were taking us forward, life was getting easier, life was getting safer. It did n't matter what happened to the objectors, they were the bad guys, the reason we need that tower in the middle of the city. 
 
 It took a few decades for them to get their utopia. Some of them realized they did n't want it. As a civilized democracy, the wishes of the people were paramount. When the people wanted rid of private communication it was banned, when they felt threatened by genetic engineering and more extensive human modification they were banned, when harmful opinions became a danger to society they were banned. That's why places like this exist. 
 
 The industrial zones had been operated by robots for a long time. They're cheaper to maintain than a human workforce. Societies living in shining cities might call you a threat but the robots do n't judge. Some of us ended up living out here when we did n't keep up with who it was fashionable to hate. Some tried to keep a low profile inside society. Most of those who did n't are locked up. 
 
 This zone is D38. People have called it a lot of things but none of them stuck better than D38. It's close to a city but we keep a low enough profile that people prefer to believe there's only robots here. Why would anyone want to live around concrete and razor wire? 
 
 I was born a while before everything went to shit. I saw it happening, but too many people had been convinced they want it for the rest to stop it. There were n't many of us and we knew society was n't for us, but we thought we could live around it. That was when I was modified. People like us were useful to some people and some of them had power. They offered us a way to live around society without completely separating from it; most of us took it. 
 
 Corporate espionage was what we were used for. We were completely deniable, not officially working for anyone. 
 
 Digital data security had gotten better fast and remotely cracking security systems was too unreliable, if the network was externally accessible at all. Physical security never changed. I was used for infiltration. Get in, do what you need, get out without being identified. I was modified with mechanical limbs, ocular enhancements, and brain implants to interface with computers. The technology we had available was incredible. 
 
 Corporate warfare was common enough that the people who knew did n't care about the body count. Most were shielded from those figures. There were 37 billion people on earth. In utopia you're replaceable. 
 
 It could never have lasted for long. State doorkickers got more aggressive in protecting the public. Our employers did n't do a lot to help us. That was when I headed to D36. 
 
 Around that time the industrial zones were starting to look like a good option to the people society had decided are the enemy. D36 was the same as D38 is now but with more people. When there's that many people in one place where there's not meant to be anyone they're going to be noticed. There were a lot of police raids there, getting as many pariahs as they could, but they did n't care enough to stop people fighting among themselves. I saw a girl stabbed to death over an argument about who got to sleep in an office. Someone with my skills and enhancements was in high demand. 
 
 Just like in the city the raids got more frequent and more violent. Doorkickers love their shotguns. 
 
 Most of the inhabited industrial zones would communicate with the same technology that had been banned years ago. Paranoia over what the encrypted data packets contained was a good enough excuse for police to shoot people at D36 every few weeks. I knew enough about D38 to head for it when D36 came under attack more regularly. It was a few hundred miles away at the other end of the city. 
 
 That was about 3 years ago. D38 has never been assaulted. These days I mostly work in cyberwarfare for the people who society hates but ca n't pin down. I'm still in demand here for other things, mostly liberating supplies from warehouses in uninhabited industrial zones. 
 
 You have to wonder where this is going. Most of the people I used to work with were killed when the crackdowns started. We are the minority, most people are happy having their lives dictated. There are n't enough people like me to keep going forever. 
 
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 You read that in Adam Jensen's voice did n't you? I like how it turned out. The unending river of snark might not have come across well in text but overall I'm happy with it.
