The next morning Mai sighed as she finished off her breakfast. Holding Li tight she kissed her on tear-slick cheeks.

“It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine,” Mai whispered into her sister’s ear. “I work in the sewers for a while, and I’ll be back in no time. At least I wasn’t sent to the Tea Gardens or the military.”

“But they never let you go,” stammered Li through sobs. “They’ll charge you for everything. Clothes. Food. Even the bed you sleep in. You’ll never clear this debt. And there are monsters down there!”

Mai shook her head, “Don’t you have any faith in me?” She asked. “The monsters are a myth. Our Glorious Emperor wouldn’t allow such a thing.”

IMPERIAL PRAISE +1 SOCIAL POINT

Mai ignored the prompt appearing on her retina. All loyal citizens were awarded a maximum of ten social points a day for vocally praising the emperor. Considering it took over one hundred thousand social points to even be able to apply for an apartment, it was a pitiful amount. And considering the number of complaints she’d had from her neighbours, she was fighting a losing battle.

She’d been warring with Wong for as long as she could remember, back before the death of her parents, whose social score had seen them getting this apartment. Fortunately, if fortunately was the correct word, she couldn’t lose the apartment through incurring a bad social score. Nor even through her debt. The Emperor recognised the importance of established families, and so inherited homes couldn’t be seized. But those who didn’t own their apartments, who were forced to rent them, could find themselves homeless, forced out to cheaper housing lower down. If she’d been trying to get onto the property market herself, she’d have found it hard to get even a box.

And if I’m perfectly honest, I’d be a ground-dwelling One-Miler.

“All the faith in the world. I’ll be waiting for you to come home,” her sister solemnly swore.

There was a knock at the door. Heavy, hard, and slow. Another two followed, then they stopped. Letting go of her sister, Mai stood and walked over to where her rainslick waited. There were more thuds on the door.

"I’m coming," she yelled. Keying the door open, she took a step back when she saw two huge men waiting for her in the corridor. Muscles upon muscles bulged, their heads seeming to be too small for their oversized bodies.

They reeked of testosterone and her hackles rose in primitive response to the threat her body perceived. Mai turned, holding out a hand to stop her sister from following her, blew a kiss, stuck out her tongue and stepped into the corridor.

A door hissed open and Wong stuck his head out of his door and grinned toothily, jeering at her and jabbing a finger every time he spoke.

“Stupid bitch couldn’t leave well alone. You forget that my fat cow of a wife was mine? I bought her fair and square,” he sneered.

“You’ve been assigned to the sewers.” One of the thugs laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. If they hadn’t been wearing slightly different coloured tops, she wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart. “Not going to have any trouble, are we?”

“No,” she replied, leading them down towards the lifts. It was a small act of rebellion and stopped them from being able to frogmarch her.

As she passed Wong he poked her with a finger, “You’re going to die in shit up to your neck. Shame to see you go, I’ve always wanted to tap that ass.”

He slapped her butt hard, cackling as he did. Without thinking she jabbed her left hand into his nose. Wong screamed, staggering back into his apartment blood squirting from the hand clamped over his face. A broken nose on top of the fine he’d have got for slapping her arse was far less than he truly deserved.

“Wasn’t expecting that,” laughed the second.

“This one’s got some fight in her,” chuckled the first.

A message popped up onto her retina.

ASSAULT UPON A LOYAL CITIZEN – 200 UC FINE APPLIED.

Mai sighed, but she felt a hint of satisfaction at finally giving Wong what he deserved. Then she realised that he would probably take it out on his wife once he’d returned from the clinic, and she immediately regretted it.

Seems like I can’t get anything right, she thought, inwardly cursing herself. No matter how hard she tried not to, she’d bucked the system her entire life. It was as if breaking the rules was second nature to her. In fact, her true nature. She’d never been able to truly fit in.

Whilst her parents had been alive that hadn’t been too much of an issue. As a mid-level bureaucrat and policeman they’d held down good jobs and been able to earn enough social score to offset her penalties. Karma was a social indicator, a way of rewarding or punishing behaviour. Monetary fines were often added to punishments.

And then they’d died in an elevator failure and Mai had self-destructed to the point where now she’d left Li having to fend for herself.

They stood in silence in the lift, muzak playing, holographic infomercials stuttering into and out of life as it slowly descended more than 500 levels.

Sweat started rolling down her back the further they descended. They were into the maintenance levels where creature comforts were an urban legend. Fresh air was a thing of the past. From now on it would be recycled air and even more pollution.

She’d done a quick data hunt, trying to find out as much as possible about the sewers, not wanting to go in blind. She wished she hadn’t. What she had been able to find was a mix of public record and urban legend.

Due to the size of the city, sewers as small as a pipe, or large enough to hold a parade in - should anyone want to wade through rivers of shit and piss - riddled the miles-high towers, often taking up whole levels. She even watched as effluent flowed over the edge of a pipe to fall miles as a noxious waterfall before hitting a toxic lagoon on a level of two-mile.

Sewer beasts, she mentally scoffed. However, the pictures she’d seen of workers wading in filth, backs hunched, had been official. They’d been seared into her brain.

With the population being as large as it was, the city didn’t need to rely on expensive and hard-to-maintain machinery.

And with idiots like me, why would they?

Sewer workers waded through the waste of those more conforming than them, filtering out the detritus that should never have made it into the lower levels. Just one look at someone neck-deep in human waste had been enough for her. With a shudder she’d cut the holo, wiping sweat from her forehead.

She faced a life of drudgery, boredom, pain, and misery. Despite the brave face she’d put on whilst talking to her sister, she’d been unable to work out how to pay off her debt and get back home quickly. As she stood, the weight of her sentence weighed heavily, literally forcing her head down and hunching her shoulders. She’d been sentenced to life in the sewers and her heart and mind raced at the thought of Li having to fend for herself when she had neighbours like Wong.

The elevator stopped and the doors juddered open. Light flickered in the expanse that greeted them. Mai slapped a hand over her nose and mouth as the stench of the sewers greeted them like a slap in the face with a warm fart. It was vile and sweat beaded on her forehead whilst her breakfast felt as though it was going to reappear any second.

With a not-so-gentle nudge she stepped through the doors. It was as if she had some sort of disease, a leper. Everyone moved out of the way as the first thug led the way and the second thug walked behind her, heavy hand still on her shoulder.

Every worker bowed as they passed, offering greetings to her guards. None would meet their eyes. She paused as a particularly noxious gust of wind made her urge. Vomit filled her mouth and her cheeks bulged before she was able to force it back down, wincing at both the taste and the acidic burn.

The guard’s hand tightened. It felt as though if he just squeezed a little bit tighter her collarbone would snap, crumble to powder. She prayed to Buddha that he wouldn’t feel the need to demonstrate his strength.

She knew there was no way she could escape from them at that moment and found that she didn’t really care. Her mind was racing as she tried to work a way out of the situation she found herself in, as a whole. She accepted that immediate escape wasn’t a possibility, there was no quick fix.

Everything she did would have to be longer term. Unless a short-term fix presented itself that was. She knew there was no one else to blame but herself, she had always bucked the system. And it was the system which had well and truly bucked back.

You’d have thought that with a government which gamified every single aspect of a person’s life, which inserted nanites into people at birth, took their DNA, fingerprints, and footprints, that she would have played the system and done her best.

But in a city of one hundred and sixty billion people, where you could never be truly alone, and where you knew that the government was always watching, the urge to fight the system, to give them the finger, was strong. At least for her it was.

Not everyone felt the same way, or acted up as much as she had, but enough people did that the sight of a young girl being led to the induction rooms wasn’t something to elicit comment. Plus there were always those who were never destined for greatness, or even lives worth living. A wrong decision here, a poor bet there, and they found themselves indentured.

The thugs guided her to a moving pedway which stretched away into the distance so far she couldn’t tell how many people were using it. As with any pedway in the city it was packed.

Maintenance trucks and drones flew overhead, throwing dim shadows over the people below, and person after person passed by on the pedway in the opposite direction.

She hated the Social System. For every action, there was a reward, or a punishment. Get sick too many times, start to lose social score and suffer fines. You’d find the system would start removing any upgrades you’d earned, making you work harder to try to earn them back.

If those nanite upgrades had been helping you hit work-related targets, then losing them would see your productivity fall, you’d be placed into less-skilled and less-rewarding jobs.

Which might, in turn, see you lose more nanites. And then you get sick again and the cycle repeats itself until you find yourself indentured. Not many people managed to earn their way out.

“We’re there,” grunted thug one. “Step off at the intersection.”

She followed him as he stepped off the pedway and led her towards an archway with a broken neon sign which read WELCOME TO SEWER COMPANY 55. She snorted, a pig-like sound which caused the guards to look down at her. Whether it was from amusement at the poor attempt to lift morale, or because she was going to start crying, she didn’t know.

The second thug’s hand gripped tighter, this was clearly the time when people like her would try to make their escape. But there was nowhere to escape to.

The system would find you, bounty hunters eager to make a few credits or eager to raise their social scores, happily hunting down anyone who defaulted.

Mai followed thug one into a dank tunnel. She flinched as someone roared angrily behind the wall to her right, the words muffled by the thick brick, the tone unmistakable. The music thudding from the barracks above only served to add to the sensory overload she was suffering.

They entered what passed for a courtyard, it was three or four stories tall and covered by another level, a holographic sky lighting the space.

Before them was the entrance to the barracks, built in a traditional Chung Kuo style, red pillars with golden writing on their front, red curved tiles on the roof, and faux bamboo sliding doors the full length of its frontage.

Two other thugs, dressed in traditional Imperial Chung Kuo outfits, stood at the front entrance, standing to each side of the stone steps leading up to it. She was impressed at the intricacy of the embroidery and the amount of silk which had gone into making them. Even though they had wide sleeves indicating that they didn’t need to do manual labour, she got the impression that they were more than capable of changing them in a second should any trouble arise.

Between them was a diminutive woman. Mai couldn’t put an age on her, there was far too much makeup on her face. She wore clothes which, at one time, had cost a pretty penny. But now they were faded, and she could see as they drew closer that the cuffs on her sleeves, and the hem on her dress were frayed.

Her clothing was in direct contrast to the utilitarian clothing worn by all of the other people she’d seen so far, bar the guards. It was clear that this was a person to fear.

“Welcome to Sewer Company Fifty-Five,” the woman smiled, her voice surprisingly rich and deep.

“It’s rude to not say thank you when someone welcomes you to your new home,” snapped the woman, heavily painted eyebrow arching, and the second thug’s hand tightening painfully on Mai’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped in pain, tears making her vision suddenly misty. “Thank you for your kind welcome, Madam.”

“Sun,” replied the woman. “You will call me Madam Sun and I shall be your overseer for the next month. By that point, you should be a level one sewer worker.”

Mai nodded, keeping her tone polite, she replied, “Thank you Madam Sun. I am Mai.”

Sun sniffed and beckoned her with a tilt of her head, “Let’s get you inside.” She didn’t wait for a response, setting off at a surprisingly brisk pace for someone who looked so old.

Mai followed her, stepping between the two thugs guarding the entrance with the original two thugs who had picked her up following closely behind like malevolent shadows.

They were so close that she felt as though they were stealing the very air from her lungs. Every step was crowded and because they were taller, she felt as though their shadows were blocking the light from reaching her. It was as if she was dropped into a hole. Her pulse quickened, breathing getting shallower and quicker. Sweat started to bead on her forehead. And, as if they were able to read her like a book, they moved even closer. The only option she had to get away from the oppressiveness was to walk faster towards the one place she didn’t want to go. She’d heard stories of people like them being deliberately modified so that they projected auras designed to deliberately unsettle people. If that was the case with these two, it definitely worked.

It only took a few quick steps to regain her own space before she stepped between the two guards waiting for them at the main door and entered the barracks fully. To her surprise, it wasn’t as bad as she had thought it could be.

It was clean, well lit, and all the upholstery on the chairs looked to be in fairly decent condition. In fact, if she was honest with herself, the room was probably in better condition than her apartment.

To her relief there were no other workers in the room, and the knot in her stomach loosened somewhat. She wasn’t prepared to meet her company members. It was all she could do to hold back the tears as it was.

“The other members of your work detail have already deployed,” Sun waved her hand at the empty room. “We use the early morning to gather up our new inductees.” Sun smiled showing teeth which had been fashionably darkened.

Mai never quite understood why anyone would want to look as though they had rotten teeth, but she wasn’t about to ask why Sun had done so either.

Mai had the clear idea that to ask Sun a question which might be deemed to be impertinent, might well end up in pain, something she was keen to avoid.

“This way,” Sun set off without waiting for Mai to respond. The thugs didn’t follow, and Mai realised that it was because they clearly believed she was a flight riskno more.

Dutifully, she followed Sun through the open-plan common room. It was surprisingly full of comfortable chairs, podiums with poles on them, and booths which looked as though they could be sealed should the occupants so wish if they had enough credit.

Privacy was a currency of its own. Surrounded by a constant mass of human beings, seclusion booths were the only way someone could truly step away from society.

Sun led her through a door in the wall. As it hissed open, she could see that it was made of steel, and more than a hand’s palm-width thick.

“Fire and gas proof,” Sun gestured at the door before rapping her knuckles on it, “and other times we have had to defend ourselves against attacks by various unruly elements. No one, or no thing gets in or out unless we want them to,” she said with a simper.

Mai took the not-so-subtle hint. She wanted to ask about what sort of things could be found in such an awful place, but she could tell that Sun was a woman of limited patience. And, if she was honest, she just wanted to be left alone.

“I understand Madam Sun. I look forward to being the best worker I can,” she promised, trying hard to keep the quaver out of her voice.

Whilst she’d thought it would be difficult to escape, she hadn’t thought she’d be in a building which had such stringent security measures inside. She could understand the security for doors leading to freedom, but internally she expected more freedom of movement.

Once more your pride bites you on the butt, she thought bitterly to herself.

“Oh I’m sure you will,” Sun smiled, exposing those awful teeth once more. “They all say that. Some actually mean it. But no one who’s indentured truly does, not until the skills they need have been uploaded. Not until they truly accept the situation.” There was a sadness, a bitterness to her tone. Mai cocked her head as she realised that Sun too was indentured.

She was surprised. Not having thought about it, she had assumed that the people in charge would be free citizens. Ice ran down her spine as she realised that from Madam Sun’s former glorious clothing, she would have been considered to be successful in her past life. And here, she made herself into a respected manager. And yet that, and this current success, still hadn’t prevented her indenturement nor seen her freed now.

“May I ask a question?” She asked, praying to the Six-fingered God that she hadn’t overstepped the mark.

“If it’s not rude or insulting. Then yes,” nodded Sun.

“How long have you been here?”

Sun sighed, as if she was remembering a better time. “I was inducted at the age of twenty. My family were eight-milers, but my father was an alcoholic and a poor gambler. Losses led to heavy loans, which my father then gambled away leading to more loans. And my parents were unable to pay. Desperate, my father turned to working for the loan sharks, becoming an even more useless criminal.’ Sun’s mouth twisted at that, her anger painted across her face. And because my father had me running errands which I didn’t know were for the loan sharks, I got sucked in. His crimes and debts became mine. I’ve been here 35 years. I’m a level 50 Sewer Manager.”

Sun gave herself a shake once she stopped talking, “Although why I felt the need to tell you that I don’t know. Apologies.”

Mai stared for a second. So shocked that she forgot to keep walking. Sun took a couple of additional steps before stopping herself. Fifty levels in any profession was astoundingly high. Whilst working hard would gain a person experience points which could be used to buy better upgrades, sometimes even new skills if the employers didn’t award them, levels were both an indication of a person’s social standing within that profession and their skill. Up above, in the real world, a level fifty manager would have been truly respected.

“Come now,” Sun waved Mai forward, putting on a brave face. “It’s not that bad. As you level up you will get full upgrades, you’ll gain Social Standing and experience points from working hard and being a productive member of society, and you’ll be able to earn a few credits to pay for your living costs as well as some of the nicer things in life if you find anything valuable in the night soil. The rules are simple to adhere to. After which, well, we’ll see.”

Sun paused, laying a hand on Mai’s arm. “It’s dangerous work. No doubt you think we just stand in shit and push it through. It’s far, far more dangerous than that.”

She started walking again, the hand on Mai’s arm giving her no choice but to follow. “We’ll load up the skills expected of a low-level sewer worker. Such as basic health and safety, time management, decontamination procedures, first aid and CPR. For the first month, you’ll learn how to work in the sewers alongside a mentor assigned from one of the staff here. You’ll be entering the sewers shortly and should hit level one quickly. By that point, you’ll have everything you need to enable you to do a good job. We’ll also see how well you fit in. If you do well, you’ll be eligible for Primary Company, the best we have. Do badly, and you can find yourself in the Sewer Rats. You really don’t want to be part of that.”

“What are the costs?” asked Mai. Her head felt like it was spinning, everything was just too much to take in. The only things she could focus on were Sun, and the fact that she needed to escape as soon as possible. It was irrational, but she needed to get back to Li. She had to at least try.Yet again her stpuid need to buck the system was biting her in the ass and, whilst she was the one indentured, it was Li who was the one ultimately paying for her sister’s stupidity. It was Li who had been left completely without family.

“Food, lodgings, all non-nanite clothing, emergency BIO-MASS boost to replenish nanites, level upgrades, and all skill downloads, will be added to your debt. The food, lodgings, and clothing will be charged on a monthly basis with the first month deducted in advance.”

Mai’s jaw dropped at that. Intellectually she had known this was coming. But that’s all that knowledge had been, almost metaphysical. A thought. But now it was existential, and the reality hit home. Her debt was large enough. Adding yet more was just … her mind scrabbled for the words before giving up. Wrong.

How can I ever earn enough to get myself out of here if I’m going to keep adding to my debt! Sun’s been here for decades!

“May I ask another question?” asked Mai.

“Of course.” Smiled Sun exposing the awful black teeth. She was the picture of attentive patience, and Mai hated her.

“How much will it cost me monthly?”

“The initial month will be 3000 universal credits. After that it’s 500 credits per month. We have a range of roles which we perform as Sewer Workers and which are all tied into quotas. All of those will earn you a certain number of credits. If you do not hit 500 credits’ worth of work within a month, then we will add the difference to your monthly bill.”

Mai bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying out. She’d known it was going to be hard to escape the clutches of the sewers, but she hadn’t realised just how hard. How the Hells was she going to get back to Li?

“What if I get ill?”

Sun tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. “You’ll be charged for any medical care, and for any lost work.”

Surrounded by the waste of one hundred and sixty billion people, Mai knew she was guaranteed to get sick. It was enough to make her want to puke.

“Access the skills menu,” continued Sun. “You’ll see the work we do, and what work you will be offering at level one.”

Mai did as she was told, blinking open the Sewer Worker’s menu. Because it was her latest job, it was fortunately at the top of the menu. The list of jobs she’d had previously was embarrassingly long. Her retinal monitor was programmed to recognise location and role, prioritising them so that accessing was easier.The first thing she saw was the pay structure.

Hit Daily Quota - +10 credits Exceed Daily Quota +10% - +10 credits Exceed Daily Quota +20% - +20 credits Miss Daily Quota - -10 Credits Sewer Dweller Kill - + 20 credits Assisting injured colleague - + 5 credits Artefacts - + Value of item Decontamination -5 credits Tool templates - Price dependent upon item, never less than 5 credits

Mai’s mind raced; as a level one sewer worker she’d be hard pressed to earn 500 credits a month, and the fact that she wouldn’t be earning anything in the first month as she levelled up meant that another 500 credits would be added to her debt.

Level one workers were truly the bottom of the rung, and everyone knew it. And the fact that she’d been slapped with a 3000-credit penalty on top of the credits she already owed made her stomach sour.

She did the maths quickly. On any normal day she’d have the potential to earn 10 credits, earning 300 credits a month depending on the number of days. Which would mean she’d add an additional 200 credits to her debt.

However, if she exceeded her quota by ten per cent every day, then she would earn 600 credits. 500 of which would go straight to paying off her monthly costs, and 100 of which would go to paying off the initial 3000 credits.

Mind racing, she realised it would take her thirty months to clear the initial three thousand credit debt, nearly three whole years. And then she’d be able to start trying to clear her 10,000 credit debt. At which point, she gave up even attempting to work out how long she’d be stuck in the sewers for.

Mai bit her lip as Sun turned away to wave at someone. She was starting to realise that no one escaped their debts despite what the holocasts claimed. In order to get back to Li, she would have to hit and exceed target every single day.

Her mouth dried at the thought of Li being alone for thirty months as she cleared the new debt she’d been saddled with. The thought of then having to work off the other ten thousand before she could see Li made her knees buckle.

How the hells is she going to cope for that long? At only fifteen, Li was just about old enough to get a job after school, but that would barely cover food costs. If there was one thing she could genuinely thank the Emperor for, it was the fact that every citizen was provided with a place to live for free based on their social skill.

She pounded a fist into her thigh. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Why the hells did she act like this? Why was she so driven to fail? Was it arrogance that she thought she could just get away with her behaviour? Was she somehow broken? What made her so different?

“Use the debt as an impetus to be as productive as possible,” encouraged Sun, laying a hand on Mai’s arm. “Make yourself popular with the other workers, learn from them, and you’ll be earning bonuses in no time. Your room is this way.”

Sun led her down a faux-bamboo-lined corridor in complete silence. Mai felt as if she’d entered a dream. She felt as though she were walking in a haze as she followed Sun. They came to yet another hidden security door which hissed open, it too was as thick as the first.

The room beyond was roughly 15 paces by 15 paces square and filled with tables, and comfortable sofas and settees. She was surprised to see workers of all ages sat around, playing games such as chess and Go, reading, or waving their hands in the air as they played any number of virtual reality games.

“These workers are off-shift,” Sun explained, waving her hand around the room. “This is a common room, but there are also plenty of other avenues for entertainment in the town.

Doors led off the room every few yards; each one with a name plaque above it. Looking at the far end of the room, she saw one which had her name crawling across it.

“I see you’ve noticed where your room is. I’ll let you get acquainted with it. The pad has been keyed to your DNA and your fingerprints. When you’re in that room no one can get to you. Unless of course it’s one of the senior staff. You are guaranteed complete and utter privacy within your room. Apart from when you are sleeping, you are allowed one hour before breakfast, and one hour after shift. At all other times you are expected to socialise with your fellow workers. You can hire a privacy booth in the common area should you require, but that will cost ten credits an hour.”

Sun paused, making sure that Mai was paying attention.

“However, if you do anything against the best interests of the company, or which goes against your indenture contract, we will be notified, and you will be fined further credits. Each infraction, each incident of disobedience, will result in a 1000 credit fine. If you are asked to do something by anyone of a higher rank which falls under your level’s list of duties, you may not refuse it. To do so will be counted as disobedience ...”

“And I’ll be fined. Thank you for your guidance Madam Sun, I shall do my utmost to follow them,” Mai promised as she bowed deeply towards her boss.

Head spinning, sick to her stomach, she prayed she wouldn’t collapse, or worse yet throw up on Sun’s feet.

“We appreciate that this is a massive life change. Some inductees spend their first night and day weeping. Or being sick. We expect you to struggle to adapt. But we are here to help.”

Sun laid a hand gently on Mai’s shoulder. “Use your retina display to identify mentors. They have exclamation marks above their heads. Chevrons with stars indicate team leaders.”

“Just like in real life.” Mai nodded.

“No. That isn’t real life, this is real life,” Sun’s grip tightened painfully for a moment. “Don’t forget that. You have one hour, then I want you to find the Skills Mistress. She’ll help you get the skills you need to get started”

Mai nodded; throat tight then stepped into her room.

“Remember, one hour.”