This night, I have dreamed of my first days and nights in the Backstreets again.

I was exiled from NEST, what I called home for my entire life. I do not know why, as the official reasoning of “not contributing to society” doesn’t works, when you are fully capable of paying taxes. I still think to this day, that I was just unlucky, and ‘chosen’ to be exiled, when some more promising person, likely a fixer, applied for a citizenship in the NEST.

I didn’t know what to do. My grandparents didn’t know what to do. My friends didn’t know what to do. No one did. We weren’t prepared, as we never ever considered a possibility of something like this happening. But there wasn’t much that we could do, other than accept my exile, and give each other our final goodbyes. We knew we would likely never each other ever again.

My first days and nights in Backstreets were chaotic. I didn’t know how to live in them. I didn’t belong there. Never did. Each day, I thought it would be my last one. Each day was a struggle to obtain enough Ahn to have something to eat, and find a shelter before Sweepers hit. Each night was a moment of respite – unless I was without a shelter, that is. Then it would be a struggle to hide from Sweepers, or run away from them. I had to rapidly adapt to the Backstreets to survive. And to do that, I needed to act on instincts.

Ironically enough, even though I wanted to be a doctor once upon a time, nothing in my oath stated that I must not shed any drop of blood. Neither did it stated that I need to be pacifist to be a doctor.

The smoke, which is what I assume, is a side-effect of L-Corp singularity, covered the Backstreets. From what I have seen and experienced myself: Tampers with the thought process, induces euphoria. Likely causes slight psychosis, judging by my thirst for blood, which came after inhaling a lot of smoke by accident.

Taking delight in cutting people apart and beheading them is not healthy, not by any means. I do not have any hope in having the effects of the smoke be gone after a night of sleep, but not being exposed to a smoke is still better than still being exposed to it.

At least, now we know where our boss is. Our boss, Blackburn, was transfered to Zwei section six, something about exchange program. They could have told us earlier. So now Alberto is a temporary office leader. Or permanent, if Blackburn won't return. I was surprised someone actually voted for me.

In other interesting news, I now possess interesting collection of low-quality knives, as well as a single high-quality one. As well as a vial of something called 'Enkephalin'. Contact of ours gave us an information about it.

It is the substance, the one that grands L-Corporation it's reputation for as energy producers. The vial of this substance is enough to power half of the Backstreets. It can be consumed to induce euphoria, and was used this way to maintain mental health of L-Corp employees, which raises a question, why it is needed to maintain their mental health in the first place. Potentially hazardous to machines due to it stickiness. It was also mentioned that it has some true purpose. Can be sold for the price of twenty five thousand Ahn. But we decided to hold on to it for now. If we need to, we'll sell it off. But for now? Let it be an emergency option. Both in case someone is about to go insane, and in case we desperately need money.

I do wonder, what our next job will be. The choice is between job from Pete, eliminating cannibals. Or our contract, to eliminate Viper's associates.

With recent elimination of H-Corp, the food and water prices skyrocketed six times. I am in awe that they didn't go even further. I do hope this doesn't significantly impacts how much payment we receive and how much of that payment actually gets to be spent on something that isn't just food and water.

As of recently, there wasn't much to write, or at least, anything noteworthy. If I was to write down every single small talk that occurred between me and office members, the journal entries would be unreasonably bloated. On the other hand, at least there would be much of something to write, I suppose.

I don't even remember why I started writing down this journal in the first place. It's a liability, someone could find it and utilize information in it against me, be it as blackmail, source of information for arranging my death, or as a source of information on how to flirt with me more successfully. Though to be honest, while I find Blackburn's flirting with me annoying occasionally (like stubbornly refusing to keep nine hundred Ahn to himself, instead of giving it to me), I did enjoyed his more light-hearted approach to various situations. Perhaps it's his natural charm, and coincidentally how he got a kid to care for in the first place.

But enough talk. Hunt for cannibals doesn't wait. And with any luck, we'll find more of those 'E-vials', and if this happens, I will allow Alberto to drink one, since he was clearly volunteering last time to drink suspicious and possibly harmful or deadly substances. Even if he doesn't, then twenty five thousand Ahn for a single vial is still a good deal.

What I have procured during the mission:

- Gasmask (purchased). NEST-grade. Don't expect anything special from it, other than being reliable).
- Shortsword (purchased). Durable and slightly lighter. Nothing special, but certainly better quality than anything that most of the stuff I can find in the backstreets.
- Vial of high-grade anesthetics (looted). Likely what was used by cannibals to pacify their victims for butchering. Will do well for medical purposes.
- Unidentified vial (muscle stimulant?) (looted). Some kind of muscle stimulant. Can't identify it properly yet. Need further research.
- A trinket (looted). Nothing special or worth keeping, but it will sell for 700 Ahn.

Later I will look for Pete, and see if he has any bounty available for eliminating cannibals. While what I looted certainly is valuable, likely more than whatever he'd be able to pay us, if he will pay at all, having some money in form of Ahn, instead of sellable (and in some cases - hard to sell) goods is always nice. Then I will have to start doing recon and start looking into hideout of the associates of Preying Vipers. Some preparations will be necessary. Maybe Alberto will have more of gas mixes ready, as I doubt street rats, even if they are richer and are associates of the syndicate, will have gasmasks.

If we won't take fight to them, they will certainly take fight to us, and while having home territory advantage is nice, not having to resort to it is always better.

The people we rescued from cannibals are fine. They are not healthy, but they didn't had any life-threatening injuries or conditions. Apparently, they'll be forming office now, to hunt down cannibals, like those who abducted them in the first place. It feels nice, to finally save lives, instead of take them. But I suppose I shouldn't get used to it.

We had a bit of an argument after the office raid. With Alberto sharing his thoughts, and Mayhew making fun of him, while I was worried that Alberto once again will try to bite off more than he can chew.

Once Alberto finished pouring out thoughts on his mind, and a dream of a better world, I am reluctantly have to agree with Mayhew, in that Alberto is naive, and it's sad to admit it. He has good heart, but good heart means little if you can't back your dreams of a better world with... anything, really. I am afraid that he will bite off more than he can chew, again, and almost die, again. Torso penetrated by the sword and left to bleed and die on the ground. Doesn't matter. I won't let him die again.

I truly believe that this place needs change, and it probably will change. But we won't see it soon. Not in five years, nor within our whole lives. Maybe it won't happen in the next hundreds of years. But perhaps it will come. I sincerely hope it will. But whenever or not it does won't matter much, because I won't live to see it, even if I naively assume i'll die of old age, and not by receiving deadly wound.

But I'll be there, and keep him alive, even if it will result in my death. It's not like I have anywbere else to go and anything else to do, other than cutting everyone in pieces.