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.

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.

My hands are stable, and my thoughts are more clear. I can perhaps start writing about our findings.

Alberto managed to trap four out of five sweepers in various rooms in former Green Rodents hideout. Fifth one almost left his guts on a pavement, but luckily Alberto lived, even though now he has debt of eight thousand Ahn. But we are already almost two-third of our way to cover it. Remaining one-third can be covered by finishing a contract related to fog snatchers, or by kicking down door of the associate hideout.

He also figured out their weakness. Two of them, in fact. First was that they couldn't really damage structures - they didn't tried to break doors or windows to pursue Alberto. Second was their weakness to extreme heat. We basically boiled one of the sweepers. In the morning, we then loaded him in the wheelbarrow and got him to office's workshop. There we made a discovery.

It was quite disturbing. Sweepers are likely some sort of organic robots, as the fleshy mass we found inside was definitely human in origin, almost resembling a brain, suspended in red liquid, as some form of life support. With how hatchets had tubes connecting to the tank on the back of the sweeper, and the sweeper's mask too, had a tube, leading to the tank, my theory is that liquid is necessary for them to survive. With how organic mess is human in nature, red liquid is likely human in nature, and they hunt humans as well? It doesn't takes much to connect two dots together.

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.