?Nick furrowed his brows, but he still extended one of his arms.
Sure enough, the upper layer had ridiculous security levels.
'But even that is not enough since Julian managed to enter the upper layer,' Nick thought.
The copy of the contract that the city had stored had been in a safe on the upper layer, which meant that Julian must have managed to enter.
'Most likely, she just let Julian pass without testing him since he is her friend,' Nick thought.
The Specialist moved the needle to Nick's right index finger and drew a bit of blood.
A moment later, she put the needle into a small hole in the wall.
DING!
A green light appeared above the hole for three seconds before vanishing.
The Specialist pocketed the needle and looked at Nick with a smile.
"You may pass. Welcome to the upper layer!" she said as she stepped to the side and gestured to the wooden door behind her.
"Thank you," Nick answered with a nod before he walked to the door.
"After you go through the door, please read the sign with the rules before entering."
Nick nodded without answering.
Nick put his hand on the door and pushed.
The door opened easily, and as soon as it did, Nick felt a small gust of pleasant-smelling air coming out.
He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
When he saw where he was, he was a bit surprised.
Nick found himself in a hall made of wood.
The hall was about 50 meters long and 10 meters wide, and there were lockers everywhere!
It reminded Nick of the rooms before the Containment Units in Dark Dream.
Nick saw another wooden door on the other side of the hall and saw a big sign beside it with the rules on them.
'Shoes are forbidden.'
'Wearing outside clothing is discouraged.'
'Wearing weapons is forbidden.'
'Don't be loud.'
'No running.'
'Be respectful.'
'Don't ask personal questions without knowing the other person well.'
'Don't enter private property without the permission of the owner.'
There were a couple more rules, but those were the most important ones.
Nick also saw a couple rules specifically for visitors, and when he was done reading them, he furrowed his brows.
This was crazy.
The next moment, Nick walked over to some lockers that were specifically for visitors.
He opened one that was unoccupied and saw what he was soon going to wear.
It was a brown shirt made of very soft fabric and some comfortable brown pants made of the same fabric.
When he touched these things, he had to take a deep breath.
He had never touched anything so soft!
The next moment, he took the clothing and entered a changing room at the side.
In the changing room, he undressed and put all of his clothing in a basket before going into a shower with cleansing liquid.
After showering, Nick put the warm and fuzzy clothing on before walking out of the changing room.
He put the basket with his stuff into the locker before grabbing one of the keys and locking it.
Then, he put the key around his arm and walked towards the exit.
This was the first time in years in which Nick had been walking barefoot.
He couldn't help thinking about his past in the Dregs.
The wooden floor felt warm and nice on his bare feet, and the clothing warmed his body.
After reaching the door, Nick opened it and stepped through.
For the first time, he entered the upper layer of the city, a place where only people worth over 100 million credits could live.
Nick's feet stepped on a small path made of soft dirt.
Beside the path was green grass.
Basically everything around Nick was covered in grass!
There were also quite a lot of trees with beautiful green leaves almost everywhere.
The air smelled fresh and invigorating, and the sky was a beautiful bright blue.
There were also a couple of small and white clouds slowly drifting across the sky.
Even though it tried its best to hide, Nick's senses could also pick up some kind of furry animal with a big bushy tail that was clinging to one of the trees with a nut in its mouth.
Nick could also see animals with feathers and wings that could fly. These animals looked like smaller and thinner chickens.
About 50 meters away, Nick could see a man, a woman, and two kids sitting on a blanket in the middle of a small meadow.
They were eating some sandwiches, which they had brought from home via a nice basket.
Compared to Nick, all four of them wore white clothing instead of brown.
The color of the clothing probably represented the difference between visitors and citizens.
Nick saw the family laughing happily.
He looked away from them and focused on the dirt path in front of him.
Nick's fists clenched.
The contrast between the upper layer and the Outer City hit him like a ton of bricks.
The upper layer was disgusting.
The sheer amount of Zephyx required to make all of this possible had to be ridiculous.
How much of the city's wealth was wasted on creating this paradise for the richest one percent?
The fact that these people could laugh all carefree in this paradise while the displaced people of the Dregs were fighting for their lives in a world of blood and rust enraged Nick.
Nick remembered how much he had suffered in the Dregs when he was younger.
And while he had suffered, these people had enjoyed life in this paradise!
He hated the upper layer.
The upper layer perfectly represented what was wrong with the city.
Nick took a deep breath and walked forward.
As he kept walking, he passed by a couple of people wearing white clothes.
One of them even started a casual conversation with him, but Nick only gave curt answers.
He only asked the guy where he could find Albert.
The man looked a bit offended by Nick's tone, but he told Nick where he could find Albert.
Nick just thanked him and left.
Not even five minutes later, he arrived at Albert's house.