Every city in the Empire had its own glamorous promotional banner. On the Imperial Capital Star, for instance, A-District prided itself on its opulence and wealth, S-District on its advanced prosperity, and Z-District on its abundance and vibrant culture.
But just as a flower has withered petals, every city has a part that cannot be printed on its banner. For the sake of the city’s glory, these parts are often driven to the edges, to the margins no one cares about.
And so, they are forever distanced from glory.
In the outermost ring of B-District, the lawlessness was so severe that an omega couldn’t appear alone on the street for five minutes.
Gangsters loitering everywhere kept their hungry eyes open at all times, hoping to tear a piece of flesh from their equally gaunt kind.
Jimmy, currently squatting and smoking, was a member of the Lone Wolf Gang.
After dropping out of elementary school, he had worked like a slave in his uncle’s electronics repair shop for seven years. If it weren’t for the Empire’s free genetic testing for infants, which told his parents he would differentiate into an alpha, he might not have lived freely to this day. He would have been sold off early to some minor gang leader in exchange for meager protection, just like his older brother.
However, in the outermost ring, differentiating into an omega wasn’t the worst fate.
The worst was when the genetic test was wrong, and you only discovered you were an omega during differentiation.
Omegas in the outermost ring usually found an alpha to protect them before they differentiated. Although the price was becoming their protector’s personal property after differentiation, it was, at least, only one alpha.
And given an alpha’s possessiveness, making them share what was theirs was harder than killing them.
As for those omegas who failed to find an alpha, differentiation was a catastrophe. The pheromones an omega released during differentiation would turn all surrounding alphas into beasts. They would tear at this fresh, unclaimed piece of meat like animals.
Until his glands ran dry.
Jimmy had met such a person. She was his uncle’s daughter and worked with him at the repair shop. Because her genetic test identified her as an alpha, his uncle had placed high hopes on her, planning for her to inherit the shop one day.
This girl, named Winona, perfectly fit the outermost ring’s description of an alpha. She was strong, tall, and worked with remarkable efficiency. Compared to her, Jimmy was practically useless.
She even started dating the daughter of the hoverbike shop owner next door—a girl who had charmed quite a few people.
The two promised to marry after they differentiated.
But then, differentiation came.
As Winona endured the agony of differentiation in her home, her pheromones seeped out through the cracks in the window. It wasn’t the aggressive scent of an alpha, but—the sweet, rich aroma unique to an omega.
That day, at least ten alphas burst through Winona’s door.
Her alpha father was busy at the shop, and her omega father was knocked unconscious by the crowd, left on the verge of death.
No one knew exactly what happened. All the alphas claimed to be the one who had permanently marked Winona.
Jimmy had gone to take a look once. It was a complete wreck.
Including the house, and including Winona.
Feeling a pang of pity, he covered Winona with a blanket, only to be met with a pair of hateful eyes.
He fell to the ground in fright. He hadn’t differentiated yet, so he couldn’t sense the chaotic mix of pheromones in the air.
Winona’s voice was hoarse as she told him, “Get out.”
After that, Winona never appeared at the repair shop again.
His uncle never mentioned her either. Jimmy knew she had most likely been sold to one of those cheap brothels.
That’s where the worthless omegas were.
And that’s where the broke alphas were.
After differentiating into an alpha, Jimmy quickly left his uncle’s repair shop and joined the Lone Wolf Gang, which was desperately short on members after a bloody fight with the Black Snake Gang.
Following his alpha brothers and sisters in the gang, Jimmy soon became familiar with those cheap brothels.
And he successfully found Winona there.
She looked completely like an omega now—thin, sensitive, and beautiful.
Jimmy admitted that he had wanted to find Winona out of a desire for revenge against his uncle for years of enslavement. He wanted to see the person his uncle had once considered the pillar of the family groveling like a bitch beneath him for a few dozen star coins.
But when he actually saw her, what little conscience he had left suddenly kicked in. Dropping all the star coins he had on him, Jimmy fled in a panic.
To Jimmy’s surprise, Winona truly was the talent his uncle had praised, saying that if their family lived in one of the inner rings, she would have definitely gotten into a university and become someone important. Even as a prostitute, she quickly made a name for herself.
She hooked up with the leader of the Lone Wolf Gang.
And now, Jimmy was standing guard for the boss. The door was so well soundproofed that not a single noise could be heard, which frustrated Jimmy quite a bit.
Speaking of Winona’s leap to becoming the boss’s mistress, Jimmy couldn’t help but marvel. The story went that the boss met her when he took his underlings to the Red Leaf District—where Winona worked—to celebrate a victory. Normally, a gang leader like him wouldn’t deign to touch someone of her sort.
The boss was a B-rank alpha, considered top-tier in the outermost ring. He usually went for freshly differentiated, tender omegas from within his protection racket territory. Rumor had it that the boss already kept nearly twenty omegas at his home.
Yet he had taken a liking to the sullied Winona, and had been spending a lot of time with her lately.
Jimmy blew out a puff of smoke and spat out the thick phlegm in his throat.
If he had known Winona had this in her, he shouldn’t have been so kind back then. He should have at least had a taste.
Jimmy’s mind was instantly filled with all sorts of lewd fantasies, so much so that he didn’t hear the soft sound from inside the room.
An hour later, he sensed something was wrong. By now, the boss should have been out.
Jimmy nudged the male alpha next to him with his elbow and whispered, “Why isn’t the boss done yet?”
The male alpha gave a sleazy grin. “Heard Old Man Cripple’s pharmacy got some new stuff recently.”
Jimmy immediately understood. Old Man Cripple was the best friend of every alpha in B-District’s outermost ring. The drugs he sold could enhance an alpha’s abilities in various ways, especially in one particular area.
Another half hour passed, and even the other alpha sensed something was wrong. In fifteen minutes, the Lone Wolf Gang was scheduled to fight the Black Snake Gang. No matter how engrossed the boss was in his pleasures, he wouldn’t be so reckless. The two exchanged a look and grimly pushed the door open.
The foul odor inside had not yet dissipated.
Besides the smell of sex, there was the smell of blood.
The smell of blood came from their boss.
Lying on the bed was a corpse, mangled beyond recognition. The male alpha trembled all over. “What do we do?”
Jimmy swallowed hard. “This… this has nothing to do with us, right?”
The male alpha reminded him with stark clarity, “How could it not? No matter who becomes the new boss, he’ll definitely make an example of us first.”
Then he spun around, grabbed Jimmy by the collar, and snarled, “You know this little bitch, don’t you?”
What does he mean?
It dawned on Jimmy—this guy was going to frame him!
His simple brain raced. The threat of death spurred him to unleash the greatest potential he’d shown in twenty years.
Just as his hands were about to be tied, he shouted, “I know! I know where she went!”
“We can redeem ourselves!”
The male alpha eyed him suspiciously, wondering if he was bluffing. Jimmy said urgently, “Go check her cabinet! Isn’t there a map of S-District in there?”
“She went to S-District!”
Jimmy had suddenly recalled a time when Winona, after the boss had left, seemed to sigh to herself, “Did you know? Right next to us is the innermost ring of S-District.”
It was a question, but Winona didn’t seem to expect an answer. After saying it, she had fallen asleep amidst the filth.
A bottom-tier hooker killing a gang leader was an offense punishable by death in the eyes of everyone in the outermost ring. No gang would let her go. Even their rivals, the Black Snake Gang, would publicly execute her to maintain the collective authority of the gangs. So her only chance of survival was to escape to S-District!
The male alpha was half-convinced.
Seeing his chance, Jimmy quickly added more fuel to the fire. “Even if you frame me, your fate will only be slightly better than mine. If we can find her and bring her to the new boss, he might even reward us!”
The male alpha seemed to be swayed. He reached out to untie the rope binding Jimmy. Just as Jimmy thought he had escaped, a sharp pain erupted in his chest. He looked down in disbelief to see a curved blade, unique to the Lone Wolf Gang, plunged into his chest.
“Why?”
“Little alpha, as your good brother, you can take the fall for me, and I’ll take the credit for you.”
“That’s the spirit of our Lone Wolf Gang.”
“You… you want to… take it all for yourself?”
The male alpha snorted but didn’t answer.
That stupid omega. Did she think the district border was so easy to cross? Especially the one leading directly to the innermost ring.
He knew that people like them weren’t even allowed to enter the second-to-last ring. Without substantial assets and proof of education, you couldn’t pass the inspection.
And assets? Where would you find assets in this godforsaken place?
Education? In those few broken-down schools, there were more people fighting than studying.
After wistfully reliving the anger of his youth, the man at the male alpha’s feet had stopped moving.
He smiled with satisfaction. His teeth, yellowed by cigarettes, looked almost brilliant against the blood-soaked floor.
He then used his terminal to send a message to the group chat: 【The boss got taken out by that bastard Jimmy and that bitch. I’ve already finished off the bastard Jimmy. Now I’m going after the bitch.】
Driving his beat-up pickup truck down the road, the male alpha couldn’t help but feel angry again. This shitty place didn’t even have hover cars, just these broken-down antiques from centuries ago!
Even the omegas were all ugly as sin, not half as pretty as the ones from the inner rings you saw on the terminal.
Still, that bitch was decent-looking. Tsk, too bad her heart was so rotten.
Once I catch her, hehe.
Half complaining, half fantasizing, he drove for over thirty minutes and arrived at the district border.
The environment at the district border was much better than the outermost ring. A long, black wall stretched before him, adorned with the imperial crest, the violet. It looked more like a decorative wall, but the male alpha didn’t dare underestimate it. Anyone who tried to climb it at night was always found the next day as a charred corpse.
He walked along the smooth, silver plaza, and behind the statue of the Emperor of the Empire was the border inspection office.
Looking at the beautiful and exquisite building before him, the male alpha spat inwardly: These imperial parasites, all they do is spend money on vanity projects.
Once inside, the male alpha wisely changed his demeanor. He bowed and scraped, offering the border inspector a pack of cigarettes and asking fawningly, “Sir, have you by any chance seen a female omega?”
“If you have, could you tell me which way she fled?”
“I’m with the Lone Wolf Gang. If you help me out, the Lone Wolf Gang will be forever grateful.”
The inspector glanced at the filthy alpha with disgust, took a step back, and placed the cigarettes on a nearby table.
She thought for a moment before replying, “Only one female beta has passed through recently.”
The male alpha’s heart skipped a beat. He cursed Jimmy internally for being so unreliable. Good thing he had the foresight to kill him.
After another round of flattery, the male alpha turned to leave, considering whether he should just defect to the Black Snake Gang. His future in the Lone Wolf Gang was probably over.
Then, an idea flashed in his mind. He pulled up an image on his terminal and asked urgently, “Did this beta look like this?”
The inspector glanced at it from a distance and nodded.
“Fuck, how did that bitch get out?!” the male alpha cursed loudly.
Then, seeing the inspector’s displeased expression, he instantly lowered his gaze. “Excuse me, sir, how did she get out?”
“She had a pass.”
At that moment, the male alpha suddenly remembered that the boss would disappear for two days every month.
“Fuck, that bitch!” he cursed again.
“Out,” the inspector said, pointing to the door.
S-District.
Yun Chuji was taking a walk in a quiet part of her residential complex when she suddenly saw what looked like a person lying in the alley between two buildings. She walked forward, slightly puzzled.
She found a young woman.
She knelt and gently nudged her. “Miss, are you all right?”
The woman lazily opened her eyes. In the moonlight, Yun Chuji saw a large pool of blood beneath her, which seemed to be coming from the back of her neck.
Yun Chuji immediately reached out to carry her to a doctor, but a sharp pain suddenly shot through her. Looking down, she saw that the woman had produced a small knife from somewhere and was pressing it against her abdomen.
The woman’s voice was as faint as a thread, yet it carried a chilling viciousness. “Get away from me, alpha.”
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