what is hope~

As the military amboit gurgled and moved through a dark, damp, eerie, and humongous tunnel, the front of the road was pitch black except for the illumini stones placed at intervals, making the tunnel dance with a whitish-blue glow.                                                                           The vehicle left the border of Sector 23, heading towards its capital in the silent tunnel. Inside the vehicle, everyone could hear the report of what was happening in the war against Sector 5 at the border through the i2r transmitter, except for Guta, who had been given a resignation letter in the name of medical discharge.                                                                                               He had received a fatal injury in his back and could no longer serve in the brigade military, even though he was barely in his early thirties. Breathing heavily and holding back tears, his hand reached into the inner pocket of his coat, took out a piece of old paper, and held it tightly close to his heart, wiping his blurry eyes with his injured left hand. The vehicle kept moving toward Miira (the capital of Sector 23) audaciously, carrying fellow passengers swathed in bandages and plaster, their eyes reflecting their own despair and suffering.

After crossing a few more check-posts, the vehicle stopped at the final check-post, from where one could see the sublime and vast landscape of the capital with long and gigantic buildings and structures, inverted and suspended from the ceiling and below, open-plan houses sprawled across the whole land, some carved out of monolithic stone. The highways and lifts were filled with running vehicles and people from different sectors on jobs. Thousands of sounds of digging, advertisements, and horns could be heard at the check-post.

As the vehicle passed the check-post, one of the guards, No. 101, coincidentally glimpsed inside from the window and asked the other guard, No. 102, in shock, "It’s definitely not Mr. Royal, right?"

"You don’t know? He was hit by a 'nade,' one of their tools. I haven’t seen anything like it before," said No. 102.

No. 101 sighed and said, "I don’t want to say it, but those are cool compared to our weapons," as he took out a sword resembling a katana.

The second guard delivered a punch softly with the sharp edge of his fist on No. 101's back beside the scapula and said, grinning, "You are not a man."

No. 101 groaned in pain and said, "The higher echelons may seem heartless to forsake them, but with an overwhelming number of recruits inspired by Mr. Royal's legacy, they view injured soldiers as easily replaceable."

Soon, the amboit entered the city and stopped at Fran Government Capital Hospital, providing the patients with basic emergency treatment before abandoning them at the hospital and marching again to the borders with new reinforcements.

In an endless white void, Guta sat huddled, murmuring to himself for what felt like an eternity. A distant shadow observed him silently, its presence almost imperceptible until it finally broke the silence, asking, "Are you satisfied?"

Guta woke up with a shout, almost giving a heart attack to the nurse standing next to him, although the doctor with a monocle and beard didn’t break his expression and firmly told him to calm down.

In the next few hours, the doctor calmly told him how his spinal cord had sustained cracks, and he would not be able to lift heavy things, and how he greatly admired his obsession with war. The next moment, the doctor said with his eyes wide open, "There is something we can do to that broken thing of yours. But the price is very large... 30,000,000,000 grains. Also, the success ratio is less than 3%. It is a protoplasmic spinal cord. Even the military calls it a failed product and sold it in an auction at *****." But Guta remained as expressionless as before, with depressed eyes. 

After completing the formalities and exiting the hospital, which was on land, he started walking slouchily with no destination in mind. Although he was looking ahead, his eyes were lifeless, and he ignored every passerby and transport amboit like a stone in a flowing river. Before realizing it, he reached the bar in front of the graveyard and entered for the first time. 

The bar was filled mostly with men lost in the past, and debates and discussions could be heard everywhere. He went to the counter and only asked for a glass of water. The bartender, a short old man, asked his preferences but was ignored. The youngster sitting at the first table asked the bartender, "Isn’t he the royal one?" to which the bartender replied, "What royal one? Now he is just a lost man like every other," and gave the glass of water on the house, showing him a seat.

The conversation between the youngster and the old man, Dave, continued as the young man asked, "But why is he called the royal one? A name like that feels quite overboard for just a man."

The bartender laughed and continued, but Guta did not hear anything as his mind was still thinking about the day of the war. He gulped down the 500ml of water and headed home. He was one of the lucky bastards to have a roof on the land since land was limited and very expensive, which he had bought from someone inside his circle with all his savings from his 13 years of service, hoping for a peaceful retirement, which now seemed like a mirage. He pressed two of his nails on his right hand in a unique order to unlock the door and entered the house, lying straight on the cushioned mat in a dark room with a single illumini stone placed in front of his deceased family members. 

While glancing at it, a flood of childhood memories began to surface in his mind. He remembered how his family of five and a friend named Fru used to have fun playing treasure hunting around a famous picnic spot called Haunted House, playing a game resembling cricket but with a round bat and dirt ball called BitTheBall.                                                                               How his grandfather, even in his 60s, beat everyone in eating competitions, and more than anything, the warmth of the people around him covered him even in such a cold-hearted world. Soon, while recollecting such memories, he fell asleep, and a whole day passed before he woke up. With no desire for anything as his job, which was everything to him, had been snatched from him, he remained in a fetal position and depressed for the remaining hours in a world with no day or night.

"Thwack, thwack," the sound of pickaxes and shovels echoed all over the 32nd public digging site.

"Am I going to die? When is it going to end? Will..., no way the lava is going to come from here. This is not going to collapse, right?" While thinking such questions, Mihak was digging, and as he hit the ground, "gong!" the shift was over.

Covered in dust and exhaustion, everyone emerged from various nooks, some expressionless and others in despair, to collect their meager pay of 8000 grains for six hours of labor. For Mihak, it was a rare stroke of luck as he unearthed a valuable ore.                                                Everyone placed their findings into cart covered by cloth bags and collected their pay before heading home. However, some unlucky ones ended up getting their lucky findings looted. Mihak was also in the same category. He was forced behind the poster that said, "Just 60 miles more to new i2r signal." He ended up getting beaten to a pulp and had his cart and pay snatched by a bunch of crocks.                                                                                                                                                          Later, he stood up, dusted his clothes, and swore all the way to a shop named "O-O Ore Bank." He entered the shop and used the toilet but skipped it for another important matter. After looking left and right, he put his hand in his pants and took out a big chunk of kimberlite ore containing a big chunk of diamond. While greedily smiling, he said, "Looks like I underestimated them, but the same goes for them," making a cat face. He deposited it for some grains and headed towards his next part-time job of noodle delivery.

He barely reached on time and was soon kicked out by Master Gibo (who self-proclaims himself as the best noodle maker) for the deliveries, most of which were from inverted large buildings also known as Commoners Residential (CR area). Since his luck ran out, all remaining orders were on the bottom floor of the CR area, which he had to climb again and again. With no breath remaining, he reached the last order, which was unexpectedly from the land. While murmuring, he knocked on the door and said, "Order for 1 of extra spicy stretchy noodles," but no one replied. For a while, his urge to pee seemed to be at its limit. He tried a few more times but got no reply. Finally, someone opened the door, and he asked, while controlling it with a funny face, "Can I use the toilet?"

[^-1] illumini are the stones which contain a fair percentage but safe amount of radioactive matter and glow in dark space the intensity and color can vary based on the percentage distribution and material. 

amboit is a revolution technology discovered in 20th sector for all vehicles to exist in sector whether it is military vehicle, public transport, heavy things.