Z City had once been a relatively large city. Of course, that was before the disasters began. These days, it could hardly compare with the bustling cities around it, let alone City A, where the Hero Association was headquartered. The difference was like night and day.
Nowadays, only the central district of Z City was inhabited, and even there, the population density was relatively low. Beyond the center lay vast stretches of uninhabited zones, plastered with warning signs!
Monsters and freaks appeared there with extraordinary frequency, far more often than anywhere else in the entire country. It was a terrifying place where no one would willingly live—not even if they were paid to.
Ever since monsters had started appearing ten years ago, especially after powerful ones began showing up regularly in Z City's uninhabited zones, the residents had either fled the city or moved to its central district. The houses and utilities in the abandoned zones—water, electricity, gas, and everything else—had simply been left behind. Even maintenance workers were too afraid to go repair or shut them down.
Besides, the people living in Z City's central district still needed supplies, and the water, electricity, and gas lines ran from outside the city into the center. The main lines passed through the uninhabited zone, which was the real reason the house where Annie lived and the apartment building where a certain bald man lived still had water, electricity, and gas.
Over time, Z City's infamous uninhabited zone had acquired ominous names like "Ghost City," "the Haunted No-Man's-Land," and "the Land Without a Master." Meanwhile, prices and rents in the city's central district had become absurdly cheap—so cheap they couldn't possibly drop any lower.
In fact, there was no rent at all!
Basically, in Z City's uninhabited zone, anyone could go into