In the shadows of Astraea's gleaming glass towers lay a place the city preferred to forget: **The Grey Quarter**. It was a labyrinth of narrow alleys where the smell of stale spices and damp charcoal hung heavy. Here, the "Dharma" of the city wasn't found in books, but in the desperate survival of the ignored.
Among them was **Kavi**, a man whose back was permanently curved from forty years of sweeping the city's filth. Kavi wasn't a beggar; he was a worker. But in Astraea, if you were poor, the distinction didn't matter.
Kavi sat on a wooden crate outside his shanty, nursing a cup of tea that was mostly water. His eyes were fixed on a small, withered Tulsi plant growing out of a cracked plastic bucket.
"Drink some water, little one," Kavi whispered, pouring the last drop of his tea onto the plant's roots. "The sky is full of rain, but the smog won't let it reach you. Just like the wealth of this city never reaches the ground."
A few feet away, a group of young men in leather jackets—hired thugs for the local land sharks—were laughing as they kicked over a vegetable cart belonging to an old woman. The woman cried out, her small harvest of potatoes rolling into the gutter.
Kavi sighed, his heart aching. He wanted to stand up, but his knees were swollen with arthritis, and his pockets were as empty as the promises of the politicians. The world had become a place where the loud stepped on the silent.
---
Dev entered the Grey Quarter not with the arrogance of a new millionaire, but with the quiet grace of the forest. He felt the "Energy" of the place. It was thick, heavy, and stagnant—suffocated by the greed of the "Asuric" forces that ruled Astraea's economy.
Suddenly, his vision flickered. A soft, golden hue outlined certain people in the crowd.
> **[System Note: Analyzing Soul Frequencies...]**
> **[Target Found: Kavi. Occupation: Sweeper. Dharma Alignment: High. Status: Exhausted.]**
Dev stopped in front of the old man. To anyone else, Kavi was just a broken laborer. To Dev, he was a pillar of the Earth that had been forgotten.
"Grandfather," Dev said softly, using the respectful term *Dada*.
Kavi looked up, squinting. He saw a young man with eyes that reminded him of the deep, still pools in the mountains—eyes that held a peace he hadn't seen in decades. "I have no coins to give you, son. The city took my last today."
"I am not here for your coins," Dev said, sitting on the dirt ground beside Kavi's crate, ignoring the mud staining his clothes. "I am here to offer you a job."
Kavi chuckled, a dry, raspy sound. "A job? Look at me. I am a ghost. Even the shadows don't want to hire me."
"I am building an Union," Dev said, his voice dropping to a calm, steady frequency that seemed to silence the noise of the slums. "A Union that will clean the Earth and restore the soul of this land. I need someone who understands that even a small plant deserves to live. I need someone who knows that every grain of dust has a place."
Dev reached out and touched the withered Tulsi plant.
> **[Expenditure: 10 Wealth Points -> Life Essence Infusion]**
Before Kavi's wide eyes, the brown, brittle leaves of the Tulsi turned a vibrant, emerald green. The stem straightened. A faint, sweet fragrance of the forest wafted through the air.
Kavi gasped, his trembling hand reaching out to touch the leaf. "This... this is a miracle. Who are you?"
"I am just a son of the forest," Dev replied. He pulled out a small, sleek metallic band—the **Level 1 Sci-Fi Wristband**. It looked like liquid silver, humming with a low, meditative vibration. "If you join the Earth Union, you will never be hungry again. You will generate wealth just by being righteous. And your strength will return."
Kavi looked at the thugs who were still bullying the old woman across the street. He looked at the Tulsi plant. He felt a spark of something he thought had died—hope.
"I will serve," Kavi said, his voice regaining a hint of its former strength. "Not for the money, but for the life you just gave this plant."
As Dev snapped the silver band onto Kavi's wrist, the System chimed in Dev's mind, but it wasn't a cold, mechanical sound. It sounded like a bell in a distant temple.
> **[DING! First Employee Hired.]**
> **[Follower: Kavi (Level 1)]**
> **[Passive Income Activated: $1/sec for Kavi | $100/sec for Host]**
> **[Synchronizing Strength...]**
In that moment, Kavi felt a warm current of energy flow from the wristband into his bones. The swelling in his knees vanished. His spine straightened. He stood up, and for the first time in years, he felt like a man of thirty, not seventy.
---
Across the street, the thugs noticed the change. Their leader, a scarred man named Raku, spat on the ground and walked over.
"Hey, old man! Where did you get that fancy watch? Give it here!" Raku reached out to grab Kavi's arm.
Usually, Kavi would have flinched. But today, he felt the Earth beneath his feet. He felt the "Union." He didn't even strike back; he simply held his ground. When Raku's hand hit Kavi's arm, it felt like hitting a mountain of solid granite.
"The time for stealing is over," Kavi said, his voice echoing with a strange, divine authority.
Raku yelped, clutching his bruised hand. He looked at Dev, who was standing quietly behind the old man. Dev wasn't moving, but the air around him was shimmering with a golden heat.
"Who... who are you people?" Raku stammered, backing away.
Dev looked at the vegetable cart lying in the mud. He waved his hand, and several high-value notes drifted into the old woman's lap.
"We are the Earth Union," Dev said, his voice a gentle breeze that carried a hidden storm. "And we are here to hire the world."
As the sun began to set, the dark clouds over the Grey Quarter finally broke, and a single ray of golden light hit the Tulsi plant. In Dev's pocket, the money was growing—$100 every second, a silent river of gold flowing to fund a revolution of peace.