622 The End of Happiness

The town the boy was headed towards was not too big, as it only housed about a thousand households, yet it was bustling with life. Each pearly white house was large enough to accommodate a relatively large family, with the smallest being one composed of four people. And that was the case despite the town being located in one of the least hospitable places within the planet.

As the boy walked into the town's outskirts, more and more people started to appear. They sat alone or in couples, perched above holes in the flat expanse of ice from which they too tried to fish for their dinner.

"That bucket looks heavy, caught a big one, Johan?" A healthy looking middle-aged man with a short grizzled beard yelled from a few feet away. As he spoke, he removed his gloves, slipped his hands under his gray-colored sweater, and started to rub his chest in an attempt to increase his body's heat.