Fort Yano (3)

<Author's note: The things (racism, sexism, political views, etc.) depicted or mentioned in this story do not reflect the real world and are purely coincidences. If they do, please keep in mind that they are simply for world-building and are only work of fiction. Thank you for your understanding.>

Nathan was currently walking along the eastern road within the compounds of Fort Yano.

On the left side of the road, there was the familiar tents that he has seen at the western road.

However, unlike there, there were also buildings here being used to house people.

Nathan stared at the faces of the people.

He also saw some beautiful women.

'From their demeanoer, looks like middle class…'

'Heh~ So there's already a class divide between the residents here in Fort Yano..?'

'As expected of Asians…'

Two beautiful women heading to the central passed him by and the scent of their shampoo brushed against his nose.

Sniff.

'The smell of a real brown-skinned Asian woman…'

He turned his sights to the right side of the road.

There were closed shops and stalls.

Sniff.

Sniff.

He sniffed and squinted his eyes as he looked at them.

Aside from some plastics, there were also rotten vegetables and fruits lying on the ground.

'This smell and look…'

In Nathan's 24 years of life, even before the zombie apocalypse, he had encountered many mysteries here in Muwin, both supernatural and non-supernatural.

But for this non-supernatural mystery, this isn't exclusive to Muwinians only, it applies to all brown-skinned Asians.

Among the non-supernatural mysteries that Nathan could never wrap his head around is this very strange relationship that brown-skinned Asians have with personal hygiene and public hygiene.

As far as he was concerned, no race can out-clean a brown-skinned Asian when it comes to personal hygiene.

Yes, it's such a bold claim, but Nathan doesn't care.

Just how they use the toilet is already a testament of their obsession with personal hygiene.

Given the climate in brown-skinned Asian countries and the fact that their countries are abundant with water, the people here have evolved into a culture that takes a bath at least 2 times a day. Some would even take a bath 3 or 4 times a day and no one would bat an eye. They would instead praise you for it.

It's only when someone takes a bath 5 times a day that the people would start to think that it's a little weird.

This obsession that brown-skinned Asians have regarding personal hygiene is so strong that if you smell bad or weird, they would tell you right away straight at your face without any reservations whatsoever. Some would even blatantly cover their nose right in front of you and not consider it as a rude gesture.

In fact, the idea of taking a bath at least twice a day is so ingrained in brown-skinned Asian culture that they even have an inside cultural joke among themselves on how to justify when someone is more beautiful or handsome than them.

They would say…

He/She/You've only beaten me with a few baths.

Or…

Just a few baths more and I will be as beautiful or as handsome as you/him/her/insert-name-of-person.

Furthermore, because people here usually takes a bath at least twice a day, the beauty trend here is not to wear any makeup at all, just a pinch of baby powder.

But if you're the type who likes or has to wear makeup because of work-purposes, it should be light as possible or make it look like you're not wearing makeup at all, or else you will be branded as a prostitute.

So if you walk down the streets of brown-skinned Asian countries, you will definitely see the real faces of the people here.

So what about public hygiene?

Now this is where things just don't make any sense.

Given that brown-skinned Asians are so obsessed with personal hygiene, one couldn't help but assume that they would definitely also be obsessed with public hygiene, right?

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Air pollution? Noise pollution? Such terms are so foreign and alien to mainland brown-skinned Asians that their minds couldn't comprehend it. Or even if they are able to comprehend it, they would just immediately forget about it later or just not care at all.

Others would even get angry if you scold them or call the police on them for violating air and noise pollution laws.

Yes, brown-skinned Asian nations have air and noise pollution laws…

As for how is this even possible, this lack of concern of mainland brown-skinned Asians regarding public hygiene? Unfortunately, even Nathan himself who was born and raised in a brown-skinned Asian country doesn't know either.

It was like if real life was an MMORPG and brown-skinned Asian was one of the available characters to choose from and peronal and public hygiene were skills, they already spend all of their stat points on personal Hygiene and left nothing for public hygiene.

And in Muwin's case, despite the fact that it's among the Top 5 richest brown-skinned Asian countries, they still have such poor public hygiene.

This just one of the biggest mysteries here in Muwin or in any brown-skinned Asian country that Nathan will probably never find the answer to in his lifetime, especially now that they're in a zombie apocalypse.

Nathan continued walking and there were two people, a man and a woman, closing down a stall.

The woman was carrying plastic bags of meat and putting them on the passenger's seat of a bicycle rickshaw.

Whatever that meat was, Nathan couldn't tell because the plastic bags weren't the see-through type.

The man, on the other hand, just finished wrapping a chain around the stall and was now locking it with a padlock.

'So this is the public market after all…'

Up ahead, on the right side of the road, there were a few buildings.

On one of the buildings, there was a group of people of about 70 gathered in front of it.

'A rally at this time of the night…?'

Nathan continued walking until he got close but didn't stop walking.

There was a man in his late 20s dressed in civilian clothing and holding a megaphone, while standing behind the entrance of the building and in front of the group of activists.

"Just because we're in a zombie apocalypse, that doesn't mean we should live like animals!"

"While the elites at Block A are living in luxury, us, the normal citizens living in the other blocks don't even have enough bathrooms and toilets that some of us have even have to go to the forest to relieve ourselves!"

"We demand for more proper food, shelter and clothing from the government!"

"Yeah!" the crowd of activists said and raised their fists and the signs that they were holding.

Nathan looked at the building that the activists gathered in front of.

Outside the entrance of the building, there were two armed soldiers standing on guard.

There were also few soldiers inside but it was hard to really tell how many.

'Heh~ The government office building still open at this hour…?'

'It's a miracle…'

'I've always thought that brown-skinned Asian government officials and employees were nothing but corrupt, useless and lazy parasites...'

In brown-skinned Asian countries, when it comes to work ethics, they adopted the "work to live" mindset.

First of all, when Asians mention the "West", that usually refers to all Caucasian nations. But for this case, the "West" will be referring to Iustia and the countries around it, while "Europe" will be referring to Regis and the countries around it.

Most brown-skinned Asian nations were colonized by the Europeans, mainly by Regis, so they adopted the "work to live" mindset.

On the other hand, most white-skinned Asian nations were colonized by the Westerners, mainly Iustia, and thus they adopted the "live to work" mindset.

In European nations, the average working hours per day is 8-12 hours and that covers 1-2 jobs. And although brown-skinned Asian nations also work 8-12 hours per day, that only covers 1 job.

Meanwhile, in Western nations, they work 12-15 hours per day on average and that covers 2-3 jobs. White-skinned Asian nations also work 12-15 hours per day, but that covers 1-2 jobs.

And in Nathan's case, although he had taken Xudonian language lessons to boost his portfolio due to the fact Xudonia has one of the largest economies in the world, there was no way he was going to work for a company owned by a Xudonian and based in Xudonia, or any company owned by white-skinned Asian and based in a white-skinned Asian.

There are two reasons why: The work culture and racism.

When it comes to work culture, white-skinned Asian work culture is so stressful that they're even infamous for having their own citizens dying due to overwork among developed countries. They also have the highest suicide rates among the developed nations.

On the other hand, when it comes to racism, the thing is, Asia is a very divided continent between brown and white-skinned Asians.

In white-skinned Asian nations, this is the hierarchy among foreigners there:

• White-skinned Asian

• Caucasian

• Brown-Caucasian

• Westernized African

• Westernized brown-skinned Asian

• Mainland African

• Mainland brown-skinned Asian

Meanwhile, in brown-skinned Asian nations, the hierarchy among foreigners is:

• Mainland brown-skinned Asian

• Westernized brown-skinned Asian

• Mainland African

• Caucasian

• Westernized African

• White-skinned Asian

• Brown-Caucasian

And despite the fact brown and white-skinned Asians have so many similarities and their countries right next to each other, there's just this huge divide between them.

In fact, if an outsider attacked, invaded or nuked one group right now, the other group won't even care.

Mainland Asians hate and discriminate each other so much that won't even view it as an attack against all Asians in Asia.

In their eyes, brown-skinned Asian problems are brown-skinned Asian problems and white-skinned Asian problems are white-skinned Asian problems.

That's it. There's nothing in-between. Nothing more, nothing less.

And in the entire history of Asia, there was never an incident where all mainland Asians banded together to fight a common enemy or celebrate together.

Not even once. Nada.

And when it comes to being the Top 5 most racist countries in Asia:

On the #1 spot is Xudonia.

Both the government and the people of this country are such a blast to be around and deal with.

On the #2 spot is Yeppun.

Although the government mostly spends its time hating on Xudonia and Heiwa so it doesn't really get that much attention internationally, their people, on the other hand, are such a blast to be around and deal with.

And for the #3-5 spots, it depends on who is being asked -- nationality, age, gender, socio-economic background, etc.

Their answers could consist of Heiwa, a white-skinned Asian nation, or Muwin, Rahin or Raanee, all of which are brown-skinned Asian nations.

But for the countries in the #1 and #2 spots, Xudonia and Yeppun are very, very consistent that one can always count on them for occupying those spots.

Nathan noticed something about the buildings.

'CCTV cameras…'

He recalled what happened back at the western road.

'I don't remember seeing any CCTVS there…'

'Or perhaps I just didn't notice it…?'

'But still, even if there was, they would see that I wasn't the one who attacked first…'

'And there were witnesses…'

'Moreover, it was only a shady drug addict and it looked like there were many poor people there…'

'Even before the zombie apocalypse, the Muwinian government gives zero fucks about its citizens unless there's something to be gained…'

'I doubt they'll suddenly develop a conscience now that we're in a zombie apocalypse…'

He then looked at the faces of the activists.

'So typical…'

'A majority of them are below 30 years old from different economic backgrounds, but most of them are college-age students…'

'Meanwhile, for the older ones, they look like they came from the middle class…'

Nathan continued walking.

***

On a building next to the one the activists were rallying, it was also opened and had armed guards patrolling in and out the building.

A group of five men dressed in civilian clothing and wearing System items came out of the building.

"Our luck was good today! Hahaha~!" one of the men said as he counted the Ration Tickets on his hand.

"Yeah, we were lucky that we were able to drop 3 Healing Potions, 2 Repair Kits, and 2 Antidotes. Just with the Antidotes alone, each cost 500 Ration Tickets. Meanwhile, the Healing Potion cost 200 RT and Repair Kit 150 RT each," said another man.

"Yeah, and we also dropped a few equipment! I wish every day our drops was like this!" said another man.

"Idiot. If the drop rate is always like this, the prices will drop -- supply and demand. Basic marketing, you idiot," said another man.

"Hmph!" The man being called an idiot scoffed and then turned to the leader of their group. "Leader, let's go and grab a few drinks. I heard that there's a comedy show tonight at the gym."

The leader was looking at the group of activists.

He noticed a 2.2m-tall brown-skinned Asian man walking on the side of the road and making his way through the activists.

"Leader?"

"Yeah, sure," the leader said and then resumed walking.

The members looked at the activists and sneered.

"These people…"

"Yeah, some just don't know how to compromise with reality."

"Nothing but spoiled brats if you ask me."

"True that. Look at them, they're either kids or from rich backgrounds. Can't they just go out and earn a living like us, especially those men?"

"A bunch of cowardly men."

They all chuckled except for the leader who didn't say anything or react and just continued walking.

***

Nathan passed through the activists and was already far away from them.

He saw a store on the left side of the road.

Unlike the store he saw back at the western road, the store here was made up of cement instead of wood and had more goods to offer.

The front of the store was divided in half, horizontally. The upper part had grills with a small square about 2x2" in the middle for larger items to pass through. Meanwhile, the bottom part was pure cement.

It also had two concrete benches, one on each side.

And behind the store was a house of some sort.

'Hmm… I wasn't expecting to see a house here…'

'The owner of that house and the store must be one person…'

In front of the store, there was a man in his mid-20s wearing a soldier uniform sitting at one of the benches and chatting with two beautiful ladies who were in their late teens behind the grills of the store.

Nathan stopped and squinted his eyes.

'This guy…'

'He looks familiar….'

*********************************************

Author's thoughts:

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