Being alive was one thing, but living a life packed with memories, soaked in happiness, drenched in pleasure, was something else entirely.
If you couldn't taste the marvels of civilization, couldn't breathe in its luxury, couldn't feel its weight on your tongue and spine, then that was a life not worth a damn.
If you were poor, fine, but climb out.
Get rich.
Rich enough to light cigars with your own laziness. Rich enough to sleep in silk and wake up in the arms of someone soft and moaning.
That was it. That was the whole damn game.
Bang hot chicks, waste money on flashy crap just because it makes you smile, eat till your belly's round and laugh till your throat's raw. Live. Fucking live.
That was what Rae had wanted all his damn life back on Earth. Freedom. Real, raw, unchained freedom.
He was an orphan, yeah, with thievery as his trade, crawling through alleyways like a rat in heat, but at least he wasn't some wage slave.
