Zero Killed

Welcome to Zero Zone. A region once flourishing and vibrant, now devastated and deserted. The day Perunium – a previously unknown, superconductive element – was discovered in the area marked the fast and inevitable collapse of the entire territory. Governments and corporations seeking a new source of income started uncontrolled extraction of this new element, completely ignoring the harm the purification process was having on the environment. Once the ruling powers were done and forbade further Perunium acquisition, every citizen was evacuated from the area and the land was declared neutral and left ruined. Life abhors a vacuum, however, so it didn’t take long for the first illegal miners to appear – and it took even less time for a quiet war between the main economic powers to start. Of course, officially, none of this was happening and none of the previous Perunium beneficiaries were there. In the end, the government couldn’t lose the rest of its credibility by admitting they’ve completely lost control over what’s happening in the Zone. Nothing was going on there according to the news – no bloodshed, and only a couple of random punks breaking the “keep away” order. Journalists belittled the whole thing, reporting “zero killed”. Case closed. Scavengers who remained in the Zone started calling themselves “Zeros”: people whose lives are a dime a dozen, their deaths not even counted as casualties. A few years later, only professional Zeros remain in the Zone – people who have abandoned their past and broke any contact with former employers. You take the role of one of them. You are one of the Zeros.