Here it is! The great experiment of the new century —

   The PACIFIC FREE TRADE ZONE. 

A modern marvel and a feat of human ingenuity, connecting every major port along the Western seaboard. Local and foreign investors alike flood its shores, drawn by pinky-sealed promises of free trade with minimal oversight. Half a century on, the wealth still multiplies.

And on the outskirts — far from the white-sand beaches and sparkling-glass skylines — lies the lawless zone of Cantilados. Scarce-a-city and more-a-prison, walled in on all sides with dense and creaking buildings-built-atop-buildings, with only a sliver of sea access by which desperate traders eke out a living.

Here on the margins of prosperity, the anti-corruption reforms sweeping the broader freeport have been met with abject failure. Police withdraw from the city in its first year — and in their absence springs the golden age of crime syndicates, street gangs, and triads.

Cantilados is an immigrant city.

A last port of refuge for the lost and the weary.

And for those without the protection of a faction,

the city is quick to swallow them whole.