After the third world war, a large portion of the world was left desolate, with various poison gasses left in certain regions with a half-life measured in the millions of years most of the earth's population has moved to a chain of megacities.
You were born on the wrong side of the poverty line in Megacity 23. With the increase of automation in the post-war world, work is scarce and the law never reached your side of the city. Your people are more free than anyone else in the world but life is cheap when you're really free and fortunately or unfortunately for you, a body is worth more dead than alive.
This is for the 2021 Cyberpunk Contest.