The Underclass - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The volcanic mines here were somewhat different from what Galaxy had imagined.

Truthfully, she had never been down a mine before. After all, from childhood to adulthood, she had strictly walked the path the Federation planned for every genius—reading, taking classes, training, and learning new knowledge, but this knowledge never included trivial matters like this.

They had taken courses on mineral composition analysis, mineral resource identification, and mining machinery analysis and processing, but actual, physical mines were never part of the target knowledge curriculum laid out by the Federation government for these chosen prodigies.

Her teachers had reminded them countless times—

Children, you are the future hope of the Federation. Every minute and every second of your time is precious. The Federation urgently needs you to make contributions in the future, so please do not look at things unrelated to essential knowledge. For you, those things are a waste of your valuable lives and a waste of the Federation's precious resources. The tasks that ordinary citizens can do are things you will never need to touch in your entire lives.

Your future is to integrate into every cutting-edge aspect of this world, existing to lead humanity's progress.

So, girls, let us continue learning new knowledge.

Ms. Glaus, please put down your comic book. Don't think your teacher cannot see it.

Glaus had been the most unique girl in Galaxy's class. She had brown hair and a smattering of freckles across her face. She was undoubtedly incredibly smart, perhaps even a bit too smart. This was something Galaxy deduced from the tolerance every teacher showed her. After all, even for someone like An Hua, the daughter of the Minister of Administration, the teachers treated everyone mostly equally. Teachers at the Federation Academy generally used a student's developmental potential and intellectual capacity as the standard, granting special treatment to exceptionally outstanding students.

And Galaxy had once received such special treatment as well; in fact, she had received a great deal of it.

Her metrics had almost reached the absolute peak, and back then, she was confident enough to believe she had a radiant future ahead of her.

That was until she was injured and subsequently expelled from the Federation's most elite academy without a second thought. At the time, she hadn't even fully recovered. Weakly leaning against the school gates, ignoring the stares of onlookers, she grabbed the hem of the dress of the teacher she had trusted most, begging for one more chance, promising she would return to her peak condition.

The teacher, who had always been so pleasant to her in the past, stared down at her with eyes as cold as a factory line worker inspecting a piece of scrap metal destined for the recycling bin.

She said, "Ms. Galaxy, the school has already issued your expulsion order. Begging me is useless."

With that, she snatched back the hem of her skirt from Galaxy's grasp and walked back into the academy—a place Galaxy could never enter again—without looking back.

The students and pedestrians coming and going at the gate pointed and whispered about Galaxy's plight.

She heard someone say, "How pitiful. Another person abandoned by the Federation Academy."

"Our teacher said that if the Federation Academy abandons a student, there's always a justifiable reason. She either failed to cherish her body and wasted her genes, or she did something terrible and got expelled. What's there to pity?"

"That's true. Let's hurry, or we'll miss today's holographic movie. It uses Y Company's latest holographic tech, completely different from the medical applications."

Students at the Federation Academy lived such relaxed, carefree lives, experiencing the most cutting-edge technology and entertainment every single day.

Galaxy sat slumped at the gate, devoid of strength, until someone helped her up, propped her against the wall, and fed her a tube of nutrient fluid to help her recover a bit.

The person who helped her was Glaus. Her pale gray eyes were filled with pity and sympathy, the little freckles on her nose scrunching together as she frowned.

But she didn't say much. After doing this, she hurriedly walked inside, not even giving Galaxy time to say thank you.

Professors of Volcanic Dynamics and Naval Architecture were already waiting for her at the door. They waited to escort Glaus—who had gradually become the core force in technological research over the past two years—to the lab, their attitudes bordering on sycophancy.

Galaxy stared blankly at her retreating back and downed the remaining tube of nutrient fluid Glaus had placed in her palm.

She finally felt the reality set in: she had completely severed ties with the academy that once made her so proud.

She had been reduced to the ordinary citizenry her teachers looked down upon.

Looked down upon.

This was a phrase she had pondered but never dared to voice out loud while still at the school.

Every time the teachers whipped them into shape, their words carried a lofty superiority and a deep contempt for the common people.

Galaxy had reveled in the privileges the school provided its students. She only dared to think about it occasionally in her heart, even feeling a sense of guilt, reflecting late at night on why she harbored such malicious speculations about the Federation Academy that had given her so much.

Until now, when she had become an ordinary citizen, she finally confirmed it wasn't speculation—it was real.

Those classmates who walked past her, the teachers who had instructed her, even the ordinary citizens passing by—every single one of them strictly adhered to the academy's set of rules.

The gifted, chosen prodigies were simply a cut above the rest.

That place was the land of hope for the Federation; how could there possibly be anything wrong with it?

A trace of fear even flashed in her eyes—had she, in the past, harbored such terrifying thoughts and lost her basic sympathy for classmates abandoned by the academy due to injury?

She searched her memories over and over, only breathing a slight sigh of relief when she realized she had never been like that.

Immediately after, she grabbed her luggage and left quickly.

She left as if she had seen a ghost.

She never returned to the academy again. Even when traveling, she would take detours to avoid it, as if it were some forbidden zone.

The pain of a crowbar hitting her hand jolted Galaxy awake from her old dreams. She quickly pulled herself out of her memories, but couldn't help scanning the brightly lit mine tunnel.

Fula had told her that current mines utilized the latest technology, which was considered the only cutting-edge tech accessible in District C.

Numerous robots supported the mine to ensure it wouldn't collapse. Every section of the tunnel was reinforced with a newly excavated hard substance called tyap-j. It was a synthetic material created in the mountains of District D, discovered by researchers inside a strangely structured mountain. The mountain was almost entirely hollow yet stood firm, all thanks to the natural precursor to this substance—tyap-a. When combined with rock, its hardness was terrifyingly high, capable of supporting tens of thousands of times its own weight.

After being artificially synthesized, the material's hardness increased even further, and it began to be widely used in mines to ensure tunnels could be excavated rapidly without collapsing.

When it was first introduced, the miners were overjoyed; after all, everyone valued their own lives. Mechanical early-warning systems still carried the risk of not giving workers enough time to escape a collapse, but the advent of tyap-j gave everyone an extra layer of security.

But the subsequent arrival of SAR plunged the workers into total despair.

They didn't actually know why they were getting SAR, but many suspected tyap-j was the cause. These rumors spread to the foremen, then to the mining merchants, and finally reached the Federation government's Department of Scientific Research.

The Research Department swore up and down that tyap-j was an absolutely safe, healthy synthetic material that had made a monumental contribution to saving miners' lives, and promised that the causes of SAR would be investigated further.

But that investigation quickly faded into obscurity. To placate the public, the Federation government established the very research institute in District C that Galaxy and Fula were infiltrating today.

Twenty-eight years had passed. The official causes of SAR were vast and varied, citing up to thirty-six unsafe mining methods and habits.

But what was the truth?

Galaxy didn't believe that simply using the wrong mining habits could cause a disease. If this theory were presented in any class at the Federation Academy, every student would scoff at it.

Yet everyone remained silent, seemingly accepting this theory as the gold standard.

Only Fula, who was currently mining alongside her, sneered. "Because there is something wrong with tyap-j. It contains radioactive materials that cause human organs to mutate."

"Then are the researchers who synthesized this material fine?" Galaxy asked in a low voice.

"Of course. In truth, as long as you have a specialized hazmat suit, you can completely block out the radiation," Fula said. "Our leader once sent someone to steal a piece of it from here. That was the conclusion reached by her underground lab."

Speaking of this, Fula's voice filled with hatred. "But no one is going to equip ordinary civilians with them. Those specialized suits are terrifyingly expensive; just one could buy a small apartment in District C. Thirty years ago, the Research Institute had already reached this conclusion. Not only did they fail to inform the public, they also didn't reduce the cost of the protective suits, yet they continued to send tyap-j into the mines of District C regardless!"

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