The Underclass - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The laboratory was much larger and quieter than Galaxy had imagined. After the woman led the three of them off the elevator, a massive expanse of transparent glass met their eyes. Below the glass, massive excavation machines and transport equipment were clearly visible, with researchers in hazmat suits bustling back and forth.

This transparent glass extended for two thousand meters before merging into milk-white walls. As they walked forward, the LED strips along the baseboards lit up, and a second later, an emotionless female voice echoed.

"Gene scan initiated. Scan complete. Gene sequence 8927: ruined. Gene sequence 8928: afflicted with SAR. Gene sequence 8929: excessively ordinary. Unit 8929, please turn back immediately."

Fula froze.

She already understood what this meant.

Among the three of them, her genetic sequence was the most ordinary, and the gene-sequencing wall was advising her to leave.

But the woman walking ahead acted as if she hadn't heard a thing. She pointed to a room up ahead and told them, "You can just put the little girl in there and leave."

"What do these numbers mean?" Galaxy asked.

The woman replied, "They are the designation numbers for newcomers. Anyone who enters the institute receives a designation."

She absentmindedly flicked the name tag on her chest. "We don't use names here, only numbers. So, you are now Number 8927."

Her gaze took on a more scrutinizing quality as she looked at Galaxy.

'Gene sequence ruined' was a very telling signal.

Only someone who had once been a chosen prodigy or possessed exceptional genetics had the potential to be classified as 'ruined'. Ordinary people didn't even qualify for that classification; because their genes were useless, registering them would be a waste of resources, so they simply weren't recorded.

Meeting her gaze, Galaxy said calmly, "I used to be part of the top academy in District B. Unfortunately, I was involved in an incident on the battlefield, my genes were ruined, and I had no choice but to return to my hometown."

A look of contempt immediately washed over the woman's face.

Just as Galaxy had seen countless times before.

She stopped talking to them. When they reached the room labeled 'tyap-j', she pressed a button and told them, "Put her in. Once you've set her down, come right back out. Do not linger."

Fula and Galaxy exchanged a glance. Fula followed her a few steps inside, but Galaxy reached out and pushed Fula back out the door, signaling with her eyes for Fula to keep watch on the researcher. Then, she placed the little girl on the bed.

After quickly backing out, the woman pressed the button to close the door.

"You can just come back and pick her up in two days." The watch on the woman's wrist emitted a series of beeps. She glanced down at it, furrowed her brow slightly, and quickly began leading the two toward the exit. "I have an urgent matter to attend to right now. Don't wait around here, head up first."

She inputted the 64-digit code into the elevator keypad again. The doors chimed open, and she shoved the two of them inside, instructing, "Just press the up button inside."

With that, she hastily turned and sprinted in another direction. The people behind the transparent glass were doing the same, mostly running hurriedly toward a single location, clearly indicating a major incident had occurred.

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, a hand shot out from inside.

The doors lightly pinched her hand before sliding open again. Fula rubbed her reddened hand.

"This is too much of a coincidence," she said, pulling Galaxy out of the elevator. "Let's search the area quickly."

Galaxy also felt it was a coincidence. The woman's departure provided them with a massive convenience. She pulled her hand from Fula's grasp and shook her head. "You go up first."

Fula looked at her in disbelief. "What?"

Galaxy said, "The gene scanner earlier said you should leave immediately."

Fula frowned. "But I didn't feel any discomfort."

"No. Just because you didn't feel it now doesn't mean you won't later." Galaxy was highly familiar with gene sequencing; almost every lab in District A's top academy was equipped with them. If it detected a person was incompatible, they had to evacuate with 100% certainty—these machines didn't make mistakes. "This laboratory is astonishingly large, and no one knows what's inside. Even though my gene sequence is ruined, it didn't warn me, which means I can go in. You cannot."

"I want to know exactly what has occupied my homeland." A rare look of stubbornness appeared on Fula's face.

But with swift reflexes, Galaxy shoved her into the elevator just as the doors were closing for the second time, and hit the up button. The elevator couldn't be reopened once it began its third closing sequence.

Fula frowned, slamming her hands against the transparent glass. Galaxy said calmly, "I'll figure it out for you."

The elevator ascended rapidly, and Fula's face quickly disappeared from view. Galaxy looked around. The massive loading bay beneath the transparent glass was now completely deserted.

The places the woman could lead them to obviously weren't classified areas. She quickly made a decision and turned to run in the direction the woman had just taken.

If it was a highly important event, then as long as An Hua was here, it was impossible for her not to participate.

She didn't encounter a single person along the way, but she did stumble upon a researcher in a hazmat suit inside a breakroom. Without hesitation, she knocked the person out and stole the suit.

Beneath the suit was a young face, and pinned to her chest was her designation—8900.

Clearly, this was a newly arrived researcher.

Now wearing the isolation suit, Galaxy's exploration became much bolder. This was a one-way corridor with only one destination.

She walked an unknown distance until she finally arrived at a set of doors. Currently, researchers flocking from all directions were waiting to enter.

Scanning beams swept over them one by one. Many researchers, still wearing their isolation suits, walked straight through.

Galaxy joined them, passing through the constantly chiming beams. Amidst the noise, she heard a faint "8927 entered," but because the crowd was so large, no one grew suspicious.

As long as you had a number, you were implicitly considered one of their own.

Once exactly one hundred people gathered, the massive doors swung open with a boom. To Galaxy's shock, a vast grassland stretched out before her. Researchers were already at the entrance distributing hazmat suits; everyone hurriedly grabbed one and ran in the same direction.

Galaxy ran at the back of the crowd. When she reached the end, the sight before her left her almost in disbelief.

At the very end stood a massive square formation of humanoid statues built from enormous white stones, while an artificially engineered sky hung overhead.

She knew those massive stones perfectly well; they bore the distinct color of tyap-j.

They actually had a clearing here dedicated to crafting stone figures out of tyap-j?

Galaxy clenched her fists, examining the statues that were barely a hundred meters away.

What were they doing?

Why would they do this?

Once inside the perimeter of the statues, the researchers began pulling down the hoods of their hazmat suits, revealing faces both young and old.

The leader at the very front touched a white stone figure, then finally nodded.

Seeing this, Galaxy's group of late-arriving researchers also began to lower their hoods.

Galaxy thought these people were insane. They actually dared to approach such a massive quantity of tyap-j without full protective gear?

But a female researcher next to her looked at her curiously and asked casually, "Isn't it hot wearing that suit? Why haven't you taken it off yet?"

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