"Team Leader, I... I'm not being lazy, I'm sick! My stomach is very uncomfortable and I feel dizzy.
Please, don't deduct my points, my family is in financial difficulty!"
"Sorry, the points have been deducted. You will lose your perfect attendance bonus this month and receive a serious warning. If you accumulate three more, you will be expelled."
"Damn it! I'm really sick!"
"Humph! You always have a reason,
"Roy, it's clearly written in the employee handbook that you're only allowed to go to the restroom once per shift, and that time cannot exceed four minutes! Let me ask you, have you signed the labor contract?"
"Ah...this...I signed it."
"That's it!
Why are you complaining so much? Now, get back to your workstation! If your performance today doesn't reach an A, I'll deduct another point from you!
"Well, okay..."
Roy shook his hands and sighed.
Putting on a protective helmet and gloves, he covered his stomach with one hand and trudged back to his workstation, muttering:
"I'm not lying, I really am not feeling well."
It's a normal day in the fuel cell factory.
The production line leader, Ms. Diana, had a minor disagreement with the young operator, Roy. The other workers were all busy with their own work, and no one even wanted to raise their heads to take a second look.
Operator Anna tilted her head slightly and looked at Roy with pity.
Why do they care so much? Because they are lovers, childhood sweethearts.
At 9 o'clock in the evening, the big bell next to the production line rang, making my eardrums buzz.
The workers stretched themselves and cheered as if they were celebrating a festival:
"Hooray! Time to get off work!"
It's time to get off work at the No. 3 plant of the Spike Fuel Cell Factory. The workers, exhausted, line up to leave the factory.
A complete set of procedures; undergoing security checks, cleaning radioactive dust, changing out of protective clothing, and changing into your own clothes.
Roy and Anna walked hand in hand, taking tired steps.
When they walked out of the factory, the choking air rushed into their lungs through their nasal cavities, and the workers couldn't help coughing.
This is not surprising. There are a large number of high-pollution and high-emission factories in the suburbs of York City. The air pollution here is a hundred times more serious than in the city.
In addition to the dangerous work they were doing, all the workers at the Spike Battery Factory developed irreversible respiratory diseases.
What's even more frightening is that someone has calculated that the factory workers' chance of developing lung cancer is an astonishing 2.15%.
Due to the salinization of the land and the radioactive dust buried deep underground,
The garden within the factory area had long since ceased to grow any flowers or plants. When workers passed by the garden, all they saw was a bare expanse of yellow mud.
Due to excessive energy exploitation and wanton discharge of pollutants, the environment of the entire planet Terra has been eroded by toxic chemical pollutants, and garbage has piled up like mountains with nowhere to be landfilled.
The river water was mixed with toxic acidic substances, sticky and green, like the snot blown out by a person with a cold.
Poor residents live in dark, crowded, cramped houses filled with radioactive contaminants.
Most of the food is packaged and recycled several times, and then added with thousands of additives. It tastes good, but it causes endless troubles.
Terra, the home planet of humanity—
This once beautiful blue planet is already on the verge of death.
The people living at the bottom of society here all have the same dream:
make money,
migrant,
Start a new life.
Walking to the factory gate, Roy picked up a small stone from the ground, swung his arm, and threw it at the bronze statue of the company's founder, Mr. Spike:
"Bang!" The stone hit the crotch of the bronze statue.
"Haha! So accurate!"
Anna jumped up with joy: "I hope our boss, Mr. Spike, will never have children!"
"What a vicious curse, I like it!"
Roy picked up Anna and kissed her cheek gently: "Let's go! Let's go to the bar for a few drinks."
"Aren't you feeling sick in the stomach?"
"Much better now."
"Forget it, let's save some money! You just had your work points deducted, and the combined balance in our accounts is only over a thousand yuan, and we still have to pay insurance, bills, and rent!"
"Don't worry, dear, money is earned, not saved."
"Oh... I really can't do anything with you!" Anna couldn't persuade her boyfriend, so she had to do what he wanted.
The two of them boarded the light rail train and watched the huge outline of the Spike Battery Factory gradually fade out of their sight.
The train passed through piles of stinking garbage. Through the thickened windows, you could see scavengers dressed like astronauts wandering around in the garbage piles.
The river under the giant bridge was a slimy, green, snotty soup, so disgusting that the workers tried not to look at it in order to avoid vomiting their dinner.
Passing through the heavily guarded military restricted area and entering the city of York, it felt like traveling to another world.
The neon lights and holographic advertisements on the commercial streets are dazzling.
Whenever Anna passes by this place, she is always very excited.
She blinked her big blue eyes and looked at the advertisements of brand-name cosmetics and clothing with longing.
The huge holographic projection of the fashion model is taller than a skyscraper, and coupled with dazzling sound and light effects, it is simply too beautiful and too attractive.
"Look! It's the latest mascara from Omiya! It has a colorful effect, so pretty!"
Roy tilted his head, pretending not to hear, thinking:
(Hmph, mascara… Women, what a hassle! I'd rather have more drinks with that money.)
The scenery here is beautiful, but it is not their home after all.
House prices in the center of York are so expensive that even middle-class people like engineers in factories cannot afford high-interest mortgages, let alone ordinary workers like them at the bottom of the society.
The light rail train twisted and turned, shuttled back and forth in the tunnel, and finally left the bustling and noisy city center and came to a dark steel jungle.
Officially, this is a large-scale residential area, but in reality, it is called a slum or a rat's nest.
Each of these giant residential buildings is over 200 stories high, and the poor are crowded like sewer rats in low-rent apartments.
They are quite satisfied with their situation. After all, it is much better than those homeless people who have to sleep in the open air.
After leaving the station, Roy and Anna walked into a dirty alley, went down a long staircase under the dim light of the street lamp, and walked forward for another half a minute before they saw a delicate little neon sign shining in the dark night.
The neon sign showed an old soldier with a cane, with small, colorful text underneath:
"Old Cripple's Bar" is Roy's favorite.
In this cold and ruthless city, the "Old Cripple Bar" that sells cheap alcoholic beverages is like an oasis in the desert, providing a place of rest for those poor and tired souls.