26 A chance to escape one's fate

( Lunch Hall, Sector E )

The lunch hall in Sector E wasn't a welcoming place on its first day. The lights were dim and the walls were covered in shades of grey, giving off a depressing feel.

Food was served in a simple metallic tray only once upon entry.

As one entered the food hall through its various narrow entrances, their ankle monitor beeped once and a food tray was dispensed with some sort of hot food by a food dispenser.

The tables were simple and long with everyone having the same kind of food on their trays - a bland, mushy thing which felt like a potato paste with two slices of bread.

It was just enough to fill you up but not enough to make you feel good. Eating it made one's mouth feel dry but the only thing one could drink to avoid that dry sensation was water as beer, juices and other drinks needed one to pay with MP.

People sat in small groups, talking quietly. Most of them seemed upset as they talked about their bosses, about how they were being treated unfairly and how it was so different from back on Earth.

On Earth, everyone believed in fairness. It didn't matter what job you had, you were treated well because every job was important for everyone. This idea of respect for all jobs kept things going smoothly. But here, in this grey lunch hall, it was like they forgot all about treating people fairly and there was a singular reason behind it - The lack of law and order.

On this ship there were no lawyers, no rights, on this ship one could not sue their supervisors if they treated them badly or demand settlement in a court.

On this ship the only rule enforcing body was the ship administrator and they did not care about the treatment of passengers as long as the job was done.

Leo and Luke had witnessed this firsthand, they could see how Vinicius got away with beating Harry, but the second Harry retaliated back he was electrocuted to death.

There were no rules broken when a C class citizen beat up an E class citizen but the vice versa was not allowed.

Everyone had boarded this ship hoping for a better life and a way to restart from scratch on a new planet, however, the reality was shaping to be something entirely different.

The ship was an oppressive place to be, especially for the downtrodden and it was a place where the system was rigged in favour of the elite and against the poor.

"This food tastes like shit-, but damn these people feel worse" Luke said as he stabbed his fork into the food tray and grit his teeth hard.

"Why? What happened?" Leo asked as he looked around and saw how there was no one sitting around the two brothers, but Leo did not view it as a bad thing.

"You don't get it, we stink Leo... the reason why no-one is sitting around us is because we stink like garbage.

For now this hall is only depressed and has some semblance of civilness left, but soon all this is going to hell if there are no rules in place governing how to live a life on the ship" Luke said as Leo suddenly realised the situation that they were in.

There were no laws on the ship that prevented infighting between inmates.

Although they could not cross from sector E to D without permission, they had free movement access in sector E itself.

The lines for laundry, for food, for bathing that were proceeding in a civil manner as of now were soon sure to become a breeding ground for gang wars and Luke estimated that the gangs would be formed based on one's profession with the cleaners undoubtedly facing discrimination.

Soon, the strong would monopolise all resources and make life even harder for the weak where sector E would degrade into a back-alley hoodlum where might made one right.

" Hmmm…. You're right, the situation here doesn't feel good at all" Leo said as at that moment he had the same idea as the thousands of men within sector E which was to escape this hell at the earliest at any cost.

[ Administrative Announcement:- This is the administrator of the Arc Ship speaking.

First of all, let me share the progress of our journey. We have successfully crossed the Solar System's range of influence and are now officially outside the gravitational influence of the sun.

We at the arc ship hope that the journey so far has been comfortable for all passengers and especially for our esteemed TierS guests because things are about to start to be shaken up.

On this ship, for every year that it takes for us to reach our destination we shall hold an annual event where the bottom 10% of a performing class would be demoted and replaced by the best performing citizens from lower class.

This means that the bottom 10% of S tier citizens will be replaced by top 10% of A tier citizens and bottom 10% of A tier citizens will be replaced by top 10% of B tier citizens and so on.

This performance data on one's performance will depend on the combination of one's work in real life and their progress within the game Terra Nova Online with the first evaluation being exactly 7 days from now.

For tierS citizens, it's a fight for your lifestyle and for tierE citizens it's a chance to escape your current fate in favour of living a better life!

We at the arc ship sincerely hope that this yearly event brings some excitement into your lives and motivates you to perform your jobs better.

Your administrator ]

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/// A/N - Today will be a 3 chapter day, this is chapter ⅓

Also, I'd like to share some good news, which is that TNO has now gotten a WN contract! ///