The Underclass - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Karen's smile froze on her face.

Galaxy swiftly pressed the attack button on her helmet. The photon bullets loaded within fired rapidly toward Karen. However, the attack bounced off an unseen barrier. Karen, caught off guard by the close-range impact, was forced out of her chair, stumbling backward several steps before finally regaining her balance.

Galaxy quickly pressed a second button, firing another volley of photon bullets. The result was the same—they were violently deflected.

Galaxy had already guessed that if Karen dared to let her get close, she absolutely had some means of self-defense. Her failure now didn't surprise her at all.

Karen stood up from the floor, a trace of exasperation on her face. "Was the future I described not good enough?"

"No, it was great," Galaxy stood up from the chair. "But it was too good."

"Not having to worry about anything, not having to manage anything, having the most powerful person in the world act as my mother, becoming the next president." Galaxy laughed. "I wouldn't even dare to dream that big. But accepting your offer means I have to become your puppet. If I join your faction and take your power, I also have to bear the weight of what you've done."

"Heaven beneath Lucia Town, the laboratory beneath the District C mines, tyap-j, the commoners who died from infection over the past thirty years while purging radiation—I would have to swallow all of it."

Galaxy shook her head. "Perhaps in the past, I could have forced myself to do such things, but not now."

She had changed now. Not that she had become kinder or more righteous.

Given her position, it was hard to claim she was kind and righteous. Rather, she simply refused to suppress her feelings anymore.

Anything that caused her discomfort, annoyance, worry, fear, or terror—she refused to allow it to exist.

This was the very reason she had managed to survive until now.

An Hua framed her, so she hunted An Hua across the world to kill her.

The Federation pinned everything on her because of An Hua's status without conducting a thorough investigation, so she wreaked havoc upon the Federation.

She had seen Heaven and the hell beneath the mines, which led to Fula's death, so she aimed her spear directly at the likely mastermind, Karen, preparing to assassinate her.

She had long discovered that this straightforward, reckless method of handling things brought a thrill that shook her very soul.

It was a thrill countless times greater than the excitement she felt during sex.

Karen stared at her youthful face and pressed her lips together.

Perhaps only at this moment did she finally realize that in just three short months, Galaxy had become a lunatic who cared about nothing but herself.

The rebel army had long since unleashed her most chaotic side.

Did being the President's daughter feel like a grievance to her?

Karen finally dropped her composed facade. Her gaze darkened. "What if you discover that if you keep investigating, not only will you be unable to live freely, but you'll suffer a total breakdown? You will fall into despair."

Galaxy finally heard a piece of useful information. She thought for a moment and replied, "When I was slandered and hunted by the entire world, I was already in enough despair."

"No, it's a different kind of despair," Karen smiled. It was hard to tell if it was mockery or amusement. "A despair that brings you physical and mental agony and exhaustion, making you feel there is absolutely no path forward."

"Well, I'll have to experience it to know if it's truly that despairing," Galaxy said flatly.

"That sounds exactly like something someone like you would say," Karen suddenly looked exhausted. But this expression only lasted for a fleeting moment. In the next second, she shouted loudly, "Guards, shoot to kill!"

The guard squad, which had been completely untraceable to Galaxy just moments before, revealed their mechanical forms. The barrier that had stood between them and blocked the photon bullets also materialized.

The Federation had perfected indoor cloaking defense technology.

Top-tier defense measures had long been deployed around Karen, making it incredibly difficult to detect anything.

The negotiation had broken down, and all traces of a smile vanished from Karen's face. She stared coldly at Galaxy, while the mechanical enforcer guards behind her had already aimed their weapons, firing shells without mercy.

Without hesitation, Galaxy activated the gravity hammer on her helmet and sprinted toward the adjacent window. The new generation of high-polymer glass shattered violently under her impact. The incoming shells chased after her as if they had eyes. Galaxy leaped from the sixteenth floor, deploying a manually operated glider wing from her back.

She wove through the skyscrapers around Viciriel, the shells hot on her trail. A call rang out in her invisible earpiece, and she quickly answered.

Caleb's voice came through. "Just as I expected. The only person willing to pick up my calls can do it even while being chased by artillery shells."

Galaxy hadn't expected her to crack a dry joke. Glancing at the time, it was 5:30 PM, Caleb's off-work hours. No wonder she was acting so relaxed again.

But Galaxy had no time for idle chatter with Caleb. In the brief moment she had been gliding, two bombs had already slammed into the Viciriel buildings. The impact was massive; those floors were basically destroyed. If they hit Galaxy, she wouldn't even leave ashes behind—even the hardest skull would be pulverized.

"Cut the crap. What is it?"

Caleb drawled lazily, "I'm calling to save you, obviously. Do you know why those shells are homing in on you?"

"The Federation's automated, unrestricted pursuit shells lock onto biological genes," she explained. "That means the moment they began chasing you, they locked onto your genetic sequence and were programmed to pursue you with a 100% success rate unless they explode or run out of fuel."

Galaxy realized instantly. "So since I'm using the genes of the owner of this uniform, I just need to wait for the drug to wear off?"

Caleb snapped her fingers. "No need to wait. I prepared a gene-restoring fluid in your belt. Just drink it."

As Galaxy fumbled for the restoring fluid, she complained, "Next time there's something this important, could you be a bit more direct? Like, tell me to drink the gene-restoring fluid on the back of my belt first, and explain the reasons after the bombs stop chasing me."

Caleb let out a short laugh. "Because I believe that even if I explain it to you first, you'll be fine. You've always been amazing—you are the light of our rebellion, after all."

Galaxy: ...

She decisively hung up. Caleb's preparations were thorough indeed. In less than half a minute, her genes reverted to normal. The tracking shells behind her instantly lost their target, spinning erratically before abruptly plunging into the flowerbeds below.

Galaxy piloted her glider swiftly across the sky, dodging numerous bullets fired at her from below. Before entering the most bustling area of District A, she landed, found a secluded corner to ditch the helmet and change clothes, and then melted into the crowd.

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