Chapter 3 "Windfall" (3) Operator

The next day, Roy woke up groggy and with a splitting headache, as if there were hundreds of bugs crawling into his ears.

This was the price of a hangover. He was now desperate for sleep, and every cell in his body seemed to be holding a sign to go on strike.

"Jingle Bell!"

Roy pressed stop every time the electronic alarm clock rang, and it rang three times without waking him up. If Anna hadn't forcibly pulled him up, he would definitely not be able to catch the train. If so, he would definitely be late today.

It was foggy in York City in the early morning, with visibility less than 50 meters. Cars on the road turned on their fog lights and moved forward cautiously. The air pollution at this time was the worst of the day, and they would not risk going out under any conditions.

The originally white fog was dyed urine yellow by various chemicals, and the rainfall turned into highly corrosive acid rain. The raindrops dripped onto the car windows and left clear marks, like tear stains.

In order to save costs, light rail trains are only equipped with simple air filtration devices, which can only filter out large particles of gravel, but do nothing to deal with microscopic radiation dust. As a result, all the dirt is inhaled into the lungs.

The train announcement reminds people over and over again that this morning there is a yellow alert for severe pollution in urban and suburban areas, so please pay attention to protection.

People didn't react at all after hearing this, with numbness written all over their faces. Those who should listen to music listened to music, and those who should read newspapers read newspapers. These people have long been accustomed to living in a dirty atmosphere. Whether they live or die depends on luck.

.

Throughout the year, the air pollution index drops to the green light level only on a few windy days.

Living in York City, headscarves and masks don't work at all. Gas masks require frequent replacement of filters. Poor people definitely can't afford them, so they simply don't wear them. They are broken and broken.

Most of the people in the car were coughing, and the ground was covered with discarded tissues.

The syrup cough medicine in the vending machine in the middle of the carriage became a hot-selling item and was quickly sold out.

It's not because this syrup cough medicine is effective, but because the additives in it are highly addictive, forcing ordinary people to become addicts, and the pharmaceutical factory owners make a fortune as a result.

Arriving at the Spike Fuel Cell Factory station, the workers' movements were surprisingly consistent, limping and yawning like a group of zombies.

After working 10 to 12 hours a day, and excluding commuting time and private life time, I can only sleep for five or six hours, which is far from the sleep time recommended by doctors.

If you have insomnia, it means you have no energy to work, and if you fail to achieve production efficiency, you will be fired from the factory.

In today's situation where most people have zero savings and high debt, unemployment is obviously fatal, so most people take powerful sleeping pills in pursuit of the effect of snoring when they touch a pillow.

After punching in their time cards, workers lined up to receive protective clothing.

These cheap plastic protective suits are embedded with several thin lead plates and have a certain radiation protection effect, but they can only protect important organs.

Roy is an operator in a testing position. His job is to put semi-finished nuclear fusion battery fuel rods into precision instruments for testing.

If the readings are qualified, the product is placed on the left conveyor belt and reaches the next production line. If it is not qualified, the product is placed on the right conveyor belt and sent to the waste bin for safe destruction.

It was said to be safely destroyed, and everyone in the factory knew it.

In fact, it is dumped directly into the garbage dump for landfill, and the highly hazardous liquid waste is discharged directly into the river through the pipeline. Anyway, the people from the Environmental Protection Bureau have collected the money, and no one will hold them accountable.

Due to his hangover, Roy's reaction speed slowed down a lot, and he soon slowed down the entire production line, and the "low efficiency" warning red light came on at the work station.

"What's going on?" Ms. Diana, the production line team leader, walked towards his work station.

Diana is a fat aunt in her early fifties, wearing thick glasses with high myopia and a bitter face.

She has always been unmarried, has a bad temper, and often makes noises for no apparent reason, as if she has been in menopause and cannot get out of it, so she is nicknamed an old maid by the workers.

"Roy, your red light is on again! This is the third low-efficiency warning today. Do you want to force me to deduct all your points? Is it possible that you don't even want your basic salary?"

"Please, team leader, please do me a favor, I almost have no money to pay the rent."

"In that case, you should work hard and stop being lazy!" Diana pushed the high-precision glasses on the bridge of her nose, which was her usual action, muttered in her mouth, and walked away angrily.

Roy stuck out his tongue, and then cursed in a low voice: "Spinster! You make things difficult for everyone, and you deserve to be unloved for the rest of your life!"

Finally it was lunch time,

In order to seek peace and quiet, Roy and Anna always sat facing each other at the table in the corner of the cafeteria, not caring that the toilet was right next to them.

On the dinner plate was a bowl of thick soup full of additives and MSG, a few synthetic protein energy bars, and two small slices of mixed vitamin cookies.

This kind of work meal is the product of precise calculations by nutritionists.

Although they are all artificial and synthetic foods, they can still provide sufficient calories, protein, vitamins, fiber, etc. required by the human body. Of course, the most important thing is to save costs.

Anna looked at her depressed boyfriend and looked very worried:

"My dear, drink less when you go to the bar next time. After a good sleep, you will be more energetic. Ms. Diana has a bad temper. It will be miserable if she deducts points from you again this month."

"Okay, I was wrong, I know..."

Roy was eating with a fork in one hand and his head in a fist with the other hand.

"You didn't listen at all!" Anna kept trying to persuade him and reason with him, which made Roy feel irritable:

"I know...you are so long-winded..."

In the afternoon, a major accident occurred on the production line. An operator was locked in a machine and unable to get out, and suffered a large dose of radiation.

When he was rescued, the poor man's skin was eroded and peeled off, his mouth and nose were bleeding, his eyes were protruding, and he looked like he was going to die soon.

The ambulance crew put him on a stretcher and sent him away. Roy said: "This guy is dead. If Mr. Spike still has some conscience, he should give his family a pension."

"Conscience? Do factory owners have a conscience? What a joke!" Bart, a fellow worker next to him, patted Roy on the shoulder: "Humph! You are thinking too much!

Not to mention pensions, there won’t even be compensation for work-related injuries. The factory will give money to the accident evaluators to identify the machine failure as human error, and they may not get the money and have to compensate for the factory’s losses.”

"Oh, let me go! Is it really that dark?"

"Haha, Roy, you are still young and you don't know a lot of things!"

"I'm thinking, Brother Bart, what would happen if I secretly wrote an anonymous letter and reported this to the FBI?"

"You're looking for death! You idiot, you don't even think about it.

factory owners and uniformed federal employees,

Vampires and moths are born together! These people have been colluding for a long time, so poor people should be content and stop meddling in other people's business.

Just do your job well and get off work at that time, that’s all!”
Chapter completed!