Chapter 842 - 861: Poverty, Hardship, Silence, Extremely High Mortality Rate
Chapter 842: Chapter 861: Poverty, Hardship, Silence, Extremely High Mortality Rate
"Not everyone needs saving. It’s just treating a minor illness.
"I also checked her identity again. Oh, an internet celebrity streamer with a massive following. She’s a student and a signed streamer. My preconceived notion was that this was a publicity stunt. I was very angry—even this was being used for hype... So, I re-watched the interview videos from the past two days several times and searched for some information. Originally, I wanted to find clues of this streamer hyping up heroism, but—
"I didn’t expect to find all this. Here, I apologize for all my malice and preconceived notions. I never imagined it was such an indescribable world."
Below, two pictures were attached.
One was a breathtaking shot of the interview crew arriving at Q3 for the first time, their Hovercar CREAKING as it flew over the queuing crowd.
Because it was a screenshot of a static image, it was a bit blurry, but it didn’t stop everyone from recognizing that this... was a picture of a line?!
Wait a minute. The onlookers were shocked when they saw this picture.
(Quick question, holy crap?? How long is this line?)
(...No way, right? This many people are lining up?)
(Are there that many patients on Q3??)
Then, the original poster threw out a second picture.
It was also a picture taken during Xiao Xiao’s interview outside the city, a silhouette left behind by the camera robot sweeping casually past.
In the animated GIF, this silhouette might have only lasted for half a second and wasn’t noticeable, but when screenshotted and circled in red ink—
The overhead shot showed nothing but heads.
This slightly frontal picture showed bodies pressed against bodies. At a glance, the end was simply nowhere in sight.
"I calculated based on some proportions. In this overhead photo alone, there are at least tens of thousands of people standing there, and the line has no end.
"I also searched for some information about Q3. People from Q3 rarely go online—almost never. Occasionally, some news comes out, but it’s all negative, like mining accidents in the mining areas... Also, in earlier years, someone complained in an old forum circle that the wage level on the Q3 Star was low."
Here, she also attached a few pictures, all quite old.
It took a certain amount of perseverance to dig these things up.
Next, she posted a few more pictures.
"Look at this. These are several video clips filmed by the Federation News interview crew during that free clinic. The videos all show scenes of students treating members of the public. Before having the aforementioned information, I saw that these people were very thin, but I didn’t feel anything was wrong.
"After all, this is a Numbered Planet, and these people are all patients. But—"
A bunch of screenshots appeared. This time, they weren’t wide shots, but individual close-ups, or comparisons between the students and the patients.
"My partner and I carefully went through all the scenes and combed through all the videos in these interview specials—all of them! We took screenshots of almost every patient who appeared, and they are all like this."
Every picture showed a person as thin as a matchstick.
If they were fat, they were swollen with edema. They didn’t look well-off; they looked sick.
Or they were hunchbacks.
Yeah, everyone was dumbfounded after seeing this...
Why were they all such miserable-looking people?
"I’m guessing blindly here, but the people lining up outside look like this too, because there really isn’t a single one who doesn’t.
"What does this show? Suffering like this shows that Q3 is extremely poor. But that’s a Mine Star... The amount of ore produced every year is second to none among all planets, and it’s mined by people."
People mined the ore.
And people were turned into this.
"I also looked into the brain drain on Q3—
"According to the interstellar population report, more than 300,000 people have left the Q3 Planet in the past decade, moving to first- or second-tier planets under various pretexts such as studying, working, or scientific research.
"However, these 300,000-plus people have almost never mentioned Q3 on social networks."
This was a question well worth pondering.
You could say that one person felt their Q3 background was disgraceful.
But this was over 300,000 people.
"This is an era belonging to the Star Network, but this group of people unexpectedly never posts on the Star Network. This in itself is a very abnormal thing, right?
"There’s another thing: the mortality rate. The interstellar population report shows that Q3’s population mortality rate ranks among the highest in the entire interstellar space.
"The life expectancy of residents on a Mine Star is indeed generally lower, and the mortality rate is also higher, but rarely does it decrease year after year, slashed by such large percentages like Q3.
"Besides this, I also looked at the hospital tax revenues on their planet, which are pitifully low.
"In summary, mining on a Mine Star is obviously a high-income job. These citizens look weather-beaten and terminally ill, and the endless lines also indicate that this planet has many patients, yet the tax revenue of the hospitals on this planet—
"You can’t just call it low; compared to the population base, I feel like there’s virtually no difference between this and having zero revenue."
So, what came to your mind?