Chapter 6: Current Situation on Aisite Star
"Classes start at 8 AM, and Director Jiang will also be here to greet everyone tomorrow morning."
Jiang Yuxi stood at the entrance, waving goodbye to everyone with a cheerful smile.
She didn't want to smile so readily.
But all eight children had signed up!
Today was truly a great start.
With all the contestants gathered, would the competition prize money still be far off?
"Goodbye, Xia Xia; goodbye, Duo Duo; goodbye, Hei Mo; goodbye, Bo'er; goodbye, Bernie..." After bidding farewell to each child, Jiang Yuxi turned back to continue preparing for tomorrow's school day.
She needed to quickly cut out the little red flower rewards for the children, make small dried meat snacks for recess, and also prepare medicinal candy, cheese sticks...
Fortunately, Robot One One was there, so all the low-skill tasks could be handed over to Yi Yi.
Although she hadn't been able to conduct a physical examination today, based on her 300 years of experience raising young, she could tell with her naked eye that these little cubs had some health issues, at the very least, malnutrition. Even in human form, the cubs' condition couldn't escape her discerning eye.
How could little cubs be so thin? They must be plump to be healthy!
Indeed, raising cubs was the happiest job.
Thinking of the bleak days working for the exploitative boss on Blue Star, she couldn't help but shiver. Seen this way, being exiled here seemed like a pretty good option.
Kindergarten life mostly involved interacting with cubs and their parents. It was simple and free, with no superiors. The only downside was having only one Robot to command, meaning she had to do most things herself.
She needed to find a way to buy more Robots.
However, intelligent Robots were quite expensive.
This Robot was originally a living Robot provided by the school when the original owner enrolled in Di Xing First Comprehensive Academy. Later, when the original owner became wealthy, she installed an upgrade package.
Indeed, ninety percent of the world's troubles are due to lack of money.
Jiang Yuxi, carrying her small financial worries, turned back to prepare for tomorrow's official classes.
What she didn't know was that some parents, after sending their cubs home, had gathered in the conference room of the Planet Master's mansion.
The conference room was full of people, both Beastmen and Beastmen.
"Secretary-General, what do you think?" The Planet Master looked at the electronic registration form on his personal optical computer.
"The tuition fee is unexpectedly cheap, 10,000 star coins a year. That's probably not even enough for the food expenses of other Interstellar Kindergartens. The food purity is extremely high, and the impurities... are very few." The one who answered was Zhu Sheng, Zhu Xia's mother and the Secretary-General of Aisite Star, whose authority was second only to the Planet Master.
There was one more thing Zhu Sheng didn't say aloud: the food at Sunshine Kindergarten was very likely spirit plants.
But such a massive quantity of spirit plants, was it possible? And at such a low price...
She dared not believe it was true and could only try to reassure herself: perhaps it was just natural food with relatively high purity.
"As for the Kindergarten curriculum, among us, only you, the Planet Master, have had school experience. What do you think of this curriculum?" This was Xing Er, Hei Mo's mother, who was in charge of Aisite Star's economy.
The Planet Master frowned, trying to recall: "It seems different from the curriculum I remember. I recall that back then, we Beastmen just played all day in class, in the classroom, and in the playground.
The Beastmen side seemed to fight every day, and there were Beastmen cubs crying daily. But it's normal for the curriculum to have changed now."
The Planet Master had been an adult for over a hundred years, and attending Kindergarten was a matter from one hundred and fifty to sixty years ago. His memories were already a bit blurry.
Back then, to allow their ancestors to settle on Aisite Star, the Imperial Government granted the Planet Master's ancestor, who was the wife of the original pioneering team leader, a hereditary position as a primary noble, enjoying the corresponding benefits and treatment of a primary noble.
Other important members of the pioneering team were also granted positions as Planet Administrators.
"Ever since the Marshal led the Sunday Legion away from Di Xing, those old geezers have become increasingly shameless." Ericson frowned, his fingers tapping lightly on the table.
The Empire had seven major legions, and the Sunday Legion was the only one that fought for the common people's interests.
The Marshal of the Sunday Legion was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, hailed as the Interstellar warrior most likely to break through SSS+ rank in nearly ten thousand years.
The other six major legions were firmly controlled by old-money nobles.
Five hundred years ago, after the last female Kindergarten Director's term ended, she insisted on leaving despite the previous Planet Master's strong efforts to retain her, and Aisite Star's Kindergarten was subsequently abandoned.
The cubs on the planet also faced the awkward situation of having no place to study.
The following year, the Empire, citing that Aisite Star's cubs had not passed the Kindergarten graduation assessment, refused to accept cubs from non-noble families for further education. Aisite Star only had the Planet Master's family as nobles.
Later, again citing that Aisite Planet's cubs' transformation did not meet the Imperial standard for adolescent transformation, they once again rejected little Beastmen (adolescents) from participating in Interstellar Junior Academy admissions.
Not only that, but the noble welfare resources and remote planet subsidies from the Empire became less and less, and the Empire had openly shown its intention to abandon Aisite Star.
Since then, for a full five hundred years, cubs born on Aisite Star have not been able to attend Kindergarten.
It was ironic that when Aisite Star was first discovered, it wasn't called by this name, but rather S+1168 Mining Star, because an energy expert had predicted: this planet very likely contains a large amount of S+ grade energy stone mineral veins!
As soon as this news appeared, it caused chaos within the Imperial high-level for quite some time.
Even the Federation and the Sea Clan got involved.
Finally, it was decided that the Imperial Royal Family and various major families would dispatch a certain number of people for joint development, and also recruit a large number of pioneering personnel from among the common people. Commonly known as cannon fodder and odd-jobbers.
The Federation and the Sea Clan dispatched elite Beastmen teams to assist in the development.
However, the good times for S+1168 Mining Star did not last long; soon, the stationed elite teams successively experienced genetic collapse.
Finally, experts detected that S+1168 Mining Star not only did not have high-grade energy stone mineral veins, but also that the magnetic field and radiation within the planet were more likely to trigger genetic problems in Beastmen!
Suddenly, all those so-called elite teams urgently and hastily evacuated.
However, due to the large number of recruited common people, the high cost of resettlement after evacuation, and various other considerations, all pioneering teams, including the "supporting" Federation and Sea Clan, were left behind.
And from them, management teams were selected and granted positions.
Since then, millions of Beastmen have taken root on this planet.
A thousand years have passed, and not only have the various benefits once promised by the Empire diminished or even disappeared, but most importantly, fewer and fewer cubs are being born on Aisite Star, and most are born with severe genetic problems.
Today, the entire planet has nearly a million Beastmen, but only over 200 cubs have been born in the last ten years, and only 12 meet the conditions for Kindergarten. This means that among every dozen or so cubs born in this difficult reproductive environment, only one cub is healthy.
This is a truly chilling matter for Beastmen.
"I think Director Jiang's curriculum is very suitable for the little cubs on our planet. The curriculum not only aligns with Kindergartens on major planets but also broadens our cubs' horizons and helps them understand the outside world." Zhu Sheng looked at the curriculum on her optical computer, deep in thought.
To venture out, even with a certain level of survival ability, is not enough; it's more important to have a sufficient understanding of the current interstellar era. Especially for Aisite Star, which has been forcibly disconnected from the network for several centuries.
"B-grade cub training ground, cub growth fluid, cub gene fluid—as far as I know, even the Kindergartens on our directly affiliated planets haven't been able to apply for these. It seems this Director Jiang has a better background than we imagined." This was also why the Planet Master spared no effort to keep Jiang Yuxi.
"Moreover, looking at her curriculum, she is consciously cultivating our planet's cubs for further study outside. This might be Aisite Star's chance for a turnaround!"
"The Kindergarten curricula on the major planets are so impressive now, but in the future, our cubs will also be able to learn such amazing knowledge!"
"Although we don't know why she is willing to serve on our Aisite Star, as long as she serves on our planet for one day, she is a great benefactor to our planet!"
"And... and also, I really think the Kindergarten's food is delicious. One hundred thousand star coins a year for tuition. It's a pity the Kindergarten doesn't accept adult Beastmen..."
Thinking of today's Kindergarten food, Zhu Sheng and Xing Er, the two parents who participated in the trial class, were tempted: they wondered if there would be another chance for such delicious food—ah, no, another trial class—at the Kindergarten.
The room full of Beastmen was excited and full of anticipation because of Jiang Yuxi's arrival.