The soup kitchen was located in the center of the Star Military Academy Training Base. It was rather easy to locate since it was the largest building, besides the stadium, on Academy grounds.

The ten-story building was made of glass, and besides serving as a dining common, it also served as the student center, the library, and the training hall. Most students would grab their meals from the soup kitchen following the different meal plans they purchased depending on their Class.

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Star Military Academy has five classes: Low, Middle, High, Elite, and Genius, and each Class has a limited number of classrooms per campus. The Low Class has a hundred classrooms on each campus, the Middle Class has fifty classrooms, the High Class has twenty-five classrooms, the Elite Class has five, and the Genius has one. The lower the class, the lower the quality of the food was, and the more limited the options for food were for the same price.

A Low-Class student would pay, on average, 5 Kalas for a meal consisting of an egg sandwich, veggie straws, an apple, and a water bottle. In comparison, a Genius-Class student could pay 5 Kalas for a bowl of caviar, four kinds of cheese, truffle soup, a refreshing drink, and a slice of frostberry cake. The difference was enviable! It would be assumed that staff treatment was even worse, but, in reality, the staff was treated almost like the Middle Class, simply average and existing.

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As soon as Drew arrived at the building, he hopped off his hoverboard and placed it in a parking space built on the side of the building.

The parking spots were exclusive to those who rode their hoverboards or bikes to the campus, and one needed their Student or Staff ID to have free access, while outsiders needed to pay a 2 Kala fee for the whole day. The parking spots also double as a charging station, which is rather convenient for people like Drew, who need to be as conservative as possible when it comes to utility expenses. Additionally, the parking spaces utilize an electromagnetic lock to prevent theft, making it even safer for people to ride their hoverboards or hoverbikes to class.

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Once his hoverboard was parked, Drew pushed open the door of the transparent building.

Immediately, he rushed down the wide tile hallway and made a sharp right. Walking another hundred meters, he passed by some students clutching books from the library. As one of them wasn't paying attention to their surroundings, the student and Drew suddenly collided. The student's heavy books flew out of her arms, causing them to scatter across the floor.

Being the Good Samaritan, Drew kneeled and picked up the books on the ground, neatly stacking them into a pile. Drew caught a glimpse of them and smiled. "The History of Snowhawks," "Records of the Fifth Interstellar War," and even a random cookbook in the mix, all stuff he had read while in Compulsory Education.

The girl shortly recovered from the shock to find a neatly stacked pile of books right in front of her face. Astonished, she heard Drew's voice.

"I believe these are yours?" He spoke warmly, the books covering his face.

"Oh, thank you..." she stuttered, her face also concealed by the mountain of books that Drew passed on.

Both of them, unable to catch a glimpse of each other's faces, continued with their lives.

Taking another sharp right, Drew arrived at a rather grand, tiled dining area, fully furnished with hundreds of cleaned steel chairs and tables glistening in the sunlight. Looking up, one could see all ten stories of the building while the sun shone to the east, allowing most of the natural sunlight to filter through the enormous glass windows of the building, thus giving the building a rather 'warm' atmosphere. Right in front of Drew was a line of vending machines up against the kitchen wall. Across the corner, multiple dividers separated the dining area based on class. To the side of each divider was a scanner and a transparent digital tape.

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The scanner was for one's Student ID, and by scanning it, the tape would glow red or blue. Red means a student doesn't have enough cash to pay for the meals or the student is on the wrong line, while blue means the opposite: the student has enough credits to pay or they are on the right line. The lines are based on Class, of course.

That's just how the world works.

It was eight o'clock, about thirty minutes before classes officially began, and four and a half hours until students had lunch. Some students who arrived from the dorms were still eating breakfast there, but Drew paid no mind to them. Bursting through the double doors of the kitchen, Drew was immediately greeted by the friendly kitchen staff.

"Looks like the kid has arrived." A corpulent cook with a spiral horn protruding from his head smirked a toothy grin.

"Good morning, Kevin!" Drew laughed as the middle-aged cook came over and ruffled his green hair.

Spinning on his heel, Drew ran to the back of the kitchen and into the locker room. Arriving at the door, a young, dark-skinned, tall female wearing a black bandanna was carrying a box of potatoes.

Drew greeted her with a smile.

"Morning, Rika!"

The girl, Rika, stopped in front of him, and in the same manner, she welcomed him.

"Morning Drew! Chipper mood, ain't we! Ready for another day of work?"

"Eh, it's gonna be like always." The green-haired teen sighed. "I'll see you out there in a few minutes...gotta get changed."

"Sure. Oh, by the way, if you're looking for Uncle Winter, he's here."

He beamed, "Thanks a lot."

Ending their conversation, he scanned his ID and entered the locker room.

Like any locker room, there was a row of full-body-length metal lockers, each with a number on it. Drew's locker number was 704, the locker closest to the door. On each locker, there was a digital lock, and once again, Drew pressed his ID up to the glowing blue panel. Moments later, the panel showed a "thumbs up" icon indicating his ID was approved. The metal screen of the locker rolled up, revealing a white chef's outfit with six black buttons lining one side, and the crescent moon, encompassing a four-sided star logo, slapped onto the other. Below the logo, Drew's name was embroidered in a light blue thread. For the bottom, it was a pair of black denim jeans. Hanging on the side of the locker was an optional black bandana and some of Drew's photos with the kitchen staff over the past few months.

To Drew, the staff was the family he never had. They all cared for him, but sometimes, he wished to have some friends his age. Pushing out those negative thoughts, Drew swiftly put on his uniform and rushed out the door.

As he exited, more of the kitchen staff arrived, greeting each other as usual. Drew walked over to his station, which was the same as Rika's, doing prep work for the Middle-Class lunches. Because of the number of students and the different classes, the more experienced chefs worked on the higher-class meals while the less experienced ones worked on the lower-class meals.

Today's menu for the Middle-Class was Shepherd's Pie and bean casserole.

Grabbing the cleaver with its gleaming sharp blade, Drew went into a sudden trance and began to cut the potatoes into smaller chunks swiftly. Rika, glancing over at him, exclaimed, "You sure have come a long way. When you first came here, you could barely hold a knife properly. Now, look at you! Handling that cleaver like it's a part of your body."

"Practice makes perfect!" Drew chuckled as he finished cutting the rest of his pile.

"Have you saved up to buy another regiment?" Rika suddenly asked.

"Not yet," Drew exhaled with sadness, "I still need two hundred Kalas to buy the lowest quality regiment. It'll take me another half a year and two more regiments before I can qualify as an Intergalactic Warrior."

Setting down her knife, Rika turned to Drew.

She remarked, "Hey, that's not bad! You can enroll in Star as a student when you do! Plus, with your brains, you could easily get a scholarship!"

"I'm not too sure about that." He spoke unconfidently. "Star is one of the top military academies in the Orion Alliance. They wouldn't just accept someone like me. Even the Low-Class students are High F-Rank. Plus I don't even know if what Subsidiary Ability I'll awaken. "

"You just turned seventeen, and the next application period is half a year! I think you could make it by then!" Rika smiled.

"Stop shouting; you're drawing everyone else's attention towards us!"

"Listen, you have the most potential out of anyone in this kitchen to become an Intergalactic Warrior. I'm already twenty-three and only have twenty Krasos of Otrio. Everyone else in here has only fifteen or less. You have fifty! Plus, I think Uncle Winter might give you an early bonus."

Drew cocked his head.

"What was the last thing you just said?"

"Oops!" Rika frantically covered her mouth.

"You're terrible at keeping secrets, aren't you-" Drew laughed, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a towel.

"Ssh!"

She placed a long, bony pointer finger at him, "Don't tell Uncle Winter I told you!"

He scoffed.

"Too late. He probably already knows."

"Yeah, that is true." Rika shrugged and folded her arms. "Uncle Winter knows everything. Well, there's only an hour left before lunch begins. We should get back to work."

As such, Rika and Drew returned to what they were doing, chopping potatoes with their cleavers.

Before they knew it, it was time for the lunch rush.