After the collapse of civilisation, humans turned into wild beasts draped in armour and weaponry. The old world order was no more. Humans returned to a dog-eat-dog era under the disguise of modern technology and wisdom. The human civilisation on the planet of Zorm was in constant tribal warfare; tens of thousands of city-states, warlords, independent kingdoms, predatory regiments, and government-in-exiles had torn the world apart. They spent 6,000 years developing from the Bronze Age to the Nano Era, but it took them only 60 years to disintegrate. Human civilisation had no tomorrow.
Hao Ren found that he was now in the northern hemisphere of the planet, one of the major areas where war first broke out. A few hundred kilometres away from there, the Nanomachine Swarm had gone out of control and turned the area into what was known as the Grey River. No one knew exactly how the catastrophe of the Nanomachine Swarm ended. But in this wilderness, the scars left behind by the horrific machines remained. When Hao Ren arrived in the vehicle, he noticed that the wilderness was full of corrosion marks and weird crystal pits.
This was not a wilderness but a melted city.
Several factions of human attacking each other at the beginning of the war. The Evolved had formed a new human legion while the Natural was split into several large countries. As the war raged on, more factions continued to form and regroup. The world order was completely unsustainable. It became a chaotic fight. Now the second-generation Evolved had split into many legions and states. The extremist Naturals could barely hold on their grip in the old country. Sandwiched among them were the more moderate Naturals and the first-generation Evolved minority. Most of these humans were mercenaries and free agents. True civilian organisations had disappeared ten years ago. Today’s civilians were merely ancillary products of the Great Legion. Anyone with a weapon was a soldier.
Hao Ren checked some of the branches of the Natural. He found that these Naturals had further split into subcategories. Because biochemical plugins were so convenient, and the physical weakness of purebred Naturals was too obvious that many Naturals had chosen to implant biochemical plugins in themselves though in a smaller scale. The only difference between them and the Evolved was that they absolutely would not meddle with their brain nerves. This ‘brain purity’ was the only difference between the Naturals and Evolved today. The Naturals had many branches such as the reformist school, pure blood school, fusion school, and neutral school categorised by the degree of their body transformation, but they still belonged to the same camp.
Hao Ren was deemed a purebred natural because there was no biochemical plug-in detected in him.
“It’s a total mess…” Hao Ren shook his head. His head spun reading the information. “The Natural, Evolved, world war, and Nano disasters… more like it was a man-made disaster.”
“But you can’t rule out the ‘Guardians played a hand here,” the MDT said in his mind. “There is no record of subterranean tentacles, so the involvement of the First Born is small. Considering that most of the incidents were the chain reaction of the problems within human society, I tend to think that some brain monster was lurking on the planet.”
Hao Ren pinched his chin and fell into deep thought. “Was it a moderate like the giant… or a completely mutated lunatic?”
“Either way is possible. A sane giant could also attack the mortal races. After all, the pain of losing their mother would cause them losing their rational mind,” the MDT cautioned, “because we don’t know the state of mind of the guardian. I suggest keeping it low profile for the time being. We must determine the planet’s coordinates and set up a defensive position in the orbit, and then we draw out the enemies and take them out. What do you think?”
The MDT made the recommendations based on experience in Holletta. It was a normal countermeasure. Somehow, Hao Ren felt that there was something more than meets the eye. It was not that he had any evidence but his mere gut feeling.
He thought for a moment. He then typing a new set of keywords in the search bar: God of Creation, Goddess, Origin of Life, and Religious Legends.
The information that the keywords brought up all pointed to the pre-war era. No one cared about the ancient religious system after the war. The newly emerging religions were all extremist organisations full of whimsy. Humans on this planet no longer had time for things like ‘origin of life.’
“… About the religious stories of the origin of life; many terms that are consistent with the goddess and the seeding of life theory,” Hao Ren frowned. “I’m almost certain that the Goddess created the ecosystem! Religions still existed until the war broke out!”
“Until the war broke out? Sixty-five years ago?” the MDT was surprised. “The planet escaped the ecological extinction ten thousand years ago?”
The religious stories resembling the Goddess of Creation meant that the planet’s ecosystem had the bloodline of the Goddess. The existence of the Goddess’ bloodline meant that after the deicide, the mad guardians would unleash their wrath on this planet. Yet, the planet was still developing prosperously until sixty-five years ago… Could have the guardians missed this place?
“It’s also possible that it survived the first wave of attacks just like Holletta,” Hao Ren shook his head. Finding no further worthwhile information, he switched off the computer. “But anyway, since this the Goddess had sown on this planet… the First Born must be hiding underground.”
The MDT said, its voice a pitch higher, “Next we got to find the tentacle monster!”
“You sound very excited.”
“I’m bored to death in this body, desperately needing some action and explosions, the MDT groaned.
“Still not getting used to it?” Hao Ren turned to the bed. He bent over to check the body of the MDT, but the latter still looked like a corpse of a girl. “Is it so difficult to change your sensory mode? Can’t you adapt to the senses of humankind?”
“You make it sounds like very easy,” the MDT was still bitchy, a stark contrast to the pitiable body. “Put your brain into the stomach of a slime. Try to adapt and see what happen?”
Hao Ren thought for a moment. He could not do that but he knew someone had done that before. Nangong Wuyue and Ayesha had once turned into a slime trampoline to let Y’lisabet play with it.
He shook the funny picture off his mind. Swiping the blonde hair away from the dead girl’s forehead, he said, “Oh, you look so much better in this body. She’s pretty…”
The MDT warned, “What you want to do? I warn you, respect the deceased! The body’s soul is essentially a PDA now. If you want to do that, at least let me get out first…”
Hao Ren felt like wanting to give the MDT a slap. “Are you freaking out of your mind? I just want to clean up your face!”
The MDT shut up. Hao Ren reached into the dimensional pocket for a paper towel. He then carefully cleaned the blond girl’s face that was stained with dirt and bloody hair. He did not know how the girl died, nor he know how to make sense of this strange situation. But he believed that thing happened for a reason. At least the MDT was stuck in it, he had to take care of the body.
“But there is a problem; the body will rot,” the MDT sensed what was in Hao Ren’s mind. “When nature takes its place, you will find yourself getting an extreme ‘taste’ in the next few days. People will think you are a perverted necrophile instead of a pathetic necrophile earlier. You will eventually evolve into a pure pervert…”
Hao Ren did not want to argue about that. “Didn’t Nolan say she will send a ‘doctor’? I guess she is sending an embalmer. Think about it: You’re in the body, not me. Who would more likely get an extreme taste for the next couple of days?”
“So what? I’m just a PDA. I don’t think the same way as you do.”
Hao Ren: “…”
In any case, this was definitely the single oddest situation since he took up the job.