Chapter 1 Haoren Figured It Out

It took Hao Ren a while to figure out the basic operation of the "personal computer" on the table. It looked somewhat similar to a laptop on Earth, but the keyboard functions and system architecture were very different. If it weren't for the aid of the in-brain translation plugin and past experience, it might have taken him even longer to figure out how to find some information from this device.

After mistakenly opening a whole bunch of programs, he thought he had found something similar to a browser and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was connected to the internet.

"I really don't know how they maintain global network access in this kind of world," Hao Ren muttered curiously, watching the screen slowly refresh with images and text. "Do they have someone coming around to collect internet fees?"

The data terminal looked at the computer screen through Hao Ren's eyes and also started spouting nonsense, "Telecom workers in armored vehicles with light machine guns coming to repair fiber optic cables – don't you think that's a cool concept?"

"Instead of talking nonsense, you should help me think of some search keywords," Hao Ren said, rubbing his fingers together. "This thing is much more convenient than asking the locals."

The data terminal replied casually, "Natural humans, First Generation Evolvers, Second Generation Evolvers, the Great War, world situation – these keywords are definitely right."

Hao Ren operated the computer of this world with some unfamiliarity, and the things he wanted to know were finally presented completely before his eyes.

The global war had been going on for three generations.

The humans of this world called the planet they lived on "Zhuom," which, when translated literally, was similar in meaning to "Earth" in the Surface World. But to show the difference, the transliteration of the local common language was used here. The last peaceful time on Zhuom ended more than sixty years ago.

Some old people were used to calling that last period of peace the "Pastoral Era." It was the last peaceful and prosperous era enjoyed by mankind on this planet, and probably the last period of glory in the entire history of mankind. In that era, mankind ushered in an explosive development of technology. The emergence of two technologies seemed to put an end to all the problems and hidden dangers on this planet: one was reliable nanotechnology, which came from the Northern Hemisphere's national confederation. Scientists believed that the newly emerging nanite swarms would completely solve all problems, including environmental pollution, human diseases, natural transformation, and even extraterrestrial colonization. The other technology was an evolutionary biochemical implant, a mechanical device that could be implanted in the human body and completely coexist with biological tissues. This mechanical device could even develop synchronously like the host's innate organs, relying on cell energy to maintain lifelong operation.

The original intention of nanite swarms was to solve environmental and medical problems. Scientists hoped that these cutting-edge robots could be used to decompose pollutants and treat damage in the human body, while biochemical implants were the basis for a leap-forward transformation of the human body. With the assistance of modern medicine, the human race had been removed from the supervision of the law of natural selection, so the evolutionary process had long stagnated. As technology became increasingly advanced, the human body itself seemed extremely primitive in nature. Scientists believed that biochemical implants would once again push humans to the forefront of the evolutionary path – because the ultimate form of these implants was to become part of the human body, fundamentally changing the human form.

There was no doubt that in the last peaceful era of Zhuom, the whole world was immersed in an atmosphere of joy and confidence. Although there were always conservatives who questioned and were wary of new technologies, the voices of these minorities were quickly drowned out by the cheers of people all over the world.

As technology matured, the group known as "Evolvers" officially appeared. They were new humans who had various modified implants in their bodies. Devices such as nerve enhancement bundles, auxiliary memory chips, and nerve-computer interfaces gave them abilities different from ordinary humans. Originally, this group should have been called "Modifiers," but due to the biological characteristics of the implants themselves and their nature of growing and evolving together with the host, the first batch of people to receive implants called themselves "Evolvers."

As in many stories, friction existed from the beginning between Evolvers and pure-bred natural humans. The congenital advantages of Evolvers squeezed the living space of natural humans, while natural humans, relying on their large population base and the social resources they occupied, imposed various harsh restrictions on Evolvers. But in any case, this friction was expected from the beginning. Sociologists and scientists believed that these were normal "social transition pains," so human society continued to function normally.

Until sixty-five years ago, a disaster broke out in the Northern Hemisphere, starting the "Great War" that has continued to this day and wiping out Zhuom's prosperous scenery.

Hao Ren was of course very concerned about this disaster, but he found that a lot of the information he found was full of loopholes and contradictions. The truth of what happened sixty-five years ago had been destroyed by the war, and the various forces in the war were desperately trying to record and publicize the beginning of the war in a way that was beneficial to themselves. In the end, Hao Ren only managed to sort out a few useful clues: the beginning of the disaster seemed to be multifaceted, including food pollution, a financial crisis, and an Evolver riot, but the most fatal direct cause was a runaway accident involving nanite swarms.

Sixty-five years ago, the largest nanite swarm command center in the Northern Hemisphere of this planet was suddenly attacked. Three giant computers called "Overlords" simultaneously crashed in the attack, directly causing the sea of nanite swarms around the command center to go out of control. After the safety devices of the swarms themselves failed for unknown reasons, these micro-robots, which were originally used to decompose inorganic waste and purify water sources, flowed into the surrounding cities, directly dissolving the three largest cities at the time – including the capital of a country.

The Great War, which had lasted for sixty-five years, began with this and was chaotic from the start.

The results of the investigation into the incident at the time had been sealed in history, but there were many rumors online. It was said that there was solid evidence that the attack was launched by radical elements among the Evolvers, who used the special brain chip function of the Evolvers to obtain direct control over a part of the nanite swarms. Their goal was to release the runaway nanite swarms to massacre natural humans on a large scale, destroy the population advantage and social resource advantage of natural humans, and then use the nanite swarms to build a country belonging to the new humans on the ruins. However, because the computing power required to control the swarms was too large, all the Evolvers who launched the attack died in the "Overlord's" computer room due to brain overload. Other rumors said that the attack was launched by a certain country in the Southern Hemisphere or a certain extremist religious group... In short, there were many different versions of the story, but the conclusion was the same: the loss of control of the nanite swarms destroyed the balance of international power in the Northern Hemisphere, causing a large number of second-tier countries to want to take advantage of the situation and become the boss, and the contradictions between natural humans and Evolvers were completely intensified. Under the promotion of a series of subsequent events, the war spread to the entire planet in an uncontrolled manner.

No one could have imagined that this war would last for sixty-five years. Until now, it had almost destroyed all order on this planet, and a畸形 (jixing – deformed), dying human civilization was eking out a living here, and the original appearance of this civilization had long since disappeared.

After learning about the cause and current situation of this planet's current situation, Hao Ren entered the detailed entry about "Evolvers" again, and he finally figured out what was going on with First Generation Evolvers and Second Generation Evolvers.

The two generations of Evolvers were not literally related in terms of "seniority," but referred to the modification technologies they each used. The technological basis of Evolvers was biochemical implants, and early biochemical implants could only be applied to relatively mature individuals. Implantation surgery usually occurred after the age of fourteen – or even later, at eighteen. This type of implantation surgery was performed on mature human bodies, so the degree of modification was limited, usually some local limb enhancements, and there were obvious surgical scars visible on the outside of the body. Nolan's slot behind her head was an example. Because this modification technology was relatively primitive, people who used this type of modification were called "First Generation Evolvers."

Even today, new "First Generation Evolvers" continued to appear. They were usually mercenaries who had to undergo modification in order to survive on the battlefield or to repair fatal injuries to their bodies.

Second Generation Evolvers were humans who used more advanced implantation technology. They appeared after the outbreak of the Great War and were the "high-tech achievements" researched after the extreme faction among the Evolvers successfully established a regime. Different from the first generation, these people were modified during the embryonic stage.

Humans seemed to be playing the role of creator, developing "mechanical cores" with "genetic information." They implanted these bean-sized mechanical cores into human embryos, and newborns were already superhumans with flesh and blood fused with machines from birth. The enhancement bundles that grew out of the mechanical core grew with the human body, almost like another body growing in the human body at the same time, seamlessly integrated.

These people were the "Second Generation Evolvers."

Hao Ren glanced at the golden-haired girl lying quietly on the bed and thought of the heterogeneous, but completely integrated, pipelines in her flesh and blood.

"Your current body is that of a Second Generation Evolver," Hao Ren poked the data terminal's face (temporary version). "And I don't have any mechanical implants, so in the eyes of the locals, I'm a pure-bred natural human. No wonder they were so surprised to see us together – these two camps are fighting to the death right now."

"In fact, you've been modified to a greater extent than anyone else," the data terminal muttered. "But this machine is now using a dilapidated shell that can't even open its eyes... and it's got a hole in it!"

Hao Ren rolled his eyes, "Speak no ill of the dead, can you stop complaining? This girl died so miserably, and you're still occupying her body..."

The data terminal shouted, "Then why don't you come in and try it?!"

Hao Ren: "..."