Chapter 1 After the Collapse

After civilization collapsed, humans became beasts clad in armor and wielding sharp weapons. The old order vanished, and beneath the guise of technology and wisdom, humanity returned to an era of mutual tearing and biting. The human civilization of Planet Zolm regressed to a state resembling tribal warfare. Now, this planet is divided by tens of thousands of city-states, warlords, independent kingdoms, marauding legions, and exiled governments. They went from the Bronze Age to the Nano Age in six thousand years, but in only sixty years, they returned to this fragmented state. And it seemed that this time, human civilization would never stand up again.

Hao Ren discovered that he was now located in the northern hemisphere of this planet, one of the key areas where the world war first broke out. The Nanomachine swarm incident of that year occurred only a few hundred kilometers away. Now, the only remaining ruins there are called the "Gray River." No one knows how the Nanomachine swarm disaster was stopped, but the scars left by those terrifying machines can still be seen occasionally in the wilderness of this area. When Hao Ren came by car, he saw eroded, uneven ground and strange crystalline pits in the wilderness, which were the masterpieces of the Nanomachine swarm.

That wasn't wilderness; it was melted cities.

At the beginning of the war, humans were divided into several distinct camps that attacked each other. The evolved formed the New Human Legion, while natural humans were divided into several major powers. But as the war continued, the camps constantly split and reorganized, and after order could no longer be maintained, it became a chaotic free-for-all. Today, second-generation evolved have established a large number of legions and city-states, and extremist natural humans are barely maintaining power on the ruins of old countries. In between them are the more moderate natural humans and a small number of first-generation evolved. Most of these humans are mercenaries and free legions. Civilian organizations in the true sense disappeared ten years ago. Today's civilians are merely subsidiary products of the large legions, and they become soldiers when they pick up weapons.

Hao Ren also checked some branch entries for natural humans and found that natural humans were divided into many types. Because biochemical plugins were too convenient, and the physical weaknesses of pure-blood natural humans were too obvious, many "natural humans" had actually implanted a small number of biochemical plugins. The only difference between them and the "evolved" was that they would never tamper with their own brain nerves, and this "brain purity" was now the only dividing line between natural humans and evolved. According to the degree of self-modification, natural humans are divided into a large number of branches such as reformists, pure-bloods, fusionists, and neutrals, but they still belong to the same camp.

And like Hao Ren, who had no biochemical plugin reactions detected on his body at all, he was regarded as the most extreme absolute pure-blood faction among natural humans.

"A complete mess..." Hao Ren shook his head, the data in front of him making his head dizzy. "Natural humans, evolved, world war, and the Nano-disaster... it seems that human-caused disasters are a greater factor."

"But we can't rule out the influence of the 'Guardians'," the data terminal said in his mind. "There are no records of underground tentacles, so the possibility of a First Born is small. Considering that most of the incidents were caused by chain reactions triggered by internal problems in human society, this unit is inclined to believe that a Mind Flayer is lurking on this planet."

Hao Ren rubbed his chin and fell into thought, "Would it be a gentle faction like the Giants... or a completely mutated madman?"

"Both are possible. Even sober Giants may attack mortal races, after all, the pain of losing a mother can make them lose their judgment," the data terminal cautiously suggested, "Because the mental state of this Guardian is uncertain, this unit suggests not acting ostentatiously for the time being. After determining the coordinates of this planet, let's first set up some defensive turrets in orbit, and then force the lurking enemy out and strive for instant sniping or subduing. What do you think?"

The data terminal made suggestions based on past experience. Considering the situation that happened in Holleta before, these response measures were normal, but Hao Ren always felt that what happened on this planet should be more complicated than that. There was no definite evidence, but his sixth sense was reminding him.

He thought for a while and entered a new set of keywords in the search bar: creating god, goddess, origin of life, religious legends.

A large amount of messy information was quickly refreshed. Hao Ren found that these keywords all pointed to things before the war. After the world order was destroyed, no one cared about the ancient religious system anymore. The emerging religions were all strange and extreme organizations. Sayings like "the origin of life" were what the humans of this planet had no time to take care of now.

"...There are many religious stories about the origin of life, and there are also many entries that match the goddess and the theory of life seeding," Hao Ren frowned, "According to these things, it can almost be determined that the ecosystem here was created by the goddess! And these religions were still circulating until before the war!"

"Before the war? Sixty-five years ago?" The data terminal's voice sounded surprised, "Did this planet escape the ecological extinction ten thousand years ago?"

Religious stories similar to the creation goddess circulating meant that the ecosystem of this planet had the blood of the goddess, and having the blood of the goddess meant that after the God-slaying event, this place would be regarded as a place of venting anger by the crazy Guardians. However, this planet was still prospering and developing until sixty-five years ago... Did the Guardians overlook this place?!

"It is also possible that it survived the first wave of attacks like Holleta," Hao Ren shook his head. After finding that he could not find more information, he turned off the computer power. "But no matter what, since this planet was seeded by the goddess... its underground must be buried with a First Born!"

The data terminal's tone rose, "So the next step is to find the whereabouts of the tentacle monster?"

"Do you sound happy?"

"This unit is in a bad mood and urgently needs to blow something up," the data terminal clamored, "It's going to be suffocating in this body!"

"Seriously, is there no adaptation at all?" Hao Ren turned around and came to the bed, bending over to check the state of the data terminal's current body, but the latter still looked like an ordinary girl's corpse. "Changing your perception mode and adapting to human senses, is it that difficult?"

"You're saying it so easily," the data terminal was still so annoying, it was simply a waste of its current pitiful body, "Put your brain into a Slime's belly and let this unit adapt and see?"

Hao Ren thought for a while and felt that although he couldn't do it, someone in his family could probably really do it: Nangong Wuyue and Aier Sha had turned into Slimes, it was to let Elizabeth play on a trampoline...

He shook his head and threw this unreliable association aside, casually tidying the golden-haired girl's hair in front of her forehead, while fiddling and muttering, "Then again, your current appearance is much more pleasing than before, you're a pretty girl..."

The data terminal suddenly exclaimed in his mind, "What are you going to do! This unit is reminding you, this... this body belongs to someone else, let the dead be at peace, do you understand! And the soul of this body is essentially a PDA, you have to wait for this unit to get out before you..."

Hao Ren really wanted to slap it down, "Can you think according to normal logic once?! I'm just wiping your face!"

The data terminal finally shut up, and Hao Ren also took out paper towels from his portable space and carefully cleaned the golden-haired girl's dirty face and blood-stained hair. He didn't know how this girl died tragically, and he didn't know how to classify this strange situation in front of him, but meeting is fate, at least while the data terminal temporarily occupies this body, he has to take good care of it.

"But there's a problem, corpses will rot," the data terminal sensed Hao Ren's thoughts and spoke again, "According to this situation, your life in the next few days will become more and more heavy, other people's evaluation of you will rise from a pathetic necrophiliac to a perverted necrophiliac, and finally evolve into a pure pervert..."

Hao Ren was already too tired to argue with this guy, and just casually replied, "Didn't Nolan say that she would let a 'doctor' come over? I guess it's to help with embalming the corpse. And when you say this, you should also think about your own situation: you are now the owner of this body, do you think who of us will be heavier in the next few days?"

"This unit doesn't care, this unit is a PDA, this unit's worldview is different from yours, what can you do?"

Hao Ren: "..."

In any case, this was definitely the most bizarre situation he had encountered since joining the job, bar none.