Era of Disaster Prologue: Origins

Prologue: Origin

Living longer has always been the pursuit of humanity, a desire that will never fade!

No matter in which legends, myths, animes or novels, those who lived long lives or had great strength all possessed some kind of special energy. This energy is commonly referred to as magic, spirit, qi...etc. These kinds of energy and the biological energy that are in our bodies are different, hence we refer to them as ‘special energy’. 

This is - The Theory of Special Energy!

Humans have studied various cultivation systems and while a lot of them seem logical, n.o.body has actually succeeded in cultivating before. Not to mention eternal life, even the tiniest amount of special energy has never been successfully cultivated.

________________________________________________________

Origin:

In 2003, one of the richest man in the world Carma Dovich suddenly thought of a Chinese idiom while watching the sunset - the sun sets over western hills! (TN: It means going into decline/towards an end)

Carma Dovich just turned fifty years old that year. To a wealthy and powerful man like him, this is the age where he should be enjoying his life the most. However, Carma Dovich suddenly felt terrified. 

At fifty years of age, a person would have just entered the elderly years. If it was an ordinary person, then he should have been content with life and waited peacefully for old age and death. However, Carma Dovich felt unsatisfied and could not resign himself to that fate. He spent half his life creating this huge business empire, how could he bear to grow old and die when he just started enjoying the fruits of his labour?

A long life…is what everyone dreams of!

Carma Dovich is no exception. He became extremely terrified upon discovering that he was just like any other man, unable to escape the ravages of time. He couldn’t let go of everything he had. Wealth, power... if he never had these things then maybe it would not be such a big deal, but now that he had everything it was incredibly painful to let it all go.

He immediately used all the resources that he had, searching for a way to extend his life. To Carma Dovich, money and power are just inconsequential things, what is truly important to him is how to let himself live longer.

Due to the money invested by Carma Dovich and various countries giving the green light, research into longevity began like wildfire. Maybe it was not just Carma Dovich who had this dream, but anybody else who similarly had money and power. Desiring to live a longer life is the nature of all humans, especially those who have much and are not willing to give everything up upon death.

In many countries, there exists legends. The characters in those legends are not only strong but also have extremely long lives.

While the existence of the people in those legends cannot be proven, various cultivation systems have been left behind by these legends. It can be observed that some people do have longer lives than others, being able to live to more than 100 years old.

However, that was not what Carma Dovich wanted. What he wants is to live a long life full of enjoyment and pleasure. If they wanted him to live like ascetics and practice their cultivation methods then he would be better off dead. Moreover, those who practice those so called ‘cultivation methods’ all started from a very young age. It is just ridiculous to even consider that those who lived powerful and wealthy lives would undergo such cultivation.

However, even though they have not managed to find a solution for longevity, the top biologist Dr w.a.n.g came up with a theory, the theory of special energy. 

Whether in China, ancient India or western legends, powerful beings all have one similarity...energy! The energy used to produce and control fire, ice, or the energy used to pierce the sky with a punch. No matter in which cultivation system, other than the basic biological energy of human beings there exists a different, special kind of energy.

This special energy commonly has two purposes.

First: Giving humans a physical body that far exceeds that of a normal person. They can run faster, jump higher and even control fire and electricity.

Second: Giving people a longer life. Seemingly, no matter what kind of energy is used in these cultivation systems, a common effect is to delay the aging process.

Under the large amounts of money used, various scientists from all over the world conducted experiments and discovered that normal humans are unable to absorb energy. No matter is it heat or electricity, normal humans can only withstand these energy to a certain degree but n.o.body is able to absorb these energy into their bodies and control it.

Dr w.a.n.g then proposed a theory - The Theory of Special Energy Conversion!  

Normal energy cannot be absorbed by humans because the human body is not suited for it. This is the balance achieved through a long period of biological evolution. However, there must be a way in which the human body can be changed to absorb this energy. Not long after, they captured ‘cultivators’ from various places and found traces of special energy in them.

Of course, these hermit cultivators are only slightly different from normal humans and the special energy is only present in extremely small amounts. Moreover, there seems to be a need to cultivate from young for the body to remain in an energised state in the long term.

In a dormant volcano in the Pacific Ocean, humans found a species of algae, named devil algae. These algae contain a kind of activated cells that are capable of producing a kind of special energy that is different from biological energy.

This discovery instantly caused the researchers to be overjoyed and immediately started a huge series of experiments. They no longer used white mice but rather directly experimented on human beings. Even though it was immoral, but under the push of their desires they could do anything. 

Even though white mice and humans are both mammals, white mice are still very different from humans. What better way to get accurate results than to directly experiment on human beings? Anyway, the world is currently suffering a crisis of overpopulation, using up some of the population is a good thing, no?

Even though the activated cells have been discovered, problems arose when it came to transplantation. The activated cells have a very strong dependence towards the devil algae. It was unable to be transplanted to any other animals or plants. 

At this time, it has been 6 years since the start of the project. Carma Dovich is already fifty-six years old and fully stepped into his elderly years. Increasingly feeling the fear of old age, Carma Dovich feared death more and more and couldn’t help but to give the orders to use any means possible to find the way to longevity.

At this point in time, Dr w.a.n.g came up with another theory, since normal activated cells could not be transplanted to other animals or plants, then we just have to make these normal activated cells abnormal. To cause the genes of the cells to mutate, the most common method would be to use nuclear radiation. At this stage, even the use of nuclear radiation would not be strange.

The mutation caused by nuclear radiation succeeded, even though a majority of the cells died due to the radiation but a portion of them successfully mutated and continued living.

However, what these activated cells changed into is unknown and completely unpredictable, everything needed more detailed tests.

Due to the huge danger from these experiments, choosing a suitable experimental ground is essential. Eventually, they decided to locate the experimental grounds at...New Zealand!

New Zealand isn’t considered big, but due to its position in the centre of the Pacific Ocean it is separated from other places by a vast body of water. Moreover, New Zealand is not some small deserted island but a place with plentiful resources. All in all, New Zealand is a very suitable place to hold the experiments.

Honestly, even though they are just experiments, the people behind them were very worried as these experiments are just too dangerous. If what happened in the movies occur and there’s a biological outbreak then the outcome would be catastrophic.

Although the nuclear radiation caused the genes of the devil algae to mutate, the mutation could turn out beneficial or useless. Picking out the mutated cells that managed to become transplantable yet maintained the activated nature was a very complicated matter. Moreover, you won’t find success in these kinds of complex experiments on just on the first try. Just like that, five years pa.s.sed.

In a stroke of luck, among the countless experiments and mutations, one of the experimental subjects was found to have finally a.s.similated the activated cells perfectly.

This experimental subject was a Chinese woman, where she was captured from had already been forgotten. Up until now, all the experimental subjects used were real human beings.

This mutated devil algae cells and woman from China NO. 31000137 a.s.similated perfectly, or it even could be said too perfectly. In a few short days, the transplanted activated cells a.s.similated successfully and rapidly changed the cells of the woman and caused them to become activated.

The second part of the experiment, transplanting the cells of NO. 31000137 into other living organisms.

After all, using radiation to mutate the devil algae cells contains a huge element of chance to it and the transplantation procedure is another obstacle to success. It took more than 30 million experiments to finally find one successful case. Even that success was largely by luck, if they had to repeat everything again then they may not be so lucky next time. 

Since humans were used in all the experiments, being able to do so to such a large degree is linked to all countries secretly supporting the experiments. Now, the longevity research is not just about Carma Dovich but it involves wealthy businessman, politicians and other people in high positions from all around the world. All of them desired to live longer.

The female body of NO. 31000137 had already undergone a huge change. In a short period of one month, her body has grown by more than twenty times in size and changed to a distorted greenish-black shape. After those changes her body finally stabilized and stopped changing. However, at that point in time it was already impossible to tell that she was a human other than still vaguely retaining the shape of one. 

During this period, researchers continually extracted secondary activated cells from NO. 31000137 for later experiments and the future experiments also delivered good results. After repeated experiments the secondary activated cells could also be a.s.similated by humans perfectly and would no longer cause the body to mutate into that strange shape...provided that they do not come into contact with genes from other organisms.

The researchers referred to NO. 31000137 as the ‘Progenitor’.

The people inside the research facility did all these inhumane experiments due to their selfish desires. They did not know the woman whom they referred to as the ‘Progenitor’ had already regained her consciousness. Even though her eyes have disappeared due to the mutations, but some sort of perception field evolved over time in her. This allowed the progenitor to be aware of what is happening around her in a radius of a few kilometres.

The Progenitor vaguely remembered going home from work one night and then getting struck by something blunt from behind. She fainted and then the next thing she remembered was this research facility. By this time, the Progenitor already knew where this research facility was and the goal of these people - longevity!

New Zealand now has over a hundred research facilities of varying sizes, some of them has no experimental subjects while others have more than ten thousand of them. All these experimental subjects are living humans supplied by countries all over the world for the sake of one goal - finding the path to longevity.

Knowing all these and seeing the true nature of these people, the Progenitor felt endless fury and deep hatred in her heart. There was only a single notion in her heart...revenge!

23rd March 2020 midnight, Tongariro National Park, New Zealand. The secret research facility suddenly got destroyed by an invisible force. The Progenitor that was locked at the deepest part of the facility raised her head filled tumours to stare at the sky and screamed silently. Even though it was a silent scream, all organisms within tens of kilometres all seem to have heard the sound. It was a sound full of hate, sorrow and resoluteness...At a place closer to the destruction, all living organisms suffered from an invisible intimidation and fainted on the spot.

The Progenitor is now more than forty meters tall, covered with warped and distorted muscles. However, after this scream, a hole split open on her head and all her flesh and blood burst out like a geyser through the hole, shooting towards the sky.

An hour pa.s.sed, the intimidation effect disappeared and finally people could approach the site. Dr w.a.n.g rushed here and discovered that the Progenitor is now extremely weak. All the flesh and blood in her body seems to have been sucked away, leaving behind a badly damaged and withered skeleton as well as an incomplete layer of dead skin. 

How did this happen!

Dr w.a.n.g was shocked at this sight and then realised the implications of this matter. n.o.body knew about the power of the Progenitor’s activated cells better than him. 

“Dr w.a.n.g, how do we handle this?”

“Do you still need me to teach you how to handle this?” Dr w.a.n.g said coldly. He then immediately rushed towards a laboratory inside the facility. Inside that laboratory is a new drug - Prototy!

Prototy original form drug - it allows the body to retain its original shape even after fusing genes from other organisms.

The activated cells possess powerful gene fusion capability and will fuse with the genes of other organisms once it comes into contact with it, causing the body to undergo great changes. In various research facilities over New Zealand, there are thousands to hundreds of thousands of experimental subjects. These experimental subjects fused with various genes from other organisms and coupled with binge eating all grew to look like a hideous mess. The only suitable word to describe them is...monsters!

The original form drug is something that only got developed recently and allows humans to fuse genes from other animals without changing their own physical shape. Of course, this drug has not been completely developed and is still only a prototype. However, even if it is a prototype Dr w.a.n.g would not hesitate at all. If he did not guess wrongly, with this research facility as ground zero the activated cells of the progenitor would proliferate out everywhere. The only thing he didn’t know was how far would it spread.

When Dr w.a.n.g came to this laboratory, he found another guy anxiously searching for something.

“Eleanor, what are you looking for?”

“What am I looking for? w.a.n.g, you know what I am looking for, the original form drug! d.a.m.n it for something like this to happen, I don’t want to become a monster!” Eleanor said, abruptly slamming his fists. He then looked at Dr w.a.n.g angrily, but this kind of anger would not put any pressure on Dr w.a.n.g.

“The drug has not been successfully modulated so there are no complete products. If you want to use it, you have to extract it from the petri dish.” Dr w.a.n.g said, then taking out two empty test tubes and threw one to Eleanor. Eleanor suddenly realised the truth. No wonder he couldn’t find it after looking around for so long, so it hasn’t been successfully modulated.

“What are you going to do from now on?” asked Eleanor. Although he was quite indignant about Dr w.a.n.g being in a higher position than him but he must admit that w.a.n.g’s achievements in the field of biology is greater than his.

“Prepare a simple copy of data and then find a place to hide.”

“Huh, why?” Eleanor could not understand. 

Dr w.a.n.g did not explain, and just double tapped on the computer, revealing a hologram of a spreading area. With New Zealand Tongariro National Park as the centre, more than half of New Zealand and the surrounding ocean was encompa.s.sed inside. Eleanor was not an idiot, just by looking at the map he could tell that this was the area covered by the progenitor’s activated cells.

“Although I find you annoying but I should still give you a word of warning. Don’t try to leave New Zealand. The way these people does things, they will isolate New Zealand completely, letting it become an ecosphere for researching evolved lifeforms. Anybody who leaves from New Zealand will probably be…” Dr w.a.n.g pointed to the other side. 

That direction is where the experimental subjects are kept. This research facility where the progenitor is kept had the most experimental subjects, coming close to a hundred thousand. All of them had different genes fused into their bodies, capable of creating special energy, fierce and scary...monsters.

After saying all these, Dr. w.a.n.g pulled out a microchip filled with data, straightened out his clothes and hurriedly left this place.

Eleanor immediately thought of what would happen to this place in the future.

If nothing goes wrong, the entire ecosystem of New Zealand would be affected by the activated cells of the Progenitor, resulting in various evolved life forms and finally completely becoming a devil island. This was the reason why the countries of the world decided to conduct the experiments in New Zealand. This country was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean so there was a vast body of water to cross before reaching any other country. It would be hard for anything here to affect other places.

“d.a.m.n it!” Eleanor cursed and started to move hurriedly.

The progenitor was not a saint in the first place, she was just a normal woman who got captured by chance. Turning into this state, the progenitor was deeply in despair. She did not think about things like carrying on living in the state that she is in or conquering the world.

Releasing the last brilliance of her life!

The research facility holding the progenitor got damaged by a mysterious force in a split second, the progenitor’s body withered away in a moment as if all her flesh and blood evaporated. The activated cells originating from the progenitor rapidly spread out, covering the entire New Zealand.

New Zealand got a new name after this change - Devil Island!

Evolution...starts!