Chapter 1: The Tenth Year of the Catastrophe

Everyone on Blue Star except the people of Neon Country believes this planet-wide catastrophe began the day Neon Country ignored the stern protests of its neighbors and started dumping nuclear-contaminated water into the clear sea.

Three months into the continuous ocean dumping, a massive volcanic eruption hit Neon Country. Volcanic ash, scalding lava, and the tsunami and earthquake triggered by the eruption swallowed the country whole; fewer than five percent of its total population escaped by luck.

Before humanity could recover from this planet-shocking "disaster," dozens of major volcanoes across Blue Star's five continents erupted in succession. Volcanic ash contaminated all the planet's freshwater, making it unfit to drink, and acid rain lasting several months wiped out agriculture worldwide.

Half a year after the eruptions, atmospheric visibility on Blue Star finally began to improve. Just as the people of Hua Country stepped out of their homes to celebrate the disaster's end and prepare to rebuild, an even greater catastrophe suddenly descended.

A star eight thousand light-years from Blue Star went supernova. The resulting ultra-powerful gamma-ray burst inexplicably changed course and hurtled toward Blue Star, which had not been in its path.

After just a few seconds of ultraviolet flash, an electronic pulse covering an entire hemisphere struck Blue Star. Intense radiation left communications on the two directly hit continents completely paralyzed and cut off their power supply. At the same time, every artificial satellite outside Blue Star's atmosphere was destroyed and lost contact with the surface.

On the dark-side hemisphere, people in those two continents woke, stepped outside, and were almost immediately buried under a massive barrage of high-speed meson particles. Every living thing directly exposed to the meson stream had its cells pierced and its DNA utterly destroyed. The human world became hell on earth.

The gamma-ray burst not only killed most living creatures on the two continents, it also threw Blue Star's magnetic field into chaos. Two mysterious elements suddenly appeared in the planet's atmosphere, later named "Qiang" and "Yi" by Hua Country's scientists.

Qiang: to savagely kill, to harm the body and shorten life.

Yi: thunder erupts from the mountain, and all things begin to sprout.

Under the influence of these two elements, every living creature on Blue Star underwent a great evolution in a short time, and simultaneously launched a major challenge against humanity at the top of the food chain. The hellish survival mode across Blue Star officially began.

Xia Qing's mother died in the insect plague of the catastrophe's fourth year; her father died in the beast tide of the fifth year.

In the tenth year of the catastrophe, Xia Qing was still alive.

"Bang!"

A stone slab weighing over three hundred jin slammed to the ground. Startled recorder Lao Zhong raised his face, pitted and pockmarked by acid rain. When he saw the gaunt, dark-red-skinned woman standing before the slab wearing a green identity tag, he swallowed his anger and muttered, "If you're tired, take a rest. Breaking a stone slab doesn't count toward your points."

Xia Qing wiped the sweat and lime dust from her face with her sleeve and, unusually, spoke. "Uncle Zhong, I'm leaving."

Lao Zhong hadn't expected Xia Qing to talk to him. He stood up with a broad smile. "Going out to hunt? When will you be back? Could you spare Uncle a jin of good meat? I'll trade you at 1.5 times the points."

After the great evolution of all life on Blue Star, human bones became tougher and muscles stronger. A very small number of people evolved several times, even over a dozen times, becoming Evolvers.

Evolvers controlled more survival resources, and their living conditions were far better than ordinary people struggling at the edge of life and death.

Xia Qing was a four-times strength-type Evolver, meaning her current strength was four times that of an ordinary post-evolution human. While four times wasn't much among Evolvers, it was enough to make ordinary people jealous, fearful, and eager to please her.

Evolver Xia Qing usually kept a straight face and didn't speak, simply because she didn't want to deal with the kind of scene in front of her.

But from now on, she wouldn't have to deal with it.

"I'm not going hunting. I'm leaving the Safe Zone." Xia Qing smiled, but since she hadn't smiled in years her expression was stiff, and to Lao Zhong it looked especially terrifying.

His eye, rotted away at one corner, stretched open, his eyeball practically bulging out. Trembling, he asked, "Another huge evolved beast horde is coming? Our base can't hold out? Didn't yesterday's broadcast just say they'd driven the evolved beasts out several hundred li? Is another beast tide coming?"

Four ordinary people behind him carrying stone blocks heard Lao Zhong's words, got so scared they dropped their stones, which were about to smash onto one of them.

Xia Qing's quick eyes and fast hands caught the stone, set it steadily on the ground, dusted off her clothes, and explained, "No, I'm going to farm."

Farm? Farm!

This matter had been wailed about on the broadcast for days, but people who'd barely survived to the apocalypse's tenth year treasured their lives too much; nobody wanted to risk going out. Rumors with plenty of detail had already started flying around the Safe Zone, saying that since no one volunteered to go outside and farm, the next step would be forcibly conscripting ordinary people to go out and die.

Who would have thought someone actually wanted to go—and an Evolver at that.

Once he caught on, Lao Zhong hurried after Xia Qing. "Farming's great! My eldest son, you remember him? Zhong Tao, he works with the convoy. I'll have a word with him later. From now on, Qing, if you need anything just go to your Brother Tao, he'll take care of it for you."

Lao Zhong's son Zhong Tao had joined Hui-3 Base's military and was now serving in the convoy as a squad leader. This was why the Zhong family did all right in the Safe Zone, and also why Xia Qing had taken the initiative to talk to Lao Zhong today.

Xia Qing smiled. "Good. I'll be troubling Brother Tao to haul grain and game back for me to trade for supplies."

Lao Zhong's pitted face beamed. "It's what he should do anyway. No trouble at all. Qing, which patch of land did you get assigned?"

"Haven't gotten it yet. Going now." With her goal achieved, Xia Qing didn't waste any more energy making small talk with Lao Zhong. She hurried to the Safe Zone mission hall, skirted the crowd gathered around the electronic land-assignment board to watch the show, and walked straight up to the front of the office desk.

"What are you doing? Don't you know there's a line?" Seeing Xia Qing take the first spot, several people under the board were furious and rolled up their sleeves, shouting as they charged over.

Xia Qing turned around. The people charging over saw her green tag and immediately stopped.

Xia Qing said flatly, "If you want land, get in line."

Today was land-assignment day, which was why so many people were gathered to watch. Although these few hadn't decided whether to claim land, they obediently fell in behind Xia Qing and queued up.

Seeing they weren't starting a fight, the two soldiers on duty shouldered their rifles and stepped back to their posts.

Seeing someone in line, people under the board immediately scrambled over. Whether they'd claim land or not, they wanted to get in line first.

The commotion here drew the attention of people inside the hall. A woman wearing a green tag, with two long scars across her face, walked over and greeted Xia Qing. "You're going to farm?"

Xia Qing nodded. "Sister Xu here to pick up a mission?"

In the years since her father's death, Xia Qing had gone on plenty of missions with Xu Juan's East Sun squad. Xu Juan was warm-hearted and had already taken Xia Qing as one of her own.

Xu Juan looked around, confirmed no Evolvers with enhanced hearing were nearby, then lowered her voice. "Made enemies? I'll put in a word with East Sun. Come join our squad?"

Unless she'd offended someone and couldn't get by, which Evolver would give up the good life in the Safe Zone and risk their life scratching food out of the dirt?

Xia Qing shook her head. "Haven't offended anyone. I just like it."

But you can't just go off and die because you like something.

Xu Juan was about to speak when she heard the sound of a car braking and leather shoes hitting the ground outside the hall. The apocalypse had lasted ten years, and only a handful of people in the Safe Zone still wore thin-heeled leather shoes. Xu Juan turned toward the hall entrance and saw a curvy woman in a fitted leather jacket, so clean she stood out from everyone else, walk in and head straight toward them.

Tang Lu—niece of Hui-3 Base's second-in-command Tang Zhengrong, daughter of Tang Zhengsu, captain of the base's top-ranked Sufeng Squad, and the biggest troublemaker in the entire Safe Zone. Whoever ran into her had bad luck. Xu Juan had offended her over some small matter and was now doing her best to avoid her.

Xia Qing's lips moved slightly. In a voice almost too faint to hear, she said, "Sister Xu, go on with your work. We'll get together when we have time."

Xu Juan gave a slight nod, turned, and quickly walked back to her squadmates.

The crisp click-click-click of leather heels echoed through the hall. Most of the people inside watched Tang Lu, wondering which man she'd taken a fancy to today, or whose woman she'd come to make trouble for.

Tang Lu, wearing an ordinary person's yellow tag, walked with an impatient face to the land-assignment desk on the hall's west side, lifted her chin, and looked down at the green tag on Xia Qing's chest.

Xia Qing raised her eyes, glanced at her, and calmly stepped back.

"Hmph." Only then did Tang Lu snort triumphantly, twisted her waist to claim the first spot, pulled out a perfume-scented handkerchief, and fanned it in front of her nose. "What smell? It's killing me. Don't these people ever wash?"

After nuclear-contaminated water and six months of acid rain mixed into the oceans and lakes, Blue Star's water could only be used after purification. Because purification was expensive, water in the Safe Zone had to be exchanged for points. For ordinary people, even eating their fill and drinking water had become a luxury; who would waste hard-earned survival points on a bath?

Evolver Xia Qing lived a little better than ordinary people and could manage a cursory wash once a week, but today she'd deliberately come dirty. Although her gaunt but still rather pretty face was smeared dark red, it was best not to let the jealous Tang Lu see and remember it, and even less to let Tang Zhengrong and Tang Zhengsu see it clearly.