<h4>Chapter 713: The Situation on This</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Hao Ren fiddled with the “personalputer” on the table for a moment and figured out its basic operation. It was simr to aptop, but its keyboard’s function and system’s architecture were very different. If not for his inbuilt trantion plug-in and vast experience, it may have taken him a lot longer to suss things out.


    He opened many programs by mistake before he thought he finally found a browser-like feature. And to his surprise, the puter” was actually connected to the Inte!


    “I have no idea how this world maintains its Inte.” Hao Ren stared at the screen as it slowly refreshed its text. He muttered, “Is someone actuallying to this ce to collect the Inte fee?”


    The MDT could see theputer screen through Hao Ren’s eyes, so it began to gab, “The service provider crew rolling in an armored car with a light machine guning to repair your optical cables: don’t you think that’s strange?”


    “If you have so much time, why don’t you help mee up with a few keywords?” Hao Ren rubbed his fingers. “It’s so much easier to get information from this thing than from the locals.”


    The MDT casually said, “Natural, first-generation Evolved, second-generation Evolved, the war, the world’s situation—these should be enough.”


    Hao Ren clumsily searched using the unfamiliarputer. Now he had all the information he wanted before him.


    The global war had raged on for three generations.


    Humans of this world called the, Zorm, which meant Earth in the Surface World. However, for differentiation purposes, the transliteration of localnguage was applied here. Thest peaceful period of Zorm ended more than 60 years ago.


    Some old people used to refer that period as the Garden Era. It was a peaceful and prosperous world and probably thest glimmer of glory in human history. During that era, humankind ushered in an explosive development of science and technology. The emergence of two technologies were seen as panacea to all problems and hidden dangers on this: One was the reliable nanotechnology, which originated from the national consortium in the northern hemisphere. Scientists believed that the newly emerging Nanomachine Swarm would solve all problems including environmental pollution, human diseases, and natural transformation and even spearhead extra-terrestrial colonisation; the other technology was the evolutionary biochemical plug-in, a mechanical device that couldpletely coexist with biological tissues in the human body. The mechanical device could even grow synchronously with the host’s congenital organs relying on cell energy for life-long operation.


    The original intention of Nanomachine Swarm development was to solve environmental and medical problems. Scientists had hoped that these cutting-edge robots could be used to dpose pollutants and treat damage in human body. Biochemical plug-ins were the basis for the leap-forward transformation of human bodies. With the aid of modern medicine, human race had ovee the naturalw of survival of the fittest. Evolution had long been stagnant. Science and technology had progressed tremendously, and the human body seemed primitive. Scientists believed that biochemical plug-ins would bring humanity to the forefront of evolution again. The ultimate form of this plug-in was to bing part of the human body to change the human form of life fundamentally.


    Undoubtedly, during thest peaceful period of Zorm, the entire world began to immerse in euphoria and self-confidence. Although there were cautious conservatives who questioned the new technologies, the cheers of people around the world had quickly overwhelmed the voice of this minority.


    As technology matured, the Evolved officially emerged. They were new type of humans with various kind of imnted plug-ins. Devices such as nerve-enhanced strands, auxiliary memory chips, and neuroputer interface had enabled them to acquire capabilities that ordinary humans had never seen before. The new humans were known as the Modified, but due to the biological and evolutionary nature of the plug-ins with the hosts, the first humans receiving plug-in transnts described themselves as the Evolved.


    Like in many stories, the purebred Naturals and the Evolved were in conflict since the beginning. The Evolved who had an innate advantage upied the living space of the Naturals. So the Naturals with theirrge poption and control of social resources had made harsh restrictions on the Evolved. However, such conflict was foreseen from the very beginning. Sociologists and scientists had believed that this was a normal bour pain of social changes.’ So, human society was carrying on life as usual.


    It was not until sixty-five yearster that disaster broke out in the northern hemisphere and triggered the war that had raged on until now, until there was no more prosperity on Zorm.


    The disaster had certainly caught Hao Ren’s interest. But there were many contradictions. War had destroyed the truth of sixty-five years ago. All parties in the war recorded and publicised their own version of history of the war to their advantage. In the end, Hao Ren had only figured out a few clues: What caused the war seemed manifold, including food pollution, financial crisis, and the riot of the Evolved. The fatally direct cause was the out-of-control ident of the Nanomachine Swarm.


    Sixty-five years ago, thergest Nanomachine Swarmmand centre in the northern hemisphere was attacked. Three giantputers called Masters shut down. The shutdown led directly to the loss of control over the sea of Nanomachine Swarm surrounding themand centre. An unknown reason had caused the failure of safety mechanism in the fleet. The micro robots, which were originally used to dpose inorganic waste and purify water, had flowed to surrounding cities and dissolved the threergest cities in the world at that time—including the capital of a country.


    The sixty-five-year war started against this backdrop. It had been very confusing since the beginning.


    The investigation results of the incident were sealed in history. But, there were many rumours on the inte. It was said that there was tangible evidence to prove that the Evolved radicals initiated the attack. They used the special brain chip function of the Evolved to gain direct control of some of the Nanomachine Swam. The purpose was to release the runaway Nanomachine Swarm to massacre the Naturals. After destroying the Naturals’ demographic and social resources advantages, they used the Nanomachine Swarm to build a nation of new humans on the ruins. But, the Evolved who started the attack had all died from brain overload in the Masters room because theputing power needed to control the fleet was too high. Other rumours had it that a certain country in the southern hemisphere or an extremist religious group initiated the attack… In short, there were many kinds of theories but only one conclusion stood: The loss of control of the Nanomachine Swarm destroyed the bnce of powers in the northern hemisphere, resulting in arge number of second-tier countries taking advantage of the situation to exert their influence. As a result, the conflict between the Naturals and the Evolved intensified. With subsequent series of events, the war spread out everywhere in an uncontroble manner.


    No one could have imagined this war wouldst for sixty-five years. It had almost destroyed the orders of the. A deformed human civilisation on itsst legs still lived on, but its original form had long gone.


    After learning the cause and current situation of the, Hao Ren began to delve into the details on the Evolved. And he finally figured out what happened to the first- and second-generation Evolved.


    The difference between the two generations of Evolved was not the literal ‘generational gap”, but rather in the transformation techniques that they each used. The technological basis of the Evolved was biochemical plug-in. Early biochemical plug-ins could only use on mature individuals. Imntation surgery usually urred after the age of 14, or eventer at 18 years of age, so the degree of transformation was limited, usually involving topical limb strengthening, and the obvious surgical marks that was visible on the body. The socket on the back of Nn’s head was such example. Because this transformation technique was more primitive, people adopting this transformation were called ‘first-generation Evolved.


    There were still new ‘first-generation Evolved appeared today. They were usually mercenaries who had to get this enhancement in order to survive on the battlefield or to repair the fatal disability in their bodies.


    The second-generation Evolved were humans that used more advanced imntation techniques. They emerged after the outbreak of the war, were the ‘high-tech achievement’ the extremist Evolved developed after they came into power. Unlike the first generation, these people were transformed when they were still embryos.


    Human beings seemed to have assumed the role of the Creator. They developed a ‘mechanical core’ with ‘gic information’ and imnted the bean-sized mechanical cores into human embryos. New-borns were cyborg. The enhanced strands grown in the core of the mechanical system would grow alongside the human body. The process was so harmonious that as if the mechanical system was part of the human body.


    These people were the second-generation Evolved.


    Hao Ren looked at the blonde lying quietly on the bed. He thought of the cables in the body that seemed alien but werepletely integrated with the fresh and blood.


    “You are now the second-generation Evolved,” Hao Ren poked at the face of the MDT (tentative version). “Because there is no mechanical plugins on me, I look like a purebred Natural to the locals. No wonder they were so surprised to see us together. We are an unlikely couple.”


    “Actually, the level of your body enhancement is higher than anyone else,” the MDT muttered. “But I’m still stuck in a lifeless tattered shell with a goddamn hole!”


    Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Please respect the deceased and stopining. The death of the girl is already tragic enough, yet you are upying her body…”


    The MDT yelled, “Then should I try it on you?”


    Hao Ren: “…”