"Wansheng! Why are you sleeping again in class? Can you still study like this? How will you get into college with this attitude!" A middle-aged female teacher dressed in professional attire yelled at a high school student sitting at the back of the classroom. The high school student, with short hair, a handsome face but sleepy eyes, was named Wansheng. He was a senior in Chuanzhou City High School. Recently, he was either dozing off or absent-minded during chemistry class. Countless times he had been reprimanded...
The result was simple, punishment by the teacher to stand outside the classroom. Wansheng looked at the distant playground with a helpless expression. It wasn't that he wanted to sleep, but that he simply couldn't understand the class materials. Thinking back, in his previous life he was a distinguished master's graduate from China's Capital University. After traveling to this ghost place, he has become illiterate, even unable to understand high school content...
Sighing, Wansheng forgave his ineptitude: "How can I understand things from a thousand years in the future? I am no god... From 2014 to 3014, the thousand-year gap has led physics and chemistry to progress to an incredible extent. How am I supposed to learn all this? But my Chinese and English are pretty decent, I've been praised for it."
Two years ago, he was studying Biology at Capital University in 2014, an all-around achieved student. After graduation, he was set to work on research and development in a large pharmaceutical company. All the procedures were settled, but then at the medical checkup, there was a problem. He can still recall the doctor's sympathetic gaze, "Young man, did you eat breakfast? Is there somewhere you want to go or something you want to eat? Hurry up and enjoy life, do not waste it."
"Doctor, there must be a mistake. I am only 26 years old! Besides, I frequently practice martial arts, how can I possibly..."
"You've already done ten consultations, what else is there to say? Your medical record is really odd, how can your lungs be problematic if you don't smoke? Do you breathe in too much smog in the capital city?"
Wansheng refused to believe this at the time. Everyone breathes in smog, how could he be the only one to have a problem? Looking back, he guesses it was from practicing martial arts every morning, breathing deeply and inhaling harmful smog over time, gradually leading to his illness...
At that time, saddled with such a blow in the prime of his life, Wansheng couldn't handle it. He bought a train ticket to the famous scenic area in Shu Province, Mount Emei, and decided to follow the steps of historical heroes, choosing to die peacefully among nature. However, moments after leaping off the cliff, he lost consciousness, and woke up a thousand years later...
When he first arrived, he thought he was dreaming, that he had become another person. It was later that he realized, this was no dream... Having time-travelled, Wansheng has cursed a million times in his heart over the past two years. If he had to time travel, he should have been sent to the past, at least he would've been familiar with the historical knowledge and might have been able to make ends meet and live a glorious life. But instead, he landed in the future, turning into a literal illiterate in a foreign place...
After a thousand years of development, human technology has advanced to a level incomprehensible to that of the past. Many theories, chemistry rules, and common knowledge have been overturned, even mathematical formulas have changed. Even if Wansheng were a genius, it would be impossible for him to assimilate a thousand years of human technological advancements in two years. On a lucky note, language and history haven't changed much, especially ancient history...
Before looking into history, Wansheng was mortified. He had imagined that a thousand years later, Earth would have been a peaceful and prosperous utopia, with everyone living abundantly. However, reality was brutally harsh, this was no paradise, but rather a hell...
A thousand years ago, he developed a terminal disease from inhaling too much smog, this was something he still struggled to comprehend. However, after studying history, he understood immediately. If the smog in 2014 was considered a drizzle, then the smog a thousand years later is a full-blown storm, crazy enough to annihilate human civilizations. The sky above the school was still blue, but the sky hundred kilometers away was incredibly dark, filled with the roars of beasts and various screams...
Wansheng had no motivation to study, he didn't even understand if he tried. He leaned against the wall, looking at the giant virtual screen in the distance. It was currently broadcasting motivating commercials, "To all the ambitious youths, cast your hot blood and courage, join the ranks of fighters and soldiers, start fighting against the Smog Beasts! Reclaim our lost lands! Return the blue skies to Earth!" What followed was scenes of humans battling various beasts, these excerpts were edited to be less gory.
"Warrior!" Wansheng's eyes suddenly lit up, "This might be my only way out in this world. There's probably no hope in academics, being a warrior who can save Earth probably has the most potential here. If I can't make it in academics, let's go the martial way." Actually, he's already set foot on this path, having joined a star-level martial arts gym a few months after time travelling, but he wasn't learning martial arts there, he was just working...
After class, the chemistry teacher gave Wansheng a severe reprimand then left. A slightly curly-haired, short and fat student came out of the classroom and hugged Wansheng saying, "Punished again, huh? I really don't understand you, your grades in Chinese and history are so good, but you don't get physics and chemistry at all? You weren’t like this in middle school, were you? Come on, let me treat you to a drink."
The student was Wan Sheng's die-hard friend named Yang Hecheng, the two had spent their entire childhood together, reportedly since grade school. Walking shoulder to shoulder, they came to the school's concession stand, each ordered a bottle of cola and sipped as they wandered. Yang Hecheng, a transparent high-tech straw in his mouth, mumbled, "Tell me, graduation is soon, we are about to test gene awakening. What's your plan?"
"Gene awakening...what else can I do? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Given my grades, I'm probably not going to college, I'm way behind in academics. If I can awaken, then I might have a chance at Warrior University. If not, I'll have to head home and find a way to earn a living."
Gene awakening is a "benefit" that everyone on earth receives now, a benefit pressed upon them. In the past thousand years since humanity entered its new era, the world has undergone thrilling changes. Due to humanity constantly exploiting the environment for technological and economic gain, by the year 2054, Earth's ecology had been so devastated that where pollution used to clear after ten days, it was now a permanent haze. Days went by in dimness, and people began to forget what the sun and blue skies look like.
From that day on, nature began to take its terrifying revenge, or more accurately, species began to mutate. From one day to the next, whether in the sky, on land or in the sea, all creatures underwent drastic changes. Be it ten-meter-long crocodiles, bizarre frogs or man-eating sheep began to emerge in the world...
Initially, humans didn't perceive anything amiss, just considering it gene variations. Despite the ecological experts' cautionary speeches, it couldn't curb human greed. On September 18, 2514, when a plethora of monsters stormed the cities like a wave, the high-ranked officials realized the severity of the situation. Strange giant beasts started to invade cities from the ocean, mountains, and fields. Some of these creatures were larger than a hundred-story building, and with a single swipe they toppled skyscrapers. That day marked a catastrophe for humanity.
Not only did these monsters induce fear and destruction, but they also exacerbated the weather conditions. The visibility in the cities they infested was barely five meters. The ceaseless polluted weather rendered all human satellites and laser weapons useless. More severely, humans could suffocate and die within a day in such an environment...
Religious people started calling this day Doomsday, meaning it's a divine punishment. Since then, Earth has gained a new name: Fog-star, and Earth's humans became known as Fog-star people. Those monsters were also referred to as Fog-beasts. It may seem that misfortune doesn't come singly, but truly, five hundred years ago, humans were on the brink of extinction due to the beast attacks and exhaustion of resources.
Originally, humans used nuclear weapons to bomb the cities infested with monsters. However, this only escalated the situation. The nuclear pollution posed an ideal environment for mutant beasts to flourish and evolve into even harsher predators.
But as it's often said, chaos sows the seeds of greatness. Perhaps out of pity for humans, a scientist hailed as the "Savior" in later generations, Tassin Love, discovered a new substance called "Genesis Metal". This Genesis Metal could trigger nuclear fusion inside the “Fogmutant core” within the Fog-beasts, transforming it into "Fog-source liquid".
Fog-source liquid not only served as an energy source for industrial technology but could also congeal into non-secondarily polluting "Fog-source crystal". What's more crucial was that injecting this Fog-source liquid into the human body could cause genetic variations, bringing out various powerful abilities.
The emergence of the Genesis Metal resulted in a group of special humans, the "Warriors", who had undergone genetic modification. These Warriors possessed potent abilities and safeguarded the last ember of humanity. Afterward, using these Warriors as models, humans began cultivating such Warriors in large quantities to resist the mutant beasts, retake territories, and gather new Genesis Metal.
By this point, humans were hanging by a thread. Around one billion people remained worldwide, divided among five bases; humans in Asia gathered at the Shudu Province base in Huaxia. In Europe, they gathered in the Moscow area in Russia. In Africa, they were inside Egypt's borders, in North America they were in the Colorado state of the U.S., and in South America, they were in Brazil's inland state of Cuiaba.
Ultimately, humans had to stimulate each individual's fighting spirit and potential. The law mandated every high school graduate to undertake a gene awakening test, also known as talent awakening. Anyone who successfully awakens can unconditionally join Warrior University for further studies. Of course, they could also opt to attend regular universities. However, on the brink of survival, most awakened individuals chose to become Warriors.
