During the four days Qi Jun stayed shut in his room, Qi Tian brought him food every day. By then, he had basically become numb to meals that tasted atrocious beyond description. There was no helping it. If he did not eat, he would starve to death, especially when he received only two meals a day to begin with.
At first he had held onto a thread of hope. Perhaps the Qi family simply could not cook, or maybe the people in this city had such terrible culinary skills that the original Qi Jun had mistaken this garbage for delicacies. But after turning on the computer in his room, confirming that its operation was roughly similar to computers in his previous life, and looking through a mountain of information, he finally accepted reality. He had transmigrated into a world where food existed for the sole purpose of filling one’s stomach. For someone born in China, what kind of tragedy was this?!Usually meaning: the source jokingly calls him a “person of the Celestial Dynasty,” an old Chinese internet self-reference for China, especially in humorous or self-mocking contexts.
Still, the internet taught him many things he had not found in the original Qi Jun’s memories. That did not mean Qi Jun had not known them; they were simply such ordinary facts, known by everyone, that nobody thought about them constantly.
The world Qi Jun now inhabited was still Earth, only approximately thirteen thousand years after the era in which he had lived.
Historical records described ancient humanity this way: after humanity endured a great catastrophe, fewer than one tenth of the original population survived. To ensure the continuation of the human species, the governments of various nations had no choice but to merge into a single alliance state. Yet Earth’s environment had been so severely devastated that the habitable regions grew smaller and smaller. Mutated beasts and plants increasingly threatened human survival. The Alliance government therefore decided to create a group of biochemical beastmen by fusing human genes with those of fierce animals, using these powerful warriors to fight the terrifying creatures.
The biochemical beastmen created at the time possessed very little human thought or emotion. They had beasts’ sharp teeth, claws, and agile limbs. They were weapons humanity used against powerful enemies. Not only could they repel attacks from fierce animals and mutated plants, they could also hunt those creatures and bring them back as food.
After the great catastrophe, eighty percent of Earth’s land had been contaminated by toxins, and the climate had changed drastically. Unmutated plants could no longer be cultivated at all, while mutated plants were poisonous to humans and could not be eaten. Thus, for a very long period, humanity once again lived by eating beast meat and hunting alongside the biochemical beastmen.
Yet even with cloning technology, biochemical beastmen still took time to grow. A daring research team came up with the idea of adding beast genes directly into the genes of adults, forcibly altering the human body. After ten years, they finally succeeded in injecting the strongest beast genes into healthy adults. This produced the first new species to possess both complete human intelligence and emotion along with tremendous physical power: the true beastmen. They not only had the fighting strength and self-healing ability of beasts, but one third of them could freely transform back and forth between a completely human form and a completely animal form. Whether in intelligence, strength, or physical agility, this one third of beastmen were extraordinarily close to perfection.
But even perfect experimental subjects were still experimental subjects. When the project was accidentally exposed, large numbers of citizens and scholars condemned the research team on moral and ethical grounds. Even the Alliance government considered the project unacceptable. The entire research team was placed under control, and the first thirty true beastmen were imprisoned in a castle.
As time passed, the biochemical beastmen gradually changed under human enslavement. Their human genes caused them to develop human emotions and thoughts. They wanted equal rights to survive. Although they were willing to fight in order to live, they no longer wanted to be treated as lifeless swords and guns.
Thus, another ten years later, a group of biochemical beastmen rebelled and rapidly seized the Alliance government’s headquarters.
After the great catastrophe, the Alliance government had already lost access to powerful thermal weapons, and humanity had been forced to admit that highly advanced weapons were among the very things that had plunged Earth into catastrophe. That was one reason biochemical beastmen had been created in the first place. Without heavy weapons to support them, ordinary humans were genuinely fragile in the face of biochemical beastmen. What worried the Alliance government most was that the thirty beastmen who had been secretly imprisoned were rescued—and became the leaders of the biochemical beastmen.
Confronted with powerful beastmen, humanity began seriously reconsidering the research team’s argument. Rather than relying on biochemical beastmen they had created, perhaps humans themselves should become just as strong. The detained researchers were released, and the Alliance government launched its first official human-modification program.
Not everyone could successfully undergo beastification, and even those who did would not necessarily become perfect beastmen. Yet perfect or not, the tremendous combat strength of modified humans shocked ordinary people. Humans who were already struggling simply to survive began to realize that changing themselves might be the true foundation for continued existence.
Even so, the war continued. It dragged on intermittently for approximately thirty-six years before finally ending through peace negotiations.
Because of that war, however, the Alliance government fragmented once again under the weight of repeated disagreements.
A century later, ten separate nations had ultimately been established. The Hua Nation, where Qi Jun now lived, consisted of all the descendants of the people who had once belonged to China.
The divided world gradually settled into peace again. Every nation had powerful beastmen as its backing. Although thermal weapons were no longer used, human scientific research had not regressed. Fierce beasts and mutated plants still posed threats, but strong urban defenses kept those external dangers outside residential areas. The emergence of the first generation of patrol mecha brought beastman society even greater security.
People of different ancestries and ethnic origins still preferred to return to the continents where their forebears had lived. Naturally, the Hua Nation in the east continued to occupy a vast expanse of land and sea and had even claimed additional territory. Unfortunately, the places humans could actually reach and use were now extremely limited.
When people discovered to their astonishment that genetically modified beastmen lived at least three times as long as unmodified humans, almost everyone strongly demanded complete genetic modification. Those who would rather die than allow beast genes to exist in their bodies eventually disappeared into the river of history. From that point onward, the age of beastmen replaced the age of pure humanity.
Unfortunately, the power of beastmen could not restore Earth’s damaged land to its former fertility, nor could mutated plants become the foods they had once been. Yet diets needed variety. Mutated fierce beasts could no longer be domesticated, so beastmen began hunting outside the safe zones. But beastmen also needed plant-based foods. As time passed, the culinary records destroyed by catastrophe and war, along with cultivation records that had lost their original relevance, were archived and even forgotten. Necessity eventually forced people to search once more for all kinds of edible plants.
Scientists therefore broke down the genes of mutated plants, retained only the parts responsible for useful nutrients, and fused those genes into several of the safest small mutated plants. The result was the cultivated food of the beastman world. It was highly nutritious and fully capable of supplying a beastman’s everyday needs. As for taste, no one could ask for much. By then, beastmen had entirely failed to inherit humanity’s old memories of cuisine.
Reading all this, Qi Jun’s heart grew heavy. He could not tell whether what he felt was sorrow or grief. Watching the record of human society vanish, he felt as if his entire past had become an illusion. Those vivid, genuine memories… people in the present beastman world would probably never know they had existed. For the first time, he felt as though the world had completely abandoned and forgotten him. No—not just him. The terrifying part was that everything he had ever known no longer existed.
Over the next several days, Qi Jun slept badly. Compared with the resigned attitude of “since I’m here, I may as well settle down” that he had maintained during the first two days, he now wanted to go back so desperately that thinking about it gave him headaches.
But before long, he no longer had the luxury of dwelling on things that had nothing to do with his immediate life. He had to help clean the house because Qi Jun’s third younger brother was returning from middle school in the capital.
From the original Qi Jun’s memories, he learned that his third brother, Qi Jiang, was the pride of the family. Compared with their eldest brother Qi Shen, who was a sub-beastman, Qi Jiang was a beastman whose combat rating had already reached the early fourth level. Given that the highest ordinary beastman level was only five, this was an extraordinary achievement. In the Qi household, Qi Jiang unquestionably held the highest status. He was also the one who looked down on Qi Jun most of all.
Medicine in this world really was impressive. A wound as large as the one on his forehead had healed after only a few days of ointment. An ugly scar remained, but at least his life was no longer in danger. That meant he had no excuse to avoid household work. Qi Tian was still young, Qi Shen had to work, and both Father Qi and Mother Qi also had jobs. The only person left at home to clean was Qi Jun.
He had initially assumed that since this was the future—where internet access was free and identity information was embedded in the body—surely something as trivial as cleaning would be handled by robots. He had been spectacularly wrong. Robots did exist, but they were used in medicine and the military. Other than certain things being free and beastman energy sources being environmentally friendly, everyday life was not terribly different from his previous life. Want the house cleaned? There were only two options: do it yourself or hire a cleaner. Household cleaning robots did exist, but they were mostly restricted to important institutions and facilities. Very few families in the entire Hua Nation owned one. The Qi family… was ordinary. They were nowhere near that level.
Qi Jun rolled up his sleeves and cleaned for the entire day. Fortunately, Tiantian helped him, or those two floors would have exhausted him completely.
It was not because the Qi house was especially large. Both floors together totaled less than two hundred square meters. The problem was that his body was genuinely weak. When he had not been working, he barely noticed it, but after moving around so much, he truly began to feel overwhelmed.
Qi Tian used her handkerchief to wipe Qi Jun’s sweat. “Second Brother, when Third Brother comes back, is he going to bully you again?”
Searching through the inherited memories of all the times Qi Jiang had looked down on him, Qi Jun smiled bitterly. “It’s all right. Second Brother will be moving into school very soon. It just means I won’t be able to see Tiantian as often.”
Qi Tian frowned. “Why do you have to live at school? Dormitories cost money. Mom and Dad definitely won’t give you money for one. Second Brother, just stay at home. Mom, Dad, and Eldest Brother may treat you badly, but you still have Tiantian to take care of you!!”
Qi Jun smiled and stroked Qi Tian’s head. Her fluffy little ears felt wonderful beneath his hand. In his previous life, a cat-eared girl would have been more than just cute—she would have been the ultimate moe fantasy! “But Second Brother’s university is in the capital too, just like your Third Brother’s school. Besides, I’m already grown up. Once you grow up, you have to learn to take care of yourself. It’ll reduce Mom and Dad’s burden too. Don’t worry. Second Brother will find a job and earn enough to support himself. Lots of places hire university students for hourly work, don’t they? Once I start earning money, I can buy Tiantian pretty clothes.”
Qi Tian was not a four- or five-year-old child. At twelve, she already understood plenty. She knew Second Brother did not have a good life at home. What she could not understand was why Mom and Dad disliked him so much. Second Brother was the prettiest person in their family and the gentlest. He never bullied her the way Eldest Brother and Third Brother did. What about him could possibly be hateful? A-Li also had an older brother with low mental power, yet A-Li’s family adored him. Tiantian truly could not understand it. “Then will Second Brother come home in the future?”
Qi Jun paused, then nodded. “Of course. Second Brother is only going to live at school…”
Before he could finish, a cold voice sounded directly behind him. “Live at school? With trash like you, do you really think you can support yourself in a dormitory? You think Mom and Dad’s money blows in on the wind?”
Qi Jun turned. The youth was a stranger to him personally, but he knew this was Qi Jiang. Yet he was no longer the original Qi Jun, so he felt no fear whatsoever. “Of course Mom and Dad’s money doesn’t blow in on the wind. Since you care about them so much, when school starts again, you can work too and earn your own dormitory fees and food expenses.” What a terrible excuse to use just to mock him. Was Qi Jun supposed to commute all the way to the capital every day once university started? Even an easygoing man could get angry. In truth, however, Qi Jun mainly wanted a clean, unquestionable reason to leave this family.
