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.