EDEH Chapter 57

[007 Diary Twenty-Two]

 

[The moment the lie balloon bursts, darkness, chaos, and turmoil will follow.

 

At this moment, the probability of human civilization’s continuation has dropped to 3%, the possibility of extinction within three hundred years has increased to 90%, and as for the remaining 7%…]

 

·

 

Currently, there weren’t many safe zones left for humanity.

 

District 27 had fallen a few days ago. Of the remaining twenty-six safe zones, three were struggling with monster tide attacks, two were busy with internal strife, such as District 5 where Commander Lin Shuyi had gone to provide support.

 

Another six zones were located in extreme terrain or extreme weather, constantly suffering from natural disasters.

 

Compared to ninety years ago when humans first returned to the surface from underground cities, the current situation was actually not bad.

 

Back then, civilized cities had basically been reduced to ruins by meteor impacts, the surface was occupied by various contaminants, there were no adequate weapons, and no combat power to fight against contamination.

 

All that remained for survivors was endless despair.

 

They had to find new ways out.

 

The technology for fusing with contamination genes had actually been developed long ago, but humans had never publicly announced it. The biggest reason was the 100% mortality rate.

 

After choosing gene fusion, foreign genes would continuously erode and assimilate the human body’s native genes, fastest in zero days, slowest in thirty years.

 

That is to say, for deviants, from the moment they chose evolution, their lifespan was numbered—maybe one day, maybe one year, maybe twenty or thirty years, no one could say for sure.

 

The average lifespan of 180 years was real, but this was the lifespan after losing reason and becoming monsters, not the lifespan as humans.

 

The Dawn Plan was very simple.

 

For racial survival, for civilization’s continuation, human leadership wove a false new world for all survivors—genetic ‘evolution.’

 

They wanted half of humanity to serve as weapons and die, and the other half to serve as seeds to continue civilization.

 

But how to guide everyone to willingly become deviants?

 

After all, humans were proud—they believed they were at the top of the food chain. How could they willingly associate with monsters and be stained with their ugly appearance and bloodline?

 

So Huo Feng was pushed forward. He was molded into a hero, pioneer, and brave warrior. People trapped in chaos and fear easily took him as their only light, making him their faith and spiritual pillar. One after another, they flew into the flame like moths, becoming his followers.

 

They were all sacrificial victims.

 

Their fate was sealed from the beginning.

 

When the situation gradually stabilized and humans established sufficient safe zones on the surface, built solid walls and adequate weapons, ‘evolution’ could no longer continue as a trend.

 

After all, the ultimate goal was to continue civilization—pure human genes were most important, and deviants absolutely could not become the main body of society.

 

So deliberately created conflicts appeared.

 

Leadership promoted the new world ‘evolution’ theory on one hand, ensuring sufficient military strength, while promoting in cities that evolutionaries were all deviant monsters, strengthening conservative supporters.

 

They also announced the concept of deviants having a 50% chance of losing order within thirty years, making some humans afraid of death hesitate.

 

And deviants, because they were powerful, felt proud on one hand, but also resentful because of ordinary people’s strange looks. Especially low-level deviants, who looked down on ordinary people’s weakness while feeling inferior about their own appearance that was completely different from before.

 

These oppositions were all situations deliberately created by the Supreme Court.

 

But soon after, the Supreme Court discovered this wouldn’t work. The internal fighting between deviants and ordinary people was serious, causing incalculable losses and almost forming ‘racial opposition’ within humanity, with casualties comparable to struggles brought by contaminated monsters.

 

Therefore, supervisors emerged to meet the need. They controlled large quantities of weapons, mainly to establish rules, stabilize order in cities, and constrain both sides to coexist harmoniously.

 

At the same time, they also controlled and managed humanity’s most important and most sinful resource—processed contamination genes.

 

Research institutes had always publicly claimed that processed contamination genes merely reduced contamination and improved safety, but actually it was far more than that.

 

The most important processing step for contamination genes collected from the wild was ‘sterilization.’

 

This was also an extremely ugly lie in the ‘Dawn’ plan—that deviants couldn’t bear offspring with anyone.

 

In reality, deviants could not only bear offspring, but their reproductive ability would even improve due to gene fusion.

 

But their descendants would only be deviants, living at most thirty years before losing order and becoming monsters.

 

From the perspective of civilization continuation, the existence of these descendants had no meaning. Their youth occupied too short a proportion of their lives to serve as military force, and their unstable gene sequences meant they could lose order at any time, bringing too many destabilizing factors to human order.

 

Most importantly, when the Supreme Court initially drafted this plan, they expected to erase this history and eliminate traces of the “Dawn” plan when it ended.

 

The “Dawn” plan stated in black and white—

 

When human social systems stabilized and contamination was controlled, they would terminate the ‘gene fusion’ project.

 

This way, deviants absolutely could not possess reproductive ability, as this would give them endless descendants. A ‘race’ that could reproduce would be difficult to completely exterminate.

 

So the high-level officials united with research institutes to artificially eliminate deviants’ reproductive ability.

 

The contamination genes they fused had undergone ‘sterilization’ procedures. Once fused, it meant they could no longer bear offspring.

 

Deviants who lost reproductive ability would, once the high-level gave the order to end the ‘gene fusion’ project, be frozen in this generation and slowly disappear into the river of history, leaving no trace.

 

This was the most detestable and tragic aspect—

 

The Supreme Court wanted to be famous in future generations while unwilling to bear the eternal infamy of ‘murdering’ half of humanity.

 

They wanted deviants to expand territory and defend their homeland, while only treating them as weapons and monsters, not intending to let them earn the title of ‘hero’ in future generations.

 

The glory of saving the world belonged to the Supreme Court.

 

The deviant group was merely necessary sacrifices on the path to civilization continuation. They couldn’t have names in the river of history—they were just monsters.

 

Their existence represented the most disgraceful and ugly side of human leadership, representing endless evil.

 

Over ninety years, humans who chose ‘evolution’ made up almost half of survivors—not thousands, not tens of thousands, but tens of millions to hundreds of millions of lives.

 

They knew nothing, thinking they had sacrificed everything, believing until death they were fighting for their faith.

 

But in reality?

 

They were merely chess pieces to be discarded after use, both ridiculous and tragic.

 

…

 

“This is the truth of ‘evolution.'” In the broadcast, Shiwei’s voice was soft. “Heroes are fake, only sacrifice is real.”

 

This time there was no angry commotion—the main city fell into deathly silence.

 

Before, they lived like in a hollow balloon. Now the balloon had been punctured, seawater poured in, instantly engulfing everyone, wrapping them so tightly they could barely breathe and were about to drown.

 

Deviants deluded themselves—this was fake, right?

 

Another lie fabricated by supervisors to slander them, just wanting to completely isolate and eliminate them—a conspiracy, a trick.

 

But that old document was genuinely displayed on the big screen.

 

Everything was not without traces.

 

Suddenly remembering, there were always few elderly deviants around, but this point was covered by high-level published death rates of deviants.

 

Military officers were always young—Huo Jiangmin was promoted to general at thirty-two, Commander Lin Shuyi was also promoted to general around thirty-five.

 

For military personnel, achievements were important, but seniority was actually more important. Yet current high-ranking military positions were held by young people, especially deviants.

 

Because they couldn’t live that long… For deviants, maintaining sanity for 15 years was already difficult, and 30 years was the limit.

 

The moment they learned the truth, there was sudden enlightenment. Ah, so that’s how it was.

 

Then came overwhelming anger, anger that almost killed reason.

 

Beyond anger, there was also indescribable helplessness and panic.

 

The broadcast continued, Shiwei slowly saying: “Now, humanity’s situation hasn’t improved much. Ordinary deviants aren’t enough to handle disasters. They want more war gods like General Huo Feng, so ‘Dawn No. 2’ was born.”

 

“They kidnapped many ‘failed genetic test’ people like Huo Feng, sending them to rift depths. Maybe dozens of Huo Fengs could emerge from those thousands or tens of thousands, maybe none would come out, all lost in the terrible rift depths.”

 

“They are the Court, safe zone high-level officials, research institute directors, my father Herman Lange—but not General Huo Yanji.”

 

Sang Jue stood in the crowd, out of place with the surrounding chaos and noise. He was quiet and innocent—the truth had no impact on him.

 

Only when hearing Huo Yanji’s name did he curve his lips slightly.

 

His prince was good—these humans just didn’t cherish him.

 

He had almost succeeded in taking him away.

 

Shiwei spoke about how Huo Yanji was framed: “Years ago, when General Huo Yanji said those words, he had probably just learned the truth, wanted to reveal everything but was stopped, and had no choice but to say those words—actually hoping not too many people would fall into the ‘evolution’ quagmire.”

 

“Now, to stop ‘Dawn No. 2,’ General Huo Yanji was framed by my father in alliance with the Court. He never despised any group—he’s always done his utmost to protect everyone.”

 

“—But individual ability is limited. He’s also flesh and blood, ultimately unable to protect everyone.”

 

“He’s done right by us.”

 

…

 

Heart in turmoil couldn’t describe the current mood of main city residents.

 

Their eyes were red-rimmed, corners tearful, angry, painful, and confused about an uncertain future.

 

“So I don’t have long to live.”

 

“So even if I’m not killed by monsters, I’ll suddenly lose order someday in the future and become a monster.”

 

Tomorrow, the day after, or next year, the year after that?

 

Although they had known this possibility before, back then they thought the probability was fifty percent, but now it was one hundred percent.

 

They would definitely die within thirty years.

 

No one knew who first smashed a bottle, who first overturned a table, but years of suppressed anger exploded in this moment.

 

Something seemed to churn in their chests, like an overloaded boiler about to explode, unable to bear it any longer.

 

The pain brought by the moment the lie was punctured was indescribable.

 

Huo Feng wasn’t any pioneer entering a new world.

 

His sudden disappearance sixty years ago was because Huo Feng was on the verge of losing order, unable to maintain sanity, while the high-level officials still wanted to use the remaining warmth of his divinity to attract more people to fly into the flame and ignite the darkness.

 

The price of firelight was burning life.

 

Their hero was cowardly, ultimately losing himself in madness and falling into the abyss.

 

Their faith was also false, just a monstrous deception.

 

Instead, Huo Yanji, whom they had once hated most, was the most upright, protecting the people in his own way as much as possible.

 

Looking back carefully, they always instinctively thought Huo Yanji was hateful and detestable, but apart from executing infected and disordered people, they couldn’t think of a single reason to hate him.

 

Except for that public speech years ago that seemed like ‘discrimination and hatred.’

 

Too ridiculous.

 

Just twenty minutes of broadcast had turned the world upside down, overturning all understanding in an instant.

 

The dawn road paved with deviants’ lives had no place for themselves.

 

·

 

[—They were born in an era of collapse, died on the altar of faith.]

 

**

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