Section 134 History (I)

When a species is too small to adapt to the environment, it can only become extinct.

The same goes for humans.

Relying on the sperm reserved before the war, the Skeleton Knights deployed a large number of test tubes all over the world. Unlike the replicants in the ordinary sense, they were instilled with complete old-time technology. Of course, the so-called "completeness" does not mean that the indoctrination of individual individuals. Due to the particularity of the human brain structure, the indoctrination of knowledge and skills can only be dispersed into countless coherent paragraphs, and repeated combinations are carried out according to the number, region, environment and other factors of the specific group of people being placed.

According to records, the release time of the first batch of test tube workers was January 6, 2025. At that time, ten years had passed since the outbreak of the nuclear war.

A total of 20 million test tube people were scattered across the continents. They carried simple living tools and food, like pioneers in the primitive period, were named as new generations of humans, and struggled hard on the desolate land.

This large-scale deployment is not so much to make up for the shortage of population, but rather a test of human survival ability and other potential in a highly polluted environment full of strong radiation. At that time, the ground radiation content was terrible, the sun's light index was extremely weak, and the large number of plants died, resulting in missing links in the global biological chain. Test tubes could not adapt to this cruel and desperate environment, let alone any so-called pioneering.

One month later, the number of surviving IVF people was only four million. Most of them died directly due to the harsh environment. They accidentally entered severe radiation areas, were surrounded by mutant organisms, and committed suicide... Even among those who survived, more than 70% of them suffered from various types of radiation diseases. In despair, more and more IVF people left the settlements and abandoned themselves and wandered in the wilderness. Half a year later, when the first harvest season came, there were only 2,165 natives left in each settlement. At the same time, relevant researchers from the Skeleton Knights were also surprised to find that among these IVF people who survived by chance, twenty-one had different degrees of mutation.

Their cell vitality is much stronger than that of ordinary people, and their muscle expansion strength and bone hardness are even stronger than those of soldiers who have been specially trained. Although the strengthening is not very large, this abnormal mutation made all researchers feel unprecedented shock and excitement. The senior leaders of the Knights immediately terminated the subsequent IVF production project and used the gene model of these mutants to transform all IVFs who have completed production and are undergoing skill training. Two years later, the second batch of 20 million new generations of humans who have been strengthened by cell begin to be deployed worldwide.

At this time, there were only 106 of the first batch of test tubes left. They were guarding four settlements in Asia, Europe and South America. Among these people, new mutant individuals were still emerging. What is particularly exciting is that a woman even gave birth to a baby in a natural state. After testing, his genetic arrangement sequence had undergone extremely subtle changes, and his development and growth period showed signs of shortening. The resistance of cells and the body to radiation and parasitic bacteria was more than 9.16% of the humans in the old era.

Despite the strengthening of physical fitness, the newly added test tubes also cannot withstand an environment full of radiation. The mortality rate remains high, and more and more radiation patients appear in settlements. In order to prevent infection, people began to throw patients with ulcers all over the body into the wilderness and let them die. In the observation records of the Skeleton Knights and the Joint Doctors Association during this period, the name "radiation ghost" appeared for the first time.

Compared with the first batch of test tube people who died almost all, the number of survival of the second batch of neogene humans who had undergone physical strengthening has also increased significantly. According to observation data, two years later, their number was about 800,000. The settlements gradually formed a scale, and the number of enhanced humans produced by mutations also reached 1,672, and more than 50,000 babies survived after childbirth.

The completely different data of the two batches of test tube people in the first and second periods show that humans will actively change their evolution direction to adapt under the threat of harsh environments. Of course, the gradually weakened radiation is also an important factor in the sharp increase in the number of survival. However, the upper class of the Knights did not seem to be very interested in this. In the next two years, they did not deploy any new test tube people. Instead, they concentrated their efforts to conduct the most detailed analysis of the mutant human samples found. A year later, in 2032, calculated according to the old calendar, the Knights of the Skeletons deployed a total of 200 million more improved test tube people worldwide.

No one knew what exactly led to the top leaders of the Knights to make such a decision. With the strength of the Skeleton Knights at that time, they could not fully monitor so many goals, and they even exhausted all their nutrient reserves. The result was quite obvious - for five years after that, the Knights never conducted mass production of IVF people.

Two hundred million humans have caused an unprecedented impact on this desolate planet after the war. The new generation of humans scattered from the main cities of each Knights quickly established settlements of different sizes. Using the body strengthened by mutant cells, the chance of illness caused by radiation is greatly reduced. According to the monitoring data of the first two batches of test tube people, they can farm in mild radiation areas and obtain enough food.

There is no exact number to indicate how much preparation the Skeleton Knights made before the war. However, judging from the standard ration configuration they gave to 240 million test tubes, the Knights undoubtedly have an astonishing amount of food reserves. Of course, they did not provide for the IVFs after being released, and only provided the necessary production tools and little help. As for food, the distribution standard was accurate to calculate in the number of days. Under normal circumstances, it could only be maintained until the first harvest season came.

It should be admitted that this is a normal move. But no one expected that this was exactly the beginning of the disaster.

Due to the changes in the Earth's rotation cycle and sunspot activity, the global climate suddenly became abnormally chaotic in 2032 AD, the seventh year after the end of the nuclear war. Acid rainfall reached the sum of the past four years, and with frequent hurricanes, almost all planting areas of the Centogenic humans were destroyed.

According to the measurement data of the Joint Doctors Association on soil radiation at varying degrees, from 2025 to 2032, under natural conditions, the average yield of crops was about 80% of the normal years of the old era, and the growth cycle was shortened by ten to fifteen days. In order to adapt to the environment, plants are also looking for an evolutionary method that suits them. Their seed coats become harder, and the seed requirements for the germination environment have been greatly reduced. Take wheat as an example, the growth time of the ear period was shortened by about one week, and the slurry content of the ear grains shrank by one third. This means that more nutrients are provided to the body and rhizomes. In addition to continuing the seeds that the population must retain, they no longer provide more grains for humans who grow their own.

Reduced harvest and unfinished harvest are two completely different concepts. Although the crops grown do not have the abundant yields as they did in the old era, they can at least maintain the most basic conditions for human survival. As for the latter... they only represent two concepts - hunger and death.

It was a global famine. Every settlement was full of yellow-faced test tubes. Every activity was for food. Disputes and hunger, which eventually led to the greatest chaos after the end of the nuclear war. The settlements formed troops and armed forces one after another, they united, split, killed and ransacked every settlement that might have left food. Driven by disorderly madness, they even pointed their targets at the Skeleton Knights in the main cities of various continents... The war and chaos continued completely.

For eight months, in the face of hunger, the concept of food was infinitely expanded. The purpose of war became more than just robbery. The bodies of the dead began to become very important spoils. The crazy test tube man desperately searched for all the food that could be eaten, terrible mutant creatures, flesh on his companions, women, children... It was an era full of terror and death. The new life brought the social order that humans had just established was completely destroyed, and coupled with the ubiquitous radiation and the darkness above his head, the entire earth was simply a living hell.

The actual death figures of 200 million test tubes have not been accurately counted so far. In the chaos, the Joint Doctors Association and the Skeleton Knights chose to stick to each other. Although they had the strength and were fully capable of stopping the disaster, the two major forces remained silent. The food they had reserved might not be enough to save everyone, but they did not make any relevant moves. They just stayed in the solid castle, silently watching the blood flowing out into a river and corpses everywhere.

The changes in the new generation of humans during that period were the most obvious. Eating mutated organisms in large quantities caused bacteria and viruses to enter the human body at a faster rate. The unclean food source and simple and even raw cooking methods made the human body a host of more and more microorganisms. The probability of virus mutation in the radiation environment increased significantly at a geometric rate, and new diseases that humans had never imagined in the old era spread wildly. In order not to become food or be killed in other people's mouths, some test tube people were forced to enter the moderate-to-middle radiation areas and even ruins to avoid war, which also caused their mutation to be faster and more terrifying than ordinary people.

Two years later, the chaos began to subside. The Skeleton Knights, who had lost control of the IVF, could no longer know the exact number of survivors. At this time, as the degree of external radiation had weakened, some of the rich institutions that had been prepared before the war and entered the underground shelter, opened the closed steel gate and returned to the world. As the huge deployment plan consumed too much resources, the Skeleton Knights began to contact these families with production capacity. According to the position selected by the other party on the map, they used huge mechanical capacity to help them rebuild their homes in the light radiation area that could survive. It was precisely because of this mutual assistance that the lost materials of the Knights were accumulated again. In June 2037, 50 million IVF people injected with the latest strengthening gene were released again. Since then, no relevant institutions or forces have made similar actions.

"As far as I know, the delivery of test tubes is not an disorderly behavior. Based on the skin color, the Skeleton Knights group all the delivery objects and spread them one to one in the light radiation areas. In fact, I have been confused about this question. According to ethnology, this ratio actually has no theoretical basis. Ethnographic differences are caused by evolutionary pathways and earth's climate. The radiation dust densely spread in the sky blocks most of the sunlight, and the influence of ultraviolet rays and climate on race is equivalent to zero. If you must add a sufficiently reasonable answer to this action that cannot be explained by science, then the best interpreter... can only be the senior staff of the Skeleton Knights who made this decision."

Taking a sip of the whiskey that was as fiery as fire, Liu Yuchen looked at Lin Xiang sitting opposite him indifferently: "This is the answer I know."

Lin Xiang sat quietly without further questions, and there was no slight fluctuation in his black eyes. He remained silent until the fanaticism caused by alcohol in his blood vessels gradually subsided and he returned to the icy quietness.

He did not intend to reveal his true identity to Liu Yuchen. Many people want to live long, and a century of life is not a strange thing. However, humans like himself who survived in a natural state for nearly a century but still remained young are definitely monsters that are fearful and curious. Especially in the face of a doctor, under the induced persistent interest, Liu Yuchen's chance of slicing himself under a microscope to observe and study is much greater than sitting in a bar room and talking.

Lin Xiang suddenly developed a strong curiosity about the Doctors Association. In his concept of thinking, the Skeleton Knights should be the only powerful institution in the world after the great destruction. However, judging from what Liu Yuchen just said and the advanced technology level of Life No. 24 - the Doctors Association's strength is definitely no less than that of the Knights, and may even be stronger than that of the other party. Strangely, in the old era, why did he never hear of such an organization?

"You seem to have lived for a long time... Haha! Tell me, is your actual age as young as you look?" Looking at the opposite side, Lin Xiang's gaze became deeper, his voice became more melodious and magnetic.

He did not directly choose the question he wanted to know the most. Instead, he asked questions based on normal people's thinking and Liu Yuchen's answer.

The young deacon of the Medical Association was obviously not going to lie on this issue. He smiled: "You guessed it right. Indeed, my actual age is much older than I look. Just last week, I just celebrated my 117th birthday."

Lin Xiang's eyes trembled slightly, and he kept a smile on his face: "One hundred and seventeen years old... you are such a monster."

It was very surprising. Liu Yuchen expressed unreserved agreement for this obviously sarcastic statement. He nodded: "In fact, it is not difficult to do this. Like machines, the human body is composed of various parts combinations. Replacing the aging internal organs with cultivated fresh organs, and regularly injecting special agents to activate cells, the lifespan of humans can be at least several times or even dozens of times higher than the actual survival period. The cost of such surgery is just adding a few ugly scars to the surface of the skin."

As he said that, he unbuttoned the buttons of his coat and shirt. The surface of his naked chest was covered with more than a dozen scars that were crisscrossing like centipedes. The scar covering the top was slightly raised, and a piece of pink tender flesh bulged out.

"Kino, that is, the young master of Ferdinand, once told me that as long as you maintain the most basic vital disease, even if you have severe injuries, you can recover through the biological treatment chamber. With the technological level of the Joint Doctors Association, it should not be difficult to eliminate these scars. Why do you still keep them?" Lin Xiang felt it was a bit difficult to understand.

Slowly pressing down the clothes, Liu Yuchen smiled faintly: "I have changed my heart twice, my lungs and liver have undergone four surgeries, my left kidney has been repaired six times, and my central spine has received enhanced molecules injection. Strictly speaking, I can no longer be considered a human with a normal physiological structure. Perhaps, only this skin that retains countless scars can remind me and tell myself when my mind is confused and confused."

"Is there such a big difference between a man and a monster?"

Lin Xiang shook his head, raised his neck and drank the wine in the cup. With his slightly scented appearance and the actual clarity in his mind, he cleverly led the problem to the aspects he was interested in: "Like the mutated creatures in the ruins. They are like humans, but not humans."

"You're wrong-"

Liu Yuchen seemed not to notice the induction hidden in his words: "I have studied 697 blood samples obtained from ruined creatures. Judging from their appearance and form, there is indeed nothing in common with humans. However, in terms of gene arrangement and cell characteristics, the similar parts of these organisms and humans are basically more than 80%. The same rate of some special individuals is even as high as more than 95%. What do you think should be explained in this?"

"How is this possible?"

Lin Xiang shook his head in disbelief: "They can't be humans."

"If I only look at the surface, I can make the same conclusion as you. But I am a doctor and I only believe in the data seen by the eyes."
Chapter completed!