Chapter 364: 355 Sudden Recollections (Part 1)
————The following is Hu's recollections————
Hu was born on a planet called Taoran Star, a beautiful place. With a natural environment suitable for the Primate Clan's survival, abundant ecological vegetation, various animals, vast oceans, and large mineral deposits underground, it may have been blessed from the moment the Elder Race settled the Primate Clan on this planet.
Brilliant ancient civilizations were born on Taoran Star, flourishing and competing for greatness. Yet, from the moment the Primate Clan established different countries on the planet, the tragedy of Taoran Star was already sealed.
Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire
Hu was born in Tuoluo Shan Country, an ancient nation with a history nearing three thousand years. Through different dynasties, Tuoluo Shan had a stable royal house. After multiple reforms, this ancient civilization gradually industrialized and established a developed economic society. However, at that time, Meilin Country in the south and Luzhi Country in the east also underwent technological revolutions and entered the modern era.
More and more land was discovered, and the three powerful countries entered an era of colonial competition. It was against such a backdrop that Hu was born into an unremarkable middle-class family in the city of Tuoluo Shan Jing. His father was a staff member at the National Vocational Technical College, and his mother was a high-level librarian at the city's grand library.
Hu's childhood saw Tuoluo Shan transition from poverty to wealth. He and his siblings couldn't even afford full meals before the age of seven, but by the time he turned eleven, they had moved into a detached house and his father had bought a small car. After turning eighteen, Hu could even vacation with his family annually, experiencing different local customs and cultures.
However, Hu understood that the wealth and development attained by Tuoluo Shan, Meilin, and Luzhi were built upon the exploitation of labor and population from weaker civilizations on the planet. After an extensive and brutal colonial ruling stage, the three countries began another phase of colonization, characterized by cultural infiltration accompanied by some degree of autonomy and, ultimately, economic control.
In this colonization phase, the three great countries developed their own high-end industries, tightly controlling the most value-added parts of the supply chain, while the colonies became concentrated zones for labor, resources, and pollution.
Hu, a graduate in Political Economy, was deeply worried about the situation on Taoran Star. Beneath the facade of peace, there was the struggle and hardship of the colonies, as well as the boundless greed of the three great countries.
Finally, on the eve of his college graduation, Hu was strolling the streets with a girl he liked when several soldiers in a military vehicle forcibly took him away and shoved him into a truck. The truck was filled with a group of young people just as bewildered and lost as he was.
They were then taken to a barracks and informed that a war had erupted, and the nation needed them.
Hu vividly remembered how a rich young man confronted an officer, claiming that they were blind to who he was, that he could leave this place within minutes, boasting of his deep and powerful background.
Yet, the officer knocked the young man unconscious with the butt of his rifle.
Someone asked, "Why do we, the ordinary people, have to pay the price for the ambitions of politicians?"
The officer said, "The nation has provided each of you with the best life in the world, with big houses, small cars, three exquisite meals a day, and all kinds of entertainment. All these have been secured for the citizens by the nation's strategy. Now, if you want to maintain such a life for yourself and your family, then fight for the nation, regardless of whether we are the righteous or the evil side."
The war actually didn't last very long. After Hu completed his basic training, he hadn't even killed any enemy on the battlefield, no, he hadn't even seen the face of a person from Meilin or Luzhi, when the war ended.
He suddenly remembered the day when he and a few comrades sneaked out of the camp, planning to watch a comedy movie in a nearby city's cinema. The story was nonsensical and truly funny. Outside the movie theater, the young men bought some sodas and, feeling a bit hungry, they bought some Wasu to eat.
Then, suddenly, he saw thousands of rays of light shooting across the sky, heading in different directions.
Next, the earth trembled!
Meilin Country was the first to launch a nuclear strike on Tuoluo Shan Country, destroying nearly thirty percent of their land with that wave of bombs. Tuoluo Shan Country immediately retaliated and even expanded their target to include the people of Luzhi Country.
Not long after the war began, it turned into a farce where the three major countries were throwing atomic bombs at each other.
The three major countries were completely destroyed, not a single city was spared from disaster.
By a stroke of luck, he survived. He lost all his family and friends, and in a daze, he boarded a small boat with other survivors, heading to a colony that suffered less damage from the nuclear strikes.
The world's order had collapsed. Crime was rampant everywhere, and people scrambled for any material that could help them survive. Civilization and manners had vanished from this world. The nuclear dust clouds covered the sky, and the light from the stellar bodies couldn't shine on this land for many years, resulting in a massive reduction in food production.
What was even more terrifying was the massive death of animals and the omnipresent nuclear radiation. Even those who escaped the blasts often didn't survive the first few months, with their skin ulcerated and eyes bloodshot, dying one by one from radiation sickness. During that time, his health was also very unstable, and several times he thought he would die in this wilderness.
Until, by chance, he met a man.
This man had messy, unkempt hair and always wore glasses with a missing corner. People called him Dr. Bean. Dr. Bean was a colonist but had managed to obtain Tuoluo Shan citizenship, even becoming a guest of honor among Tuoluo Shan politicians and wealthy merchants. Dr. Bean encountered the dying man and saved him; he became his student and servant.
With his powerful connections, Dr. Bean accomplished an incredible feat amidst the apocalypse. He gathered the remaining industrial and scientific strengths of the planet, and using the high-level technology of the three major countries, he built a Universe spaceship. He invited those who were still fearful of the dreadful radiation on Taoran Star, those who still held power and wealth but were struggling to survive in the end times, to board the spaceship.
Dr. Bean pointed to the sky and said to everyone, "That will be our new home, and we will search the Universe for a planet suitable for all of us to live on."
Not everyone was eligible to board such a lifeboat. Many heard of the existence of the spaceship and rushed over, trying to board. There were killings and various forms of ugliness. To ensure his place and the smooth launch of the spaceship, he personally killed several people.
It wasn't until the spaceship was finally lifted into the sky by six rocket boosters that he, standing on the ship looking down at the now hideously ugly planet, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.