Book 5 Chapter 19.1 - Love and Forgiveness
War erupted without any omen.
Thousands of nuclear warheads rose into the skies at the same time. Three minutes later, the first mushroom cloud rose, and half an hour later, the great earth and oceans were covered in raging flames, mushroom clouds rising and falling one after another.
The war continued for an entire hour, and with the explosion of the final warhead came the official declaration's conclusion. The concentrated bombardment of several thousand nuclear warheads caused clouds of radiation to fully cover the earth, and from then on, the world entered the cold, dark, and radiation-filled new era.
Based on the olden era's research, the first nuclear winter following the explosions should be when the creatures of the world faced the second peak of eradication. Apart from the few who hid within bunkers, the human race should have experienced a complete extinction as well.
However, according to historical records, the number of species that safely made it through the first nuclear winter was surprisingly high, with many humans who didn't have the qualifications to enter underground bunkers even surviving. From the number of people who survived, the human race was still quite far from complete genocide. When faced with a true survival crisis, what no one anticipated was that almost all creatures erupted with astonishing vitality and adaptability. The species populations that died one after another after the nuclear winter, by the time spring came, began to give birth in large amounts. Even though the posterity that were born were mostly abnormal, there were still a small amount that survived. The small number of winners displayed astonishing adaptive force towards the environment, as if born precisely for this era. Even though they were the first generation of evolution and mutation, having a few flaws here and there, they still took that decisive step.
This step seemed to have been taken extremely quickly, and also extremely easily.
The nuclear winter wasn't endless like how the scientists predicted. When summer came, the clouds of radiation suddenly decreased by a large amount, the temperature also correspondingly rising. Even though summer would never be as warm as before the war again, it wasn't cold to the extent of triggering large-scale extinction. Back then, those who survived were all wild with joy, believing that this catastrophe would disappear in a few years. However, after its initial thinning, the clouds of radiation stabilized, no longer changing.
As time went on, those who were fortunate enough to survive became more and more dejected. They finally understood that the disaster was irreversible. At that time, they suddenly discovered that the enemies the human race faced already weren't only the harsh environment, the thick radiation, and a shortage of food, but also the increasingly common vicious mutated creatures. For example, larger dogs and cats, half meter long rats, and some enormous bugs that crazily attacked everything. The scenes that had previously only existed in science fiction movies now became common occurrences.
The human race saw with dismay, that this already wasn't the world they were familiar with.
The radiation continued to exist, and it was just as powerful. When the clouds of radiation thinned, the world became considerably kinder, kind enough to allow for the continued survival of the human race, on the premise that they had to undergo mutation. At this time, a few well-informed individuals recalled a piece of information they received before the battle erupted, the first appearance of the 'flame' ability. During that brief news conference that was only ten minutes long, what was publicly announced wasn't only a display, a thesis, it even included a detailed genome mapping and blood sample!
This really was information that drove people crazy!
Flame ability, at first, it was just a few sparks, sparks only enough to darken a piece of paper, but eventually, it truly became a raging flame. It didn't engulf the world in flames like how Dr. Rochester thought, but rather illuminated a path through the darkness for the human race.
The war erupted in year 2031, February 14th.
This was the history that had been covered in dust all this time.
Now, there weren't many who understood history before the war, to the extent where there weren't many who knew what calendar year it currently was. For the human race that was struggling bitterly in the age of turmoil, a calendar year was already something unessential. Even Su with his authority as a colonel in the Black Dragonriders just barely touched upon this type of historical information
A true pyramid structure had already appeared in the human race, the handful of people at the very peak not only grasping the overwhelming majority of the human race's military strength and resources, they also grasped time, knowledge, and even history! This structure was already incredibly stable, those at the bottom only having large numbers, helpless to change their own situation. The current human society, if one were weighing military strength or resources, was completely an inverted pyramid.
Society was already no longer in a state of turmoil and unrest.
The lower levels of the olden era could rise up and rebel against an enormous disparity in wealth or abuse of power, overthrowing the order of society through collective force. In the era of turmoil, it was completely opposite, those at the very top, if they are dissatisfied with their own wealth or power, could overthrow all order through brute force alone, thus concentrating even more resources in one's own own hands. The economically and politically marginalized had already become the majority, regardless of which perspective one looked from. Dictatorships or oligarchies from here on forth became the natural choice for politics.
History flowed like running water through Su's consciousness. He could almost see the moment the flames of war rose, the suffering the human race endured while struggling in desperation, as well as the astonishing bravery they erupted with.
The human race would forever be a contradiction. Even in the most dangerous and difficult situations, they still didn't forget to struggle against each other. At the same time, there was no lack of those who wouldn't hesitate to throw away their own lives for their comrades.
Su slowly opened his eyes. Only a short minute had passed, but in his mind, it felt as if he experienced a hundred years. That writing board still rested there before his eyes, on one side recording that astonishing era, on the other the thoughts of the next era's greatest genius. Perhaps in a few hundred more years, the handwriting on this writing board would become the human race's most precious historical artifact.