Z2 Wild Zone.
This was a place where not a glimmer of light could be seen, a land of chaos and poverty that even the Empire was too lazy to govern.
Vast wastelands and scattered rocks stretched out under the sky, the brown hard earth cracked from drought. Even the air was foul, filled with the stench of excrement and urine.
There was no morality, no law, no hope, and no love. Those living here could hardly be called human anymore.
Lunatics drooled and laughed stupidly, villains vented their bestial nature at will, and the sick lay moaning by the roadside, waiting for life to end.
Helga and her son settled down here, using collected cardboard, thick cloth, wooden boards and a few iron bars to set up a house that could barely shelter them from wind and rain.
But what about everything else?
The food and water they brought with them ran out in a few days. On this parched land, not even a blade of grass could be found.
Helga was at a loss. She came from a noble family, grew up in luxury, read all the classics of the sages in her youth, and only after enlightenment did she voluntarily lead her family to join the revolution.
Although life afterwards was hard, she had never fallen into a situation where she truly “lacked clothes to cover her body and food to fill her stomach”.
There were human settlements, just like in the years of chaos before. This wild area was divided into small spheres of influence by several groups of ruffians and villains.
The leaders called themselves “lords”, gathering resources from various places and bullying the weak.
Helga had considered joining one of them, after all, Jiang Jianming was young and weak, and had hidden injuries from the previous wormhole jump. He simply couldn’t withstand such a harsh environment.
But when she saw with her own eyes how these “lords” raped, pillaged, and committed all manner of evil, her steps silently halted.
She really couldn’t bring herself to beg such evil people, let alone become one of them.
Jiang Jianming understood perfectly in his heart.
He coughed lightly, tugging at Helga’s clothes.
“Mom, don’t go.”
“Mingming likes being just the two of us.”
A few days later, the mother and son discovered the way of survival in the Z2 Wild Zone – fighting for garbage.
Interstellar ships transporting garbage would dump trash in remote wild areas every month. Many drifters made a living from this, and the “lords” would even launch garbage looting wars each month.
Food items discarded after one bite because they didn’t suit someone’s taste, clothes and shoes that people had grown tired of wearing, medicine pills that had just expired a month or two ago…
The garbage casually thrown away by the upper-class nobles was an incredibly precious resource for these lowly people.
Helga’s crystal bone class was not low, but firstly, she had to be cautious about hiding her identity; secondly, she was alone and weak, and with a sickly non-crystal human child, it was impossible for her to directly confront those “lords”.
She could only do as the other drifters did, waiting until after the lords’ first wave of looting was over, then rushing in with a dirty, dusty face.
To survive.
In those years, in Jiang Jianming’s memory, his mother was always dirty and black.
She covered her face with mud and ash to hide her beauty, and fought with others in the stinking garbage heaps.
But she didn’t put her child through this, and firmly forbade Jiang Jianming from leaving their rundown house.
Sometimes when it was very late and Helga hadn’t returned, Jiang Jianming couldn’t help but peek out the door. If more time passed, the young boy would inch out of the house bit by bit.
When Helga returned in tatters, she would puff up her cheeks. “This child, not listening to Mama again, why did you come out? It’s so cold outside.”
Jiang Jianming said softly. “I wanted to see the stars.”
The dirty mother crouched down, poking the child’s forehead with her scabbed fingertip, her eyes curving into gentle crescents.
“Well, did you finish yesterday’s homework? Hmm, Mama might give a surprise test tonight.”
In the end, the mother would pick up the child and place him on her shoulders, walking home under the moonlight.
Late at night, she would light a candle, shake out a tattered red blanket to cover Jiang Jianming, and casually tell some stories to lull him to sleep.
And so, one day after another passed.
After all, Helga had once been a leader of the resistance. Even reduced to this state, she could still manage to keep herself and her child barely alive.
For her, greater pain came from the surrounding environment.
In the Z2 Wild Zone, tragedies of human nature occurred every day. Happening so often, tragedy ceased to be tragedy and became routine.
Helga couldn’t bear to see living people reduced to this, but how could she save them all?
If she helped one person today, tomorrow a dozen would cling to her begging for charity. Ungrateful drifters had once pierced her shoulder with crystal bones, stealing the winter rations for her and her child.
Countless times, she curled up in the deep of night, emitting muffled sobs – they didn’t sound like they came from her, but more like some evil spirit had attached itself to her body.
Years of fatigue, weakness from chronic crystal disorder, extreme mental torment and pain, as well as the aftereffects of being ambushed years ago…
Under the influence of all this, Helga’s mind gradually became unstable.
She became increasingly strict with Jiang Jianming, making more and more extreme demands on his studies. When agitated, she would even hit him. After coming to her senses, she couldn’t believe she had become like this, causing her pain to accumulate even deeper.
One clear morning after the rain.
An old sick woman who had been taken in for the night squinted her eyes and flashed her yellow teeth at Helga before leaving.
“Hey, I’m telling you, you stupid woman.”
“You should just hurry up and die. Look at your son, tsk tsk tsk, how pitiful to have a mother like you.”
…Deep inside the house, the woman curled up in the darkness, burying her head in her thin arms.
Beside her, the black-haired, black-eyed young boy wrung out a wet cloth, calmly wiping the blood from his temple, and said flatly. “My mother won’t die. Granny, are you leaving or not? If not, stay and help us with work.”
In recent years, the notion that chronic crystal disorder patients should commit suicide early had become widespread and widely accepted throughout the Empire… After all, the late stages of this disease were extremely painful, and it was incurable.
Especially in the Z2 Wild Zone, few people had any hope for the future. What was the point of living in suffering?
So an unwritten custom developed. If a patient was lucky enough to get something good to eat while scavenging for garbage… that was their time to end their life.
Eat a good meal, and set out with a full stomach the next day.
But Jiang Jianming knew his mother didn’t want to die.
If she died, another ember of the already scarce human civilization would be extinguished.
If she chose suicide, it would be admitting defeat to the dark imperial rule, surrendering to this twisted world.
She would rather struggle in the mire than die.
The old sick woman left, muttering as she went.
“Really, you stupid woman. If you died sooner, your son could use that face of his to get with a big lord! Don’t think just because he’s a non-crystal human child, the ‘One-eyed Dragon’ who rules us in the north likes just that sort of thing!”
Her voice gradually faded away.
The cold wind beat against the newly pasted window paper, and cracks had formed in the roof, allowing the deep winter sunlight to shine through.
Jiang Jianming took the wet cloth and slowly walked in front of his mother, his pale little face alternately lit and shadowed by the rays of sunlight.
He pulled up Helga’s arm, “Mom, hand.”
The child knelt on the ground, carefully wiping away the mud and ash that had stuck to his mother’s fingers during her fit last night, as well as the bloodstains from when she had hit him.
Helga closed her eyes, tears falling uncontrollably.
“Mingming… my good child. From now on, Mama won’t come inside. Mama will sleep outside at night, okay?”
The wound on his forehead hadn’t clotted yet. Jiang Jianming’s expression was serene, his eyes lowered gently. “No, Mingming wants to be with Mama.”
“Besides, it doesn’t really hurt. Mama shouldn’t listen to others’ nonsense.”
He was so unlike a child his age, his eyes reflecting a dry sea of stars.
Mirroring the ancient galaxy, and also mirroring the rotting insects drowned in stinking gutters.
“Just being like this now, Mingming is very happy.”
Helga just cried, caressing Jiang Jianming’s cheek as if touching an already broken piece of porcelain.
What a pitiful child, suffering and wandering since birth, full of illness. How could he know what happiness was?
She taught the child about the existence of “happiness” and “light”, but couldn’t let him see it.
Jiang Jianming dropped the handkerchief and burrowed into Helga’s arms. He held his mother’s thin hand and said calmly. “It doesn’t matter what Mama becomes, just stay with me. Mingming has grown up too, I can protect Mama.”
…
The next day, after Helga left, Jiang Jianming also quietly went out.
He didn’t do anything, just wandered around aimlessly, returning before his mother came home.
The third day, the fourth day… it was the same.
For half a month, the young boy’s wanderings outside weren’t discovered.
On the eighteenth day, which was the day the garbage ship was due to arrive.
Jiang Jianming stole Helga’s old handgun and took one bullet.
He spent half a day walking out of this area, struggling to climb halfway up a nearby forested mountain. He fired one shot at the branch of a giant tree, then silently spent another half day coming back down the mountain and returning home.
That night, when Helga came home, she was unusually happy.
She said today was truly a good day. She heard that an alien creature’s nest had fallen into the “One-eyed Leopard’s” territory. Two giant birds had gone berserk and attacked the territory all day. “Black Iron” from the west had also gone to take advantage of the chaos. None of them had participated in the garbage looting war.
The surrounding drifters were so excited they cried. Of course, she had also brought back many good things. They wouldn’t need to go out for the next week.
“This is called karma,” Helga laughed as she hugged Jiang Jianming, nuzzling the child’s cheek with her cool nose tip.
Jiang Jianming, wrapped in a red blanket by his mother, stared thoughtfully at the moon outside.
“That’s right. If Mingming had gone with the One-eyed Leopard, maybe I would have been carried off by the giant bird monsters today. I don’t want that.”
…That year, the future commander of the New Empire was twelve years old, still a child with pure thoughts.
The shot he fired at the alien creature’s nest was just his effort to keep his mother and these “happy” days here a little longer, just a little longer.
****
The cries of the poor at the bottom were destined not to reach the ears of the upper class living in Eternal Paradise.
Deep in the palace, a faint fragrance of incense wafted through the gold-woven curtains. Odin reclined in his chair, staring intently at the goblet before him.
“This wine… the taste has changed.”
The red wine inside swayed like fresh blood, barely sipped.
The servant knelt in fear. “Your Majesty, the previous bartender passed away from acute crystal disorder two days ago. Today’s wine was made by his son…”
Odin grunted and waved his hand. “Pour it out. Everyone leave.”
The servants left hurriedly, as if granted amnesty. In an instant, the hall became much quieter.
The emperor refocused his attention on the video communication in front of him. “Oh… Vladimir, what did you just say we need?”
On the other end was still the head of the Gray Owl Laboratory, “A key, Your Majesty.”
This silver-haired, blue-eyed man in his fifties – also one of the few in the empire who knew some secrets about crystal particles – was frowning tiredly.
“It’s been two years, the young prince’s power is getting stronger. Once out of control, the result will be catastrophic.”
“Although Your Majesty created Prince Kaios to combat crystal particles. But he probably has no sense of belonging to humans…”
This was already a euphemism. That little monster had been tortured to death and back in the laboratory since birth; it would be strange if he didn’t hate humans.
Vladimir said in a low voice. “I think we need something that can restrain and control him on a mental level, but we can’t find it.”
“We’ve tried all kinds of negative things like fear and pain. But perhaps because… His Highness was born from these, they can no longer cause any emotional fluctuations in him.”
Odin raised an eyebrow. “Oh, he has no reaction?”
Vladimir: “He does. He laughs at us.”
Odin: “…”
Vladimir lowered his head. “Forgive me, Your Majesty… We’ve tried our best not to show weakness in front of Prince Kaios, but his sensitivity is terrifying.”
“He’s already aware that his existence is special to us, and now he’s even starting to actively probe our bottom line. The growth rate of his crystal bones is even more frightening… The Gray Owl Laboratory can no longer control-”
Suddenly, a series of garbled codes flashed across the communication video, and static noise interrupted Vladimir’s voice.
“…”
The emperor’s face darkened.
Kaios had only been born for two years, but the emperor was aging faster. Many old wounds from his years of warfare were acting up, making him no longer as imposing as he was in his prime.
But when his drooping eyelids lifted, his sinister green eyes still sent chills down one’s spine.
The next second, a childish yet cold voice came through.
“This is no longer interesting.”
“Give me something else.”
The screen returned to normal, but had switched to the control panel inside the laboratory.
Over a dozen lab staff cowered fearfully in the corners. The alloy glass had been shattered again, with large patches of crimson-gold crystal bones extending out to envelop the instruments and light computers.
Atop the largest computer sat a golden-haired child.
Looking closely, he actually had no legs – the flesh below his thighs had transformed into crystal-like structures.
“Give me something else,” the child said, glancing at the screen with jade-like eyes. “Or I’ll blow this up. This data is important to you, isn’t it, Emperor?”
Odin exhaled deeply.
These past two years, he and this little monster had practically tortured each other through their existence.
He had successfully kept Kaios in the lab as a living experimental subject for two years, while the little monster gained access to knowledge from various fields of human society, as well as the Emperor’s accumulated combat experience.
But compared to dead knowledge, the little monster seemed more interested in living people.
For instance…every time Emperor Odin secretly visited the lab, this little one would invariably find a way to shatter the glass, break out and attempt to kill him.
He wouldn’t go all out, just attack once or twice. Upon finding he couldn’t succeed, he’d lose interest and transform into a semi-crystalline state, slithering away slowly like a snake.
He was quite at ease. It was the Emperor’s guards and the Gray Owl Laboratory staff who suffered, nearly scared half to death each time. In recent encounters, his techniques had become increasingly tricky, even making Odin himself break out in cold sweat.
And this precariously maintained balance…
Odin glanced at the screen, thinking silently: It seems it can only last until today.
“Very well,” the Emperor sighed, “We shall give you other amusements. On the condition that… at least in front of others, you act like a normal human.”
…
— In the 45th year of the Old Imperial Calendar, a starship docked at the imperial palace in Eternal Paradise Star City.
Kaios, the “little monster” born in the laboratory, entered this magnificent place under the identity of the Emperor’s illegitimate son.
Those green eyes, so similar to Odin’s, dispelled any doubts about his identity.
And Odin’s other children, especially the Crown Prince — Andrew Odin II, all vaguely sensed an ominous meaning in this.
Particularly on the day that child arrived.
Crown Prince Andrew heard from the servants he had planted as spies that his usually cruel and heartless father actually chuckled and said to that illegitimate son:
“Don’t worry, you won’t get bored of this.”
“You have an entire empire here to play with.”
