After he was hired, his life began to feel comfortable. He thought this place was truly paradise—climate, environment, and other physical conditions were countless times better than his desolate homeland, Chonglu Fort, which was essentially one grand factory encompassing the entire planet.
Moreover, his work situation had vastly improved compared to the past. Here he was almost the most outstanding genetic engineer. Some projects were quite typical, not too difficult; he just needed to follow procedures and do his job. Not like before, when he used to engage in cut-throat competition over resources and political struggles within the Mechanical Cult Guild.
He settled down in Rage Owl Star, found a woman who could soothe his soul, and together they had a pair of children.
At this point, he experienced something he had never felt in his previous life; he thought this might be what happiness looks like.
But alas, good times are short-lived. ‘Happiness’ might just be the most luxurious thing in the entire universe.
His daughter was only three years old, and his son just two when war broke out in Rage Owl Star.
The war didn’t affect his area immediately, but he still sensed the danger sharply.
He was, after all, experienced in such matters.
Hu Ke immediately joined the evacuation teams with his wife and children, heading to what he believed was the safest place.
It was a refuge built to the highest standards. In principle, it was easily defended but hard to assault, its location concealed, and it also had the capability for immediate planetary evacuation. In fact, as far as he knew, the ships meant to evacuate those of high value like themselves should already be en route.
However, misfortune sometimes knows no bounds.
First, the evacuation ships were shot down mid-journey; then, the very refuge he was in was discovered by the enemy, with a horde of Demons charging towards it.
In a critical moment, just before the refuge was breached and the commander gave the desperate order to self-destruct, he used the facility’s lowest level to freeze his wife and children. Then, after gathering as much backup power as possible, he managed to cryogenically freeze himself inside a hibernation pod just as the self-destruction sequence was initiated.
He didn’t know if this could help him evade disaster, but as a husband and father, it was the last thing he could do.
And as it turned out, he succeeded.
When he was unearthed by a former colleague who was also his student, a native of Rage Owl Star named Ge Wajia, he saw his wife and children again—they were all still alive.
He wept tears of joy, and couldn’t help but pray to The Emperor, thanking him for keeping his most precious possessions in this world.
At the same time, he learned that nearly two hundred years had passed since the war’s end. His former student Ge Wajia had lived until now through life-extension surgeries.
Nowadays, he had established an organization called the Nature Salvation Society, striving to create a paradise on the devastated Rage Owl Star, and from there to expand outward, ultimately aiming to restore the natural ecology of Rage Owl Star and save the entire world.
To be honest, Hu Ke wasn’t interested in that cause. He had long passed the age where he wanted to save the world.
There were too many worlds within the Empire to save; destroying a few didn’t really matter.
All he wanted was to live a good life for himself.
However, on this point, their interests intersected.
Ge Wajia needed the technical capabilities of his teacher, while Hu Ke needed the stable order that his student had already established in the southern end of the Green Valley Region.
It was a scenic seaside town, with no worries about food and drink, and for the time being, suitable for his family to settle in. He was willing to exchange his knowledge and labor for the right to live for his family.
But during his work, he gradually discovered some issues.
His student… seemed a bit off-kilter.
Or rather, the town called Chanter Town where he lived was all somewhat off-kilter.
His technical level was outstanding enough that through some of the content of the projects he participated in, he saw that Ge Wajia was working on some very new stuff.
It was not just ecological restoration that was so simple but filled with extensive genetic and human research.
He saw some of the results produced by the Nature Salvation Society, called bioweapons, natural weapons.
If it was just that, then so be it. He tried to convince himself to turn a blind eye. What’s so terrible about developing bioweapons? In this post-apocalyptic world, one needed something for protection.
Even if they had crossed the line of skull purity, he could turn a blind eye.
The so-called ‘Skull Purity’ is an ironclad rule upheld by the Empire and the Mechanical Cult Guild during human modification and genetic technology: no matter how humans are altered, the skull must remain untouched.
The Empire’s culture is full of oddities, varying greatly across different worlds. However, some things are consistent throughout.
Among them, the Empire itself has three major symbols: the skull, the Sky Eagle, and the gear.
The skull symbolizes sacrifice and also the purity of humankind. Traitors, heretics, and beings with aberrant flesh often deviate significantly from pure humans, especially in the structure of their skulls. For this reason, an unaltered skull serves as a symbol of human purity and the sacrifices made to defend that purity.
Throughout the Empire, from the Walls of Martyrs to the Skull Badges, from the decorations on interstellar warriors’ armor to the Purity Seals… the image of the skull is everywhere.
Moreover, whether it’s the research of the Mechanical Cult Guild or theological studies of the Imperial State Religion, there is solid evidence to suggest that maintaining skull purity is an important means and factor in safeguarding human souls from corruption. Changes in the skull are signs of degeneration, mutation, and betrayal.
The Mechanical Cult Guild manufactures servo skulls, creates mechanical servants, alters brains, and performs large-scale human modifications… these are common, but they do not destroy the shape of the skull and typically only modify areas such as the eye sockets, mouth, or ears.
But much of Ge Wajia’s research had already crossed this baseline.
Experience tales at M-V-L
Even so, Hu Ke could ignore it.
However, in the end, he couldn’t lie to himself.
The source of Ge Wajia’s technology was problematic.
First off, the life-extension surgeries claimed by his student were suspicious. Such advanced biotechnology, capable of enabling someone to live two hundred years, was no simple feat. Even he had not mastered such a procedure, let alone his student.
Then, he found traces of supernatural forces in many of the studies.
This was not uncommon in itself, as the Mechanical Cult Guild’s research also naturally involved Spiritual Energy, as well as faith in The Emperor as the deity of all mechanisms. Both could yield extraordinary powers.
However, he did not believe that the supernatural elements in the Nature Salvation Society’s technological approach stemmed from orthodox belief or normal Spiritual Energy research.
As for where exactly this technology originated from, he had his suspicions but dared not speak of them.
But even at this point, he remained silent.
Despite the extensive preparations he had made in secret, he never brought up these issues at face value.
He was very hesitant.
He knew the current world had become entirely unsuitable for survival, and he was not alone. Could he ensure the survival of his own family in the harsh wasteland environment once they left Chanter Town?
Moreover, the act of escaping was dangerous enough in itself.
In the midst of his internal struggle, one final straw helped him make his decision: Ge Wajia asked him to apply the Nature Salvation Society’s genetic modification techniques to his own family, under the pretense of better survival in the wastelands.
Many residents of the town had undergone similar modifications, and Hu Ke had even performed them himself.
But when these technologies were to be applied to his own family, his bottom line was finally breached.
He outwardly agreed, but in secret, he initiated all the preparations he had been making for the past half year.
A multitude of bio-weapons rioted, and the mutated aberrant beasts that he had accumulated defended him and his family as they fled the place that seemed like a paradise but was truly a den of hell.
Once outside and having initially ensured their safety, he ordered all the beasts to self-destruct.
He dared not carry these creatures with him because he knew that the technological origins of these aberrant beasts were not normal and could become uncontrollable at any moment.
Then, he and his family endured a hellish escape, heading north until they were sheltered by a coalition.
