CH 2

Shi Qingyang was 16 in 3016. That same year, his life experienced its first low point.

Shi Qingyang was born in Spark city, a third-tier city in China's southeastern part that belonged to Anhang City. The third-tier city was one of the smaller cities, however, since people cannot live outside, Spark City, though small, was home to 500,000 people. The majority of whom lived underground where entire families could be crammed together into a ten-square-meter room.

Shi Qingyang's present situation wasn't particularly bad. After all, since he was underage, he was entitled to 1,500 credits of pocket money every month. But, prior to that, his life wasn't particularly good either. It was mediocre in this city.

On February 24, 3016, was Shi Qingyang's sixteenth birthday and he was injected with rad-medicine, which successfully induced his rad-power. Not only that, a month later, his body was stable enough for a physical examination.

Overall, good results. Double C- for rad-tolerance and-rad control.

Rad was an abbreviation for radiation energy. Since the asteroid's impact in 2045, the entire Earth has become engulfed in heavy radiation. A significant number of animals, humans, and plants perished. People hid underground. They survived thanks to special radiation-resistant cities.

After surviving the disaster, humanity found that all animals were essentially extinct, that all plants contained radioactive particles, and that the only living being that had adapted to such a harsh environment were the inconspicuous insects. Insects propagate and evolve at a fast rate. They too perish in large numbers, but more of them have adapted to the radiation-filled atmosphere and mutated. After mutations insects became monsters.

Unarmed humans were defenseless against them.

Before discovering rad-power, humans could only use heavy weaponry against mutated insects. After being exposed to radiation, certain people can develop a type of violent energy in their bodies. This form of energy released by radiation was known as rad-power and it has the ability to strengthen the human body.

Since relying solely on radiation to evoke this power resulted in a very high mortality rate, humans later developed rad-medicine. Now, as long as you were 16 years old, you must go to the hospital to be injected with rad-medicine to induce rad-power. About 80% of people can awaken it. After success, you must test Rad-tolerance and Rad-control. Rad-tolerance measures how much radiation energy a person can absorb, while rad-control measures how much radiation energy a person can control.

Radiation was a very violent force. There were many historical accounts of bodies breaking down due to an inability to regulate rad-power in their body. One of the examples was Shi Qingyang in his previous life.

The E rating was the worst of these two assessments since E grade people have no chance of ever becoming a rad-warrior in their lifetime.

Rad-warriors begin at the D grade and may advance to either the first or second level. The C grade will progress to the third or fourth rank in rad-warrior. The B grade could advance to fifth or sixth level rad-warrior. A grade may advance to the seventh rank of rad-warrior. Farther was the S grade, as well as the legendary SS and SSS grades.

Nowadays, some individuals have been born with rad-power, and their rad- tolerance and rad-control will exceed the S grade. These people were undeniably the darlings of heaven, and they will never appear in a tiny third-tier city like Spark City. The best grade here was a B. When anyone achieves a double grade B, they were automatically transferred to a second-tier city.

Shi Qingyang double C grade was a good result. With those marks, he will also attend Spark Academy and learn about the use of radiation energy.

In cities today, people can only grow a restricted number of crops, which cannot satisfy the food needs of so many citizens. The mutant insect meat outside the city acts as an alternative food source and only rad-warriors were allowed to leave the city's protected zones. That's why almost everyone wishes to be a rad-warrior, and Shi Qingyang wasn't an exception.

As a result, when he got the acceptance letter from Spark Academy, his parents were overjoyed. His father even leased a small plot of land outside of the city to cultivate herbs. Radioactive plants cannot be consumed, but they can be used to cure radiation exposure and also to make anti-radiation ointments or medications to reduce radiation energy.

Shi Qingyang's father was a second-level rad-warrior, and his mother was a junior apothecary. They both cultivated herbs outside of the city.

They would certainly make money if they invested their time, but no one expected that the herbs they grow would bring a disaster. Mutant insects were attracted. First a mutant grasshopper, then a mutant mantis... A second-level rad-warrior can't defeat a mutant mantis. Shi Qingyang's parents were already killed by the time Spark City's inspection team arrived.

The majority of the family's capital was invested into the herb plantation, leaving only a small portion for living expenses. Originally, his parents planned to harvest the first batch before the start of school and sell them for his school's tuition.

Shi Qingyang's just learned about his parent's death, and then he had gathered on his own his school's fee. As for not going to school... How would he learn to use rad-power if he didn't attend Spark Academy? How will he defeat the mutant insects and avenge his parents if he doesn't learn how to use rad-power?

Shi Qingyang couldn't give up on school, and yet his double C grades weren't good enough for the school to think about lowering his tuition. He had no choice but to work and save money…

This had to be the gloomiest year of his life... And now he's returned to it?

Shi Qingyang was anxious to make sure whether any of this was real or not.

He hesitated for a moment, studying his communication terminal on his wrist, before tapping it to check his balance. Every alliance resident from birth had an identity chip attached to them that recorded all of their details in their communication terminal, allowing people to use the device for many things like a debit card to buy food and other services.

18,798 credits... Shi Qingyang recalled that the tuition at Xinghuo Academy was 20,000 credits for one year. He paid his tuition, but was unable to afford anything else, which earned him his classmate the scorn. He didn't even acquire the school's meal card. Not that he needed it. With his financial condition, he couldn't afford to eat at the school's cafeteria.

Shi Qingyang shook his head and walked down the underground's streets. The surroundings were made of steel and stone. The sky wasn't visible here. The illumination was provided by sparsely placed streetlights. Everyone, though, was accustomed to such an environment and wasn't bothered by it.

Shi Qingyang took a stroll down the street. There weren't many shops in the underground city. After a while of walking, he came across a store that sold food and water. A nutrient meal box worth 15 credits and a 5-credit bottle of water. Shi Qingyang used to buy them only in the evening. After eating half a box of nutrient meal in the morning, he had to wait until the evening to eat.

However, he did not feel stingy this time and purchased it. He wolfed it down and drank half of the bottle of water.

Once he had eaten and drank, he became more convinced that all of this was real. In view of this, he was both happy and sad. He was fortunate to get the chance to do this all over again. And dejected that he didn't return before his parents' deaths. They were the only people in the world who loved him unconditionally, and they died in the jaws of mutant insects, leaving no bones behind. Similarly, he met his end in the belly of an insect.

The destruction of the whole city flashed before his eyes. For a split second Shi Qingyang had no idea where he was. With his fists clenched, he bolted down the dungeon's path. Despite the fact that it had been twenty years, the route he ran twice a day was still very familiar to him. He didn't waste much time getting to the gates.

Up the stairs, pull the plug on the lock, and step out of the dingy underground world into the upper city.

The buildings in Spark City were not tall because of the semicircular protective dome above them. The protective cover was initially transparent, but when it was often re-coated with a thick anti-radiation coating, it eventually became only semi-transparent. However, it was translucent enough to bring in more light than the underground city. On the ground, there were more shopping malls, an Academy, and a plethora of Spark City University guilds. The streets were quite wide here, and there were more cars on the road.

Shi Qingyang was attending a local school until his parents died, but after they died, he dropped out. Instead, he went to work washing tanks. His work place was situated at the west gate of Spark City.

When people come from the outside, they take radioactive particles with them. They must clean their protective suits as well as their tanks prior to entry into the city. Such work was exposed to high doses of radiation, therefore, it paid well, but people without rad-power couldn't do it and people that weren't severely short on cash didn't want to do it.

After all, radiation exposure was dangerous.

However, in exchange, you get to interact with returning rad-warriors. They often discuss the world outside the city and also share some rad-power knowledge. When he was younger, he never passed up such an opportunity to learn.

Between Spark City's underground city and the city above ground, there were countless entrances. Except for public passages, all buildings on the ground had a basement that linked to the underground. However, there were only four exits from the city.

Shi Qingyang lived on the west side of the city, where he also works at a tank wash near the west gate.

The west gate had two entrances: one for entering, the other for exiting the city. The gate area occupied a very large space, split into two squares. The exit square was mainly used to prepare people for their trip outside. It had a variety of shops selling radiation safety goods like clothing coatings and even ointments. The entry square had tank washes, and some people sold food that was more expensive than in the city. The bulk, of course, were shops that purchased and sold mutant beasts and dealt with them.

To prevent hazardous radioactive particles from entering and polluting the city, it was necessary to pass another safety entry. Shi Qingyang swiped his communication terminal on the machine and walked down a long corridor. Each step brought a change in the air. The radiation, odd smells and bloody stench brought by the butchered beasts.

All of this was very familiar to him.