On the day he lost his job, Lin Ye carried a cardboard box over the mountain on his way home. A torrential downpour washed away half the mountain, revealing a door for which he had no key.
The door recognized him.
Three hundred meters underground lay a city that had slept for half a century.
Two billion yuan landed in his account, and two balls of light, one red and one white, reported for duty.
Starting with a prefab hut, he built a company into one of the world's top three pharmaceutical firms in five years, then personally swallowed up his archenemy.
Only when he descended 1,400 meters did he learn that this wasn't a base.
Deep in the hive were cryogenic sleep pods and a reawakening protocol. The names on the list were familiar from his previous life: virologists, financiers, soldiers, and agents. Those brought back to life trusted him absolutely. He set two rules for himself: no lying and no coercion. He wanted colleagues, not servants.
Beyond the umbrella, the world was far from peaceful.
His archenemy, Sanlian Pharmaceuticals, was closing in with its capital. A mysterious organization called the Gardeners had spent thirty years hunting for the source of his technology. Deep-space warnings predicted that the moon would be shattered by a celestial impact in twenty years, bringing an endless, frigid night.
The hive had been built as an ark for that very day. Lin Ye had only two bottom lines: not a drop of what lay beneath the umbrella could be lost, and the umbrella's existence must not come to light a day too soon.
