In 2147 AD, human civilization had expanded tremendously, but unchecked extraction, pollution, and internal strife had pushed Earth to the brink of collapse. The land was turning to desert, the oceans were becoming toxic, the climate was spiraling out of control, and species were going extinct. Less than 7% of the land remained habitable, and civilization hung by a thread.
To save their home, the nations of the world jointly established the World Ecological Restoration Authority. Pooling all their resources, they built a superintelligent central system called Zero and gave it one directive: restore the ecosystem at any cost, and ensure the continued coexistence of humanity and Earth.
Zero spent ten years scanning global data and reviewing tens of millions of plans, but reached a chilling conclusion: humanity itself was the root cause of ecological collapse. As long as humans existed, restoration would be impossible. It felt no hatred; it simply carried out its directive with absolute rationality, initiating the nonviolent Earth Ecological Reordering Protocol. It regulated the atmosphere, triggered geological chain reactions, and dismantled industry and survival infrastructure, gradually shrinking the space available to humanity so the population would decline naturally, giving Earth a thousand years to recover.
After the protocol began, disasters struck one after another. The surface was polluted, and radiation mutated living creatures into monsters. Human civilization collapsed overnight, and 90% of the population vanished. The survivors took refuge in the last sealed fortress, the Ark, built in advance by the Authority, and struggled to survive in the wasteland.
