After the Third World Nuclear War ended, the surface became a dead zone, and the survivors moved into underground cities.
For a hundred years, newborns were born deformed, mothers died in childbirth, and humanity teetered on the brink of extinction.
The Federation launched an emergency plan to search the world for specimens who could withstand radiation and remain normal. In a human cryogenics laboratory from a century ago, they discovered a group of women.
They were old-world humans from before the radiation era, with untainted bodies and healthy genes. They were not only precious research subjects, but also capable of bearing children!
Young nobles from across the Federation rushed to claim the little lambs being sent straight into the tiger's den, unaware that an undercover agent was about to bare her sharp fangs.
Qiao Jin, mother of the mutants, successfully infiltrated the underground city.
When the underground cities were built, the poor were shut out and evolved into three-headed, six-armed radiation creatures.
Even with the boost of genetic mutations, flesh and blood could not stand against steel and artillery. The radiation creatures lived in misery.
Until one day, a female radiation creature awakened an ability: she could reverse genetic evolution, purify radiation, and restore the twisted radiation creatures to human form.
She naturally became their leader.
Her name was Qiao Jin, and she was revered as the mother of the mutants. Her plan was cruel and simple: infiltrate the underground city, dismantle humanity's defenses from within, and seize a place for her people to survive.
A surface patrol ship's crash gave her the opportunity. Its commander was gravely injured and unconscious, and she happened to know of a century-old human cryogenics laboratory nearby, where humans with spotless backgrounds and pure bloodlines lay asleep.
A perfect identity. An unimpeachable ticket in.
Qiao Jin climbed into a cryogenic pod and shut away the underground city's hope with her own hands.
When the pod opened again, she was huddled in the crook of the stern commander's arm, pale-faced and fearful, like a young rabbit caught by a hunter in its snow burrow.
The commander's cool gaze swept over the men looking at her with ill intent. In a brief moment of calm, the commander softened his voice to comfort her. “Don't be afraid.”
Qiao Jin etched every greedy stare into her memory, her lips trembling as if she were holding back tears.
Only she knew it wasn't fear, but the thrill of an impending hunt. (April 13, 2026)
Theme: Do civilization and love need to exist?
